The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

58. Should Schools Teach Grammar?

The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick

Richard Hudson [+-]
University College London
Richard Hudson is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics in the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at University College, London, where he worked from 1964 through 2004. He has a B.A. in Modern and Medieval Languages from Cambridge and a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, with a thesis on the grammar of the Cushitic language of the Beja (or Bedawie) people in the north-east of the Sudan.

Description

The teaching of grammar dates from 2,000 BC Babylon, and for thousands of years grammar was the most important subject in the school curriculum, and in many countries grammar teaching flourishes. But the UK and the USA largely abandoned it around 1970 because the teaching had lost its way for lack of academic support. Now that grammar flourishes in our universities, it is time for a rethink. Grammar teaching is good for development of the first language, for helping to learn foreign languages and for developing thinking skills; and it can be taught in child-friendly ways. The main challenge is the lack of teachers who know enough grammar to do this.

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Citation

Hudson, Richard. 58. Should Schools Teach Grammar?. The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 288-291 Jul 2019. ISBN 9781781798553. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=38178. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.38178. Jul 2019

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