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SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
15. Foreign language teachers will complain
Fri Sep 21, 2012, 11:33 AM
Sep 2012

bitterly that their students essentially know nothing of grammar. Don't know what a verb is. Don't know what an adjective is. They find they have to teach essentials of English grammar alongside that of the other language.

I've taken Spanish, French, German, and Italian in recent years at an excellent community college in Kansas, and I can verify that what those teachers complain about is true. The only class in which it wasn't as much of a problem was the Italian class. But three quarters of that class were older adults, 50+, who'd learned English grammar back in high school. Keep in mind that I took the Italian a decade ago.

Don't know it, but I think they should bring back diagramming elfin Sep 2012 #1
I remember in Honors English back in 10th grade, we had to diagram a couple of... WCGreen Sep 2012 #2
Ivanhoe.... AnneD Sep 2012 #16
I would have thought Faulkner’s "Absalom, Absalom!" struggle4progress Sep 2012 #17
I thought it was Finnigan's Wake Goblinmonger Sep 2012 #19
Guinness's world records lists it AnneD Sep 2012 #22
I've read Ulysses several times. Goblinmonger Sep 2012 #23
Good on ya mate.... AnneD Sep 2012 #24
i think it's molly bloom's soliloquy which ends 'yes i said yes i will yes' HiPointDem Sep 2012 #25
Does help, but maybe only 20+ years later, elleng Sep 2012 #3
+1. Simple, elegant , effective. Smarmie Doofus Sep 2012 #4
Personally, I think that sentence diagramming SheilaT Sep 2012 #5
Research hasn't proved diagramming effective. proud2BlibKansan Sep 2012 #8
Well, gosh. SheilaT Sep 2012 #11
I have no idea. proud2BlibKansan Sep 2012 #14
When I got my B.S. back in 1988 Goblinmonger Sep 2012 #20
Hmmm...... Yeah. Well. Smarmie Doofus Sep 2012 #12
NCLB & RTTT = research driven too. HiPointDem Sep 2012 #18
Others have mentioned diagramming; are there studies showing effectiveness? BadgerKid Sep 2012 #6
No. That's why it's not taught anymore. proud2BlibKansan Sep 2012 #9
Foreign language teachers will complain SheilaT Sep 2012 #15
As an English and Spanish teacher, I concur. knitter4democracy Sep 2012 #21
I went to KU proud2BlibKansan Sep 2012 #7
Thanks, I'll have to email the teacher and ask for an explanation. n/t FSogol Sep 2012 #10
here proud2BlibKansan Sep 2012 #13
seems to be quite a bit of material on the internet. HiPointDem Sep 2012 #26
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