Hi, everyone.
Welcome to "Thoughts On..." stuff.
This is a new series I'm starting.
I just sometimes think about interesting things about language and linguistics, and it may
or may not be enough for me to make a full-blown video about it.
So I thought, "Hey!
I can make a video where I just talk about it.
It doesn't have to be something major."
So, the first topic I'd like to talk about is...
How can you be a linguist and teach grammar?
Because aren't linguists supposed to be descriptivists?...
They don't like grammar?
Well, there's a lot of misconc... there are a lot of misconceptions about this.
[clears throat] So, if you go to my... um... where am I here?...
So, if you go to my, uh, channel... and you go down to this playlist here, "Grammar and
Style Series," the first four videos are about linguistic perspectives on grammar.
And in this video, "the mythical feud over grammar," I talk about how linguists are descriptivists.
They use descriptivism as a tool to describe the language.
So, it doesn't matter how you speak.
You use language the way you use the language, and a linguist's role is to describe it, to
say, you know, what are the linguistic processes involved.
A grammarian may look at a certain social group that uses a particular grammar that
is typical of that group and (the grammarian) will say, "Oh, this is incorrect!
According to standard grammar, this is how you're supposed to say this..."
That's why they're called "prescriptivists."
They prescribe grammar.
And then, you know, people get into all these online feuds about (grammar)... you know,
people correcting each other online, and people getting upset about it.
As a linguist, yeah, I consider myself a descriptivist.
I like what descriptivism offers.
But...
I'm a college professor, and one of the courses that I teach is... writing!
Grammar and Writing.
I also teach ESL, so I teach a lot of grammar!
And I teach standard grammar.
So, how do I reconcile these two things?
So, you're saying that it's okay for people to use, use the language that they learned
within their social group... but then you get a bunch of students and, what?
You're gonna tell them, "No, you can't talk like that!
You have to use standard grammar."
(?) Okay!
How do I reconcile being a linguist and teaching grammar?
Quite simple...
Actually, when I started teaching I, you know, I had to think about it a little bit.
And then I thought, "Wait a minute!
I put a lot of effort into, you know, my education... time and effort.
I invested into an education.
I'm a linguist.
I know a lot of stuff that I can put to good use... uh... as a teacher, teaching whatever,
including teaching grammar and writing.
So, this is how it happened to me.
I get my students... and I teach developmental writing grammar by the way.
These are people that, before they can even start taking college-level courses, they need
to improve their grammar.
You know, they're not doing very well in grammar and writing and all that stuff... and that's
where I come in.
To help them move to a college-level of writing.
So, anyhow... so I get these students, and what do I do?
Do I tell them, "What you do with the language is godawful!
You cannot speak like this!
You cannot write like this.
Your spelling is horrible."
No!
I want them to move towards this standard grammar because that's what they need to use
in college.
So, the way I use my knowledge as a linguist to teach prescriptive grammar is that, um,
especially when I get a new group of students, and they're, like, just beginning, I explain
to them that there are different ways of using the language.
That what they learned, the way they speak is okay.
Um, that it may be considered ungrammatical, according to standard grammar; however, they're
able to communicate.
They're competent in the language, um, they can use vocabulary that... they can use the
vocabulary they need to communicate their ideas.
They use the grammar that they know, the grammar that they learned to communicate their ideas
effectively.
However, even within their own linguistic community, they change the way they speak,
depending on the social situation.
I tell them, for example, when you talk to your friends or to your family, um, you use
the language at a certain level.
You choose the words, certain words, or you use a certain grammar.
But when you talk to someone, maybe someone older, someone, uh...
I don't know... someone at church or at work... uh, something... you change the way you speak.
You adjust the way you speak.
Well, these are called linguistic registers.
Right?
We don't talk the same way to, you know, everybody across society.
Uh, we use different registers.
So you have informal registers, you have formal registers... and I explain to my students,
you also have an academic register.
Now you want to go to college.
You're here, you know to get an education... you should be able to use this academic register.
And, I even tell them, everybody, you know... people leave high school, they go to college...
there's a little bit of an adjustment for them to start using, um, this academic register.
So, I tell them that it's okay for them to use the language that they use...
continue communicating to your family and friends and, you know, people in your lives
the way you do; however, when you write... uh... when you write an essay for college
or when you take an exam and you have open-ended answers... uh, you need to be able to switch
to this academic register.
Oh, and by the way, they love it... they're, like, "Wow! this is really cool!"
Um, and I think they think it's really cool because they are used to this idea that grammar
is something that, you know... people just yell at them [over grammar] like, in school.
"Argh, you can't speak English!" you know...
"You can't communicate!"
And people do that a lot!
Uh, they're like, "Oh, these people!
They can't communicate.
They can't put a sentence together."
Of course they can put a sentence together!
Everybody... you know... speaks one or more languages, and they can put sentences together
to express their thoughts!
Whether or not those grammars... um.. .those sentences are grammatical is a different issue
altogether!
Uh, everybody can communicate, okay?
So, these people that keep correcting students, correcting and shaming people, uh... it's
actually backfiring.
You know, they're not really promoting grammar.
They're not helping people improve their grammar.
As if, you know, that's your job!
To correct people and improve the way they speak!...
So, anyhow, my students find that really cool because, it's like, "Wow!
You're not here to continue what my teachers did in school."
And say, [mimics critical person] "Argh!
Your English is bad!
You have to learn to speak better English!"
Um... but...
I respect the way they speak.
And a lot of times, they write an essay, they give it to me, I go over it...
I, I focus on the content... how... how good is the content... of their ideas?...
So I go over the content, and then I take notes and I look at the major problems that
they have with grammar...
So, when I give them feedback, I'll tell them, "Oh, these ideas are really good."
Or "You need to work on this idea...
Now, for you to communicate this idea in academic English... how about... let's try this construction
here."
Um, then, actually, I use the "issues" that they have in their essays, um, to teach.
So, if nobody in the class has a problem with, I don't know, verb tenses, I don't need to...
to spend time teaching it.
But if I notice that...
Oh, they're having a problem with this particular area in grammar, um, then it becomes a lesson.
It is based on their production of written work.
Um...
I'm giving them positive feedback.
I'm looking at their ideas, praising them for what they're attempting to do.
And then I'm helping them bring that... bring their work to an academic level.
As opposed to just shaming them and saying, you know, "This is... this is terrible!
Oh, look at all these mistakes you've made!"
They had years and years in high school going through that... or school as a whole, going
through that.
Uh... so, that's how a linguist, who... you know, uh... promotes descriptivism, uh, promotes
the idea that grammar can be flexible and that, you know, we all have a different grammar...
um... that's how a linguist who's a descriptivist can go into a classroom and teach prescriptive
grammar...
Proudly so!
All right!
Thank you very much.
Please do the YouTube thing, you know, hit "like" and subscribe, and all that good stuff.
All right.
Take care.
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