viernes, 3 de julio de 2020

Boring grammar terminology


Grammar is just as boring as chemistry, math, accounting or taxidermy. Nonetheless I read teachers saying that it is boring and that we should not study it. That dumbfounds me because it is simply the study and classification of language. Then why all the ballyhoo against it? May it be that by "grammar" they all refer to its "vocabulary", its "terminology"? Words like conjuction, adverb, prepositions, persent perfect, conditional, subjunctive, article... may be the culprits, I was thinking. What about if we stop talking about "gender" and "definite article" and we plunge straight into the action of language?
El brazo, el ojo, el libro (do not explain about masculine definite article)
El brazo largo, el ojo negro, el libro gordo (do not explain about adjectives or agreements)
La taza, la cabeza, la nariz (do not mention feminine articles)
La taza grande, la cabeza gorda, la nariz larga
This is not new, I know, but it would probably help avoid a dislike students seem to have, and never understand, for "grammatical" terminology.
Isn´t it silly to try to explain that the noun brazo is masculine and the noun cabeza is feminine and that adjectives agree in gender and number with nouns? No wonder students will exclaim: Spare me the drama!
Just an idea, for whatever it is worth!

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario