LINGUIST List 11.912

Wed Apr 19 2000

Qs: Grammar and Writing, Inventing Languages

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Dick Hudson, The Connection between Grammar and Writing
2. Susan Meredith Burt, Methods and Motivations of Inventing Languages

Dear Colleague 

I am trying to build a bibliography about research on the teaching of L1
grammar and its effects (if any) on their writing. I should be grateful for
any additions to the following list, which I have organised under a number
of questions. I am very much aware of my bibliography's narrow base in L1
English teaching in the UK and USA; I'm sure there must be relevant
research in other countries and on other languages. 
	It seems to be important to distinguish between two approaches to grammar
teaching. 
a. By 'grammatical analysis' I mean the formal and explicit analysis of
grammatical structure (syntax, morphology or lexical relations). 
b. By 'grammatical exercises' I mean exercises in the manipulation of
grammatical structures such as 'sentence combining', without any explicit
analysis of structure. 
The following classification is necessarily crude, but may also
misrepresent the intentions of the authors concerned, so I shall be pleased
to receive corrections.
	I plan to revise this bibliography in the light of feedback, and then I'll
reissue it with full details.

Dick Hudson

========================

Q1. Can children learn to do grammatical analysis if it's taught well?
No: Cawley 1957, ; Macauley 1947
Yes: Bateman and Zidonis 1966, ; Elley 1994, ; Harris 1962, ; Herriman
1994, ; Kennedy and Larson 1969, ; Mellon 1969, ; Tomlinson 1994

Q2. Do grammatical exercises improve writing?
No: -
Yes: Hillocks 1986, ; Mellon 1969, ; O'Hare 1973

Q3. Does grammatical analysis improve writing when done as a separate
activity?
No: Cawley 1957, ; Elley 1994, ; Harris 1962, ; Hillocks 1986, ; Weaver 1996
Yes: Bateman and Zidonis 1966, ; Heap 1991, ; Herriman 1994, ; Mason and
Mason 1997, ; Mason, Mason, and Quayle 1992

Q4. Does grammatical analysis improve writing when integrated with writing
activity?
No: Elley 1994
Yes: QCA 1998, ; Weaver 1996



Richard (= Dick) Hudson

Phonetics and Linguistics, University College London, 
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.
+44(0)20 7679 3152; fax +44(0)20 7383 4108;
http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm

hello, All!

A student of mine is interested in the motivations and methods of those who
invent languages as the outgrowth of fiction, such as Klingon, Ladan or
Elvish. Has anyone done work on this?

Please reply to me off-list; I will post a summary if there seems to be
sufficient interest.

Many thanks!

Susan Burt

"The unexamined college is not worth loving." --Mabel Lang

Susan Meredith Burt

until May 15:

Department of English
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
800 Algoma Blvd.
Oshkosh WI 54901 USA
internet: Burtvaxa.cis.uwosh.edu

Thereafter:

602 Normal Avenue
Normal, IL 61761
phone: 309-888-2704

After August 16, 2000:

Department of English
Illinois State University
Campus Box 4240
Normal, IL 61790-4240

my best guess at an email address: smburtilstu.edu