serving and studying how people use language in a variety of settings. That is, it
provides opportunities for young people to become students of language.
In this role, students quickly and easily come to understand the difference
between usage and grammar, and they come to recognize the ways in which in-
dividual speakers and writers change their language depending on context and
audience. These are important lessons that bear directly on writing perfor-
mance. They help students understand the nature of their home dialects and
how writing—formal Standard English—represents a new dialect that must be
studied and learned in an additive, rather than subtractive, way.
Teacher intervention is a crucial part of the blended approach. Teachers
must monitor students as they are writing in class, identify problems, and then
offer a minilesson that students can apply immediately. More monitoring fol-
lows, with appropriate guidance to ensure that students apply the lesson cor-
rectly. Reading also is important in the blended approach because it provides
many useful opportunities for grammar instruction and modeling of Standard
and formal Standard English. But teachers also must serve as models. Linguis-
tics has taught us two uncontrovertible facts over the last 30 years. First, lan-
guage change occurs when someone is highly motivated to modify his or her
language. Second, change must occur in an environment that immerses a per-
son in, or at least exposes a person to, the target language. Addressing the issue
of motivation is challenging and difficult. But teachers can do a great deal with
respect to the learning environment by serving as models of spoken Standard
English. Doing so, however, has one fundamental requirement that takes us
back to the beginning of this chapter: Teachers must know English grammar
exceptionally well. In addition, they must know the various usage conventions
of formal Standard English. The chapters that follow are designed to provide
knowledge of both.
Suggested Activities
The activities described here are illustrative rather than comprehensive and
should be used as models for developing a wider range of assignments congru-
ent with the blended approach. The activities appear in no particular order and
do not represent a grammar curriculum. Note that some of the activities refer-
ence concepts and terminology that are discussed in later chapters.
- Ask students to read a story or an essay, then ask them to write a couple of
paragraphs on the effect the work has on readers. After discussing these para-
graphs, ask students to explain how the work achieved the effect—not in terms of
the elements of fiction or the ideas but in terms of the structure.
TEACHING GRAMMAR 47