conscious and difficult. The reason is that the mind processes acquired knowl-
edge of language in a way that is different from learned knowledge of language.
Whenever most people try to apply such learned knowledge, their language pro-
cessing ability is impaired. Part of the problem is related to differences in form
and meaning. As suggested previously, people focus on the meaning of an utter-
ance or of writing, unless the form is so flawed as to be distracting. They find that
when they also try to focus on form, it is harder to attend to meaning. It’s a bit like
trying to think about the mechanics of breathing. For most people, what we do
unconsciously and without effort suddenly becomes labored.
We see extreme examples of this phenomenon among people with writer’s
block. Rose (1984) reported that students in his study were so concerned with
getting the form correct that they could not focus on meaning; moreover, they
never felt that the form they used was correct, so they became caught in a cy-
cle of writing a couple of sentences, crossing them out, rewriting them, cross-
ing them out, rewriting them, and so on. Most found it hard to complete even
one paragraph.
On a less serious level, we see students who study and understand the differ-
ence betweenwhoandwhom,for example, who can differentiate between these
two words correctly and consistently in exercises, but who nevertheless either
fail to make the distinction when speaking or writing or must think hard for sev-
eral moments about which form is appropriate. And anyone who has ever writ-
ten a paper of any length understands how difficult it is to spot errors when
proofreading. The reason is that even when we try to focus on the structure of
our writing, we tend to lose that focus and attend to the meaning, instead. Even
professional writers and academics experience this problem, which is why
publishers employ copyeditors to correct errors that the authors miss. The im-
plication for instruction is clear: Training students to be editors is likely to have
a greater effect on reducing errors in writing than grammar instruction.
Also worth considering is the fact that writing teachers at the college level
regularly see how knowledge of grammar has little bearing on the quality of
speaking and writing. Many foreign students, especially those from Asia, com-
monly have learned as much or more about English grammar than their teach-
ers, but they nevertheless speak and write English quite poorly, on the whole.
Their learned—rather than acquired—knowledge of English grammar does
not help them much when it comes to actually using the language.
Why Teach Grammar?
Given all the foregoing, any reasonable person might conclude that we are
wasting our time, as well as that of our students, by teaching grammar. Such a
40 CHAPTER 2