This is something I posted to the FLTeach listserv. It just really ticked me off that this woman was assuming that a native French speaker was ignorant because they made a grammatical mistake in a letter. Oooo, I'm mad about it. But I tried not to let that show in my response. Does anyone have any feelings about this?
Leigh said: "I see a ton of grammatical errors because one family is Armenian and another, just plain ignorant, which I don't tell the student because she's so proud of her French relatives."
I hate to jump in on this, but this phrase really struck me because I've been having similar conversations with my colleagues. Is it really that they are ignorant or is it that the academic French that we are taught and teaching in schools is too perfect? I had a home stay three summers ago with a brilliant, well-read French woman. I asked her to explain the difference between Il est and C'est to me. She said it was the same: that the two phrases were interchangeable. I know that it is not strictly true, but it is being used currently interchangeably in France.
I was also listening to Fresh Air on NPR yesterday and they had a quick blurb at the end about nit-picking the English language. For example, if we are following the strict rules of English, we should NEVER say that there were 5 people at dinner last night because you never use people with a specific number. Instead, you should say 5 persons.
So, are we teaching outdated grammar rules like this or are we teaching our students to sound educated?? I have no idea because I don't live in France and I'm not a native speaker. I don't want my students to go to France and use outdated language rules, though...they would sound too stilted. I also don't want them to spend a bunch of their time and brain space memorizing rules that are ancient.
Maybe someone on here with a finger on the pulse of the language can answer this.
Oh, I totally agree! I'm all about descriptive linguistics, not prescriptive linguistics. We should accept than language is a changing, dynamic thing, but there's always some snobby people that insist otherwise. And we most definitely shouldn't assume someone is less intelligent than another because of the type of language they use (or purposely choose to use with a friend or relative).
ReplyDeleteAs it stands within the U.S., however, I do think it's important for students to recognize how the "properness" of their English will affect the way they are viewed by others. I teach in a school that has a very predominantly African-American population -- maybe 98% or above? I (and other teachers) tell my students they can speak however they want with their friends, but they have to learn to speak appropriately given a certain situation (writing an email vs. an essay, telling a story to your friends vs. giving a presentation to the class).
While I don't agree with it, my job isn't always to act on my principles. My major goal is to make sure that my students can succeed given the education that they can get in my school, and if that means learning to recognize and use "proper" English (however outdated I feel these rules are), then so be it.
Just my two cents. Oh, and I've been enjoying your blog for a while now. :)