Teaching Good English in a Global Economy - Less Breadth, More Depth

Most people say good English means using

• Correct grammar.
• Correct punctuation.
• Correct usage.
• Correct spelling (of words in written work).

However, most people would be hard-pressed to identify precisely which rules of grammar, punctuation, and usage must be followed in writing and speaking or which words must be spelled correctly for the writing to be "good English."

Many times correctness is more a matter of appropriateness than of compliance with a grammar rules. If the audience or readers readily understand the message and are not offended by the language in which it is presented, that message is correct enough.

Unfortunately, in today's world, it is hard to know what is appropriate.

• Many times an audience is global rather than local.
• Many times writers/speakers don't know who their audience is.
• Many audiences do not know how to access - or do not have access to -references to help them interpret non-standard language such as abbreviations, idioms, and jargon.

In a global economy, our students will have to work with many people who will not understand the breezy, informal, idiomatic, and often sloppy language use that characterizes American culture.

Living in a global society, we must hold ourselves and our students to a higher standard of correctness - closer to textbook rules - than we might have demanded in their speech and writing 10 years ago.

Fortunately, we do not have to teach (or know) all the rules for comma placement. We do need to know and teach those rules that, if violated, are most likely to impede communication of a message.

Distinguishing between rules that are essential to clear, everyday communication and those ordinary people rarely need in their speaking or writing is not easy. However, studies such as Lunsford and Connors' 1992 research on errors in college students' writing provide significant clues.

Moreover, we must teach those rules thoroughly, until they are as much a part of our students' mental processes as their elbows are parts of their bodies.

Bottom line: We have to teach fewer rules of "good English" but teach the far more thoroughly to equip students to live in a global society than we had to teach to prepare them to score high on standardized tests.

Linda Aragoni is a writer, writing teacher, and editor of http://www.You-Can-Teach-Writing.com your guide to resources and strategies for teaching expository writing in middle school and beyond. More about teaching writing mechanics is at http://you-can-teach-writing.com/teaching-grammar.html Copyright 2008, Linda Gorton Aragoni. You may reprint this article provided the whole text, the author's name, the links, and this copyright notice remain intact.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Aragoni
http://EzineArticles.com/?Teaching-Good-English-in-a-Global-Economy---Less-Breadth,-More-Depth&id=1437191