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Michael Rosen on grammar

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I have increasingly become aware of Michael Rosen's blog and it is a good read that is of relevance to the E303 and E852 courses.  The following posting should be of interest to students on both courses:

http://michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/grammar-rules-descriptions-and-systems.html

I would be interested in any comments.

 

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Michael Rosen's comments on grammar

Very interesting, and I couldn't agree more.  As an EFL teacher I have noticed two distinct groups of learners...those who are happy to learn by being immersed in the language and just try out what sounds right (this group usually pick things up very fast), and those who want a set of rules to cling to before they're willing to produce language independently.  It's sometimes a real battle to steer those wanting rules away from the idea that they can learn a language from a book!
Patrick Andrews

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Thanks for your response, Wendy.  I agree with your comments here, both in my experience as a teacher and language learner.  I am cautious about over generalising from my own experience of learning languages but have found the more I focus on meaning, the more I learn.  As a teacher, it seems to me that some students have a "hairshirt attitude" in wanting rules rather than working from examples and focusing on the meaning and then looking at the forms that express those meanings.

I think the whole blog is very interesting and deals with the policy making issues as well.