Positioning students as linguistic and social experts

Teaching grammar and linguistics in the United States

Abstract

Language study has traditionally been situated within the L1 classroom. However, the study of the structure of language—grammar—diminished in U.S. schools, beginning in the mid- to late-20th century, for a variety of reasons, some of which are summarized here. Because of the misunderstandings about what grammar is and the controversies surrounding its teaching in the L1 classroom, in the United States at least, it can be beneficial to focus on linguistics instead of grammar. In this article, I offer an overview of the ways in which the study of language has been incorporated into primary and secondary schools in the U.S. When the focus is on teaching “linguistics” instead of just grammar, narrowly defined, not only do students gain a great deal of grammatical knowledge, but there are also other benefits. Students may be empowered by their own unconscious knowledge of language; they learn to employ scientific methodology to analyze language data; they come to understand the systematicity of all language varieties; and they can work themselves to reduce the discrimination that comes with a focus on a privileged variety of standardized grammar.