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What is an ‘ideal’ pedagogical grammar?
Author(s) -
NADKARNI MANGESH V.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.1987.tb00200.x
Subject(s) - grammar , emergent grammar , linguistics , ideal (ethics) , relational grammar , linguistic competence , generative grammar , computer science , traditional grammar , regular grammar , sociology , philosophy , epistemology
‘Revolutions in grammar’ tend to occur with a periodic regularity and in each revolution is seen the promise of a better pedagogical grammar. It is well known that the major stimulant for these upheavals comes from the upheavals in linguistic theory, the assumption being that the adequacy or the success of a pedagogical grammar is the function of the linguistic theory it embodies. One inevitable consequence of this is that just as the search for the best linguistic theory continues, so does the search for the best ideal pedagogical grammar. There is an important consideration which is generally ignored by the theoreticians of language learning, namely, the pragmatics of language teaching, which includes, among other things, the environment in which the teaching takes place, and partially the competence of the language teacher. This paper will question the twin assumptions behind this search for the best pedagogical grammar: (a) that there is one ideal pedagogical grammar, and (b) that the success of a pedagogical grammar depends primarily on the linguistic theoretical assumptions incorporated in it.