When I was trying to decide on a topic for my capstone, I was very conflicted so I turned to my advisor for advice. She asked me if there was something I felt strongly about in the field of education. During this time, I was also taking an English course with Professor Rosenberg, who constantly stressed the importance of grammar as an educator. Immediately, I knew what I needed to write about. I chose to write an argumentative essay on why grammar should be taught in public schools and how the removal of it is detrimental to students’ learning.
I researched why grammar is no longer prioritized in schools and found that this stems back to 1985, when the National Councils of Teachers of English released a statement urging educators to discontinue grammar practices and to place a greater focus on language arts instead. While some schools teach grammar as part of their curriculum, some have removed it completely. I argued that grammar needs to be taught because it serves as the foundation for clear and coherent writing and successful reading comprehension.
When writing, incorrect spelling and lack of punctuation can create confusion for readers and lead them to misunderstand the work. This can be problematic when students try to apply for jobs, because if an applicant’s résumé contains grammatical errors, employers may assume that the applicant does not proofread his/her work or does not pay attention to detail.
I was shocked to find a study conducted by Career Builder in 2013, which found that employers automatically dismissed fifty-eight percent of résumés with typos, despite an applicants’ experience and qualifications.
I continued to research the impact that grammar has on reading and was pleased to find connections to my own experience as a student teacher. I learned through my research that students are first taught how to read by decoding words in phonics and then asking themselves the following three questions, “Does it look right?” “Does it sound right?” and “Does it make sense?” At the same time, my cooperating teachers were implementing these questions as a fun song into their lessons for their first graders. It was amazing to see strategies that I had researched online utilized in real life.
As I continued my research, I became aware that students turn to technology for help when writing their papers, since they were never taught proper grammar. They use autocorrect services through Microsoft Word and Google Docs, as well as free digital writing assistants, such as Grammarly, to proofread their word. Many teachers expressed concern towards this, as it does not provide students with opportunities to fix their mistakes, which prevents their learning.
This project allowed me to dive deeper into the field that I am pursuing and learn how to benefit my future students. As I discuss my project with fellow teachers, I have found that they feel the same way as me. A family member, who is also a foreign language teacher, expressed that she strongly agrees with my thesis, as she sees students struggling to learn Italian, since they have not first mastered the foundations of the English language. Therefore, if I were to further develop this project, I would research how knowledge in English grammar affects students’ abilities to learn new languages.
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