Sparing the Rod: what teachers need to know about grammar
Sparing the Rod: what teachers need to know about grammar
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免受惩罚：教师需要了解的语法知识
DOI：
10.1080/1358684970040205
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发表时间：
1997
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
D. Cameron
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Cameron
乔治·奥威尔在他的预科学校回忆录《这就是快乐》中回忆起拉丁语语法课的仪式性羞辱：“在一句话中间被带出房间，受到殴打，然后继续说同一句话，就像那样”。他补充道：“我想知道古典教育是否曾经或能够在没有体罚的情况下成功进行”（Orwell，1968 [1947]，第388页）。古人自己也有同样的疑虑，从他们所用的语法拟人化形象来判断——一个女人严肃地凝视着两个畏缩的孩子，一手拿着一本书，另一只手拿着一根桦木棒]。“不要用木棍，要宠坏孩子”一直是语法教学的永恒哲学，无论是古典语言还是白话。即使在语法不被纯粹视为道德纪律的一种形式的地方，它也被视为需要尽早进入孩子们头脑的“基础知识”之一，如果他们不想被“宠坏”以追求更高的追求。这是对语言和学习（以及我们将要看到的语法）的根本错误的看法。不幸的是，至少在过去五年里，它也是英格兰和威尔士课堂重新引入语法的推动力。教师们对这种发展表示了严重的疑虑，他们也可能会这样做。但“提高基本标准”游说团体不再局限于某个政党[2]或新闻界知识声誉较差的部分，它不会向专业意见做出让步。像往常一样，那些真正必须交付货物的人被留下来充分利用糟糕的工作。也许我应该为纠缠于许多读者已经非常了解的事情而道歉，但我想从一开始就明确指出，我对“教师需要了解语法的什么”问题的讨论将牢牢地置于当前现实的背景下。我建议要现实一点，不要愤世嫉俗；因此，我将把这个问题理解为，不是“我们至少能摆脱对这个乏味而令人厌恶的话题的了解是什么？”而是“我们怎样才能让我们被交给的母猪耳朵变成一个更像丝绸钱包的东西？”。
In his memoir of prep school,'Such, such were the joys', George Orwell recalls the ritual humiliation of Latin grammar lessons:'being led out of the room in the middle of a sentence, receiving a beating and then going straight ahead with the same sentence, just like that'. He adds:'I wonder if classical education ever has been or can be successfully carried on without corporal punishment'(Orwell, 1968 [1947], p. 388). The ancients themselves had much the same doubts, to judge by the figure in which they personified grammar—a woman gazing sternly at two cowering children, a book in one hand and a birch rod in the otherfl].'Spare the rod and spoil the child'has been the abiding philosophy of grammar teaching, whether in the classical languages or the vernacular. Even where grammar is not regarded purely as a form of moral discipline, it is seen as one of those'basics' that need to be got into children's heads sooner rather than later if they are not to be'spoiled'for more elevated pursuits. This is a fundamentally mistaken view of language and learning (and of grammar, as we shall see). Unfortunately it has also been, for at least the last five years, the driving force behind the reintroduction of grammar to the classrooms of England and Wales. Teachers have expressed serious misgivings about this development, as well they might. But the'raising basic standards' lobby, which is no longer confined to one political party [2] or to the less intellectually reputable sections of the press, makes no concessions to professional opinion. The people who actually have to deliver the goods are left, as usual, to make the best of a bad job.I should perhaps apologise for dwelling on what many readers will know only too well already, but I want to make clear from the outset that my discussion of the question'what do teachers need to know about grammar'will be located firmly within the context of present realities. I propose to be realistic, not cynical; accordingly I will take the question to mean, not'what is the minimum we can get away with knowing about this tedious and repulsive subject?'but rather'how can we make the sow's ear we have been handed into something a bit more like a silk purse?'.