[etni] Fwd: grammar question
- From: ETNI list <etni.list@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2011 10:12:46 +0200
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From: Jenifer Byk <byk@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: grammar question
Thanks to everyone, all of whom confirmed my gut feeling that the
correct sentence is “While we were eating they told...” However, and
this is nit-picking, the explanations don’t really explain it. It
seems to me that “were telling” should be acceptable, but I don’t
think it is. Maybe they were telling the stories the whole time we
were eating. How about “While we were eating the band was playing
Brahms,” Or played?
The problem is that teachers usually give grammar tests of one sort or
another. I’m glad to see that many teachers give them separately from
exams that test other things. But they are problematic, often leaving
native teachers saying to themselves “Is it this or is it that?”,
because grammar out of context sometimes doesn’t work. So in the
question I originally posed, the teacher went for “...were telling..”
and took off points. However, I hate to say “Hey, I’m a native
speaker, (whoop de do!)and you’re wrong!” Particularly as you don’t
have to be a native speaker to be a better teacher than a native
speaker, in the same way as you don’t have to be a great sports person
to be a great trainer.
I’m a firm believer in giving grammar its place in teaching, and not
only in context; I just think one has to be especially careful how
one teaches it, so as not to give the impression to the students that
if you don’t get 100 on grammar tests, you don’t know English. We all
know pupils who go to the sight of a grammar test, but who have large
vocabularies, speak and write well, and understand both spoken and
written texts.
Any ideas how to accomplish this?
Jennifer
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