If I am the only parent who still corrects his child's English, then perhaps my son is right. To
him, I am a tedious oddity: a father he is obliged to listen to and a man absorbed in the rules
of grammar, which my son seems allergic to.
I think I got serious about this only recently when I ran into one of my former students, fresh
from an excursion to Europe. "How was it?" I asked, full of earnest anticipation.
She nodded three of four times, searched the havens for the right words, and then exclaimed, "It
was, like, whoa!" And that was it. The civilization of Greece and the glory of Roman archite
cture were captured in a condensed non-statement. My student's "Whoa!" was exceeded only by my
head-shaking distress.There are many different stories about the downturn in the proper use of
English. Surely students should be able to distinguish between their/ there/ they're or the di
stinctive difference between complimentary and complementary. The unfairly bear the bulk of the
criticism for these knowledge deficits because there is a sense that they should know better.
Students are not dumb, but they are being misled everywhere they look and listen. For example,
signs in grocery stores point them to the stationary, even though the actual stationary items
pads, albums and notebooks - are not nailed down. Friends and loved ones often proclaim they're
just ate when, in fact, they're just eaten. Therefore, it doesn't make any sense to criticize our
students.Blame for the scandal of this language deficit should be thrust upon our schools, which
should be setting high standards of English language proficiency. Instead, they only teach a litt
le grammar and even less advanced vocabulary. Moreover, the younger teachers themselves evidently
have little knowledge of these vital structures of language because they also went without expo
sure to them. Schools fail to adequately teach the essential framework of language, accurate gra
mmar and proper vocabulary, while they should take the responsibility of pushing the young onto
the path of competent communication.Since grammar is boring to most of the young, I think that it
must be handled delicately step by step. The chance came when one day I was driving with my son.
As we set out on our trip, he noticed a bird in jerky flight and said, "It’s flying so
unsteady."I carefully asked, "My son, how is the bird flying?" "What's wrong? Did I say anything
incorrectly?" He got lost. "Great! You said incorrectly instead of incorrect. We use adverbs to
describe verbs. Therefore, it's flying so unsteadily but not so unsteady."Curious about my
correction, he asked me what an adverb was. Slowly, I said, "It's a word that tells you something
about a verb."It led to his asking me what a verb was. I explained, "Verbs are action words; for
example, Dad drives the truck. Drive is the verb because it's the thing Dad is doing."He became
attracted to the idea of action words, so we listed a few more: fly, swim, dive, run. Then, out
of his own curiosity, he asked me if other words had names for their use and functions. This led
to a discussion of nouns,adjectives, and articles. Within the span of a 10-minute drive, he had
learned from scratch to the major parts of speech in a sentence. It was painless learning and
great fun!Perhaps, language should be looked upon as a road map and a valuable possession: Often
study the road map and a valuable possession: often study the road map (check grammar) and tune
up the car engine (adjust vocabulary). Learning grammar and a good vocabulary is just like
driving with a road map in a well-conditioned car.The road map provides the framework and
guidance you need for your trip, but it won't tell you exactly what trees or flowers you will
see, what kind of people you will encounter, or what types of feelings you will be experiencing
on your journey. Here,the vocabulary makes the journey's true colors come alive! A good
vocabulary, you have flexibility, and excellent control, while the road map guides your journey
to our destination, an excellent vehicle helps you to fully enjoy all of the sights, sounds and
experiences along the way. Effective, precise, and beneficial communication depends upon grammar
and a good vocabulary,the two essential assets for students, but they are not being taught in
schools.Just this morning, my son and I were eating breakfast when I attempted to add milk to my
tea."Dad," He said, "If I were you, I wouldn't do that. It's sour." "Oh my!" I said, swelling
which pride toward my son, "That's a grammatically perfect sentence. You used were instead of
was." "I know, I know," he said with a long agreeable sigh. "It's the subjunctive mood."I was,
like, whoa!