Today I Learned...

Lisnaholic · 05-13-2019, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

I delicately and painstakingly made that point.

^ That's to your credit then, OH, because as we both know, delicate and painstaking instruction requires extra patience and effort.

Quote:

With ESOL (as we called them) I didn’t give a ****. I’m talking about black kids whose native language is English. They have just as much right to the ownership of their native tongue as anyone. 90% of it is verb conjugation which should be ****ing irrelevant whether it’s a medical journal or a text to a friend. If it’s communicated then mission accomplished.

^ There's relatively little conjugating for different persons in English; the verb Be, a few "s"s and that's about it. Tense changes are important because of the way meanings change. But whatever verb changes you're making, you should be doing the right thing for the right context.

Put what you like in a text to a friend, but if you're writing for a medical journal, your work will only be accepted if it is in correct formal language. Students should be aware that in many professions their ideas will be rejected if they are not expressed in the accepted syntax. However much you may disagree with that notion morally, we should prepare students for that rl attitude if we can - by teaching them the rules of grammar they will need for professional/academic writing.