What Is an 'Ideal' Pedagogical Grammar?

Abstract

"Revolutions in grammar" tend to occur with a periodic regularity & in each revolution is seen the promise of a better pedagogical grammar. It is well known that the major stimulant for these upheavals comes from the upheavals in linguistic theory, the assumption being that the adequacy or the success of a pedagogical grammar is the function of the linguistic theory it embodies. One inevitable consequence of this is that just as the search for the best linguistic theory continues, so does the search for the best ideal pedagogical grammar. There is an important consideration that is generally ignored by the theoreticians of lang learning, namely, the pragmatics of lang teaching, which includes, among other things, the environment in which the teaching takes place, & partially the competence of the lang teacher. The twin assumptions behind this search for the best pedagogical grammar are questioned: (1) that there is one ideal pedagogical grammar, & (2) that the success of a pedagogical grammar depends primarily on the linguistic theoretical assumptions incorporated in it. HA.