The Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar

The Assembly for
the Teaching of English Grammar

The Second Annual ATEG Conference (1991)

Proceedings

The program of the 1991 conference was not included in the Proceedings. What follows is the Introduction to and Contents of the Proceedings.

Introduction

The tone of the second ATEG conference was significantly different from that of the first. At the first, people were elated at the possibility of discussing grammar with colleagues without having to defend pedagogical grammar itself. At the second, although the tone was very polite, disagreements began to surface (as I expected they would). Freed from having to defend "grammar," presenters were faced with the much more interesting task - at least for us - of having to defend their particular concepts and approaches to grammar.

The differences in purpose, approach, and theory of the different presenters are implicit in the papers as presented in this book, but they are much more explicit in the videotapes, which include all the questions and answers. (I am still somewhat surprised that there is so little interest in the tapes.) I expect the disagreements to continue, hopefully in the same polite tone, at the upcoming third, and even later conferences of ATEG. That is, after all, what the association is all about.

I have tried, given the problems of time, to reproduce all the papers as accurately as possible. Martha Kolln and George Oliver, who did the pre-convention workshop, decided not to include anything in these proceedings. Unfortunately, Janet Gilbert, from Delta College, University Center, Michigan, was unable to get us her paper, "Halliday Can Help." The final presentation at the conference, by Alice Deakins and Kate Parry, was an introduction to a card game they have developed.

Ed Vavra, DIF 112
Pennsylvania College of Technology
One College Drive
Williamsport, PA 17701
March 21, 1992

Proceedings of the Second Conference

Keynote: Finding Reasons to Teach Grammar to Everyone, Bill McCleary, editor, Composition Chronicle

Jessica's "Power Phrase": Using Sentence Combining to Teach Note Taking, Chrystena Chrzanowski, William Paterson College

Grammar in the Freshman Composition Class, Ben Varner, University of Northern Colorado

Teaching Young Writers to Analyze Their Sentences, Ed Vavra, Pennsylvania College of Technology

The Parts Are the Key to the Whole, George Kovacs, Briarcliffe College

Good at Grammar, Maurice Scharton, Illinois State U

Grammar in the Learning Center, Janice Neuleib, Illinois State U.

The Effect that Separation of Content and Form Has on Grammar and Syntax Review in Business Writing Textbooks, Mary Hall, University of Pittsburgh

Teaching Grammar in Business Communications, Geneva Hagedorn, Univ. of Houston-Downtown

A Systematically Based Approach to Grammatical Analysis, John P. Broderick, Old Dominion University

Three-Dimensional Diagramming, Wanda Van Goor, Prince George's Community College

Approaches to Teaching Teachers Grammar, Irene Brosnahan, Illinois State University

Grammar Relevance: Human/Computer Interface as a Relevancy Model, Frank Peters, Bloomsburg University

Using Transformational Grammar to Teach Future Teachers, Cornelia Paraskevas, Western Oregon State University