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still based on an education program which is becoming notoriously poorer and
poorer. . . Future language teachers should ideally be educated linguistically in
a region where the target language is spoken by native speakers. Research has
shown that this is the optimal context. It is absurd that the linguistic training of
young Danes is based on Danish teachers who are not linguistically
competent. Unfortunately this generalisation holds throughout the education
system. There are far too many badly trained language teachers. And the
situation is getting worse with the advent of information technology. (p. 4)
* * * * *
My own experience as a university teacher of English confirms much of what
Niels Iversen is saying. I would like to add an additional variable, however:
“fear”.
1.1.1.5. Fear of grammar
I have been teaching courses in English grammar and general linguistics at
university level since coming to Denmark in 1971, and – unfortunately – I
believe the following claim is justified: most of my new students each year
feel that no one could seriously associate the word wonderful with the word
grammar (as I have done in the book title). But I am serious, and I hope that
this web-course will help justify my claim.
On the positive side, I have experienced that there is usually a small minority
of new students who need no convincing at the outset, and I like to believe
that by the end of my university course, a few of the other students have come
around to my view.
An interesting question to raise at this point is this: Where does this fear of
grammar come from? The answer can only be that like the taste for snaps,
licorice, coffee, or peanut butter, it has been acquired – acquired during the
education process itself. The fear represents a kind of negative education. Part
of the problem, I believe, is that students are exposed to such a variety of
terminology, symbols, systems and teaching methods that they find it difficult
to catch sight of any common ground – any general principles which lie at the
core of language structure, cutting across languages. Another variable is no
doubt the lowering of standards for admission to the English degree program
at the university. When I came to Denmark in 1971, I was impressed by the
fact that successful applicants not only had to have a relatively high gradepoint
average from secondary school – they also had to document a solid
knowledge of Latin (“Den store latinprøve”) as well as competence in at least
two foreign languages other than English. Today the only real requirement is a
secondary school diploma.
page 13
John M. Dienhart