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90 RONALD CARTERIt is no semantic accidcnt that words such as standard, correct, and proper areamong the kcy\vortls. Debates ahout the state and status of the English language are rarelydebates about language alone. The tcrms 01’ thc deliatc are also tcrms for defining socialbchaviour.The term English is synonymous with Englishncss, that is, with an understandingof who the proper English are. A vimv of one English with a single set of rules accords witha monolingual, monocultural version of society intent on preserving an existing order inwhich everyone knows their place. A view which rccognises Englishcs as well as English andwhich stresses variable rules accords with a multilingual, culturally divcrse wrsion of society.Both positions include politically extrcmr versions. Thcsc range from a view that standardEnglish is correct English and must tic uniformly enfbrccd in all contexts ofuse (with dialectsextirpatcd) and that children not drilled in thr rules of stantlard grammar are both deviantand discmpo\vercd (strong right-wing position) to a view that standard English is a badgeof upper-class power, antl that to require children to learn it is a form of social enslavement(strong leftning position I) to a view that standard English must be taught to working-classchildren so that they can \vrcst linguistic power from those more privileged than themselves(strong left-wing position 11). It is striking how political positions converge in certainrespects and how the pedagogical positions arc oftcn identical.2.2 LlNC and grammar[. ’ .IIn the LlNC training materials therc is no advocacy ofa return to the dccontextualiseddrills and exerciscs of the 1950s. Instead therc is systematic exploration of grammaticaldifferences lietwecn spccch antl writing, Iietwwn standard and non-standard forms of thelanguage, and between diffcrcnt varieties of English. In spite of tieing described in certainnational newyapcrs as a dialect project, 97 per ccnt of the examples is a LlNC materialsare of pupils speaking, reading and lvriting in stantlard English. They also dcmonstrate thatone of the most effective 1%-ays of learning standard English is for pupils to compare andanalysc diffcrences between their o\vn dialects and thc tlialcct of standard English, discussingexplicitly how and when differcnt forms are appropriate. [. . .]Here is an example of LINC’s approach to grammar taken from some local trainingmaterials. The example is liascd on a text in the form of a postcard delivered through theletterbox of customers of a water company.The following tcxt communicatcs information; in this case the information concernsthe interruption to water supply. Whenever instructions arc given, a ‘modality’enters the relationship between the writcr and reader of a text. ‘Modality’ takes anumber of diffcrcnt forms in English liut the presence of modal verbs is particularlysignificant. Hcrc are some of the main modal vcrlx in English:can; could; will; izould; must; should; shall; mayWhat is the function of modal verbs in thc tcxt that follows?What other verb forms work, in particular, to establish a relationship between theWater Company and the customcrs to whom it has distrilmted this notice?CommentaryThis tcxt is in a curiously mixed mode. The Water Company has to inform itscustomcrs that repairs are unavoidable. It has to give its customers instructions which