Transformational grammar: a laboratory approach

Even a cursory survey of recent grammar textbooks will reveal that research in structural linguistics and transformational grammar is finally becoming part of the English curriculum. These approaches are supplementing and replacing mazy of the traditional approaches to grammar, and in turn enriching the total English program. But more important, the integration of these new approaches means that in a few years teachers of twelfth grade English will be greeted by-students who no longer groan at the mention of grammar. They will not groan because to them grammar will be an interesting explanation of something that is very complex and very remarkable—their language. These students may, in fact, welcome the traditional twelfth grade review as an opportunity to look more closely at their language and perhaps discover new insights into its operation.