Do you struggle with Grammar and you’re a native English speaker? Today I launched a new course to help all of us: English Grammar Workshop. English grammar is complex and challenging to understand because our language is a mix from Germanic, Old English, French, and Latin too. When people turn to us as SLPs and ask us “what is the right answer, grammatically/linguistically speaking?” it can be uncomfortable not to know what do say.
I feel like there have been so many times that another educators have asked me about the grammaticality of a sentence and I haven’t had an answer for them. So I dug into books about grammar and English linguistics and for the past four months I’ve been researching the heck out of this language I speak. I have learned a ton and I want to share what I have learned with you! Check out my course here: English Language Workshop
What is grammar?
Grammar is something we rarely hear a definition for and we most likely have a negative connotation for it. That’s because it is often taught in a rigid way in school. Grammar is the system and structure of a language. Did you know that in the past Latin was the standard while English was considered to be “lowly.” Because of that, Latin teachers taught Latin grammar and the latin language to English-speaking students. In fact, I remember my dad telling me he was in Latin classes when he was in high school. He would randomly quote Latin, which I thought was so silly. Anyway, when Latin was removed from curriculum at most high schools, those teachers needed positions. Administration created new teaching positions focused on English grammar for the unemployed Latin teachers. However, they actually imposed some Latin grammaticality rules onto the English language. For example, it’s actually totally okay to end a sentence in a preposition –it’s something you cannot do in Latin, but in English it’s fine. We were lied to!
What is linguistics?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics. But wait a second, don’t grammar and linguistics have the same or similar definitions? Well, actually they do but they are different. To me, linguistics is more of a a modern take (and my favorite perspective). Because of my past training in graduate school for speech pathology, I knew quite a bit about phonology, a bit about morphology, and actually not that much about syntax prior to the research I undertook for this course. I wanted to learn a ton more about linguistics but I wasn’t ready for what I ended up learning, especially about the history of English. Did you know about The Great Vowel Shift and also why did The Great Vowel Shift happen? Well, t was a period of time between 1500’s and the 1800’s when the pronunciation of English vowels (and consonants) changed dramatically. Because of the invention of the printing press during this time, the English spelling was actively being codified. So some of the English spelling patterns are from a way that English was pronounced, but is no longer pronounced that way.
What is the course about?
My course English Grammar Workshop has two parts: the first part is focused on English grammar and the second part focuses on linguistics. The first section all about grammar contains a 38 page guidebook and 14 videos. (Keep scrolling for information about the second part related to English linguistics. The course contains two PDFs: one lengthy English grammar PDF and another lengthy English linguistics PDF)
So I’ve laid out the course to complement the guidebooks to make it easy for you to follow along. As you can see both of the guides roughly match up with the video modules. The guides are the most important part of this course because they are super detailed and will help you the most. The videos that are here provide more clarification and explanation of the guide. You can decide to watch all of the videos or you can choose which ones are the areas you need the most guidance and support.
Course Outline:
Here are the main parts of the course:
GRAMMAR GUIDE – Table of Contents:
- English is Weird (pg 3)
- Course Introduction (pg 4)
- Word Classes (pg 5):
- Nouns (pg 6-7)
- Pronouns (pg 8-10)
- Verbs (pgs 11-12):
- Verb Tenses (pgs 13-16)
- Verbals (pg 17)
- Adverbs (pgs 18-20)
- Adjectives (pg 21):
- Articles & Interjections
- Prepositions (pg 22)
- Conjunctions (pg 23)
- Parts of Sentences (pgs 24 -25)
- Types of Sentences (pg 25)
- Sentence Forms (pg 26)
- Dependent Clauses (pg 27)
- Punctuation (pgs 28-33):
- Apostrophes
- Brackets
- Colons
- Commas
- Dashes
- Ellipses
- Exclamation points
- Hyphens
- Parentheses
- Periods
- Question marks
- Quotation marks
- Semicolons
- Agreement (pg 34-35):
- Subject and Verb
- African American English (pg 36-37)
- References (pg 38)
And the English linguistics section of the course is the second part. It contains a 23 page guidebook and contains 10 videos. Here is the outline of the guidebook:
LINGUISTICS GUIDE
- Table of Contents (Pg 2)
- Linguistics (Pg 3)
- Phonology (Pg 4-9):
- Vowels, diphthongs, consonants & digraphs (Pg 4-5)
- Phonotactics (Pg 6-7)
- Phonics (Pg 7)
- Phonemic awareness & phonological awareness (Pg 8)
- Allophones (Pg 9)
- Orthography (Pg 10 –13):
- History of English Spelling:
- Old English (Pg 10)
- Middle English (Pg 11)
- Modern English (Pg 11-12)
- The Great Vowel Shift (Pg 12-13)
- Morphology (Pg 14 –19):
- Types of Morphemes (Pg 14-15)
- Word Classification (Pg 15-18)
- Making New Words (Pg 18-19)
- Syntax (Pg 20 – 22)
- References (Pg 23)
Why should you take this course?
Even native English speakers struggle to understand the complexities of English grammar and linguistics. If you don’t feel confident, this course will help you feel self-assured about your abilities. If you were never taught about English grammar or linguistics, this course will teach you. Here are some of the objectives of the course:
- Gain the knowledge to feel confident in English grammar and linguistics!
- Understand complex English grammatical construction including verbals, adverbs, and conjunctions and more…
- Learn what the parts and types of sentences are as well as how independent and dependent clauses work.
- Grasp phonology, morphology, and syntax once and for all!
- Learn the history of English spelling and the Great Vowel Shift of the 1500’s to 1800’s that changed English pronunciation
Now is the time to learn!
You can snag this course on sale because it’s new! Use the code NEEDTOKNOW for $15 off, for a limited time only! Buy this course to be able to dig into both the grammar and linguistics of our language and finally feel more confident: http://englishgrammarworkshop.com