PRESCRIPTIVE AND DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR & ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THEM

“Grammar is structure and system of a language or languages. It includes syntax, phonology,

morphology and semantics.” Grammar can be explained simply as the rules of a language. There are

two kinds of grammar: prescriptive and descriptive. In this essay, I am going to explain prescriptive

and descriptive grammar, what are the advantages and disadvantages of them for a language teacher.

As I explained above, grammar is rules for organizing a language. But where did these rules

come from, did people created the rules and started to use them in written and spoken language? The

answer is “no”. People have started to communicate by sounds, sounds turned into words and then

 phrases and sentences. Afterwards people started generalize these rules and then some governmental

institutions (such as Turkish Language Institution in Turkey) make the rules official and told the peo-

 ple what is good grammar; what is bad grammar. These institutions decided how the rules of a lan-

guage should be and how the language should be used. Then they published grammar books, dictio-

naries and the publication of the new grammar books has been still going on. (In the countries which

do not have an institution to organize the rules of the language, linguists, universities try to organize

the best rules for them, publish books and dictionaries.) If a teacher uses the rules written in the

grammar books, it means that the teacher teaches prescriptive grammar which is “a principle or order

guides behavior and says what to be done”. If the teacher uses native speakers a source and teaches

how the native speakers speaks, it means that the teacher teaches prescriptive grammar. Both prescrip-

tive and descriptive grammar have some advantages and disadvantages in terms of teaching a lan-

guage.

  

First of all, I am going to discuss advantages and disadvantages of teaching prescriptive gram-

mar. Teaching prescriptive grammar is more helpful for both non-native teachers and learners. It has

certain rules of language, this certainty reduces confusion and ambiguity among students. Especially

for beginners learners, it is very useful to be taught how a language should be used. When it is said “

Don’t use double negation in a sentence, do not say

I didn't eat nothing

but say

I didn’t eat

anything

”, we make the rule clear for the students, they draw a language system in their mind, this

certainty makes learning the language easier for them. In addition to this, when the learners know pre-

scriptive grammar rules, it will be easier for them to write in the target language. Prescriptive gram-

mar teaching creates better writers. Most of the language teachers in Turkey and in the other countries

 prefer teaching prescriptive grammar because it is map of language teachers. It is helpful for non-na-

tive teacher because, they cannot have a precise knowledge about descriptive grammar of a foreign

language. To have an idea about descriptive grammar, they should have lived in the country that the

target language is used but it is nearly impossible to send our teachers to these countries to learn de-

scriptive grammar. It is both time consuming, not economical and unnecessary. Even if the teacher

goes to the country where the language is spoken officially, which dialect

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s/he will learn. If we con-

sider the English the target language, which standard of English will be taught; American English or

British English.

When we consider all these reasons, teaching prescriptive grammar has many advantages but

it has disadvantages as well. If the prescriptive grammar is taught, learners will be confused when

they talk with a native speaker. They will realize that natives do not use the rules in the grammar

 books. People who learn prescriptive grammar cannot be able to speak or write like a native speaker

 because they only uses standard grammar books and they do not know how the native speakers use

the language. Furthermore, they will probably get bored of learning grammar rules all the time, be-

cause prescriptive grammar mostly deals with rules.

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a form of a language that is spoken in a particular part of a country or by a particular group of

people and that contains some words, grammar, or pronunciations (= the ways in which words are

said) that are different from the forms used in other parts or by other groups. (cambridge dictionary

online)

  

Secondly, I am going to discuss advantages and disadvantages of descriptive grammar. By lis-

tening a native speaker’e speech, the learner can understand how a native speaker uses the language.

Listening exercises help learners to learn real the usage of the language. Also it helps them to improve

their pronunciation and they start to sound like a native speaker. Additionally, when the learners talk

with a native speaker, they will not get confuse because of usage difference of the language.

Prescriptive grammar helps learners to speak, write like a native speaker, it reduces the confu-

sion of learners when they speak with a native speaker but it is not appropriate for beginner learners

 because the rules are not precise, they are ambiguous, more flexible and changeable in descriptive

grammar. These flexible, changeable and ambiguous rules will most probably confuse the learners

and make writing and speaking harder for them. (That’s why we can say that this kind of grammar is

more appropriate for advanced learners.) Furthermore, it is difficult for teachers to decide which di-

alect, which usage of a language to teach. Even if the teacher choose the most used dialect of the tar-

get language, students will have difficulty in communicating with a native speaker from a different

 part of the country. If the teachers teach fixed grammar rules in the books, all of the speakers of the

target language can communicate with each other more easily. When they hear or see different usage

or rule of a language which is used by natives, they can understand that there are different usage of

rules which are used by natives and they can learn these differences by experiencing.

Consequently, both pros and cons for prescriptive and descriptive grammar are explained

above. Both of them can be beneficial and helpful for both teachers and students. A teacher should

make his mind about which grammar type to teach. To make that decision, he should consider their

levels. If the learners are advanced they should be taught descriptive grammar. If they are beginner

learners, they should be taught prescriptive grammar. When they learned basic grammar rules, they

should be also mentioned about descriptive grammar and should be taught it.