Pedagogical Grammars

Mary Linn

Laura C. Robinson

Tracy Hirata-Edds

Course Information:

This workshop discusses the development, purpose, composition and use of pedagogical grammars. We focus on pedagogical grammars for minority and endangered languages. Topics include: grammars and the speech community; typology of grammars; writing grammars; how the language determines what to include; including/writing culture into a grammar; consideration of issues of planning, use, function; examining differences between theoretical and pedagogical grammars. In addition, we look at these topics from several perspectives: that of a pedagogical grammar writer, that of an endangered language teacher, and that of a language program consultant.

The workshop is geared towards linguists and speech community members who are planning to write or are writing a grammar, or reworking a theoretical grammar into a pedagogical grammar. The workshop will include lecture, discussion, examples from pedagogical and theoretical grammars, and hands on exercises and grammar evaluations. As learning is a collaborative process, I expect that participants and session leaders will all contribute and learn from one another.