English Grammar
Taught by Susan Behrens
Susan Behrens holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Brown University. She is a professor of communication sciences and disorders at Marymount Manhattan College and the author of Grammar: A Pocket Guide and co-editor of Language in the Real World: An Introduction to Linguistics
English Grammar will cover the basics of the structure of English.
Most grammar teachers give adult learners the message that if you have not already mastered the explicit learning of grammar, it is too late, too tedious, too irrelevant, and too embarrassing to learn it now.
This class challenges those assumptions by keeping the instruction both informal and informative, showing that it is not too late to learn grammar.
The lesson will be organized around the typical questions that people ask about English. Such questions include,
* Is it "10 items or less" or "10 items or fewer"?
* Should I say "If I were you" or "if I was you"?
* Can you start a sentence with "And" or "Because"?
* When do you use "whom"?
* What is the difference between "lie" and "lay"?
* Is it "I feel bad" or "I feel badly"?
There will be a test! The lesson ends with a cumulative final exam that asks participants to edit a paragraph by applying what they have learned during class.
Practice exercises throughout the class tap into what you already know about your own language intuitively and work to make that knowledge both more overt and more logical.
You'll leave knowing why we all should know this information, that it is indeed learnable, and how it is useful as a foundation for other learning and for better communication.
