This is my first attempt, so if I goof it up, please bear with me.
My MA program focused on communication to the point where it almost excluded grammar. Hence, when I found myself in my first classroom teaching general ESL to an eager Level 6, I found myself woefully unprepared for their questions. And concerned.
As you might imagine, I spent that semester buried in various grammar books trying to stay at least one step ahead as it were. And a strange thing happened. I grew to have quite an interest in the subject. The more I delved the more I realized how little I knew. And the more I wanted to know. I found the stuff fascinating.
At some point, a couple of years later, I decided to "go for it," and actually made a presentation for PD on subject verb agreement. I gave a little quiz to my audience, all English and ESL teachers, and then spent the rest of the time arguing with them about why I'd scored various responses incorrectly. It was a hoot. And I was hooked.
The one grammar class I'd taken in school was taught by a wonderful prof who explained to us the concept of "my grammar" - the idea that you and I might have a different set of linguistic rules in our heads. Most of what she taught was new to me, but that idea really stuck. It was kind and forgiving.
Though no guru by any means, I have come to enjoy grammar more and more, and am always fascinated when I encounter something that seems odd to me. And I've always wanted some place to pose a question. Early on in my career, before I accepted my lot as an adjunct, I envisioned long stimulating discussions with my colleagues over a cup of tea in some ivy covered office. Now, I realize, this BLOG thing may work.
The other day, I found myself with just such a question. Taking my cue from the dramatic weather change over the last couple of weeks, I had written a paragraph about the weather on the board leaving the spaces for the verbs blank, a sort of cloze exercise. The students were to fill them in. After several sentences like "It _________ cloudy today," I wrote, "I hope it ____________ tomorrow."
Then I stood back and thought. I wanted the students to put "rains" in the blank, but I could not explain - even to myself - why I didn't like "will rain." What say you?
If you are a guru and would like to respond, please be kind. If you aren't, and you find yourself with a question now and then, maybe we could discuss it.
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1 comment:
I am not a grammar guru, but Michael Swan certainly is. I happen to have an old edition of his Practical English Usage in my office, and in it, on p. 296, there is an entry for "hope." Let me copy part of it here:
The verb hope is often followed by a present tense with a future meaning, especially in the first person.
I hope she likes (=will like) flowers.
I hope the calvary arrive (=will arrive) soon.
In negative sentences, the negation is usually put with the verb that follows hope. Compare:
I don't think/suppose/expect/belive/imagine she'll come.
But: I hope she won't come. (Not: *I don't hope she'll come.)
I hope she doesn't dislike the flowers.
Now, if you think that is prescriptive grammar, let's go for descriptive. I actually ran a little Google search by typing in the phrase "hope that it will rain tomorrow" and "hope that it rains tomorrow" (both with the quotation marks). Guess what? I got 10 hits for the former search phrase, but 119 for the latter. Granted, not all of the search results show use by native English speakers. However, the drastic difference in number serves to confirm Sharon's reason for hesitation as well as Michael Swan's claim.
This kind of thing is not 100% grammar, in my opinion. It is more in the realm of usage.
By the way, I highly recommend Michael Swan's books such as Practical English Usage and How English Works, even though he hails from across the pond called the Atlantic.
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