Megan E. Melancon             So which came first? Prescriptive bents which send students scurrying for a safe space in which to practice their predilection for grammar punishment or the relentless pressure of countless teachers telling them that their grammar was ‘bad’ and needed correction? In this paper, I compare the responses to a pre-assessment survey given to 66 students from three English classes: English 1101 (an introductory composition class), and two sections of English 4116 (The Structure of Present-Day English). Other than the obvious differences in ages and stages between the 1000 level class and the 4000 levels, the two 4000 sections are sharply and deliberately divided as to their majors. The school administration lumps all the Education majors together in ‘cohorts’. They take classes together, and those classes are closed to everyone else. These students constitute the population of section 1 of English 4116, while the second section of this course consists of English majors only. All three classes were given a classroom assessment assignment on the first day of class consisting of a variety of questions about their experiences with grammar and grammatical theories. The responses varied wildly. The 1101 students almost universally detested grammar and anything having to do with the concept of English and writing. The responses from the Education section of 4116 showed an incredibly strong bent toward completely prescriptive grammatical approaches, and the ‘other’ (English) section of 4116 indicated an indifference to grammar bordering on the insolent. Why? Although research is continuing, I attribute these characteristics to three factors: 1) 20 out of the 22 students in the 1101 students took the same class in the fall and failed it (and over 90% of them indicated in their responses that they had horrible experiences with English classes in high school); 2) the Education majors have been trained and are hyper aware of the fact that ‘no child can be left behind’ in their (future) classrooms, and the ever-changing, fill-in-the-blank acronyms for the tests their students will have to pass have forced them to become grammar mavens; 3) the English majors are confident in their English skills (hence the reason for their major) and have had exposure to more descriptive approaches to language and grammar. My vote, then, is for the chicken (the eggs being poor teaching and/or governmental interference, which will, unfortunately, hatch prescriptive chickens).

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