[KS] failed Koreanists littering the streets

??? gary at korealore.com
Wed Apr 16 21:57:36 EDT 2003


I agree with Ross King here. Just because native speakers (even
linguists in many cases) are unconscious of the rules and think
they are speaking intuitively, that doesn't mean that the rules
don't exist or are arbitrarily overridden by "convention."
Unfortunately for students (of both Korean and English)
many teachers even teach "rules" or give explanations
that are misleading or even just plain wrong--usually something
they parroted from a book rather than observing carefully
their own use of their native language.

Gary Rector

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yuh Ji-Yeon" <j-yuh at northwestern.edu>
To: <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 11:04 AM
Subject: Re: [KS] failed Koreanists littering the streets


> Points well taken, but I must disagree with the following:
> 
>  >And some of it just isn't possible.
> > > It's like asking for a really good, detailed and accurate explanation of
> > > the use of the articles the and a/an in English. Or the various situations
> > > in which you can put an adjective after the noun it modifies. You can't 
> > get
> > > it because it only follows general rules and the actual usage depends a
> > > great deal on convention and what sounds good to a native ear.
> >
> >This just isn't true and is tantamount to saying that human language can't 
> >be learned. There ARE such 'good, detailed and accurate explanations' for 
> >various points of English structure, and it is the job of ESL specialists 
> >and English linguists to write those explanations and the (thousands of) 
> >books that enshrine them. Language is rule-governed, not some mystical 
> >mishmash of 'what sounds good to a native ear'.
> 
> 
> I must stand by what I wrote and disagree with Ross King here. I have been 
> involved in English language education for quite a few years now, and the 
> kind of deeply satisfying, 
> I-can-take-this-explanation-and-use-it-every-day-and-never-make-a-mistake 
> explanation is not available for many many things. And this is true the 
> higher up you go, i.e., the more fluent a student gets. As a native speaker 
> well-educated in grammar, history, etc., there are many times I simply 
> cannot find the explanation a student or editor demands. (If you know of 


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