Do you teach punctuation?
How important is punctuation?
According to this newspaper article, a group of middle school students in the US studying correct punctuation usage picked up on the lack of a comma between “Washington” and “D.C.” in one of their textbooks. They told the publisher of the book, who admitted the mistake and said they would correct it in future publications.
Their teacher was proud, and as the School Principal pointed out, it showed that the kids were observant, and had learnt something from their English class.
But how important is punctuation in English? As an ESL teacher, can you say, in all honesty, that you have ever actively taught correct comma usage (or any punctuation for that matter)? Do you feel confident enough about your own knowledge of puctuation to correct it in your students’ work? Do you think it matters? Post a comment below…
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December 6th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
I have never taught punctuation in my ESL classes. I don’t deny that it’s important but there are far more important things to teach ESL students. I don’t think teaching punctuation is the job of an ESL teacher, with the exception of advanced levels.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
I have to disagree. Punctuation is as much a part of the English language as anything else, and we should teach it as a matter of course. I’m not saying devote whole lessons to the use of commas and exclamation marks, but whenever it comes up, we should at least try to explain it. Many things are the same in other languages or course, and if a student struggles with punctuation in his or her own language, he or she is likely to face the same problems in English. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to help them in this area.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
I am an ESOL teacher and basic punctuation is part of the National Curriculum Framework. It is difficult both to teach and to learn, but without any doubt it is a must because it is such an essential part of learning language.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
punctuationisnecessarytocommunicatewell throughwritingelsstudentsdeserveinstructioninuse ofspacescommasfullstopsandparagraphingifyouas ateacherarenotconfidentenoughtoteachatleast somepunctuationitistimeyouconsideraserious brushupcourseinpunctuationoranewcareer!!
December 6th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
I don’t teach punctuation unless a student has a specific question about a specific grammatical problem. Grammar rules are often difficult to explain to students because they are frequently arbitrary, vague, difficult for the student to really understand, and full of exceptions to the rule you’re trying to explain. If it’s a common, frequent grammar problem, I might give a quick, mini-lesson on the topic.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
I think that punctuation should be taught as soon as students are able to form sentences. Learning this way, as they go along, it does not become a big issue and using correct punctuation becomes automatic.