Generative Grammar, Structural Linguistics and Language Teaching

A review of a work welcoming a return to rationalism in linguistics and language teaching; turning from the empiricism of structuralism to the rationalism of transformational grammar. A rather curious equation--the equation of the direct methods of Berlitz, Gouin, and de Sauze with rationalism in language teaching--is the basis for this turn about position. This alienates the author from all of those scholars who would be his allies. Spolsky is castigated for abandoning formal instruction altogether; Newmark and Reibel are berated for avoiding instruction in grammar, and Saporta and Jakobovits are upbraided because, although they criticize the audiolingual method, they have not suggested a viable alternative. Rutherford is chastised for pouring new wine into old bottles; his Modern English simply serves up the findings of transformational grammar in a structuralist manner. In the end, Diller is the only true rationalist advocating methods by persons who never heard of 20th century transformational grammar. AA