Contemporary
companies, corporates and many other organisations have decried the poor
standards of language amongst young professionals. The complaints range
from poor use of spoken to written language. It seems that no one is
keen anymore to, so to speak, mind their language. It is thus in order
to contemplate upon the travails of language on whose back our
communicative itinerary rides.
Suffice
to mention that very few people, if there are any, encourage youngsters
to pursue language related courses in school. Our obsession with
“professional” courses has disparaged language as a subject for teaching
and passing exams and not as a professional tool to aid our growth
professionally, economically or even politically. It is therefore no
surprise that English and other languages are deemed only as subjects
for classroom and not beyond the confines of academic walls.
Many
children are groomed to pursue courses in sciences, engineering,
medicine, architecture, communication, business, accounting, project
management etc. In other words, it is not cool at all to study language
even when editors, translators and rapporteurs make a tidy sum from
their language skills. Because we don’t think language is inextricably tied to other professions, it
is no wonder that our language skills have continued to deteriorate. I
wonder what a poorly written medical prescription would result to. Most
probably it would culminate into a wrong dosage and God forbid
complications that might eventually lead to death.
Although
there are many texts with a wide range of information regarding grammar
and language usage in general, Rebecca Oladipo’s Essentials of English Grammar
published by Longhorn (2013) is one text that language enthusiasts will
want to judiciously study. In its blurb, the text is referred to as “a
good reference material for writers in all fields and for those
interested in improving their grammar skills and usage”. I concur with
this view and reiterate that the book proffers an easy to use approach
by providing practical examples and illustrations.
My
communion with language taught me that it is intricately constructed
upon four key precepts: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.
Phonology tackles the scientific bit on sounds and for those keen on
Received Pronunciation (RP) it is pertinent to pay attention to the
manner and place of articulation of language sounds. Furthermore,
morphology provides knowledge on how sounds combine to form words and
how this is syntactically translated into phrases, clauses and sentences
under syntax. Ultimately, it is the meaning derived from such
constructions that is the dictum of semantics.
Consequently,
our use of language is unconsciously pegged on all the four maxims of
language study. Oladipo’s text squarely explores grammar and its usage
by revisiting the basics. The researcher examines the eight parts of
speech: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, prepositions,
conjunctions and interjections. She reminds us that “The words of a
language belong to different groups or parts of speech according to how
they behave.” Hence words are categorized dependent on the function that
they execute. For example, the verb denotes action or state whereas an
interjection expresses strong or sudden feelings. These are some of the
issues that the scholar sets out to explore and to demonstrate their
practical use in our daily lives.
Essentials of English Grammar
is thus a user friendly text which can provide a one stop destination
to language users with specific needs. A writer who has been struggling
with the use of prepositions but has no challenge in utilizing other
parts of speech will not need to read the entire text. The writer will
just flip to the chapter on prepositions and plug into the
descriptions, the illustrations and the sample exercises provided
without the need for a teacher. It is thus without a doubt that this
text provides ample resources for English users, both beginners and
polished users, to help them to continuously perfect their language
skills.
Therefore,
instead of employers turning the heat against teachers, lecturers and
other language mentors, it is astute for all of us to take
responsibility for the malaise afflicting language use amongst the
general populace. We need concerted efforts and a spirit of collective
responsibility to ameliorate the effects of poor language skills through
reading and encouragement of those who want to pursue language as their
professional field of study. Probably, Rebecca Oladipo’s Essentials of English Grammar is a good illustration of where we need to start the reparative process for language learning.
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