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A New System Developed by Dr. Elston
Sentence Sense, a new method of teaching reading and writing developed by Angela Elston, Ph.D., using the Vedic grammar of Panini and the work of linguist Paul Roberts, may change the way you think about grammar.
"My students love Sentence Sense," says Anjalie Trice, a private tutor in Fairfield. "They become better readers, writers, and thinkers. The old grammar never made any difference in their use of language."
Elston believes this method creates channels for intelligence to flow and therefore increases orderliness in brain functioning, improving academic performance in all language-related areas.
A Lifetime of Teaching Language Arts
Over the last 35 years, Elston has taught students at every level of instruction, from preschool to graduate school, including those who were gifted, mentally challenged, and learning disabled. Fluent in four languages, she taught her first class of English as a Second Language when she was 15.
By the time she was 19, Elston had reading knowledge of at least five more languages and was teaching at the graduate level. Her life's work and experience is teaching every aspect of language arts. Sentence Sense is the fruition of that work.
Why Latinate Grammar Isn't Adequate
"To teach English effectively, we must own the most abstract level of lawfulness in all language," explains Elston. "This is why grammar is taught, but grammar as we know it is based on Latin and doesn't fit English. It causes chaos in the mind because it fails to reflect the way a native speaker of English naturally processes meaning."
Elston's teacher, Paul Roberts, writes that Latinate grammar assumes words can be classified into eight parts of speech. "But this," he says, "I have never been able to do, and I have given most of my life to the study of grammar." And if he can't, how could a typical sixth grader?
Panini: Language in Terms of Its Own Structure
Roberts' teacher, Leonard Bloomfield, father of American linguistics, writes that the Western science of linguistics is based on the writings of Panini. It was from Panini's work, which Bloomfield considers one of the greatest monuments to the human mind ever, that scholars learned how to describe a language in terms of its own structure.
These early scholars, however, recognized only expressed levels of language. Elston's contribution lies in realigning Roberts' work with its Vedic source, thus making significant improvements by providing a holistic understanding which encompasses all levels of language.
How Sentence Sense Works
Instead of memorizing grammar rules, or analyzing sentences, students using Sentence Sense actively construct sentences following patterns of gradually increasing complexity. Beginning with four basic sentence patterns, students generate examples until they feel comfortable. Then complexity is added in a sequence of simple steps designed to fit English and also fit the needs of learners until sophisticated patterns seem easy. The exercises are constructed in such a way that students cannot make syntactic errors.
Sentence Sense teaches everything grammar was supposed to teach and more. It even helps students understand whatever can be understood in the chaotic Latinate system and prepares them for college entrance exams.
But do students really need to know terms like clausal adverb or illative conjunction? "The truth is that our current system of teaching English is failing," says Elston. "What students really need is to be able to read for detail and depth, write with clarity and style, and speak creatively with power and conviction. Sentence Sense accomplishes these goals because students generate their own sentences."
And because language is at the heart of all teaching, Elston believes Sentence Sense has the power to transform our troubled educational system.
Success Stories
Wherever Elston has shown her system to educators, its effectiveness has been self-evident, and teachers who use it report extraordinary results. Elston has trained some of her colleagues at Maharishi School of the Age of the Enlightenment, where she teaches part time, and she has just returned from Washington, D.C., where she trained the entire faculty of an African-American school. Sentence Sense has been well received by educators at the University of Iowa and Cleveland State University.
For her adaptation of this method to teach English to speakers of Arabic, Elston was the only graduate student in her department ever to receive the Kent State University Creative Teaching Award. She has also adapted this system to teach English to speakers of Turkish and Japanese.
Andrea Stevens, professor of Special Education at Buena Vista College, confirms that Sentence Sense can diagnose and correct certain learning disabilities. One example of success Elston can document is the case of a student at Pennsylvania's Mercyhurst College whose academic skills tested at the second grade level. He spoke only Black English Vernacular, and the entire English Department had declared him uneducable. Within three months of working with Sentence Sense, however, he became functional at the college level and went on to graduate.
Dr. Elston will give a seminar on Sentence Sense for parents, teachers, and anyone interested on Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Public Library in Fairfield. Her book, Sentence Sense, will be available. Dr. Elston will also host two free seminar previews on September 14 and 28 at the library from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. For more information, contact Kartika Damon at (515) 472-7573 or email Dr. Elston at <aelston@kdsi.net>.
