Descriptive vs. Prescriptive

The English language is constantly in a flux of clippings, backformation, and various coinages. In addition to a flow of people immigrating into countries these word formation techniques make the English language difficult to articulate (e.g. we park a car in a Driveway). These new adaptions alter the English language to suit the speakers either negatively or positively for the interpreter. Some agree that it is vital to conform to the standard rules of a language, also known as the prescriptive approach and others would argue language should be studied by how it is today. For example, a prescriptive approach will teach students to say “With whom were you dancing last night?”, because the rule of English indicates a preposition must be followed by an object. A descriptive approach will teach it “With who were you dancing with last night?”, because that’s how it’s pronounced nowadays.

I believe the descriptive approach is more valid then the prescriptive approach. Going back to my story from my intro, language is in a constant flux, vastly altering between its speakers. The descriptive approach allows us to adapt to these changes in our language. For instance, with the flow of people entering the country the dominant language will alter, due to new speakers. If we stay in the old-school tradition of the English language it is more difficult for new speakers to adapt. This is due because majority of people do not speak old-school English, so if we teach how to speak old school this inhibits one of the most effective way to learn a language: through conversation and grammar.

I can relate to this approach because it has helped me comprehend Spanish. For instance, In high school I took two Spanish language courses taught by the same teacher. Reflecting on how the content of the two course I realize that she taught us in the prescriptive approach. This was effective in a classroom, however to take what we learned and use it in the world proved to be difficult. The grammar she taught us was old-school/traditional Spanish and it wasn’t up to date with what Spanish speakers were speaking. In addition to our foreign accent conforming to a Spanish dominant environment was even more difficult!