English teachers have a responsibility to interpret for students the current linguistic insights into language and to lead them in an open-minded inquiry involving (1) careful observation of language data, (2) translation of this observation into rule-like descriptions, and (3) verification of the rules to determine if revisions must be made. In deciding whether or not to teach transformational grammar, teachers should examine the key concepts advanced by the transformationalists, rather than depend upon the results of possibly inconclusive educational research. These grammarians explain that in order to understand the semantic meaning of a sentence, one needs to know the "deep structure" (the underlying organization of the sentence) which is different from the "surface structure" (the sounds uttered or the words written). Determining the deep structure from the surface structure involves the basic language skills of reading and listening; translating the deep structure into surface structure involves oral and written composition. (JS)