I agree they’re descriptivist; by “the correct rules” I meant “the rules that govern the way people actually speak” (in which case “teaching the rules” would be more “showing people what the rules are” and not “instructing people which rules they should follow”, the same way a biology class on digestion doesn’t tell people how to digest.)
But then I haven’t done an in-depth research on the education policy advocated on Language Log.
I agree they’re descriptivist; by “the correct rules” I meant “the rules that govern the way people actually speak” (in which case “teaching the rules” would be more “showing people what the rules are” and not “instructing people which rules they should follow”, the same way a biology class on digestion doesn’t tell people how to digest.)
But then I haven’t done an in-depth research on the education policy advocated on Language Log.