Sampson admits that linguistics may contribute to the teaching of exotic
languages, but only insofar as it provides descriptions which are not otherwise
available of such languages. Sampson's statement clearly recalls, in an
even more extreme fashion, a famous quote from Chomsky (in Lester, ed.,
1970, p. 52). It may be, however, that such beliefs are due to looking for the
contribution of linguistics in the wrong place. Sampson's and Chomsky's
view appears to be that theoretical descriptions of syntax have nothing to offer the teacher, who has his own more appropriate pedagogic descriptions.
However, what I will now argue more directly is that recent work in discourse
can be very helpful in constructing an appropriate and coherent
pedagogic description of language.