On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 04:26:33 -0400, Ed Vavra <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I was struck by Rebecca's description of how she has students use
>tape recorders, and by the praise for her approach sent in by other
>members of the list. My initial reaction is that what she is doing is
>irresponsible and unethical. She may, of course, be able to prove me
>wrong, but I would like to see the evidence. I don't believe that she
>can effectively provide her students with a good analytical grasp of
>sentence structure, no matter what textbook she uses, in a single
>semester while doing what she says she does.
Vavra appears to conflate a number of issues and make a number of
assumptions. Upon this foundation of ignorance he then hurls accusations
of "irresponsible and unethical" pedagogy. I am surprised he has not
previously been sued for such verbal behavior.
Response:
1) The course I mentioned, Lanugage & Teaching, in which students tape
record language utterance and engage in active discovery learning of
grammatical structure, is one course in a two-course sequence: Engl. 311,
Language & Teaching; and Engl. 430, Advanced Grammar.
In Advanced Grammar, I spend a full semester providing students a good
analytical grasp of sentence structure. As anyone will know who has read my
previous posts, I use Max Morenberg's DOING GRAMMAR in my English structure
course.
Thus, Language & Teaching and Advanced Grammar play off of each other.
Where the students learn English structure in Advanced Grammar, they learn
contrastive analysis of language variation as applied to their daily lives
in Language & Teaching. Perhaps more importantly, it is here that they
confront most deeply their prejudices, assumptions, and stereotypes about
issues of "proper grammar," "good English," "slang," and "broken English,"
etc.
2) Gretchen's initial post did not ask what to do to teach English
structure. She asked for an alternative to teaching the 8 parts of speech.
Note that teaching the 8 parts of speech at the elementary level bears no
resemblance to teaching "a good analytical grasp of sentence structure."
What I gave her was an alternative to teaching the 8 notionally-based parts
of speech since children appear, predictably, bored to tears with a tool
that does them little practical good.
3) Gretchen did not ask what to teach in a single semester period. My
answer presupposed no such restriction. Thus, while it is indeed untested,
I suspect that students engaging in such life-long (K - 16) discovery
learning of language structure would indeed emerge with a "strong
analytical grasp of sentence structure." Nobody ever claimed such mastery
would emerge after one semester.
What I did suggest would emerge after one semester is a heightened student
awareness of that language varieties (spoken, written, regional, ethnic),
display contrastive structure, all of which is internally coherent and
regular. This knowledge then goes to challenge their erroneous, and
damaging presumption that there is one and only one "proper English" and
that all others are flawed, imperfect renditions of the Standard. Students
emerge from Language & Teaching understanding at a deep and personal level
that the structure of language varies by time, place, audience and
communicative purpose, knowledge which they then are able to use with their
students to help students code-switch between language varieties in their
speech and writing.
In concert with an English structure course (Advanced Grammar), this proves
a powerful educational experience.
Rebecca
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Rebecca S. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Department of English
1 University Place
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA 23606-2998
Telephone: 757-594-8891
Fax: 757-594-8870
Rebecca S. Wheeler is Editor of Syntax in the Schools, the quarterly
journal of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar (ATEG), an
assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
www.ateg.org.
Research Interests:
* dialects and language varieties in the schools,
* reducing the achievement gap between inner city minority children and
middle class children,
* discovery learning of grammar in the classroom
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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