Johanna:

I took my two children through public school education from the first 
to the twelfth grade, and I know what students are "learning" in 
Language Arts. My children's Standard English comes from me, not from 
the schools they attended. I have also substituted for a year all 
through the primary and secondary grades. I completely agree that the 
present language curriculum is inadequate for good instruction. From 
where do you get this notion that I am in contradiction with you on 
the curriculum issue?

When I suggested immersion for foreign-born children I was talking 
about those children who had already acquired a fluent level in their 
native tongue. For them I still believe that immersion is the best 
answer for two reasons: 1. is it almost impossible to find teachers 
who can switch multiple codes with their students, and 2. immersion 
speeds up language learning, as children are still at an age when 
they can acquire native or near-native phonetics in their L2.


Eduard 



On Sun, 3 Sep 2006, Johanna Rubba wrote...

>1. The innateness argument is irrelevant to the question of whether 
or 
>not children have unconscious knowledge of what a noun is. However 
they 
>learned it, they have learned it well before age 5, but not 
>consciously. None of us can access the knowledge and mental 
processes 
>that are happening while we use language; they are not any more 
>accessible to conscious awareness than is the work our brains are 
doing 
>when we see color or walk. Our brains have billions of neurons, and 
>only a small portion delivers conscious awareness.
>
>2. Don't confuse explicit awareness (ability to point at a word and 
say 
>"that is a noun") with unconscious knowledge. The same kids who 
don't 
>know what a subject is form tag questions all the time, choosing the 
>correct pronoun in the tag to agree with the subject ("Susie has a 
>puppy, doesn't _she_?") My point is, you can use the unconscious 
>knowledge to help kids master the conscious knowledge: if they feel 
>that a word sounds right alone after "the", then it is called a 
noun. 
>My own students master this in less than three minutes, even those 
who 
>have had no grammar. I worked with middle-schoolers who were also 
able 
>to do this. I experimented with a 5-year-old who thought is was 
>hilarious when I asked if we could go "desking". She and I played 
with 
>other words in this way and she was right every time about whether a 
>given word was a noun or a verb (we did not use any grammar terms in 
>this game; just whether the phrases sounded silly or not). Jean 
>Berko-Gleason proved with a landmark study a few decades ago that 
>children will pluralize a nonsense word correctly, indicating that 
they 
>know in an unconscious way what a noun is.
>
>3. It is a truism in linguistics, proven by decades of research, 
that 
>infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers need no direct instruction to 
>learn their native language. Their brains are built to learn 
language 
>(whether through a brain organ devoted exclusively to language, as 
>Chomskyans believe, or through more-general cognitive processes, or 
>some mixture of the two). All they need is to hear language being 
used 
>around them, and for those around them to interact with them 
>linguistically (by talking with them, not teaching them what nouns 
>are). This learning process is very different from conscious 
learning 
>of grammatical terminology and analysis techniques. This _does_ 
require 
>instruction. But that instruction must be both accurate and 
>well-designed, which the current K-12 curriculum is not. I am 
wondering 
>whether either Eduard or Phil has looked at any of the language-arts 
>grammar materials currently being used in K-12 schools.
>
>4. Don't confuse the learning situation of children who speak 
>nonstandard English with those who speak another language entirely. 
>There are similarities, but both the social and psychological 
>situations are different.
>
>5. I find Wheeler and Swords' choice of "code-switching" 
unfortunate, 
>because the term covers two phenomena: (1) switching between 
languages 
>within a sentence, and (2) speaking different languages in different 
>social situations. They are advocating the second of these -- 
teaching 
>children to switch to standard English when it is required. 
>Incidentally, code-switching of either kind is not a burden to the 
>human mind if the speaker has a high degree of fluency in both (or 
>more) languages. It occurs quite naturally in multilingual 
communities 
>the world over. Americans have funny ideas about multilingualism 
>because so few of them speak another language with any degree of 
>fluency at all. Multilingualism is the normal case around the world, 
>not monolingualism (another fact demonstrated by linguistics 
research). 
>I have said in previous posts discussing this work that we need to 
>replicate it in more schools to prove the method's effectiveness.
>
>Code-switching of the second type is the desired _outcome_ of the 
>method they use. The method itself is called "contrastive analysis". 
>The teacher and students contrast the grammars of English and their 
>home dialect during the grammar lessons. Then they discuss where and 
>when each is appropriate and do creative writing and role-play 
>exercises choosing which dialect to use when and discussing their 
>choices.
>
>6. If you haven't read either the Wheeler and Swords article or 
their 
>book, you can't judge what they are doing. As I have said before, 
they 
>do not mention in the published version of the article the fact 
about 
>the improvement in test scores. I don't know why. It was mentioned 
in 
>an earlier draft of the article which Rebecca shared with me. In the 
>book, they cite other experiments and programs that are achieving 
good 
>results with teaching African Americans standard English, but I 
don't 
>know what methods are being used in those programs, because I have 
not 
>yet read the research they cite.
>
>The book has a full set of lesson exemplars for the major 
differences 
>between standard English and African American English. Others can 
>create materials for other local dialects. For instance, someone 
could 
>create a similar set for teachers in Eastern Kentucky and other 
areas 
>where Appalachian English is the first language of many children. 
>Obviously, such programs are of use in schools in which most of the 
>kids speak the same dialect. There are ways to handle grammar 
>instruction in other situations that are better than the current 
>method, but I don't have time to go into that right now.
>
>7. As to children whose native language is not English and who have 
to 
>learn it, immersion is not the best method. Teaching children to 
read 
>and write and a new language at the same time is a cognitive 
>disadvantage native speakers do not face. Children should be brought 
to 
>literacy in their own language, which skills then transfer easily to 
>English. Children need 5-7 years to achieve full academic fluency in 
>two languages. I don't know what the hurry is. 4th graders are not 
on 
>the job market. Children are much more open to learning and feel 
both 
>valued and confident when their own language is valued and taught. 
>There is plenty of research evidence on this, too.
>
>Research on English learners and speakers of nonstandard English is 
>widely available. I'm not going to compile a bibliography. I've 
given 
>some relevant references in past postings.
>
>Can anyone on this list rapidly list the seven rules they follow 
when 
>forming a tag question in English? I'm addressing those who haven't 
>tried before. Sit down and work them out. Who taught you those?
>
>Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
>Linguistics Minor Advisor
>English Department
>California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>Tel.: 805.756.2184
>Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
>Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
>URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>
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