I think my explanation makes clear that these are not "first
drafts" -that students have loads of time to compose and
check their answers. I have collected samples from papers,
presentations, exams and discussion boards. I don't think
we can excuse English teachers/ESL teachers from these kinds
of problems, but I do note a lot of excusing -certainly
among education faculty.
Again, please note also that I emphasized that these
teachers do not have an actual deficit. Rather, the error
patterns they produce parallel the kinds of errors in
lexicon, morphology, grammar and coherence that we see in
various types of real language impairment. Unimpaired
people produce these errors at the formal rather than the
informal level of language, the level that requires
instruction and practice.
Native speakers do not acquire this level of
language "naturally." What is naturally (unconsciously)
acquired (by age 5 or so) is the basic everyday level of
language -the morpho-syntax, lexicon, discourse that is
basic. More complex language is associated with literacy
development.
Speaking of literacy development, I have noticed a lot of
reading difficulties among college students.
yvonne
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 07:51:14 -0600
>From: Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: native-speaker (ESL teacher) problems with the
language
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Yvonne,
>
> Your example sentences certainly seem like first
> drafts. The errors seem to be the kind that a lot
> of beginning writers would make when they are not
> careful but just want to get the ideas down quickly
> perhaps intending to fix the grammar later. Does
> the person exhibiting such a deficit simply not
> realize that there are logical problems, that the
> concepts need to be aligned better? Surely the
> teacher should know the value of review and
> revision. Maybe such a lesson could be given more
> emphasis. Is there even a writing course given as a
> prerequisite to your class? Could we have here an
> example of the kind of carelessness that might be
> caused by our society of quick-and-dirty text
> messaging and of impersonal telegraphic comunication
> by the media? I wonder if there are simply
> more people today who want to get credentials
> without really caring to work through the details?
> Is it a problem ! of attitude?
>
> Bruce
> >>> "Yvonne Stapp" <[log in to unmask]> 08/07/06 7:00
> AM >>>
> Rebecca,
> The examples are written. That's the only kind of
> data I'm
> interested in. The examples are responses to exam
> questions
> from my online intro linguistics course. I should
> point out
> that the exams are "open book" -students can refer
> to the
> text and articles and also to the video lectures;
> they have
> 24 hours to complete the exam and are instructed to
> proofread their exams before submitting them. The
> use of
> these responses made it possible to see where the
> areas of
> language vulnerability are.
>
> Most people taking the linguistics intro course are
> teaching or planning to teach ESL, but
> speech-hearing majors
> often make up as much as a third of the class. The
> examples
> I posted were only from ESL people because I've been
> particularly concerned about the relationship
> between the
> relationship between the language skills/knowledge
> of ESL
> teachers and the very poor progre! ss of ESL
> students in the K-
> 12 system.
>
> In a paper I just submitted I distinguished the
> kinds of
> errors in these and other samples from the kinds of
> errors
> that represent distortions of information. I
> categorized
> the error data (lexical, grammatical/morphological
> and
> coherence)and provided comparisons between data
> samples and
> samples of impairment in each case.
>
> yvonne
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 07:19:49 -0400
> >From: Rebecca Wheeler <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: native-speaker (ESL teacher) problems
> with the
> language
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >Yvonne,
> >Regarding the "language problems" you cite from
> native
> English speakers,
> >were these examples spoken or written?
> >
> >thx,
> >
> >Rebecca
> >
> >
> >Rebecca Wheeler
> >Associate Professor
> >Language and Literacy
> >Christopher Newport University
> >Newport News, VA 23606
> >
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> >To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit
> the
> list's web interface at:
> > http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> >and select "Join or leave the list"
> >
> >Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
> Yvonne Stapp PhD
> Assistant Professor of ESL
> James Madison University
> Dept of Exceptional Education MSC 6908
> Memorial Hall 3130B
> Harrisonburg, VA 22807
> phone 540-568-4525
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit
> the list's web interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
> and select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
>
> <width=80>
> NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the
> intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and
> privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use,
> disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not
the
> intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply
email
> and destroy all copies of the original message.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
>
> To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit
> the list's web interface at:
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and
> select "Join or leave the list"
>
> Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
Yvonne Stapp PhD
Assistant Professor of ESL
James Madison University
Dept of Exceptional Education MSC 6908
Memorial Hall 3130B
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
phone 540-568-4525
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
|
