Dear Gretchen (and everyone),
As for alternatives to teaching the traditional 8 parts of speech, etc.
I believe that the future of language arts lies in analysis of language variation
-- by that I mean, the study of how people use different forms of langauge in
different places, times, with different audiences, for different communicative
purposes.

Thus, while I do teach at a college level, I have my Language and Teaching
students take a tape recorder out, and tape record 2 - 3 minutes of naturally
occuring conversation. Some students tape record teens in conversation, some
record children, some record their families. We get samples of talk fully in
African American Vernacular English, in Southern English, samples of people who
CLAIMED to always and only use "full complete 'proper' English sentences" who were
astonished to find that, as is typically the case, in coverrsation, we follow very
different patterns and structures of UTTERANCE construction.

So then with that database, the students are stunned to realize that language in
real time is of often fundamentally different structure than language in the
books.

Then I equip the students with basic grammatical knowledge of sentence structure
(as in Kolln's work, or Morenbergs), and with that tool, they begin a contrastive
analysis, seeking to identify what it is that makes conversation patterns, well,
conversation -- what are the differences of structure? Well, for starters, a
"complete sentence" may be a rarity in conversation while a frequent trait of
book-writing.  This then provides the teacher and student understanding of why
students have such a hard time learning to WRITE Standard English -- they are
putting on paper their accustomed conversational patterns, and the syntax of
conversation and the syntax of Standard Edited English are quite different.

The whole process is inductively driven, with students doing discovery.

By the way, this is not just for college students.  I'm working in the inner city
schools of my local area, seeking to reduce the achievement gap between African
American children and children of the dominant majority. Resources for 3rd graders
are robust -- Thus, see Noma LeMoine's English for Your Success which uses a range
of African American centered children's book to prompt metalinguistic awareness of
language variation and language structure in context.

So for example, Flossie and The Fox is a children's book in which the Fox speaks
in Standard English, and Flossie and her family, in African American Vernacular
English. The 3rd graders are prompted to contrast what the fox sounds like, with
what Flossie sounds like -- to get detailed, and to make their own language
notebook.... their own grammar book, as it were.

This kind of approach fosters critical thinking, closeness of analysis, use of the
scientific method (in collecting data, forming hypotheses, testing, revising,
etc), and it's flat out fun for the kids.

See also the teaching section in The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the
Education of African-American Children, Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit (eds).

regards,

Rebecca

Gretchen Lee wrote:

> In a message dated 8/15/2001 2:55:04 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [log in to unmask]
> writes:<<  It is inthe K-12 (or, perhaps, 5-12) grades that help is needed.
> From what I have seen of various series displayed at NCTE, traditional
> grammar still reigns, with its emphasis on error avoidance and error
> correction. >>
>
> Martha,
>
> You have hit the nail on the head.  I would beg of you all to ignore Texas
> and traditional publishers. If necessary, follow Ed Vavra's lead and put up a
> website.  But realize those of us in middle school who are reading the
> research and avoiding the drill and kill of the past are risking our jobs to
> stay true to your/our principles.
>
> The perennial problem remains, if not traditional grammar in school, then
> what?  What do I say to my parents who tell me that I should be teaching
> traditional parts of speech because it "worked for them"? I have two new
> teachers in my department this year (total dept is three!) who are open to
> new methods.  Grammar (and spelling!) are the big issues in any English
> departments.  My new teachers are primed to teach grammar and spelling in
> context, but I have no texts to show them how.  Everything is aimed at
> college and hs.
>
> This is the plea that I started with last year.  What resources do you have
> for me?  For my teachers?  What should we be doing in 6-8th grade?  Nothing
> infuriates me more than hs or college teachers railing about lower level
> teachers not doing their job in teaching grammar when I can't get any help in
> what I should be doing to support you.  (Please don't take this personally -
> the teachers on this list serve are our most ardent supporters, but most
> instructors are much less invested in helping us at the lower levels.)
>
> We're willing.  But where (outside of Ed's site - I can't get a schoolwide
> buy-in) do I start?  Linguistics should be fun.  Language is fun.  Why can't
> anyone communicate this on a middle school level?
>
> I am torn between those who think that an educated person should be able to
> talk about language and those who say we only need to learn to use it.  Is
> there no middle ground?
>
> Help!
> ~Gretchen in San Jose
> [log in to unmask]
>
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--


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Rebecca S. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Department of English
1 University Place
Christopher Newport University
Newport News, VA 23606-2998

Telephone: 757-598-8891
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

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
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