Thank you, Herb, for your good words about Rhetorical
Grammar. Your endorsement means a great deal to me.
I'll be in touch with you, Carol. We may be able to
organize a workshop.
Martha
Carol,
I hope you succeed in finding a course
that treats grammar in ways that are relevant to the composition
classroom. You put your finger on one of the curricular gaps in
linguistics, English, and composition programs, the absence of just
such courses. I've taught both of the courses you mention WCU
is offering, and I'm not sure either is what you're looking for,
given the descriptions you provide. An Intro Linguistics course
will not address pedagogy, composition, or much of English grammar.
It has too many other topics it has to cover to prepare students for
more advanced courses in linguistics. A "Structure of Modern
English" course will present an anatomy of English syntactic
structures, possibly some material on English word formation, and
maybe even some English phonology, although that tends to be
neglected. It will likely be a very technical grammar course
drawing heavily on linguistic concepts. It will almost certainly
not deal with pedagogy or composition.
The sort of course you seek is one a
number of us have taught, and Martha Koln has written a superb text
for it, her Rhetorical Grammar, which a lot of us have studied
and have used as a text in our own classes. State College is a
bit of a commute from Philadelphia, but I wonder if Martha or one of
her colleagues will be offering such a course this
summer.
All the best!
Herb
From: Assembly for the Teaching of
English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Carol Morrison
Sent: 2008-01-26 09:31
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Summer Courses/Programs in Grammar
Dear Fellow ATEG Members,
I am interested in taking a course
in grammar at a local college or university this summer.
Does anyone happen to know of a college
or university in the Philadelphia area that might be offering a
grammar class or workshop for teachers? West Chester
University is offering Intro. to Linguistics: "basic
concepts of language description, classification, change,
reconstruction, dialectology, and sociolinguistics" and
Structure of Modern English: "a detailed analysis of the
modern descriptive approach to the study of English grammar and how it
compares with the traditional approach." Would anyone be
able to recommend either of those courses or something
else? I would like to increase my knowledge in the
type of grammar that could possibly be applied to the
composition classroom, a "writer's grammar." Maybe taking
both of the courses would be beneficial, though I'm not sure that I
have the time. Thank you for your time and possible
feedback.
Carol Morrison
Scott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Although I use Joo's Five clocks quite literally, I do not
speak to my
cousins (also farm born but who stayed on the farm) in the same
idiolect
that I would use in a speech to a general audience, or in talking
with
fellow teachers at a teacher's conference, or in talking to
colleagues
at a professional congress/conference, or in giving a lecture at such
an
event.
It should be noted that Formal English is within the scope of most
non-English-speaking participants in international conferences;
casual
English is not. When--and only when--I am speaking to or writing an
article
for
highly literate colleagues do I proudly bear the banner of pedantry.
My
formal idiolect in such cases is quite strict.
In case you wonder, my email to ATEG is more casual than it would be
for
speaking to a general audience--much as if I were speaking with
friends
in general conversation--a good group makes you feel that way.
Scott Catledge
I wonder whether...I've fallen into the old grammar pedant's trap of
trying
to foist my idiolect on the universe.
>
>> Thanks, er, muchly,
>> Bill Spruiell
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