Thanks, Martha, and sorry for the missing <l>, turning you into an umlautless German city.

 

Herb

 

 

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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