Hi Rebecca,
I present SWE as the langauge, the code, used in academia and the workplace.
SWE is not inherently better than any other langauge; it is different.
Students are familiar with code-switching.  People need to know the code in
order to be able to switch.  As teachers we evaluate the students' ability
to use this code.
Happy grading during this finals crunch week!  Pam Dykstra
At 11:04 AM 12/11/96 -0700, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>              <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster:       "REBECCA S. WHEELER" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:      here's a conundrum I'm dealing with
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I'm finding myself being self-contradictory in some of my attitudes toward
>grammar/usage and grading and I wondered if anyone has a way out of this box.
>
>Let's assume you come down to something like the position
>that was so well articulated by Rhoda Byler Yoder in EJ. There, she said,
>"I teach my students grammar because these young minds have big plans. They are
>going somewhere with their lives, and they know they need Standard American
>English (SAE) to get there." (p. 82).
>
>Implicit in this viewpoint (a viewpoint I embrace) is that we teach aspects of
>the structure of SAE because the students find it useful to be able to
>use SAE when it suits their purposes.  That means we're not teaching SAE
>because everyone must command the prestige dialect. And that suggests to me,
>that if a student chooses not to learn the usage details of Standard American
>English, because they don't find it useful, then that should be their choice
>too.
>
>If it is truly their choice, then we shouldn't penalize them with grades.
>
>However, when I see usage issues like the following, in a 3rd and final draft
>of a paper, at the end of the quarter, I am dismayed:
>
>    "Now, location, a very important part of fishing because where
>    you go is half the success or failed of fishing. The mountains are
>    one of the best places to go because you have different
>    locations to choose from such a lake which is use all more crowded."
>
>I mean like while this kid is at times wondrous in his images ("My brother
>started to get very mad his face turned bright red and is eyes dark green"),
>seems to me that he falls down on "knowing English". His trouble goes way
>beyond the Dirty Dozen of usage errors.
>
>I am very troubled assessing this student as passing College English, and
>indeed I did not pass him.
>
>But then that puts me in a position of Language cop, a position which I don't
>find a useful one to the students.
>
>Anyone have any ideas on the interrelation of how freeing yourself from usage
>nearsightedness and grading mix?
>
>thanks!
>
>rebecca wheeler
>
>
>dept. english
>weber state university
>ogden, utah 84408-1201
>
>