Johanna,

   You do not "have to" teach the things you listed below. You think
you have to because you are a linguist and you have not yet thought your
way out of that box. Everything you list below can be "taught" in the
context of the KISS approach simply by choosing the right
examples/exercises for the students. You certainly are not telling us
that you can teach your students all they "need" to know about these
linguistic subjects because you yourself, in the following paragraph,
note that that is impossible. Thus, from my perspective, you are trying
to teach a little theory about each subject area, and as a result, your
students never master anything?

Ed



"As to teaching the students linguistics, I do have to. My students
are
future teachers. I am not so concerned with their own editing and
writing abilities (though this is very important, of course). I am
concerned that they understand a great deal about language, so that
they
can handle it properly in their K-12 classrooms. Hence I have to teach
about phonetics and phonology, so that they understanding spelling and
reading instruction; I have to teach about morphology and lexicon, so
that they understand vocabulary instruction;  I have to teach syntax
so
that they can teach grammar; I have to teach about language
acquisition
so that they know what their children know when, and how the children
learn what they know, the difference between subconscious and
conscious
knowledge of grammar, etc. I have to teach about diversity so that
they
don't lower their expectations for children who speak other dialects
or
languages, and so that they sensitize their teaching of "proper
grammar"
so that it ceases to give an automatic disadvantage to children from
nonstandard dialect backgrounds. They also have to be able to
distinguish effective bilingual education from trash, such as the
current trash which is law in the state of California.

California requires only _one_ semester or quarter of linguistics for
future teachers. This is a joke. California has recently undertaken a
major overhaul of the teacher credentialing system. They have
incorporated far more content (future English teachers need to know a
lot of linguistics, as well as be able to teach journalism, drama,
literature, composition ... ). But they have shortened teacher
education
in the state college system, the major teacher-training institution in
CA. Used to be a student would take an undergraduate major in a
subject
or in Liberal Studies, then do one or two full years in a postgraduate
education school. Now they do a mixed undergraduate major of education
and something else, and one more quarter beyond the baccalaureate
degree. And the state excpects to get better teachers from this. Ha!

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