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Date: | Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:34:01 -0700 |
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Gretchen,
I would say you should feel welcome to post discussion items that you
want to post -- that will elicit ideas or feedback that can help you
in your classroom. If one or two people object, well, they object. If
thirty more find your discussion interesting, so be it. We should be
encouraging people to post to the list. Some people get into heated
discussions sometimes -- and the tension between those who believe in
the traditional model and method of teaching English grammar and
those who would like to update it is not likely to go away any time
soon.
To comment a little on the previous discussion, I find room for both
inductive and deductive presentation methods in a grammar classroom.
When students discover their subconscious knowledge of grammar
through inductive exercises, they learn two things: (a) that they
"know" more English grammar than they thought (that knowledge has
just been below conscious awareness up to now) and (b) that they can
discover what they know through precise methods. I used to teach
German grammar inductively to English-speakers, and it freshened the
class -- held their attention better, made them feel active in
learning. I would then go over the rules so discovered deductively,
so it is impossible for me to know the effect of the method -- most
of my students passed their tests. But it was certainly was less dry
than deductive presentation. The deductive presentation assures that
the students get a clear, second statement of the rule, and caters to
students who prefer deductive presentation.
Giving students inductive means for doing things like finding the
subject of a sentence or deciding which case is required for a
pronoun can have long-term utility.
Discovering a rule yourself is more likely to result in remembering
that rule later. No, I don't have studies handy to cite to prove
this, but I have learned it along the way in the course of studying
about learning and teaching.
Dr. Johanna Rubba, Ph. D.
Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Dept.
Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Ofc. tel. : 805-756-2184
Dept. tel.: 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
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