tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26577488226968347432024-03-21T07:00:59.032-07:00Composition PedagogyNOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854653867808568413noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657748822696834743.post-79402510177885000782014-05-14T03:50:00.000-07:002014-05-16T12:07:25.732-07:00Additional Reading<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6GorasteBSIyuIKzEhWCIibnVa9nwVujQfZrVjXW2haOBx7qZO4pp7WHIYlSIibgKKS6uNwgft2jB5c-9zWIgk9m1BrZ5FRyRyZ2MF6RA7kkfYPMTt_7M9ZiwkIfMvctuZSwti2N1g3s/s1600/suggested-readings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6GorasteBSIyuIKzEhWCIibnVa9nwVujQfZrVjXW2haOBx7qZO4pp7WHIYlSIibgKKS6uNwgft2jB5c-9zWIgk9m1BrZ5FRyRyZ2MF6RA7kkfYPMTt_7M9ZiwkIfMvctuZSwti2N1g3s/s1600/suggested-readings.jpg" height="154" width="200" /></a> In addition to the items listed in my paper's works cited page, I found these articles and the book particularly useful and interesting. Each one of them comes with practical applications so hopefully some of them will fit your needs. I will update this list time to time so be sure to check back again. <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Connors
Robert J.” The Erasure of the Sentence”CCC<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>vol. 52 No. September 2000. 95-128.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He
claims that contemporary composition dismisses the sentence based pedagogies of
the 60s and 70s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the summary of this
article he states:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> "</span>The usefulness of
these sentence-based rhetoric was never disproved, but a growing wave of
anti-formalism, anti-behaviorist, and anti-empiricism within English-based
composition studies after 1980 dooms to them to a marginality under which they
still exist today. “<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He claims the
imitation of excellent writers actually improve students’ writing.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Donovan, Timothy R. and
Ben W. McClelland. ed. <em>Eight Approaches to Teaching Composition</em>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illinois: NCTE, 1980. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book
is a practical but not how-to-teach book. The collection of articles analyzes composition theories from many fields of language studies such as
rhetoric.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 188.4pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">France,
Alan W. Dialects of self:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Structure and
Agency as the Subject of English.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em> College English</em> Vol. 63</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No. 2. November
2000<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pp145-165. Print. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He
argues contemporary composition theory appears to focus on self as an
independent agency not connected to cultural context.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He delineates his points through his own classroom assignments. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“In
Composition, methodological individualism means that our pedagogy idealizes the
seemingly untutored “”authentic” expression of personal experience, a “writing
without teachers” to use Peter Elbow’s koine, which, proper as it is as a final
objective is clearly not a good foundation for developing a common rhetorical
pedagogy for English literature and language skills” (147).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Porter, Kevin J. "A Pedagogy of Charity:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donald Davidson and the Student-Negotiated
Composition Classroom.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><em>CCC</em> .The Journal
of the Conference on College Composition and Communication National Council of
Teachers of English Vol. 52 No. 4 June 2001.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>P547-611 Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
author labels traditional method of composition teaching a pedagogy of severity
that centers around the discussion of faults and problems –<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is easier - and calls for a pedagogy of
charity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He argues that the charitable
attitude motivates students to produce better revisions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854653867808568413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657748822696834743.post-68682586723694453222014-05-14T03:44:00.000-07:002014-05-16T21:52:32.253-07:00Multi-culturism & composition classrooms<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabmekHR-_rY_Mb_i_WDVMHQBx6SXpwfDkfYY10cTe9ozFpsgRzvZghHOfy2aYJSu8Ry3D9gD02nhKusdlUgTHyBJd66JeJDLr-Ww-PHnjOBWJo1y4XYVDMaI5SRH_rtF_Gy7kWklGTYg/s1600/imagesCAKZ0HGM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabmekHR-_rY_Mb_i_WDVMHQBx6SXpwfDkfYY10cTe9ozFpsgRzvZghHOfy2aYJSu8Ry3D9gD02nhKusdlUgTHyBJd66JeJDLr-Ww-PHnjOBWJo1y4XYVDMaI5SRH_rtF_Gy7kWklGTYg/s1600/imagesCAKZ0HGM.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Recently
I wrote a short essay about the much valued dialogic approach in composition classrooms as well as to cast a doubt on the outcome of students' “skills” as
a writer. It appears to me that the issue of multiculturism is at the core of dialogic teaching. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Hidden
Agenda - Multiculturism<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, writing well is highly
regarded and could lead to a financially fulfilling life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a reality that job after job
descriptions include writing (along with oral communications) as one of the
core qualifications for the kinds of career college graduates would most likely
pursue; the job market expects a college graduate to possess well-developed
writing skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If one wants to join the
ranks of management, excellent writing skills could be of utmost importance as
it would compensate for a lack of specialized knowledge in a certain
field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the medium is different,
the notion was pointed out even in the ancient times by Gorgias who argued that
good oratory supersedes any specialized knowledge. – even physician’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An engineer will remain as an engineer but
the one with writing skills - a certain way with words – won’t be anchored to
just one particular field; <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>thus he/she would
be blessed with mobility in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
this instance, the use of the understandably subjective adjective to indicate
the quality of writing – good or bad, I know I would be questioned as to “what
constitutes good writing.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But let us be
realistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of you who are reading this,
I assume, are current or future composition teachers; I highly suspect you
don’t have a model or standard of good writing by which you grade (judge) your
students’ papers (products).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the
students perspectives, many enter writing classrooms to learn how to write an
essay, how they can fill the blank screen with well organized, coherent and
error free sentences, and how they can apply the skills to a real life
situation from the expectation of a classroom, the state of “being taught”
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up until the mid 20<sup>th</sup>
century, it is the norm that writing was taught to “heed stylistic precepts,
selecting correct words and punctuation, mimicking gracious prose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grammar study… is a “drill,” in the
foundation of rigorous language training since the Middle Ages” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eight Approached to Teaching Composition</i>
introduction: x).</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Around the late 70s, many educators
started casting doubts in the way writing was traditionally taught and sought
alternative ways to accommodate the notion of writing being discursive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The so called “process” was promoted and
formularized in such a way that it has become the standard practice in
composition teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One’s quick
on-line search would land overwhelming numbers of diagrams or charts of
“process”es unlike no other methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
you know, ‘process’ ordinary includes a few or several steps that consist of
the following: free writing, revisions and final product with some variance
between the steps, and it occasionally is connected with ever popular cognitive
studies to have the look of a scientifically applicable method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the process does not make you write
well as it is merely an assumption that one’s writing improves during multiple
revision processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Peter Elbow in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Writing without Teachers </i>writes in the
preface: “Most books on writing try to describe the characteristics of good
writing so as to help you produce it, and the characteristics of bad writing to
help you avoid it” (v).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He goes on to
say that the book is not about correctness of anything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this book, he introduces writing
philosophy to live by which he stumbled upon:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman";">In order to form a good
style, the primary rule and condition is not to attempt to express ourselves in
language before we thoroughly know our meaning; when a man perfectly understand
himself, appropriate diction will generally be at his command either in writing
or speaking (14).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">It is probably an interpretive difference; however, I would argue
how “appropriate diction” can be at my command by just knowing fully what I
mean, which is a mere conceptual stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Appropriate diction, I suppose, is a tool to convey exactly what I mean
to others but for this, one would need to learn the proper way of writing that
can be taught as skills to master by teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Kevin Porter in his article “A
pedagogy of Charity: Donald Davidson and the Student-Negotiated Composition
Classroom” criticizes traditional teacher’s roles by calling it a pedagogy of
severity in which problems and faults are being focused with red ink markings
and negative comments. He claims “that is shutting down of dialogic
possibilities, assigning labels and making corrections instead of asking
questions and searching for new answers.” (576).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He argues that “[the] pedagogy of severity
disrupts dialogue” (585).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This dialogic
way of teaching composition appears to be highly valued and behind this trend,
I believe, stands the force of multi-culturism. I tread this issue very carefully
by saying that I am in no way renouncing the ideology – being an “alien other”
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it could potentially be
creating the notion of “anything goes” in writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elbow says in his another essay, referring to the
speaker of non-standard English and ESL learners, that he tries to make a safer
place for all of them and that “classroom can be a safer place for such
language than most sites of language use” (“Inviting Mother Tongue: Beyond
“mistakes,” “Bad English,” and “Wrong Language” (642).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Porter also touches on the issue of multiculturism,
stating: “Charitable attributions of truth and rationality are what create
common ground for contact between individuals in a multicultural classroom”
(590).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This valuing of multiplicity
appears to be ubiquitous in the current composition pedagogy; nothing could be
unacceptable in the name of plurality by which it means there are no definite
right or wrong answers, wrong usage or ‘bad’ writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their rhetoric asserts notable
improvements in students’ writing, which imply that they even believe errors or
habitual use of non-standard English need to be corrected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citing <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as an example Gloria Anzaldua’s work, a
staple-like status in the multicultural discourse, Ming-Zhan Lu in her article
“Professing Multiculturaism: The Politics of Style and Contact Zone”
states,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“[Yielding] to the authority of
the ‘better educated’ appears conservative – indicating a passive stance
towards the hegemony of ethnocentrism and linguistic imperialism” (470).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Running the risk of being labeled as a
totalitarian thinker in criticizing much embraced multiculturalism, I say that
it is important to speak and write the language of hegemonic language of
dominant culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, that was the
very reason why the oppressor paid attention to what Martin Luther King Jr. had
to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If he did not use the hegemonic
language and the use of metaphors best appeal to the hegemonic culture, what he
said or wrote as in "letter from Birmingham jail "would not have had much impact
as forceful as to lead a series of historical movements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Works Cited</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Elbow,
Peter. “Inviting Mother Tongue: Beyond “Mistakes,” “Bad English” and “Wrong
Language.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cross Talk in Comp Theory A
Reader. </i>Ed. Victor Villanueva and Kristin L. Arola. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Urbana</st1:state></st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">IL</st1:state></st1:state></st1:place>: NCTE, 2011.
205-233. Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Elbow,
Peter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Writing without Teachers</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>: <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Oxford</st1:state></st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">University</st1:state></st1:placetype></st1:state></st1:place>
Press, 1973, 1998. Print.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Lu,
Ming-Zhan. Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact
Zone. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cross Talk in Comp Theory A Reader.
467-483.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Porter,
Kevin J. A Pedagogy of Charity:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Donald
Davison and the Student-Negotiated Composition Classroom”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CCC The Journal of the Conference on College
Composition and Communication National Council of Teachers of English Vol. 52
No. 4 June 2001.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>P547-611 Print.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Donovan,
Timothy R. and Ben W. McClelland. ed. Eight Approaches to Teaching
Composition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Illinois</st1:state></st1:place>: NCTE, 1980. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854653867808568413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657748822696834743.post-70288549478149486042014-05-13T16:39:00.000-07:002014-05-14T03:44:08.442-07:00Is Grammar teaching really useless? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6umMJo4I70j8Lgfi8-K6eodLtVhazeP1K0Lyb4PGyaDTq0me5p8Aj_-3bG_uqgU-1A2qwzyIsqxbI3devSy7Ei33Tzm055jQZvipOwgLYdvn1c7A_N9bm3F2FreVAtNT_Sp_bkIhzGgA/s1600/if-you-cant-win-an-argument-correct-their-grammar-instead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6umMJo4I70j8Lgfi8-K6eodLtVhazeP1K0Lyb4PGyaDTq0me5p8Aj_-3bG_uqgU-1A2qwzyIsqxbI3devSy7Ei33Tzm055jQZvipOwgLYdvn1c7A_N9bm3F2FreVAtNT_Sp_bkIhzGgA/s1600/if-you-cant-win-an-argument-correct-their-grammar-instead.jpg" height="150" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every week, we read a good combination of composition theories and texts by philosophers, scientists and rhetoricians (mostly from Europe). We were required to write a short response that could spark a meaningful discussion based on questions formulated by discussion leaders from the weekly reading. One particular week included an essay about grammar teaching and the argument centering around the effectiveness of it. I wrote the following as a response to the skeptic point of view about grammar teaching. </span><br />
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"The response from here does not quite fit in your great prompt, but there is a fundamental difference between ESL (me) and native speakers (the rest of you) in the understanding (or internalizing) of English grammar. Though this article does make reference to that point, I see it is written for the instructors of the mainstream composition classes. But if more and more teachers have to deal with foreign born students who don’t have the Grammar I (the knowledge native speakers are equipped with) competence, there is NO way one could learn the language correctly without the grammar terminologies, drills and dissecting each word in the instruction. In fact, that is the only way I (or any foreign born with non-English education) could have ever learned. This article suggests that being exposed to a language spoken somehow could bring one to the natural grammatical understanding of the language. That IS NOT TRUE as long as the language you are writing with was learned (Not acquired) after the critical period. I just hope that not teaching grammar will not become a “consensus,” otherwise foreign students will forever be oblivious to their own mistakes and feel inadequate. Although it may be true that the educational focus is being shifted to math and science, not being good at those subjects is not a stigma but it is for reading and writing. "NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854653867808568413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657748822696834743.post-47197386896525467942014-05-12T18:56:00.001-07:002014-05-16T11:47:57.436-07:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLZSbB0fpmDRfOsbZpfFgkP4-F_bozaE5rz3v8-erQ0fAIZnY3MI2of5HpYSoaWU6k9fgUwbyWj_eg4w6SnUuglrtD1TawCpCZGwuWIB1wWlIX2YQ6F3g6MazSlEFRR1czd7vPZO91Os/s1600/imagesCAX8WFU9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLZSbB0fpmDRfOsbZpfFgkP4-F_bozaE5rz3v8-erQ0fAIZnY3MI2of5HpYSoaWU6k9fgUwbyWj_eg4w6SnUuglrtD1TawCpCZGwuWIB1wWlIX2YQ6F3g6MazSlEFRR1czd7vPZO91Os/s1600/imagesCAX8WFU9.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial;">We had a great mid term everyone enjoyed doing (it was so hard for me!). The professor had us create a dialogue using five rhetoricians and compositionists from the readings and creating one fictitious character of our choice to defend our argument. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What could be a better way to make sure we did all the readings and understood the theories and argument than this assignment? My SO exclaimed, "What a brilliant assignment!"</span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(well if one is creative). </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, my dialogue was about grammar teaching. Here is my best shot if you are interested and feel free to continue the dialogue with your new character!</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">English 651 Professor Wexler</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">March 28, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Mid-term<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Nami Olgin<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">What is Grammar Anyway and How to Teach It?</span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 200%;">Patrick Hartwell and Kay Clarkson are faculty members of the Institute of
Standard English, a government funded educational institution established to teach
standard American English especially to the culturally and linguistically
disadvantaged segment of the nation’s population – people of color, immigrants’
children, foreign born adolescents and adults, and the poor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once again, as usual, Hartwell and Clarkson
dominate their weekly Friday meeting regularly attended by Aristotle and Peter
Elbow with a guest appearance by John Lock.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: I am not sure if I
want to correct my students’ papers anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am so overwhelmed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are
tons of grammatical errors almost as if they had never gone to school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put it more accurately, I consider this the
direct result of neglect in grammar instruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am at my wits’ end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell: Do you actually
think grammar instruction has merit?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
tell you again and again that “seventy-years of experimental research has for
all practical purposes told us nothing” (206). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, there has been no concrete evidence
that proves grammar instruction improves students’ composition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the truth! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides, you know and I know that all of those
years of grammar teaching and learning are nothing but a pain in the neck for
both us instructors and the students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Aristotle: You think it is
the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it logically sound and
correct?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you so claim based on the
absence of proof or inconclusive evidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d say it is probable that grammar instruction has no bearings on
students’ composition skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: Fair enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But seriously and tell me as a composition teacher,
could you possibly ignore gross grammatical errors? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if ideas or arguments are presented so
incredibly well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tell me, would you say
to a man who is always unkempt but extremely good looking that come to your
wedding donned in torn jeans, a worn out T-shirt with a faded cartoon character
from his childhood because it would not matter if he’s got natural good looks
and so good that they could take the place of the formal black-tie attire? That
is in essence what it is to accept a piece of writing with bad grammar. I’d be
really interested in your refuting this very point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ll give it to you right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
formal attire is ornament - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the language
of frills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grammar is not an ornament.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: Rhetoric is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s define what grammar is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here just let me read what Martha Kolin – one
of your circle of friends, mentor and pro grammar instruction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three kinds of grammars, she says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Grammar 1: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
System of rules in our heads</i>…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[A] subconscious
internalized system of rules is your ‘Language Competence.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grammar 2:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The formal description of the
rules</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This definition describes the
form and structure, the syntax, of sentences” (Kolin 5).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grammar 3: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The social implication of usage</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also known as ‘linguistic etiquette,’ </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the definition that people have in
mind when they use terms like ‘poor grammar’ or ‘good grammar’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(6).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exactly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As in “ain’t got nothing” or something like that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is actually usage (210).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usage is not rule driven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Elbow: Right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black;">It is an accepted
way of speech and nothing to do with one’s grammatical knowledge. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: So what is your
point? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point is that I don’t consider usage
belonging to the grammatical issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Elbow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As much as I hate it, it sounds more natural to say “bad English” rather
than bad grammar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am adding two other categories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the kind of grammar you learned in our
elementary years, that is Grammar 4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, finally, the stylistic grammar, which I’d interpret something to
do with prose teaching (211).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks for bringing Kolin up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only because she calls us anti grammarians names
like “Alchemist.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will take over quoting her more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The great philosopher/teachers of Ancient
Greece and <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:city>
like Cicero, Gorgias and Quintilian all believed “grammar occupied a central
role in the language arts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And for them,
the highest form of the language arts – the purpose for studying grammar – was
the art of oratory, or public speaking (3). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Turning
to Lock</i>, you said that the purpose of teaching grammar was “to teach Men
not to speak, but to speak correctly and according to the exact Rules of the
‘Tongue” (Kolin 4).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you want to be understood correctly that is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell: Speech and writing are
not the same thing. <span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Elbow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Speech
and writing are different dialects (645). But definitely how one speaks
reflects in their writing, which is not a bad thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We don’t live in the ancient times when the
importance of speech presides over that of writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In speech, grammatical errors are not that
important and accepted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more so
with the emergence of “multi-culturism.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Elbow<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> interrupting: </i>Non-standard English is actually grammatically
correct. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: You always do this
[to interrupt]. Let’s stick to composition as the center of discussion.
Besides, the same use of grammar won’t apply to speech. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is that so? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: Obvious is not
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you speak, would you think
about rules in your head, like a little voice is saying to you, OK. For this
type of circumstance, would I use the past perfect or simple past tense will do?
Or am I talking about more than one person, so I should either have to say
persons or people? Of course NOT!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’ll
come automatically if you have Grammar 1 knowledge in English. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Great point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For this, I will quote Chomsky. “A person who speaks a language has
developed a certain system of knowledge, represented somehow in the mind, and
ultimately, in the brain in some physical configuration” (3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the reason why grammar instruction
does not work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Theorizing what one
already knows and makes rules out of when you don’t know what really happened
in our brain when language is being acquired. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Risking my argument undermined, I will hesitantly
use this trite cliché.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remember when
you learned how to ride a bicycle?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did whoever
taught you ever give you the theorized mechanisms of riding a bicycle? Some
sort of an illustrated manual?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or let me
put it this way:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s say you did learn
how to keep your equilibrium on bicycle in theory but when you actually tried
it, did the “theory” in your head ever work? I bet you did not even think about
it.<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>OK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Put your cliché aside, well, actually, I will throw this back at you
then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not being able to ride a bike has
very little impact in one’s life. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
writing conventionally grammatical sentences does.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Elbow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think in a way you are implying that not
knowing correct grammar could affect negatively in one’s future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you thought about the time they enter into
real life? I mean they write for a specific purpose beyond school assignments. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I bet any presentation of writing with
grammatical errors you and I see in the students’ paper will definitely reveal
more about the writer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Elbow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t like what I am hearing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Me neither.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Besides, study after study shows that Grammar 2 does not improve
students’ writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it is has
adverse effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My fellow compositionist
stated in her article, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“if the writer must devote conscious attention to demands
such as spelling and grammar, the task of translating [ideas into language] can
interfere with the more global process of planning what one wants to say” (Flower/Hayes
262).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It really stifles the pre-writing
process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please don’t mix
up the issues at hand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve read that
article myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She co-wrote the
article about the cognitive process in pre-writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, I don’t care in that stage of
writing if one uses the past perfect or the simple past tense, although I
believe grammar instruction will definitely help in distinguishing the two. Actually,
that is a good example of showing Grammar 2 knowledge being transmitted in
Grammar 1. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Hartwell: It is a wrong assumption that teaching Grammar 2
improves the proficiency in Grammar 1 or improve man’s manners in Grammar 3
(the “linguistic etiquette”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grammar 1
is usable but inaccessible knowledge – “‘cognitively impenetrable’ not
available for direct examination ”(212).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the contrary, Grammar 2 is “knowing about knowledge” formal and
conscious knowledge linguistically and philosophically (212).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope the difference between the two clearly
demonstrates Grammar 2 instruction has very little bearing on the Grammar 1
“performance.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clarkson: The knowledge brings awareness, which helps correcting
one’s own mistakes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Hartwell: “Those who defend the teaching of grammar tend to have a
model of composition instruction that is rigidly skills-centered and rigidly
sequential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We who dismiss the teaching
of formal grammar have a model that “predicts a rich and complex interaction of
learner and environment in mastering literacy, an interaction that has little
to do with sequences of skills instruction as such” (208). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Aristotle: Hartwell, you say it so eloquently. I like your
rhetoric. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clarkson: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course it
sounds great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the phrases like ‘rich
and complex interaction, environment in mastering literacy are juxtaposed with
the negative ‘rigidly’ whatever, there is no way the likes of us could sound as
convincing because of the scientific nature of grammar instruction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those kinds of talks are basically appealing
to ethos that lacks practicality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many
composition teachers I think trapped in the abstract thoughts without a plan of
action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Elbow: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is really a
generalization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve practiced my method
a number of years with a totally abstract goal – make students feel comfortable
with writing and master SWE – grammatically correct composition with
“linguistic etiquette.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are “the guy” in the composition discourse
– and for sure with the last name like yours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Aristotle:
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You won’t sound persuasive if you choose
to take that path. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 134.2pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:
Yes. Yes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good orators move people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virtue attracts people. Therefore, good
orators are virtuous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">murmuring</i>, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The chief end of
language in communication being to be understood, words serve not well for that
end, neither in civil nor philosophical discourse, when any word does not
excite in the hearer the same idea which it stands for in the mind of the
speaker”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(700).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such a word is virtue – ambiguity, value and
culture laden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Aristotle: True.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, with the proper argument, we can
reach the knowledge of virtue. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
days of direct knowledge is available through revelation or perception is long
gone (Bizzell 697), “Syllogism relies on established premises, it can <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">convey</i> knowledge but not produce it”
(Bizzell 640). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So you are the one who planted the idea of
fixing the language with prescriptive grammar and all that followed under the
influence of the Cartesian principle of scientific language (Bizzell 645). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you wish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My intention is to increase clarity and decrease unclearness in
communicating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You gave me the light bulb moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Interrupting</i>, ‘The’ light bulb moment?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are to use the definite article, you
must assume that you and I have the same knowledge of what the moment is
referring to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So please no figurative
expression with me unless you are sure how I would interpret what you mean
correctly. To me, the words come with the corresponding ideas – not things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: Understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I meant to say is that if we don’t know what
ideas students have about grammar or what they know, grammar instructions will surely
be perceived as useless.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Students should
come to the awareness of how they come to know grammar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drawing from your concept of ideas, grammar
is a scientific system in which words are arranged to transmit certain ideas
internally and externally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Universal
grammar provides a representation of the relationships of human thought”
(Bizzell 646).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still, teaching the very
system is necessary to express certain universal ideas (does not matter the
language one is born to speak) to those who don’t know how to correctly express
it in Standard English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The awareness
building is the key. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Harwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we are getting close to a mutual
understanding of what grammar is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
think the problem lies in the methodology in instruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should step away from worshipping grammar
and regain confidence in tacit power of unconscious knowledge (223).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mistakes are not happening because of not
knowing grammar but caused by “a problem of metacognition and metalinguistic
awareness, a matter of accessing knowledge that, to be any use, learners must
have already internalized by means of exposure to the problem” (223). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lock: Yes. Knowledge
acquisition is human psychology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson: Sounds right. What
you are saying is essentially to learn from mistakes and internalize it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, many students write: “One of my
friends live* in Northridge.” So if we keep correcting the wrong verb-tense
agreement, they will be able to internalize the rule without explicitly being
explained through the dry and boring terminologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell: Right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would call it a heuristic way of learning
instead of teacher centered and rule oriented.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Elbow:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is exactly the reason why I say to my
students to just write, write and write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My method of copy-editing is designed to acquire the knowledge of
SWE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will not present the information
in a way to insinuate wrong habits must be corrected. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Clarkson:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would probably work for the ones with Grammar
1 knowledge in English.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for ESL
students, I will continue to give them grammar drills as for them, it is
learning another scientific subject like mathematics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chomsky implies that the mind of a speaker of
a certain language is different from that of English speakers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Hartwell:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although we differ in our stance of grammar
instruction, I think our goal is mutual; that is to help students identify
their own errors and correct them correctly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
NOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10854653867808568413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657748822696834743.post-50166801226095373162014-05-12T04:00:00.000-07:002014-05-16T11:54:54.985-07:00Introduction<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2LNAGry5tYTc-RcBxtiBEJaXa5skpHbVYgfj3yUygg_pSSOGvDVv1AHr5DwsBc7n1Px6TtgCd1FMjqeHnMuoSzR2W4GBxH3q3q71f9nMyYNJpYG4LshyphenhyphenV5FY9iZP09N-ypj0ngBmLL8/s1600/revising.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2LNAGry5tYTc-RcBxtiBEJaXa5skpHbVYgfj3yUygg_pSSOGvDVv1AHr5DwsBc7n1Px6TtgCd1FMjqeHnMuoSzR2W4GBxH3q3q71f9nMyYNJpYG4LshyphenhyphenV5FY9iZP09N-ypj0ngBmLL8/s1600/revising.jpg" height="320" width="283" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">so many kinds like this everywhere.<br />
what works really?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This spring, from
Plato to Bakhtin, I had a great opportunity to learn various rhetorical
theories and their connection to current and past composition pedagogy and
practices with a group of extremely erudite<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>thinkers and professor who had the Socratic method under his belt. It
was great but a difficult class because he made us think, question and create
meaning out of a passage, sentence or even phrase. The readings were
intellectually stimulating but not so much emotionally. That is not to say that
I was not interested but there was hardly a time when my emotions got the
better of me and said something <strong>reacting</strong> (you know the knee
jerk reaction) to the texts – until I read <span style="background: white; color: #38761d;">Min-Zhan Lu’s “Professing Multiculturalism</span>: <span style="color: #6aa84f;">The politics of Style in the Contact Zone</span>.” In the
article, she talks about one of her case studies in which a Chinese student
wrote “can able to,” instead of “be able to.” No matter how you look at it, it
is a grammatical error (OK if the word error sounds harsh, misunderstanding)
for anyone’s eyes and a simple correction, indicating that “can” and “be able
to” are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>synonyms therefore using both at
the same time will be considered redundant, would suffice and let’s move on (to
something more important or beneficial, perhaps). Lu’s method of “correction”
was to turn this “error” into an exercise, involving a whole class to analyze
the cause behind the student’s use of “can able to” referring to the dicitionary defined meanings; the class concluded that the “error” was deemed natural after
examining cultural transference manifested in that expression, “can able to.”
Eventually the student came to full understanding and learned the rule. I
can understand if the discussion involved a literary text with an intended
effect of a purposely made error but this simple grammatical mistake for this (modal and adjective won't be connected each other)? This therapeutic way of reaching “agreement” of right and
wrong seems dialogic pedagogy taken to its extreme. The rest of the students
have to sit through and participate in the whole exploration process to find a
rationale for the “new usage” created by the non native speaker of English. It
is a composition class, not a political or philosophical class for which such
discussions have merit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the
teacher’s goals, I believe, is to foster students’ independence so that they
“can able” to self correct their mistakes (or culturally affected utterance) by
understanding rules. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just when I was
thinking about what really should be the goal for a composition teacher, I came
across this conversation with my colleague at work. A college student, in his
late 20s, said he had put together (including research) a five-page essay
(literary analysis) in a mere few hours and receive an A on it. Not knowing the
assignment or the instructor, I have no way of proving his claim –he may be
exaggerating, the assignment perhaps too easy or instructor too lenient.
However, just for the sake of argument, let’s assume he did spend only a few
hours; the assignment is reasonably challenging; the instructor is a fair
grader. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I actually tried it sacrificing my own assignment. The result? You guessed it. The skills that
are required to produce an A essay involve a complicated process. Gather materials, sort
ideas and information, find relevancy in it, make argument and write coherently
with correct grammar and syntax. I believe the aim of a composition teacher is
to instill those skills in students to produce written work that is to be
evaluated highly and that the teacher is expected to possess such skills and
excel in them and to be bestowed on his/her pupils. In this kind of traditional
teacher/student dynamic, <span style="color: black;">I wonder how effective it
would be to employ a much supported dialogic way</span><span style="color: red;">.
</span>Let me be clear to you. I am all for “dialogic” pedagogy and perhaps it
is the best way for one-on-on situation as in tutoring when instruction is
supplemental in nature. But composition classrooms have to offer something
–skills or knowledge for students to take home with to put it simply, write
well. When I say this, I know I would be asked what it means to write well.
Surely, it is completely a subjective statement but the fact is, as far as
writing concerned, there is such a thing as the universal esthetics. I am
beginning to really question the validity of more "democratic" style
of teaching and observe how this "trend" started and the way to
restore the old school teaching style. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actually,
restoration is not really necessary because despite being idealized in theory,
it is not implemented as there is not a set formula for teaching. I wonder why. In this blog, I wanted to share my thoughts after experiencing a rigorous Rheto/Comp class.</span><br />
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