Pedagogy Draft

Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach, written by Deborah Dean explores her pedagogy on how to teach grammar. Her earlier thoughts on grammar were by institutional standards. “I was comfortable with that perspective because that was the idea of grammar I had been taught:  grammar as terminology unrelated to writing; grammar as right and wrong”. This way of thinking is harmful for students because it highlights their language as being incorrect. English Language Learners or students who struggle with in Standard American English. My practice was the classic example of right and wrong:  language as answers in the textbook, totally removed from what my students wrote and spoke. To shy away from this way of thinking Dean first used technology to make learning grammar more appealing to her students. Although this was a great start to introduce students in the effectiveness of writing grammatical correct (I say that loosely) studies conducted by Richard Braddock, Richard Lloyd-Jones, and Loweel Schoer found that teaching grammar did not improve writing. Which make sense since people change the way they talk depending on who their audience is. You would not talk to your boss the way you talk to your siblings or friends. Leaving behind the textbook Deborah started coming up with different scenarios for her students to write about. Such as, letting the write compound sentences about what they would take if they were stranded on an island. When I think about my own pedagogy to teach grammar I want students to be accepting of all languages and learn from each other, in the sense that each language is important. Students would learn grammar by learning about the cultures and geography of their peers. My style of teaching would focus a lot on Goal A and C from the Alive! book. Goal A focuses on students’ background and helping them feel like they can communicate comfortably within their own language and that, of, Standard English (when appropriate). Goal C explains the importance of appreciating  language and its natural variations that happens within time, social situations, and social groups.

Paper due by the end of the week

Shakayla Fields

October 22, 2016

English 326

Dr. B

Introduction

I pledge allegiance to the flag, de los estados Unidos de America, die enine Nation unter Gott ist indivisible, ave liberty and justice for all. America is a melting pot of people, culture, political views, religions and, languages. America was founded on the idea that immigrants with a vision of their own personal manifest destiny can be accomplished—regardless of circumstance. But. How can this be accomplished if “lo siento no hablo ingles, or Profesor no se porque no ingles es mi primo language.

            According to Ph.D. candidate Nicholas Subtirelu in Applied Linguistics and ESL student at Georgia State University examines the issues that come with language, English, privilege. The achievement gap between ESL students and native English learners are substantial data that insists that it may take ESL students several years to catch up to white native English speakers nation wide.

The NAEP achievement gap indicates the terms of proficiency in basic achievement levels, this identifies partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work.

The NAEP (Nation’s Report Card) achievement reinforces this idea with an analysis conducted between fourth and eighth graders. A 2005 assessment from the NAEP displayed 46% of ELL (English Language Learners) students across America scored below the basic in math in fourth grade. Seventy-three percent of ELL 4^thgraders scored below the basic level in reading. Data also reveals that eleven percent of white fourth graders nation wide were below the basic level in math and 25 percent in reading.

Blog #5 References

1. Delpit, Lisa D. Other People’s Children: Cultural Con ict in the Classroom. New York: New Press, 1995. Print. 

2. Young, V. A., & Martinez, A. Y. (n.d.). Code-Meshing as World English: Pedagogy, Policy, Performance. Retrieved October 17, 2016, from https://secure.ncte.org/store/code-meshing-as-world-english

3.Thomas, L., & Wareing, S. (1999). Language, society and power: An introduction. London: Routledge.

Here are the sources I plan to use for my research paper. 

From Africa to the New World, Written By Gena Smithman

For this blog I thought it was interesting to learn how African-American English, Black English, Black Idioms were formed and differed from the different African dialects. I used to think Black English was not an actual dialect, but more towards broken English slaves used to talk to slave masters, since they weren’t native to European countries. According to the article Black dialects are Africanized form of English that mirror Black African’s linguistic cultural African heritage and the conditions of many platforms of social, political and human injustice: Basically being black in America from the beginning “is hawrd”. (P3)” From Africa to the New World”.  The author describes Black language as being Euro-American speecj with Black American meaning nunance, tone, and gesture, the idioms used by Black Americans is 80-90 percent of the time. The author also shows the beauty on Black English because of the rhythmic patterns it holds. Examples of this are…

GRAMMAR AND STRUCTURE RULE IN WEST AFRICAN LANGUAGES & BLACK ENGLISH

REPETITION OF NOUN SUBJECT WITH PRONOUN                             

My father, he work there.

BLACK ENGLISH

Question patterns without “do” same for of noun for singular and plural

What it come to?

One boy; five boy

No tense indicates in verb; emphasis on manner or character of action

I know it good when he ask me

Black American English illustrates the beauty and power of the idiom that lies in its brevity. Essentially being able to say the same thing in standard written English, which has take 10x as many words. Ima gon’ ona ead n’ say (I’massuming) the Black idioms used when referencing the same topic are shortened because they are said with meaning and straight to the point. The author describes Black English in this way as being a mix and adapted language, stemming from slaves who had to accommodate their condition. He also mentions it has been a discriminated combined language and style interwoven unavoidable language within African- American culture.

In this day and age integrating different languages and those dialects should be more common than not. Especially in a place like America because it is a big melting pot of cultures and people. Slowly but surely with some ELL programs in place, students are able to enjoy their home languages outside of their houses and regular friend groups. However, for this to become more wide spread, it starts with teacher being able to combat this hierarchal language problem by being accepting and open to the diversity of their students’ background: this is in the choice of literature they deiced to teach, which should reflect and accurately represent the diversity of dialects their students share. Problems that come with addressing this issue I believe come from the Anglo-Saxon systemic school structures that have not been reformed since the constitution was first drafted. Meaning students and teachers are unable to enjoy the fulfillment of their education or teaching because of the constraints they are being boxed in with. The research I conduct for our upcoming project will based around the theory that students and teachers become more knowledgeable when they work cohesively together as they are rather than the teacher asking the student to memorize text and conform to the English standard set by the school.