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last.updated 11.4.07

 


Grammar: L2 & Second Dialect Issues

Purpose

Last we addressed several issues about what grammar is, as well as what aspects we can teach and what aspects we should teach. Another issue that drives the grammar debates is whatare our pedagogical responses to students from second langauage or second dialect backgrounds–students whose home cultures we respect and who we want to help succeed in and beyond school? We will address this question through lecture, discussion, and an activity.


Before Class

Lecture

  • We define the terms interlangauge and contrative rhetoric, and discuss discuss their relevance to the teaching of writing.

Discussion–Hartwell, Soven, Alsup & Bush

  • How will you teach grammar? why? At what point in the students' writing process will you intervene at the word/sentence level?
  • For the previous questions, how do the SOLs influence your decision?

Activity–Developing Grammar Pedagogy from Student Writing

For this activity you will adopt the role of the teacher who has assigned an essay to your junior level on representations and reality. One of your L2 students has submitted the following rough draft. This paper represents similar papers produced by about a half-dozen other L2 students in your class. In groups of four address the following prompt.

  • How are you going to pedagogically respond to this situation? There are multiple answers to this question. As a group come to a consensus on an approach that you can all live with.
  • Justify your answer in detail using the readings from the last two weeks (and other readings that may be relevant)


You will have about twenty-five minutes to work on this and then about twenty minutes for debriefing. Before break, you will submit your work for a process grade.

Presentations–Group 3

We will be the audience for teaching demonstrations from Group 3 (Eileen, Erika, Jill, Rebekah).