Rough Draft

Rough Draft:

In America there is the stigma that those who do not perform adequately in Standard English literacy do not have an understanding of the English language. The same is true of the opposite, when Americans visit foreign countries they often times have little understanding of the language and expect that the people in the area will have some sort of understanding of English. Unfortunately this can also been seen in the classroom. There are many examples throughout time where students are belittled due to their lack of understanding of the English language or using their own language to fill in the gaps. To cope with this social stigma and discrimination, English language learners use code switching. In the article by Chad Nilep he describes code switching and its application “Code switching is defined as the practice of selecting or altering linguistic elements so as to contextualize talk in interaction. This contextualization may relate to local discourse practices, such as turn selection or various forms of bracketing, or it may make relevant information beyond the current exchange, including knowledge of society and diverse identities.” First it is important to understand and analyze how immigrants and foreign students adjust to socio-cultural norms, it is just as important to examine the counterpart, analyzing American language learners experience picking up socio-cultural norms of another country. In this paper code switching and its application will be examined in order to create an understanding of how to use code switching in the classroom. By understanding how students adapt their language to their environment, it will be clear to see the advantages of incorporating student’s language into the classroom.

            In history code switching has been used differently than bilingualism. This is because of how we define code switching. It is “ the practice of selecting or altering linguistic elements”. This means that one can code switch between two types of English’s, where as bilingualism is defined as being fluent in two different languages. This is where dialects come to fruition; dialect is defined by Merrian-Webster as “a form of a language that is spoken in a particular area and that uses some of its own words, grammar, and pronunciations” (Merrian-Webster). In the classroom student’s dialect will arise, and sometimes students will belittle other students because their way of speaking isn’t congruent with the social norm. It is easy to recognize when students code switch, they attempt to adjust to the environment around them. This can be more commonly seen in comparing discussion language with academic writing on the same discussion topics. Students are able to switch from a more social type of English, to a formal type of English.

Next Paragraph: foreign English language learners ability to code switch

Next Paragraph” American Students ability to code switch from standard to social spoken foreign language, also show how someone can adjust to two different dialects of the same Language I.e. France French vs Quebec French.

Blog #5

    In the article I read the author, Geneva Smitherman describes the issue of defining  "Black English". She states that the dialect was originally studied in an attempt to change and assimilate blacks into mainstream society. She notes that the study of blacks and use of educational programs were a product of the civil rights movement, as well as the "up-from-the-ghetto and Great Society efforts". Not soon later she speaks on how the dialect is most commonly used today; specifically concerns of social policy and political matters. This is where I connected with this piece of writing, although Smitherman argues that Black dialect is used in social policy and political matters, I have experienced accounts where no social policy was involved but the dialect was still questioned. A specific example of this is hearing questions like "why are you talking black?" or statements like "you talk so white for a black person.". In these situation the interaction is at a low level where each person has nothing really to gain from the other, yet the dialect is still questioned. I found it to be odd that Smitherman didn't address this initially when stating the current use of the dialect. Smitherman instead focuses on the stylistic choices that Black dialect can have with examples like "it bees dat way sometimes" she explains that the statements suggests a point of view, a method of adapting to life's realities. This example is important because it illustrates the power of idioms, as well as highlighting the  adaptation that Blacks were subjected to mixing their own style with the English language stemming from Afro-American culture. Smitherman then dives into the history of the mixing of African culture and the English language. Smitherman later speaks on the issue I brought up earlier, that of black dialect being ostracized on a low social level. She notes that Blacks are ostracized by other Blacks for speaking White English. She then spotlights the Africans that free during slavery, shining light on how literate they were with White English. Smitherman even says that the ability to be competent was a very much correlated with being a "freeman".
    I would like to apply different types of English in my classroom and i'm sure it will arise on it's own. As an African American I don't think it will be too challenged to bring in Black dialect in an appropriate manner. I would try to focus on lyrics from certain artist; those who send a message with their lyrics. Using artist like Tupac and Ice Cube: focused on how they used their music to reflect their reality.
    I think this article helped with my final research project by helping me think of ways to incorporate media, like music into a lesson plan. How I can use the lyrics and language from artist that students recognize and idolize. The focus being mainly on the way the artist style their English.

Blog 4

In the article The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued by Suresh Canagarajah he brings up some interesting points about English and how we classify native and non native speakers. The main focus of the article is recognizing that there is an issue with the way we currently recognize the english language, and Suresh proposes some solutions on how we can change our view of the English language. 

The whole idea of English becoming a globalized language is clear to see. English is present in places like Nigeria, and SriLanka. Suresh, although he grew up speaking English his entire life, some still classify him as a non-native English speaker. Because of this Suresh challenges those who believe he isn't a native English Speaker. He proposes that because people grow up bilingual (code switching) that they should judge them in terms of competence. Proposing levels like expert and novice English speakers. I thought this was a god idea because of todays diversity, it recognizes that students have their own form on English, and that they are still equipped with the tools to communicate effectively. 

The next point that Suresh brings up was Local Englishes and how they are traveling via media outlets. Suresh states CNN, MTV, and Hollywood as a whole are responsible for the traveling of Local Englishes, this means that the "standard American English" can be viewed and analyzed by bilingual watchers helping them assimilate. Suresh notes that it is not the bilingual student who should assimilate, but instead the English Language should become a plural language or a multinational language. 

Which brings me to my next point, Suresh goes into detail about how native based English classes or standard English classes are generally useless to students in their everyday lives. Suresh talks about how the internet can serve as constructive and developmental place. The internet is forum where different Englishes mingle freely. This helps students connect with other students of the same diverse English language. Sometimes students can feel as if their English in the classroom is adequate making them feel lesser than their peers, however on the internet they can freely interact with the global speech community (as Suresh calls it). 

Suresh makes it clear that focusing on native English isn't effective, and that it is more important to focus on "real world" situations in which students will communicate. Suresh argues that social interaction is where the learning process flourishes. His focus is developing students ability to shuttle between languages rather than assimilating to the local language. He also argues that native speakers should be able to do the same, being open to different forms of English. Suresh states that multilingual speakers make accommodations for other multilingual speakers and this process is more intuitive. 

To conclude my analysis of The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued I agree that native speakers can be less skillful when making accommodations for multilingual speakers. The ideas Suresh has about English becoming a multinational language are backed with solid evidence. He challenges the idea of native English speakers being just those who are born and raised speaking the English language in a country where English is the only or main language. 

Blog #3 response and importance of commas

In the article Sudden Possibilities the author introduces her idea of mistakes having a deeper meaning than a simple grammatical error, she does this by writing "My Purpoise" As if she were to begin writing about a marine mammal. She continues on this idea of the reader drawing conclusion on the text based on the title. She states that although it is misleading for her she found it served a different purpose. That purpose was that it can engage students into reading further into the text by tricking them with a clever use of words. She also underlines the reasons that students might make common mistakes such as: spelling viola as walla. She describes that even though these are simple grammatical errors the reason behind them isn't simply a learning deficiency but is normal to the learning process. The author talks about error analysis and how teachers often approach correcting errors. She dives into DOL or Daily Oral Language, and at first gives reason why it might be beneficial she notes that it doesn't incite interest in the learning or understanding of the actual language. One of the problems she recognized with DOL is that the sentences or text their working with isn't usually student work, but "prepackaged classroom guides"( Crovitz, Darren p.33). Crovitz Argues that because the statements are detached, and random sentences that they exist in a vacuum. Crovitz then says that they are "contextually generic as opposed to an individual's actual language"(Crovitz, Darren p.33). Crovitz even brings in Weavers summary of research which states that students writing might actually suffer due to these random isolated activities. The author then points out that these DOL exercises assume "that repetition is key to better grammar"(Crovitz, Darren p.33). she concludes her ideas on DOL exercies elegantly by saying the writer rarely has a chance to look back at their own writing and why they make errors instead the attention is focused on the fact that the errors should just be fixed.
    When creating a DOL exercise I really wanted to highlight the importance of punctuation. Although the DOL exercises constantly use random generic sentences I tried to take a different approach and make the importance of punctuation stick. I do this by bringing in examples of wrong punctuation in everyday life; from signs to letters. One of the examples I found that deals with the importance of commas goes like this

"lets eat Grandma!"
or
"lets eat, Grandma!"    

Naturally the pattern of the week I chose to deal with was compound sentences. After doing some work looking up the importance of commas I noticed in some of the letters and larger pieces of text I found that compound sentences were more common. It is important to correctly use conjunctions and commas properly in compound sentences in order to avoid run on sentences.

blog #2

After reading both of the articles Grammar Alive and Christensen's article, I found these two pieces of literature could prove to be very helpful when teaching grammar. A lot of people struggle with grammar and the English language so bringing in two pieces of work that are working towards a common goal, to help the readers better their understanding of learning. 

In the first article Grammar Alive, they laid out three main goals from the start. Goal A states "Every student, from every background, will complete school with the ability to communicate comfortably and effectively in both spoken and written Standard English, with awareness of when use of Standard English is appropriate.(1)" Goal B was then introduced saying "Every student will complete school with the ability to analyze the grammatical structure of sentences within English texts, using grammatical terminology correctly and demonstrating knowledge of how sentence-level grammatical structure contributes to the coherence of paragraphs and texts.(1)" And lastly Goal C was defined as "Every student will complete school with an understanding of, and application for, the natural variation that occurs in language across time, social situation, and social group. While recognizing the need for mastering Standard English, students will also demonstrate an understanding of the equality in the expressive capacity and linguistic structure among a range of language varieties both vernacular and standard, as well as an understanding of language-based prejudice.(1)" I recognize that these three goals are essential to teaching grammar, and I would like to try to implement these goals into my teaching someday. 

In the second article by Christensen, I noticed that throughout the article the goals from Grammar Alive are present but she presents theme in a less formal and social manner. She brings all of the goals to light, by describing real life situations in which they are present. I found this part of the article to be particularly helpful because, grammar is hard to grasp; especially if there isn't any examples to look at. Grammar Alive did a really good job of laying out what it is that students need to be able to do with grammar but Christensen goes to the next level and applies these goals. 

Although both of the articles were designed to help the reader better their understanding of grammar, I found the way each article approached that to be different. The Grammar Alive article really focused on giving the reader the information and making as clear and understandable as possible. Whereas Christensen assumed the reader was more comfortable with grammar and went on to describe ways in which one might apply the three goals to their teaching. I found both articles to be helpful in creating a better understanding of grammar and how to apply it to a classroom.

Work cited

1.Haussamen, B., & Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar. (2003). Grammar alive! : A guide for teachers. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English.

While writing, over the years I have developed a relationship with punctuation and grammar. I have seen my writing improve by leaps and bounds, yet during the writing process I keep finding myself questioning the length of my sentences and paragraphs. My use of commas is always justified, but i feel that sometimes my use of commas creates sentences that drag on.  I am looking forward to learning a new stylistic approach to using commas. I am also looking forward to learning more about other punctuation that isn't as common like semicolons and colons, along with the use of Em and En dashes. Breaking down sentences and analyzing each component will be interesting in comparison to French grammar, which I have also been studying. I have gained an affinity for dialogue and the way different authors infuse their own styles. For example in my creative writing class I was asked to read a short story that followed a couple during a dispute over who would have the baby. The author chose not to put quotations around the dialogue. I think the author wanted the story to feel a bit faster paced and more like a real argument and the use of "he said" and "she said" along with quotation marks would have made the text feel more rigid and constricted. 

 During my writing process I notice that I will go back over my work and constantly break down sentences and paragraphs. This is mostly due to my fear of run on sentences, along with my love for commas. I have found that commas are very useful in any piece of writing, but can be dangerous to teach. I am a tutor in the writing center and I occasionally find myself asking coworkers for assistance when helping ESL students with commas. Last semester I took a syntax class (English 444), which was very interesting and proved to be quite challenging focused on the contents of the sentence like phonetically null components. I am excited for a change of pace and focus on punctuation in this class. Which brings me to the next part of this class that I will be looking forward to going over the more uncommon pieces of punctuation and how to correctly use them. I would like to be able to incorporate more punctuation marks in order to increase my sentence variety and also to improve my creativity while working on other pieces of writing like screenplays and storytelling. The use of punctuation can do so much from creating suspense to bringing closure. I would also like to use punctuation to enhance my academic writing. I am worried that I will go overboard will all of the new punctuation at first, I’m sure the writing center will set me straight. I think that learning the ins and outs of punctuation in this class will help me improve as a tutor and grow as a teacher. Overall I am looking forward to improving my writing skills, through creative use of punctuation and grammatical rules.