Brown Ch 22, Kumar Ch 7, 8

Lauren Watters

October 22, 2012

Brown Ch 22

Kumar Ch 7, 8

            Brown says that about ten years ago the profession of teaching was giving mixed message about how grammar and vocabulary should be integrated into the classroom. Only some language teachers do not focus on form. Grammar includes organizational competence, semantics and pragmatics. Grammar is the rules that show how to structure sentences. As an English Education major, grammar is a big part of my schooling and my life. Context is important with grammar as well. Grammar is a process. When I was in high school, I learned grammar in sections. Once every year was the time frame and the same material was covered every year: adverbs, adjectives and subject/verb agreement. But in English language learning classrooms should we be teaching grammar? Would this just confuse them even more to have grammar lessons or a grammar unit? The variables for deciding how to teach grammar in the classroom are age, proficiency level, educational background, language skills, style and needs and goals. I think that grammar needs to be taught in a two week span within teaching writing to students. Proper sentence structure, using the right voice, writing to an intended audience and teaching correct grammatical rules should be taught in unison. I think handouts with pictures would be best to teach students so they can match the pictures with the words. For vocabulary, I personally have always been taught to use note cards to memorize definitions. However, this is not a good strategy for long-term memory. Time needs to be allowed for students to comprehend the material and learn it in context. Bilingual dictionaries are helpful for students to have. As a teacher we have to remember strategies to help students develop vocabulary use and their grammatical skills. Individual, group work and whole class discussion need to be integrated in the classroom so students have a variety of learning strategies. Should we be using form focused instruction in the classroom or just use what we as teachers feel is best?

            Creating language awareness in the classroom is important. Language is important to the life of every individual. It helps us to understand each other and express ourselves. “We use it, misuse it and abuse it.” I think that even cursing is a prime example of this. We use these unacceptable words to show how angry or upset we are with an issue but those words are not acceptable in society (job interviews, with elderly people, etc.) Language awareness can be fostered in a general sense and in a critical sense. The majority of individuals have to seek to “light fires of curiosity about the central human characteristic of language which will blaze throughout our pupils’ lives.” Teachers want to light a fire in each student so they are excited about learning and want to further their education. However, some student’s fires get blown out when they are corrected too many times as a language learner in their writing, speaking or reading. We want the fire to continue to burn even after they are done with schooling. The American and British movement stresses the integration of language experience in the curriculum in secondary schools. It is suggested that secondary school teachers are trained in nature and function of language, language and thought and language and culture. I think all teachers whether they are teaching second language learners or not should be educated about the function of language. Sometimes students think that since they are not in an English classroom they do not have to use correct capitalization, punctuation, or sentence structure. They think that teachers only care about the content and not how it is written down. Some of my high school teachers were like that and would say “This is a math class, not an English class.” Well, that just navigates students into the mindset that language structure and form doesn’t matter unless they are in an English classroom. I think this also makes things ten times harder for the English teacher because they have to re teach students the correct way to form sentences, etc. If we teach students with heuristics, by letting them discover things on their own, there is a possibility that they will learn better. After practice, learners should know how to use correct speech and writing rules. I hope that as an English teacher I will be able to teach my students grammar in a way that is not tedious and boring. I don’t think that always simplifying grammar and English lessons to English language learners is the correct way to go about things. I want to be able to meet their needs and let them feel like they are learning challenging material.