Week 8 Syntax

Please remember that just because we are not meeting face to face, meeting online takes the place of our class together. So, if you are not posting on time, it is as if you are absent from the class. Pay very close attention to the due dates and times. And as always, email or call me if you are having difficulties.

Chapter 9 English Syntax

EQ: What are some basic aspects of English syntax?  How do insights from syntax apply to teaching reading and teahing a second language?


Key Points: 

• For many linguists, grammar is regarded as the study of syntactic structure.  Grammar and syntax are synonymous. 
• Linguists continually revise their theories of how language is structured and developed.
• Grammar can refer to the internal rules native speakers contstruct as well as the descriptions of syntactic structure that linguists develop. 
• Although traditional approaches to teaching grammar have not been effective in improving students's speech or writng, targeted minilessons based on students' writing are useful. 
• If only using exercises and drills with little focus on meaning to teach grammar, students learn to imitate the patterns but fail to construct the underlying rules that are needed to comprehend and produce the language. 
• One of the most widely used methods of teaching a second or foreign language has been the audiolingual method (ALM) which is based on behaviorist psychology and structural linguistics.
• Current methods of teaching ELs are based on an acquistion model of language development.  They organize curriculum around themes and teach language through content.
• Teachers with an understanding of syntax scaffold instruction to make academic language comprehensible. 

Assignment for Tuesday, 1/22/13   

1. Answer 3 questions of your choice due by 8:00 pm tonight. 
2. Respond to 1 post writted by colleague by next Tuesday, Jan 29 4:30.
3. Finish Task 2.  Due next Tuesday, Jan 29 4:30. 

a. Describe your experience learning grammar in your early years of schooling.  What techniques or strategies do you remember your teachers using?  Were you successful in grammar?  Why or why not?

b. According to Macauley's study in Scotland, students wo received intensive training in traditional grammar showed that sutdents have a great deal of difficulty eaven learning basic parts of speech.  In your opinion and using Chapter 9, why are students consisitenly showing weakness in the study of grammar?

c. Despite the research consensus, teachers continue to each traditional prescriptive grammar.  On page 218, Weaver (1996) lists several reasons why.  Can you relate to any of these points?  Please explain your expereince as a teacher and whether you agree/disagree with any of the reasons suggested. 

d. How can an understanding of syntax inform teachers as they teach reading?  Remember, we are ALL reading teachers whether we teach reading in math, science, social studies, language arts or connections. 

e. How will you change the way you teach grammar know that you know that the exercises and drills we currently teach are proven to not work as effectively as teaching grammar through content.  How will you use your understanding of syntax to scaffold instruction to make academic language comprehensible in your classroom? 

Week 7 English Morphology and Implications for Teaching

Essential Questions

Ch. 7:
1. How do linguistis analyze words?
2. How do new words enter a language?

 Ch. 8:

3. What is the best way to increase vocabulary?
4. How can teachers help English Language Learners acquire academic vocabulary? 
5 . How does morphology apply to both reading and second language teaching? 
6. What does it mean to know a word?

Key Terms

Morphology- the study of words
Morpheme- the smallest meaningful unit or part of a word
Cognate- words that come from the same root
Conversational English- language of everyday coersation; language is embedded in a rich context
Academic Language- generally more cognitively demanding; often with less contextual support
Krashen's Natural Order Hypothesis- says that people acquire components of a second language in a natural order and is based on morpheme studies
Syntax- how a word functions in a sentence
Semantics-definition and/or synonyms of a word
Pragmatics-real-word use of a word

Assignments for January 15, 2013

1. Read Chapter 7 and Chapter 8.  Really focus on Chapter 8 for Teaching Implications for your reflection 4.

2. Watch YouTube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca0xFvMfcqo

 

3. In 200-300 words each, please answer 3 of the Essential Questions above (Due Jan 15 by 8:00pm)  and comment on 2 of your colleagues's posts (Due Jan 22, 2013 by 4:30 pm). 
Attach your questions with your blog so that others may have a frame of reference when responding. 

4. Write Reflection 4 from Chapter 8.  What did you learn 1/2 page?  What did it mean 1/2 page?  How will you apply your knowledge to the classroom 1 page?  (Due January 22, 2013 4:30 pm)

5. Take Online Quiz: http://buckhoff.topcities.com/morphologyquizzes.htm


Supplemental Reading/Watching to help with your Reflection 4:

1. In this entry, Carolyn Eddy offers suggestions for teaching Spanish-speaking students to more quickly grasp English by exploiting cognates and by teaching high frequency academic words that do not share the same root. She draws from research and from her own secondary and post-secondary experiences as a language learner. Carolyn recently completed her undergraduate work in Spanish Language and Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in only three years, including a semester of study in Seville, Spain.

http://vocablog-plc.blogspot.com/2010/08/morphological-approach-for-english.html

 

2. (Watch this marvelous little video on word formation or visit Popular Linguistics Online where Corrine McCarthy (George Mason University) neatly summarizes how words are formed through morphological processes.)


3. Students who understand how words are formed, by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots, tend to have larger vocabularies and better reading comprehension. In a recent study of a group of elementary school students – many of whom are English language learners – HGSE Assistant Professor Nonie Lesaux examined how some student readers use this insight to build a successful reading strategy. Lesaux suggests four ways in which morphology – this technique of viewing words as a combination of parts – can become an instructional tool for all students.
Read More --> http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC102-407.html

4. http://neoenglishsystem.blogspot.com/2010/12/morphology-and-linguistics.html

basic information on morphology with examples

 

 

Websites to help with your Case Study

www.cal.org – Center for Applied Linguistics
www.crede.org – Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence
http://www.ESOL.org - The International ESOL Association has a website with booklists, articles, and resources across a wide variety of grade levels and interests.
www.gatesol.org – Georgia TESOL
www.georgiastandards.org – GA Performace Standards
www.glc.k12.ga.us/pandp/esol/homepg.htm - Georgia Learning Connections (Quality Core Curriculum)
www.onestopenglish.com – Teacher Resources
www.tesol.org – National TESOL
http://earthrenewal.org/secondlang.htm Great for Linguistcs Terms and Concepts

Language Transfer: Ten Languages

Research shows that transfer from the native language is not the most common cause of error, at least in written English. However, when it occurs, it is often the most baffling to readers and the most intractable for writing instructors. It is helpful both for student writers and their instructors to consider the linguistic complexities that writing in English demands of ESL students. The lists below give details of ten languages and the features that may transfer to English and thus cause errors for the ESL writers who are native speakers of those languages. Some of the error types may be more common at beginning levels of language learning; however, when writers grapple with challenging new ideas and difficult reading material, their command over syntax and grammar may lapse as they fall back on their native language while making sense of new material.

For each of the ten languages discussed below (Arabic, Chinese languages, Farsi, French and Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese), significant features of difference from English are noted. Examples, marked with an asterisk (*), show the types of error that can result in English because of language transfer and section numbers provide cross-references to the handbook. This is a highly selective, not exhaustive, list. It comes from more than thirty years of teaching experience, backed up by three useful reference books (Swan and Smith; Comrie; Connor and Kaplan).

1. ESL Tip Sheet 1: Arabic
2. ESL Tip Sheet 2: The Chinese Languages
3. ESL Tip Sheet 3: Farsi (Persian)
4. ESL Tip Sheet 4: French (and Haitian Creole)
5. ESL Tip Sheet 5: Japanese
6. ESL Tip Sheet 6: Korean
7. ESL Tip Sheet 7: Russian
8. ESL Tip Sheet 8: Spanish
9. ESL Tip Sheet 9: Thai
10. ESL Tip Sheet 10: Vietnamese
11. Some Other Language Differences
    • Greek (Greece)
    • Hebrew (Israel)
    • Hindi (India)
    • Portuguese (Portugal, Azores, Cape Verde, and Brazil)
    • Tagalog (The Philippines)