Grammar

As I approach the issues facing students studying English on the college level as well as reflecting on my own experiences as an English student, there are two main components I want would like to stress to my students: understanding grammar and its application and individual expression as academically appropriate. Some strategies will promote confidence while others will ensure that my students have a strong English foundation upon exiting my class. My classroom will encompass conventional English and Language Arts through alternative discourse while also ensuring student’s knowledge of traditional form. As Erika Lindemann describes in Rhetoric for Writing Teachers “Many people link usage to standard English, implying that there’s an absolute right and wrong way to use the [English] language” (67). My English pedagogy comes from this notion but with the goal of providing students an understanding of grammar. My goal is for students to walk away from my class having obtained the skills toward becoming successful writers using their own approach and creativity in the process. Students will also explore English grammar and usage to develop an understanding of English and Language Arts variations. “Their investigation… also will increase their tolerance for varieties of English” (Lindeman, 69). The stress is always on academic discourse as students understand the conventions of language and writing, yet there is also an emphasis on individuality as students assert themselves through their writing. My course will enable students to develop what Fan Shen refers to as an “English Identity.”
Understanding that as American society is rapidly increasing in diversity, it becomes essential to incorporate diverse approaches into the classroom by encouraging students to maintain a sense of individuality. As Shen simply states in The Classroom and the Wider Culture: Identity as a Key to Learning English Composition, “Be yourself.” Shen’s discourse is of great value to minority groups, with commonly nontraditional grammatical and usage backgrounds which encompasses many of those in the California educational system. One approach that Shen describes in depth are illogical and alogical patterns in writing. Using this system, which requires comparison of native discourse or learned writing to traditional forms of English writing, lead to understanding the difference between “native ability to create and comprehend English utterances” and “the preferred pattern of writing in English” (Lindeman, 66; Shen, 463).
Grammar in my classroom will be generative-transformative. Branching away from the traditional approaches to grammar as a mathematical formula, the generative-transformative model teaches the process of “creating sentences” (Lindeman, 82). In aligning grammar instruction with the writing process as a whole, it is important to foster students’ abilities to create as is presented in the generative-transformative model of teaching grammar.
Incorporating grammar and writing will take place through peer-centered, individual, and whole group activities. Incorporating oral speech into my classes is one manner which I plan to provide an understanding of grammar. I plan to use oral activities for students to analyze grammar idiolects within the classroom, demonstrating an understanding of the numerous forms in which grammar may exist in society. Hartwell explains the importance of applying multipurpose literacy rather than “single static literacy” (Hartwell 124).
It is Hartwell’s explanation of grammar studies that I will strive to achieve in my own class. “Writers need to develop skills at two levels. One… involves communication in meaningful content. The other… involves active manipulation of language with conscious attention to surface form” (Hartwell, 125). Upon exiting my class, students will have confidence in their writing while maintaining their individual thinking and grammatical conception. They will internalize their skills toward producing oral and written communication that incorporates rhetorical competencies and metalinguistics that can be used academically and socially (Hartwell 125).