Language Comparison Blog

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Language Comparison: Spanish and English

Mind Map: Unit 11

Unit 11:

Language Comparison, Error Analysis, Instructional Implications

Pinker:
Chapter 11 The Big Bang

• Our language instinct is as unique and ornate as an elephant’s trunk.
• According to Pinker, the language instinct has evolved as explained by Darwin’s theory of natural selection
• Language probably arose by a “revamping of primate brain circuits that originally had no role in vocal communication and by the addition of some new ones” (Pinker, 1994, p. 360).
• The origin of language occurred anywhere from 1.5 million to 200 thousand years ago but no one can be sure of the exact time period.

Pinker:
Chapter 12 Language Mavens

• Prescriptive rules are “alien to the natural workings of the language system” (Pinker, 1994, pg. 384).
• The rules do not conform to logic or tradition.
• “Many prescriptive rules of grammar are just plain dumb and should be deleted from the usage handbooks” (Pinker, 1994, pg. 414).
• Most of the rules can be traced back to the 18th century when Latin rules were being applied to English, such as, “never split an infinitive”. (Note: In Latin an infinitive cannot be split)
• According to Pinker, writing “should be mastered through practice, instruction, feedback, and most importantly, intensive exposure to good examples (pg. 416).

O’Grady: The Role of Adult Speech

• Many people believe that children learn language by imitating their parent’s speech but this is not correct.
• Children have their own grammar.
• This grammar will determine how the child’s language will develop.
• Caregiver speech: type of speech that is typically addressed to young language learners (pg. 379).
• Caregiver speech which is often slow and carefully articulated with many repetitions is helpful but not necessary for child language acquisitions.

O’Grady: The Role of Feedback

• Certain types of feedback have a role to play in the language acquisition process (pg. 380).
• Recasts: When adults respond to their child’s utterance by repeating it, making adjustments to its form and/or content (pg. 380).
• Recasts provide children with potentially useful information but more research is needed to determine the exact role that recasts play in language learning (pg. 380).

LaFontana: Throw Away that Correcting Pen

• Feedback is important when looking at student writing.
• Written feedback that only focuses on errors and that is written in the margins of a student’s paper often go unnoticed
• LaFontana suggests taped comments as opposed to written feedback.
• As students play the audio tape and listen to their teacher’s comments they record their mistakes on an error chart
• This method transfers the responsibility from teacher to student.
• The student must identify the errors within the paper, correct them, and resubmit their paper.

Unit Nine: TESOL Grammar Experts

Response to Video:
I believe that grammar is acquired through both immersion and explicit grammar teaching.  This can be accomplished by integrating grammar teaching into the framework of communicative language teaching. According to Betty Azar, “the goal of grammar teaching is to create an inter-language that is increasingly fluent and accurate in the use of English structures in meaningful communication.”  The goal of instructing ELL students is to teach them to communicate effectively.  This can be accomplished by incorporating mini-lessons on specific grammar skills into the communicative language-teaching classroom.  As Betty Azar states, “students in L2 programs that include both grammar teaching and communicative teaching show accelerated learning and substantial gains in usage” (Azar, B. 2008. Teaching grammar in today’s classroom. AzarGrammar.com).  

Unit Nine: Timeline

Topic 2: (look for numbers 1 - 2- 3 to see where they fall on the timeline)



__1__2_1___1___1____1_ ___1___1___1___1___1__3_1_
                                                               



1) Simple Present: "John is a fisherman."              

• Statement of fact.

2) Simple Past: "Last winter, his brother bought land."

• Indicates that an action began and ended in a specific time in the past.

3) Simple Future: "He is hoping to catch more fish tomorrow."

• Expresses a Prediction.

Unit Nine: Blog Post

Topic One:

1) Last winter, his brother bought land, but he sold it to his neighbor when the economy crashed.  John loves fishing but wants to be more successful. When John felt sad, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up.  John asked his brother if he liked the new look.  John’s brother laughed at him and said, “You’re always looking for compliments.”

John did not argue with his brother because he was too tired.  Instead, he made more nets. He hoped to catch more fish the next day.

2) ELLS might find certain parts of this story confusing such as: “the economy crashed, longs to be more successful, feeling down, fishing for compliments, increasing his catch, and “Troubled Waters”

• ·      ELL students would need an understanding of the word “economy” and what it means for it to “crash”. Their understanding of something “crashing” would most likely be of something falling off of a table and breaking into a million pieces. 
• ·      ELL students might think of the term “long” as in length.  They would need to understand the word in a different context such as “to want”.
• ·      ELL students might not understand the term “feeling down”.  They would need to build knowledge of how the term “down” can be used in different contexts.
• ·      “Fishing for compliments” could be taken literally by an ELL student.  They might think that it literally means “fishing for words in the ocean.”
• ·      “Catch” is another word that would need to be explained because ELL students might only know it as a verb whereas here it is being used as a noun.
• ·      Also, the term “troubled waters” would need to be reviewed so students understand its true meaning.  They might take this term literally and think that the water is in trouble.

Grammar Mini-Lesson

I hope you enjoy my mini-lesson on "Tag Questions" for ELLs.  Click on the link below to access my presentation. :-)

Grammar Mini-Lesson

Unit 8: Application Questions

A)  In dialog #2 Mohammad is uncertain of his homework assignment, yet he does not voice his concern. He seems hesitant to ask Mr. Smith for help. When asked by Mr. Smith if he understood the assignment Mohammad responds, “Yes, I think so”, however, when asked an additional time, Mohammad responds, “Yes, sir.” The miscommunication occurs when Mohammad says “Yes, sir” because Mr. Smith unknowingly assumes that Mohammad understands the assignment, when in fact, he does not.


B)  I read an article earlier this year in ESL 501 entitled, English as a Second Language Learners: A Guide for Classroom Teachers (1999), that states “In some cultures, expressing a lack of understanding or asking for help from the teacher is interpreted as a suggestion that the teacher has not been doing a good enough job of teaching and is considered impolite" (p. 9). This cultural belief may be why Mohammad is hesitant to ask for Mr. Smith’s help.

Grice's Conversational Maxims

The Maxim of Relevance:

Scenario: A couple has been dating for almost a month....

Female: “I’ve been thinking a lot about us lately…”

Male Responds: “uh huh…darn, the Phillies lost tonight’s game!”

The guy responds with a statement that is not relevant to what the girl just said.  He wants to change the topic of conversation because talking about a “relationship” is something he wants to avoid at all costs.

The Maxim of Quality:

Scenario: Two people discussing how their day went.  Person 1 knows that Person 2 despises their job but asks the same question almost every day.

Person 1: “How was work?”

Person 2: “Oh just wonderful; I had the best day ever!" (Facial expression = sneer and role of the eyes. Suspension of Maxim of Quality in order to express sarcasm)

Person 2 later explains that a customer screamed at her and she missed her lunch break.

The Maxim of Quantity:

Scenario: Person 1 greets a co-worker in the hallway.

Person 1: “Good Morning, How’s it going?”

Coworker Responds: “Oh you know same old same old; I just got back from vacation though, and had the best time…  (The co-worker goes on to describe their vacation in great detail with a play by play of what they did each day.)

Person 1 becomes a bit annoyed (body language: becomes stiff and keeps checking their watch) because they did not expect to get into an in-depth conversation about their coworker’s vacation. Person 1 expected a “normal” response such as “It’s going well”, or “Great – It’s Friday” or “Eh, as good as can be expected on a Monday.”  Too much information was given and the Maxim of Quantity was violated.

The Maxim of Manner:

Scenario: A mother asks her daughter’s opinion about her son’s new girlfriend.

Mom: “What do you think of Brian’s new girlfriend?”

Daughter Responds: “Oh, she’s just lovely.”

This response can be taken one of two ways: 

#1. The girlfriend is actually a very sweet girl.

OR

#2. The girlfriend is anything but sweet, and the statement is said with exaggeration.

In the case of #2, The Maxim of Manner has been violated (tone of voice).