[Teaching_Composition] NEW MODULE

[Emmanuel Sigauke]

This is an interesting topic for me because, although I teach "regular" composition classes, I fall ( or used to fall) within the category of NNES since I learned English at the age of seven. I went on to major in English in an African country (former British colony) that used English as it official language, but I continued to use a primary language for daily communication at home. The English major element, I have noticed, has made me attain a comfortable pedagogical angle from which I can teach English to NES as well as NNES. This has made me attain a better (perhaps well-informed) understanding of the different approaches to composition that native speaker students have in relation to ESL. Often, I am able to pierce into the deep-rooted linguistic hesitancies of an ESL rhetoric, borne out of the suspicion of defiency that such students have picked on their way up the ESL learner ladder. I am able to detect the hidden cry for help which demands of me a certain understanding of the ESL experience, and my answer to the cry is that of teaching the same standards to NNES as those taught to NES. Is this fair, especially coming from someone "who should know"? It's not a question of fairness, I have reassured myself, but that of teaching according to the standards of the course being taught; just as there is not ESL way of teaching Anatomy as opposed to a NES one, I have followed the axiom that in a class like English 1A, or IC, I will use the same standards in setting essay prompts, exam questions, grading ( lack of parallelism is lack of parallelism, whether one is NNES or NES), but I have catered to linguistic diversity by fascilitating discussions that hinge on personal experience, and during on-on-one conferences and office hours, I have encouraged utilization of allowing the L1 experience to help in things like brainstorming, but have emphasized the need for a full translation of the concepts to their English equivalence. The NNES state, accepted as a strength, can lead to confident writing.
       I have also found that an honest approach to these issues does help; for instance, if I detect an error that is L1-inspired, I will let the NNES student know that I understand the ideas being expressed, and I will then offer alternative ways to express the same ideas in a more standard style. While there are problems that are exlusively NNES in nature, there are some non-standard versions of English (writing) that are of an NES-nature; I treat these as part of linguistic diversity in my composition classroom and work with the students to appreciate use of a standard writing style.
    In short, linguistic diversity in a composition class could range from dialect-based to NNES varieties of English, yet the goal remains that of helping all the students improve on or attain a level of writing that yields results in communication, and helps the students best express themselves in writing. 

Emmanuel Sigauke
English Department
City College of San Francisco 
50 Phelan Avenue
San Francisco, CA  94112
Phone:(415) 452-7059
>>> chris_anson@ncsu.edu 10/10/06 6:21 AM >>>
If you've ever formed small focus groups in your class and then, to  
get through your agenda, had to break into what you know are highly  
productive, energetic discussions, then you'll have a sense of what  
I'm experiencing moving us to a new module. (In such a situation you  
might let the discussions go on longer than you'd planned*and we've  
done the same, by about ten days worth.) In any case, many thanks to  
Bill Thelin for leading us in an especially engaging discussion of  
the "academic bill of rights," ideology in the classroom, and related  
topics.

Another kind of ideology is at work in our teaching and is relevant  
to our next module, "The Linguistically Diverse Composition  
Classroom," led by Suzanne Blum Malley. I'm thinking of instructional  
ideology*beliefs about the goals and methods of the educational  
enterprise that are predictive of how we might conduct a class  
session, what we might write on a student's paper, how we interact  
with members of our classes (publicly or in tutorials and office  
hours), and how we feel about students themselves*their preparation,  
their lifestyles, their appearance, their ethnicity, and the  
varieties of language they bring to our classes. In spite of the  
growth of world English(es) and attempts in the U.S. to erase or  
marginalize other languages through English-only legislation, many of  
our campuses continue to be linguistically diverse, enrolling  
students with a spectrum of language characteristics and influences  
that variously affect their oral communication, the rhetorical and  
pragmatic/discursive features of their writing, and their control of  
surface features as well. Teachers often bring quite different  
beliefs about the role, needs, "place for," and performance of  
students outside the linguistic mainstream. In her module, Suzannne  
asks us to consider such issues in the context of a crucial area of  
language preparation and growth: the composition classroom. As  
always, please visit the TeachingComp Web site to read Suzanne's  
module, which includes links to some useful resources and ends with a  
set of discussion questions for the list: http://www.mhhe.com/ 
socscience/english/tc/

Suzanne Blum Malley is the Director of ESL and interim Director of  
the Writing Center at Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches in  
the ESL Program, the Writing and Rhetoric Program, and in Columbia’s  
First Year Seminar. She serves as a master teacher for the University  
of Illinois at Chicago Master's in Applied Linguistics Program, with  
MA students interning in her classes for a semester prior to  
completing their degrees. Suzanne's areas of interest and research  
include digital rhetoric and alternative pedagogies for college-level  
second language reading and writing. She has recently co-authored a  
composition textbook with Amy Hawkins titled Translating Culture: A  
Rhetoric for Ethnographic Writing in the Composition Classroom  
(forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin).

Hablemos.


-- 
Chris M. Anson [Web site]
Professor of English
Director, Campus Writing and Speaking Program
Box 8105, North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC  27695-8105
(919) 513-4080