[Teaching_Composition] Linguistically Diverse Classroom - sharing knowledge

[Kate McKinney]

My best preparation for a linguistically diverse classroom--and I mean 
"linguistically diverse" in a broad sense, including differences in dialect 
as well as idiom--was a basic linguistics course. It gave me awareness and 
vocabulary that I could pass on to my students.  Linguistic awareness, I 
find, is easy to couple with rhetorical awareness: dialect/idiom are 
directly linked to cultural perspective, voice, and even argumentative style 
(this last was pointed out to me in a pedagogy course led by our own Dr. 
Anson, and has also been extremely useful to consider--different cultures 
approach issues rhetorically in VERY different ways.)

I used a discussion of linguistics and dialect diversity to introduce my 
unit on writing in the social sciences.  The students found it fascinating 
and, I think, freeing.  Linguistic perspective reminds us that our own 
"voice" still exists, even as it speaks in academic register...

--Kate McKinney
NCSU Freshman Composition TA

>From: Chris Anson <chris_anson@ncsu.edu>
>Reply-To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
>To: teaching_composition@mailman.eppg.com
>Subject: Re: [Teaching_Composition] Linguistically Diverse Classroom - 
>sharing knowledge
>Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:36:23 -0500
>
>These are good questions, Suzanne. I think partly our experiences are  
>governed by structural aspects of our programs. For example, although  
>graduate preparation in rhet/comp does include a focus on second- language 
>learners, it tends--in my experience--to be one of those  "miscellaneous" 
>topics covered in a class session and a few readings.  I think that's 
>because on many campuses, ESL is not administered in  the same place by the 
>same people as first-year and advanced  composition are. (Here, for 
>example, the ESL experts are in the Dept.  of Foreign Languages and 
>Literatures; at my previous institution,  there was a large applied 
>linguistics division that did all testing,  teaching, etc., of ESL/EFL 
>students). These structural and  administrative boundaries can  create gaps 
>in preparation and study.
>
>But, of course, the issues are central to all our classrooms,  regardless 
>of the field of study.
>
>
>On Oct 23, 2006, at 1:40 PM, Suzanne Blum Malley wrote:
>
>>Hello again everyone,
>>I apologize for being such a quiet conversation facilitator these  
>>days...as you all know work and life can get in the way of the best  
>>intentions...and list activity.
>>
>>I appreciate all we have heard so far about experiences with and  
>>perspectives on teaching writing in linguistically diverse  classrooms. As 
>>a means of exploring where we might go beyond this  sharing, I’d like to 
>>pose a few more questions to you all:
>>
>># How were you prepared in grad school or through professional  
>>development programs to work with linguistically diverse writers?  What 
>>was most/least effective about that preparation? What about  preparation 
>>for working with “basic writers?"
>># What do you want to learn most about in terms of working with a  
>>linguistically diverse student population in the writing classroom?  What, 
>>for you, would be the most effective way to learn?
>>
>>I ask these questions, somewhat selfishly, because I frequently  field the 
>>questions of faculty in our first-year writing program  about these 
>>issues. As I go through my list of suggestions, I never  know if I’m 
>>actually being helpful. Much of what I offer has to do  with taking the 
>>time to work closely with the student to understand  what he/she is trying 
>>to say before giving in to the impulse to  correct. Then working to 
>>develop the language to express those  complicated ideas. In large comp 
>>classrooms, that time and  attention can be hard to get to, but it is 
>>effective.
>>
>>I’d like to hear what you think. What has worked? What has not  worked? 
>>How do we begin to recognize the cultural and linguistic  complexities 
>>increasingly present and important (and valuable!) in  our writing 
>>classrooms while we do what we do? It seems like this  is an ever more 
>>pressing need as we watch what is happening in the  world around us.
>>
>>Thank you,
>>Suzanne
>>>
>>
>>
>>-- Suzanne Blum Malley
>>Columbia College Chicago
>>English Department
>>Director of ESL
>>Director of the Writing Center (interim)
>>312-344-8111
>>sbmalley@colum.edu
>>
>
>--
>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
>
>

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