Dr.Greene
Eng. 1101
9 October 2017
RRR
" English Corrections "
In the article, "Watch Your Language: Teaching Standard Usage to Resistant and Reluctant Learners"(Nov. 1996), Larson elaborates on the value of learning English correctly and teaching it properly to students. Larson supports this value by providing effective resources from books along with ideas and thoughts said by teachers. Throughout the article, Larson speaks about his own difficulties in learning English and speech barriers, in order to share with his audience the process of learning correct English and from that process how he was able to help others with the same problem. The intended audience were for students who can relate to this issue and for English teachers that can help students.
I agree with Mr. Larson’s idea, because it is important incorporate exceptions of dialect into standard English due to diversity of cultures speaking English. Larson sold me the this idea by contrasting between his own experience with learning proper English in school and how it does not quite work for the new generation of students. He further won me over with his argument when he used the analogy of going to a luncheon. He ties not knowing the correct actions to take at the luncheon and his frustration to be different into how his students may feel about being told that how their culture raised them to speak is wrong.
Mark Larson speaks about the ways of getting language through to certain learners similar to himself. Throughout the article, he uses himself as an example of a student who had difficulties of trying to memorizes rules of grammar or the usage of punctuation. “We continue to recite these rules to hapless would-be writers and public speakers, instilling in them a fear of the hobgoblins and hurdles to which they can easily fall victim if they do not proceed with caution (Laron 3).” Larson learns that to force learners to memorize rules, it causes them to trip up and make mistakes. Larson also carried out a metaphor, the barrier among himself and grammar, throughout the article. He stated this on page 2 paragraph 1, “ As I write or talk, I still see myself proceeding from a starting block: the first sentence of my communication-to the finish line: the last sentence. Along the way, there are hurdles-arbitrarily placed, fabricated obstacles-which, depending upon my grammatical prowess, I will either clear or trip over.” Larson also choose a descriptive diction so that his audience can visually understand his idea. Examples would be where he said, “ I sat uneasily at a table spread with, among other things, three forks, two spoons, a stack of plates in graded sizes, and several glasses, one of which contained a napkin folded like a swan.” ( Larson 3). He want students to understand basic errors so there are no misunderstandings in message or basic grammar skills. He wrote this article in order to further discussion these issues.
Works cited:
Larson, Mark. " Watch Your Language: Teaching Standard Usage to Resistant and Reluctant Learners"(Nov. 1996), The English Journal © 1996 National Council of Teachers of English,
No comments:
Post a Comment