Teaching Grammar and Writing - Week 7 - Writing and the Teaching of Writing

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 7 of the course Teaching Grammar and Writing for the Master's in English Teaching at ULACIT in term IC 2023. In this class we will transition our focus from grammar to writing by explore six basic orientations that teachers have adopted toward the practice of writing instruction. This will provide a good overview of the variety of forms that writing instruction can take. We'll also look at your Teaching-Learning Cycle activity and consider the concept of World Englishes and how teachers help students become aware of nonstandard English grammar.

Today's Goals:

• Demonstrate the features of your original Teaching-Learning Cycle activity.
• Classify the purposes and strategies of six major orientations in L2 writing instruction.
• Consider strategies to raise students' awareness of the features of nonstandard English dialects. 

Guiding Questions:

• How can the Teaching-Learning Cycle help students develop genre competence?
• What approaches have proposed for the teaching of L2 writing?
• How can I incorporate the concept of World Englishes into my grammar teaching?

Task 1: Activity Type Demo - Teaching-Learning Cycle Activity

In this course you will be asked to create sample grammar activities in order to compile a portfolio of grammar activitiy types that describes their basic features, strengths, and challenges. 

• Characteristics: What are the features of a Teaching-Learning Cycle activity to teach genre?
• Example: What activity did you create?
• Strengths: In what ways is the Teaching-Learning Cyule frames potentially beneficial in grammar and writing instruction?
• Challenges: What potential limitations or challenges are associated with the Teaching-Learning Cycle?

• Additional Considerations: CLICK HERE

Task 2: Reading Response - Writing and the Teaching of Writing

Let's take a moment to discuss these questions related to your assigned reading for this week.

• How has Writing Instruction been Conceptualized?: CLICK HERE
• Let's Take a Closer Look: CLICK HERE

Task 3: What is EIL?

Last week we looked at a strategy to raise students' awareness about genre features. Today we will consider strategies to raise students' awareness and appreciation for nonstandard English varieties.

Task 4: World English Demo Activity

Work with your partners to complete the activity sequence below to discover strategies to exploit the cultural and linguistic content of authentic texts and raise students' awareness about global varieties of English.

Instructions: In this activity, you will listen to the song "Computer" by Walter Ferguson, a Costa Rican calypso artist, cacao farmer, and native English speaker who was born in 1919 and died last week at the age of 103.  Walter was born on the Panama border near Sixaola but lived his entire life in Cahuita. His first language was Limón Creole English, a variety of English that is similar to other varieties spoken in the Caribbean basin.

CLICK HERE to access the worksheet.   

Focus on Pronunciation

• Listen to the above video. How does Walter pronounce words that begin with a voiced "th" sound (the, this, that)? This is a characteristic of Caribbean Englishes. Think of some other words that begin with a voiced "th" sound. How do you think a speaker of Walter's variety of English would pronounce them?

• Play this video. How does Walter pronounce the word computer? How is it different from the standard North American pronunciation? This characteristic is typical of Caribbean and British English varieties. Think of other words that finish with an "r" sound. How would a British or Caribbean English speaker probably pronounce them?

• Listen to the three video clips above. What similarity do you notice about the way Walter pronounces the words understand, all, and executer?
• This is another typical characteristic of some Caribbean and British Englishes. H-adding occurs when speakers add an "h" sound at the beginning of words that starts with a vowel. They might say "h-ignorant" instead of "ignorant" or "h-understand" instead of "understand". The opposite phenomenon, H-dropping, is more common. This occurs when speakers do not pronounce the "h" at the beginning of a word and say "ospital" or "elp" instead of "hospital" or "help". 

• Finally, listen to Walter's pronunciation of the word "going". He says it twice in this clip. Reducing this two syllable word into a single syllable (/gwain/) is common in Caribbean Englishes and also some older varieties of African American English from the southern United States.

Focus on Grammar

Now, CLICK HERE to read the lyrics of the song again with your partners. Imagine you wanted to use this text to raise your students' awareness about some of the grammatical features of Walter's variety of English. What are some aspects that you could focus on?

Additional Resources

If you are interested in learning more about Walter Ferguson's life and hearing him speak, CLICK HERE to watch the documentary "Ferguson: El Último Trovador de Cahuita". It has interviews with him in English with subtitles in Spanish. 

References:

Hyland, K. (2003). Second Language Writing. Cambridge University Press.

Mckay, S. (2016). Teaching Grammar: English as an International Language. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Teaching English Grammar to Speakers of Other Languages (pp.19-7). Routledge.