Language Alive in the Classroom

✍ Scribed by Rebecca S. Wheeler

• Publisher: Praeger (Greenwood Publishing Group)
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 243
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A common concern of teachers in the English-speaking world is that students at all levels often show very little knowledge of grammar. As traditionally taught (if taught at all), grammar is a dry, prescriptive subject and one that students often dislike and therefore do not learn well. In this edited collection, distinguished teachers offer a vibrant alternative by sharing the ways in which they make grammar and writing interesting and exciting to their students. These contributors show how to bring language alive in the classroom.Concrete, animated articles explain how students (elementary through college) can discover language structure in contemporary classrooms. Examples of imaginative learning techniques include doing fieldwork to explore the language of home, neighborhood, and workplace. Freed from scowling linguistic admonitions, students develop a careful eye in exploring the patterns of our living language in its myriad manifestations, from speaking, writing, reading literature, and finally, in our language reference works.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
ISBN......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
INTRODUCTION......Page 10
I BEYOND GRAMMAR OF THE TRADITIONAL KIND......Page 16
1 GRAMMAR, TRADITION, AND THE LIVING LANGUAGE......Page 18
2 THE PERSISTENCE OF TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR......Page 28
3 PRESTIGE ENGLISH IS NOT A NATURAL LANGUAGE......Page 38
4 RETHINKING PRESCRIPTIVISM......Page 52
II NEW WAYS IN THE CLASSROOM......Page 60
5 DIALECT AWARENESS PROGRAMS IN THE SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY......Page 62
6 LINGUISTICS IS FOR KIDS......Page 82
7 LOOKING AT LIFE THROUGH LANGUAGE......Page 96
8 IN FRONT OF OUR EYES: UNDERGRADUATES REFLECTING ON LANGUAGE CHANGE......Page 104
9 GRAMMAR TEACHING IS DEAD—NOT!......Page 116
III LANGUAGE AND WRITING......Page 128
10 WRITING STANDARD ENGLISH IS ACQUIRING A SECOND LANGUAGE......Page 130
11 READING, WRITING, AND LINGUISTICS: PRINCIPLES FROM THE LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE......Page 136
12 COPIOUS REASONING: THE STUDENT WRITER AS AN ASTUTE OBSERVER OF LANGUAGE......Page 144
13 WRITING WELL IN AN UNKNOWN LANGUAGE: LINGUISTICS AND COMPOSITION IN AN ENGLISH DEPARTMENT......Page 154
IV LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE......Page 170
14 WATERSHIPS ALL THE WAY DOWN: USING SCIENCE FICTION TO TEACH LINGUISTICS......Page 172
15 IN FICTION, WHOSE SPEECH, WHOSE VISION?......Page 182
16 THE POETICS OF EVERYDAY CONVERSATION......Page 194
V ON DICTIONARIES AND GRAMMARS......Page 202
17 WHO WROTE YOUR DICTIONARY? DEMYSTIFYING THE CONTENTS AND CONSTRUCTION OF DICTIONARIES......Page 204
18 ONLINE RESOURCES FOR GRAMMAR TEACHING AND LEARNING: THE INTERNET GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH......Page 214
INDEX......Page 228
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS......Page 238

✦ Subjects

Языки и языкознание;Английский язык;Преподавание английского языка / Teaching English as a Foreign Language;