Transcript Linguistics 113 Presentation from Sp16 Orientation

LING 113A
SPRING COMPOSITION ORIENTATION
THURSDAY JANUARY 21, 2016
SHADI GANJAVI, ANNE CRAWFORD,
REBECCA ANDRADE, JOHN GIDES
Why LING113?

International students vs. Non-Native Speakers of English

Goals of Stretch Courses: Critical Thinking, Reading and
Writing skills

Many of our students have problems with these skills.

“My strengths that will help me seek my ideal job is analytical, yet it is based
on thinking ahead and think of everything that could go wrong dealing with
patients it is important to be aware of everything that could go wrong and
everything that patients should be aware of for example letting my patients
know reasons and causes for something is important for their health.”

Non-Native Speakers have to learn English in addition to
all the skills we teach in Stretch courses. (And do it all in
two semesters!)
Why LING113?



With the help of the Undergraduate Studies Office, we
can have all the Non-Native English speaking
International Students (NNESIS) in the same sections.
Pros:

We can design our assignments knowing who our students
are going to be (as opposed to the system we have now).

Instructors can be linguists who are trained to deal with the
issues of second language acquisition who are also trained
in teaching academic writing.
Cons

Not all non-native speakers are going to struggle with the
same aspects of English. Much depends on their first
language.
What’s working for us?

The types of topics we use can be targeted toward who
our students are going to be


Example: comparing and contrasting cultural values
through topics like successful ads, what is considered a
good student, politeness cross-culturally/linguistically.
Using these topics we can discuss things like:

Plagiarism (vs. getting help from friends)

Tardiness, absences

How to address professors in person and in electronic
communication

Being engaged in class, asking questions
What’s Working for Us?

Writing profs who happen to be linguists!

As linguists we study basic structure of different
languages and know what types of problems to expect.

We’re trained to find linguistic patterns that would allow
us to address underlying issues rather than specific
tokens of errors.

A Global Approach vs. a Spot Treatment of Errors
For Example

Different word orders & word formation Processes
Japanese
 Subject
 Noun
– Object – Verb (John the book saw)
– Postposition (table-on)
Arabic
 Verb
– Subject – Object
 Root
Morphology
More Examples

Different ways to package information
 Persian
does not mark definite vs. indefinite.
 John
went to White House when he was in Washington DC.
He read Bible in his hotel room.
 No
‘gender’ is marked in the language.
U
I
= he/she/it
ran into John and his girl friend Michelle. He told me that he
is marrying him in August.
More Examples

Chinese does not mark tense and aspect overtly

English



(1) John walks to school (every day)

(2) John walked to school

(3) John is walking to school

(4) John has walked to school
Chinese

(1) = (3) John walking to school 约翰走路上学

(2) = (4) John walk to school (have to use an adverb to clarify) 约翰步行
上学
From our knowledge of languages, we know much of
what to expect and how to address the issues.
From Me Talk Pretty One Day
(Present Perfect vs Past Simple)

Verb tense

Time is expressed with adverbs


yesterday, today, last week
No distinction between actions completed in the past with and without
a connection to the present.
Past Simple
Finished |Specific point in time
X
X
Form: base verb + ed
(regular verbs)
Present Perfect
Indefinite point in time
Form: have/has + past participle
Present Perfect
Things that happened at an indefinite
time in the past
Life Experience

I’ve spent quite a few summers in Normandy.

I spent quite a few summers in Normandy when I was a
boy.

Have you ever spent summers in Normandy?

When were you in Normandy?
Present Perfect
Things that happened at an indefinite
time in the past
Very recent






I have just returned from Beijing.
Have you been to the beach lately?
Recently I’ve been responsible for paying the bills.
(Lately and recently can also be expressed in the Simple
Past.)
I recently returned from Beijing.
I was at the beach recently.
Present Perfect
Things that happened at an indefinite
time in the past
Connection to the present

Have you finished writing your first draft?


Anton has lost his job.


(Anton is now unemployed.)
Apartment rents have increased.


(Is the draft written?)
(Now the rents are high.)
(You look so sad.) What has happened?
Present Perfect
To talk about things that happened in a
period of time which is unfinished + result

I’ve been a student for three years.


Anton has written four papers today.


(I’m still a student.)
(The result = 4 letters)
He’s been writing papers all day.

(process)
Role of SI in LING 113A

SI Leaders are also Linguistics students, giving the metalanguage knowledge necessary to help non-native
speakers.

Because LING 113A is both a writing and a language
class, the SI leaders will be taking an active role in
ensuring that their classes are continuations of the 113
classes, teaching both writing strategies and grammar
lessons as needed to support students.

Essentially, LING 113 students will have a 2 hour class with a
room and instructor switch between the first and second
hours.
Role of SI in LING 113A

Writing strategies,
reading discussions,
and grammar lessons
are held in both 113
and SI as appropriate.


Weeks 3 & 4, e.g.
SI leaders join
instructors for one-onone conferences.
Sample SI Lesson:
Understanding a Text
“If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then
you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow?
Everyone? Good. We shall begin.”

What could the underlined words be?
Sample SI Lesson
I’ve spent quite a few summers in Normandy, and I took a
month-long French class before leaving New York. I’m not
completely in the dark, yet I understood only half of what
this woman was saying.
“If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then
you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow?
Everyone? Good. We shall begin.”

Does this change your idea of what the underlined
words could be?
Sample SI Lesson
The teacher marched in, deeply tanned from a recent
vacation, and proceeded to rattle off a series of
administrative announcements. I’ve spent quite a few
summers in Normandy, and I took a month-long French
class before leaving New York. I’m not completely in the
dark, yet I understood only half of what this woman was
saying.
“If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then
you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow?
Everyone? Good. We shall begin.”
- David Sedaris, “Me Talk Pretty One Day”
Sample SI Lesson
“If you have not meimslsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then
you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow?
Everyone? Good. We shall begin.”

What could the nonsense words be?

What will you do if you can’t figure it out from context?
(dictionary, friend, corpora, etc.)

Have you ever had this experience in a language
classroom? How did you feel? What did you do?
Sample SI Lesson:
Using Texts to Look at Grammar
“Were you always this palicmkrexis?” she asked. “Even a
fiuscrza ticiwelmun knows that a typewriter is feminine.”
Grammatical Gender*

How would you know typewriter is feminine in French?

Are some nouns in your first language always feminine or
masculine? Or are nouns usually neutral, with no gender?

What does English do with gender? What nouns are feminine
or masculine?

This can lead to a practice of 3rd person singular pronouns if
needed (recall the example from Persian).
Sample SI Lesson
“Were you always this palicmkrexis?” she asked. “Even a
fiuscrza ticiwelmun knows that a typewriter is feminine.”
Parts of Speech & Word Order

When you were thinking of possible words to substitute for the
underlined words, did you know which part of speech it
should be? How did you know?

In English, word order is so strict that you can often predict
what kind of what will go in a given slot in a sentence.
Sample SI Lesson
“Were you always this palicmkrexis?” she asked. “Even a
fiuscrza ticiwelmun knows that a typewriter is feminine.”
Parts of Speech & Word Order

This can lead to a lesson on role of parts of speech in
English grammar and writing correct sentences.
 ‘a
fiuscrza ticiwelmun’ must be a Noun Phrase – why?
 ‘fiuscrza’
must be an adjective or the first part of a
compound noun, and ‘ticiwelmun’ must be a noun –
why?
The Bottom Line

International students in a composition classroom have learning
needs that are distinct from those of a native composition
classroom.

How LING 113A is different than ESL courses.

Pedagogy and methodologies used in LING 113A are rooted in
Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis.

Theoretical underpinnings of language learning are applied in the
context of a writing classroom.

Teaching methodologies are modified to reflect student needs
based on the four skills of second language learning: reading,
writing, listening and speaking. These include tailoring the use of
gesture, tone, and rate of speech to increase comprehension.

Similarities and differences in assessment between ENGL 113A and
LING 113A.
Q&A
Questions / Comments?!
Shadi Ganjavi, LING Writing
Coordinator ([email protected])