So seeing that a.) I never started a post and b.) I'm scrambling to finish everything this week, I have no choice but to start a post about the article we used to read and evaluate for the final.
The article begins with the idea that children learn their language through their own process and discovery, rather than the traditional direct instruction. With Hispanic families in the U.S., children become immersed into the English language by making friends in the neighborhood or going to school. These children who are raised bilingual are not sat down by one person and taught two languages and what makes them different. The children learn after using the languages (and making some mistakes) how to speak in each language from their own discoveries and use of the languages.
With invented spelling, students construct words by using their listening skills. I thought it was very interesting how these students' writing were compared to the drawing of the stick man with no hair to the one with a beard and a crown - students' spelling develops over time with room for error, and gradually their spelling improves. This is completely different than the hundreds of spelling lists we had to memorize as kids to take the dreaded spelling quizzes. So, while I am probably a person who believes in the process-oriented constructive approach, I can't help as a future teacher but feel that the ultimate goal is establishing correct habits and mastery of the language. So maybe I believe a little of both approaches.
As this is probably the last post on our blog, I hope everyone did well on the final. But more importantly, I hope everyone has a really nice break. Happy holidays (we're almost there)!!!
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6 comments:
I wish that we had this article earlier in the semester. As this class is coming to an end, is in my opinion when it was becoming very interesting. The study of language is fascinating to me. Human development is strongly dependent upon language development and vice versa. Language is something that all people should have a chance at mastering. I just hope that all the students take from this class the fact that language is always evolving and will continue to evolve.
I agree that the best approach would probably be a combination of the two. Perhaps the idea that they might never move past the incorrect spelling is what makes me feel that they still need to be taught correct spelling. Perhaps if it were parents who took the active role and allowed them to creatively spell prior to school starting, and then teachers correcting the spelling, that might work. Something new like this is always difficult to start, and I know I would not want to risk my child not learning to spell to see if this approach worked, but it has to be someone's kid to find out. Happy Holidays to everyone!
Happy holidays, my 303-002 class!!! Thanks for all the fun games, the rocking songs (!!), the brownies, the candy, your excellent writings - and I'm sure we'll all take home some good memories - if not of grammar, of each other!!! ;-) Dr. Voss
I know that though the years I have had some serious spelling issues. I had to turn to sounding out words a lot of the time, and I discovered though trial and error, (Not to mention by mom yelling at me) how to spell things correctly, all I can say is, thank god for spell check.
I used to have the problem of spelling when I was a kid. Most of the time I would learn how to spell things on my own. A lot I learned was from observing different pictures and words. I would also listen and then the spelling of the words would just be there. I never really did a lot of writing, just learned from observing everything around and if I need to write I would and figure out the spelling by remembering what I saw.
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