Today I Learned... - Music Banter Music Banter

Go Back   Music Banter > Community Center > The Lounge
Register Blogging Today's Posts
Welcome to Music Banter Forum! Make sure to register - it's free and very quick! You have to register before you can post and participate in our discussions with over 70,000 other registered members. After you create your free account, you will be able to customize many options, you will have the full access to over 1,100,000 posts.

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 05-13-2019, 05:34 PM   #11 (permalink)
...here to hear...
 
Lisnaholic's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: He lives on Love Street
Posts: 4,444
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dharma & Greg View Post
****ing white people know what they're saying, it's not a different language, so who ****ing cares? Language is simply a means to communicate and if two people can communicate then why does it matter if their syntaxes aren't a carbon copy of each other? When language becomes a means to separate races and classes then it's not the person being criticized who needs to shut the **** up.
^ I must try to remember this next time you go full grammar nazi on someone.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________

Yeah, I get what you guys are saying, and OH's image of a little girl and her mum's English is a good illustration. Not always, but I often try to squeeze in the word "grammatically" when I'm correcting students. I'm not judging them or their ideas, I hope I'm making a neutral observation that they are not using what is known as accepted grammar.
Ideally, teachers should also explain to students how there are different tones and formalities in English. In formal written English you should use accepted grammar, but what OH's little girl and her mum say at home is entirely their business. So the little girl's mum's English is not "wrong" it's just not appropriate for advancing academically.

Also, of course, I have the advantage of teaching smallish groups in a less charged atmosphere than OH's classes in the US. I don't have to cope with that tension between social class, race and type of English, but if you explain about appropriate tone for different situations, perhaps some of that tension can be diffused.

And finally a note on corrections. Plenty of teachers (even me on a good day) use this method:
i) get students working in groups,
ii) prowl around with ears/eyes open to notice important errors
iii) when students have expressed their ideas, put some of the errors you noticed on the board
This way you can correct grammar without embarrassing/interrupting individual students.
__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Last edited by Lisnaholic; 05-13-2019 at 05:47 PM.
Lisnaholic is offline   Reply With Quote
 


Similar Threads



© 2003-2025 Advameg, Inc.