English 390:010         English Linguistics  

Fall 2005

MWF 12:20-1:10                    110 Memorial Hall

Instructor:                               Dr. Stephen A. Bernhardt

Office                                      Memorial 208

Office hours                            Mondays and Wednesday 1:15 to 2:30; and by appointment

Phone                                      831 3351 (email is better for messages)

Instructor email                       See Web-CT site and send mail there

Class email                              See Web-CT site for classmate mail and whole class mail

Required Texts

Calderonello, Grammar for Language Arts Teachers

Kolln, Rhetorical Grammar

Haussamen, Grammar Alive

Learning Goals

See the NCTE/NCATE Standards for English Language Arts, Grades 7-12, especially Section 3, which call for knowledge of and skills in the use of the English language. http://www.ncte.org/library/files/Programs/Teacher_Prep/RevisionApprovedStandards904.pdf 

  • To be able to describe and exemplify sentence structures (parts of speech, parts of sentences, case, agreement, number, gender, reference, etc.)
  • To be able to identify and solve individual problems of grammar, punctuation, and phrasing.
  • To understand how sentence structure and phrasing affect style.
  • To understand language generally, how it changes over time and across communities of speakers and writers.
  • To develop an instructional philosophy and pedagogical approaches to language issues in the English language arts classroom.

Description

This course is intended to prepare English teachers to understand the sentence and how it works. The course stresses a practical understanding of traditional classroom grammar and usage. More generally, the course focuses on language and how people use language. This course is being piloted under the Engl390 number, with the intention of developing the course as a requirement for teacher education under the number Engl359.

This is not a writing class, but you will learn about sentence construction, usage, phrasing, and other aspects of language that will help you become a better writer. Quizzes will ask you to analyze and identify sentence structures, as well as ask you to write definitions, explanations, and positions on various issues in grammar and usage. Your mini-lesson, team project, and other homework will also require you to do written work. My expectation is that you will write well and correctly, and the quality of the writing you do will influence the points you receive on any given assignment. You will have opportunities to revise and resubmit written work (in particular, the open-ended questions on the quizzes).

I suggest you keep a notebook for class, writing definitions, putting in examples, and explaining things to yourself in your own language. Keep a separate section on punctuation, since points on punctuation are spread throughout the books. You are responsible for a lot of careful learning in this course—terms, distinctions, definitions. If you write things down in your own language, you are more likely to learn and remember. Write questions in your notebook—things you do not understand and would like to talk about in class.

Grading:

Specific points for assignments are on the grade sheet in WebCT. You will be able to see the overall total points and what you have so far, so you know where you stand. Your grade will be based primarily on the point values assigned from assignments.

 

Quiz 1

25

A=92-100; A- = 90-91

Quiz 2

25

B+ =88-89; B=82-87; B- =80-81

Quiz 3

25

C+=78-79; C=72-77; C- = 70-71

Mini Lesson

5

D=60-69; F= 59 and below

Team project: create a language

10

 

Homework and participation

10

 

Extra credit

?

 

 

100

Need C- for course to count.

 

Some work (posts or homework) will be graded check √ for satisfactory, √+ for better than expected, and √- for worse than expected. These marks can influence your grade up or down.

Homework, class participation, leadership, and work habits all influence your grade. You will be able to keep track of your points throughout the term.

Participation is important and I will credit you during grading on the basis of your overall participation, contributions, and leadership. Talk in class about what you are learning. Help others be successful. Take an active role and your grade will take care of itself.

Communication

You should take advantage of my office hours for one-on-one conferences. You can either schedule an appointment or drop in during my hours.

You can communicate with me and the class via email. We can discuss issues as a group on our class discussion board. You will also be able to ask the group through email for information about assignments, strategies, or requirements via the list.

If you have a question about how to do an assignment or want help, post your question to the bulletin board on Web-CT, so everyone benefits from your question. If you are not sure about something, there will be other people in class with the same question. If you write to me personally, but I think the class would benefit from discussion the issue, I will forward your question to the group.

Mini-lesson

You will be responsible for presenting a topic to the class—teaching a brief lesson to an audience of your classmates. We will develop a schedule for these presentations and begin class each day with a mini-lesson. You should develop a one-page handout that defines terms, provides brief explanations of key points, and offers examples of the topic under discussion. The following are suggested topics:

Black English/Ebonics                        Spelling vs. pronunciation       Most common errors
British vs. American English              African English                       Great vowel shift
Language testing                                 Sexist usage                            Grammar checkers
Grammar and writing                          Common spelling errors          Spelling checkers
Changing usage                                   Dictionaries/lexicography       English as a world language
Scientific English                                Plain language                         ESL grammar issues
Spanglish                                             Legal English                          Standard English
Spelling rules                                       Scandinavian influence           Language prejudice and bias
English-only movement                      Latin influence                        Slang
American dialects                               German influence                    Obscene language
Proofreading marks                             French influence                     Neologisms
History of punctuation                        Language and gender             Language in contact
Grammar reference books                   Caribbean English                   Language and politics

Team project

Develop a language with its own rules. Use English root words, but develop new grammatical rules. Produce a text in the new language (one page). Provide an accompanying grammar (the statements of the rules). This assignment should show that you understand and can construct a language with typical features: number, person, case, tense, aspect, possession, subject/predicate relations, subject/verb/object relations, reference, verb forms, pronouns, etc. Your language does not need to do everything that English does, and it might do some things that English does not do (for example, Russian marks more cases than English—instrumental, locative, dative, accusative, genitive, prepositional—and Spanish shows agreement in gender between nouns and modifying adjectives). Your rules might rely on word order, prefixes or suffixes, internal word changes, or word compounds. The point is for you to think, talk, and construct together, so you all understand what we mean when we talk about how language works to signal relationships.

Attendance:

To participate, you need to be in class, on time, having read the work, having done the exercises, and being prepared to work.

I can accept one or two absences for personal reasons or special events, as long as you explain to me in an email the reason for your absence. You should do this before the absence, if possible. Additional absences will cause your grade to be lowered. If you miss a class, talk to someone first and then see me if necessary to be sure you don't miss important information about assignments.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)

Students with disabilities should use the services the University provides: diagnosis, support, special consideration. See http://www.udel.edu/ADA/

If you believe you have a disability, you should visit the ADA office. Let me know if you have a documented disability that affects your performance in this class and we will find ways to work together, in confidence. Sit up front if you need to see or hear better. Ask me to repeat if you have trouble understanding. If your situation means you need extra time for completing written work, we can make the adjustments as necessary.


Schedule

12:20-1:10 pm
110 Memorial

Study the chapters and do the exercises before coming to class. Do enough of the exercises so you know you understand. Come to class with questions.

Aug. 31 Wed.

Intros, goals, expectations, assessment

Sep 2 Fri

Grammar, Ch 1, Why study grammar?
Alive, Ch 1, Three goals for teaching grammar
Alive, Ch 6, Grammar superstitions

Sep 5 Mon

Holiday

Sep 7 Wed

Rhetoric, Ch 1, The structure of sentences
Alive, Ch 7, Diagramming sentences

Sep 9 Fri

Grammar, Ch 2, Simple sentences

Sep 12 Mon

Alive, Ch 8, An overview of linguistic grammar
Rhetoric, Ch 12, Word classes

Sept. 13 Tue

Grammar, Ch 3, Nouns and noun phrases
Last day to register or to add courses.

Sep 14 Wed

Rhetoric, Ch 13, Pronouns

Sep 16 Fri

Grammar, Ch 4, More about verbs

Sep 19 Mon

Rhetoric, Ch 7, Choosing verbs

Sep 21 Wed

Grammar, Ch 5, Simple sentence variation

Sep 23 Fri

Rhetoric, Ch 3, Sentence rhythm

Sep 26 Mon

Alive, Ch 4, Flexing students’ sentence sense

Sep 28 Wed

Review session for quiz prep

Sep 30 Fri

Quiz #1

Oct. 3 Mon

Grammar, Ch 6, Sentence complexity: adverbials, adjectivals, and nominals
Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown; continues next two days

Oct 5 Wed

Grammar, Ch 7, Introducing adverbials

Oct 7 Fri

Review quiz results. Rhetoric, Ch 8, Choosing adverbials

Oct 10 Mon

Grammar, Ch 8, Introducing Adjectivals

Oct. 12 Wed

Rhetoric, Ch 9, Choosing Adjectivals
Yom Kippur begins at sundown; continues following day

Oct 14 Fri

Grammar, Ch 9, Introducing nominals

Oct 17 Mon

Rhetoric, Ch 10, Choosing appositives and absolutes

Oct 19 Wed

Grammar, Ch 10, Compounding in and with sentences

Oct 21 Fri

Rhetoric, Ch 5, Coordination

Oct 24 Mon

Rhetoric, Ch 2, Cohesion; Review session for quiz prep

Oct. 25 Tue

Last day to withdraw without penalty.

Oct 26 Wed

Quiz #2

Oct. 28 Fri

Fall Break; classes suspended.

Oct 31 Mon

Review quiz results

Nov 2 Wed

Rhetoric, Ch 4, The writer’s voice

Nov 4 Fri

Rhetoric, Ch 6, Brevity and subordination

Nov 7 Mon

Introduce Team Project: Writing a language

Nov 9 Wed

Rhetoric, Ch 11, Choosing stylistic variations

Nov 11 Fri

Rhetoric, Ch 14, Punctuation

Nov 14 Mon

Work on team projects

Nov 16 Wed

Grammar, Ch 11, Grammar and the writing process

Nov 18 Fri

Alive, Ch 2, Discovering grammar

Nov 21 Mon

Alive, Ch 3, Teaching the language of grammar

Nov. 23 Wed

Thanksgiving recess begins.

Nov. 28 Mon

Classes resume following Thanksgiving recess.

Nov 30 Wed

Alive, Ch 5, Non-native speakers

Dec 2 Fri

Presentation of Team grammars

Dec 5 Mon

Review for quiz

Dec. 7 Wed.

Quiz #3
Last day of classes; classes end at 10:00 p.m.

Dec. 8 Thurs.

Reading Day; no examinations scheduled.

Dec. 9 Fri.

Final examinations begin.

TBD

Meet to go over quiz, do class evaluation, and say good bye (boo hoo)