The Temptations - The Way You Do The Things You Do

Baby you're so smart ...You could of been a school girl.

Adult Language & Literacy: Summary Assignment:Teaching Critical Literacy

In her article, "The Need for Conceptualizing at all Levels of Writing Instruction,"Marilyn Sternglass argues that it is not enough to teach students in remedial classes the linguistic forms of Edited American English and the writing conventions, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and paragraphing. She says, “These conventions need to be taught within a larger conceptual framework” (88). In order to be ready for college level work, Sternglass argues that remedial students need to be exposed to, and gain increasing mastery of, academic cognitive skills such as summary, compare/contrast, and analysis. A summary of this article which appears in the Journal of Basic Writing (8.2 (1989): 87-98) can be found in the link below:

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AejvYXPv3HOaZGY5N2RucXBfNjVmbjI2bTZjdw&hl=en

The Multilingual Self: Swimming the Depths With Lvovich

Something is missing in my way of functioning in English. Something substantial, important, which does not let me enjoy my linguistic performance. It is like I am floating on the surface of the ocean, giving curious glances into its depth. It’s like I am fishing for a deeper essence, and sometimes I get some fish, but they are separate fishes [sic], not the overall picture, with everything lying there, on the bottom. Frustrating….
I walk along New York streets—and they are prison to me. I want desperately to be back in Europe, to touch the old stones, to be lost in the nonparallel, noncrossing streets, to find familiarity in faces, clothes, and smells. I don’t like America. I hate New York. I hate my life (61).

Reading this passage, I abruptly entered Lvovich’s world and became a partner in her struggle not only to survive but also to succeed in America. With these words of angry desperation and candor, Lvovich shed her fantasy, threw wide the door to her multilingual self and pulled me in. Her story suddenly pulsed with life and resonated because I too have become angry and despairing while trying to acquire a new language and create a new identity.
In my case the new language is the professional language of linguistics and literacy, the language of SLA and linguistic researchers and theorists. But the deeper reality, the depths I fear and yet long to enter, is the new self I am building as graduate student and teacher of adult literacy. Until Lvovich came along, until I finally cracked open her book, I was one angry, isolated and despairing learner, “floating on the surface” and afraid of failure.
“I hate SLA!” I shouted one night flinging my “Ellis” across the room. My lament continued, “I will never get it; I am going to fail the class; I am too old for graduate school.” Fortunately, I didn’t give up. Instead I picked up Natasha Lvovich’s book, The Multilingual Self and began to read.

Here is a link to the remainder of the essay that I wrote for English B 8100 (SLA):

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AejvYXPv3HOaZGY5N2RucXBfNjNmcDliNjIzOQ&hl=en

Adult Language & Literacy Assignment: Midterm Paper, Braille Literacy

Braille literacy at its most basic is the ability of blind or vision-impaired individuals to read and write. But it is more than this. Braille allows the blind to know the structure of their language.
For the sighted, the syntax of language comes through seeing words, sentences and paragraphs displayed on the page. They can see as well as hear how sentences are formed. They see those endings that often don’t get sounded properly: the rascally regular past tense -ed and often neglected (especially in the Southern English dialect) present participle -ing for example.
For the visually impaired, this ability to know and understand the shape and structure of language is not available – unless they learn to read through braille. Thus, a richer definition of braille[1] literacy encompasses the ability to know through touch how letters, words and sentences appear on the page.
For many sighted individuals braille is a mystery. Is it a special language? What does it look like? When and where did braille originate and how is it used today? These are questions this essay will attempt to explore.
[1] The Braille Authority of North America recommends capitalizing Braille when it refers to Louis Braille but lower case when referring to the braille code (National Braille Press).

Here is a link to the rest of the essay for ENGL C0831 Adult Language & Literacy.

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AejvYXPv3HOaZGY5N2RucXBfMmNrdzI3dGZq&hl=en