After reading the Christensen Article, I began to understand that colonization and the erasure of languages is going to be a vital part of understanding the English language as it is today [complex sentence: dependent clause first, followed by a comma and an independent clause in order to emphasize the gaining of a new, and deeper understanding]. I think that I was able to incorporate the first pattern of the week well into my introduction, however, I also used essentially the same formula as the provided pattern of the week. In this sense, I believe that it was used well, but I didn't take any risks either so I maybe did not learn as much as I would have otherwise had I chosen to experiment a bit more. After experimenting a bit though, I think that I will be able to use the pattern more effectively than prior to my practice.
As far as the rest of the Christensen article is concerned, I believe that the author is absolutely right in calling upon teachers to help fight against the abolition of native, or non-English languages in schools. With the tea party exercise, it really helped put priorities in regard to the teaching of languages into perspective: We have to be able to recognize the the erasure of languages in order to understand why there are the dominant languages, and recognize the importance and relevance of this to our world today. The revival of languages is equally important and there are many things that teachers and schools can do in order to at least do their best in not being part of the colonial movement and erasure of students' native languages: They can make sure to not penalize students who choose to communicate with others in their native tongue because far too often students are forced to cease this type of communication and encouraged to use English instead--a terrible double standard to place on students considering that students with English as a primary tongue are often encouraged to speak the same languages that other students are denied.
The erasure of languages is something that is far too oft considered a relic of the past, however, this couldn't be further from the truth. Colonization and the erasure of languages is a brutal act this is still being carried out upon many populations today. That is why it is so important to go over this situation with students, allowing them to gain perspective on the matter as well as to ensure that they are cognizant enough to not contribute to the problem to the best of their ability. Whilst this erasure is occurring, it is negligence that will bring about the demise of other languages; not the act itself.
I think that you used the pattern in your introduction correctly. You started it with a subordinating conjunction, followed by a dependent clause and then an independent clause, good job! You might not have realized but you did the pattern again in this sentence: As far as the rest of the Christensen article is concerned, I believe that the author is absolutely right in calling upon teachers to help fight against the abolition of native, or non-English languages in schools. It starts with the subordinating conjunction 'as' followed by a dependent clause and independent clause. I agree with what you said about the tea party activity, it really put things in perspective. In this sentence you can't have a comma: The erasure of languages is something that is far too oft considered a relic of the past, however, this couldn't be further from the truth. It could be two separate sentences like: The erasure of languages is something that is far too oft considered a relic of the past. However, this couldn't be further from the truth. Or you could use a semicolon like this: The erasure of languages is something that is far too oft considered a relic of the past; however, this couldn't be further from the truth. This was one of the rules she talked about in class. Other than that, great job Taylor! :)
ReplyDeleteTaylor,
ReplyDeleteYour sentence structure was great. I had to experiment with my sentence and even after that I did not think it made sense, so thank you for the ideas. The rest of your blog had lots of sentence structure that we have been using within the class. The tea party activity really would be interesting to teach within a classroom because of the different points of view. Christensen's article gives a great perspective on language in school and how to approach these ideas of keeping language alive.
Great Job