Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h6MHTt702194; Tue, 22 Jul 2003 13:29:55 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 13:29:55 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <1058894692.3f1d73641459e@mail.msln.net> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Bonnie Fortini <bfortini@mmhs.u102.k12.me.us> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2456] Re: Syntax and more. X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Status: O Content-Length: 4693 Lines: 71 This discussion has been very interesting, and while I have no grand conclusions to offer, I do have several observations, as non-scientific as they may be. Recent brain research has shown that children’s brains actually "prune" neurons rather than sprout them. What does sprout, or develop, is the depth of the connection between and complexity of connection among the neurons. Very small children are known to have the ability to understand many languages up to the age where they select their "mother tongue" (the language map for that tongue then becoming the predominant one in the brain). One case of this ability was related to me by a co-worker, a Russian immigrant who also spoke German, English, and some Polish. She had come to America after WWII with her 4-year-old son, and was living with a family who had a son the same age. One day, my friend asked her son, in Russian, where his mittens were, and the other child, who had no exposure to Russian prior to their arrival, and who was just walking by, answered, in Russian, that they were on the radiator. I clearly remember experiencing the loss of this ability when, at age 5, I was no longer able to understand what my grandmother who spoke Yiddish was saying to me. I believe I told my parents that it felt as though a switch had turned off in my head. I remember feeling very sad, and a bit afraid because of the loss. Is this Chomsky’s deep syntax? I don’t know. I am also finding it rather interesting, at my "advancing" age that more frequently I experience hearing the sounds of speech, but miss the meaning. When it happens I have the sensation of scrambling madly about in my mind, seeking context upon which to hook the sounds to attempt to make meaning. I can’t bring any specific examples to mind (that’s out of habit, not age), but it does seem to happen more with the spoken rather than written word (which I hear in my mind’s ear when I read). It is sort of like my older daughter’s experience as a teen when she spent a month in France one summer. She phoned home daily for the first 3 days, in tears because she couldn’t understand anyone. She had 3 years of French and is something of a "natural" as she, a decade later, spent 4 years in the Army as a linguist/language interceptor. She said it felt as though her ears wouldn’t let the French in. Finally, on the 4th day she called to report, happily, that she had dreamed in French the previous night, and now everything was fine. I went to the dictionary to look up "syntax" and found it to be: the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language; the study of the patterns of formation of sentences and phrases from words; the rules or patters so studied; their presentation; or an instance of these. It is from the Greek, syntaxis, an arranging in order. What was interesting was that when I went to the thesaurus to look up syntax (it wasn’t there) I ended up at "grammar." One of the choices there was the word "accidence" which means the rudiment or essentials of a subject, and in grammar means the study of inflection as a grammatical device. This current discussion has seemed to center more on deriving meaning from groups of words rather than on grammatical order, and inflection and prosody seem to have more to do with meaning making than grammar does. The similarities between the EFF Convey Ideas in Writing and Speak So Others Can Understand focus on organization and conventions of English language and oral communication in order to facilitate meaning making. Reading aloud (Meta, thank you so much for your excellent posting on the benefits of this practice!) is a logical connection between the two standards (and pulls in Read With Understanding). In response to Andrea’s question to Meta about practice in speaking translating into writing skills and such, it seems that there needs to be a print or text connection included for this to be most effective, at least in societies that have written language. This connection could be things like drafts of speeches, critiques and responses to oral communication, at least in an instructional setting. Of course, in some cases, speeches or sermons that put people to sleep would have a different kind of feedback. I had the opportunity recently to read aloud to a group of adult education practitioners in a workshop (we were becoming more familiar with the worker role map using quality children’s literature). Several participants mentioned in their feedback that they enjoyed being read to, and felt they might use the technique with their own staff and students. It is a powerful tool that can also be lots of fun. Bonnie
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