Does it really Matter?
YES! According to Doug Lemov, from Teach Like a Champion, using fluent syntax and correct grammar helps students in many real-life situations from college essays to job interviews. Adolescents need to learn to express their ideas clearly and effectively in a variety of formats to cater to their audience or to a particular situation. Students must realize that they can use different dialects with peers and family in informal settings, but the Standard American English (SAE), or formal English, is the language of opportunity used in the work, scholarly, and business environment. SAE acts as a code, indicating an individual’s ability to speak to a broader audience. Even if a teacher believes departing from the standard is acceptable or falls into the norm of the community’s dialect, each student needs the resources to learn the language of opportunity. Overall, Lemov suggests that students who practice speaking clearly and correctly in school will be more successful in formal out-of-school environments.
What Does it mean in the classroom?
Instructors should begin with identifying the error in the least distracting way possible and allowing the student to self-correct. Teachers may use the previously mentioned “Rollback” method for students to catch their own error by the teacher repeating the sentence back to them interrogatively. If a student learns to correct in the classroom, then they can correct themselves in other formal environments as well. However, if students cannot successfully self-correct, the teacher must correct the students by acknowledging and fixing the problem without interrupting class or the student’s train of thought. One method is for teachers to begin to rephrase the students’ responses in a grammatically correct way and allow students to finish with the correct answer. Also, the student’s voice is another essential part of the strategy “Format Matters.” So the student speaking and their peers know that what he or she has to say matters, students must speak in an audible format during class discussion. Additionally, teachers need to require students to use complete sentences so they can assess and correct linguistic errors, while also giving students an environment to practice and develop their SAE. Though the strategies may seem unnecessary, in the end, students suffer more when their teachers allow linguistic errors to persist.
What Do the DEvelopmentalists Say?
The developmental psychologists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, both stressed the importance of language in cognitive development, or the development of increasingly complex thinking, reasoning, and language with age. An individual’s linguistic abilities develop from a combination of his or her nature and nurture for learning languages. Nature includes a person’s natural abilities to adopt a language, and nurture includes the fostering of language an individual receives in school, home, or other environments. Education psychologists encourage teachers to acknowledge the importance of students’ dialects to their cultural identity, but to promote Standard American English in the classroom environment. “Code switching,” or the ability to switch between formal English and other dialects depending on the situation, is a valuable skill for students to learn. Developmentalists also encourage teachers to foster students’ metalinguistic awareness, or their purposeful awareness of language’s nature and functions. “Format Matters” nurtures students’ metalinguistic awareness by forcing students to think about the correct way to express their ideas and by allowing students to practice using Standard American English.
An environment for Language
A child’s environment has the potential to hinder or promote language development. Children learn language by observing people converse. The complexity of the language observed determines the complexity of the vocabulary and syntax the child picks up. However, children do not absorb and regurgitate the language, but they take what they hear and create their own understanding of the language. In the same way that we learn about other aspects of our environment and culture, we learn language through noticing and using patterns in our social environment. So, the learner constructs his or her own meaning and understanding, instead of directly extracting concepts from the environment. Therefore, cognitive theories of learning place “construction” at the core of learning. Cognitive learning occurs by taking many distinct pieces of information and interpreting the information to understand the world; and, as the brain matures and develops with age, the cognitive abilities of the individual become increasing more sophisticated.
Later in life, adolescents develop and modify their syntax mostly in formal language classrooms. These students improve their linguistic skills through expressing their thoughts in written and oral formats. They benefit most from direct teacher feedback in these areas. In order for students to use the correct format in the classroom and other environments, the appropriate language must become automatic for the students. When teachers incorporate "format" into their lesson, the students are more likely to develop complex and correct syntax, or sentence constructions. Also, repetition of a concept over a lengthy time period, like a school year, puts the information into the student’s long-term memory. The goal is for students to achieve automaticity in composing appropriate English speaking and writing. "Automaticity" means they can retrieve the knowledge of using correct syntax and vocabulary quickly and almost without thinking. In order to achieve this, the students must continue practicing concepts that they have already mastered, like speaking in complete sentences or subject verb agreement. By incorporating “Format Matters” into the classroom daily, teachers create an environment conducive to perfecting students' linguistic skills.
Later in life, adolescents develop and modify their syntax mostly in formal language classrooms. These students improve their linguistic skills through expressing their thoughts in written and oral formats. They benefit most from direct teacher feedback in these areas. In order for students to use the correct format in the classroom and other environments, the appropriate language must become automatic for the students. When teachers incorporate "format" into their lesson, the students are more likely to develop complex and correct syntax, or sentence constructions. Also, repetition of a concept over a lengthy time period, like a school year, puts the information into the student’s long-term memory. The goal is for students to achieve automaticity in composing appropriate English speaking and writing. "Automaticity" means they can retrieve the knowledge of using correct syntax and vocabulary quickly and almost without thinking. In order to achieve this, the students must continue practicing concepts that they have already mastered, like speaking in complete sentences or subject verb agreement. By incorporating “Format Matters” into the classroom daily, teachers create an environment conducive to perfecting students' linguistic skills.
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