Was It Something I Said?

One of my fellow students showed me a class paper she had written. I was barely able to understand some of what she wrote. Her grammar and syntax were beyond non-standard; they seemed to be completely random. English is her first language. It’s obvious from the research she did that she can read, and that she understands what she reads. Her spoken English is normal and easily understood. Yet she can’t write a simple sentence. Worse, when I (gently) pointed out that she had some grammatical errors in a sentence which made it difficult for me to understand, she just smiled. This, from a girl who had shown a great deal of anxiety about getting the assignment “right”. I was left wondering how she passed the English placement test. Well, maybe she didn’t. The school offers remedial classes for those who need to be prepared for college-level English.

It doesn’t surprise me when someone who has difficulty speaking English also has trouble writing it. (I’m sure my written Italian would get a lot of laughs from native speakers.) It does surprise me when someone who can speak reasonably well can’t put words on paper without rendering them incomprehensible. I suspect that for many the problem comes from a perception that written language must be radically different from speech. There is some truth in this, in that we expect written language to follow a more formal structure. But it is not necessary to suddenly start using complicated phrases, long words, or flowery language. If most people would simply write the way they talk, they would make themselves understood.

It’s interesting to contrast the teaching styles of two of my professors, both teaching “general ed” classes.

Teacher A had a structure in which students needed to earn a certain number of points to get a certain grade. She started by assigning everyone the full number of points. Students who failed to turn in certain assignment would have points subtracted from their total. There was no way to earn extra points, or to make up for a missed assignment or test (although she would consider a deadline extension if requested in advance). Papers could not be turned in late. There was no benefit to turning in a paper early, since she did not start reading and grading papers until after the deadline. In her class, most students did just the bare minimum required to meet the description of an assignment. The overwhelming majority of students turned everything very close to the deadline, typically at the last possible moment, and many begged for extensions. Her students were often grouchy and felt overwhelmed by the work.

Teacher B had a structure in which students needed to earn a certain number of points to get a certain grade. She offered many opportunities to earn extra-credit points, which could be used to make up for points which might be lost elsewhere. She was willing to accept late papers, but awarded extra points for papers turned in early. She read, graded and returned papers when they were submitted. In her class, large numbers of students did extra credit work. Many turned in their papers early, and few had trouble meeting deadlines. Some of her students still felt overwhelmed by the work, but overall most were relaxed and not many seemed worried about their grades.

Learn Italian the Fast and Fun Way: This book was used as the text for a brief “Conversational Italian” class I took. There are small errors throughout the book, which the teacher was aware of. (Nothing that will get you in trouble, but be aware.) Its big selling point is that it is mostly aimed at tourists, making it a choice for people whose main purpose in learning Italian is to get along while traveling.

Many students here walk around with perpetually stunned expressions on their faces. They speak in the halting rhythms of people who’ve witnessed a horrifying catastrophe. They repeatedly ask the teachers to say things that were said just a minute ago, and to explain simple things that have been explained more than once in every session. Before explanations and instructions are finished, they are already raising their hands with yet more anxiety-laden questions and requests for further repetition.

They are trying to do too much. Some have full-time jobs, and most have full-time class schedules. They are buried in homework, and not getting enough sleep. They are consumed with worry about whether they will be able to pass all their classes, maintain a grade point average, transfer to other schools, or qualify for special programs. They come from a generation that does not read, and many of them find the textbooks overwhelming (even though most are written at about an eighth-grade level). “Common knowledge” and concepts that seem basic and obvious to people over thirty are completely unheard-of to them.

One project in my health class is to find six advertisements for health products or services and write short critiques based on an outline provided by the teacher. To me, this was the simplest assignment, so I did it first. In discussions with one very sweet girl, I began to think she didn’t really understand the assignment. I showed her what I had done so she could see how easy it was. She wondered about where to find the ads, so I told her I just bought a copy of Ladies Home Journal, which is full of the kinds of ads and articles we can use in this class. She had never heard of it. I told her any women’s magazine would do, and named a few. It was obvious she had never heard of any of them. I began describing them as magazines for housewives, with information about family matters, health and women’s issues. I told her she had probably seen them at the grocery store checkout line. She told me her mother has always done all the grocery shopping.

I would guess that most teenagers have probably been inside a grocery store at some time in their lives. I see parents with children in the store regularly. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that most of them have never paid attention to what is there beyond the narrow scope of the family’s meals and snacks. We often hear that today’s young people are more worldly and sophisticated than we were at their age. I haven’t seen any evidence of that. Television may have made them more knowledgeable about sexual perversion and forensic science, but it doesn’t seem to have taught them much else. I have been asked many interesting questions, including, “What does ‘illicit drugs’ mean?” and “What is an accountant?”

Most of the young students I meet strike me as having led oddly sheltered lives. No wonder the teachers are so desperate to teach them to think, to demand that they try to understand the subject matter within a larger context of history and social forces. What to me is “same old, same old” is new and amazing to them.

Fellini’s Roma: This film has been described as “somewhat incoherent”. No kidding. There are many visually interesting scenes, but much of this film seems to be just weirdness for its own sake, or vulgarity for its own sake. There isn’t anything in the film that actually tells you anything about Rome. Maybe I “just don’t get” Fellini — that’s okay!