Caleb James Theory of Language, 7312 Essay #1 Dr.

Kleine 3/29/2011

Principles of Language Acquisition Applied to the Teaching of Writing

As a graduate assistant in the University Writing Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, I collaborate with writers of different levels of experience. Tutors in the Writing Center provide feedback to writers who are willing to walk through our doors and show a stranger what they have written. On one end of the spectrum are the experienced writers, who need the tutor to act as a critic. While playing this role, I consider myself to be a consultant, not a tutor. Usually, an experienced writers paper will contain all the necessary elements of the genre of which he/she is writing, but may need peer review to strengthen weak points and develop content. On the other end of the spectrum are the inexperienced writers. Inexperienced writers may or may not have issues with grammar in their writing, but always need significantly more help with generating content than experienced writers, even if they know the topic of their paper. Also, inexperienced writers sometimes lack structure and cohesiveness in their writing, which makes it difficult to see their thought progression as linear. Inexperienced writers arent stupidafter all, they are in college. And while conferencing with an inexperienced writer, usually it is obvious that they are familiar with their topic and have clear-cut opinions. What then is the reason for their difficulty in writing? It is plain to see that they made it through the

public school system without acquiring the necessary skills to be successful in a highereducation institution. The public school system is mostly to blame for the lack of literacy skills in the United States. Of course, parenting and social factors contribute to the problem, too, but none have as great an effect as the childrens experience in school from kindergarten on. Although many traditional practices, such as criticizing a students writing and using writing as a punishment, hinder the development of reading and writing skills, teaching rules of grammar to children of such a young age is simply a waste of timecrucial time that could be used to practice reading and writing. To give clarity to what the time is wasted on, a definition of grammar should be provided. Noam Chomsky (1975) defines grammar as . . . a system of rules and principles that determine the formal and semantic properties of sentences. The grammar is put to use interacting with other mechanisms of mind, in speaking and understanding language (p. 28). Certainly, students should know these rules before they write, and according to the innateness hypothesis re-presented by linguists Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams (2011), they do: They [children] extract the rules of the grammar from the language they hear around them, and their linguistic environment does not need to be special in any way for them to do this (p. 330). Because children are immersed in a language, they pick up the rules they need to communicate. As part of the innateness hypothesis, linguists have introduced the idea of a universal grammar, which is an innate blueprint . . . and that blueprint aids the child in the task of constructing a grammar for her language (Fromkin et al., 2011, p. 330). This hypothesis is 2

supported by the discovery that no matter in what culture children are born, they will learn the language of that culture because humans are genetically predisposed to communicate. As children develop a language, they pass benchmarks that indicate their level of grammatical competence. The idea of linguistic stages is important because it clarifies that although the cognitive capacity of language is innate, its not instant. In Reflections on Language, Chomsky (1975) writes: We might realistically, say that children proceed through a sequence of cognitive states S0, S1, . . . , Sf, where S0 is the initial state, prior to any language learning, and Sf is the final state, a steady state attained early in life and not changing in significant respects from that point on. When the child has attained this steady state, we say that he has learned the language. (p. 119) In short, children develop quickly, but through stages, while immersed in their languagea process in which practice enhances their ability to communicate. Fromkin et al. continue about the rapidity of this process, From first words to virtual adult competence takes three to five years, during which time the children pass through linguistic stages (p. 332). So by age four to six, language that children use is governed by rules that they will maintain for the rest of their lives, assuming that a childs first words are around age one. Collectively, these stages of development from birth to middle childhood are known as the critical period. Linguists conclude that . . . Language acquisition proceeds easily, swiftly, and without external intervention. After this period, the acquisition of grammar is difficult and, for most individuals, never fully achieved (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 62). Because

writing is just the written form of the spoken language, it seems that this principle could easily apply to writing, too. So if children inherently know the rules of grammar by being immersed in a language from birth, why has their public school experience not supplied them with the necessary skill of writing to be successful in college and life? The most simple, straightforward answer is that the public school system isnt focusing on reading and writing skills; its focus, when it comes to language arts, is on grammatical exercises and tests. When a student visits the Writing Center seeking help with a paper, the tutors job is more difficult because the tutor must also address lower-order concerns, such as punctuation and grammar, instead of concentrating on the more important issues, such as content and organization. It seems that if students already know rules of grammar from an early age, their writing would be free of grammatical errors. The only explanation of this conundrum is that the students are unfamiliar with standard conventions of writing. Because students are unfamiliar with writing, theyre not only afraid to write, but when they get to college, their writing isnt at a college standard. The solution to the problem of substandard writing skills of high school graduates lies in the theories of linguists. I propose that through immersion of reading and writing, students will develop skills through stages similar to those of language acquisition. And by doing so, students will be less afraid to write, will be more creative, and will be more successful in college and life. Consequently, when a student enters the Writing Center, the tutor will serve as a consultant or collaborator, rather than a tutor. If by school age, or soon after, children are aware of the grammatical rules of their language, they should also be capable of reading and writing. Although writing is on paper and 4

speech cannot be seen, they are both forms of communication, nonetheless. Hopefully, by the time children have reached school age, their parents have taught them the alphabet and introduced spelling and reading, as well as other basics, so that the children can be prepared for both reading and writing when they enter school. If immersed in reading and writing, students could quite possibly become almost as comfortable with it as speaking. By reading and writing concurrently, students receive feedback on what is correct or incorrect in their writing by comparing it to what they read, even if they arent formally corrected by a teacher. This assumption is based on a principle of language acquisition known as the poverty of the stimulus. In short, children are subjected to child-directed speech, as well as dialogue between two or more adults; both include many grammatically incorrect sentences, and the children still develop complex grammars based on rules they have formed (Fromkin, Rodman, & Hyams, 2011, p. 331). So it might be more beneficial for a teacher to limit correcting a students content to only factual information, not grammatical errors, and to only write reader-type questions on the graded paper, such as This is interesting. Can you tell me more? And through practice and encouragement, students will improve and become more comfortable with writing. A similar process happens during the acquisition of any skill. At first one may feel as if the new task is daunting and difficult, but the more the task is performed, the easier it becomes. Of course, when beginning to write, there would be mistakes. But over time the skill will develop, and mistakes will minimize. Perhaps if assignments were suited to the level of competence of the student, then reading and writing would be enjoyable for the student, instead of tormenting. For instance, if childrens stories were assigned for in-class reading, and 5

writing assignments reflected the appropriate genre, then young children could embrace their creativity and learn to like writing. Typically, childrens stories are about animals or other children that have an adventure involving a problem and a resolution. These stories are easily relatable to the young students, so the students enjoy reading them. If allowed to write what they know and enjoy, students will use their imaginations to create a world from their experience. And as they intellectually develop, they would be able to comprehend more advanced readings; consequently, they would be able to write at a more advanced level in different genres when the time is appropriate and they have gained the necessary experience. Although it is common for most high school graduates to enroll in college, others choose to take different directions in life. But even those citizens could benefit from an education that focused on reading and writing. Reading and writing are useable skills that can lead to an easier or more successful life. In Vygotskys book, Thought and Language, he summarizes an analogy introduced by Piaget: Primitive man, he says, learns from experience only in a few special, limited cases of practical activity and he cites as examples of these rare cases agriculture, hunting, and manufacturing things. . . We would not call agriculture and hunting negligible contacts with reality in the case of primitive man; they are practically his whole existence. (1962, p. 23) Using the same logic, we would not call reading and writing negligible contacts with reality in any industrialized society today. And certainly, reading and writing are practical activities that one can only learn from experience. Again, like any task, the more one reads and writes, the easier it becomes, and the quality of the product improves. So if at an early age children are 6

immersed in the activities of reading and writing, they will have much more time to improve their work and develop critical thinking skills. Of course some might assert that children are taught to read and write in their early education. Although I agree that students are introduced to the skills of reading and writing, I still maintain that they are not immersed in the activities. Therefore, they arent practicing reading and writing at a rate to become effective writers, unless they do it outside of school, which is unlikely for most children. So when students enroll in college, their writing is likely below the college standard. Furthermore, the creativity in the average students writing is almost absent. Many people believe that writing, especially creative writing, is limited to a select few. Contrary to that opinion, I believe that writing is not a divine gift that only the chosen ones receive, but rather a form of communication of which all people who are not mentally or physically disabled are capable. The gap between bad writers and good writers, I believe, is the result of good writers experiencing reading and writing more as young children, whereas the bad writers did not experience as much. And great writers just revise. But because of the misconception of writing as magic, many people fail to try to read or write for recreational purposes, let alone for an academic one. It seems as if Chomsky realized the decline of creativity in our modern society; while discussing intellect and the arts, he writes, Mockery of conventions that are, ultimately, grounded in human cognitive capacity might be expected to become virtually an art form in itself, at this stage of cultural evolution (1975, p. 125). Such is the case of a creative writing major in college; that is not to say that creative writing is not a worthy major. It is, however, to say that all humans possess the cognitive capacity to write and 7

to write creatively, yet we have devoted a genre to such a work because we have been taught that only a few can use or appreciate its power. Still some traditionalists may challenge my view by insisting that students must be taught grammar to write without being dismissed as idiots. As stated earlier, any normal person learns the rules of their language by simply existing in a society where language is used. They form an extremely complex set of rules which transcend anything they could ever be taught. Moreover, the opposition may argue that if children arent taught grammar, they will develop bad habits, or the rules wont seem as important. By focusing on grammatical exercises and not immersing students in reading and writing, traditionalists overlook the deeper problem of substandard writing. And perhaps the issues with grammatical problems in writing would work themselves out, much like in language acquisition, if children were introduced to writing early in education and practiced it throughout their academic lives. The traditional grammarian approach is simply an irrational one to a practical, reachable solution. Many people probably assume that there would be no need for a writing center if every student wrote at a college standard upon entering college. The goal of a writing center is not to fix all the small mistakes in a students paper; a writing center cant undo what thirteen years in the public school system has done. However, if a student who has been immersed in a curriculum that stresses the importance of reading and writing enters a writing center, a member of the staff can serve as a collaborator, instead of a tutor, and provide critical feedback. Then if the student revises based on the suggestions made in the conference, the students paper will become significantly stronger. As stated earlier, great writers are good writers who revise. 8

Im not a psychologist, linguist, compositionist, or an education reformer. But I am a student who has attended public schools all of my life and I know what helps and doesnt help me learn. The more often I write, the more my writing improves. I believe that is the case for everyone and that the earlier writing is introduced and practiced, the better it can be. Perhaps there is even a critical period to grasp the rules of writing, such as there is for spoken language. Certainly, based on my qualifications, I cant reform the education system. My proposal is merely a suggestion that I believe is worthy of deeper research.

References Chomsky, N. (1975). Reflections on language. New York, NY: The New Press Fromkin, V., Rodman, R., & Hyams, N. (2011). An Introduction to language (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T.

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