Re: What good is linguistics?

[Margaret Clark <mag@hal-pc.org>]

Hi, Francie and Listfolk --

The given-new contract has become a powerful focus for the tutoring I do
in the Writing Center.  It's so much more than a theory for coherence --
it is a usable tool that any student can apply to any text that they
write or read.  What's more -- and this is another thiing I discovered
that Rita Smilkstein saw too -- when students can order the information
in their own text in a linked, given-new order, grammar problems -- a
whole lot of them -- vanish.  Why?  Search me, but I've seen it often
enough to know that it happens.  Do I think linguistics is important --
hoo boy. I do.

-- Margaret Clark
U. of Houston-Downtown

fjeffery wrote:

> > ----------
> > From:         fjeffery[SMTP:FRANCIEJ@MAIL.UCA.EDU]
> > Sent:         Monday, November 03, 1997 11:29:31 AM
> > To:   Multiple recipients of list
> > Subject:      Re: What good is linguistics?
> > Auto forwarded by a Rule
> >
> I took a course called Discourse Analysis and consider it one of my
> absolute favorites. Margaret called such study "invaluable," and I
> agree. For me, exposure to the concepts of language form, language
> use, and language processing added important layers to the
> theoretical foundation that supports my teaching practice. There were
> always connections to be made between what we were discussing in
> class and what I saw going on in my own classroom in my students'
> writing. For example,  I remember taking examples from a chapter on
> the "given-new contract" into my freshman comp class for a workshop
> on what we mean by coherence in a piece of writing and how it is
> achieved.
>
> We used three primary texts:
> Freedle's _Discourse Production and Comprehension_
> Coulthard's _An Introduction to Discourse Analysis_
> Ong's _Orality and Literacy_ (my personal favorite)
>
> Of the three, the class felt the last two were better at conveying
> information and just generally allowing access to complex concepts.
>
> Hope this helps--
>
> Francie Jeffery
> University of Central Arkansas