Language Development A Reader for Teachers

by Miller Power, Brenda; Hubbard, Ruth S.

• ISBN13: 9780130940636
• ISBN10: 0130940631
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-28
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This classic book combines landmark studies from key theorists with practical classroom examples in language development. Current and future teachers are given step-by-step guidance regarding the theories behind language development and inquiry techniques for understanding and investigating links between language and literacy in the classroom. Upon completing the book, readers will have the ability to test theories by observing and documenting language in their classrooms. Learning How to Research Language in Your Classroom; Historical Perspectives and Landmark Studies; Talk in Schools; Sociocultural and Personal Perspectives. For current and future teachers.

Table of Contents

Learning How to Research Language in Your Classroom	1	(16)
Part I Historical Perspectives and Landmark Studies	17	(72)
Children's Language Acquisition	19	(9)
Mable L. Rice
On Inner Speech	28	(5)
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
The Language and Thought of the Child	33	(3)
Jean Piaget
Language and the Mind	36	(7)
Noam Chomsky
Encounter at Royaumont: The Debate Between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky	43	(6)
Howard Gardner
Relevant Models of Language	49	(5)
M. A. K. Halliday
Ian Caught in Infancy	54	(8)
Russell Martin
Myths About Acquiring a Second Language	62	(7)
Katharine Davies Samway
Denise Mckeon
What's Going On?	69	(5)
John Russell Rickford
Russel John Rickford
A Lot of Talk About Nothing	74	(7)
Shirley Brice Heath
Crawling on the Bones of What We Know: An Interview with Shirley Brice Heath	81	(8)
Brenda Miller Power
Part II Talk in Schools	89	(82)
Do Teachers Communicate with Their Students As If They Were Dogs?	91	(4)
Lowell Madden
Teacher Research Extension: ``You Talk Too Much''	95	(2)
Andi Cunningham
Telling Stories	97	(7)
Tom Newkirk
Patricia McLure
A Love of Words	104	(6)
Ralph Fletcher
Ways to Look at the Functions of Children's Language	110	(9)
Gay Su Pinnell
Teacher Research Extension: An Unexpected Lesson in Language	119	(5)
Michelle Schardt
What Should Teachers Do?: Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Instruction	124	(5)
Lisa Delpit
Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Researching Oral Language in the Classroom	129	(10)
Karen Gallas
Mary Anton-Oldenburg
Cynthia Ballenger
Cindy Beseler
Steve Griffin
Roxanne Pappenheimer
James Swaim
The Research Mind Is Really the Teaching Mind at Its Best: An Interview with Karen Gallas	139	(14)
Susan Harris MacKay
Teacher Research Extension: Focusing on Student Talk	153	(3)
Sherry Young
Examining Teacher Talk: Revealing Hidden Boundaries for Curricular Change	156	(5)
Deborah Rowe
Inquiry Purpose in the Classroom	161	(10)
Judith Wells Lindfors
Part III Sociocultural and Personal Perspectives	171	(74)
Whose Standard? Teaching Standard English	173	(5)
Linda Christensen
American Sign Language: ``It's Not Mouth Stuff, It's Brain Stuff''	178	(7)
Richard Wolkomir
An Interview with Hang Nguyen	185	(4)
Suzanne Stiel
Narrative, Literacy, and Face in Interethnic Communication	189	(4)
Ronald Scollon
Suzanne Scollon
English Con Salsa	193	(2)
Gina Valdes
Silencing in Public Schools	195	(11)
Michelle Fine
It Begins at the Beginning	206	(3)
Deborah Tannen
A Love of Language, A Love of Research, and a Love of Teaching: A Conversation with Deborah Tannen	209	(6)
Ruth Shagoury Hubbard
Teacher Research Extension: ``I'm Not Sittin' by No Girl!''	215	(5)
Jill Ostrow
Yada-Yada-Yada: The Babbling Period Between Four and Eight Months of Age	220	(5)
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek
Everyone Has an Accent	225	(6)
Walt Wolfram
A Linguistic Big Bang	231	(6)
Lawrence Osborne
Life as We Know It	237	(8)
Michael Berube
Name Index	245	(4)
Subject Index	249

Excerpts

There is something fascinating, almost magical, about the ability to speak. Though it is a common miracle played out each day, we are a long way from understanding the mysteries of language. Linguists have spent decades trying to unlock the codes of communication and have determined that human speech has very special properties that allow us to communicate at a rate 3 to 10 times faster than we could otherwise. There is more to language than speech, however, and anthropologists have spent as much time considering the links between culture and perception. Teachers must have the skills to both understand and build on the language of their students. Through understanding students' language, teachers hold the key to understanding their learning. TEXT FOCUS This reader is designed to take teachers into the domains of linguists and anthropologists. We believe it is important to read the studies of researchers who have shaped our understanding of how we develop language and use it to communicate meaning. But it is equally important to take that knowledge into the classroom, exploring how language can be used for genuine learning, for sharing understanding with others, and for delighting in the magic of language. We have included many studies of language from classrooms, written by teachers. These stories help us all understand how language develops and changes over time--and how this knowledge can help us change classroom practice for the better. To take the dialogue further, we invited three language researchers to tell us more about the process of their work--and, beyond their published research, what they are working on now, what motivates their research, and how they link it to their teaching lives. Our interviews with Shirley Brice Heath, Deborah Tannen, and Karen Gallas challenge us to engage in a "passion for the ordinary," exploring closely what is occurring all around us. InA Map of the World,(1994; New York: Doubleday) Jane Hamilton writes about a two-year-old child, Lizzie, who is just learning to speak: She was just beginning to speak in short sentences. She was at the juncture in her baby- hood when it was possible she knew everything worth knowing. She understood the texture of her family; she understood the territory and rage and love, although she couldn't say much more thanballandmoo,I want, pretty girl,andbad dog.As her language shaped her experience and limited her ideas, she would probably lose most of her wisdom for a time. . . Lizzie, at two, was on the brink, between stations. It was tempting to think that if only they could speak, infants could take us back to their beginning, to the forces of their becoming; they could tell us about patience, about waiting and waiting in the dark. (p. 27) The pieces in this reader can help give us a language to speak about language. We can understand that feeling a toddler has of losing knowledge for a time. Some of these readings will challenge you--as they have challenged us--to rethink some of your most cherished beliefs about language, learning, and culture. Learning about language has taught us much about patience, about waiting and listening closely to students so we can grasp multiple meanings beneath the words they use. TEXT ORGANIZATION Throughout this book we invite you to become a researcher of language in classrooms. We give guidance and many examples of teachers researching the language of their students. We've peppered the text with examples from novice teacher researchers who, like you, are just learning to analyze language--everything from purchasing tape recorders to coding tape transcripts to noting the way a head is held when someone laughs. We believe passionately that teachers can understand most deeply the lives and learning of their students if they ar