Words, Sounds and Language
When I was originally tasked with interviewing an English Professor, I sat down immediately and started to draw up questions. I knew right from jump that I wanted to Interview Dr. C but; having been given a bunch of pedagogy philosophies and approaches, I knew I was supposed to discuss the things that we have been discussing in class; with Dr. C. Once the interview began however, it quickly moved into the conversation territory. We gravitated toward alternative approaches to teaching English literature and composition. Items such as music and the importance of dialect as both are a huge part of language also took center stage. I’ve included the original questions below but I think there is a power in the conversation that they sparked. In keeping with, I decided to keep the conversation as is; including the annoying fan noise that makes Dr. C hard to hear in places, and go with this instead.
Original Questions:
Dr. Robert Cataliotti; affectionately known as Dr. C by most of his students, has a very interesting education and general background; one that ironically has various similarities with my own. I say ironic because on first sight, I was completed alienated by his race. You have to understand that Coppin State is an Historically Black College/University situated in one of the less than stellar areas of the city. But, and the key string of adjectives and nouns; HBCU, on entering the school I thought the education would be run by African- Americans. Literature, history, etc., especially; but Dr. C silenced a lot of these immature issues with his introduction and background run-down.
Dr. C, you may not remember but Edward Solomon and I talked extensively about the impact of seeing success with your extraordinarily unique background during the discussions of our own future plans in senior colloquium. Your work with Smithsonian still reverberates most with me, could you please tell us a little about your background.
Dr. C, that’s it, the plain breadth of knowledge on African- American history, literature, composition and, of course (your knowledge specifically on)the music speaks directly to me. Being that I played in the band and a few Jazz ensembles during my primary education and started my collegiate career as a music education major at Benedict College before finishing my Bachelors in English instead; I can understand the power of looking to other expressions of the English language-- such as music, to then draw the student back to the written page and literary rhetoric. Your 1960’s Literature, Film and Music class would be a good example of this, don’t you think?
One of the things that we discussed in Teaching Writing is that students often have a problem bridging the gap between classroom lecture and practical application. I would think this would be of great concern to the alternative look at literature and composition as offered in your class. Do you see this issue in your class?
Moving forward in my studies I’m looking more and more at linguistics for this specific reason. I feel that the language barrier between teacher and student is a huge issue to teaching English lit and comp. I would like your thoughts on the linguistic approach to teaching composition with regard to home dialects like American Southern, Chicano or what I am calling the dialect of the post-millennials; “net-speak”. First however, I’d like to just run through some of the topics from my class, quick fire style. I’ll call them out and if any jump out to you feel free to elaborate, if not we’ll just move pass it to the next items.
Behaviorism, Cognitivism, constructivism?
Learning theories in general?( Atomic Theory for example)
Learning Styles? You know kinesthetic, tactile etc.
And finally writing centers?
Thank you so much for that stroll back through learning theory 101, I know sometimes it’s hard to put your usage of those abstract theories into words no matter how grounded in them, your actual instruction may be. So back the linguistics question, now that I’ve let it fester, or rather simmer with you for a second, how do you feel about linguistics and home dialects in respect to composition instruction?
And see Dr. C, that’s why my final project for this class is what it is. Basically, I am researching the common rhetoric and general everyday syntactical structures of native speakers of American Southern( AAVE), Chicano and “Net-speak” to then find better ways to move students from those structures to those appreciated by the academic world while simultaneously learning to intertwine their home- dialect’s structures in accepted ways. You know me Dr. C, but then again it shouldn’t be a far stretch from Wittgenstein. Do you have any advice for me on the topic, outside of what you have already provided for me with the discussion of your class and tactics?
