Unit 9 Blog Entires

Topic 1

2^nd part of the Fisherman story rewritten:

John would be a farmer if he could, but he does not have the money to buy land.

His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves fishing, but longs to be more successful. When he felt down, he painted his boat, “Troubled Waters,” blue and shined it up. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You’re always fishing for compliments.”

John did not argue with his brother because he had no energy, but instead, he made more nets, hoping to increase his catch the next day.

Other confusing parts would include the phrase “when the economy crashed.” ELL students might not understand what it means for the economy to crash, and a better way to phrase that might be to explain why he sold the land (maybe he needed the extra money, or he decided it was not worth the investment to hold onto the land). An ELL would need to be instructed on what it means to “long” for something, as long would typically be considered an adjectives and they probably would have had no prior exposure to “longing” as a verb. Another confusing part is the idiom “when he felt down”, as well as the idiom “fishing for compliments”. A new language learner would know down as a direction word, not an adjective; and would have difficulty comprehending what it means to fish for compliments, as opposed to fishing for fish as the fisherman does. “The new look” could be difficult to understand as well, because a boat does not “look”. The final phrase that could cause problems for an ELL would be at the end of the story, when “catch” is used as a noun instead of a word. This story seems like a nice way to incorporate mini lessons on some of the odd rules of the English language, as it gives examples of the many tricky aspects of the language that ELLs will run into at some point in time.   

Topic 2
Timeline:***His brother bought land last winter, but sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed.
                       (simple past)

***He is hoping to catch more fish tomorrow, but he doesn’t know if it will be any better.                       (simple present)  
***If he is able to catch two nets full of fish, he will be able to pay off his debt.
                        (simple future)

After watching the video, I firmly believe that grammar cannot simply be learned and mastered through immersion, but must be taught in explicit, direct lessons. I was appalled by the chunk of a piece taken from the paper by the high school student who spent ten years in the US, but the writing did not make sense. This is sufficient proof that while some rules can be “picked up” throughout exposure, many rules must be broken down and taught, even with all of the exceptions and tricky rules.