Prcecis/Critical Response to Gee

In this article, Janes Gee is essentially proposing a way to talk about literacy and linguistics. According to Gee, language can be misleading because oftentimes, it is referred to as grammar. He affirms that an individual can know the grammar of a language and not know how to use that language. In other words, it's not what you say, but how you say what you say. Gee promotes the beleif that language is not just grammar, and, communication is more than the use of language. In saying and writing the correct thing, and, while having the right belief system, the right values, and the right attitudes, we are using language that suggests, what is important is not the language we use, neither the grammar, but the connection of all these forms of life, that Gee refers to as "Discourse."

There are many types of Discourse. According to Gee, we are all born with an inherent Discourse. He writes: "All of us, through our primary socialization, early in life in the home and peer group, acquire (at least) one initial Discourse. This initial discourse, which I call our primary Discourse, is the one we first use to make sense of the world and the interact with others" (Gee 527). This discourse, Gee asserts, continues our original and home-based sense of identity. It can be identified through the interactions we have with familiar people. It is acquired not from education, but from being a member of a primary socializing group such as a family or peer group. There are dominant Discourse and non-dominant Discourse. Dominant Discourse are secondary Discourses that can potentially bring money, prestige, or status to an individual. Non-dominant Discourse is secondaru Discourse that often brings solidarity with a particular social network, but no greater status in the society at large.

Gee believes that Discourse and literacy are somewaht interwined. A brief social definition of literacy that Gee uses is such: "Thus I have defined literacy as the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary Discourse" Gee 529). The author says that literacy is plural. There are many of them. Furthermore, he gives a possible second definition of literacy: "If we wanted to be rather pedantic and literalistic, then we could define "literacy" as" mastery of or fluent control over secondary Discourse involving print...."(Gee 529). There are two theories that Gee uses to support his argument. First, Discourses are not like language. A person can speak a language, but not fluently. However, that same person would not be able to fully engage in a discourse without the ability to engage fluently. The second theory states that primary discourses, no matter whose they are, can never really be liberating literacies. In order for literacy to be liberating it must contain both the Discourde it is going to critique and a set of meta-elememts such as language, words, attitudes, and values.

Many parts of this article were strong and insightful. I particularly found the meaning of literacy to be insightful. I have always known that literacy is a broad term. Many linguist define it differently. Gee's definition seems to be one of the best I've read. In defining literacy, Gee admitted that he was first compelled to define some other terms. The term he chose to define first, discourse: "a socially accepted association among ways of using language; or thinking, and of acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or "social network" (Gee 537). Literacy, then, is a means of identifying to the world just who one is. This can be through a belief system, a value system, an economic system, or a status system.

With Gee's article, my understanding of literacy has greatly expanded. First, I never thought of literacy as a discourse. Like many people, I often associated language with grammar. Although I am aware that language is communicative, I rarely looked at it from that perspevtive. In reading this article, I am learning why? That, is, because communication is more than language skills. Literacy braodly delves into an individual's world view. How do we see the world, ourselves, and what do we believe when we see what we see? What do we value in life, what are our attitudes, where do we socially fit in society? All of these entities are all an aspect of literacy in its truest meaning.

Autobiography V

Samantha Haberman

There are many verbal events I have feared, and continue to fear still. In my early childhood, my parents decided that a divorce would be the best thing for them—things were obviously not working out the way they had hoped. Instead of a clean cut divorce, everything became extremely complicated. My parents tried to end things on an amiable note, yet it was easier said than done. I would soon found myself in a mind splitting custody battle. The divorce became finally when I was only two – so trying to remember any of that would be impossible for me. However – my parents fought over my younger brother and me for years after. Neither my father nor my mother could really be a better choice for my brother and me. So, from the age of four to about nine – I became really familiar with visiting the court rooms, sitting in the background in small offices with no windows, and having social workers drilling me with questions. All this was overwhelming. I was a lot more mature than most children my age – yet I was given with such responsibility I wasn’t sure what to do with it all. Everything was getting more complicating, I was getting more confused. The more I listened to what was being said the more frightening it would be when I thought about having to go back again. Having people talk about where you are going to reside – using big words, phrases, court talk – it was intense. No one ever just came up to me and explained things in a way that I could understand. Every time there was a reason to have to go speak with some one involved in where my brother and I would permanently reside, I would feel like an foreigner. I knew they were talking and about the general topic – but I had no idea what they were really telling me. Nothing made sense. I was nine years old when they finally decision was made - and after all that talk I couldn’t understand they still managed to get it wrong.

Autobiographical Essay #V

Krystal Robinson
Professor Boland
English 329
17 February 2009
Autobiographical Essay V
I have noticed that my use of language shifts in various ways depending on my audience. Recently, I had an appointment with one of my English professors at CSUSB. Professor Smith’s line of expertise is linguistics. Because of this, I undoubtedly found my language shifting into a more standard form. In spite of this shift, Smith asked me if I was from the south. This is a question I’m asked frequently, although at times I tend to change my language skills. When my audiences are people who speak Standard American English, I find myself attempting to speak in that convention. On the other hand, when I am around my own, meaning family or other members of the black community, I tend to speak Black Vernacular English. I think the tendency to become lackadaisical around people of my race is due to their inability to accept a black person speaking Standard English. Oftentimes, blacks are criticized by other blacks for speaking Standard English. The criticism stems from many blacks believing that if you speak Standard English, you’re trying to be proper and speak like white people.
The negotiation to speak Standard English when I am speaking with a highly educated person like Smith is intuitive. The language shift is duly because I simply don’t want to use bad English in the presence of a linguist. I don’t think for one moment that she or any other linguist would criticize my bad use of the English language, I just feel compelled to at least try to speak the language they are accustomed to speaking. I instinctively lower my standards of speaking Standard English when I’m trying to accommodate people of my race. I do this mainly because it’s just plain ole instinct, and to avoid the criticism as well.
In my formal writings, of course, I use Standard English. The goal here is to receive a good grade on those term papers. Linguist believe that Black Vernacular English is indeed a language just as Standard American English. However, if I were to write and turn in a paper using BVE, I’m sure that I would lose several points for using bad grammar. When I am writing informally, I consciously do all kinds of weird stuff. My spelling may be off, I may forget to use the proper punctuation, and more than not, the paper is saturated with grammatical errors.

Switching Hats

For many years now I have been teaching in the church. In all the age groups I have taught the children are the most divers in the language in need too use. I need to communicate to multiple age levels, grades first to sixth at one time. Also I train new leaders and communicate with parents. In the average church day I communicate with a multitude of different people and relate with all of them. This makes the ability to switch gears invaluable.
First I teach adults in the main service. The subject is communion and or Tithe and offering. This is done by speaking from the pulpit during the service. The congregation is of varied nationality, education, and background. Communicating with this group is best done personably. This is the easy part. After I teach adults I go to kids church.
In kids church I need to appeal to the youngest and keep the oldest ones interested in lessons that they have heard over and over again. Some of them are new to church and haven’t the slightest idea what I’m talking about half the time. Some of the first graders have had the bible read to them over the first years of their life making them sometimes board with the rudimentary lesson. Like the class room setting, kids church has the kids that like to try to take over the class and do what ever they want. This challenge can be difficult but it pays off in the end when you can tell that the children actually learned something that they can take home with them. All the time I’m in class I’m also teaching the leaders coming up how to work with the kids and make a meaningful lesson.
When class is over I have to switch gears again and speak with the parents while they are picking up their kids. The visiting parents are always particularly interested in what their children had been doing and if the kids enjoyed their stay. We talk about lesson plans and the vision of the department and what the benefits are for their children.
All these thing are done with my own children watching every moment and learning in the same classroom that I am teaching in. When I go home I have to switch gears from children’s pastor to Dad. The constant switching of hats is part of the job. The challenge make the job interesting and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Educational Commodity

The article “En Los dios Idiomas” written by Marcia Farr expresses main of the dynamic of education in the Mexican family living in the U.S. The portions of the study that I found particularly interesting were the ways in which they learn literacy and that they view literacy as another group asset.
The educational backgrounds of the family group varies dependent on the ages of the members. If they are older and came to the US from Mexico many of them haven’t been educated above grade school. However the children who were born and or raised in the US are usually educated at least to high school and sometimes into a graduate degree. At home the majority of the education emphasis is directed toward religious studies on Sundays were the family gathers together to read the bible and discuss it, the more educated members reading the text. In this way the more educated are used to accomplish educated goals for the family unit. Other ways are if an important document comes in the mail that needs to be read or if one of the family members need to complete job applications. How ever I believe the most interesting way that the Mexican family uses education as a commodity is that they used the educated family members to teach the others to read and write.
By utilizing the educated members in the family in this manner the family becomes more educated and there by increasing their marketability. This is the same way that governments become stronger technologically advanced. The government increases education levels of the populace and thereby increases global strength.

Autobiography Essay Week #6

Luke Granger

Dr. B

Eng. 329

February 14, 2009

Autobiographical Essay Week #6

            This autobiographical piece may lead me into my final writing project. In the fire service, we change discourse gears in a matter of seconds in order to adapt to our environment. We do this both orally and in written text throughout the day. We do this for numerous reason and benefits. I will briefly discuss just one medical aid several rotations ago in order to portray the necessity of being able to change depending on social circumstances.

            Late one night, or maybe it was early one morning, the time isn’t important we were toned out for a stabbing. We stumble out of bed half awake and light heartedly in slight disbelief a “STABBING” occurred in our little old town of Loma Linda. We crack a couple of jokes as we dress for the call and get in the rig as we were told to “stage” until the sheriff officers secured the scene. Enroute, our instinct jolted us. As dispatch inquired as to when we would be on scene. We knew by the tone of her voice and the infrequency of the inquiry that it was from the sheriff officer’s rather than just the dispatcher’s curiosity.  We immediately put our game face on and arrived shortly to find a male face up, blood everywhere with a laceration across his neck from middle to just past the ear. We communicate quickly and to the point, as we are busy with our duty and the circumstances. We gained most of our information from what visual indicators we gathered. Talking only enough to provide care for the man, most anything anyone had to say wasn’t as important as keeping the red stuff in the body and the airway open.

            As we load the man into the ambulance, my partner cues his radio to the hospital and gives the medical staff a heads up as to the patient’s status (alive barely). He provides all the information we were able to gather during our brief time on scene. He talks slightly faster than normal, using medical terms and sounding professional as the airwaves can be monitored by anyone in the public. He gives just enough information to get the severity of the patient’s condition across so that the ER can initiate the trauma team and they will have a bed ready with the Dr.(s) on standby.

            Arriving at the hospital, my partner gives a full report to the receiving facility and paints the picture so that they can visualize the mechanism of injury. We are still serious and unsure of his outcome. Because there is nothing more we can do for the patient, we lighten our hearts as we did the only thing we could and that is to keep him alive long enough to give him a fighting chance at the best trauma center in the South West United States. We begin to discuss the call in slight disbelief and having suffered enough to know a man’s life isn’t a joking matter we maintain a sense of professionalism through our dramatization.

            The next morning we give a play-by-play to the Truck Co. and disbelief and detachment turns our discourse into an astonishing tale with light-hearted teasing. Teasing one another about not wanting to step in the blood or the look on his face when he realized his shirt was covered in goo is necessary bantering after a serious call because it’s a way to relieve the stresses and seriousness of the job. With experience this bantering comes natural and we learn to keep the topic of the jokes on one another, as it is inappropriate to use the citizens as the butt end of the jokes. They don’t call us for our entertainment, but rather for our help, which we should strive to humbly and efficiently serve them.

            In this one call we see several different modes of discourse. We see tired light-hearted encouragement to get “up” for another call in the middle of the night. We see a change to match the serious professionalism and uphold the standards in which we are trained to perform. We see radio etiquette and inter-agency communication in order to serve the public interest. We see familiar teasing as a sense of release when the time is appropriate. This is one minor aspect and small crumb of literary discourse in the fire service arena.

Brandt Precise

Luke Granger

Dr. B

Eng. 329

February 14, 2009

Precise #2 Brandt: Sponsors of Literacy

 

            Brandt’s essay demonstrates how literacy needs a sponsor in order to flourish in the world. Without a sponsor literacy can’t exist because there is no meaning to literacy and no arena to welcome it. There needs to be a reason for literacy, whether it be church, government, businesses, or family correspondences, literacy needs an excuse to be, in order to be. All these institutions support literacy by using it to get its ideologies and influences out to the people. These sponsors are unequally distributed throughout the population therefore giving more power to certain socio-economic classes.

            Brandt starts his essay off by giving a brief history of pre-war print shop life and the literacy that flourished. Prior to the invention of the printing press the print shops were incubators for literacy and political debate. When the steam press began to gain a stronghold in the market, the editors who used to run the shops were being replaced by mechanics and the print shop culture dwindled. However, the public benefited as print became cheaper and more readily available. This was an economic sponsor that affected literacy in two different ways, one being beneficial to the masses, the other being detrimental to a small community of editors.

            Brandt discusses sponsorship of literacy through magazines, advertisement and market. We see it at a young age as businesses sponsor baseball teams and have their names on their jerseys. They are unknowingly pushing literacy on society, teaching young ones to read. We see the availability of literacy, churches teaching poor and lower economic status African Americans in slavery to be capable of upward mobility in the socio-economic realm as a result of the ability to read. The sponsors of literacy explain the ideological pressures that are created at the site of literacy learning.

            Brandt discusses the unequal opportunities to literacy sponsors in the lower income society. He contributes this to the education and income of the parents and to the norms and values of the different ethnic groups. Meanwhile, higher income individuals have more available access to literacy sponsors. He gives several examples of these throughout his essay.  We see that sponsors help to organize and administer stratified systems of opportunity and access. Literacy sponsors create new literacy requirements while discrediting the older ones. 

            What Brandt is trying to prove in his essay is that without sponsors, literacy wouldn’t exist. There would be no real reason for it. Through religion, church needs it to guide them. Businesses need literate people to read about their product and sell their product to. Humans need literacy in order to communicate more efficiently and survive in the world today. Schools can’t survive without kids to teach to, another literacy sponsor. Recognizing the affects of literacy throughout the world and the absolute critical need is crucial to understanding the necessity of it.