VOLUME XI, NUMBER 5

#8 INNOVATION ABSTRACTS

ATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AU
A THE W. K KELLOGG FOUNDATION AND THE SID W..RICHAROSON FOUNDATION

   

On Teaching English Composition to Older Students

After only three class sessions into the semester, a
student came into my office and issued the following
warning: “The two people | hate most in this world are
dentists and English teachers!” No, I’m not her dentist.

This student, perhaps 40 or 45 years old, spoke for
many students who, after several years away from an
academic environment, return to school to face—among,
other things—all those remotely familiar rules and
exceptions and diagrams and formidable terms which
make up their memorics of past English classes. Unfor-
tunately, they hated English then, and they hate English
now. Like our counterparts, though, the dentists who
casually approach their patients with Novocain sy-
ringes hidden behind their backs, there are some meas-
ures we can take to make it all less painful.

Identify the Students

This first task is the easiest. The older student who
fears English will usually Ict the instructor know of that
fear, sometimes in the forthright manner of the above-
mentioned student, and sometimes in the form of “It’s
been years since I’ve had any English!” This common
“confession” is most often followed with a plea for
patience. In contrast to this direct approach, some older
students will simply remain silent—both in class
discussions and on the page itself. This particular form
of “writer's block” may become apparent with the first
in-class writing assignment, but most older students
will face their fears and let the instructor know of them
rather than sit there and face the blank page for very
long. A spontaneous conference can ease the pressure
and show the student that the instructor understands.

Identify the Students’ Fears

The fears older students face when returning to
school are usually not singular, and in English class
those fears usually coalesce. The older students fear
what they think is extremely sharp competition from
younger students; they fear failure, especially if some
past failures trigger additional guilt and regret for not
remembering all those English rules and exceptions
which they know they should have learned ages ago
and which, they believe, their younger classmates have

so recently and skillfully mastered. Combine enough
fear with enough guilt and regret and one has the
classic older student's resistance to writing in English
Composition.

One particular fear, though, has surprising potential
for immediate devastation: the fear of grammatical
terms. To fire barrage after barrage of “correlative and
cumulative” adjectives, or “reflexive and demonstra-
tive” pronouns at the older student—whose memory
may remember the words but not the meanings—is to
trigger all the other attendant fears of English. For
some, the words “coordinating conjunction” or “subor-
dinate clause” are as menacing and spine-straightening
as the sound of any dentist's drill. To some, who may
know their way around in the practical uses of the
language without too much difficulty, those terms spell
immediate confusion and lack of confidence.

Overcome the Resistance

Much of the resistance can be overcome by “playing
down” the terms. This is not to say that the terms
should be neglected, nor that rules should take second
seat to “free expression” (as happened during the 70's);
itis to recommend an astute awareness of the anxicties
grammatical language can create in older students. In
short, the terms can be more overwhelming and intimi-
dating than an instructor might imagine. Therefore,
until the student feels more comfortable with writing,
the term should be of secondary importance. Then as
the student’s writing mistakes become apparent, the
necessary terms can be used to make the corrections.

Secondly, both the instructor and the student can
move forward faster if the student is not allowed to
emphasize past failures. For some reason, a few older
students think that the instructor will be more patient if
he is reminded frequently of the student's past failures.
Such emphasis on past performance, though, can
become a block to success in the present. An instructor
might acknowledge those past shortcomings, but only
in passing as a sign of understanding. An instructor
might also point out that past failures have nothing to
do with performance now, nor with the current possi-
bility of success. One might ask “Are you doing poorly

 

 

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THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STAFF AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (NISOD)
Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin