This paper uses data from student journals in a TESL writing practicum to trace the process by which practice of and reflection on specific activities change awareness of and attitudes toward writing and the teaching of writing. Students highlighted four areas as problems: dread of writing, boring or intimidating topics, insecurity about writing skills, and insecurity about teaching skills (particularly providing feedback). Students also identified five strategies on the part of the instructor as most helpful in effecting change: having students design and respond to writing tasks, requiring mandatory revision, guiding peer coaching, providing guided practice in topic development, and developing understanding of the writing process. In contrast to contemporary polarized models, the paper demonstrates the necessity of integrating training and development in teacher education.
The growing acceptability of Creole languages in more domains and functions has led to the examination of ways of standardizing their orthographic conventions. This paper proposes a standardized orthography for the English Creole vernacular of Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. The reasons for this are two: meeting the needs of a local population writing more and more in Creole, and preparing a standard reference dictionary of the language. A brief overview of Caribbean vernacular Creole languages is followed by a summary of the historical develop ment of language in Trinidad and Tobago, including writing conventions. Three orthographic models -phonemic, historic-etymological, and modified English -are described and evaluated; a "continuum" model is advocated.
Overview of Vernacular Creoles in the Caribbean
Creole LanguagesThe Caribbean (including the Guyanas, Belize, and Honduras) includes speakers of a number of Creole languages. Such languages are typically defined by the process in which they were formed, rather than solely by their linguistic characteristics.[Creoles] developed as communication systems between Europeans and West Africans during the period of European colonial expansion, the trade in enslaved Africans, and the plantation phase of Caribbean economy. Initially, the early versions of these languages were purely compromise cross-linguistic communication systems. The duration of the circumstances This paper is a revised version of a presentation given at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee Linguistics Symposium on Language and Literacy, April 1988. The author is responsible for final content, but is very grateful to Lawrence D. Carrington, Frederic G. Cassidy, Hubert Devonish, Ricky Jacobs, and Don Winford for their helpful comments and corrections.
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