1.2 Are College Students Truly Grammatically Profi...
But are college students truly proficient in English grammar such that they do not need further instruction in it? Most teachers will readily admit that their students, whether they major in English or in another discipline, still have considerable difficulty in comprehending and composing academic and disciplinary texts, an observation confirmed by empirical research, such as Heng (2017) and Zhang-Wu (2019), which provides in-depth documentations of Chinese undergraduate students' reading/writing struggles in American colleges. Much of this difficulty resides, ultimately, in their lack of firm control over grammar. For example, Text 1-1, excerpted from former U.S. President Andrew Jackson's Speech to Congress on removing native Americans from their territories (i.e., the Indian Removal Act of 1830), represents the sort of reading materials that many college students are expected to engage with but find challenging. The challenge here goes beyond a mere lack of background knowledge. After all, this is not a technical passage, and most college students likely have acquired some prior knowledge about the American history from their secondary education. What challenges students, including those judged to be grammatically knowledgeable through standardized testing, is the new language patterns that they have yet to learn to control in their collegiate years. These patterns enable the author of the document to construct specialized knowledge, advance argument, infuse ideology, pack dense information, focus on concepts and ideas, facilitate discursive flow, and assume a detached and authoritative stance.
Text 1-1
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual states, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites, it will incalculably strengthen frontier and render the adjacent States strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the Western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so certain, and the rest so probable, make the complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude.
(Source: excerpted from https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/andrew.htm)
More specifically, Text 1-1 is unlike the sort of texts that students typically encounter in their K-12 schooling. It is more specialized, abstract, dense, and complex. First, it uses advanced academic vocabulary that is not commonly found in pre-college reading materials, including pecuniary, tract, territory, incalculably, render, adjacent, repel, retard, sanction, and solicitude. Second, the text is populated with abstract nouns that render it conceptually challenging. These abstractions include consequences, removal, Indians, recommendations, collision, authorities of the General and State Governments, population, settlement, State of Mississippi, occupancy, wealth, power, whites, happiness, protection, influence, habits, community, execution, plan, Congress, and solicitude. Third, the text uses a large number of expanded noun phrases with multiple pre-/post-modifiers and abstract vocabulary. They include the consequences of a speedy removal, the pecuniary advantages which it promises to the Government, the least of its recommendations, all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General and State Governments, a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters, the protection of the Government, the influence of good counsels, the complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last session, and an object of much solicitude. Fourth, several unusual syntactic devices are deployed to achieve powerful rhetorical effects. These include thematic prominence (By opening the whole territory …), interruption construction (… perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits …; These consequences, some of them so certain, and the rest so probable, make the complete execution …), and parallel sentence structures (It will …; … it will …; It will …; It will ...).
These grammatical patterns construe and communicate historical knowledge in ways that few students have been exposed to or are familiar with in their K-12 schooling. To ensure successful participation in college learning, students must master these linguistic resources. They must also be able to track grammatical participants in the text (e.g., what does each "it" in the passage refer to?), uncover agency (e.g., who/what will be doing the removing? who will be removed?), and identify the author's point of view (e.g., what is the author's attitude toward the native Americans and their removal?). These are advanced literacy abilities that do not develop without a keen awareness and deep understanding of grammar as a creative resource for making meaning.
Similarly, college students face challenges in making appropriate grammatical choices to present information, organize discourse, embed points of view, and develop argument in their own writing, as illustrated in Text 1-2, which was written by a first-year Chinese doctoral student studying in the U.S. who recently graduated from a master's degree program in a top-tier university in China. The sample text is presented here as originally produced, without corrections to spelling, punctuation, or other grammatical conventions.
Text 1-2
In the past decades, the phenomenon that young people loan to have a better college education intensified. This is because, as mentioned in the article Why College Isn't Worth The Money by Casey Bond, high-paying jobs need education in good college which is always expensive. However, the author debates that it is not worth to loan plenty of money for these good college since they cannot guarantee people to get considerable salary after graduation as people once thought. Besides, it seems that the employers do not care about your college. At last, the loan debt can be heavy enough to infect people's life after graduation.
From my point of view, what Casey insists is one-sided and the relatively high expenses for an indeed good college is worthy. First, just as the example in the article, a engineering graduate degree for college like University of California, Berkeley can make you earn a lot more money which is far beyond the loan debt. Second, one can earn more in a well-known company like Google, Microsoft. To enter these company, one must post the resume. HRs in these company should look at quantities of resumes and one efficient way to do this is to filter through the college due to the directness. Maybe they would fail the worse or at least put the better first. Finally, since people have got such convenience, the time after graduation to pay for the loan is nothing.
Although people like Casey will argue that the employers care less where the employees get their degrees, it may not exactly the fact. For the so-called important part in the article, job skill, it will never be easier to be developed in a worse college than a better one. In fact, the better college always have a more opportunity and source for students to practice the skill. Besides, if one tries not to enter a college before working, "the important part was that I had one (degree)" as Casey expresses. In another aspects, the fact seems to show that those pursue a degree of art in a famous college will earn less than the high school graduates since the high loan debt. However, this point is quite ridiculous. On the one hand, not all high school graduates work in area of art, so they cannot be compared with those who graduate from art school. On the other hand, the result is based on 20 years, which is less than half of our working time in life. Think about 30 years, it is obvious who will win. After knowing the importance of degree, someone may consider getting a degree later when they gain enough money and figure out what they really want to do through work. The first point is that they can get rid of the loan debt, but the time for they to earn this money will just longer than the time those who work after graduation spend on pay for the loan. Another one is figuring out the interest which people can do in college, too. In conclusion, it is worth to get a degree in a better but expensive college. For those high school students who are considering whether to get a college degree, it is nothing need hesitate. Besides, if you have a chance to earn a degree in a better college, please do it even if you should loan debt for this. It is a investment which has higher and safer profit than any other types. It is not a difficult or strange conclusion because the good college is expensive for their actual value. If one can understand to loan to buy a house, why not loan less money to get a degree in a better college and get rid of loaning for house later? Actually, this topic should not be a problem if people really understand it.
The text, an argumentative essay on whether prestigious college is worth the cost, is a take-home (untimed) assignment written in response to a newspaper column on the same topic. Although the text follows the basic rhetorical moves of an argumentative essay that the student had just learned in the U.S. (e.g., presenting what others say, presenting what the author says as a response to what others say, planting a naysayer, and restating thesis), it exhibits many grammatical issues that are symptomatic of the more systemic problems troubling Chinese students in academic writing. These problems, sampled below, occur at the word, phrase, sentence, and discourse levels:
· imprecise or inappropriate word choices (e.g., the phenomenon … intensified, to infect people's life, more opportunity and source for students, if you should loan debt for this);
· misuse or non-use of article (e.g., it seems that the employers do not care about your college, a engineering graduate degree, not all high school graduates work in [the] area of art, a investment, because the good college is expensive);
· lack of agreement between demonstratives and the nouns they modify (e.g., these good college, these company, in another aspects);
· inappropriate use of modals (e.g., HRs in these company should look at quantities of resumes, please do it even if you should loan debt for this);
· awkward or non-idiomatic expressions (e.g., get considerable salary, an indeed good college, quantities of resumes, it is nothing need hesitate);
· wrong choice of prepositions (e.g., engineering degree for college like University of California, earn less than the high school graduates since the high loan debt, … longer than the time those who work after graduation spend on pay for the loan);
· confusion between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses (e.g., … which is always expensive, … which people can do in college);
· incorrect form of pronoun (e.g., but the time for they to earn this money);
· incorrect syntactic structure (e.g., it may not exactly [be] the fact, the fact seems to show that those pursue a degree of art …, but the time for they to earn this money will just [be] longer than the time …, it is worth to get a degree in a better but [more] expensive college);
· ambiguous references (e.g., due to the directness, since people have got such convenience, this topic);
· inconsistent references (e.g., constant switches between second person you and third person one);
· imprecise choice of conjunctions to construct logical connections (e.g., … what Casey insists is one-sided and the relatively high expenses for an indeed good college is worthy.);
· lack of integration of quotes into text (e.g., … "the important part was that I had one (degree)" as Casey expresses.);
· colloquial expressions (e.g., a lot more money, quite ridiculous, really, get rid of, actually); and
· hortatory style (e.g., one must …, Think about 30 years …, please do it, you should …)
The challenges that this and other college students experience in writing can be summarized into five categories (c.f., Snow & Uccelli, 2009), all having to do with the command of grammatical resources. The first is the challenge of representing the self and the audience, such as acknowledging the status of the audience, selecting appropriate voice, signaling a specific relationship with audience, and indexing the epistemological status of a claim. The second is the challenge of representing the message, such as selecting and participating in a genre, adjusting message to audience status, representing ideas, and indexing sources of information. The third is the challenge of organizing discourse, such as using discourse markers to signal logical-semantic relations and making choices of reference. The fourth is the challenge of adhering to conventions of mechanics (e.g., spelling and punctuation) and basic grammar (e.g., subject-verb agreement, pronoun use). The fifth challenge is that facility in using language to design meaning must be coordinated with additional cognitive accomplishments such as genre mastery, command of reasoning strategies, and content knowledge to ensure successful communication. Addressing these challenges requires that students expand their linguistic repertoires and develop advanced literacy skills.