The Gift of the Gab

Olson’s article “Writing and the Mind” looks at the importance of language acquisition and its relation to traditional ideologies of literacy. Olson’s statement of “rather than writing providing a cipher on speech, writing serves as a model for speech” could hold more true (106). Writing provides us with the capability to convey information to others, but it lacks the ability to portray intonation, stress, etc. In fact, writing structures, and in this case I’m specifically referring to alphabetic structures, offer challenges in interpreting text too literally and in a manner that was not intended by the original author (121-122). For example, if one were to write “Who are you?”, one could read the sentence literally as a question, or they could interpret the question in a sarcastic tone, thus changing the meaning of the rest of the text.

For me, this was one of the most important findings in the text as I think it’s something that future educators need to take into account when thinking of how to teach literacy to students, especially students of other cultures or English is not their first language. Students who are learning English as a second language may have greater difficulty due to the writing structures implemented in their first language. The fact that logographic structures not only provide information such as subject-object-verb, but can also infer politeness can prove challenging when learning the pronouns and subject-verb-object sentence structure of English. I also believe that teachers have to take cultural and socioeconomic factors into account when teaching writing, or rather how students process words. For example, a student who has been raised to place importance on family, and who may come from a lower socioeconomic standing could interpret a sentence that involves two people deciding how to evenly split a piece of pie, differently from someone who may not have these factors at play in their life. If you ask whether a student would prefer the majority of the cake or just a small sliver of cake may provoke different answers depending on the student. I’m not sure if this makes sense right now, but my point is that interpreting words and sentences can vary depending a students cultural understanding of the sentence.

The other area of this article that I found extremely relevant was it focus on the importance of speech. While writing provides and opportunity to document information and thoughts, I think that our culture has shifted to where we place more importance on “writing” and not enough importance on speaking. As previously stated, speech allows for a variation in formality, politeness, intonation, stress, etc. As stated towards the end of the article, writing lacks a certain complexity that one can only find in speech in the sense that “it does not provide much of a model for what the speaker meaning by it or, more precisely, how the speaker or writer indented the sentence to be taken” (122).

Author’s note: I’m sorry if none of this makes sense. I’ve been drinking Thermaflu and I think my thoughts are not coming out very clear.


Olson, Collins, and Blot

This reading was very interesting, I have to say that I have never looked much into the development of writing and language. To see the arguments for the idea of writing creating a foundation for speech and allowing it to further develop is really interesting, However, what really strikes me and is a link between the three pieces is the relationship that writing, reading, and speech share with cognitive aspects of human development. It is a simple idea but I guess one I have never given much thought, or always taken it for granted. And, that is this idea reading, writing, and speech development our abilities to think and act. For instance when a child repeats a joke or sentiment that has been seen by adult, we find it cute, funny, and charming partially because the child is unaware of the meaning of their actions, they are simply imitating what they have seen done. This is a perfect example of the cognitive development process, a child has not had the experience in the language to understand what the adult understands about their actions. The Collins and Blot Chapter 2, “The Literacy Thesis: Vexed Questions of Rationality, Development and Self”, in the book Literacy and Literacies, discusses many aspects of the cognitive relationship to reading and writing starting with its use in economic development and to how it has helped to perpetuate social status differences in communities. How during the development of nation wide schooling the establishments have essentially drawn a line in the sand, and if you are literate then you will be successful and if you are illiterate than you will help to make up the criminal population with the communities. However, in contrast on some levels David Olson’s piece “Writing and the Mind” shows another aspect to this cognitive development, part of this development allows for the ambiguity in language to be seen. Our cognitive abilities are what allow us to hear or read sarcasm, pain, sincerity and the many other emotions. The idea that the language used to ensue these different sentiments is often the same and the variance is simply in the way it is said or displayed shows a necessity for cognitive development.


Description of Derek

I am a little bit quirky but that’s okay. Life isn’t nearly as interesting if you try to be “normal” in my opinion. Sometimes it’s better to chuckle and move on or ‘laugh at the darkness’ as I like to say. I am currently torturing my students by making them set up their wordpress sites to be even more awesome then they already are and it’s going to be Legen-wait for it – dairy.


What is Literacy?

When I think of literacy my mind immediately jumps to signs. I mean physical signs in Europe that I could only read because of the pictures, not the words. The words on each sign gave me a clue that they were streets, but what street was I on right now? This is why in Venice, you travel by water. Every street is part of rat maze that winds around and around until you are crossing another bridge that reminds you of the last, and you are wishing that you had paid more attention in your Italian 101 class three years ago.

Sono di…

Literacy in a sense is much like being a mouse in a maze where signs are your only answer and the only way to communicate with the rest of the world. Without a concept and constructs of a language, you are unable to share your psychological and social view of the world. You are forever lost.

This idea of literacy is similar to Barton’s views of “Literacy as communication” in his work titled, The Social Basis of Literacy. In this section, Barton explains that written and spoken language are entwined with such frequency that it is almost impossible to separate the two. In my experience in Venice, I was constantly reminded of this fact. Although I could read the language and point to certain areas on the map, my lack of oral communication led many Italians baffled from my belligerent questions. Having very limited understanding of the language, I also had a difficult time understanding their responses, which led me roaming in crisscrossed alleys and random neighborhoods.

ven1

According to Barton, communication is reporting the world to others through symbols. The written language is fixed in time and space. This was helpful as a reference point (finding streets to navigate north and south), but because I was lacking in the oral communication, my literacy of the language was incomplete. I witnessed first hand how critical it is to understand all aspects of literacy.

Also, if I do see Venice again… I will be in a boat.


Better Early Than Never

For this first entry I’m channeling my inner Mark and jumpin’ the gun because in every Dr. Jaxon class I’ve had, Mark was in it and he would be on point postin’ before class and even before the prompt was up sometimes; like he had the Jedi blog trick or something. To add, I in no way am drawing all of Mark’s awesomeness at posting and his ways with words. I’m only leaving my own procrastination behind and following suit, posting early…also, I figured we would be doing brief Blog intros and I know that it will get away from me if I don’t do it now.

So, with that, my name is Jeremy Wallace and I am a graduate student in the English department with an emphasis in Literature -or possibly Language and Literacy- and in my final semester. I have had the privilege of teaching two literature courses here –ENG240: Literature for Life and ENG258: World Literature- as well as two sections of ENG130: Academic Writing.

Currently my colleague, Daniele Astengo, and I are working on a classroom model that would enable two or more literature courses taught at the same campus to collaborate via their shared classroom website. We will be presenting this work at Arizona State in two weeks with the hope that it will highlight key components to the success of the course, such as: the hybridization of course content and engagement –evenly dispersing the time between face-to-face and online interaction; the importance of using your own web space and not a school based Learning Management System (LMS); discussion around weekly “make sessions”, films or seminars, as well as the shared benchmarks that would culminate in a piece of department published collaborative fiction and an adaptation, remix or remake of their own doing in the medium of their choice.

At the moment I’m interested in discussing ways we can reimagine and redesign the literature classroom to better address the needs of the 21st century student and learner. Also I’m really curious about “make” spaces in the classroom and the possibilities of putting together a future Chico State Humanities Lab.


Jane Austen, Game Theorist by Michael Suk-Young Chwe

There is so much to unpack in this book and it is so interesting in reference to some of the ideas of cognitive narratology. Chwe believes that Jane Austen used game theory to write and create her novels before we had identified the technique as game theory.

“Strategic thinking, what Austen calls “penetration,” is game theory’s central concept: when choosing an action, a person thinks about how others will act. Austen analyzes these foundational concepts in examples too numerous and systematic to be considered incidental. Austen then considers how strategic thinking relates to other explanations of human action, such as those involving emotions, habits, rules, social factors, and ideology. Austen carefully distinguishes strategic thinking from other concepts often confused with it, such as selfishness and economism, and even discusses the disadvantages of strategic thinking. Finally, Austen explores new applications, arguing, for example, that strategizing together in a partnership is the surest foundation for intimate relationships.” (14)

This perspective breaks down the ideas within Austen’s writing in such a way that reader can begin to really see the intentionality behinds her characters. It is the human element that makes her writing so interesting the intricate webs that our favorites characters weave such as Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcey. What this lends to some of the ideas of cognitive narratology is that level of story telling mixed with the human relationship, why the writer and the reader bond with such literature. Austen is able to take basic human characteristics and seeming real life struggle and put them into a story and that is part of what allows her writing to endure.

Another interesting element with thee approach to game theory when looking at Austen is equality. While the women in her novels are often still trapped by their situations in society the relationships that her main characters build, with male or female characters allows them many levels of equality, Chwe alludes to that idea in the last sentence of the quote “that strategizing together in a partnership is the surest foundation for intimate relationships”.