<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<TITLE>Message</TITLE>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2919.6307" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV align=left class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr lang=en-us><FONT
face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><B>From:</B> Alicia Sovich [mailto:asovich@csulb.edu]
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, March 12, 2002 3:39 PM<FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><FONT
size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
class=950194820-12032002> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr lang=en-us><FONT
face=Tahoma><FONT color=#0000ff><FONT size=2><FONT face=Arial><SPAN
class=950194820-12032002> </SPAN><BR></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=2>When dealing with the topic of teaching Composition, you are
dealing with several factors. We, as instructors, often strive not only to
eliminate or lessen English interference and improve grammatical structures and
orthographic mistakes, but we also have the mission of teaching our heritage
learners what goes beyond and beneath esthetics. We must teach them how to
write effectively by coordinating ideas, limiting their themes, creating
effective thesis statements and so on. Our job is complex and
intricate because it is does not aim at a single specific target. There is
many targets to aim at and we must be very clear about what our priorities are
before we start teaching those skills to our learners, and even more before we
start grading papers. In other words, we may encounter an essay which
possesses amazing organizational skills and wonderful thesis statements and
transitions and yet it may also possess a great amount of English interference
and orthographical mistakes that would make it almost impossible for a
monolingual Spanish speaker to understand many of its sentences. On
the other hand, and thanks to the assistance of great Spanish word processor
programs, other students may hand in papers with excellent grammatical skills
and minimal English interference and yet the paper may show very poor data
collection and organizational skills. The goal is to aim at teaching how
to write essays that reflect effective writing techniques and eliminate English
interference and other grammatical errors. Due to the complexity of the
subject, I am not surprised that there is a book available that teaches us how
to aim at all these targets successfully. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Alicia Sovich</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT> <BR>----- Original Message -----<BR>From: Scott McGinnis
<<A href="mailto:smcginnis@nflc.org">smcginnis@nflc.org</A>><BR>To: <<A
href="mailto:heritage-list@Glue.umd.edu">heritage-list@Glue.umd.edu</A>><BR>Sent:
Tuesday, March 12, 2002 1:15 PM<BR>Subject: Inquiry: Teaching composition to
heritage learners<BR><BR><BR>> Does anyone know of any books or articles that
deal with the topic of <BR>> teaching composition to heritage learners?
Not a student book, but <BR>> one addressed to teachers?<BR>><BR>>
Thanks,<BR>><BR>><BR>> Kim Potowski, Ph.D. <<A
href="mailto:kpotow1@uic.edu">kpotow1@uic.edu</A>><BR>> Director, Heritage
Language Teacher Corps<BR>> Coordinator, Spanish for Students of Hispanic
Background University of<BR><BR>> Illinois at Chicago, Dept. of
Spanish, French, Italian & Portuguese<BR>> 601 S. Morgan St., 1727 UH,
MC-315 Chicago, IL 60618<BR>> (312) 996-8524, Fax (312)
413-1044<BR>><BR>><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>