First and foremost, I can tell you what a nominal is. Certainly this statement must sound pretty strange, but considering that I spent half of the semester confused about the word nominal--at times questioning its very existence--I feel blessed to be able to exclaim the joy that overwhelms me when I think of my present knowledge of the term. Seriously, I was pretty clueless about grammar when I entered the doorway of Dial 153 on January the 8th. Since then, I have been--at times--overwhelmed with the enormity of grammatical existence. As a student graduating with a minor in speech; for instance, I had never really considered the importance of phonology in the study of grammar. I honestly believed that grammar consisted of only eight parts: a noun, a pronoun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction, and an interjection. As I scanned the syllabus I was surprised to see topics such as: gerunds, clauses, transitive and intransitive verbs, prepositional phrases, and relative clauses.
I have often heard it said that students learn better when they teach their peers; Dr. Canada took this statement to a whole new level. By having the students master a grammatical concept, Dr. Canada would weigh their skills as teachers themselves. Although I personally feel that this idea was brilliant, it often brought about much confusion amongst the students in the class. Whether it was due to miscommunication or a lack of preparation, I do not know; what I do know is that Dr. Canada and the text made up for any misconceptions or incongruities that were brought up during class discussions.
The technology portion of the class was quite an eye opener for many of the students in this course. The idea of a technological portfolio could very often overwhelm the students; however, because we all knew the purpose of the portfolio in relation to our future interaction in this technologically advanced society, we had no qualms in completing our contribution to All American.
Strangely enough, the most important things that I have learned this semester have had minimal effects on the actual aspects of grammar. I have learned that “prescriptive grammar” went out the door years ago. Therefore, we should learn to be the very best descriptive grammarians we can be without crossing the line. When thinking of dialects and cultural influence, an individual’s grammatical ideas can vary from person to person, but more specifically from region to region. When preparing to teach, one must be aware of these cultural and dialectical differences in order to be sympathetic to the grammatical differences that might be present within that child’s (or even adult’s) communication patterns. In turn, we must strive to highlight the importance of one’s culture and dialect and also stress the importance of proper grammatical concepts in relation to Standard English and the opportunities available to people who abide by those concepts. Whether this is what I should have come out of the class knowing or not, I have no clue. But I can tell you this: I have, in the course of this semester, devoted more time and tears to this class, than to any I have had in the last four years at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. It has not always been a pleasure, but it has most definitely been a learning experience. Thank you Dr. Canada for your patience, availability, and encouragement.
