“What Happens if They Change Schools and Can’t Conjugate Verbs?”

2 thoughts on ““What Happens if They Change Schools and Can’t Conjugate Verbs?””

1. Nathaniel

   October 30, 2016 at 8:36 pm

   Grammar is not one of the 5 Cs.

   Communication is the primary C. The others are secondary and are benefits, purposes, and reasons for acquiring the primary C,

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2. Robert Harrell

   October 30, 2016 at 8:55 pm

   I think the new ACTFL graphic does a better job of presenting the primacy of Communication. Here’s a link to it, though I have seen it using different colors.

   http://aappl.actfl.org/sites/default/files/AAPPL/AAPPL_Measure_3_Modes.png

   Communication is inside a large triangle in the center of a circle. The three sides of the triangle represent the Three Modes of Communication (Interpersonal, Interpretive, Presentational) and mention the communicative avenues for each mode (reading/writing, listening/speaking; listening, reading; speaking, writing respectively). Cultures, Connections, Comparison, Communities are on the outer rim of the circle, obviously taking a position below Communication.

   In talking to administrators, I would use the new graphic to illustrate the concept but make certain they understand we do not communicate by building the “skills” of reading, writing, listening, speaking. We need to stop viewing them as skills; they are the avenues by which we communicate. Public speaking may be a skill that can be learned, but is there a corresponding “Public Listening” task? Or do we listen as part of communication, and that is simply one of the vehicles by which meaning is conveyed? (Or rather the receptive mechanism by which the sounds from which our brain establishes meaning reach the brain.)

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