Susan Behrens | Marymount Manhattan College (original) (raw)
Papers by Susan Behrens
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2019
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2016
1.Introduction. 2.Why Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Need to Study Speech Science.... more 1.Introduction. 2.Why Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Need to Study Speech Science. 3.Respiration. 4.Phonation. 5.Articulation & Phonetics. 6.Resonance. 7.Phonology. 8.Speech Prosody. 9.Acoustic Measures of Speech. 10.Physiological Measures of Speech. 11.Hearing. 12.Speech Perception. 13.Neurolinguistics. 14.Evolution and Language Universals. 15.Development of Speech Production. 16.Disorders of Speech Production. 17.Computers and Speech Science. 18.The Role of the Speech-Language Pathologist. References. Glossary. Index.
The Journal of American Culture, Jun 1, 2008
Skip to Main Content. There will be a release of Wiley Online Library scheduled for Saturday 27th... more Skip to Main Content. There will be a release of Wiley Online Library scheduled for Saturday 27th November 2010. Access to the website will be disrupted as follows: New York 0630 EDT to 0830 EDT; London 1130 GMT to 1330 GMT; Singapore 1930 SGT to 2130 SGT. ...
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2020
This hypothetical case of a freshman wrestling with her identity as an English user demonstrates ... more This hypothetical case of a freshman wrestling with her identity as an English user demonstrates that the old categories of native and non-native speaker do not adequately describe today’s college population. The lack of informed strategies in college writing courses to deal with students possessing different degrees of proficiency in English leads to both personal and educational consequences. Recommendations for college instructors are discussed. Susan Behrens Marymount Manhattan College
American Speech, 2013
Adult language comprises three interrelated systems, phonological, lexicogrammatical (vocabulary,... more Adult language comprises three interrelated systems, phonological, lexicogrammatical (vocabulary, morphology, syntax), and semantic. Language development studies in the 1960s focused mainly on the lexicogrammatical level; they were also predominantly psycholinguistic in their orientation. More recently, interest has extended into semantics; the present paper is concerned with the learning of meaning, and proposes a complementary approach in sociolinguistic terms. The paper suggests a socio-semantic interpretation of language development, based on the intensive study of one child, Nigel, from 9 months to 2½ years. Nigel first developed (Phase I) a two-level system, having sounds and meanings but no words or structures, in which the meanings derived from the elementary social functions of interaction with others, satisfaction of needs and the like. This continued to expand for 6–9 months, at which time the child entered the stage of transition to the adult language (Phase II, corresponding to what is generally taken as the starting point). This was characterized by the interpolation of a lexicogrammatical level between meaning and sound, and by the mastery of the principle of dialogue, the adoption and assignment of speech roles. It was also marked by a generalization of the initial set of social functions to form a basic opposition between “language as learning” and “language as doing.” The transition was considered complete when the child had effectively replaced his original two-level system by a three-level one and moved from monologue into dialogue; he then entered the adult system (Phase III). He could now build up the meaning potential of the adult language, and would continue to do so all his life. From a sociolinguistic point of view the major step consisted in once again reinterpreting the concept of “function” so that it became the organizing principle of the adult semantic system, being built into the heart of language in the form of the ideational (representational, referential, cognitive) and the interpersonal (expressive-conative, stylistic, social) components of meaning. All utterances in adult speech contain both these components, which are mapped on to each other by the structure-forming agency of the grammar. The original social functions survive in their concrete sense as types of situation and setting, the social contexts in which language serves in the transmission of culture to the child
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2014
"A pronoun takes the place of a noun." Most of our students have this definition tucked... more "A pronoun takes the place of a noun." Most of our students have this definition tucked away somewhere, an echo of past grammar lessons from elementary school. Yet they also often run into trouble with pronouns in their academic writing: / or me? It s or its? I would like to expand on this well-worn definition of pronouns by exploring their complexity. Such an exploration allows both students and educators to tackle the grammatical and discursive problems that arise from the English pronominal system. Pronouns are more than mere substitutes or placeholders.Why does this information matter? How can it be useful in the classroom? I believe that the grammar-only-in-context movement has resulted in both a reprieve for students from tedious grammar drills, and new college students with little overt language awareness. The academic demands on reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, however, are raised to higher levels in college, and we ask our students to think more critically and abstractly. I argue that college is the place for more metaawareness of English structure. This look at pronouns is a step in that direction.Pronouns are not just substitutes. What else can pronouns "be"? They can be...Demanding. Pronouns need antecedents to give them meaning. They should be anchored to another entity in the sentence or narrative, usually a noun. Further, pronoun and antecedent must also agree in number, person, gender, and case (conveying the function of the pronoun in the sentence, such as acting as subject or object).Unusual. Most parts of speech in English do not have gender and case distinctions. Pronouns are thus not only demanding but unusual in this respect. The exception to case is that the possessive marker still exists on nouns (e.g., Tony's).Ambiguous. "You did well on the exam." Was that one superb student or all the students in class acing the test? The second person pronoun in English does not, in the standard dialect, differentiate between singular and plural. In colloquial usage, we can solve that problem with terms such as youze,y'all,yous guys, and y ins: forms that do not work in academic contexts.English also does not differentiate between a formal and informal second person pronoun. Perhaps this is for the best; the language unburdens us from having to choose the appropriate form. When saying, "Nice to meet you," we do not have to commit to a formality level. However, the existence of formality variants also allows for subtle distinctions in the social dynamics of language exchange, especially when a speaker is invited by the conversational partner to forgo the formal for the informal form. While English lacks this dimension, we tend to do that work in our choice of first vs. last name.English pronouns also show themselves to be ambiguous when it comes to the distinction between inclusive vs. exclusive first person plural. We can mean the speaker and the listener, or the speaker and some third party. "We had a good time at the party" and "Remember when we went to Paris" could include the listener or refer to a different combination of people.Let's not forget the so-called royal we; a person with a certain amount of power in a situation might use this type of first person plural to mean him or herself and everyone else. Of course, when kings and queens of yore said, "We are not amused," they did mean themselves. In fact, those with ruling power often were not even referred to by others in the second person at all. This avoidance can be seen in such constructions as "Is the Queen pleased with her food?" Here we see direct address in the third person.Vague:Some pronouns have no concrete antecedents. They refer to an indefinite other entity. Such indefinite pronouns include someone, somebody, everyone, and everything. (Note though that some grammarians label those last two examples universal pronouns.) If a writer uses everyone, he or she does not need to also supply a full list of those names. …
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2016
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2004
The Language of Conversation Pridham, F. (2001). The Language of Conversation. London: Routledge.... more The Language of Conversation Pridham, F. (2001). The Language of Conversation. London: Routledge. Conversation is not a random communicative event. As with all levels of language (e.g., phonology, syntax) conversation follows rules, has a predictable structure, and is worthy of study. And with all of linguistics, we are usually unaware of the rules we follow, but follow them anyway and are highly sensitive to the violation of those rules. The Language of Conversation by Francesca Pridham is a slim (96 pages), hands-on guide to the analysis of this often neglected level of language. It aims to give conversation, defined as naturally occuring spontaneous spoken language, its due. This book is useful to linguistics students, but it also would be of interest to those in the performing arts, the humanities, and any field of communication. Pridham specifically defines conversation as "interactive spoken exchange between two or more people (which) can be face-to-face...non-face-to-fac...
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2019
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2016
1.Introduction. 2.Why Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Need to Study Speech Science.... more 1.Introduction. 2.Why Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists Need to Study Speech Science. 3.Respiration. 4.Phonation. 5.Articulation & Phonetics. 6.Resonance. 7.Phonology. 8.Speech Prosody. 9.Acoustic Measures of Speech. 10.Physiological Measures of Speech. 11.Hearing. 12.Speech Perception. 13.Neurolinguistics. 14.Evolution and Language Universals. 15.Development of Speech Production. 16.Disorders of Speech Production. 17.Computers and Speech Science. 18.The Role of the Speech-Language Pathologist. References. Glossary. Index.
The Journal of American Culture, Jun 1, 2008
Skip to Main Content. There will be a release of Wiley Online Library scheduled for Saturday 27th... more Skip to Main Content. There will be a release of Wiley Online Library scheduled for Saturday 27th November 2010. Access to the website will be disrupted as follows: New York 0630 EDT to 0830 EDT; London 1130 GMT to 1330 GMT; Singapore 1930 SGT to 2130 SGT. ...
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2020
This hypothetical case of a freshman wrestling with her identity as an English user demonstrates ... more This hypothetical case of a freshman wrestling with her identity as an English user demonstrates that the old categories of native and non-native speaker do not adequately describe today’s college population. The lack of informed strategies in college writing courses to deal with students possessing different degrees of proficiency in English leads to both personal and educational consequences. Recommendations for college instructors are discussed. Susan Behrens Marymount Manhattan College
American Speech, 2013
Adult language comprises three interrelated systems, phonological, lexicogrammatical (vocabulary,... more Adult language comprises three interrelated systems, phonological, lexicogrammatical (vocabulary, morphology, syntax), and semantic. Language development studies in the 1960s focused mainly on the lexicogrammatical level; they were also predominantly psycholinguistic in their orientation. More recently, interest has extended into semantics; the present paper is concerned with the learning of meaning, and proposes a complementary approach in sociolinguistic terms. The paper suggests a socio-semantic interpretation of language development, based on the intensive study of one child, Nigel, from 9 months to 2½ years. Nigel first developed (Phase I) a two-level system, having sounds and meanings but no words or structures, in which the meanings derived from the elementary social functions of interaction with others, satisfaction of needs and the like. This continued to expand for 6–9 months, at which time the child entered the stage of transition to the adult language (Phase II, corresponding to what is generally taken as the starting point). This was characterized by the interpolation of a lexicogrammatical level between meaning and sound, and by the mastery of the principle of dialogue, the adoption and assignment of speech roles. It was also marked by a generalization of the initial set of social functions to form a basic opposition between “language as learning” and “language as doing.” The transition was considered complete when the child had effectively replaced his original two-level system by a three-level one and moved from monologue into dialogue; he then entered the adult system (Phase III). He could now build up the meaning potential of the adult language, and would continue to do so all his life. From a sociolinguistic point of view the major step consisted in once again reinterpreting the concept of “function” so that it became the organizing principle of the adult semantic system, being built into the heart of language in the form of the ideational (representational, referential, cognitive) and the interpersonal (expressive-conative, stylistic, social) components of meaning. All utterances in adult speech contain both these components, which are mapped on to each other by the structure-forming agency of the grammar. The original social functions survive in their concrete sense as types of situation and setting, the social contexts in which language serves in the transmission of culture to the child
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2014
"A pronoun takes the place of a noun." Most of our students have this definition tucked... more "A pronoun takes the place of a noun." Most of our students have this definition tucked away somewhere, an echo of past grammar lessons from elementary school. Yet they also often run into trouble with pronouns in their academic writing: / or me? It s or its? I would like to expand on this well-worn definition of pronouns by exploring their complexity. Such an exploration allows both students and educators to tackle the grammatical and discursive problems that arise from the English pronominal system. Pronouns are more than mere substitutes or placeholders.Why does this information matter? How can it be useful in the classroom? I believe that the grammar-only-in-context movement has resulted in both a reprieve for students from tedious grammar drills, and new college students with little overt language awareness. The academic demands on reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, however, are raised to higher levels in college, and we ask our students to think more critically and abstractly. I argue that college is the place for more metaawareness of English structure. This look at pronouns is a step in that direction.Pronouns are not just substitutes. What else can pronouns "be"? They can be...Demanding. Pronouns need antecedents to give them meaning. They should be anchored to another entity in the sentence or narrative, usually a noun. Further, pronoun and antecedent must also agree in number, person, gender, and case (conveying the function of the pronoun in the sentence, such as acting as subject or object).Unusual. Most parts of speech in English do not have gender and case distinctions. Pronouns are thus not only demanding but unusual in this respect. The exception to case is that the possessive marker still exists on nouns (e.g., Tony's).Ambiguous. "You did well on the exam." Was that one superb student or all the students in class acing the test? The second person pronoun in English does not, in the standard dialect, differentiate between singular and plural. In colloquial usage, we can solve that problem with terms such as youze,y'all,yous guys, and y ins: forms that do not work in academic contexts.English also does not differentiate between a formal and informal second person pronoun. Perhaps this is for the best; the language unburdens us from having to choose the appropriate form. When saying, "Nice to meet you," we do not have to commit to a formality level. However, the existence of formality variants also allows for subtle distinctions in the social dynamics of language exchange, especially when a speaker is invited by the conversational partner to forgo the formal for the informal form. While English lacks this dimension, we tend to do that work in our choice of first vs. last name.English pronouns also show themselves to be ambiguous when it comes to the distinction between inclusive vs. exclusive first person plural. We can mean the speaker and the listener, or the speaker and some third party. "We had a good time at the party" and "Remember when we went to Paris" could include the listener or refer to a different combination of people.Let's not forget the so-called royal we; a person with a certain amount of power in a situation might use this type of first person plural to mean him or herself and everyone else. Of course, when kings and queens of yore said, "We are not amused," they did mean themselves. In fact, those with ruling power often were not even referred to by others in the second person at all. This avoidance can be seen in such constructions as "Is the Queen pleased with her food?" Here we see direct address in the third person.Vague:Some pronouns have no concrete antecedents. They refer to an indefinite other entity. Such indefinite pronouns include someone, somebody, everyone, and everything. (Note though that some grammarians label those last two examples universal pronouns.) If a writer uses everyone, he or she does not need to also supply a full list of those names. …
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2016
Research in the Teaching of Developmental Education, 2004
The Language of Conversation Pridham, F. (2001). The Language of Conversation. London: Routledge.... more The Language of Conversation Pridham, F. (2001). The Language of Conversation. London: Routledge. Conversation is not a random communicative event. As with all levels of language (e.g., phonology, syntax) conversation follows rules, has a predictable structure, and is worthy of study. And with all of linguistics, we are usually unaware of the rules we follow, but follow them anyway and are highly sensitive to the violation of those rules. The Language of Conversation by Francesca Pridham is a slim (96 pages), hands-on guide to the analysis of this often neglected level of language. It aims to give conversation, defined as naturally occuring spontaneous spoken language, its due. This book is useful to linguistics students, but it also would be of interest to those in the performing arts, the humanities, and any field of communication. Pridham specifically defines conversation as "interactive spoken exchange between two or more people (which) can be face-to-face...non-face-to-fac...
This book challenges the traditional approaches taken to linguistics to provide an innovative int... more This book challenges the traditional approaches taken to linguistics to provide an innovative introduction to the subject. By first examining the real world applications of core areas of linguistics and then addressing the theory behind these applications, this text offers an inductive, illustrative, and interactive overview for students. Co-edited with Judith A. Parker
Using examples from everyday speech and writing, this book "cracks the code" of off-putting gramm... more Using examples from everyday speech and writing, this book "cracks the code" of off-putting grammatical jargon so that readers can enjoy learning how to think and talk about grammar.
Understanding Language in the Classroom offers the pertinent information about language in an acc... more Understanding Language in the Classroom offers the pertinent information about language in an accessible and engaging format so that educators are better supplied with the linguistic knowledge necessary to help students learn and succeed. To articulate the issues students face when it comes to academic English, to ourselves and to our students; to understand the linguistic context of common linguistic concerns; to work with a more overt and controlled knowledge of language structure and use, a metaknowledge: all this is essential to more effective teaching that results in deeper learning in the college setting.