Teaching about Words

Summary:
Lindeman is discussing the importance of understanding words as transient rather than static in this chapter. If students come to their writing with a fear of choosing the wrong word or form, their writing is likely to be confusing and filled with inconsistencies. She suggests the importance of helping students become more comfortable in talking about their own language and being able to see their own writing as a living thing. There are several ways that the author says this can be accomplished is lots of classroom practice and discussion about such topics as parts of speech, effectively using active and passive voice, recognizing inflectional and derivational suffixes, and viewing style as word choice.

Response:
Lindeman does a great job in every chapter of reinforcing the idea that students are just as gifted in language as the instructor. The responsibility, then, lies with the instructor to help them view their language as something that can be changed from speech to the more conventional edited American English. There is also the idea that the more language is discussed, the better students become at writing for different audiences and making choices about style. I also liked the part about using nonsensical words to illustrate the systematic nature of inflectional suffixes.
Lindeman points out that while textbooks can be useful tools, the best way to help students become more proficient in their own writing is to use their own writing. Some teachers may be reticent to do this because it takes the ball out of their own court and makes the classroom a bit more unpredictable, but the extra effort certainly gets the desired results.