My favorite reading of the week was Semali's Transmediation: Why Study the Semiotics of Representation? This reading talked about the usage of signs and the importance of them, and I found this relevant because signs are always all around us. We see signs walking down the hall, signs while driving, and signs while browsing the web, just to name a few examples.
There was an interesting question posed by Semali on page 2 of the reading — "Since signs are all around us, then why does the school curriculum not value and encourage the development of abilities other than verbal, given that only a small proportion of communication is verbal?" (Semali 2). The part about verbal communication being a small proportion of communication is SO right! How many of us really pick up the phone and call someone? How many of us would rather text someone than see them in person? Not only that, but how much news to we get from Twitter, Facebook, or online versions of CNN, etc.? There's no need to call someone to tell them news, its accessible right on your cell phone!
I'm not saying that this is right or wrong, but regardless it is just the way things work. So if this is the direction communication is going to continuously head in (because it is only going to get worse), why aren't we placing more emphasis on nonverbal communication in schools?
As future educators, it is our job to work on this. Our students should be learning the relevant ways of the world. Student's are becoming more and more visual learners and they love to learn through nonverbal means. I know when I was in high school I loved when we worked on the computers instead of listening to our teacher talk for 42 minutes. The world is constantly changing and it is our job to prepare our students for whatever the direction the world takes them in.
You're right; we really should put more emphasis on teaching the written language. It may not seem like much, but the simple things like commas can make huge differences. In verbal speech, we naturally use punctuation without even thinking about it. In writing, however, that's not always the case.
ReplyDeleteOxford comma example: http://imgur.com/gallery/fycHx
True, speech is still a vital component of language that we need to teach. But as the world becomes more text oriented, the little nuances of proper, effective writing begin to make huge differences.