Rule Reformulation at the Advanced Level

Abstract

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ADVANCED-LEVEL composition course (for undergraduate French majors and minors, or for incoming graduate students) can become a Scylla-and-Charybdis proposition.1 If the focus is to be (yet another) review of grammatical structures, how can we avoid a dry lecture format in which a sullen congregation is subjected to the prescriptive sermons of the instructor? If, on the other hand, we wish to emphasize communicative competence and work toward proficiency goals, how do we address our commitment to improved accuracy and linguistic sophistication in the writing of our students? Many teachers of advanced composition courses have enthusiastically embraced such proficiency-oriented techniques as dialogue journals and peer editing, while placing less and less emphasis on pure grammar study. Why drag a roomful of sullen seniors through a textbook explanation of demonstrative pronouns or relative clause construction-especially if they have studied these points in previous courses, and have access to a perfectly good reference grammar? If the students already demonstrate Advanced proficiency in writing, we should instead work mainly at the discourse level, emphasizing communicative functions within appropriate contexts. On the other hand, students at this level continue to make mistakes with demonstrative pronouns and relative clauses! Even more problematically, their writing also contains many slippery grammatical errors which may not be addressed in their textbooks (for example, the finer points of article usage). We cannot simply ignore structural problems on the assumption that students will figure out all those details for themselves. At the very least, we must answer students' grammar questions, which is how Gaudiani recommends handling grammar in the Intermediate-level writing class. But at the Advanced level, even this is probably not enough. Most students need a little prodding to eradicate persistent errors, and to start producing the kind of analytical and argumentative prose which, as Schultz points out, constitutes Superior-level writing. Without active intervention from the teacher, many students will content themselves with the fairly simple syntax that they have already mastered. Moreover, as their instructors can attest, learners often assume that their most sophisticated ideas are somehow magically being conveyed through their very unsophisticated prose.

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