Etymology on the fly

I've been teaching my ESL class of Chinese immigrants how to break words into syllables or vowel units to aid in pronounciation.  The other day, a student jumped ahead in the material (these students are wicked smart!) by asking about prefixes that she'd noticed occuring over and over in English, like re, com, con, dis, multi, trans, etc.  I told her they were based on Latin roots, and wrote a list of them on the board with what meanings I could remember from long-ago Latin plus what I could figure out by context. 

Another student asked about the word "conversation," what the various components were.  Excited by the fact that forty year-old remnants of high school Latin class were wafting to my brain, I quickly broke "conversation" into syllables on the board.  "Con = against," I wrote, "as in 'pro' and 'con.'  'Vers' comes from 'versus' or" - uh, um - "against;" I then wrote "Boston Patriots versus (vs) the Dallas Cowboys," ..."or any of those team sports," I said lamely.  I sensed that I'd dug myself a hole, but still running on fumes of dimly-remembered Latin, I charged on.  "English is complex," I said, then wrote on the board two minus-signs equal a plus, warmed by wisps of even dimmer Algebra now stirred up.  I explained that by some twisted route of usage, the two negatives of con plus versus came out making the positive of conversation, or coming together in talk.

 

The whole class erupted in Chinese, which they've never done before, talking back and forth to their neighbors, punching in stuff on their electronic dictionaries.  "Conversation...conversation," squawked the electronic voiceboxes.  Lin, who had been an accountant in China and is good with numbers, pointed at the board and traced two minuses equalling a plus in the air, translating it to the class in Chinese.

 

I went home and told my husband that something exciting had happened, that I found myself - a neophyte to the field of ESL - suddenly teaching by the seat of my pants instead of a lesson-plan, plunging into the dense thicket of etymology on intuition and memories of high school.   "Boy, I've never realized how those things stick!" I said.

 

Win's hands in the dishwater slowed as I told him about "conversation."  Still looking into the sink, his head went back as if with a long sigh as I talked.  Then he shook his head. "It's from con, together, plus verso, you know, page."

"Oooo," I put my hand to my mouth, knowing that his explanation had cohesiveness and simplicity compared to my convolutions.  He'd also gotten in the 790's on his Latin achievement SAT's way back when, so his memories had more credibility than mine. 

"Coming together for words," he said, shaking drops off his hands. 

"Oh no. You mean 'con' means the exact opposite of 'against?'"   

"Yeah," he said.  "Like conjunction."

So the next class, I had to rewrite 'conversation' on the board and tell the students I was wrong.  I broke it into syllables and told them Win's meanings.  They just stared at me, at a loss for words.  Their faces were neutral, as if nothing clicked.  I thought about their culture, and how it was dangerous in their country to question authority, teachers included.  They probably just couldn't compute "wrong" or "mistake" with "teacher."

And now, checking the dictionary, I find that "conversation" is really from 'conversari,' meaning to live, keep company with; by way of 'convertere,' to turn around.  I'm not going to convertere and tell them I was wrong again.

But I am going to stick with my lesson-plans from now on.            

                                           

Comments

[earth girl]

I shared this with my husband who is studying to be a teacher and works with ESL students at the university Writing Center and we both had a good laugh.

[Ronni Bennett]

Your description of your students erupting in "conversation" among themselves in Chinese brings to mind something that I sort of think about now and again when I read press reports about the strict limitations placed on public school teachers these days in following the school-board approved lesson plans without deviation. I can't bring one to mind right now, but I seem to remember that teachers are sometimes reprimanded (fired on occasion, maybe? Can't remember) for not following the curriculum exactly.

We all know that the best kind of education happens when the students are fully engaged and excited intellectually. So what happens these days, when the STUDENTS deviate from the lesson plan and start asking questions about things that aren't approved?

[Liz Ditz]

Earth Girl is conflating, I think, two things. One is the mania for the workshop model in New York, where teachers have been disciplined for spending more than 10 minutes teaching; the other is the Direct Instruction method, which provides a tight script for presenting certain lessons.

No, no, you didn't lead your students astray! You showed them that even native speakers can make errors of analysis. You showed them in the United States, teachers CAN make mistakes and acknowledge those mistakes to the class. Also you gave them a great lesson in English with our many similar words. I suspect you conflated /converse/ (meaning the opposite) and /converse/ (meaning to speak together).

Perhaps you should take with you to class a good dictionary, so you can refresh your memory for word roots. Here's a great teaching phrase: "I'm not sure. Let's look it up."

[Tabor]

China is the new force to deal with (if they can get their environmental act together) and you may have an inside seat with these students. Fareed Xakaria (Newsweek) on his PBS TV commentary show today, while interviewing the author of The World is Flat (Thomas L. Friedman), said, "So you are saying that it is better today to be born an A-student in China than a C-student in Poughkeepsie." This would definitly not have been said 5 years ago.

[Cowtown Pattie]

This may be way out in left field but...

I noticed that the students' eruption into conversation in their native tongue occured when you introduced an algebraic explanation to the lesson.

Mathematics is the universal language, no?

[ned]

"Synchronicity"? I just applied for a volunteer spot to teach English to some Vietnamese new arrivals. I'm a little nervous because I've never given formal English classes before but I've decided that it's a lot better to light a candle than curse the darkness. I do feel rather strongly that the move towards "etnic diversity" was a step in the wrong direction. If we can't communicate with each other in a common langauge, what hope is there for peace and stability in this overcrowded, complex place we call the U.S.?

[joared]

Did a short stint teaching Volunteer Vital English to Spanish speakers; most rewarding. Had only two students, a handsome young man who was a farm worker, would be moving on toward the northern part of CA to harvest the various crops as they ripened. He was highly motivated to absorb what Eng. education he could when he could. I was saddened when he didn't appear one class, learned he had to go north. Could only hope there would be some sort of ESL class where he went.

The older woman was equally motivated, but tended to reflect the cultural deference to the male, thus challenging to encourage her active verbal participation. The young man, who could easily have been her son, did nothing to intimidate her. This was just her orientation. Couldn't help thinking it might have taken a lot of courage at her age to just have been in the class.

Think this program with which I was involved has ceased to exist here. The program was totally dependent upon volunteers who first went through a short one class training program of their own, all used the same book, same approach which I tweaked just a bit. Many other excellent programs now through Adult Education, Jr. Colleges.