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DOCOSBIT 21112411 CS 204 043 21 151 852 Read, 'Ronald B.;Wilson, Paul I. &MOOR Coapositios Curricula. TITLE A Study of !cesim Oct 76 POB DAT/ University of Virginia OTE S4p.; Study prepared at NUS PRICE IP-30.83 MC -33.50 PlusPostage. Compositics (Literary); DESCRIPTORS College Freshmen; *Curriculum Development;Curriculum Evaluation; Curriculum leseatch;Educational Objectives; English Curricalma;English Detraction; *Evaluation Methods; nigherEducation; Models; School Surveys ABSTRACT After the historicalbackground and the contemporary evaluation are discussedis issues of freshmancomposition program sodels for compositiosinstruction are described this document, six radical, and (grammar aid composition,linguistics, literary, essay, for each model areoutlined. These editing), and tanosoaies coapositicm programs tazosonies are compared todata from a survey of providing a criticalanalysis at fourteea collegesand universities, content, schedulingprocedures, and of each progresss Although most of the progress evaluationlassessaent methods. in program emphasised the expository prosemodel, recent trends to contemporaryissues: a shift from development reflect attestios toward editing literary toward essaysodels, a shift from essay with individual models, and increasedemphasis on conferences section focuses on futureresearch and students. The concluding stads theoretical assessment needswithin the contest of this findings. Appendixesprovide a sample of framework aid preliminary used when evaluating the questionnaire and alist of geestions to be composition programs. (AL) .144.sm....=RS are the best that canbe made Reproductions supplied by from the originaldocument. **' ^1 S41404100*~41000441 Y s oesnsarmaur NEALTM. EDUCATION a INELPAIRE AumossAt. INSTITUTE Os EDUCATION rm.% DOCuATENT HAS SEENEPAO- D.jcio *AC TLY AS ITECEH/E0 vITCHA T.( PA Aso.' CM ofiGAAHEATONOTHGIN ...L. IT POINTS Os woo cs.u.toots co NOT ustessoshLy iligpog- sLa /ED CH SENT Of siCIAL NATKAAALINSTITUTE C%1 EDuCT /ON POSITION OA POLICY A STUDY OF FRESHMANCOMPOSITION CURRICULA By --PERUISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS TAATERIAL HAS BEEN (.RANTED 8." Ronald B. Head Ronald 8. Head and Paul T. Wilson TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESCA/RCES Paul T. Wilson NT,)RUATION CEI4TER 4CM+ AND HS Os THE ERIC sysTEu Center for the Studyof Higher Education University of Virginia October 1976 iI 2 1 INTBDDUCTION Of the four communicativemodes involvinglanguagelistening, speaking, reading, andwritingEnglish departmentstraditionally have emphasized the lattertwo.The study ofliterature forms the departments also- major part of the Englishcurriculums although Mile literary engage in teachingseveral types of writing. criticism is e:cperiencingunprecedented success andprestige (some critics believe criticismto be the majorliterary genre writing- an increasing of the twentiethcentury), and creative popularity with students,freshman compositionis becoming more and more a controversial area.Often faculty complainaboutthe poor quality ofstudent pap.ers. SAT scores, too,have declined less prepared for twelve successive years,and students are even tomeet the demands of amore rigorous addcompetitive university curriculum.Freshman composition iscaught in the middle.It does not. seem tohave done an adequatejohso far, yetthe task confronting it is becoming even maredifficult.Highereducation batthe scope has begunto question its roleinteaching writing, of the inquiry to dateis hardly adequate tothe magnitude of the and problem.Clearly the time is athand formore systematic critical analysis offreshman composition programsand their role in the curriculum ofhigher educatiOn. An awareness ofcontemporary issues mustbe mitigated by an the discipline it- historical consciousness ofthe developmentof self and its place inthe carricultsia. Ouranalysis will begin with historical backgroundand continue with a moredetailed discussion of recentproblems, not only specificto composition but also related to generalcurricular trends.The literature 9 2 large part of descrip- today on compositionteaching consists in tions concerninginstructional techniques. taxonomy of distinctly Our next concern willbe to present a the literature. identifiable instructionalmodels abstracted from facilitate an understanding We arranged thesemodels in a manner to conceptual distinctions not only of historicaltrends but also of between them. discuss the Our- models will formthe basis from which we institutions. results obtained front aquestionnaire seat to twenty designed to We received fourteenreplies.The questionnaire was several gather comparative data oncomposition programs among state univer- institutional types, includingprivate institutions, course plans, sities, and communitycalegest as well as to compare A copy of this materials, and activitieswith final outcomes. questionnaire is included asAppendix.A.The return was divided but the response equally among-public andprivate institutions, strong from community colleges wasdisappaiating considering their and innovative representationin the literature. indicative of While our sample wassmall, our findings are general curricular trendsin the field ofcomposition teaching. The reason for this, wefeel, is that our studyis rooted in However, we regard history, as well as in currentliterature. our findings as only apreliminary step toward acomprehensive in the near survey of national scopeWhich we hope to undertake future. 4 3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Often those who bemoanthe quality of studentwriting fail to realize that English as adiscipline did not gainrespectability in the university untilroughly 190Q. In thecolonial period/ for exam/et Merivether pointsout that composition.occupied an insig- nificant place in thetotal curriculum."The manorizing ofrules of gramma, lifelessparsing, with a merebreath of lingnlstics total proper andphonology,* he claims,"about contained the stmi of requirement informal English.f One reason for this is that until the mid-eighteenthcentury English. was not eventhe official language of highereducation.2When. English did gainacceptance, the larger realm what littlestudy occurred was incorporatedinto of rhetoric, a subjectbased upon classicalprinciples and empha, sizing oratory to a greaterextent than writtenexpression. Despite attempts at reform in thefirst half ofthe -nineteenth century,- the first professorship ofEnglish_ was only established1.12 Others followed in rapidsuccession.3 After the Civil War, the curricular_ trends rise in English_ studiesparalleled such other as the expansionof foreign languagesand the natural sciences, increasing specialization,influenced by the Germanideal,. and the elective system.However/ the two dominanttrends in English were philologyand literature.Composition played asubsidiary- role to these two areasasft still does todar. the As English. gained academierespectability at the turn of century, itbecame increasinglycharacterized as the study ofLitera- ture. L general curriculartrend at this time was for'certAtr to be subjects/ traditionally partof the college curriculum, moved down into secondaryschools. In factrthe high school 5 requirements. Consequently, curriculum becamedefined by-college and composition werethe pri-; college educatorsfelt that grammar_ schools and literaturethe province of manyresponsibility of high. this trend, theNational Council the university. Inresponse to founded. in 1911.The Haste of Teachers ofEnglish (NCTE) was National JointCommittee on Report of 1917,sponsored by the function was asmall part of English, arguedthat: the preparatory- instead, English courses the college Englishcurriculum and, skills functianany. After should "developstudemtst writing concerned with.establishing and 1917, the NOTE: wasprimarily- basis of good systematic rules of grammaras the propagating largely felt in writing.5 While the influenceof NOTEwas toward compositionhas since secondary education,their attitude proved pervasivein colleges aswell. I first to stressthe importance Junior colleges wereamong the esperiimy after 1920 kof compositionirepostsecondary-education, their distinctidentity. when they began togain a sense of public and privatejuntor Whitney found in1.92a that of thirty freshman rhetoric-whileonly colleges surveyed,all offered Falls, sur twentytwo offeredsurveystof British.literature. found that 270offered fresh*. veying 279 juniorcolleges in 1931, in literature.This man. compositionand 273 offered courses dominance ofcomposition began a patternculminating,today-in the courses in tnecommunity collegeEnglish.curriculum.15 began to creepinto After World War IIcertain innovations began to spreadfrom the Englishcurriculums. Remedial programs labs sprang up,and one campustc another,reading and: writing in reaction towhat was theories of functionalgramar grew perceived as therigidity of traditional grammar.Many of these innovationsledinstitutions inthe early 1950's to move toward communications courses, which,according to Laser, were"the most publicized and the mostdisputed change in theteaching of English K7 Originally developed by compositionduringthe past decade. Stephens College in1940, communica-tions coursesemphasized reading, writingr speaking:, andlistening skills, adheredto the philosophy' that any means areacceptable for improvingquilrm, and gave students more control avertheir learningactivities. In effect, these courses wereforerunners of the currentemphasis upon behavioral theory as aninstructional tectuxologytselfpacing, performance objectives,modular units, and13._7souaLizing. The advent of theSputnik era.