Research Response Paper

Brett Ilie
Planning and Assessing
Education 206
Sister Mary Ann Jacobs
28 October 2015

Brett Ilie
Sister Maryann Jacobs
Education 206
23 October, 2015
As a teacher, the question of why we need to learn the topic will always be brought up.
Because of my passion for English, I believe English as a subject is not just needed in school,
but essential in your everyday life. In todays society, many critics, students, and parents, have
the argument why do we need to know English?. They believe it is not necessary to a specific
student because they do not think their child will go into that field, or they learned everything in
previous years. Through research and careful consideration of the common core standards, I
believe the English Language curriculum is crucial in the school system and your daily life.
Gopnik (2013) discusses the necessity for English in the classroom and why. Less
people are going into the field of English Language and the course is dying out with less
amounts of people joining. Gopnik believes that English is essential in the curriculum because
although you may take away the class, people will still find ways to discuss literature, and why
would you encumber someone from from the analytical practice of literature. Out of school, and
into the career you are headed for, one must always be able to look at directions and be able to
analyze what is said. In an English classroom you learn how to look at different pieces of
literature and how to interpret and analyze the text. If you cannot do analyze and interpret texts
in the classroom, doing the same process will be hard to do out in the world. People will always

discuss the literature read, and is essential in life to have. Although there are less English
majors today, the need for English is still in high demand.
Many people still believe that English is unessential or useless after a certain amount of
time. Some critics think that there is no learning in English, but teachers teaching about criticism
and how to look at literature in only one point of view, making the students closed-minded and
only listening to their teacher. Critics point out how English teaches students to be closed
minded and students blindly agree with what the teacher says (Clark 2013). One father
recently requested his daughter be permitted to drop English in order to take chemistry. [He
says] Why should we spend so much time on what she already knows (Reeve 2015). Parents
trying to have their child taken out of a course is something many teachers face throughout their
career. But the content taught in the earlier years are only the basic and broad knowledge of
English. Then as years go by, students advance upon the literature difficulty and students add
on more challenges to their writing style. In other words, the quote is saying that after a year in
baseball camp, lets let them play in the major league. We need to not just learn the basics, but
we need to practice for years in order to master the art of writing and analyzation of literature. To
stop learning English in high school is a major deterrent for students to advance upon it in
college, but inhibits students from properly refreshing the brain from what they already know.
Another reason to understand the basics of English is to follow directions and interpret
them correctly. Reeve (2015) discusses back in the time of World War II, that people need to
take orders and adjust them accordingly. In English, you are taught interpretation and
analyzation, which will be needed in the really world. When interpreting literature you need to

think of what the author speaks about and how the words convey a certain meaning.
Interpretation is part of the process of analyzing text; to add on to analyzing literature you need
to see what is said and happening in different perspectives, you need to see the meaning
behind text and important factors. English teaches a person how to read, write, follow directions,
listen, and look further into in analyzation. In a job, in the army, or even in life itself, following
orders is extremely important.
On top of students needing to know what is taught in English, students need to know
why they need the knowledge learned throughout their English classes. It is important to know
how you will implement and apply the material you have learned in English because it will help
you grasp the content, and also it is a way to remember the information. If you do not think you
need to know reading, writing, analyzing, and being able to provide evidence for claims you
make, then you are more likely to forget it. In other words, if a student does not care about the
work they are being taught, then the student is going to forget all of the information taught.
Therefore knowing why you need to learn these skills are important that students know they
need this information to help them in their everyday lives. In any given day throughout your life,
situations will arise where you have to come up with an interpretation or defend an argument;
this is why you need to understand what you are taught in class. This is just another reason why
you need to have and learn English throughout your time in high school.
Upon my research, I thought I should branch out and not just look at English in the
United States, but in varied other countries. Sell (2015) wrote both for and against the idea of
English in other countries. An argument against it is that Its not their culture (Sell). As true as

this may be, I believe that in any country, there will always be a group of people who can speak
English. English is generally a known language and to take some classes as a child, knowing
different languages opens your opportunities to a vast and different lifestyle. Becoming bilingual
is a skill that many people need in todays society and English can really help someone in the
long run. On the reasons for English in another language, having English in school can help with
interpretations of texts. Literature is open for interpretation and there are many ways you can
interpret the text therefore a country can pull aspects of their life into this new type of literature.
Another reason for English in the classroom, is the cultural difference. Some people may see
two languages as a negative, but in reality, this is a good way to see the cultures of other
people, how they live, and how their history can relate to yourself. Knowing the culture of
another country is important to know, and this is just one step closer to help world unification.
Looking at the New York State Common Core Standards, we can see why English needs
to be spread throughout high school. The difference in material learned from freshman year to
senior year is extensive. In the freshman English classes, in writing, students must develop
claims and counter claims, link subjects and phrases together, and have an overall formal writing
style. By senior year in writing, they need better analysis of literature, better writing style, more
fully developed claims and counter claims, and lastly have more evidence. Without the practice
in between the freshman and senior year, there is no way students will master what they
learned, and then add on to it for better writing skills. Then, the students reading level needs to
improve. Being stuck at a sixth grade English level for reading and writing will guarantee a very
low chance of doing successful in jobs and careers. It is evident with the NYS Common Core

Standards, that students need to know a higher intellectual level of English throughout their high
school career.
Lastly, in a non-scholarly article by the NY Times, the article speaks about not only what
teachers should teach, but how they should teach to its full potential. This article speaks
specifically to English teachers, and how if you are anyone in English, then you will teach these
words of literature in your classes. In other words, it is like the English Canon. The canon is the
masterpieces of literary history that if you are in the English Language field, you must know. If
this topic is brought up in the New York Times, and they believe it is needed in everyday life,
then odds are you will need it in life. This is not just a good source to see why we need to read
certain pieces of literature, but it helps reach out to all people on how everyone should know
classical works such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Shakespeare, or The Great
Gatsby. These pieces of literature are not only renowned in American, but all across the world.
English is not just an essential part of the school system, but is necessary throughout
everyones life. English classes prepare people to follow directions, reading and writing, support
a claim with evidence, and how to interpret and analyze given works. English is not just reading
and vocabulary, but teaches how to write, develop claims, defend yourself. English is needed for
your everyday life. English also is not just knowledge based, but helps make you a good person
because it can help make better citizen, creating a better society. To conclude, English expands
beyond the classroom, it develops necessary skills that are essential to being a better person. It
is not just a classroom, but life values.

Abstract
My paper is about how English is not only necessary in schools, but essential in your
everyday life. English teaches students how to follow directions, analyze texts, and be open
minded. Some critics, students, and parents believe that English is not necessary and that the
subject just becomes repetitive. As an English teacher in training, I believe that the
fundamentals of English help prepare a person in the future. People will learn to critically think,
be open minded, write and defend themselves in debates through valuable evidence. Using
articles as evidence, I answer the question why do we need to learn English? and why it is
important for me to help students understand English. Writing and supporting yourself is
something every person needs to know in their career, therefore exceeding as much as you can
in the subject will vastly help you in the long run. English is a necessity in schools to help
advance and prepare students in the outside world by setting them up for real world situations.

Works Cited

"10 Ways to Teach Literature." <i>NYTimes</i>. N.p., 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
&lt;https://www.nytimes.com/learning/issues_in_depth
10TeachingLiteratureIdeas.html&gt;.
Clark, S. Why Teach Literature?" <i>English Education Research</i>. N.p., 23 Nov.
2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2015. &lt;https://englishedresearch.wordpress.com/
2013/11/23/why-teach-literature/&gt;.
http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/common_core_standards/pdfdocs/
p12_common_core_learning_standards_ela.pdf
Gopnik, A. (2013, October 31). Why Teach English? The New Yorker, p. 3. Retrieved
from http://immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/NEWYKRUS/
N130827G.pdf
Reeve, Adrienne W. "Why Teach English?" N.p., Sept. 1945. Web. 1 Oct. 2015. &lt;
http://www.jstor.org/stable/807672?
seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents&gt;.
Sell, Jonathan PA. "Why Teach Literature in the Foreign Language Classroom?" N.p.,
n.d. Web.1 Oct. 2015. &lt;http://dspace.uah.es/dspace/bitstream/handle/
10017/573/11_Sell.pdf?sequence=1&amp;isAllowed=y&gt;.