Random Quote
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"
---- Sam Levenson
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
KOTESOL 2008 - impressions
Yesterday was the first day of the KOTESOL 2008 International Conference. I can’t link directly to the conference site as the KOTESOL site is down and I can’t navigate to the conference section. The problem here being that KOTESOL relies on donated server space rather than spending the $100 to $150 a year to get hosting that they should. I heard a rumor that this might change - I guess when your web site is down on the most important event of the year it’s pretty good motivation to spend the money that you should’ve done years ago.
Day One
One thing that KOTESOL definitely needs to be given credit for this year is the introduction of the brown bag presentation. Immediately following the plenary address attendees were able to pick up a free lunch (western or Korean) and either scarf it down quickly or bring into the next session and eat. Everyone that I talked to thought this was a big improvement on previous years where you had to go off site to get a lunch and this inevitably resulted in many people walking into presentations late. I definitely want to see this continue in the future.
Back to the topic at hand - the conference. This year the presentations so far have not been as good as they have been in the past. I’m not sure if this is due to lack of topics of interest, poor presenters, or that I’ve been attending conferences for several years and have seen it all before. In any case there was 2 hours that I skipped yesterday due to lack of interesting presentations and one presentation that I quietly & discretely walked out on after 20 minutes.
The presentations I did see felt like I could have been the presenter except for the plenary address by David Graddol, which was excellent. Didn’t take notes and it’s 5:30am right now so my memory isn’t particularly great - no summary, sorry. I was, however, surprised and extremely annoyed by all the people in the balconey who noisily left with 20 minutes to go.
The presentation by Merton Bland on the Ten Commandments for Teaching English in a Changing World was rather entertaining. A little google search found a 2001 article with the complete list and notes. I don’t agree with them all, but it was definitely entertaining to listen to him.
(1) Do not teach English. Teach something, anything, IN English, using English as a vehicle of communication rather than an object of study. This is sometimes called the content-based curriculum.
(2) Do not teach grammar. Ingesting rules can be counterproductive: We are all familiar with students who are unable to apply rules learned through rote memorization. Instead, the grammar of English is best acquired inductively by the students formulating their own hypotheses. (This reflects Krashen’s acquisition vs. learning.)
(3) Do not teach vocabulary. The schema, the concept pods which constitute the lexigraphical units of language, vary from language to language, even from person to person. No language is a direct translation of any other. Thus, vocabulary must be forged within the target language itself in a manner not unlike that of first language acquisition. To do otherwise is to risk forging the chains which prevent the bifurcation of the native and target languages and forever making your students translate in their heads word for word.
(4) Do not teach pronunciation. There is no longer any standard English. Well over two-thirds of the world’s 1.5 billion English speakers are non-native speakers. Their English is certainly as acceptable as the Received Pronunciation (RP) of a tiny fraction of the British or the Broad Midwestern of Hollywood--as long as their English is comprehensible to the greatest number of persons who do not share that particular accent.
(5) Do not give tests. While testing is well embedded in many parts of the world, scaling is to be preferred to testing. Usually tests only require the regurgitation of knowledge. Scaling, placing people on a scale from beginner to educated native, has much more validity.
(6) Do not use lesson plans. Teach students, not lesson plans. Many teachers come away from their teacher training institutions with a mandated compulsion to spend hours writing lesson plans. Such planning is quite counterproductive since in an actual teaching situation the teacher must be alert to the reactions of the students--stressing pragmatic considerations, putting more time and effort where the lesson needs it and shortening or eliminating parts where the students seem to be in command of the concept being stressed. Yes, the teacher should have a general idea of the objectives of the lesson. Certainly the teacher should have available any materials which will be needed. Most importantly the teacher should leave time after the lesson to reflect on it and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. But the focus of any teaching should be on the students, not on the constraints imposed by any preconceived lesson plan.
(7) Do not use the native language in the classroom: Never, never, never! If our aim is the successful bifurcation of the native and target languages, any use of the native language is by definition counterproductive. Draw a chalkline on the doorsill and proudly use the native language outside the classroom, but create an immersion situation inside.
(8) Do not use textbooks. You know your own students better than any textbook author. Authentic materials are all around you. For example: Record the news from the VOA or the BBC. Videotape CNN or Australian TV. Bring in any expatriate Anglophone in town and have him chat with the students. Have your school subscribe to the “International Herald Tribune” or “Time” or “Newsweek.” Borrow English language videos. If they have subtitles put a book in front of the bottom of the monitor to cover up those subtitles. Buy, with your own money if necessary, paperbacks. After you read them they can be the nucleus of an individualized reading program (each student reads his own book and then reports on it to the class). Have your class keep journals in English, and write their own English to English vocabulary lists. Have the class write their own book.
(9) Do not teach the microskills: reading, writing, speaking, listening. English is one language, indivisible. And English is a living language; one only dissects the dead.
(10) Do not teach. Empower your students to take responsibility for their own learning. This reflects a general trend, especially in North American education, to deemphasize the role of the teacher as the font of all knowledge and provide the students with the means to further their own educative process beyond the classroom. This is called the student-centered classroom (as opposed to the teacher-centered classroom).
I may or may not post more about the conference after I return home this evening.
Dinner
After the presentations I went out to On The Border for dinner with a couple of friends.
Day 2
Day 2 summary in the extended entry.
Read the rest of this post
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Oct 26, 2008 at 05:29 AM
KOTESOL | Conferences | (10)
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Korea to Build ‘English’ City
This is wrong on so many levels. Korea has sunk to new lows with their obsession on learning English. Now they want to build a brand new city from the ground up just for learning English - forget the English villages, which are already losing money and were originally destined for failure now we’ll spend even more money for even less returns.
who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over but expecting different results?
English’ city lies at heart of Jeju’s development plans
First there were English villages where Korean students could go to practice their language skills.
Now there are plans to build an entire city where the lingua franca, including the medium of instruction, will be English.
Although no definite plans have been agreed upon with any schools at this point, Kim said they need to reach an agreement by sometime early next year in order to proceed with marketing and the admissions process for the targeted 2011 opening date.
5 Reading Game Web Sites for Students
Learning to read, write, and speak a foreign language is quite the difficult endeavor. Sometimes, the stress and pressure to learn the language is compounded by traditional teaching activities, so it is good to change up the pace every now and then.
Playing reading games can be a fun way to increase reading proficiency, as the games have students move through levels that are at, above, and below their current reading levels. Take a look at the following five sites for great reading games to help English Language Learners with their reading proficiency. Although some of the sites may seem elementary for older students, the value of the information being conveyed is well worth it.
Adrianbruce.com: Students can visit this site and play multiple levels of phonics and reading games involving spelling changes, grammar rules and much more. Have students explore and play these games for a fun and challenging reading experience.
Starfall.com: Starfall has a variety of short, interactive stories that grab and hold students’ attention. Additionally, reading comprehension and phonics games are available.
Sight Word Games: Using Macromedia Flash Player, this library’s web site has different games for sight reading. Multiple levels of sight reading games are available for play in your web browsing, and sentence building and story building games are also available to play for free.
Primary Games: The Primary games website has reading and language arts games and printable activities as well for extra practice. Students can work on spelling, contractions, vocabulary, as well as other fun games and activities that will help increase English their knowledge and skills with the English language.
Roy: Tale of a Singing Zebra: Don’t let the name catch you off guard. This site has several specific skills to focus on with readers of varying levels and works with phonemic awareness, sight words, and other important reading skills. Look into what your students can learn from Roy.
By-line:
This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of how to Become a Teacher in Indiana. She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com
note from EFL Geek
This post was originally written on October 9th, but I didn’t get the auto notification until a couple of days ago. I emailed Kelly re: the missing links on the post, but haven’t heard back from her. Anyhow enjoy the post.
A E I Love U
Readers may recall that in March I posted a music video made by local expat teachers titled Kickin it in Guemchon. Well the EV Boyz are back with another humurous look at expat life in Korea.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Oct 21, 2008 at 09:51 AM
Random_Ramblings | Video | (0)
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Super EX
recieved this video in my facebook and fortunately found it on youtube to embed here. From the facebook page.
A lil parody i made about ‘some’ expat men in Asia. I thought it was worth comment. Tried my hand at cartooning and I came up with this. Oh the things i do to kill time!
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Oct 20, 2008 at 07:11 AM
Random_Ramblings | Video | (0)
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