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Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
---- Kelvin Throop III
Pragmatics and Research Methods
On Friday I recieved the material for the next two course that I am taking, LING 904 Pragmatics and LING 905 Research Methods. The essay questions look to be difficult but interesting.
Fortunately for me, I recieved the material two weeks before the semester officially starts so I can get a headstart and hopefully do well. Research methods is using Introduction to Research Methods 4th by Robert B. Burns as the set text plus a large selection of articles and books sections. Pragmatics, however, does not have a set text but relies entirely on a broad selection of articles and book sections. I will probably purchase a text sometime next week. Recommendations from readers will be greatly appreciated.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Jul 18, 2004 at 03:29 PM
general_linguistic_study | Pragmatics | Research_Methods |
David (TEFL Smiler) wrote 155 words on Tuesday Jul 20, 2004 at 10:44 PM
Don’t worry, you’re unlikely to come across anything as hard to read as Grice 1975 and 1978(?), with the possible exception of Sperber and Wilson. Part of the problem is one of entering a very old discussion without possessing the same background knowledge as the other participants - unless you’ve read the Wittgenstein etc (in the case of Grice) or the Fodor etc (in the case of Sperber and Wilson).
The other reason for their verbosity is simply that of academia. To fit in with the other academics and to have one’s work taken seriously, you have to make it inaccessible to most people. It sucks and it’s daft, but that’s the way it works in them there ivory towers of the academy. Wotcha gonna do about it? (Note: I don’t mean that this is something that postgrads have to do, but it’s surely the way that founders of radically new ideas get taken seriously.)
ted wrote 236 words on Thursday Jul 22, 2004 at 12:57 PM
Here are a few recommendations for 905.
I found the Burns book less than useful for the major assignments. The lecture notes do have typos and errors. Dr Tent said he was working on rewriting the whole shebang, but you probably have the same old ones.
JD Brown’s “Understanding Research in Second Language Learning”, ISBN 0-521-31551-4 was helpful for the first assignment. David Nunan’s “Research Methods in Language Learning”, ISBN 0-521-42968-4 was good for the second assignment. Also, there are various web tools for choosing statistical tests. If I can dredge up the one I used, I’ll send it along later.
The book I wish I’d had during the course, but found a week or so later was “Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches” by John W. Cresswell, ISBN 0-7619-2442-6. This relatively slim book really laid out the issues in qualitative vs quantitative very well. Though not specifically for language research, the book is an excellent guide to good research design and writing: perfect for the final assignment.
Finally, a bit more of my usual rant. I got back the second assignment well after the term finished. It had comments, but no mark! A simple notation of “pass” was on the front page, but it was supposed to be scored. We got an e-mail a full month after the final assignment was due telling us that the final papers would come back “sometime soon”...
Sean. wrote 220 words on Friday Jul 23, 2004 at 12:51 PM
Ted,
Thanks for the suggestions on the books. I had looked at the J.D. Brown book and almost bought it. On Monday when I go to work, I’ll check the library and see if they have it as well as the other books you suggested.
One class that was absolutely horrid was LING 946 - the book was filled with mistakes, the professor was completely unhelpful and unprofessional and I didn’t recieve all the materials. Amazingly I got a credit for the class even after writing a scathing letter to the professor complaining about the unprofessionalism of his approach to distance students and lack of proofreading and organization of the material.
LING 912, SLA, on the other hand was an excellent course though I haven’t recieved my essays back (including the one from April 18). I sent the professor an email and he told me my grades and was surprised that I hadn’t recieved the first one back yet as they were posted in June. Yeah for me, I got a Distinction.
He also sent me an electronic copy of the second essay with a large amount of good feedback. You lack of grades is disconcerting, did you contact the professor about that essay? I can imagine that you are not very happy.
What classes are you taking this semester?
ted wrote 386 words on Friday Jul 23, 2004 at 01:33 PM
Credit after a scathing letter, eh? I’ve been a bit more cautious. My scathing letter(s) will go out after I get credit. The whole thing was a total waste. Online students received no instruction. Period. The only substantive posting on the WebCT from the instructor was a definition of a single acronym on assignment one. That’s it. The instructor may have answered some individuals personally by e-mail, but that is not a course of instruction. Nobody else learns from those side discussions.
I’m torn about what I should do. Maybe if I just put up with this, I can get a reasonable supervisor for research. But, then again, maybe not. I’m looking at doing the PhD to: 1) apply for tenure track jobs, 2) do enough writing to get some good publications, and 3) learn something I enjoy. Unfortunately, the reality is that they fall in that order, not the reverse.
I need the degree for job applications. Right now, the MQ degrees seem to hold some weight here in Japan, but I wonder about the future. Does everyone just get credit? Then the degree will become worthless pretty quickly, even if it is accredited. I’d like to warn people about the low quality of MQ’s online component. (I sure wish the two students I spoke to had warned me!) However, if I broadcast my complaints will that just make the degree worth even less even faster?
In any case, I’m stuck with my current program. I’m doing the Postgrad Cert in Ling Research, so no more coursework- just the dissertation over the next two terms. I’ve already paid quite a bit of cash, so to quit now would be a total waste. Plus, I will need the dissertation to apply to any other doctoral program, so I’m just going to have to make do for now and see what I can get out of it. I do need the structure to get any writing done, but I’m very unhappy to have paid 1600 AUD for a poor quality textbook, a few photocopies, and no instruction.
On a more positive note, who was the instructor for SLA? I don’t know if they would be available as a research suprvisor, but they sound like the kind of person I need to get in touch with at MQ.
David (TEFL Smiler) wrote 355 words on Saturday Jul 24, 2004 at 10:18 PM
I was shocked when I took my MA (full-time at a university). I experienced all of the things that you are describing. The lecturers didn’t seem to care. They arrived late to the lectures or tutorials, they taught badly (their lectures were little more than reading outloud the handouts they’d given us), and they were in general unfriendly and inaccessible. It took a very long time to hand work back, and they rarely passed on extra information that you needed. Their feedback was generally appalling. The dissertation supervision was also quite abysmal; my supervisor went on holiday at a crucial time, and she must have been surprised to discover the exact topic and content of my dissertation when it was handed in.
At the time I blogged a lot about this subject, both on my own blog and in comments elsewhere. I also corresponded with a few friends who had ‘been there’ by e-mail. What I learnt was that my experience was completely typical. In fact, I’m yet to hear of any MA programme anywhere that cannot be described in this manner.
A friend of mine, who is himself a university lecturer, describes academics as RATS, in that their priorities are first Research (if you don’t keep publishing, you’re nothing in academia), then Administration, and finally, in a very distant third position, Teaching Students. I don’t think it’s because they don’t care, but they’re rarely paid enough or allocated sufficient time to deal with students. So to an extent they can be excused. That doesn’t make up for lousy teaching, though.
So what are you to do? I would recommend not being angry - there’s just no point. You can’t change anything. My advice would be to accept the system as it is, and work with it. You’re very much on your own. And no, I didn’t feel any more support from the other students because I was there in person. In fact, I imagine you have more discussion on your MA discussion boards than we ever did with our personal contact.
I hope this comment helps. Good luck to you all, by the way!
ted wrote 152 words on Sunday Jul 25, 2004 at 12:03 AM
David,
Thanks. Part of me knows everything you mentioned, but I was spoiled in the past. I did an MA at a school that actually stressed teaching (UMASS Boston). Research was important, but student evaluations actually counted at tenure decision time.
More than the individual teachers, my beef is really with the administration. Instructors don’t use the online tools because they don’t know how. No training and no support from the administration makes for a bad course. I think it will have to be the program director who gets a scathing letter about program failures.
I guess I have to just jump through the hoops. Still, it feels silly because that is exactly what I try NOT to make my students do. Maybe if I jump through enough hoops I will be free to do something interesting. I just hope I can find a good supervisor. That might make all the difference.
Sean. wrote 92 words on Sunday Jul 25, 2004 at 04:20 PM
I just ordered Pragmatics by George Yule based on an email recommendation from David and Understanding Research in Second Language Learning by James Dean Brown based on Ted’s recommendation. I wanted to buy a couple of other books but money is a little tight. Guess I ‘ll check the library, but I don’t have much faith in the library at my school.
The other thing is You can only keep the books for two weeks and if you want to renew they give you a strange look. The perils of distance education…
David (TEFL Smiler) wrote 75 words on Sunday Jul 25, 2004 at 04:39 PM
The Yule book is a very good and clear intro to pragmatics. I like it a lot. If I was to teach a uni course abroad in pragmatics, and if it was necessary to have a few basic coursebooks, I think I’d use the Yule book. It’s fun and simple, but that can only be a good thing! I highly recommend the Yule book as an clear introduction to pragmatics (pre-Sperber and Wilson’s Relevance Theory).