tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46909966747592766202024-03-20T20:30:20.028+05:00the BEonomics blogA blog about service design, behavioural economics, and teaching in Business English.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-10561030253856367772012-04-02T12:00:00.000+06:002012-04-02T12:00:00.450+06:00Time counting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j2zM_FxZ4IA/T3PfA9D1AjI/AAAAAAAAAPE/99PTSzxyEDg/s1600/whateverclock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j2zM_FxZ4IA/T3PfA9D1AjI/AAAAAAAAAPE/99PTSzxyEDg/s200/whateverclock.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
One of the things I have learned from teaching so many business people is the importance of prioritising.<br />
<br />
A dispersed focus is no focus at all.<br />
<br />
With that in mind, I have recently embarked upon a training course that I intend to devote my free time to, and, as such, I think it is unwise to continue writing this blog at the same time.<br />
<br />
However, I will hopefully return to it in the autumn.<br />
<br />
In the mean time, thank you for reading, and writing comments and emails, and I hope you have a good summer.<br />
<br />
Tony</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-38391564396593793672012-03-26T12:00:00.000+06:002012-03-26T23:54:52.590+06:00IATEFL Glasgow Online<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DS67cvBB58Q/T27-bUe0SFI/AAAAAAAAAO4/VSiB0PUZv7o/s1600/Glasgowonlineiatefl.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DS67cvBB58Q/T27-bUe0SFI/AAAAAAAAAO4/VSiB0PUZv7o/s200/Glasgowonlineiatefl.png" width="200" /></a></div>
I am devoting this week's post to the excellent <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/">IATEFL <i>Glasgow Online</i> site</a>.<br />
<br />
As well as keeping us all up to date on everything happening at the conference, it has <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/forum">special forums </a>devoted to the SIGs where the debates can rumble on long after the face-to-face conference has finished.<br />
<br />
This year <a href="http://mercedesviola.wordpress.com/">Merecedes Viola</a> and <a href="http://www.besig.org/blog/default.aspx?BlogTagID=286ac582-5980-4788-b9cc-03c9b69dd005">Claire Hart</a> are doing an excellent job co-moderating the <a href="http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2012/forums/special-interest-area-forums/business-english-area">BESIG forum</a>.<br />
<br />
I had the honour of doing this myself last year with the inestimable <a href="http://ydnacblog.wordpress.com/">Candy van Olst </a>and it proved to be most inspiring.<br />
<br />
If you missed the conference, or if you missed the forum because you were at the conference, it's well worth a look.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-38187094778269483302012-03-19T12:00:00.000+06:002012-03-19T12:00:06.123+06:00All presentation and incorrect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9-lqBmxFvZU/T2WThi3FXOI/AAAAAAAAAOo/rv7vFJZkajw/s1600/zen_garden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9-lqBmxFvZU/T2WThi3FXOI/AAAAAAAAAOo/rv7vFJZkajw/s200/zen_garden.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Presentations - have
they ever been more popular?</div>
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<br /></div>
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There are more and
more online tools for making and delivering presentations, adding to the
arsenal of offline standards.</div>
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<br /></div>
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And I notice that
teachers and trainers seem to use them in ever greater numbers for reasons as
varied as the introduction of grammar points and professional development.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The presentation, it
seems, is here to stay, and its role in the Big Six is seemingly assured.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But why?</div>
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<br /></div>
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What function does
it fulfil?</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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The main reason for
giving a presentation is seemingly to inform your audience about something.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If that is the case,
presentations seem to be catastrophically inefficient ways of conveying
information.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It is much quicker
and easier to read a document than have it read to you, which is what many
presentations consist of.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Reading also allows
you to think about what is being said and to compare it with other sources of
information.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The other main
reason for giving a presentation is to persuade your audience of something.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
That's all well and
good if you are the presenter, but if you are the audience - do you want to be
persuaded?</div>
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<br /></div>
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An information pack,
for example, might tell you what you need to know as well as giving you time
and space to think clearly about the issues involved without being hit between
the eyes by a hard sell.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The only mutually
useful part of a presentation is the discussion afterwards, where points can
clarified, questions raised, misunderstandings ironed out.</div>
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<br /></div>
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My suggestion, then,
is that we abandon the presentation and move straight to the Q&A.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Use the fabulous
software to make interesting documents which become the start of something, not
the end of it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
(Image: <a href="http://www.freeimages.co.uk/">Free Images</a>) </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-83264481578019811892012-03-12T12:00:00.000+06:002012-03-12T12:00:08.793+06:00Enclothed cognition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WMW8vSM913g/T1yQ6NWlxLI/AAAAAAAAAOY/jKg71m3lNUw/s1600/labcoat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WMW8vSM913g/T1yQ6NWlxLI/AAAAAAAAAOY/jKg71m3lNUw/s200/labcoat.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The effects of the environment on test-takers appear to be manifold.<br />
<br />
I have written before about the difference <a href="http://drtonymyers.blogspot.com/2011/05/code-red.html">the colour red </a>can make to a learner's levels of accuracy.<br />
<br />
It now appears that not only is colour important to levels of success, along with room size, but also the type of clothing a test-taker wears.<br />
<br />
Welcome to the world of 'enclothed cognition' as described by Hajo Adam and Adam D Galinsky in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103112000200">a recent paper of the same name</a>.<br />
<a name='more'></a>They gave a series of subjects the Stroop test, which is where people have to identify the colour of a word they are shown, often when the word itself is an adjective denoting another colour, such as 'blue' written in red ink.<br />
<br />
What Adam and Galinsky found is that subjects were much less prone to error when they were given a white coat identified as a doctor's or laboratory coat to wear.<br />
<br />
They tried the same test with jackets identified as artists' jackets but found that the results remained unchanged from the standard level.<br />
<br />
They infer from this that people react more attentively when they are given clothes which symbolize care and diligence.<br />
<br />
This raises many interesting questions.<br />
<br />
For our purposes, it is to be wondered whether wearing lab coats would increase accuracy levels when teaching ESP to doctors, or suits when teaching BE.<br />
<br />
Certainly it suggests that anyone taking a test or exam should avoid dressing casually, or like an artist.<br />
<br />
Perhaps it may even be advisable for learners to don English national costume if that helps them think in a more English way.<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://www.beehive-solutions.co.uk/catalog/images/Lab%20coat%20sq.jpg">Beehive</a>)<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-36639519208170247272012-03-05T12:00:00.000+06:002012-03-05T12:00:01.219+06:00Automatic i+1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4JmFkj758c/T1OmliT1r_I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/EAMHmKaZNhg/s1600/iris_and_pupil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U4JmFkj758c/T1OmliT1r_I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/EAMHmKaZNhg/s200/iris_and_pupil.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Wait until you see
the whites of their eyes.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Good advice for
snipers and now teachers too, apparently.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Daniel Kahneman
recalls in <span style="font-style: italic;">Thinking, Fast and Slow</span> how
he began his career in the fledgling discipline of cognitive pupillometry.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He and his colleague
discovered that the pupil expands and contracts in response to mental
cognition.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The harder the task,
the more the pupil expands, at least up to a point.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That point is
reached when the average person is asked to add 3 to every digit in a
four-digit number.</div>
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<br /></div>
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If people are asked
to do anything more complex than that, it is deemed too hard and the pupils
contract back to normal.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Equally, tasks which
require little mental effort, such as small talk, reveal only tiny enlargements
of the pupil.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It seems, then, that if we
look into the eyes of our learners when they are dealing with English, we can
see how much of an effort it is for them by the size of their pupils.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Although it is a
useful additional insight, I suspect most teachers can already identify how
engaged a learner is, or how difficult or easy they are finding an article or
some new grammar without having to stare into their eyes.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
However, in a class
of 20 learners or more, I suspect it is more difficult to gauge anything other
than the aggregate of the most outspoken members of the class.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Whether we raise the
level of input in such situations or reduce it in response to learners'
understanding is more of a moot point when we have to detect subtle differences
in behaviour, attitude, posture and, of course, language use across so many
people.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
But in the language
class of the future, it would be possible to employ pupillometers which can
measure reactions in everyone in the class.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This information, at
least the salient part of it, such as a critical mass of condensed pupils,
could then be flashed up on a Heads Up Display on the teacher's glasses like
the ones currently found on skiing goggles.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It would also be
possible to employ such technology in an interactive learning package for
individual use on a PC or tablet, allowing the learning programme to modify
itself according to the learner's pupil dilations.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Pupillomatic
language learning: it's a brave new world and you heard it here first!</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
(Image: <a href="http://www.wpclipart.com/people/bodypart/eye/eyes_2/iris_and_pupil.png.html">WP CLipart</a>) </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-17909102690114145762012-02-27T12:00:00.000+06:002012-02-27T12:00:05.465+06:00Lethe and lesson management<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NxG19m5bhvc/T0cGYWyhw3I/AAAAAAAAAOI/qJtLGQV4sZU/s1600/remember.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NxG19m5bhvc/T0cGYWyhw3I/AAAAAAAAAOI/qJtLGQV4sZU/s200/remember.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
You are what you
remember, not what you experience.<br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
At least according
to Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate and author of last year's outstanding book -
<span style="font-style: italic;">Thinking, Fast and Slow</span>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This partly came to
light when he conducted a study on people undergoing colonoscopies.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The first group
underwent shorter procedures, and the second group longer ones.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
When asked to rate
the total amount of pain they had experienced (this was before colonoscopies
were routinely accompanied by anaesthetics), surprisingly the first group
recorded a worse experience.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
How could this be if
they experienced significantly less time under procedural duress?</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The answer lies in
the fact that we function under the tyranny of the remembering mind, not the
experiencing one.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The remembering mind
operates with the two key principles: the <span style="font-style: italic;">peak-end
rule</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">duration neglect</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The peak-end rule is
the principle that the total pain experienced is an average of the worst or
peak level of pain and the pain experienced at the end.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Duration neglect is
the unimportance of the length of the procedure to the total amount of pain
remembered.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
While the first
group had shorter amounts of pain, this was irrelevant to their memory of it.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Indeed, while the
second group had longer amounts of pain and the same peaks as the first group,
significantly, the pain they experienced at the end of the colonoscopy was less
than that of the first group, thereby lowering their average remembered pain,
in accordance with the peak-end rule.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
These findings and
the principles they evinced have been proved time again, but do they have any
relevance in the classroom?</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Kahneman suggests
that inflicting longer procedures on patients might actually be beneficial if
it makes them remember less pain and therefore more likely to come back for
treatment and check-ups.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
While I wouldn't
want to compare language lessons to colonoscopies, everyone has some learners
who lack enthusiasm, or get put off by certain aspects of language learning,
such as writing, or participle clauses.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
To ensure that they
remember writing or participle clauses with a degree of affection, it might be
worthwhile making the last five minutes of the lesson particularly enjoyable.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Warm-up activities
are perennially popular, but warm-downs or coolers are less so.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
What Kahneman's work
suggests is that they are actually more important for the long-term enthusiasm
of your learners, and therefore the success with which they learn the language.<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://www.healblog.net/wp-content/uploads/fingermemory.jpg">Healblog</a>) </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-61914897137801937082012-02-20T12:00:00.000+06:002012-02-20T12:00:02.095+06:00Desire paths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psH-WaNWJwM/Tzf9cBu4j-I/AAAAAAAAAN8/u4sZluqoscI/s1600/desirepath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-psH-WaNWJwM/Tzf9cBu4j-I/AAAAAAAAAN8/u4sZluqoscI/s200/desirepath.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
"All buildings
are predictions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All predictions are
wrong."</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So says Stewart
Brand in <span style="font-style: italic;">How Buildings Learn</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I feel the same
about metaphors - they are all wrong.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
They change how we
think about the things they describe, and thus the things themselves.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I understand,
however, that not only do we need them, but that we cannot function without
them.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore we need to question the assumptions
upon which they are based, the connotations they foster, and they effects they
produce.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
In that spirit, and
the one described by Brand, I wonder if we in ELT might get rid of <span style="font-style: italic;">fossilization</span>.</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">Fossilization</span> has been used to describe the
steady accretion of the same mistakes over time by L2 learners such that they
end up embedded, rock-like, in the very bone of the learner's interlanguage.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The term is deeply
suggestive.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
For a start, it
admits of little positivity, suggesting that the learner's language is a mere
imprinted residue of the real thing, the inorganic remains of something organic
which is dead and not liable to spring to life again any time soon.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It is therefore
rather prescriptivist.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
In the spirit of
Brand's work, I would like to propose instead that we adopt the term <span style="font-style: italic;">desire path</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
In architecture, a
desire path is simply a path <span style="font-style: italic;">worn</span> across
an area by frequent use, rather than a path <span style="font-style: italic;">built</span>
across an area by design.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
A desire path is
created from the bottom-up by its users, as opposed to being foisted on them
top-down by an architect or planner.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If we apply this
metaphor to the way learners adapt and adopt English, it offers us a more
positive view of the learning process and a more accurate view of the
ever-changing nature of language itself.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
For if we
acknowledge that the same mistakes made again and again over time constitute a
desire path, then they are no longer mistakes but more effective forms of
communication, instituted by people actually using the language.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The democratisation
of the learning process exemplified by desire path grammar is, I would argue,
the very essence of BELF.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It describes what
people want to use to do what they want to do.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It is not
prescriptivist.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This is a good thing
because, after all, prescriptivist grammars are predictions, and predictions
are always wrong.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
(Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kake_pugh/1307255998/sizes/l/in/photostream/">Kake Pugh</a>) </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-7138002330758817452012-02-13T12:00:00.000+06:002012-02-13T12:00:08.790+06:00The past perfect<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W4Ss1mjsxmA/Tzfu2kx_IKI/AAAAAAAAAN0/shY4Dplo1sg/s1600/thepastaperfect.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W4Ss1mjsxmA/Tzfu2kx_IKI/AAAAAAAAAN0/shY4Dplo1sg/s200/thepastaperfect.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Which of the verb
forms is the least useful?</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This may sound like
a strange question, but there is a sense with ESP generally, and BE
specifically, that language must submit to calculations of utility and
expediency. </div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If you teach <i>IELTS</i>,
for example, reported speech is a luxury item but the passive is essential.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Thought of in these
terms, the past perfect seems a candidate ripe for omission in a crowded,
time-conscious schedule.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his seminal book <span style="font-style: italic;">The English Verb</span>, Michael Lewis restricts his discussion of it
to little more than a sentence.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It is less useful,
it seems, even than the future perfect, and that's pretty low down the useful
list already.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
In the context of
the grammar-lite BELF discourse we are moving towards, the past perfect is a
clumsy, wind-up gramophone<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in a world of
sleek iPods.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Partly, this could
be because we generally use it to avoid ambiguity, but that ambiguity only
arises if we are sloppy to begin with.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Instead of stating <span style="font-style: italic;">they had eaten when I arrived</span>, it can be
simply said that <span style="font-style: italic;">they ate before I arrived</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The correct
adverbial cuts out the confusion and dispenses with any need for the past
perfect at all.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So, it's a
sentence-bloating, learner-messing waste of time.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Or is it?</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I have to admit that
in recent weeks it has become a hot topic in these parts, and the discussion
has shown me that far from just being the 'past of the past' there are more
nooks and crannies in the past perfect than in your average imperial French
palace.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Of the most use,
certainly for report writing and boardroom apologies, is the past perfect of
reporting verbs to express an unfulfilled desire.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">I had hoped to have arrived before the meeting was
over</span> sounds so much more profound than<span style="font-style: italic;">
I'm sorry I'm late</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Elsewhere, in <span style="font-style: italic;">Rules, Patterns and Words</span>, Dave Willis
expresses his mystification at another of the past perfect's features when he
states that he is 'quite unable to provide a satisfactory explanation why<span style="font-style: italic;"> I opened the door when the postman had knocked</span>
is a most unlikely sentence of English'.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
If the past perfect
really was just the past of the past, it wouldn't be strange, but (as the exam
writer's favourite collogation <span style="font-style: italic;">before</span> +
past perfect suggests) there is more to this tense than just temporal order.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It is also used to
stress the independence causally speaking of one action from another.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
In the sentence <span style="font-style: italic;">When I sold my shares, the company stock nosedived</span>
there is a causal relation that is avoided by use of the past perfect in <span style="font-style: italic;">When I had sold my shares, the company stock
nosedived</span>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This might prove
useful for any BE learners facing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>judicial hearings.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Finally, there is
the sense of anticipation that the past perfect enables, which is perfect for
sophisticated social English.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This comes about
when you use the past perfect on its own, causing it to disport itself with
deep<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>grammatical longing.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: italic;">They had eaten</span>, for example, dangles before
you the expectation of the past simple event to which it is secretly but
mysteriously anchored.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
For those learners
who enjoy telling anecdotes, this is a subtlety they might enjoy manipulating,
getting their listeners interested in finding out what happens next.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I suspect that these
latter two points are ones that only proficient speakers might wish to attend
to.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Indeed, I harbour a
suspicion that the past perfect comes too early in most structural syllabuses
anyway, and that for BELFists it is more effective if they can employ a range
of adverbials.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Nevertheless, let us
not forget that there are a growing number of proficient users out there who
would like to be able to express themselves with the same degree of subtlety
they employ in their own language.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
To that end, I would
like to propose that the past perfect, far from being the redundant dullard of
the verb world, is actually a little gem.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">
(Image: <a href="http://pastafriends.blogspot.com/2012/01/conchiglie-with-bacon-cream-mushrooms.html">Stella Newman</a>) </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-85006518966973423872011-12-05T12:00:00.000+06:002011-12-05T12:00:01.736+06:00Winter break<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Opbk-QIZWeo/TraGFsV0gbI/AAAAAAAAAL0/Flu33UpEM24/s1600/snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Opbk-QIZWeo/TraGFsV0gbI/AAAAAAAAAL0/Flu33UpEM24/s200/snow.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
'O the weather outside is frightful....'<br />
<br />
Or so said lyricist Sammy Cahn, but I'm inclined not to agree.<br />
<br />
Here, you only need four sets of thermals, a couple of hats, some gloves, a padded coat, and some thick felt boots, and the winter weather suddenly seems perfect.<br />
<br />
With that in mind I think I am due once again to spend some time in the fresh air.<br />
<br />
As a result, this blog will take a short break and head for the slopes, returning in the middle of February.<br />
<br />
I look forward to seeing you all then, and wish you and yours a very happy festive season.<br />
<br />
Cheers,<br />
Tony<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lookupinwonder/">Ronald_H</a>)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-8407758219466976992011-11-28T12:00:00.000+06:002011-11-28T12:00:05.564+06:00Crystal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Mu_aJ9GGLU/Tsp4xElM6YI/AAAAAAAAANU/EHn5rpyh0bE/s1600/crystals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Mu_aJ9GGLU/Tsp4xElM6YI/AAAAAAAAANU/EHn5rpyh0bE/s200/crystals.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Stephen Fry once outlined one of the golden rules of newspaper column writing.<br />
<br />
He averred that you are allowed to write about writing your column, but only once.<br />
<br />
More than once was tantamount to self-indulgence.<br />
<br />
I'm sure this is good advice for columnists, and it may even be so for bloggers too.<br />
<br />
This, then, is my 'once' - at least for this year.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
As the end of the first year of this blog approaches, I am bound to ask myself why I keep writing it, especially of late when other events have precluded me from engaging fully with the EFL and BESIG communities as I would wish.<br />
<br />
And the answer is simple: crystal.<br />
<br />
Writing this forces me to crystallise my often attenuated and dispersed lines of thinking, and to corral them into some kind of sense.<br />
<br />
It also make crystal clear the topics that have been pre-occupying me during the year.<br />
<br />
And finally, it is, like crystal, a solid record of those thoughts.<br />
<br />
So there we have it: I promise not to do it again!<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Insulincrystals.jpg">NASA</a>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-42213125768963128832011-11-21T12:00:00.000+06:002011-11-21T12:00:06.251+06:00iPower<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pc93CDAbf4/TsimD2DYY0I/AAAAAAAAANM/jZmTfzFQo8U/s1600/ipad.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1pc93CDAbf4/TsimD2DYY0I/AAAAAAAAANM/jZmTfzFQo8U/s1600/ipad.png" /></a></div>
What is today's BE lesson must-have?<br />
<br />
The <i>sine qua non</i> of the pedagogic encounter?<br />
<br />
It certainly isn't the course book.<br />
<br />
Often enough, it's not even a room - at least a physical one.<br />
<br />
No, the indispensable piece of kit for every BE encounter seems to be the iPad.<br />
<br />
Specifically, it is the learner's iPad.<br />
<br />
But why?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Speaking to some colleagues about this the other week, it may have something to do with power.<br />
<br />
Many BE 1-2-1 learners are from senior management or owners of their own companies.<br />
<br />
They are used to being in charge, giving orders, and generally being the top dog with all the answers.<br />
<br />
However, in a BE lesson, particularly at the elementary/pre-intermediate end of things, these self-same industry titans are suddenly on unfamiliar ground.<br />
<br />
They not only don't know all the answers, they very often don't even understand the questions.<br />
<br />
And to top it all, someone else seemingly does - someone sometimes half their age.<br />
<br />
Which is where the iPad comes in.<br />
<br />
With the right application, such as the ubiquitous speaking dictionary, the learner can reclaim their authority and stand on an equal footing with the teacher, challenging them, for example, on usage, spelling and pronunciation.<br />
<br />
For the teacher this is an annoying habit, to be sure, but, from anecdotal evidence, not one that lasts once the learner realises that the teacher is there to help, not exercise their own power-mad ego.<br />
<br />
The iPad is then a kind of balm to be applied to the rash of unsettledness which besets the Alpha (fe)male in an Omega situation.<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://www.apple.com/ipad/3g/">Apple</a>)<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-159823686672134272011-11-14T12:00:00.000+06:002011-11-14T12:00:08.646+06:00The Top 5!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C947fGm8Bc8/Tr9dKP3Q5rI/AAAAAAAAAL8/vomtFFUb55I/s1600/top5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C947fGm8Bc8/Tr9dKP3Q5rI/AAAAAAAAAL8/vomtFFUb55I/s200/top5.png" width="200" /></a></div>
I have a secret.<br />
<br />
One about which I feel quite guilty.<br />
<br />
It is the online love that dare not speak its name.<br />
<br />
Actually, I'm not even sure it has a name - <i>catalogophilia</i>, perhaps?<br />
<br />
I speak, of course, of the love of lists.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
There is something seductive about a list.<br />
<br />
They promise brevity, as if all the extra fat had been shorn away to reveal the meaty essence of the subject.<br />
<br />
And they promise order too.<br />
<br />
Someone has sifted, sorted and ranked everything for you, leaving you to view the important stuff at your leisure and convenience.<br />
<br />
Of course, anything with a bullet point in front of it is bound to be intellectually shallow.<br />
<br />
But still, the allure persists.<br />
<br />
And not just for me, clearly.<br />
<br />
In fact, the other week I jokingly mentioned to one of my learners the top 9 modal auxiliary verbs.<br />
<br />
He was very keen to know this top 9 so he could concentrate on the most important ones.<br />
<br />
I had another learner last week who wanted to know if it was true that we only <i>really </i>use the top 3 tenses.<br />
<br />
He seemed keen to dispense with superfluous tenses, so when I told him that English only actually has two tenses, he was delighted.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, then, I am missing a trick with my learners.<br />
<br />
Perhaps I should organise the information we encounter into more readily digestible forms, such as lists and infographics.<br />
<br />
After all, if this is how they prefer to read, why not take advantage of the fact?<br />
<br />
(Image: <a href="http://www.proofspace.com/blog/">ProofWire</a>)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-76393112799187658532011-11-07T12:00:00.000+06:002011-11-07T12:00:06.756+06:00The lexical load: 5 forms of repetition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0A8XDkA3c6E/TrZ5iXEu4NI/AAAAAAAAALs/e05nHEd8MdY/s1600/oil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0A8XDkA3c6E/TrZ5iXEu4NI/AAAAAAAAALs/e05nHEd8MdY/s200/oil.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Here in the heart of
the oil industry, no-one says anything about oil.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<span lang="en-GB">No-one
stumbles for a word, no-one mixes up a</span><span lang="ru"> </span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-style: italic;">moon pool</span><span lang="en-GB"> with a </span><span lang="en-GB" style="font-style: italic;">mousehole</span><span lang="en-GB">, and
no-one asks me any questions like, 'How do you say </span><span lang="ru" style="font-style: italic;">нефть</span><span lang="en-GB"> in English?'.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
There is a good
reason for this: the highly technical and complex vocabulary associated with
the oil industry is well known to my learners already.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
All of them come
equipped with spreadsheets full of hundreds of specialist terms, most of which
I have only a passing acquaintance with.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
This is a shame in
some ways as the nouns which fill these lists are eminently teachable and
learnable.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Be that as it may,
what my learners want is generally a mixture of GE and BE vocabulary, rather
than ESP.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
And I specify
vocabulary here because it figures much more prominently on learners' wish
lists than grammar (in an almost inverse proportion to its prominence on GE
learners' wish lists).</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
So what is the best
way to deal with this higher-than-usual demand for lexis?</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
I'm sure there are
many ways which I hope people will share but my own approach is based on five
forms of repetition: <i>recycling</i>, <i>recontextualising</i>, <i>refocusing</i>, <i>reconsidering</i>,
and <i>reviewing</i>.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Repetition in itself
is a key determinant of lexical durability as we are more likely to remember a
word if we encounter it a minimum of six or seven times, so <span style="font-style: italic;">recycling</span> is at the heart of my approach.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
It also helps
vocabulary retention and use if a word is <span style="font-style: italic;">recontextualised</span>,
such as might happen in a narrow reading over several lessons.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Alternatively, we
can help learners to <span style="font-style: italic;">refocus</span> on a word
or phrase if we temporarily decontextualise it, guiding them through the maze
of connotations, registers, inflections, collocations, colligations and the
like, before reinserting it into a meaningful context.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
The insights gained
this focus on form can be used to help a learner <span style="font-style: italic;">reconsider</span>
a word for, as Scott Thornbury avers, if you create a situation in which the
learner has to make a decision about a word, especially a demanding decision,
such as writing a sentence with it, the word is much more likely to 'stick'.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
Finally, all this
work requires some form of <span style="font-style: italic;">review</span>, both
as a learning tool to refresh the memory and motivate the learner, but also to
test what has taken and what needs revision.</div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">
(Image: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/xcbiker/">XcBiker</a>)</div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-20119061820337401382011-10-31T12:00:00.000+06:002011-10-31T12:14:27.125+06:00O, and improving fluency<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UBZCqvLkuJA/Tqz6zukviVI/AAAAAAAAALc/9Uw_T4TEuBo/s1600/i-speak-english-do-you_v100_400x.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UBZCqvLkuJA/Tqz6zukviVI/AAAAAAAAALc/9Uw_T4TEuBo/s200/i-speak-english-do-you_v100_400x.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
Needs analyses often seem to end with an addendum: O, and I want to improve my fluency.<br />
<br />
Whatever the main objectives might be - report writing, doing negotiations, meetings - there always seems to be a demand for speaking better generally.<br />
<br />
It's not so much the icing on the cake as the wish for a completely different dessert in the first place.<br />
<br />
As the client is always right, how is it possible to satisfy their desires in this area?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
My first port of call is usually Paul Nation.<br />
<br />
In particular, I have found the 4-3-2 method very useful.<br />
<br />
This method was originally created by K Maurice in 1983, but Nation brought it my attention.<br />
<br />
It involves a learner retelling the same content in 4 minute, 3 minute, and then 2 minute sequences. <br />
<br />
Ideally, the learner will speak about familiar material, won't use any new vocab, and will retell the content to different listeners (I sometimes borrow a colleague for the middle listen).<br />
<br />
The results in terms of talking quicker, pausing less, making fewer mistakes, and speaking with more complex phrasing are quite dramatic.<br />
<br />
What I like about it, apart from the results, is that when time is tight and the main objectives are non-negotiable, doing this exercise does not feel like you're going off-topic.<br />
<br />
You can use it to consolidate material you have covered already, while at the same time delivering on that fluency promise.<br />
<br />
Anyone interested in reading more about it can find it <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Publications/paul-nation/1991-Arevart-Fluency.pdf">here</a>.<br />
<br />
(Image:<a href="http://www.zazzle.co.uk/speak_english"> Zazzle</a>)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-76610871590208699272011-10-24T12:00:00.000+06:002011-10-31T12:15:28.719+06:00If the accident will (ii)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwKxoSEME_o/Tpqi-SzbgUI/AAAAAAAAAK0/YgWZ7R-5xQs/s1600/the-shallows-nicholas-carr.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BwKxoSEME_o/Tpqi-SzbgUI/AAAAAAAAAK0/YgWZ7R-5xQs/s200/the-shallows-nicholas-carr.png" width="153" /></a></div>
What follows is a small example of what happened when 'the accident' did.<br />
<br />
It began with two Tweets.<br />
<br />
The first was by <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/carldowse">Carl Dowse</a> recommending <a href="http://www.theshallowsbook.com/nicholascarr/Nicholas_Carrs_The_Shallows.html">The Shallows by Nicholas Carr</a>.<br />
<br />
As so often with my PLN, the second Tweet had actually come first.<br />
<br />
It was by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/brainpicker">Maria Popova</a> and led me to her marvellous site describing <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/02/21/7-must-read-books-on-the-future-of-the-internet/">books on the future of the internet</a>.<br />
<br />
This is typical of the recursive trajectory described by manoeuvring around a PLN. <br />
<br />
It takes one Tweet to make an itch, but a second to make me want to scratch it.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
In a very 20th century way, I then began to read the book of <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Shallows-ebook/dp/B00556G7LU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1318749770&sr=8-2"><i>The Shallows</i></a>.<br />
<br />
This describes how the internet is changing the way we think, both literally and metaphorically, changing us into <a href="http://drtonymyers.blogspot.com/2011/04/mediaeval-octopus.html">permanently distracted beings</a> with a limited capacity for profound thought.<br />
<br />
This idea overlapped with an excellent post by <a href="http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/z-is-for-zero-uncertainty/">Scott Thornbury</a> on zero uncertainty and a comment on that post by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/luizotaviobarros">Luiz Otavio Barros</a> in which he avers that because of the way the internet is changing how we think, extended checking for gist tasks are annoying to learners at best and missing the point at worst.<br />
<br />
Everyone is extremely skilled at top-down processing because that is what the hyperlink culture of the internet encourages; it is the bottom-up processing that we are unable to do effectively anymore.<br />
<br />
I was reminded of all this when I saw a <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/FastCoDesign">FastCoDesign</a> tweet referencing the work of <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/FastCoDesign">Nicholas Felton</a>, the man behind the new design of Facebook.<br />
<br />
Felton's design is avowedly more synchronic than the previous diachronic design, and, as such, epitomises and contributes towards the trend for a new type of thinking. <br />
<br />
All of which brought me to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4690996674759276620#editor/target=post;postID=5346372437685615438">my original post</a> on the topic and my on-going concern that the way learners learn is changing, and so the way they are taught will have to change too.<br />
<br />
This, then, is how a PLN works for me: it is not taking me on a journey from A-B, but delineating the ideas and mental apparatus which I use to evaluate my work, my profession, and the other ideas and tools I come across while trying to augment both.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-53463724376856154382011-10-17T12:00:00.000+06:002011-10-31T12:15:28.716+06:00If the accident will<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T-jL5WVaydo/Tpp7wMppJaI/AAAAAAAAAKk/2Fc79B5rwuU/s1600/abstractglass0510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T-jL5WVaydo/Tpp7wMppJaI/AAAAAAAAAKk/2Fc79B5rwuU/s200/abstractglass0510.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
'If the accident will'.<br />
<br />
It sounds like a sentence designed to break CELTA trainees, but it is actually a stand-out line from a stand-out book, <i>Slaughterhouse-5</i>.<br />
<br />
It's a line which, in the novel, captures the aleatory character of existence but which, for our purposes, also describes the happy juxtaposition of two or more sources from your PLN.<br />
<br />
You happen to be reading, for example, about the experimental use of whale-song in meeting role-plays when you chance upon a blog post about white noise in learning environments.<br />
<br />
The connection may only be tangential, but it is possible to sense a
cognitive chime when this happens, a palpable re-adjusting of mental cogs.<br />
<br />
It is a mini-Eureka!<br />
<br />
But is it Eureka-lite?<br />
<a name='more'></a>I ask this question because, for me, a PLN is most effective when there is a kind of montage effect with different people bringing different view-points to bear on related subjects.<br />
<br />
One way to visualise this process is to think of a kaleidoscope.<br />
<br />
Each colour is a blog post, article, or Twitter reference, overlapping the colours next to it, and refracting different hues to produce new shades.<br />
<br />
There is no single focus, just predominant patterns and tones, which shift with time.<br />
<br />
Montages and kaleidoscopes all sound a bit intellectually shallow, of course - a bit superficial.<br />
<br />
Kant would not have approved, although the later Nietzsche might, and so may have Walter Benjamin, who dreamed of a book made entirely of quotations which gave meaning to each other.<br />
<br />
However, we are used to thinking diachronically.<br />
<br />
We enjoy the story, and the seduction of the ending or the big point.<br />
<br />
But the simultaneous nature of a PLN fosters a more synchronic form of intellectual enquiry.<br />
<br />
It nudges us toward the pattern, not the point.<br />
<br />
It may feel superficial, but this feeling, like skipping across the surface, arises I think from the absence of a teleological arc, such as we might find in a traditional book. <br />
<br />
In lieu of the big ending which confers meaning on all that has preceded it, the PLN can leave us with a permanent sense of deferment.<br />
<br />
While this can be frustrating, it does mean that we are never finished, but rather always looking, always enquiring, always moving on.<br />
<br />
This, and the absolute welter of information, does account for the occasionally wearying character of intellectual life online, but it also augurs badly for complacency of thought, which is generally a good thing, particularly in a professional environment.<br />
<br />
_______________________<br />
<br />
Next week I will outline an example of the kind of kaleidoscopic thought I describe here (and which actually led me here in the first place), although that may all change if, in the mean time, someone really does pen a post on the experimental use of whale-song in meeting role-plays...<br />
<br />
(<i>image: www.freeimages.co.uk)</i> <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-48778899698915919642011-10-10T12:00:00.000+06:002011-10-31T12:14:27.128+06:00Presentation Zen and the art of being two people<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nk5sIzEff_g/Tolw6wZEKLI/AAAAAAAAAJw/j350TcKZFUI/s1600/tools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="131" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nk5sIzEff_g/Tolw6wZEKLI/AAAAAAAAAJw/j350TcKZFUI/s200/tools.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When is it right to tell a client he is wrong?<br />
<br />
Is it:<br />
<br />
a) when you know you are right?<br />
<br />
b) when you think you are right and you have so little time that you can't afford to debate the niceties?<br />
<br />
c) simply, never?<br />
<br />
This is a relatively easy question if you are only teaching English, but if you are also training them to do something in English it becomes more complicated.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
Recently, I had a learner/client who was preparing a presentation.<br />
<br />
He was not used to giving presentations, especially not in English, and he wanted help with both aspects.<br />
<br />
I'm a big fan of Garr Reynolds' <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317628326&sr=8-1"><i>Presentation Zen</i></a> and I like to employ many of his tips.<br />
<br />
Reynolds recommends using Powerpoint to deliver classy visuals with an emotional punch that underscore the narrative of the spoken part of the presentation.<br />
<br />
He disavows the use of lengthy text, excessive bullet points and other clutter that interferes with the spoken message.<br />
<br />
My client's presentation was ripe for the Zen treatment as it was a pitch for the company my client owned, more or less telling the very engaging story of the company's rise to success.<br />
<br />
I introduced my client to Reynolds' ideas, showed him Seth Godin in action employing them, and then outlined how he might use them in his own presentation.<br />
<br />
Of course, the presentation he brought to our next session was the usual Powerpoint hell of over-complicated pie charts, cheap clip art, pages of bullet points and a segment-by-segment analysis of the company rather than a narrative one.<br />
<br />
It was, in other words, the exact opposite of everything I'd advised him to do.<br />
<br />
When I asked him why he had chosen this route, he responded that he felt happier being traditional.<br />
<br />
I was sure he was wrong, but my pitch had failed, so I had to resign myself to helping him hone the presentation he wanted.<br />
<br />
As a teacher of Business English I had no problem with that; as a coach trying to get my client to develop himself to his full potential, I did.<br />
<br />
Perhaps because I spend more of my time with the primary aim of teaching English, I chose option c) and let it go.<br />
<br />
If, however, my situation was reversed, I may not have been so happy to acquiesce.<br />
<br />
Sometimes it's difficult being two people.<br />
<br />
(<i>image: www.freeimages.co.uk)</i><br />
<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-69403663714466630802011-10-03T12:00:00.001+06:002011-10-03T12:00:02.739+06:00Networked intelligence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gimriji47nA/TncPC3FhoEI/AAAAAAAAAHE/wz7e6Lw8htg/s1600/treeofknowledge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gimriji47nA/TncPC3FhoEI/AAAAAAAAAHE/wz7e6Lw8htg/s200/treeofknowledge.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
One of my favourite definitions of a service is that it is <a href="http://www.mgca.co.uk/design/ServiceDesign.aspx">networked intelligence</a>.<br />
<br />
From my own experience, I know how valuable the network of blogs and Twitter feeds are that I regularly connect with.<br />
<br />
They
furnish me with ideas I wouldn't have thought of, promote a
self-reflexivity that would otherwise exist only as a weak, stunted
wretch, and inspire me to improve my practice in ways I had never
imagined.<br />
<br />
It is the very definition of a networked intelligence in action.<br />
<br />
It is exciting, liberating, and stimulating, so why don't more people use it?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I am thinking here particularly of my learners.<br />
<br />
I read <a href="http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com/2011/04/online-learning-is-so-last-year/">this wonderful article</a>
recently about the faddishness of online learning, as if it had reached
its limits and was somehow receding into the past, like hula hoops and
cabbage patch dolls.<br />
<br />
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">Sheryl
Nussbaum-Beach argues, correctly in my opinion, that we have hardly
begun to utilise our online resources and she lists a whole array of
possibilities, only some of which I can say I use.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">On
the whole, however, my learners don't use any form of online community
at all, either for personal development generally, or language learning
in particular. </span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">Their intelligences are <i>islanded</i>, or <i>peninsulaed </i>at best, if I can neologise for a moment, rather than networked.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">(Ironically,
if they were networked, they may well be able to do without me, or at
least specify more clearly the role which they would like me to play in
their learning.)</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">So what can I do?</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">I
can encourage my learners to explore online communities of learning,
show them in action, and even create mini-ones for their use, but I
can't make them use them.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">There
has to be a moment when they click with each individual user, when they
experience a benefit or glean an insight that they had not expected.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">Until that happens, online communities mean nothing to the uninvolved user.</span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name">As </span><a class="url url" href="http://ideasandthoughts.org/" rel="external nofollow">Dean Shareski</a> <span class="name">points out, '</span>simply removing the barriers to something doesn’t by itself make it meaningful, it just makes it more possible.'</div>
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="name"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-42227867590063941302011-09-26T12:00:00.000+06:002011-09-26T12:00:08.862+06:00Appearance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pxjC3C7VWKk/TnbeGaENm2I/AAAAAAAAAHA/9Lae-e_hAGk/s1600/shirtandtie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pxjC3C7VWKk/TnbeGaENm2I/AAAAAAAAAHA/9Lae-e_hAGk/s200/shirtandtie.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
If Business English is a service, what kind of service is it?<br />
<br />
One of the more ubiquitous <a href="http://servicedesign.wikispaces.com/Service+Design">introductions to Service Design</a> suggests that 'in Educational Services, [service] has the form of a promise to produce a new capacity for the customer to make new promises.'<br />
<br />
When we sign a contract with someone, then, we are promising that we will enable them to make promises to others.<br />
<br />
It almost sounds like a pyramid scheme.<br />
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And precisely because it does, it highlights the importance of something that receives commendably little attention: appearance.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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If a client is willing to pay money up front for something as intangible as a promise to enable promise-making, then he will only do so if there are some kind of fiduciary inducements.<br />
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Few things are quite as likely to invoke a belief in something as appearance.<br />
<br />
If your office staff are professional, if your offices look professional, and if you, yourself, look the part, then you are more likely to encourage your client to pledge himself to the nebulous business of learning BE and, more importantly, stick to it.<br />
<br />
Beyond the suit and tie, the qualifications hanging on the wall, the slick web site, the shelves full of Swan, and the filter coffee in reception, one aspect of appearance that is perhaps used more than any other is the native speaker.<br />
<br />
There are many arguments as to why the hegemony of the native speaker should be undermined, but for the client, the presence of a native speaker is like a suit and tie - it instils a belief in the pedagogical apparatus to which he is going to subscribe.<br />
<br />
It may seem like a miserable and impoverished course of reasoning to those acquainted with the arguments and the profession, but for those looking to invest time and money in such a nebulous project as education, the presence of a native speaker helps to confer a form of validity on language learning.<br />
<br />
It is not, as I say, the only form, but it is a very potent one.<br />
<br />
Without such appearances, learners may lose faith in the pledges you make them and, consequently,<br />
the whole course of BE upon which they have embarked.<br />
<br />
Yes, this is superficial, but, as Pascal pointed out, appearances have their own validity.<br />
<br />
In Pascal's case, he argued that if you assume the appearance of a belief in God, eventually you really will believe in Him. <br />
<br />
It is similar with BE, albeit with a contrary option: if you do not believe in the appearance of what you are learning, you will not learn it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-1558972087780064112011-09-19T12:00:00.000+06:002011-09-19T12:00:03.286+06:00Participle clauses: little objects of desire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vDH738dovpw/Tm2kTgkVzGI/AAAAAAAAAG8/Q6mZCWvfqGs/s1600/money.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vDH738dovpw/Tm2kTgkVzGI/AAAAAAAAAG8/Q6mZCWvfqGs/s200/money.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Is there a connection between what a learner pays and what a learner does?<br />
<br />
A group of learners pays considerably less than someone receiving individual tuition, but is the concomitant to that a lower level of effort and, consequently, achievement?<br />
<br />
I was set wondering about this after reading Seth Godin's post '<a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/09/do-it-tomorrow.html">Do it tomorrow</a>'.<br />
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In it, he argues that people often confuse the value of advice with what they pay for it, even though there is often little correlation.<br />
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More intriguingly for BE, he proposes that, 'One of the most effective ways to get your ideas implemented is to charge a lot for them.'<br />
<br />
This certainly sounds appealing on several different levels.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>If we accept that the ideas we wish to get implemented are those relating to English language usage, it means that, primarily, we should charge more in order to increase our rate of success.<br />
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Our learners will all become fluent, and, incidentally, we will all become the kind of people who get to use real cutlery on planes.<br />
<br />
I suspect that there is some correlation here.<br />
<br />
Certainly, if a person of relatively modest means books individual lessons, this is usually the sign of a significant investment, of money, yes, but also of intent.<br />
<br />
However, learners with more substantial pockets can easily afford any kind of individual lesson, so pricing is not a factor in regard to success.<br />
<br />
Rather, having clear and present aims is a more likely indicator of success, regardless of the amount paid for the tuition.<br />
<br />
Professional qualifications or gate-keeping exams provide some of the best incentives in this regard.<br />
<br />
Whatever their shortcomings as educational tools, such exams offer well-defined areas of study, compelling both teachers and learners to focus on a clear set of aims.<br />
<br />
However, those learners who do not pursue such assessment-bound courses should not be denied local incentives just because they have the general object of wanting to speak English in case it might be good for business.<br />
<br />
Rather, we should very explicitly furnish them with measurable mini-objectives of their own, be they test or task related.<br />
<br />
Freud suggested that desire is not implicit in us, but that we are taught what and how to desire.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, this is also part of our job - teaching those learners who do not have specific desires, to desire specific things, like using participle clauses in reports.<br />
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This will have an anticipatory and a retroactive effect, as not only will it increase their incentive to learn but also their sense of satisfaction at having achieved an aim. <br />
<br />
Or, we could just charge everyone more and live like kings.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-24447731196274677072011-09-12T12:00:00.000+06:002011-09-25T19:02:41.715+06:00BESIG World Blog<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2sGWmVER8I/TlND760CrvI/AAAAAAAAAG4/gjnsLzeEbkk/s1600/singaporeairlinesfood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-s2sGWmVER8I/TlND760CrvI/AAAAAAAAAG4/gjnsLzeEbkk/s200/singaporeairlinesfood.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
This week's blog post has gone to a better place.<br />
<br />
I speak, of course, of the mighty <a href="http://www.besig.org/blog/default/2011/Channeling.aspx">BESIG World Blog</a>.<br />
<br />
The post is on the new BESIG website which has been given a fabulous purple makeover by the BOT.<br />
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Congratulations to them and the BESIG committee for doing a great job.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-66959885373251276052011-09-05T12:00:00.001+06:002011-09-05T12:00:08.004+06:00Functional obsolescence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a3beNQFd31A/TlIsSPlTAbI/AAAAAAAAAG0/Y9VpQj7jrP4/s1600/betamax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="177" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a3beNQFd31A/TlIsSPlTAbI/AAAAAAAAAG0/Y9VpQj7jrP4/s200/betamax.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">One of the great advantages of selling food is that it has built-in functional obsolescence.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Once the customer has bought their Extra-Large Tesco-Value Eight-Pack of Meringue Nests, they eat them, and then they need to buy some more.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">It's a quite brilliant ruse.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Most technology companies do something similar, compelling tardy users to substitute their old kit for the next model.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">This upgrade treadmill is a quite wonderful idea for businesses, but I wonder if the business of English language teaching doesn't operate in the reverse direction.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Is it possible, in other words, that BE has built-in <span style="font-style: italic;">functional</span> permanence?</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Of course, there is an upgrade treadmill in English too, moving from Beginner to Elementary to Pre-Intermediate, and so on.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Like the upgrades to your Windows operating system, there is a satisfying if illusory sense of progress with these upgrades, unless you bought Vista.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Students rarely seem happier than when they are told they have completed one level and are advancing to the next.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">There is perhaps a ludic compulsion at work here, as if learning a language is like completing <span style="font-style: italic;">Angry Birds</span> - something to be accomplished in incremental steps that get progressively more difficult.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">However, while repeating the levels of <span style="font-style: italic;">Angry Birds</span> is faintly pointless, this is not the case with English.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Indeed, English is practically unique in terms of products and services.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">What I mean by this is that you can't wear English out by using it.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Quite the reverse, in fact.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">English only needs upgrading if you don't use it.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">It represents, therefore, exceptional value for our learners, and it would be cheap at twice the price they currently pay for it, whatever that is.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Certainly, if I could buy a never-ending meringue nest, I would happily cough up double the £1.24 Tesco are currently asking for their delicious egg-white delights.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-34210877522230418202011-06-06T12:00:00.001+06:002011-06-06T12:00:09.680+06:00Summer break<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dw6TCn9CyFM/TcZ97abReUI/AAAAAAAAAGE/9gIgtT0619w/s1600/Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Dw6TCn9CyFM/TcZ97abReUI/AAAAAAAAAGE/9gIgtT0619w/s200/Sun.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1309427404" title="Click for further information about this quotation"></a></span>'Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language.'<br />
<br />
At least according to Henry James.<br />
<br />
And I am inclined to agree.<br />
<br />
The sun is most definitely out here, and it's time to spend some time in the fresh air.<br />
<br />
As a result, this blog will take a short summer break, returning at the beginning of September.<br />
<br />
I look forward to seeing you all then, and wish you many happy summer afternoons in the mean time.<br />
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Cheers,<br />
Tony</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-38676022707471024512011-05-30T12:00:00.005+06:002011-05-30T12:00:04.174+06:00Feature deletion (ii)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C1yHdg0QQJI/TcZ5HhqeAyI/AAAAAAAAAGA/ipaQcVmWR3w/s1600/delete.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-C1yHdg0QQJI/TcZ5HhqeAyI/AAAAAAAAAGA/ipaQcVmWR3w/s200/delete.png" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">In February I suggested that <a href="http://drtonymyers.blogspot.com/2011/02/feature-deletion.html">BE trainers court obsolescence</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Our functions as trainers will gradually be replaced by computer programmes, by internet modules, and by online meeting points for professionals to practise their business English with each other.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">What we do will still be there, but we won't be needed to do it, like an automated factory.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">However, I think I may have been short-sighted, behind-the-times, and a little bit optimistic in my assessment.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">This is because not only will <span style="font-style: italic;">we</span> disappear, but <span style="font-style: italic;">what</span> we do too.</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Technology is constantly coming on-stream which does not aid learners in their language quests, but actually does away with the need for it altogether.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">The astonishing <a href="http://questvisual.com/">Word Lens</a>, for example, translates whatever printed text is in front of you , wherever you are, using your mobile phone.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">With advances in speech software, it is only a matter of time before Douglas Adam's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel_fish_%28The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy%29#Babel_fish">Babel fish</a> becomes a technological reality.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">If the need to learn language is disappearing, so too are the skills that a BE trainer imparts in that language.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Worried about delivering a presentation in English with all these awkward words?</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">No problem: just install <a href="http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/">PowerTalk</a> and have a machine read out the whole thing for you!</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">You've spell-checked, and grammar-checked that tricky email in English, but you're still not sure if you've used the right tone?</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">No need to employ an expensive BE trainer to tell you how: simply install <a href="http://tonecheck.com/">Tone Check</a> and let the programme tell you if you're being inappropriate!</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Of course, these are just examples of a technology that's still in its infancy.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Ten years down the road things will be much more sophisticated and demand for us commensurately weaker.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Or maybe I'm being too optimistic again....</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4690996674759276620.post-29976212951350895482011-05-23T12:00:00.004+06:002011-05-23T12:00:07.379+06:00Anchoring (ii): time management tools<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxUDJDsDQy0/TcZf5trZL1I/AAAAAAAAAF8/AGbIoyHgqu8/s1600/pomodoro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QxUDJDsDQy0/TcZf5trZL1I/AAAAAAAAAF8/AGbIoyHgqu8/s200/pomodoro.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Last week I suggested we need to anchor our learners' expectations with appropriate numbers.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">One of those numbers is 80%.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">That's not the number of students who fail to use the present perfect correctly, but a reference to Woody Allen's oft-quoted suggestion that 80% of success is showing up.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">This number applies to language learning too.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">It takes discipline and effort, showing up day in and day out.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">But how do we help our learners meet that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>requirement?</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">There a number of tools available to help them manage their time better, particularly if they are hooked on the internet, like the majority of my clients, and seemingly lack will power.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">One way to get them off the internet is to lock them out for set periods of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">There are a number of programmes that do this, the most popular being <a href="http://macfreedom.com/">Freedom</a>, which blocks the whole internet, or <a href="http://anti-social.cc/">Anti Social</a>, which takes out social networks like Facebook and Twitter.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><a href="http://www.proginosko.com/leechblock.html">LeechBlock</a>, a free Firefox extension, performs a similar function in reverse, allowing you a set amount of time on the internet each day.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Once you have blocked out the distractions, you may want to employ Francesco Cirillo's <a href="http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/">Pomodoro Technique</a> made famous by ELT's <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/lclandfield">Lindsay Clandfield</a>.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">This technique involves breaking down tasks into manageable 25-minute chunks of concentrated effort, followed by a 5-minute break.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">It's ideal for language learning.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">There are many timers you can download to help you, but <a href="http://www.focusboosterapp.com/">Focus Booster</a> is designed specifically for the Pomodoro Technique and is the most helpful and aesthetically pleasing - and it's free.</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; margin: 0in;">Of course, apps and gadgets are distractions in themselves, but they may also be a spur for your learners, getting them to appreciate the value of discipline and just turning up.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0