An interesting site which test you on your vocabularly using the MCQ format with visuals
Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Secret Code Of Learning
Our body language can reveal more about what we know than our verbal languageBy Annie Murphy PaulRead more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/09/the-secret-code-of-learning/#ixzz1gmkmBed5
Frederic Mishkin, who’s been a professor at Columbia Business School for almost 30 years, is good at solving problems and expressing ideas. Whether he’s standing in front of a lecture hall or engaged in a casual conversation, he’s a blur of motion, his hands waving, pointing, jabbing the air. “I talk with my hands,” he says. “I always have.” When he was in graduate school, in fact, one of his professors was so exasperated by this constant gesticulating that he made the young economist sit on his hands whenever he visited the professor’s office.It turns out, however, that Mishkin’s mentor had it exactly wrong. Gesture doesn’t hinder clear thought and speech — it facilitates it. Research demonstrates that the movements we make with our hands when we talk constitute a kind of second language, adding information that’s absent from our words. It’s learning’s secret code: Gesture reveals what we know. It reveals what we don’t know. And it reveals (as Donald Rumsfeld might put it) what we know, but don’t yet know we know. What’s more, the congruence (or lack of congruence) between what our voices say and how our hands move offers a clue to our readiness to learn.(MORE: In Praise of Tinkering)Many of the studies establishing the importance of gesture to learning have been conducted by Susan Goldin-Meadow, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. “We change our minds by moving our hands,” writes Goldin-Meadow in a review of this work published in the current issue of the journal Cognitive Science. Particularly significant are what she calls “mismatches” between verbal expression and physical gestures. A student might say that a heavier ball falls faster than a light one, for example, but make a gesture indicating that they fall at the same rate, which is correct. Such discrepancies indicate that we’re in a transitional state, moving from one level of understanding to another. The thoughts expressed by hand motions are often our newest and most advanced ideas about the problem we’re working on; we can’t yet assimilate these notions into language, but we can capture them in movement. When a child employs gesture, Goldin-Meadow notes, “the information about the child’s cognitive state is conveyed sub rosa — below the surface of ordinary conversation.” Such gesture-speech mismatches have been found in toddlers going through a vocabulary spurt, in elementary-school children describing why the seasons change, and in adults attempting to explain how a machine works.Goldin-Meadow’s more recent work shows not only that gesture is an index to our readiness to learn, but that it actually helps to bring learning about. It does so in two ways. First, it elicits helpful behavior from others around us. Goldin-Meadow has found that adults spontaneously respond to children’s speech-gesture mismatches by adjusting their mode of instruction. Parents and teachers apparently receive the signal that children are ready to learn, and they act on it by offering a greater variety of problem-solving strategies.The act of gesturing itself also seems to accelerate learning, bringing nascent knowledge into consciousness and aiding the understanding of new concepts. A 2007 study by Susan Wagner Cook, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa, reported that third-graders who were asked to gesture while learning algebra were nearly three times more likely to remember what they’d learned than classmates who did not gesture. Another experiment conducted by Cook determined that college students who gestured as they retold short stories they’d seen recalled the details of the stories better, suggesting that gesturing as we’re remembering helps retrieve the information from memory.(MORE: Is English Making Us Dyslexic?)So how can you crack learning’s secret code? First, pay attention to your own gestures. Research has found that watching a teacher gesture encourages young learners to produce gestures of their own. Learning improves even when children are given a specific gesture by someone else, rather than generating it themselves. In a 2009 experiment, Goldin-Meadow demonstrated that fourth-graders learning how to solve a math equation identified the correct answers more often when they imitated a helpful gesture shown to them by an adult than when they simply repeated the grown-up’s words.Second, train yourself to attend to others’ gestures. Notice in particular the gestures that diverge from speech — when people say one thing and motion another, they are primed to take advantage of instruction and direction from others. And encourage your kids to move their hands when they talk. Studies show that children instructed to gesture make more speech-gesture mismatches — that is, they increase their readiness to learn. To those like Frederic Mishkin’s erstwhile professor, who think we should remain still while speaking, the science of learning has given us a cheeky retort: Tell it to the hand.Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/09/the-secret-code-of-learning/#ixzz1gmkdOxjo
The Power of Smart Listening
Skilled listeners use specific strategies to get the most out of what they hearRead more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/the-power-of-smart-listening/#ixzz1gmjL3rD0
When we’re learning a foreign language, making sense of what we hear is the first step toward fluency. It sounds obvious, but until recently, we didn’t know much about how listening works. New research demonstrates that effective listening involves more than simply hearing the words that float past our ears. Rather, it’s an active process of interpreting information and making meaning. This kind of engaged listening is a skill that’s as critical for learning a range of subjects at school and work as it is for learning to understand a foreign tongue.(PHOTOS: Summer Programs Keep Kids’ Minds Sharp)Studies of skilled language learners have identified specific listening strategies that lead to superior comprehension. What’s more, research has shown that learners who deliberately adopt these strategies become better listeners. Last year, for example, University of Ottawa researcher Larry Vandergrift published his study of 106 undergraduates who were learning French as a second language. Half of the students were taught in a conventional fashion, listening to and practicing texts spoken aloud. The other half, possessing the same initial skill level and taught by the same teacher, were given explicit instruction on how to listen. In the journal Language Learning, Vandergrift reported the results: The second group “significantly outperformed” the first one on a test of comprehension. The improvement was especially pronounced among the less-fluent French speakers in the group.So what are these listening strategies? Skilled learners go into a listening session with a sense of what they want to get out of it. They set a goal for their listening, and they generate predictions about what the speaker will say. Before the talking begins, they mentally review what they already know about the subject, and form an intention to “listen out for” what’s important or relevant. Once they begin listening, these learners maintain their focus; if their attention wanders, they bring it back to the words being spoken. They don’t allow themselves to be thrown off by confusing or unfamiliar details. Instead, they take note of what they don’t understand and make inferences about what those things might mean, based on other clues available to them: their previous knowledge of the subject, the context of the talk, the identity of the speaker, and so on. They’re “listening for gist,” and not getting caught up in fine-grained analysis. All the while, skilled learners are evaluating what they’re hearing and their own understanding of it. They’re checking their inferences to see if they’re correct, and identifying the questions they still have so they can pursue the answers later.(MORE: Paul: The Secret Code of Learning)Such strategies are all about metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and they yield a variety of benefits. Research indicates that learners who engage in metacogition are better at processing and storing new information, better at finding the best ways to practice and better at reinforcing what they have learned. In a 2006 study by researchers from Singapore, Chinese speakers who were learning English as a second language reported increased motivation and confidence after they were taught metacognitive strategies.Though listening is often treated as a social nicety, a way to make others feel appreciated, it’s also one of the most powerful tools we have to gain information and insight. That’s true whether the language we’re listening to is the jargon of science and technology, the parlance of the executive suite — or the fast-flowing patois of French. Comprenez-vous?Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/the-power-of-smart-listening/#ixzz1gmjBYmwk
Why Asking Questions Might Not Be the Best Way to Teach
A recent study throws the efficacy of the Socratic method into doubtBy Annie Murphy Paul Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/14/why-asking-questions-might-not-be-the-best-way-to-teach/#ixzz1gmiMwTEO
More than 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Socrates wandered around Athens asking questions, an approach to finding truth that thinkers have venerated ever since. In modern times, the Socratic method was adapted for use in universities and became the dominant form of instruction for students learning philosophy and the law. The most recent national survey on the subject found that 97% of law-school professors use the Socratic method in first-year classes. Socratic dialogues seemed to work for the ancient Greeks (at least according to the records produced by Socrates’ disciple Plato.) Are they effective for people today? Recently, a group of researchers decided to find out.(MORE: Top 10 Greatest Speeches, Including Socrates’ Apology)In a study published in the December 2011 issue of the journal Mind, Brain, and Education, four cognitive scientists from Argentina describe what happened when they asked contemporary high school and college students a series of questions identical to those posed by Socrates. In one of his most famous lessons, Socrates showed a young slave boy a square, then led him through a series of 50 questions intended to teach the boy how to draw a second square with an area twice as large as the first. Students in the 2011 experiment, led by researcher Andrea Goldin, gave answers astonishingly similar to those offered by Socrates’ pupil, even making the same mistakes he made. “Our results show that the Socratic dialogue is built on a strong intuition of human knowledge and reasoning which persists more than twenty-four centuries after its conception,” the researchers write. Their findings, Goldin and his co-authors add, demonstrate the existence of “human cognitive universals traversing time and cultures.”But these “universals” come with a significant caveat. By the end of Socrates’ lesson, the Greek boy had figured out how to do the task. More than half of the contemporary subjects, on the other hand, failed to grasp the import of the philosopher’s 50 questions. This is only one experiment, of course. But it raises intriguing questions about the value of the Socratic method as a teaching technique in today’s classrooms. Law professors praise the tactic for training students to respond quickly and fluently to challenging questions — even if most instructors today employ a “soft” Socratic method, far less combative than the gladiatorial exchanges made famous in the 1973 movie The Paper Chase. Philosopher Mitchell Green, a professor at the University of Virginia, extols the approach for a different reason. “Answering questions about philosophical problems forces students to invest themselves in the outcome,” says Green. “The problem comes alive for them, not as ‘something René Descartes or John Stuart Mill once said,’ but as a dilemma for them to wrestle with and make choices about. The Socratic method makes them put some skin in the game.”(MORE: Annie Murphy Paul: The Power of Smart Listening)Green has his own ideas about the future of the ancient philosopher’s practice. He is working on digitizing the Socratic method: creating a computer program that will pose a series of questions about a philosophical problem, adjusting subsequent queries to challenge the user and reveal the flaws in her reasoning. Green has begun the venture by programming answers to familiar philosophical chestnuts like the mind-body problem and the question of free will. Ultimately, however, he plans to allow users to contribute their own content to the program (vetted by philosophy professors and graduate students who will maintain the site): a kind of Wiki-Socrates. Green’s project, which he hopes to make available to the public this summer, may seem a long way from the dialogues of Socrates’ Athens — but it’s simply the latest exchange in a conversation lasting 2,000 years.Paul, the author of Origins, is at work on a book about the science of learning. The views expressed are her own.Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/14/why-asking-questions-might-not-be-the-best-way-to-teach/#ixzz1gmiAHehN
If I Were a Middle Class White Guy Writing About Being a Poor Black Kid
A response to Gene Marks's "If I Were A Poor Black Kid" in ForbesRead more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/15/if-i-was-a-middle-class-white-guy-writing-about-being-a-poor-black-kid/#ixzz1gmMUz0VQ
If I were a middle class white guy writing on Forbes.com about being a poor Black kid I’d be clueless. I’d be so clueless that I wouldn’t realize that I’m clueless, so I would not know that I should really, really step away from my expensive computer and not press send on my condescending, paternalistic and simplistic little essay that breezily fixes the problems of poor Black kids. I wouldn’t think, well, if these steps are so easy — use the Internet to get more learning and try real hard — then why don’t more kids do that? I mean, wouldn’t some of them have thought of that already? No, they wouldn’t because none of them are middle class white guys.I wouldn’t think about how my cheery advice doesn’t really interact with the challenges of being a poor Black kid — from the lack of role models to poor schools to depressed employment opportunities to the lure of the drug game to the day-to-day difficulties of being poor that makes it hard to get out of being poor because of a system that’s constructed to keep you poor. I wouldn’t think about those things because I wouldn’t really know anything about them because I don’t have to. I could potentially solve some of my ignorance by interviewing some poor Black kids before I write about them, but I wouldn’t go do that because, you know, what if I get robbed. I saw that happen in a movie.(MORE: Touré: Can Whites Say the N-Word?)In my pithy, encouraging, bootstrappy message to the poor, Black kids of America I wouldn’t include a discussion of overcoming the challenges of racism — from the mind-numbing messages society sends to broken families to the paucity of opportunity to the overpolicing of poor Black communities, which leads to the prevalence of criminal records which makes it nearly impossible to get jobs. I wouldn’t realize that Black people who are applying for jobs with a clean criminal record are treated the same as white people with a criminal record, so the struggle to find a job is complicated by Black skin. I wouldn’t know that the recession has hit Blacks harder than it hit whites, so no matter what a Black kid does he cannot find a job if few exist.I wouldn’t think about these things if I were a middle class white man because I never really think about racism because I don’t have to. Racism is something that happens to other people and I don’t really think about it that often because it’s complicated and it makes me uncomfortable to think about. I don’t even think about how race impacts my life, but I have a race card. You didn’t know I have a race card? Of course, I do. I don’t even have to pull out my race card for it to work. It works automatically. It’s accepted everywhere you want to be. Membership has its privileges.If I were a middle class man writing about a poor Black kid I would assume that anyone who knows the world in the way that I do would make the decisions that I would make so I need only share with them the knowledge that I have. I wouldn’t think about how their environment might impact their ability or willingness to use that information. I mean, everyone has access to the Internet, right? Just turn it on and become a Google Scholar, and then Skype away to a better education. I wouldn’t think that some of them may lack Wi-Fi. I mean, everyone has Wi-Fi, right?(MORE: Judith Warner: Why are the Rich So Interested in Public-School Reform?)Look, I’m a middle class white guy on deadline at a big-time magazine, with no idea of the hornet’s nest I’m about to step into — I’m just trying to be nice and give some advice to some poor poor Black kids. I’m doing the right thing. I’m not even aware that the very gesture and the breezyness of my discussion is insulting because I’m wrapped up in a cocoon of white privilege that blinds me to the realities of being a poor Black kid, so I’m not even aware of how difficult it is to be a poor Black kid because my life has never been anywhere near as difficult. Thank God for that.Touré is the author of four books, including Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? The views expressed are his ownRead more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/15/if-i-was-a-middle-class-white-guy-writing-about-being-a-poor-black-kid/#ixzz1gmLcnyOx
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Importance of grammar -
Sunday November 13, 2011Importance of grammarEXPLORING ENGLISHBy KEITH W. WRIGHTBesides the traditional aspects of formal definitions, the functional purpose of words in context should also be exmphasised when teaching grammar. MANY of the e-mail queries received from readers of this column often relate to grammar. Some teachers have questioned the rules they are required to teach. Many seem to find grammar a difficult subject to impart to students while others have challenged the need for grammar at all. One of the problems teachers and learners face today centres on “uncertainty”, arising from the fact that many grammarians have different opinions on terminology, particularly in relation to the various Classes of Speech, even arguing about what are the Parts of Speech. For this reason, over the coming weeks, Exploring English will focus on this prerequisite to being a superior speaker and writer of English. First of all, we need to determine the answer to the question: what is grammar? Grammar means different things to different people. It can be: ·Speaking and writing in accordance with accepted rules or principles and standards of usage; ·The systematic study or analysis of words, word forms and sentences - their arrangement and construction - functions or uses – classes – characteristics – features - patterns and interrelationships in spoken and written language; ·The systematic study and description of a language sentence structure, i.e. the way that the words and word forms in a sentence are arranged to show their relationship to each other; lA systematic analysis or study that deals with those aspects of a language that demonstrate the relationship between words in speech and writing; or lA science involving the study of such aspects of language as phonology, orthography, syntax, etymology, semantics and prosody. To teach English grammar, the 4S-Accelerated English Programme (4S-AEP) uses a formal-functional approach, which is a combined technique that focuses on the traditional aspects of formal grammar while emphasising the functional or purpose of words and word groups in context. This approach is like starting out on a hike across unknown and difficult terrain, progressing slowly but surely from the easy to the difficult and from the known to the unknown. Its underlying objective is to ensure that the grammar skills being taught are meaningful and purposeful with the emphasis on the function of words and word groups in various language situations. 4S-AEP contends that learners benefit most when knowledge of traditional definitions and class categories is combined with the newer terminology that has evolved in recent decades. It is a “partnership” between the traditional and the modern. However, while 4S-AEP recognises the value of learners knowing about the various grammatical categories or classes of speech into which words and word groups can be placed (such as the traditional parts of speech), its main goal is to ensure that speakers and writers are able to use English correctly and understand why. To this end, 4S-AEP emphasises the fact that every word or word group used in written or spoken English should have a specific function or purpose. Otherwise, it should not be used. The primary objective of 4S-AEP in the realm of grammar is to ensure that speakers and writers master the skill of using words and word groups competently and correctly and in a meaningful and purposeful way – not just adhering to a specific definition or set of rules. To be competent and confident in the language, 4S-AEP also strongly promotes the exploration and usage of various facets of “the art of the alternative” in grammar, which has been studied in previous columns. For this reason, we will adopt the analogy that speaking and writing is like painting by an artist. Just as a professional artist applies different techniques, media and elements and seeks to portray specific meaning and emphasis in a painting by using colours, shapes, lines and textures, so too does the accomplished writer and speaker through the use of different and superior words and constructions, formats and structure. Furthermore, 4S-AEP quickly raises individual English language proficiency levels by systematically and gradually addressing the everyday, common grammatical errors that speakers and writers make in conversation and communication by pursuing a simple but effective and practical “problem – solution” approach. There are 10 common problem areas in grammar — all of which are considered in great detail in the 4S-SCILLS companion and audio booklet, an e-learning, self-pacing programme, namely: ·Wrongly using adjectives instead of adverbs; ·Using wrong prepositions to begin phrases; ·Using wrong pronouns; ·Using verb forms wrongly; ·Using words and word groups incorrectly; ·Dealing with contractions, conjunctions and constructions; ·Common pronunciation errors; ·Subject-verb agreement; ·Using correct verb form tenses; and ·Using correct irregular verb forms. Over the next few weeks, some of these 10 areas and other grammar-related issues will be addressed in this column.● Keith Wright is the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S) – a modern, innovative and proven method of accelerating the learning of English. The 4S methodology and the associated Accelerated English Programme (AEP) mentioned in this fortnightly column are now being used internationally to enhance the English proficiency of people with different competency levels. E-mail contact@4Sliteracy.com.au for a free copy of the PDF file on Case in Grammar.
The King Canute of Spelling? by Reg Connolly
The King Canute of Spelling?
(From The Pegasus NLP Newsletter – 22 August 2000)
King Canute is reputed to have had his throne placed on the beach so he could sit and command the tide not to come in. It did, of course, and he and his throne began to get wet.
The story is often use as an example of somebody trying to do the impossible. It's usually wrongly quoted, incidentally.
In some respects my attempts to maintain a distinction between English and American is as doomed to failure. And provokes occasional comments.
The latest of these came after yesterday's article on Crazy Thinking. It was a very pleasant and courteous email and included a request that I use a spell-checker! I do use one – and it checks against the commonly accepted English as used in England.
Because of the amount of American-produced software, incorporating American spell-checkers, it is becoming almost the norm to spell in American.
Microsoft has played no small part in this. Their software, even when sold in the UK and Ireland, features spell-checkers which seem to have a habit of reverting their default to American even when set to what they call “English (UK)”.
There is a further challenge. A lot of English software now features American spelling, too. Either because it is aimed at the American, and much larger, market or because the people who wrote the software have been using American spell-checkers for so long that they can no longer spell in English.
My sister visited recently and on reading something I had written pointed out that I had incorrectly spelt 'programme'. In her mind it should be spelt 'program'. Where she works computers are workhorses and the staff are not interested in tweaking and customising(!) the programmes. Subtleties like changing the defaults are ignored. As a result she and her colleagues have been using American spell-checkers for so long they think the American way is correct for this part of the world (England and Ireland)!
So, really, a chap has to take a stand somewhere, doesn't he!
I've had a look through some recent newsletters and switched between American and English spellings to get a list of some common differences between the two “languages” (as they are rapidly becoming!) I then used an English dictionary – a real old-fashioned paper one rather than a software one, just in case… And I came up with the following:
English Spelling American Spelling
recognise recognize (sometimes Eng. too)
behaviour behavior
recognising recognizing (sometimes Eng. too)
paralyse paralyze
generalisations generalizations (sometimes Eng. too)
labelling labeling
analyse analyze
programme program
hypoglycaemia hypoglycemia
travelling traveling
revitalise revitalize (sometimes Eng. too)
practise (the verb) practice (Am. both
verb and noun!)
apologising apologizing (sometimes Eng. too)
defence defense
channelled chanelled
finalised finalized (sometimes Eng. too)
Now for a lovely one…
English American
fulfil fulfill
fulfilling fulfiling
fulfilment fulfillment
fulfiller fulfiler
So we sometimes have two 'l's' in English and one in American...
But, other times, we have one in English and two in American. Got it? Easy isn't it…!
All of which goes to show what a pointless exercise it is becoming to try and get it 'right'!
English is a living and dynamic language – and is becoming the standard on the Web. And there are more Americans using the Web than English, more American products available, and more non-English speakers using American products to learn English.
English as some of us Europeans have known it may not have long to go. Yet I'm sitting here in my chair ranting at the world to stop and do it my way. Rather like King Canute is supposed to have been doing. And as long as I, and others, don't take it too seriously it's a harmless little exercise.
It's like a lot of things in life. As long as we do not lose sight of the big picture that's fine. The big picture is what is really important to me or you at any moment. The big picture of the web site and of the newsletter is to make available a few ideas, tips, and insights that I have come across and have found helpful for myself and when coaching others.
(So what about old Canute? Well, he was not trying to stop the tide from coming in. He was a lot wiser than that. He wanted to demonstrate to his over-demanding subjects that even the king was not omnipotent. That's what he intended. But along the way, over the centuries, people forgot what his big picture was – they missed his point.)
I really enjoy hearing about peoples views on the information in the newsletter and web site. And, especially, their experiences in applying the ideas.
So do kepe your coments roling in, pleeze…
Reg Connolly
(From The Pegasus NLP Newsletter – 22 August 2000)
King Canute is reputed to have had his throne placed on the beach so he could sit and command the tide not to come in. It did, of course, and he and his throne began to get wet.
The story is often use as an example of somebody trying to do the impossible. It's usually wrongly quoted, incidentally.
In some respects my attempts to maintain a distinction between English and American is as doomed to failure. And provokes occasional comments.
The latest of these came after yesterday's article on Crazy Thinking. It was a very pleasant and courteous email and included a request that I use a spell-checker! I do use one – and it checks against the commonly accepted English as used in England.
Because of the amount of American-produced software, incorporating American spell-checkers, it is becoming almost the norm to spell in American.
Microsoft has played no small part in this. Their software, even when sold in the UK and Ireland, features spell-checkers which seem to have a habit of reverting their default to American even when set to what they call “English (UK)”.
There is a further challenge. A lot of English software now features American spelling, too. Either because it is aimed at the American, and much larger, market or because the people who wrote the software have been using American spell-checkers for so long that they can no longer spell in English.
My sister visited recently and on reading something I had written pointed out that I had incorrectly spelt 'programme'. In her mind it should be spelt 'program'. Where she works computers are workhorses and the staff are not interested in tweaking and customising(!) the programmes. Subtleties like changing the defaults are ignored. As a result she and her colleagues have been using American spell-checkers for so long they think the American way is correct for this part of the world (England and Ireland)!
So, really, a chap has to take a stand somewhere, doesn't he!
I've had a look through some recent newsletters and switched between American and English spellings to get a list of some common differences between the two “languages” (as they are rapidly becoming!) I then used an English dictionary – a real old-fashioned paper one rather than a software one, just in case… And I came up with the following:
English Spelling American Spelling
recognise recognize (sometimes Eng. too)
behaviour behavior
recognising recognizing (sometimes Eng. too)
paralyse paralyze
generalisations generalizations (sometimes Eng. too)
labelling labeling
analyse analyze
programme program
hypoglycaemia hypoglycemia
travelling traveling
revitalise revitalize (sometimes Eng. too)
practise (the verb) practice (Am. both
verb and noun!)
apologising apologizing (sometimes Eng. too)
defence defense
channelled chanelled
finalised finalized (sometimes Eng. too)
Now for a lovely one…
English American
fulfil fulfill
fulfilling fulfiling
fulfilment fulfillment
fulfiller fulfiler
So we sometimes have two 'l's' in English and one in American...
But, other times, we have one in English and two in American. Got it? Easy isn't it…!
All of which goes to show what a pointless exercise it is becoming to try and get it 'right'!
English is a living and dynamic language – and is becoming the standard on the Web. And there are more Americans using the Web than English, more American products available, and more non-English speakers using American products to learn English.
English as some of us Europeans have known it may not have long to go. Yet I'm sitting here in my chair ranting at the world to stop and do it my way. Rather like King Canute is supposed to have been doing. And as long as I, and others, don't take it too seriously it's a harmless little exercise.
It's like a lot of things in life. As long as we do not lose sight of the big picture that's fine. The big picture is what is really important to me or you at any moment. The big picture of the web site and of the newsletter is to make available a few ideas, tips, and insights that I have come across and have found helpful for myself and when coaching others.
(So what about old Canute? Well, he was not trying to stop the tide from coming in. He was a lot wiser than that. He wanted to demonstrate to his over-demanding subjects that even the king was not omnipotent. That's what he intended. But along the way, over the centuries, people forgot what his big picture was – they missed his point.)
I really enjoy hearing about peoples views on the information in the newsletter and web site. And, especially, their experiences in applying the ideas.
So do kepe your coments roling in, pleeze…
Reg Connolly
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
The percularities of the English language
At my house, the mealtime implement used for cutting is called a ka-nife. The joint located between thigh and calf is called a ka-nee. And the medieval warriors who wore suits of armor are called ka-ni-guh-ts.
We adopted these unusual pronunciations after my 5-year-old son, Teddy, noticed something odd about the English language. While sounding out words on the page in the way we’d taught him, he realized that many words didn’t sound at all the way they looked. Yacht. Trough. Colonel. And what was that letter k doing at the start of words that sounded like they began with n?
Such irregular spellings, my husband and I explained, were the result of the English language’s long, rich history: a mix of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, among other languages, melded over centuries of use. Teddy was unimpressed. Words should sound the way they look, he insisted: hence, ka-nife.
As anyone who’s lost a spelling bee or failed a spelling test will affirm, the English language is more ornery than most. About 25% of its words employ irregular spellings, and many of these terms are among the most frequently used in the language. Cross-cultural research demonstrates that the trickiness of English affects how quickly American children learn to read and write. After just a few months of instruction, for example, children living in Italy are able to read and write any word they encounter, because their language is almost perfectly regular: each letter or combination of letters maps reliably onto a particular sound. Children in the U.S., on the other hand, must endure years of drills before they have mastered the intricacies of bough and bow, weigh and way. (American pupils can console themselves with the knowledge that kids in China have it even harder: there, lessons on reading and writing the thousands of symbols in the Chinese language extend into students’ teenage years.)
(MORE: Laodicean and Other Spelling Bee Winning Words)
Big deal, you might think — so it takes a few years to learn written English. With practice, our peculiar spellings become second nature. But there is evidence that for some English users, the knottiness of the language leads to lasting problems with reading. About twice as many Americans as Italians fit the definition of dyslexic, even though brain-scan studies suggest that the two populations have similar proportions of people with the mental processing deficit associated with the disorder. The irregularity of English ruthlessly exposes this brain anomaly, while the consistency of the Italian language allows readers to compensate for it. Dyslexia, remarkably enough, may be partly culturally induced.
So what can be done about the quirks of our native tongue? Are we stuck with English’s ungainly spellings?
Not necessarily. The way words are spelled could be changed. Dictionary author Noah Webster did it in 1806, removing the u from words like colour and honour and changing the c in words like offence and pretence to an s. In general, however, top-down spelling reforms have met with little success. Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped found the Simplified Spelling Board, and President Theodore Roosevelt directed his government to use plainer spellings in its publications. Neither effort amounted to much.
Language change is largely a bottom-up affair — and the moment is ripe for a mass movement to simplify English spelling. Digital communication by email, text and tweet has nudged our staid language into its most dynamic state of flux since the invention of the printing press. Linguists even have a name for the pared-down language we employ when using digital devices: chatspeak. It is, effectively, a newly created dialect of English, and chatspeak will surely shape in turn its more conventional progenitor.
(MORE: Digital Literacy Will Never Replace the Traditional Kind)
This may already be happening, especially among the young. Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University, reports that teachers of elementary school children increasingly “tolerate IM novelties in classroom written assignments.” While some of these Internet-age innovations are frivolous or trivial — Shakespeare managed to amuse his audiences without recourse to LOL — other shifts may prove more meaningful. Beverly Plester is a psychologist at Coventry University in England who has conducted research on how young people express themselves in electronic media. “When using text language, or ‘textisms,’ children revert to a phonetic language,” she observes, spelling words the way they sound. Such streamlining is similar to the way in which the simplified coinages of commercial English have slipped into wider use — donut for doughnut, nite for night, thru for through.
As an avid reader and a longtime Anglophile, I’ll admit that I’m fond of English’s odd spellings — and that words like nite and thru make me wince. But watching my son and his kindergarten classmates labor to learn English’s many idiosyncrasies, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for them to fall by the wayside. We might have fewer cases of dyslexia and illiteracy. Students could spend their time thinking about the meanings of words instead of their treacherous spellings. And during dinner at my house, a ka-nife could be just a nife.
Paul, the author of Origins, is at work on a book about the science of learning. The views expressed are her own.
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/02/are-americans-more-dyslexic-than-italians/#ixzz1ca1h2CdR
We adopted these unusual pronunciations after my 5-year-old son, Teddy, noticed something odd about the English language. While sounding out words on the page in the way we’d taught him, he realized that many words didn’t sound at all the way they looked. Yacht. Trough. Colonel. And what was that letter k doing at the start of words that sounded like they began with n?
Such irregular spellings, my husband and I explained, were the result of the English language’s long, rich history: a mix of Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, among other languages, melded over centuries of use. Teddy was unimpressed. Words should sound the way they look, he insisted: hence, ka-nife.
As anyone who’s lost a spelling bee or failed a spelling test will affirm, the English language is more ornery than most. About 25% of its words employ irregular spellings, and many of these terms are among the most frequently used in the language. Cross-cultural research demonstrates that the trickiness of English affects how quickly American children learn to read and write. After just a few months of instruction, for example, children living in Italy are able to read and write any word they encounter, because their language is almost perfectly regular: each letter or combination of letters maps reliably onto a particular sound. Children in the U.S., on the other hand, must endure years of drills before they have mastered the intricacies of bough and bow, weigh and way. (American pupils can console themselves with the knowledge that kids in China have it even harder: there, lessons on reading and writing the thousands of symbols in the Chinese language extend into students’ teenage years.)
(MORE: Laodicean and Other Spelling Bee Winning Words)
Big deal, you might think — so it takes a few years to learn written English. With practice, our peculiar spellings become second nature. But there is evidence that for some English users, the knottiness of the language leads to lasting problems with reading. About twice as many Americans as Italians fit the definition of dyslexic, even though brain-scan studies suggest that the two populations have similar proportions of people with the mental processing deficit associated with the disorder. The irregularity of English ruthlessly exposes this brain anomaly, while the consistency of the Italian language allows readers to compensate for it. Dyslexia, remarkably enough, may be partly culturally induced.
So what can be done about the quirks of our native tongue? Are we stuck with English’s ungainly spellings?
Not necessarily. The way words are spelled could be changed. Dictionary author Noah Webster did it in 1806, removing the u from words like colour and honour and changing the c in words like offence and pretence to an s. In general, however, top-down spelling reforms have met with little success. Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped found the Simplified Spelling Board, and President Theodore Roosevelt directed his government to use plainer spellings in its publications. Neither effort amounted to much.
Language change is largely a bottom-up affair — and the moment is ripe for a mass movement to simplify English spelling. Digital communication by email, text and tweet has nudged our staid language into its most dynamic state of flux since the invention of the printing press. Linguists even have a name for the pared-down language we employ when using digital devices: chatspeak. It is, effectively, a newly created dialect of English, and chatspeak will surely shape in turn its more conventional progenitor.
(MORE: Digital Literacy Will Never Replace the Traditional Kind)
This may already be happening, especially among the young. Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University, reports that teachers of elementary school children increasingly “tolerate IM novelties in classroom written assignments.” While some of these Internet-age innovations are frivolous or trivial — Shakespeare managed to amuse his audiences without recourse to LOL — other shifts may prove more meaningful. Beverly Plester is a psychologist at Coventry University in England who has conducted research on how young people express themselves in electronic media. “When using text language, or ‘textisms,’ children revert to a phonetic language,” she observes, spelling words the way they sound. Such streamlining is similar to the way in which the simplified coinages of commercial English have slipped into wider use — donut for doughnut, nite for night, thru for through.
As an avid reader and a longtime Anglophile, I’ll admit that I’m fond of English’s odd spellings — and that words like nite and thru make me wince. But watching my son and his kindergarten classmates labor to learn English’s many idiosyncrasies, I wonder if it wouldn’t be better for them to fall by the wayside. We might have fewer cases of dyslexia and illiteracy. Students could spend their time thinking about the meanings of words instead of their treacherous spellings. And during dinner at my house, a ka-nife could be just a nife.
Paul, the author of Origins, is at work on a book about the science of learning. The views expressed are her own.
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2011/11/02/are-americans-more-dyslexic-than-italians/#ixzz1ca1h2CdR
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Grammar with Lubna: To –ing or not to –ing, that is the question
Recently, I’ve had a couple of experiences which have made me start wondering about the –ing verb, and aspect, in general. So, I’ll be writing three blogs this week about the –ing more generally, something called ‘aspect’. I’ll start off telling you what the ‘problem’ is, and then follow this up with what the grammar is behind these interesting examples.
Most of us would have learnt or at least heard about the continuous (or as most linguists refer to it, progressive) tense of the verb, for example, ‘She is reading this blog’. Actually, more accurately, we refer to the –ing continuous construction not as tense, but as aspect. The verb string ‘is reading’ is in the present tense, as you can tell from ‘is’ – this tells you the event occurs at the time of speaking; in addition, the verb also tells you that the action is still going on at the time of speaking (or writing): this is the continuous aspect. So, in brief, tense refers to when something happened; aspect tells you how the action takes place. So, we can contrast the continuous with the perfective, for example, which is used to indicate that an action has been completed, e.g. ‘I have written a blog’.
Well, my interest in the –ing form actually began over four years ago. In 2007 - 2009, I worked with three wonderful colleagues on a small project, resulting in three published papers. The project was based on Christina Higgins’ (2007) paper in TESOL Quarterly that examined the ownership of English by speakers outside of the so-called ‘native’ English speaking countries. Participants were paired and asked to judge a set of sentences for their acceptability; recordings were also made of the discussions they had with each other. There were many interesting findings about the judgements in terms of how they reflected the participants’ sense of confidence over grammaticality judgements. Christina’s original study, held in a university setting, which included Singaporeans, showed that these students displayed a strong sense of ownership over English, and had clear opinions about what was acceptable and what was not.
For our study, we used more or less the same set of sentences that Christina did, with her permission of course, and out of these, one in particular struck me as interesting:
I am having a cold.
While the other sentences in our experiment received mixed judgements, all of our informants, including those who belonged to the most well-educated and socioeconomically privileged group, unequivocally judged this sentence as grammatically correct. In fact, one of our informants went so far as to say that “I have a cold” is not correct. You’ll hear this sentence and others like it very commonly, spoken by a good number of Singaporeans – well-educated ones, at that, as I did in this past month, what with the flu season:
I’m having a cough, but I haven’t really seen the doctor.
I’m having the flu this past week.
My interest further piqued when I then overheard a very well-spoken elderly Singaporean woman say very formally, in a crisp and proper manner, to the cashier at a rather posh supermarket who handed her some stamps for an in-store promotion. And in case you think it was a slip of the tongue, she repeated this very same sentence when the cashier failed to hear her the first time:
I wouldn’t be needing the stamps, thank you.
What do you think of these sentences? Let’s compare these –ing sentences with ones without the –ing:
1A. I am having a cold.
1B. I have a cold.
2A. I wouldn’t be needing the stamps, thank you.
2B. I won’t need the stamps, thank you.
(‘Don’t’ is probably better in 2B, but I want to keep as close to the original as possible.)
Would you use the –ing constructions, or the ones without? And, which of these would you accept as ‘correct’ or acceptable – the sentences marked (A) or those marked (B), or both?
Finally, let me tell you about the second thing I heard that inspired me to write this set of blogs. William Xavier, a very well-known DJ, who, I think, speaks English very well, announced one morning:
Expect heavy traffic along Bukit Timah Road. A car broke down just before Hua Guan Avenue
(or some other road ... it doesn’t matter).
How does this sound to you? Do you think he should have said it like this? Could he have said it in a different way, or a better way? How would you have phrased the morning traffic announcement? (Hint: it's the second sentence that's interesting).
I’ll share my thoughts on these sentences in my next two blogs ...
Comments
Comment by Dennis Chew on Monday
have is a stative verb, isn't it? That would make 1A wrong?
. Comment by Dennis Chew on Monday
Expect heavy traffic along Bukit Timah Road. A car broke down just before Hua Guan Avenue. I would prefer to use a car has broken down... sounds more "current" / active to me.
. Comment by Lubna Alsagoff 17 hours ago
Great, Dennis! Absolutely spot on!
. Comment by Dennis Chew 12 hours ago
oh...there's a link to a song that I used to help my students spot grammar rules as a short game or quiz. They really enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4CdN0x58A&ob=av2e
I printed out the lyrics and we deconstructed together and found at least 13 rules.
. Comment by Pierre Fong 2 hours ago
I prefer the has broken down (present perfect) because it happend in the past and I do not know when it happened exactly.
The sentence I have a cold seems to be a definite statement - meaning that the cold is going to be permanent. I have it now and I am going to have it in the future. The sentence I am having a cold seem to suggest that it is for a period of time.
. Comment by Yeo Sze Min 3 minutes ago
Hey Pierre! Yes, that's the exact notion I get with the -ing form of a verb, a continuation of the action for a period of time.
the -ing form has a sense of a continuation of the time period in its form. be needing. (at some point in time you might need the stamps after all?) won't need has a more definitive feel, succinct and to the point, stating that one won't need the stamps.
I have a question though. It appeared in one of the practice papers and if i don't remember wrong,
-Last week, John bought some clothes before the store closed down.
-Last week, John had bought some clothes before the store closed down.
Is there a way I am able to explain the choice of the correct answer to students at the p4 level?
Thanks :)
Most of us would have learnt or at least heard about the continuous (or as most linguists refer to it, progressive) tense of the verb, for example, ‘She is reading this blog’. Actually, more accurately, we refer to the –ing continuous construction not as tense, but as aspect. The verb string ‘is reading’ is in the present tense, as you can tell from ‘is’ – this tells you the event occurs at the time of speaking; in addition, the verb also tells you that the action is still going on at the time of speaking (or writing): this is the continuous aspect. So, in brief, tense refers to when something happened; aspect tells you how the action takes place. So, we can contrast the continuous with the perfective, for example, which is used to indicate that an action has been completed, e.g. ‘I have written a blog’.
Well, my interest in the –ing form actually began over four years ago. In 2007 - 2009, I worked with three wonderful colleagues on a small project, resulting in three published papers. The project was based on Christina Higgins’ (2007) paper in TESOL Quarterly that examined the ownership of English by speakers outside of the so-called ‘native’ English speaking countries. Participants were paired and asked to judge a set of sentences for their acceptability; recordings were also made of the discussions they had with each other. There were many interesting findings about the judgements in terms of how they reflected the participants’ sense of confidence over grammaticality judgements. Christina’s original study, held in a university setting, which included Singaporeans, showed that these students displayed a strong sense of ownership over English, and had clear opinions about what was acceptable and what was not.
For our study, we used more or less the same set of sentences that Christina did, with her permission of course, and out of these, one in particular struck me as interesting:
I am having a cold.
While the other sentences in our experiment received mixed judgements, all of our informants, including those who belonged to the most well-educated and socioeconomically privileged group, unequivocally judged this sentence as grammatically correct. In fact, one of our informants went so far as to say that “I have a cold” is not correct. You’ll hear this sentence and others like it very commonly, spoken by a good number of Singaporeans – well-educated ones, at that, as I did in this past month, what with the flu season:
I’m having a cough, but I haven’t really seen the doctor.
I’m having the flu this past week.
My interest further piqued when I then overheard a very well-spoken elderly Singaporean woman say very formally, in a crisp and proper manner, to the cashier at a rather posh supermarket who handed her some stamps for an in-store promotion. And in case you think it was a slip of the tongue, she repeated this very same sentence when the cashier failed to hear her the first time:
I wouldn’t be needing the stamps, thank you.
What do you think of these sentences? Let’s compare these –ing sentences with ones without the –ing:
1A. I am having a cold.
1B. I have a cold.
2A. I wouldn’t be needing the stamps, thank you.
2B. I won’t need the stamps, thank you.
(‘Don’t’ is probably better in 2B, but I want to keep as close to the original as possible.)
Would you use the –ing constructions, or the ones without? And, which of these would you accept as ‘correct’ or acceptable – the sentences marked (A) or those marked (B), or both?
Finally, let me tell you about the second thing I heard that inspired me to write this set of blogs. William Xavier, a very well-known DJ, who, I think, speaks English very well, announced one morning:
Expect heavy traffic along Bukit Timah Road. A car broke down just before Hua Guan Avenue
(or some other road ... it doesn’t matter).
How does this sound to you? Do you think he should have said it like this? Could he have said it in a different way, or a better way? How would you have phrased the morning traffic announcement? (Hint: it's the second sentence that's interesting).
I’ll share my thoughts on these sentences in my next two blogs ...
Comments
Comment by Dennis Chew on Monday
have is a stative verb, isn't it? That would make 1A wrong?
. Comment by Dennis Chew on Monday
Expect heavy traffic along Bukit Timah Road. A car broke down just before Hua Guan Avenue. I would prefer to use a car has broken down... sounds more "current" / active to me.
. Comment by Lubna Alsagoff 17 hours ago
Great, Dennis! Absolutely spot on!
. Comment by Dennis Chew 12 hours ago
oh...there's a link to a song that I used to help my students spot grammar rules as a short game or quiz. They really enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4CdN0x58A&ob=av2e
I printed out the lyrics and we deconstructed together and found at least 13 rules.
. Comment by Pierre Fong 2 hours ago
I prefer the has broken down (present perfect) because it happend in the past and I do not know when it happened exactly.
The sentence I have a cold seems to be a definite statement - meaning that the cold is going to be permanent. I have it now and I am going to have it in the future. The sentence I am having a cold seem to suggest that it is for a period of time.
. Comment by Yeo Sze Min 3 minutes ago
Hey Pierre! Yes, that's the exact notion I get with the -ing form of a verb, a continuation of the action for a period of time.
the -ing form has a sense of a continuation of the time period in its form. be needing. (at some point in time you might need the stamps after all?) won't need has a more definitive feel, succinct and to the point, stating that one won't need the stamps.
I have a question though. It appeared in one of the practice papers and if i don't remember wrong,
-Last week, John bought some clothes before the store closed down.
-Last week, John had bought some clothes before the store closed down.
Is there a way I am able to explain the choice of the correct answer to students at the p4 level?
Thanks :)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Teaching English to Gifted Students
From http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/english.gifted.3.html
How Should Gifted Students Be Identified?
Definitions of gifted/talented students are numerous. Many are similar to that in the 1978 House of Representatives resolution on education, which defines gifted students as "children, and, when applicable, youth, who are identified at the preschool, elementary, or secondary level as possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, specific academic or leadership ability, or in the performing and visual arts..." (Nazarro, 1978).
The use of only grade point averages and IQ scores to classify students as gifted/talented has led to growing concern about procedures for identifying gifted students. Howard Gardner, noted Harvard neuropsychologist, has suggested that although the IQ test measures the linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences, it does not account for at least five more: (1) the kinesthetic, (2) the musical, (3) the spatial, (4) the interpersonal, and (5) the intrapersonal (Scherer, 1985). Clearly, methods other than IQ tests and grade point averages must be used for identifying gifted/talented students for English and language arts programs (Collins and Aiex, 1995). Warnock and Holt (1985) and Delisle and Berger (1990) further note that gifted/talented students include not only students who do well in school but others who may not do well and who may not display easily observable talent.
William W. West expresses a similar point of view. In Teaching the Gifted and Talented in the English Classroom (1980), West not only identifies obvious characteristics of the verbally gifted, such as reading avidly, writing frequently and fluently, and participating in oral communication activities, but also stresses the importance of observing students who exhibit signs of disruptive behavior, pointing out that these students may simply be bored or unchallenged.
Criteria for determining gifted/talented students for exemplary programs vary, as may be seen in two programs cited in 1985 by the National Council of Teachers of English as Centers of Excellence. Students identified as gifted/talented for the Eleventh Grade Honors Program at Temple High School (Temple, Texas) are selected chiefly by means of grade point average, writing skills, and teacher recommendations, although IQ scores are also considered (Post, 1986). At Princeton High School (Princeton, Illinois), admission to the five-course Independent Study Curriculum is based on a number of criteria. These include not only grade point average and an intelligence test, but also a critical thinking evaluation (Watson-Glasser Thinking Appraisal), achievement test scores (SRA and Gates-MacGinitie), and two teacher evaluations (Scher, 1986). Clearly, some successful programs for the gifted in English and language arts do not restrict admission criteria to IQ scores and grade point averages.
Back to the Table of Contents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Are Some Key Principles In Developing An Effective English and Language Arts Program For the Gifted/Talented?
Frederick B. Tuttle, Jr. (1979), writing about English programs for gifted students, identifies four principles for developing an effective program.
Design a curriculum that builds upon the characteristics of the intellectually gifted. While all students need to develop "basic skills," gifted students can often acquire these as they develop their other, more advanced abilities.
Provide for continuity. Teachers and administrators at all grade levels should arrive at a consensus regarding the different components of the program and the procedures for carrying it through the grades.
Select teachers on the basis of their ability to work with the intellectually gifted and the talented. These teachers should be vitally interested in the gifted, highly intelligent, and emotionally secure, and possess advanced knowledge of their subject matter.
Evaluate success within the program on the quality of the work produced rather than by tests of mastery of lower level skills. This will often necessitate the design of new evaluation instruments and procedures, since most of the tests currently being used measure acquisition of knowledge rather than ability to apply knowledge in creative ways.
These principles may be applied to the development of English and language arts programs for gifted students. As Scher (1986) points out, "A gifted program not only gives students a sound foundation in verbal, reading, and critical thinking skills but allows them to use these skills in an interdisciplinary fashion." Or, as another teacher puts it in a slightly different way: "The time is ripe for teachers to work relentlessly to create classroom situations in which students are tempted, cajoled, seduced, provoked and firmly rewarded not for being excellent, but for thinking" (Peterson et al., 1992).
What Specific Resources Exist For Teaching English and Language Arts To Gifted/Talented Students?
A number of publications may assist the English and language arts teacher in identifying gifted/talented students and developing an appropriate program for them. For example, the aforementioned text by West explores the identification of gifted students' verbal fluency, originality, flexibility, and ability to elaborate, synthesize, and reach closure. A design for a lesson sequence and an example of a teaching sequence are included, as well as suggestions for selecting unit themes.
Jane D. Reed's Teaching Gifted Students Literature and Language in Grades Nine through Twelve (1978) discusses topics related to English programs for gifted high school students: philosophical principles, the study of literature, specific examples of subject matter content in literature, the relationships among various phases of language, descriptions of kinds of gifted English students, procedures for conducting literature and language programs for the gifted, and the evaluation of English programs for the gifted student. Looking for a practical way to help gifted English students in a lower socioeconomic high school setting, Alice Shipman-Campbell (1994) developed a practicum to increase the number and success rate of junior Honors English students taking the English Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. The majority of the students were Latino and African American and somewhat fearful about tests. Shipman-Campbell designed test-taking strategies to allay students' fears and held academic pep rallies to motivate the students. Meanwhile, she taught them style analysis of language and literature. Other key elements that contributed to student success were daily collaborative learning groups and motivational guest speakers in the classroom. Outcomes were positive--not only did the number of juniors taking the test increase, but students also demonstrated more confidence in themselves as English students and as test takers. An added benefit was the students' newfound pleasure in reading, analyzing, and writing about literature.
How Should Gifted Students and English and Language Arts Programs For the Gifted Be Evaluated?
Gifted students, like any other students, must be evaluated. Although it is possible to use traditional methods of evaluation, more innovative methods are also appropriate. Not all practitioners agree, however, on the best methods of evaluation. Scher says that students in the Princeton (Illinois) High School program are not given objective tests, since they have already demonstrated their ability to do well on such tests. Instead, evaluations are based on the writing process, with precision and accuracy as primary evaluation criteria. Students enrolled in a research and analysis course must apply their knowledge of logic, reasoning, and research methods to an investigation of their choice and produce a project in a form compatible with the topic.
Reed (1978) notes a method of evaluation in which the teacher evaluates not only individual students but also the program itself by carefully observing the class during the course or during a unit to determine whether or not students are progressing satisfactorily. One technique involves having each student maintain a manila folder containing descriptions of projects in progress or completed, lists of things read, and written papers that have been graded. These folders will allow the teacher to do a simple check of the accomplishments of each student.
Program evaluation is often conducted through external tests, from standardized achievement tests, to SAT verbal test scores, to advanced placement tests. Reed cautions, however, that such tests are imperfect tools in the evaluation process and so should not be heavily considered.
Evaluation can also be conducted by having students evaluate a course while they are participating in it. Although student surveys may exhibit some bias, they are worthwhile because gifted students tend to be able to cite strengths and weaknesses of programs in which they participate. Finally, program evaluation may be conducted after students leave school by sending evaluation forms to former students or by interviewing them.
References
Collins, Norma Decker, and Nola Kortner Aiex (1995). "Gifted Readers and Reading Instruction." ERIC Digest. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. ED 379 637
Delisle, James, and Sandra Berger (1990). "Underachieving Gifted Students." ERIC EC Digest #E478. Reston, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children. ED 321 483
Nazarro, Jean, Ed. (1978). "ERIC/EC Newsletter, 2." Reston, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children.
Peterson, Nancy Ruth, et al. (1992). "Being Special (A Symposium)." English Journal, 81(6), 34-43. EJ 451 323
Post, Linda Williams (1986). Telephone interview, March 4, 1986.
Reed, Jane D. (1978. Teaching Gifted Students Literature and Language in Grades Nine through Twelve, updated edition. Sacramento, CA: State Department of Education. ED 157 075
Scher, Bruce E. (1986). Telephone interview, March 4, 1986.
Scherer, Marge (1985). "How Many Ways Is A Child Intelligent?" Instructor, 94(5), 32-35. EJ 310 778
Shipman-Campbell, Alice (1994). "Increasing the Number and Success Rate of Junior Honors English Students in Taking English Advanced Placement Examinations." Ed.D. Practicum, Nova University. ED 376 496
Tuttle, Frederick B., Jr. (1979). "Providing for the Intellectually Gifted." SLATE Starter Sheet. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Warnock, John, and Sue Holt (1985). "Gifted and Talented Education." SLATE Starter Sheet. Urbana, IL: NCTE. ED 263 624
West, William W. (1980). Teaching the
How Should Gifted Students Be Identified?
Definitions of gifted/talented students are numerous. Many are similar to that in the 1978 House of Representatives resolution on education, which defines gifted students as "children, and, when applicable, youth, who are identified at the preschool, elementary, or secondary level as possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, specific academic or leadership ability, or in the performing and visual arts..." (Nazarro, 1978).
The use of only grade point averages and IQ scores to classify students as gifted/talented has led to growing concern about procedures for identifying gifted students. Howard Gardner, noted Harvard neuropsychologist, has suggested that although the IQ test measures the linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences, it does not account for at least five more: (1) the kinesthetic, (2) the musical, (3) the spatial, (4) the interpersonal, and (5) the intrapersonal (Scherer, 1985). Clearly, methods other than IQ tests and grade point averages must be used for identifying gifted/talented students for English and language arts programs (Collins and Aiex, 1995). Warnock and Holt (1985) and Delisle and Berger (1990) further note that gifted/talented students include not only students who do well in school but others who may not do well and who may not display easily observable talent.
William W. West expresses a similar point of view. In Teaching the Gifted and Talented in the English Classroom (1980), West not only identifies obvious characteristics of the verbally gifted, such as reading avidly, writing frequently and fluently, and participating in oral communication activities, but also stresses the importance of observing students who exhibit signs of disruptive behavior, pointing out that these students may simply be bored or unchallenged.
Criteria for determining gifted/talented students for exemplary programs vary, as may be seen in two programs cited in 1985 by the National Council of Teachers of English as Centers of Excellence. Students identified as gifted/talented for the Eleventh Grade Honors Program at Temple High School (Temple, Texas) are selected chiefly by means of grade point average, writing skills, and teacher recommendations, although IQ scores are also considered (Post, 1986). At Princeton High School (Princeton, Illinois), admission to the five-course Independent Study Curriculum is based on a number of criteria. These include not only grade point average and an intelligence test, but also a critical thinking evaluation (Watson-Glasser Thinking Appraisal), achievement test scores (SRA and Gates-MacGinitie), and two teacher evaluations (Scher, 1986). Clearly, some successful programs for the gifted in English and language arts do not restrict admission criteria to IQ scores and grade point averages.
Back to the Table of Contents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What Are Some Key Principles In Developing An Effective English and Language Arts Program For the Gifted/Talented?
Frederick B. Tuttle, Jr. (1979), writing about English programs for gifted students, identifies four principles for developing an effective program.
Design a curriculum that builds upon the characteristics of the intellectually gifted. While all students need to develop "basic skills," gifted students can often acquire these as they develop their other, more advanced abilities.
Provide for continuity. Teachers and administrators at all grade levels should arrive at a consensus regarding the different components of the program and the procedures for carrying it through the grades.
Select teachers on the basis of their ability to work with the intellectually gifted and the talented. These teachers should be vitally interested in the gifted, highly intelligent, and emotionally secure, and possess advanced knowledge of their subject matter.
Evaluate success within the program on the quality of the work produced rather than by tests of mastery of lower level skills. This will often necessitate the design of new evaluation instruments and procedures, since most of the tests currently being used measure acquisition of knowledge rather than ability to apply knowledge in creative ways.
These principles may be applied to the development of English and language arts programs for gifted students. As Scher (1986) points out, "A gifted program not only gives students a sound foundation in verbal, reading, and critical thinking skills but allows them to use these skills in an interdisciplinary fashion." Or, as another teacher puts it in a slightly different way: "The time is ripe for teachers to work relentlessly to create classroom situations in which students are tempted, cajoled, seduced, provoked and firmly rewarded not for being excellent, but for thinking" (Peterson et al., 1992).
What Specific Resources Exist For Teaching English and Language Arts To Gifted/Talented Students?
A number of publications may assist the English and language arts teacher in identifying gifted/talented students and developing an appropriate program for them. For example, the aforementioned text by West explores the identification of gifted students' verbal fluency, originality, flexibility, and ability to elaborate, synthesize, and reach closure. A design for a lesson sequence and an example of a teaching sequence are included, as well as suggestions for selecting unit themes.
Jane D. Reed's Teaching Gifted Students Literature and Language in Grades Nine through Twelve (1978) discusses topics related to English programs for gifted high school students: philosophical principles, the study of literature, specific examples of subject matter content in literature, the relationships among various phases of language, descriptions of kinds of gifted English students, procedures for conducting literature and language programs for the gifted, and the evaluation of English programs for the gifted student. Looking for a practical way to help gifted English students in a lower socioeconomic high school setting, Alice Shipman-Campbell (1994) developed a practicum to increase the number and success rate of junior Honors English students taking the English Advanced Placement (AP) examinations. The majority of the students were Latino and African American and somewhat fearful about tests. Shipman-Campbell designed test-taking strategies to allay students' fears and held academic pep rallies to motivate the students. Meanwhile, she taught them style analysis of language and literature. Other key elements that contributed to student success were daily collaborative learning groups and motivational guest speakers in the classroom. Outcomes were positive--not only did the number of juniors taking the test increase, but students also demonstrated more confidence in themselves as English students and as test takers. An added benefit was the students' newfound pleasure in reading, analyzing, and writing about literature.
How Should Gifted Students and English and Language Arts Programs For the Gifted Be Evaluated?
Gifted students, like any other students, must be evaluated. Although it is possible to use traditional methods of evaluation, more innovative methods are also appropriate. Not all practitioners agree, however, on the best methods of evaluation. Scher says that students in the Princeton (Illinois) High School program are not given objective tests, since they have already demonstrated their ability to do well on such tests. Instead, evaluations are based on the writing process, with precision and accuracy as primary evaluation criteria. Students enrolled in a research and analysis course must apply their knowledge of logic, reasoning, and research methods to an investigation of their choice and produce a project in a form compatible with the topic.
Reed (1978) notes a method of evaluation in which the teacher evaluates not only individual students but also the program itself by carefully observing the class during the course or during a unit to determine whether or not students are progressing satisfactorily. One technique involves having each student maintain a manila folder containing descriptions of projects in progress or completed, lists of things read, and written papers that have been graded. These folders will allow the teacher to do a simple check of the accomplishments of each student.
Program evaluation is often conducted through external tests, from standardized achievement tests, to SAT verbal test scores, to advanced placement tests. Reed cautions, however, that such tests are imperfect tools in the evaluation process and so should not be heavily considered.
Evaluation can also be conducted by having students evaluate a course while they are participating in it. Although student surveys may exhibit some bias, they are worthwhile because gifted students tend to be able to cite strengths and weaknesses of programs in which they participate. Finally, program evaluation may be conducted after students leave school by sending evaluation forms to former students or by interviewing them.
References
Collins, Norma Decker, and Nola Kortner Aiex (1995). "Gifted Readers and Reading Instruction." ERIC Digest. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. ED 379 637
Delisle, James, and Sandra Berger (1990). "Underachieving Gifted Students." ERIC EC Digest #E478. Reston, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children. ED 321 483
Nazarro, Jean, Ed. (1978). "ERIC/EC Newsletter, 2." Reston, VA: ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted Children.
Peterson, Nancy Ruth, et al. (1992). "Being Special (A Symposium)." English Journal, 81(6), 34-43. EJ 451 323
Post, Linda Williams (1986). Telephone interview, March 4, 1986.
Reed, Jane D. (1978. Teaching Gifted Students Literature and Language in Grades Nine through Twelve, updated edition. Sacramento, CA: State Department of Education. ED 157 075
Scher, Bruce E. (1986). Telephone interview, March 4, 1986.
Scherer, Marge (1985). "How Many Ways Is A Child Intelligent?" Instructor, 94(5), 32-35. EJ 310 778
Shipman-Campbell, Alice (1994). "Increasing the Number and Success Rate of Junior Honors English Students in Taking English Advanced Placement Examinations." Ed.D. Practicum, Nova University. ED 376 496
Tuttle, Frederick B., Jr. (1979). "Providing for the Intellectually Gifted." SLATE Starter Sheet. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Warnock, John, and Sue Holt (1985). "Gifted and Talented Education." SLATE Starter Sheet. Urbana, IL: NCTE. ED 263 624
West, William W. (1980). Teaching the
Monday, October 3, 2011
British or American, it's still English
By Lee Siew Hua, Senior Writer
More crucial is the need to ensure reliable and effective communication
Professor Koh Tai Ann has a bit of irreverent advice for anyone agitated over Mr Lee Kuan Yew's remarks that schools may have to teach American English.
'We needn't get our knickers in a twist,' says the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) literature don, using the quirky British expression for being unduly upset.
She flips playfully to the American equivalent: 'Or get our panties all in a bunch.'
Background story
SHE CHAIRED SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH MOVEMENT
Professor Koh Tai Ann is a senior associate at the Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
She began her academic career at the Department of English at the former University of Singapore in 1971.
In 1994, she joined NTU as dean of its new School of Arts at the National Institute of Education (NIE), and this was the first of three deanships. She was appointed NIE's Dean (Academic) in 2000, and NTU's first Dean of Students in 2003.
She completed her BA Hons and PhD in English at the former University of Singapore.
Active in public service, she chaired the Speak Good English Movement from 2005 to 2008. She has served on the advisory committees or boards of the National Arts Council, National Book Development Council of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, Institute of Policy Studies, Media Development Authority, and the Government Parliamentary Committee for education.
She was also a founding member of the Fulbright Association of Singapore.
She is married with two children.
Background story
Q&A
Are there qualities of American English that are appealing or distinctive?
Americans are less rule-bound and that's why they seem to be creating new words all the time. There is a certain egalitarianism and an exuberant individual creativity in American culture. Thus, anyone can coin neologisms or deviations which rapidly become fashionable, for example, 'megastars', 'irregardless', even a non-word, '24/7'.
Cultural factors such as political correctness or American media contribute to this, too - so when they say 'hello guys' it includes girls. What I'm concerned about in American English is a lazy tendency to flatten out meanings, for example, 'eaterie'. English has a range of differentiating words for that - restaurant, cafe, bistro, and we have food courts, hawker centres and, in Singlish, 'zi char'.
Can we tell if English standards are declining?
All over the world, people talk about a decline, even the British. It depends on which standards we measure this decline against. More Singaporeans are using English, and those born after 1960 are English-educated, but not all were well-taught or learnt the language well.
We also live in one of the most linguistically diverse societies in the world, compounded by demanding official language policies.
In 1979, at the then University of Singapore, we English Literature lecturers noticed that the standard of English had started to decline among students and worsened that year.
It was only recently while researching for a paper on English and identity in Singapore that it hit me that the 1978-79 cohorts were among the first who had started school in 1966, when bilingualism was officially introduced throughout the school system. Linguists can tell you, few people acquire high proficiency in two or more languages.
What was your language learning journey like as a child?
English was taught as a second language and very thoroughly by our British-trained teachers. We sang English songs, read English literature, listened to lots of stories in English and had 'reading periods'.
We started learning phonetics from Primary 4. It was great fun to look into small mirrors, make perfect 'Os' and roll our tongues.
It was only after establishing a secure proficiency in English that we started learning our mother tongues from Primary4.
Incidentally, I don't know why Mr Lee Kuan Yew and policymakers think that if you speak a Chinese dialect, you will find it difficult to speak or learn good Mandarin, or that Chinese culture is best accessed only through Mandarin and the Chinese written language.
In fact, I found it easier to learn Mandarin as a child because I spoke Chinese dialects and was thus familiar with Chinese syntax, idioms, proverbs and even literary allusions, as the Chinese have a common written language.
Certainly, nobody should be kiasu enough, in Singaporean parlance, to switch quickly to American English just because the former prime minister expressed a personal view that American English is prevailing globally and may have to be taught in schools, she says.
There is little cause to 'strictly delineate American and British English' as Mr Lee seemed to suggest recently when he launched the English Language Institute of Singapore, she tells The Sunday Times.
'Americanisms have been creeping into British English for as long as these two varieties have existed', although the pace has intensified and thus become more noticeable in recent years, she says.
She points to research done in the late 1980s which showed that the speech of Singaporean children was even then being influenced willy-nilly by American pronunciation - especially in the rolling of R's after vowels.
With language varieties seeping easily across borders like colours running together in laundry, as she sees it, there is little to gain from setting up American English classes.
'Language is often caught rather than taught, and learning American English might not be much different,' she reasons.
What is most vital is to communicate in Standard English. This is governed by largely shared rules and conventions - most basically, grammar.
'The important thing to keep in mind is that whether it is British, American or Singaporean, each variety of English in its written form, and in formal contexts when spoken, should be recognisably Standard English,' says Prof Koh, a senior associate at NTU's Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
'Otherwise, reliable and effective communication would be impossible across nations and among peoples who use English.'
Other features - accent, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, idioms, slang - have to do with the local, the historical, the cultural or the merely fashionable and idiosyncratic, she says. These elements are 'not so onerous' that they cannot be picked up or looked up.
For example, people have picked up many Americanisms such as 'touch base', which is derived from baseball.
Alongside Standard English, which is used in formal realms such as education and government administration, colloquial varieties have developed in different countries. These spoken forms, such as Singlish, are more casual, and have their own rules and conventions. 'Linguists and native users will know, for instance, that the usage of lah, leh, hor, meh in Singlish is not random.'
While it is the job of schools to teach Standard English, she feels Singaporeans should be wary of turning into 'grammar terrorists' to such a point that those who speak primarily Singlish feel ashamed and silenced. Then Singlish would become an undesirable class marker.
'Singlish should not be regarded as broken or deviant and not 'proper' English, but as a spoken variety that has developed alongside the standard 'proper' English learnt in schools,' she maintains.
'Otherwise, we do ourselves a disservice by giving Singlish an odour of inferiority and shame.'
Bosses can send Singlish-speaking shop assistants or front-line staff to classes in English for Specific Purposes, which zero in on the language they need to use in their work environments.
Outside work, if shop assistants speak Singlish with friends, 'you don't want to be a grammar terrorist', she counsels.
She does not want anyone to be so wary of speaking improperly in some contexts that they clam up - as Shakespeare once lamented, 'art made tongue-tied by authority' is a sorry thing.
So Singlish is here to stay. The reality is that Singlish, which is really a local dialect and indigenous to the nation, plays communicative and sociocultural roles.
'Singaporeans of any educational level can and do speak Singlish when it is appropriate, and it is thus part of their unique identity,' says Prof Koh, who chaired the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) from 2005 to 2008.
Politicians have waged constant war against Singlish, and indeed, the SGEM formed part of the arsenal when it was launched by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2000.
Since Prof Koh is keenly cognisant of the fact that Singlish is one living component of Singapore's national identity - albeit not the only or even principal identifier - it is worth noting that she reconciled her SGEM leadership with the official disdain for Singlish.
What she did as chair was to re-commend that the ability to code- switch between Standard English and Singlish be acquired, and that Singlish, which might be the true mother tongue of many children, not be demonised.
'The SGEM focuses only on the speaking of English, hence its opposition to the colloquial variety, Singlish. The issue should really be which form of English is appropriate for which occasion and for what purpose, and the ability to code-switch accordingly and not code-mix,' she says.
Code-switching is the ability to move back and forth between two registers of the same language, say, Singapore Standard English and Singlish. Code-mixing occurs when these are mixed indiscriminately in speech.
'If English is well-taught and well-learnt at school and reinforced by writing and reading both at and after school, and recreationally, then all Singaporeans who've been through the Singapore school system should not need the SGEM,' she says, adding: 'Its tagline is Speak Good English, and we could well ask: 'Good enough for what?' '
To answer that question, she notes: 'The ability to write good English is as, if not more, important. Language is an instrument of thought. It's an instrument of critical thinking. It's an instrument of intellectual analysis. It is an instrument through which you obtain knowledge and articulate a culture.
'If you don't have enough of the resources of language at your disposal, then you cannot perform these functions well. If your language is not up to performing these functions, it is not good enough.'
As SGEM chair, she also consciously sought the partnership of schools to raise each child's English competence to the highest level possible. This is still part of the SGEM strategy.
'A command of Standard English is still achievable for the young, for every child in Singapore who has to go to school. As English is the sole medium of instruction, there is no reason and no excuse why they cannot learn to code-switch from Singlish to the Standard English they learn in school whenever the occasion warrants.'
In the quest for world-class English, Singapore should not be distracted by any American-or-British debate either. She says: 'The real problem is why so many of the wholly English-educated are still not able to speak and write effectively in Standard English when necessary.'
It is timely for Singapore to look afresh at what has happened to English language teaching in primary and secondary schools that has caused so many students to leave school still inarticulate, she indicates.
She wonders why students leave school and tertiary institutions still speaking ungrammatical, truly 'broken' English - not to be confused with Singlish - and with a limited vocabulary and range of expression.
'More seriously, why do they still write with careless unconcern or in blissful ignorance of the meanings and import of the words they use?' she continues. 'Many still write error-ridden minutes, reports, notices and essays.'
Her observation is that the English language might not have been well-taught for decades because of competing curricular demands - especially the arduous learning of mother tongues - and the decline in time spent on the humanities.
Nevertheless, American English cannot come to the rescue.
She says: 'American English is after all still English, and not that basically different a variety.'
siewhua@sph.com.sg
More crucial is the need to ensure reliable and effective communication
Professor Koh Tai Ann has a bit of irreverent advice for anyone agitated over Mr Lee Kuan Yew's remarks that schools may have to teach American English.
'We needn't get our knickers in a twist,' says the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) literature don, using the quirky British expression for being unduly upset.
She flips playfully to the American equivalent: 'Or get our panties all in a bunch.'
Background story
SHE CHAIRED SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH MOVEMENT
Professor Koh Tai Ann is a senior associate at the Nanyang Technological University's (NTU) Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
She began her academic career at the Department of English at the former University of Singapore in 1971.
In 1994, she joined NTU as dean of its new School of Arts at the National Institute of Education (NIE), and this was the first of three deanships. She was appointed NIE's Dean (Academic) in 2000, and NTU's first Dean of Students in 2003.
She completed her BA Hons and PhD in English at the former University of Singapore.
Active in public service, she chaired the Speak Good English Movement from 2005 to 2008. She has served on the advisory committees or boards of the National Arts Council, National Book Development Council of Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, Institute of Policy Studies, Media Development Authority, and the Government Parliamentary Committee for education.
She was also a founding member of the Fulbright Association of Singapore.
She is married with two children.
Background story
Q&A
Are there qualities of American English that are appealing or distinctive?
Americans are less rule-bound and that's why they seem to be creating new words all the time. There is a certain egalitarianism and an exuberant individual creativity in American culture. Thus, anyone can coin neologisms or deviations which rapidly become fashionable, for example, 'megastars', 'irregardless', even a non-word, '24/7'.
Cultural factors such as political correctness or American media contribute to this, too - so when they say 'hello guys' it includes girls. What I'm concerned about in American English is a lazy tendency to flatten out meanings, for example, 'eaterie'. English has a range of differentiating words for that - restaurant, cafe, bistro, and we have food courts, hawker centres and, in Singlish, 'zi char'.
Can we tell if English standards are declining?
All over the world, people talk about a decline, even the British. It depends on which standards we measure this decline against. More Singaporeans are using English, and those born after 1960 are English-educated, but not all were well-taught or learnt the language well.
We also live in one of the most linguistically diverse societies in the world, compounded by demanding official language policies.
In 1979, at the then University of Singapore, we English Literature lecturers noticed that the standard of English had started to decline among students and worsened that year.
It was only recently while researching for a paper on English and identity in Singapore that it hit me that the 1978-79 cohorts were among the first who had started school in 1966, when bilingualism was officially introduced throughout the school system. Linguists can tell you, few people acquire high proficiency in two or more languages.
What was your language learning journey like as a child?
English was taught as a second language and very thoroughly by our British-trained teachers. We sang English songs, read English literature, listened to lots of stories in English and had 'reading periods'.
We started learning phonetics from Primary 4. It was great fun to look into small mirrors, make perfect 'Os' and roll our tongues.
It was only after establishing a secure proficiency in English that we started learning our mother tongues from Primary4.
Incidentally, I don't know why Mr Lee Kuan Yew and policymakers think that if you speak a Chinese dialect, you will find it difficult to speak or learn good Mandarin, or that Chinese culture is best accessed only through Mandarin and the Chinese written language.
In fact, I found it easier to learn Mandarin as a child because I spoke Chinese dialects and was thus familiar with Chinese syntax, idioms, proverbs and even literary allusions, as the Chinese have a common written language.
Certainly, nobody should be kiasu enough, in Singaporean parlance, to switch quickly to American English just because the former prime minister expressed a personal view that American English is prevailing globally and may have to be taught in schools, she says.
There is little cause to 'strictly delineate American and British English' as Mr Lee seemed to suggest recently when he launched the English Language Institute of Singapore, she tells The Sunday Times.
'Americanisms have been creeping into British English for as long as these two varieties have existed', although the pace has intensified and thus become more noticeable in recent years, she says.
She points to research done in the late 1980s which showed that the speech of Singaporean children was even then being influenced willy-nilly by American pronunciation - especially in the rolling of R's after vowels.
With language varieties seeping easily across borders like colours running together in laundry, as she sees it, there is little to gain from setting up American English classes.
'Language is often caught rather than taught, and learning American English might not be much different,' she reasons.
What is most vital is to communicate in Standard English. This is governed by largely shared rules and conventions - most basically, grammar.
'The important thing to keep in mind is that whether it is British, American or Singaporean, each variety of English in its written form, and in formal contexts when spoken, should be recognisably Standard English,' says Prof Koh, a senior associate at NTU's Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
'Otherwise, reliable and effective communication would be impossible across nations and among peoples who use English.'
Other features - accent, spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, idioms, slang - have to do with the local, the historical, the cultural or the merely fashionable and idiosyncratic, she says. These elements are 'not so onerous' that they cannot be picked up or looked up.
For example, people have picked up many Americanisms such as 'touch base', which is derived from baseball.
Alongside Standard English, which is used in formal realms such as education and government administration, colloquial varieties have developed in different countries. These spoken forms, such as Singlish, are more casual, and have their own rules and conventions. 'Linguists and native users will know, for instance, that the usage of lah, leh, hor, meh in Singlish is not random.'
While it is the job of schools to teach Standard English, she feels Singaporeans should be wary of turning into 'grammar terrorists' to such a point that those who speak primarily Singlish feel ashamed and silenced. Then Singlish would become an undesirable class marker.
'Singlish should not be regarded as broken or deviant and not 'proper' English, but as a spoken variety that has developed alongside the standard 'proper' English learnt in schools,' she maintains.
'Otherwise, we do ourselves a disservice by giving Singlish an odour of inferiority and shame.'
Bosses can send Singlish-speaking shop assistants or front-line staff to classes in English for Specific Purposes, which zero in on the language they need to use in their work environments.
Outside work, if shop assistants speak Singlish with friends, 'you don't want to be a grammar terrorist', she counsels.
She does not want anyone to be so wary of speaking improperly in some contexts that they clam up - as Shakespeare once lamented, 'art made tongue-tied by authority' is a sorry thing.
So Singlish is here to stay. The reality is that Singlish, which is really a local dialect and indigenous to the nation, plays communicative and sociocultural roles.
'Singaporeans of any educational level can and do speak Singlish when it is appropriate, and it is thus part of their unique identity,' says Prof Koh, who chaired the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) from 2005 to 2008.
Politicians have waged constant war against Singlish, and indeed, the SGEM formed part of the arsenal when it was launched by then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2000.
Since Prof Koh is keenly cognisant of the fact that Singlish is one living component of Singapore's national identity - albeit not the only or even principal identifier - it is worth noting that she reconciled her SGEM leadership with the official disdain for Singlish.
What she did as chair was to re-commend that the ability to code- switch between Standard English and Singlish be acquired, and that Singlish, which might be the true mother tongue of many children, not be demonised.
'The SGEM focuses only on the speaking of English, hence its opposition to the colloquial variety, Singlish. The issue should really be which form of English is appropriate for which occasion and for what purpose, and the ability to code-switch accordingly and not code-mix,' she says.
Code-switching is the ability to move back and forth between two registers of the same language, say, Singapore Standard English and Singlish. Code-mixing occurs when these are mixed indiscriminately in speech.
'If English is well-taught and well-learnt at school and reinforced by writing and reading both at and after school, and recreationally, then all Singaporeans who've been through the Singapore school system should not need the SGEM,' she says, adding: 'Its tagline is Speak Good English, and we could well ask: 'Good enough for what?' '
To answer that question, she notes: 'The ability to write good English is as, if not more, important. Language is an instrument of thought. It's an instrument of critical thinking. It's an instrument of intellectual analysis. It is an instrument through which you obtain knowledge and articulate a culture.
'If you don't have enough of the resources of language at your disposal, then you cannot perform these functions well. If your language is not up to performing these functions, it is not good enough.'
As SGEM chair, she also consciously sought the partnership of schools to raise each child's English competence to the highest level possible. This is still part of the SGEM strategy.
'A command of Standard English is still achievable for the young, for every child in Singapore who has to go to school. As English is the sole medium of instruction, there is no reason and no excuse why they cannot learn to code-switch from Singlish to the Standard English they learn in school whenever the occasion warrants.'
In the quest for world-class English, Singapore should not be distracted by any American-or-British debate either. She says: 'The real problem is why so many of the wholly English-educated are still not able to speak and write effectively in Standard English when necessary.'
It is timely for Singapore to look afresh at what has happened to English language teaching in primary and secondary schools that has caused so many students to leave school still inarticulate, she indicates.
She wonders why students leave school and tertiary institutions still speaking ungrammatical, truly 'broken' English - not to be confused with Singlish - and with a limited vocabulary and range of expression.
'More seriously, why do they still write with careless unconcern or in blissful ignorance of the meanings and import of the words they use?' she continues. 'Many still write error-ridden minutes, reports, notices and essays.'
Her observation is that the English language might not have been well-taught for decades because of competing curricular demands - especially the arduous learning of mother tongues - and the decline in time spent on the humanities.
Nevertheless, American English cannot come to the rescue.
She says: 'American English is after all still English, and not that basically different a variety.'
siewhua@sph.com.sg
Friday, September 23, 2011
No merit in Single-sex learning: Study
Segregation 'reinforces sex stereotypes and is misguided'
NEW YORK: Single-sex education is ineffective, misguided and may actually increase gender stereotyping, according to a team of psychologists in a new report.
The report, The Pseudoscience Of Single Sex Schooling, is likely to ignite a new round of debates and legal wrangling about the effects of single-sex education.
Due to be published in the latest edition of Science magazine by eight social scientists who are founders of the non-profit American Council for CoEducational Schooling, it asserts that 'sex-segregated education is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence'.
But the strongest argument against single-sex education, the article said, is that it reduces boys' and girls' opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes.
'Boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive,' the article said. 'Similarly, girls who spend more time with other girls become more sex-typed.'
Lead author Diane F. Halpern is a past president of the American Psychological Association and holds a named chair in psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California. She is an expert witness in litigation in which the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging single-sex classes - which have been suspended - at a school in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.
Arguing that no scientific evidence supports the idea that single-sex schooling results in better academic outcomes, the article calls on the United States Education Department to rescind its 2006 regulations weakening the Title IX prohibition against sex discrimination in education.
Under those rules, single-sex schooling was permitted as long as it was voluntary, students were provided a substantially equal co-educational option and the separation of the sexes substantially furthered an important governmental objective.
Ms Russlyn H. Ali, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said it was reviewing the research in the area.
'There are case studies that have been done that show some benefit of single-sex, but like lots of other educational research, it's mixed,' she said.
The article comes at a time when single-sex education is on the rise. There were only two single- sex public schools in the US in the mid-1990s; today, there are more than 500 public schools in 40 states that are either entirely for one sex or offer some single-sex academic classes.
Many of them did so because of a belief that boys and girls should be taught differently, which grew out of popular books, speeches and workshops by Mr Michael Gurian, author of The Minds Of Boys and Boys And Girls Learn Differently, and Dr Leonard Sax, who wrote Why Gender Matters.
Dr Sax, executive director of the National Association of Single Sex Public Education, was singled out for criticism in the article, for his teachings that boys respond better to loud, energetic, confrontational classrooms while girls need a gentler touch.
'A loud, cold classroom where you toss balls around, like Sax thinks boys should have, might be great for some boys, and for some girls, but for some boys, it would be living hell,' Ms Halpern said in an interview.
She said that while girls are better readers and get better grades in school, and boys are more likely to have reading disabilities, that does not mean that educators should use the group average to design different classrooms for the two sexes.
'It's simply not true that boys and girls learn differently,' she said. 'Advocates for single-sex education don't like the parallel with racial segregation, but the parallels are there. We used to believe that the races learnt differently, too.'
Dr Sax criticised the article on many counts, and said it did not fairly reflect his views. He vehemently rejected the comparison to racial segregation, and the use of the term 'sex segregation'. Legally, he said, race is a suspect category, while sex is not.
'We are not asserting that every child should be in a single-sex classroom; we are simply saying that there should be a choice,' Dr Sax said.
The authors of the article, though, say that because there is no good scientific research backing such a choice, the government cannot lawfully offer single-sex education in public schools.
NEW YORK TIMES
NEW YORK: Single-sex education is ineffective, misguided and may actually increase gender stereotyping, according to a team of psychologists in a new report.
The report, The Pseudoscience Of Single Sex Schooling, is likely to ignite a new round of debates and legal wrangling about the effects of single-sex education.
Due to be published in the latest edition of Science magazine by eight social scientists who are founders of the non-profit American Council for CoEducational Schooling, it asserts that 'sex-segregated education is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence'.
But the strongest argument against single-sex education, the article said, is that it reduces boys' and girls' opportunities to work together, and reinforces sex stereotypes.
'Boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive,' the article said. 'Similarly, girls who spend more time with other girls become more sex-typed.'
Lead author Diane F. Halpern is a past president of the American Psychological Association and holds a named chair in psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California. She is an expert witness in litigation in which the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging single-sex classes - which have been suspended - at a school in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana.
Arguing that no scientific evidence supports the idea that single-sex schooling results in better academic outcomes, the article calls on the United States Education Department to rescind its 2006 regulations weakening the Title IX prohibition against sex discrimination in education.
Under those rules, single-sex schooling was permitted as long as it was voluntary, students were provided a substantially equal co-educational option and the separation of the sexes substantially furthered an important governmental objective.
Ms Russlyn H. Ali, the assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, said it was reviewing the research in the area.
'There are case studies that have been done that show some benefit of single-sex, but like lots of other educational research, it's mixed,' she said.
The article comes at a time when single-sex education is on the rise. There were only two single- sex public schools in the US in the mid-1990s; today, there are more than 500 public schools in 40 states that are either entirely for one sex or offer some single-sex academic classes.
Many of them did so because of a belief that boys and girls should be taught differently, which grew out of popular books, speeches and workshops by Mr Michael Gurian, author of The Minds Of Boys and Boys And Girls Learn Differently, and Dr Leonard Sax, who wrote Why Gender Matters.
Dr Sax, executive director of the National Association of Single Sex Public Education, was singled out for criticism in the article, for his teachings that boys respond better to loud, energetic, confrontational classrooms while girls need a gentler touch.
'A loud, cold classroom where you toss balls around, like Sax thinks boys should have, might be great for some boys, and for some girls, but for some boys, it would be living hell,' Ms Halpern said in an interview.
She said that while girls are better readers and get better grades in school, and boys are more likely to have reading disabilities, that does not mean that educators should use the group average to design different classrooms for the two sexes.
'It's simply not true that boys and girls learn differently,' she said. 'Advocates for single-sex education don't like the parallel with racial segregation, but the parallels are there. We used to believe that the races learnt differently, too.'
Dr Sax criticised the article on many counts, and said it did not fairly reflect his views. He vehemently rejected the comparison to racial segregation, and the use of the term 'sex segregation'. Legally, he said, race is a suspect category, while sex is not.
'We are not asserting that every child should be in a single-sex classroom; we are simply saying that there should be a choice,' Dr Sax said.
The authors of the article, though, say that because there is no good scientific research backing such a choice, the government cannot lawfully offer single-sex education in public schools.
NEW YORK TIMES
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Reading With Expression
The Importance of Punctuation
Many of my pupils are reading too fast in such a way that fluency and expression literally fly out the window.
I chanced upon this website that enlightens us about what we all know about punctuations. They are important to control the pace of reading
Teach children to read punctuation marks and practice with non-words to improve reading inflection, increase fluency and improve comprehension.
Teaching a child to read aloud well can be difficult. They must read smoothly, while deciphering each word, comprehend what they are reading, and look ahead to know what emotion to put into their voice while reading. Many children simply focus on sounding out the words and comprehending what they are reading while leaving inflection or expression out.
Teach Punctuation Marks
When teaching a child to read with proper expression, you must first teach them the meanings behind the punctuation marks. A common way to teach this is to explain what your voice does at each punctuation mark.
A comma means to pause while reading. Use a short easy sentence to illustrate and have the child practice. For example: “Sam, come here.”
A period means to come to a full stop. When students have trouble with this, have them stop and take a breath at each period. Many students will read through the period until they run out of air, and then stop for a breath. Instead teach them to stop at the period and then continue on.
A question mark means the speaker is asking something, so read it in a questioning voice. Have them practice this by asking a question and listening to what their voice does. Usually you will have your voice go up at the end of the question, indicating that you are asking something: “Mom, can I have a cookie please?” Then have them practice reading simple questions. Remind students that they are asking a question and to use a questioning voice when they forget.
An exclamation mark means that you should use a surprised or excited voice. Have the child practice this voice by saying something exciting: “we are going to the beach!” Then have them read a simple sentence for practice, reminding them to sound excited or surprised.
Use Non-Words to Practice
One great way to teach children how to speak with inflection is to eliminate the words, and focus completely on the punctuation marks. Although circling the punctuation marks may help remind students while reading a story, try this conversation, or make your own up when you need to focus on expression.
Mm mm mm, mm mm.
Mmmmm!
Mm.
Mm, mm mm, mm mm!
Mm mm?
Mm mm.
Mm mm mm, mm mm? Mm!
Mm mm mm? Mm, mm mm.
Mm?
Mm!
Mm, mm mm!
Mm mm?
Mm mm!
Teaching children to read with expression is important. Make sure that the children who struggle with this spend a lot of time reading, as this will enable them to feel more comfortable with the words and be able to spend more energy paying attention to the punctuation marks. This will help to increase their fluency, which will in turn improve their comprehension.
Many of my pupils are reading too fast in such a way that fluency and expression literally fly out the window.
I chanced upon this website that enlightens us about what we all know about punctuations. They are important to control the pace of reading
Teach children to read punctuation marks and practice with non-words to improve reading inflection, increase fluency and improve comprehension.
Teaching a child to read aloud well can be difficult. They must read smoothly, while deciphering each word, comprehend what they are reading, and look ahead to know what emotion to put into their voice while reading. Many children simply focus on sounding out the words and comprehending what they are reading while leaving inflection or expression out.
Teach Punctuation Marks
When teaching a child to read with proper expression, you must first teach them the meanings behind the punctuation marks. A common way to teach this is to explain what your voice does at each punctuation mark.
A comma means to pause while reading. Use a short easy sentence to illustrate and have the child practice. For example: “Sam, come here.”
A period means to come to a full stop. When students have trouble with this, have them stop and take a breath at each period. Many students will read through the period until they run out of air, and then stop for a breath. Instead teach them to stop at the period and then continue on.
A question mark means the speaker is asking something, so read it in a questioning voice. Have them practice this by asking a question and listening to what their voice does. Usually you will have your voice go up at the end of the question, indicating that you are asking something: “Mom, can I have a cookie please?” Then have them practice reading simple questions. Remind students that they are asking a question and to use a questioning voice when they forget.
An exclamation mark means that you should use a surprised or excited voice. Have the child practice this voice by saying something exciting: “we are going to the beach!” Then have them read a simple sentence for practice, reminding them to sound excited or surprised.
Use Non-Words to Practice
One great way to teach children how to speak with inflection is to eliminate the words, and focus completely on the punctuation marks. Although circling the punctuation marks may help remind students while reading a story, try this conversation, or make your own up when you need to focus on expression.
Mm mm mm, mm mm.
Mmmmm!
Mm.
Mm, mm mm, mm mm!
Mm mm?
Mm mm.
Mm mm mm, mm mm? Mm!
Mm mm mm? Mm, mm mm.
Mm?
Mm!
Mm, mm mm!
Mm mm?
Mm mm!
Teaching children to read with expression is important. Make sure that the children who struggle with this spend a lot of time reading, as this will enable them to feel more comfortable with the words and be able to spend more energy paying attention to the punctuation marks. This will help to increase their fluency, which will in turn improve their comprehension.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Fish and chips loved here, as are french fries
Geraint Wong
The Straits Times
Publication Date : 19-09-2011
Mr Lee Kuan Yew's pronouncement this month that the American version of English would probably prevail over other forms must have jarred with some.
He was, after all, addressing an audience made up largely of local English language teachers, who were attending the launch of the English Language Institute of Singapore.
Also, this country, in keeping with its colonial past, has an education system that teaches British English and discourages the American variety.
Yet what Mr Lee said was not new. The Oxford Guide To World English, published in 2003, made a similar observation: "American English has a global role at the beginning of the 21st century comparable to that of British English at the start of the 20th."
This development was inevitable, given the global success of Hollywood and the fact that Silicon Valley is located in California in the United States, not England.
And with the political and economic might of the US, it is not surprising that the variety of English being learnt in countries such as China and Japan is often the American one.
Moreover, while both systems of spelling continue to exist side by side, the British form for some words has given way to the American one in all regions. Such is the case with "computer programs" and "hard disks", as well as "sulfur" and "fetus" among the respective international scientific communities.
Not everyone is happy, of course. Understandably, many people in Britain are indignant - as is evident from blog posts and newspaper columns.
In a BBC Radio 4 broadcast in July, British journalist and author Matthew Engel shared his alarm at the extent to which American usages - which are swimming to British shores "in battalions" - have affected the quality of British English.
Mr Engel clarified that he was "all for a living, breathing language that evolves with the times". He also accepted that "sometimes American phrases have a vigour and vivacity".
But he added: "What I hate is the sloppy loss of our own distinctive phraseology through sheer idleness, lack of self-awareness and our attitude of cultural cringe."
If the people in the land where English was born can be guilty of these faults, Singaporeans stand no chance of being acquitted.
No doubt the education system here insists on British English and public institutions use it quite faithfully. Yet the brand of English used daily by Singaporeans is really a mishmash of styles from both sides of the Atlantic - with local concoctions added into the mix for good measure.
For instance, the Americanisms "movie", "elevator" and "truck" are increasingly used here, alongside their British equivalents "film", "lift" and "lorry".
Local office-talk regularly features nouns such as "leverage", "pressure" and "transition" used as verbs - quite the American penchant. But it also includes British idioms such as "a new lease of life", "on the cards" and "teething problems".
Fish and chips is well loved here, but so are french fries.
Then of course there is the issue of spelling. It is widely held that about 65 per cent of all people are visual learners. Singaporeans are exposed to American spelling on their computers and mobile phones day in and day out. So guess which spelling style is looking increasingly right and "normal" to them?
Add to that the fact that many probably don't bother (or don't know how) to change the default language of their word processing software to British English - and end up obediently complying when asked to "correct" their spellings to the American forms.
Why, the very venue at which Mr Lee was giving his speech is named the Sands Expo and Convention Center (not Centre). So much for doing as the Romans do.
This combination of factors means that spelling is probably the area in which American English has its greatest influence here. In my years as an English teacher, I often had to remind students to be consistent in the way they spell words - examiners do not penalise Americanisms, provided there is consistency in their usage.
Does all this mean that American English will "prevail over other forms", as Mr Lee said? Not quite.
One reason: the Commonwealth of Nations accounts for almost a third of the world's population. In these countries, a lexicon comprising British terms and indigenous additions would have taken root over decades and centuries and won't be easy to change. For instance, no Singaporean would be likely to refer to his car as an automobile any time soon, if ever.
True, more American terms will make their way into vocabularies everywhere. But English has always been very accommodating of new words from a wide range of sources - to the extent of being "anarchic, even", as Mr Engel put it.
This is a happy situation, really, for it means we have a greater variety of expressions at our disposal. After all, how many of us actually consider the origin of a word when we use it? We use it if it's a good word - just because it's there.
So, as Speak Good English Movement chairman Goh Eck Kheng advises: "Let's keep what Mr Lee said in perspective."
We don't need to start building our American vocabulary or pronouncing our post-vocalic Rs.
But what teachers need to do is expose students to a wide range of English usage from all over the world to broaden their linguistic repertoire, and train them to communicate in an internationally intelligible variety of English (some call it Globish).
The tension should not be between the two sides of the Atlantic, but between what can be understood in a global context (good English) and what cannot (Singlish).
As for spelling, well, it will continue to be a thorn in the flesh, but then again it has been an issue plaguing the English language all through its history.
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