Nothing so amazes me more than the fact, that despite so many other languages havie large governing bodies which analyze, stay on top of and make changes to their language in order to better fit the times, that English doesn't.
I think we should, especially as its reach extends across the globe.
If I could change the English language., then I would
- add an extra grammatical tense: The "Ever Present" Tense
it annoys me somewhat to tell students to use the present for "habits, permanence, facts." If it's for all time, then there should be a specific tense that refers to this because for most people, present = now.
- I'd add two extra pronouns to reflect gender reality.
heshe and shehe
- I'd also love to revamp spelling entirely to make it better reflect the way words sound
if the ch sounds like an sh, it should be an sh
regular past tense endings are a waste of time teaching. Why not write workt not worked, filld not filled - loaded can stay loaded.
What do you think? Any bug-bears you've noticed while teaching our fair language? What would you change if you could?
Anyone who is any1 in the 'sphere of English Language Teaching or in the outer 'verse of Applied Linguistics knows hu Prof David Crystal is... and in hushed tones he is revered as, well, god-like.
However, with the gr8st respkt,
xme cuz:
I must ?4u...
why izit valid 4 1 2 write bout a medium 1 doesn't ackuli particip8 in...
@TEOTD, 1DR what cd b sincerely Z ina bk by some1 not in this medium?
I mean... cmon, u no all those things that go on in ur head when u r sendng-out a twt, the uncountable microseconds of deep-thinking-soaked-in-shallow-thinking accompanying de process when u hit the red -numbers (red on HootSuite) + u hav 2 shorten de twt bk2 140... (Not on FB status upd8s tho').
How izit poss 4 1 2 sincerely analyze alladat linguistically if 1 isn't actually there, u no, on Twitter, via the various different web clients, suffering w/ those decisions - - by jes rdng tweets?? Na.
After all, if hz lkg @ or 4 rules chng or not.... or, let's go so far as 2 say, if hz searching 4 de very grammar of it all & chkng all de lexical decisions we r mkg whn communic8ng, how can he possbli valid8 them? 2 talk about this, 12nt 1 really hav 2 understand what 1 is tlkng about?
U hav 2 spk Spanish 2 discuss Spanish, Russian 2 write bout Russian? Rite? If the linguist has no personal need 2 communic8 in the lizt poss amt of charaktrs via SMS, how can he comment or understand the adoption of certain acronyms but not others: + globally?
The decision of which 2 cut iz ultimately up2 each individual. A mix of wot 1 cz othr ppl dng + the cost of de mobile/cell provider's rate and specs.
DHNWHTB?
1DR, I do, iz all this the start of a new Eng.? It wd b interesting 2 kno. But frm some1 who knos. some1 on the grnd flr. Some1 hu feels the lang.
.02 = my two cents 1 = one 12t =doesn't 140 = refers to the number of characters you can write in a tweet 1DR = I wonder 8 (used to shorten anything that ends with an "eight" sound e.g. w8 =wait, appreci8=appreciate) ?4u = I ask you @TEOTD = at the end of the day DHNWHTB = does he know what he is talking about IztU? = is it you? WDYT = what do you think? xme = excuse me Z = said
That's, in my editorial calendar, not allowed (did you know that I have one of those? For a private edu-blog, yeah...) because I save my deep thinking for Sundays.
But, see... thing is, I tweeted out this fantastic link to Enimem's lastest video:
If you are reading my blog in a country where this youtube video is not accessible,
the song I am discussing is I'm Not Afraid by Enimem
and many of the teachers who saw the link immediately saw it's potential because the song is so fuckin'rich: each line filled with delicious collocations and examples of real life and its real life street pronunciation; subliminal messages in idioms which almost make a joke of the listener.
It's backed by a solid, deep, belly-hitting beat which is powered by rhythmic personal storytelling as Enimem begs his fans for their forgiveness, like a gambling man promising to never pick up the cards again. There is so much here for teachers to exploit (the language / the story of his past: his despair, depression, obsessions: predictions for his future; the business of fame and how it wears on those who reach it) sparking off numerous authentic conversations.
Can Shakespeare reach teenagers or young adults like this piece could?
Oh...wait, are you still reeling - did you stop to blush in horror at the use of my phrase above, the so fuckin'rich, each..? Are you sitting in front of your computer gob-smacked, in shock, that OMG, you saw me just use that word, out-loud and in-public, on my blog?
Why?
Don't worry, though, it's probably for exactly the same reason that this absolutely amazing poetic resource won't get used by many teachers and it sucks. Really, it does....
Because if you listened to this song (and to the majority of Rap) and you don't ever use it because you're worried your students' parents and/or your DOS will raise wagging fingers at the inappropriate language - can I just say: please - you think they don't know those words anyway? Check out Chaucer desalinated, take a good ole gander at Shakespeare's insults:
Our language may have been cleaned and spruced up around the 18th Century, but you know what, those words only attained power as a result.
p.s. follow the hyperlinked links in the text too :-) p.p.s see Practical English Usage, Swan, page 573-578 p.p.p.s. thanks to my bro' Martin for sharing the vid with me on Facebook
Oh, naming this post that was just a ploy to get you to come here and listen to me muse about linguistics a little...
Thing is, right, this morning when I jumped into the taxi and gave him instructions to my home, I mixed up nahe with cerca.
I did that all weekend while I was in Spain...
Trying to finding my way back to the Spanish I used to speak quite fluently (5 years now since it was part of daily life) was not so so hard... but then in mid-flow, for no reason, out jumped German: filler words, prepositions - that sort of thing, words that had no business taking part in my conversation.
And when reflecting on this annoying trait, I remembered how when I first got back to Britain after years and years in Asia I kept on slipping in Chinese whenever I got intotaxis... despite the fact I didn't learn much Cantonese when living in Hong Kong.
Fellow ELT globetrotter, have you noticed that sort of thing happening to you too or is it just my funky brain?
Why does this happen?
Do we store 2nd/3rd/4th languages within the same drawer in its gigantic filing cabinet? Anyone know?
How can we help our students - those in the same boat obviously - how do we cut out the cross-circuitry and speed up the processing of lexical units?
I wonder who first coined the phrase Monkey See Monkey Do after noticing primates copy each other - probably it was someone in a village somewhere who was keeping one as a pet or it might well have been a circus entertainer - - hmm, whoever it was, it was definitely way back before a bunch of men in white coats studying macaque monkeys yelled Eureka.
The Italian scientists were yelling because the monkeys not only copied their actions but apparently also seemed to experience pleasure even though they themselves didn't have any "reason" to.
As the story goes, a monkey's brain had been wired up to detect the firing of his neurons when planning and carrying out a movement such as grasping a peanut. One researcher returned from lunch licking an ice cream cone. As the monkey watched the researcher, some of his neurons fired as though he were eating the ice cream, even though he was not moving. The monkey's neurons were "mirroring" the activity that the monkey was observing.
Neuroscientist Giacomo Rizzolatti and his colleagues at the University of Parma reported their discovery of monkey mirror neurons in 1996. Researchers soon found evidence for mirror neurons in human beings. Just like monkeys, it turns out that when we see someone perform an action—picking up a glass of water or kicking a ball—our mirror neurons simulate that action in our brains. Researchers have suggested that mirror neurons are crucially involved in the distinctive human development of language, morality, and culture.
I first came across this concept while reading Buy.ology by Martin Lindstrom because I am a nerd and I take business books on holiday with me. In one of the early chapters of this book which explores the reasons we buy the things we do, he mentions our purchasing decisions are often mirrors of what the people around us are buying. e.g. I-phone, U-phone, we all I-phone
The book is brilliant: he unravels the psychology of our daily purchasing decisions, revealing influences like tradition, security, religion, superstition and sex, sensory input such as smell; somatic markers and subliminal messages - and if you're a Business English teacher of adult learners like I am then you'll no doubt find it an invaluable materials resource for authentic, stimulating conversations on topical themes.
Anyway, enough on that...
because actually,
actually it hit me like a brick,
falling out of the sky and
landing smack dab
upon my dreaming brain
while I lay lying there,
peacefully on the beach.
If most of us do things that other people do....
do we learn new words and grammar and language because other people are communicating in a certain way and we copy them? Is that how language evolved?
Oh right, yup, the men in white coats have theorized on that one already.
Hmm... how does it apply to the L2 though? Maybe that's why so many expats learn second and third languages using television soap operas or why full-immersion programs are better than years of classes in a non-native speaking country. Hmm... but what about all the learners who do achieve fluency despite never having stepped outside their own countries?
My mind kept spinning as my toes wriggled in the sand...
Jeremy Harmer's fluency dilemma drifting in and out of consciousness, my feeble attempts at trying to label the rush for him - the thing I see in students' eyes when they "get it" - when they cross an L2 language threshold...
In and out... round and round in my brain.
Cloudy skies drifting past lazily and waves crashing against the shore.
I decided to push the mirror-neurons theory towards the basic processes of education:
1. We observe the world around us.
2. We notice that which causes pleasure or pain in others.
3. When we notice other people's experiences we simulate identical feelings in our own brains: pleasure inspires desire to go through the same; boredom may generate the same unless we repel or avoid the experience.
4. We remember most the things that give us pleasure.
So what I'm actually saying is this, if it is that the teacher is the most important factor in deciding whether or not students learn, as Bill Gates seems to think, is it enough to say the teacher is Factor it?
Shouldn't we be delving deeper into the why?
Shouldn't we look for what the unifying similarities are amongst different yet equally amazing teachers?
Briefly, my 4:
Mrs Lewis in grade 3: warm, helpful, supportive - she was the first person to believe in me, she told me that I would be a writer and I have spent my whole life attempting to prove her right.
Professor Hein who stood on tables and rode into class on a unicycle, passed on the gift of teaching through humour, inquiry and outrageousness! He gave me a deep appreciation for history that I've never lost.
David Langsam how many of us left his journalism course, I wonder, with not just the love of a well-written piece but the desire to become him: to have all those adventures, the prizes on the walls and the grainy photos in dark, foreign places.
Scott Thornbury, though not directly my teacher is my guru nonetheless: his cocky arrogance and abyss-like intelligence stretch my mind as he persuades those around him to dig deeper into language and communication.
What did/do these teachers all have in common?
They inspire.
Is it possible that whenever we notice our teacher's pleasure of being in the classroom, whiles she's sharing her knowledge, that we want to copy her in order to taste the joy, the secret to her happiness?
Could it be that the maximum potential for learning is when others around us are actively engaged - that we are not only enjoying the content of what we're learning but that motivation is, in itself, contagious (as is boredom) and the teacher is the virus carrier of knowledge?
Does L2 acquisition simply boil down to enthusiastic, engaged, motivated copying?
What are your thoughts? Am I on to something here or should I just go back in the ocean for a nice long swim instead?
New to Twitter and wondering who else to follow? @Beltfree feeds 100+ ELT blogs and here's a Twilist of gr8 ELTeachers plus why not join us in #ELTchat (Wednesdays).
Posts
