Job Discussion Forums

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:14 pm Post subject:

I don't mind critiques of the CELTA, but this thread certainly isn't the place for them (unless we want to imagine how Mr King would fare on one. Maybe he'd be the Englishdroid2 'Celta without tears' article's "old, inflexible, eccentric character, at the moment scrutinising the ceiling tiles, who will fail the course"? (See? Creative writing!)).

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:29 pm Post subject:

Actually, I have noticed a vague trend amongst Celta trainees, and TEFLers generally, leading to a rule of thumb - the more they have pretensions with regard to being authors, the less effective they are as TEFL teachers. Totally unfalsifiable, as hypotheses go, of course...

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

aaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(not that I disagree; I've just developed an allergy to the topic;-))

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 11:37 am Post subject:

Just a question that was bouncing around in my head for a few weeks : did King himself ever learn to write well? Market success is one thing, but aesthetic achievement is quite another...

johnslat · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 2:41 pm Post subject:

You want relevance? I'll give you relevance Very Happy

http://esl-bits.net/ESL.English.Learning.Audiobooks/Nightmares/

http://esl.yourdictionary.com/lesson-plans/short-stories.html

http://busyteacher.org/11906-10-american-english-writers-students-should-know.html

http://www.lessonsonmovies.com/the_shining.html

http://www.esl-lesson-plan.com/archives/2009/04/writing_well_doesnt_need_to_be_scary_stephen_king_on_writing.php

http://www.d.umn.edu/~lmillerc/TeachingEnglishHomePage/TeachingUnits/ScaryStories.htm

And there's LOTS more Very Happy

Regards,
John

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:27 pm Post subject:

But can he WRITE?! Never mind teach!

johnslat · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:42 pm Post subject:

He's popular so he can't be good?

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/what-stephen-king-isnt

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-beauchamp/reading-stephen-king_b_1680968.html

And I'd say he's a pretty darn good teacher, too.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/09/how-stephen-king-teaches-writing/379870/

Regards,
John

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:42 pm Post subject:

2nd rate hack, sorry. Cornered the teenage horror market. Seems to be trying to gain respectability now.

Too late...

johnslat · Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 7:45 pm Post subject:

Dear Sasha,

I protest - he's a first-rate hack. Very Happy

Regards,
John

teacheratlarge · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 192 Location: Japan

teacheratlarge · Joined: 17 Nov 2011 Posts: 192 Location: Japan

For good sci-fi, try 'The Black Tower' series. King made his name writing horror, but he has also written some wicked good short stories as well.

buravirgil · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 11:03 am Post subject:

I'm reading Sasha's posts (in this thread) as impish and contrarian...
King began asserting his market and mind "share" in 1985 with The Bachman Books.
Achieving sales under a psuedonym, not in a teenage market, and eventually the NY Times (albeit after the "public" discovered the fact).

King's popularity and sales versus his "importance", or place in a literary canon, is not a new debate. Still in my early twenties, I would explain (as an English major Laughing

) that many of King's devices couldn't be considered post-modern, e.g., personifying the devil-- too 19th century.

I'm not a huge fan of his genre, but his two non-fiction titles were thoughtful and thorough. I worked through some of Carrie just to see the craft of a first novel and was very impressed.

Thanks to John for the links of relevancy and I'll refrain from further comments.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 7:35 pm Post subject: