|
Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Akula the shark
Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 103
Location: NZ
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:55 am Post subject: |
 |
|
I'm not sure that calling someone a 'complete and utter moron' is something that should be encouraged on this board.
Perhaps we'd all be better off without Martin Phipps. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
martinphipps
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 55
Location: Taiwan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:59 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Eleckid wrote: |
Hey I can read Chinese~ (cuz I AM Chinese  )
hm...it seems like there was no "assistant professor" written anywhere. At the top it says foreign language instructor, which is the same rank as the majority of ppl here. Sorry I'm not trying to belittle you, I'm just telling the truth about that rank thing from the site.
Good luck on your research & your book~ but I suggest that it's not a good idea to write about teaching in Japan based on only books & other ppl's experiences, cuz you've never actually taught here before. It's like I shouldn't talk about how it's like to live & work in HK if I've never lived & worked there. Instead of getting frustrated with the posters here, why don't you try to come here & work for a few terms? Anyway, good luck!  |
Thanks for the support. The site does state, in Chinese, that I have a Ph.D. which automatically gives me the rank of Assistant Professor at Chungtai.
Martin |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
Martin
I checked around on some of your other posts
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=17297
Have you ever heard of a Likert scale to do rankings of variables? What is the top number? 1 or 10? What is your range? What is the lowest? will you have an even or odd number of integers (so people have to choose between the lower rounded figure or the higher one). What will your rating variables be (favorite, least favorite, don't know)?
The fact that you seem to be pasting these all over the Internet (I found this in the Taiwan forum) shows it is not an isolated incident.
PS I wasnt doubting you had a PhD. I was doubting that you were an associate professor which in Japan is a tenured university position, which is a junior or assistant lecturer in the US, when your posts seem to show a very shaky grasp of survey technique fundamentals. Very unlikely for some one supposedly with a PhD, conducting (quantitative) research and teaching full time at a university. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:08 am Post subject: |
|
|
| martinphipps wrote: |
Thanks for the support. The site does state, in Chinese, that I have a Ph.D. which automatically gives me the rank of Assistant Professor at Chungtai.
Martin |
In Japan just having a PhD doesnt automatically make you an associate professor. I dont know the system in taiwan but full time teachers here are either on three year contracts or they have full tenure until they retire.
Contracted teachers (even those with PhDs) though working full time are not called Associate Professors. Only if you are hired by the school as part of the permanent faculty can you be called an Associate. That is called 'jo-kyoju" in Japanese. (the kanji for help-education-lesson)
I am full time, but am considered a "Special non-tenured full time English lecturer". |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
Just checked that Taiwan forum link again
You dont have a choice for someone who has no answer, doesnt know, or doesnt think one way or the other. A better list would be
Not very important
Not important
neither important nor not important
important
very important
extremely important
don't know
Even then, ones idea of "important" may be different from anothers, rendering the results meaning less. Its like using words like interesting, or useful, or convenient etc. There is a lot of "fudge" and waffle factor in these variables. What criteria are you using to decide if something is important or not? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:40 am Post subject: Spinning yarns |
|
|
Martin, I really couldn't give a bigger crap WHAT your allegory represents. Believe me, I know what the word means. You need not define it for me. I feel like I've had more meaningful conversations with a pet rock.
Let me repeat my question AGAIN, because you did not answer it. In fact, you've just blatantly reversed your position.
First, you want to chastise the people here for telling you exactlly what they thought of your "excerpt" by saying 'ha! ha' Joke's on you! I didn't write it. It was allegory.'
| martinphipps wrote: |
No, this wasn't an exerpt from my work. My work is specifically about teaching in Asia (mainly Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines and whatever I can read up about Japan) and is not going to be a general training manual for new teachers.
Martin |
Then, when I try to nail you down just WHERE this supposed allegory came from and ask you for a REFERENCE, you state:
| martinphipps wrote: |
I wrote the "exerpt". The "student" represents me. Read it again with comprehension. |
This, presumably to save your butt from blatant, inexcusable plagiarism.
So, which is it DR. Phipps? Who wrote that beautifully written excerpt? Was it the work of your own two talented hands? Or was it plagiarized from an uncited source?
I'm awaiting your answer.
JD |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Brooks
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1369
Location: Sagamihara
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Martin, you are out of line.
I find it strange that someone who has an advanced degree in physics is teaching English in Taiwan, but hey if it`s what you want, ok.
I could care less about your scientific background.
Just having a MA in TESOL doesn`t mean that the person with the degree is a good teacher, but I think it helps.
My MA from the US was good and practical, and I got practical experience as an intern in Morocco while I was a grad student.
I got my MA in TESOL from Saint Michael`s College in Vermont. It is a good program and cheaper than SIT.
I have taught at universities in Poland and Russia, and now I am in my fifth year in Japan.
I think I know what I am doing.
We don`t need you patronizing us.
I think you need to go to a barbershop in Taipei and you need something besides a haircut. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nismo
Joined: 27 Jul 2004
Posts: 520
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 3:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
| martinphipps wrote: |
| That's all very well and good but professionals should behave in a professional manner. I'm not saying you haven't. Indeed, you have and I appreciate that. I also apologize if you thought I was being snarky when I said "it helps if you can read Chinese". I only meant that, for some reason, my credentials were written mostly in Chinese so you couldn't confirm that I had a Ph.D. The fact is though that people on this group have behaved in an unprofessional manner from the very beginning. |
| martinphipps wrote: |
| Sherri wrote: |
| Thank you for answering my question. You have no formal TEFL/TESL qualifications. |
Thank you for establishing that you are a complete and utter moron.
Martin |
In the eternal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, "You've been erased." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sherri
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 749
Location: The Big Island, Hawaii
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 4:38 am Post subject: |
|
|
Wow, down to name calling now! If I followed your logic then I would say that because I met a guy with a PhD in Physics on a teachers' forum who called me names, then all PhDs in Physics are useless.
Martin, I can see in some of the posts where you might have reason to feel badly. But at the same time don't you think you have any ownership of what has happened here?
Sherri |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
TokyoLiz
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:39 am Post subject: It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing. |
|
|
Martin,
Just because a bowl of tomato soup saw a clam doesn't make it clam chowder. You met somebody who did a specialty in ELT. S/he alledgedly didn't know the the material. So what.
That doesn't qualify you to judge the validity of ELT degrees and diplomas.
Sherri simply stated what we've all observed - you don't appear to be a qualified TESOL instructor/professor. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 5:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Martin informed me he wont be responding to posts on this thread from now on (so he says) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
I will try to conceal my grief. 
A shame, really. I never DID get a response to my question. However doing a search on a couple other Dave's forums reveals that we are not the only bunch whose feathers he's ruffled. Yes, some have humoured his inane requests, but I think I speak for many when I say that he's brought about negative comments only by his own noob-ish posts, adding retaliatory bad attitude when anyone presumes to question his "authority" and refuses to bow down to his PHd.
Boy, I think I'm glad that I'm neither his co-worker nor his student. Having someone with an ego so big would be rather frightening.
Anyway... That's all... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 6:42 am Post subject: |
|
|
I doubt that Dr. Phipps will read this. He has already stated that he has stopped reading my posts. However, I will post anyway. (Since writing this rather long piece, I see that Martin has informed Paul he won't be responding. Gee, too bad. I'm sure he will think of something. I just felt I should finish what I started, and I hope others appreciate it.)
You have received extremely little in the way of responses to help you in your quest to write this book. That includes people from the Japan forum as well as several others in Asia. You don't even respond to some people in the other forums when they pose direct questions regarding the questionable nature of your survey. You do here. Whatever. Perhaps you are too busy to visit the places where you have scattered your survey.
One interesting note is that whenever people respond negatively to your survey, they have all stated the same thing. Your approach is awful. Take a hint, Dr. Phipps. All the experience you have in "cold hard facts" from your physics days has done nothing to make you a good survey maker. The percentage of responses here show that.
| Quote: |
| Most of Glenski's responses in his first post were "What/Which type of students...?", "What type of school...?" or "Define the situation." and were clearly not intended to be a genuine effort to respond but rather an unfounded attempt to criticize a new poster. |
As I and the majority of others have tried to tell you, it is imoossible to give you meaningful answers with the nature of your survey. Telling you how to reword it is CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. As a scientist, you should have had experience with that, and if you don't accept it, you are not a good one. I shouldn't have to tell you of various famous physicists who went through that type of experience.
I asked you what was the difference between your book and the plethora of others (several of which I showed you, and none of which you have read or even knew how to order in this day and age of Amazon.com) currently on the market. Your reply is this.
| Quote: |
| I don't agree with the idea that Child-Centered methodology is necessarily the way to go in Asia because for most Asian countries the level of English is very low and they need to spend more time on basics like the alphabet and phonics before they can be expected to learn on their own. Besides, David Paul's book doesn't deal with specific issues relating to Asian counties: nor does he discuss Asian countries separately and ask if the same methods can be used throughout the region. In other words, he really doesn't even address in his book any of the questions I asked about in my post. |
I find this hard to see as an answer to my question. David Paul's methodology is just one that's out there. Practically everyone knows how low the English ability is in Asian countries. Your only description of the book is that you are "writing a book about teaching English in Asia" and "I want to know if everything I say about Korea and Taiwan also applies to Japan" and "the fact is the school wants me to publish something to raise the prestiege of the school and the department ". NONE of these actually addresses my point. What exactly is your focus in the book? To simply say you want to compare the English education system in Asia is a huge generalization and one that warrants more time and resources than you have. You admit that you can't even visit other countries, so your face to face survey will be conducted only in Taiwan. As a scientist, that's pretty limited data. Ok, so you have limited resources, but how can you piece together such a massive general all-encompassing book with the little that you have? It's just not possible. Professionally speaking, I SERIOUSLY suggest that you limit the scope of your topic. Besides, other people have compared various Asian countries over the years anyway, so THIS IS THE MAIN REASON YOU SHOULDN'T EVEN BE CONSIDERING SUCH A BOOK.
By the way, did you even glance at the thread I mentioned in this note?
| Quote: |
| [regarding the topic of grade inflation] Too bad we never got to this point. You can look at it on this forum, however, if you do a search, because I started a thread on this very topic. |
Can't get more professional and serious in a response. Of course, if you don't read what I write, you just missed a major piece of data.
| Quote: |
I find it interesting that nobody responded to the following:
I know full well that posting on a public forum is not scientific: there's the issue of self-selection for starters. But people who post on forums like this ARE more likely to be able to answer these questions than random foreigners who I might pick off the streets of Japan and forums like this are more likely to enable one to determine what is really true because people are not shy about coming out and saying if they think a poster is feeding me "*beep*". Which approach do you REALLY think is more valid? |
As to the first remark (red), I DID answer it, but you ignored my posts, so you missed more data.
| Quote: |
| If you were planning to just pick people off the streets of Japan for your survey, your survey methods are even more shaky than I had imagined! Anyone with a shred of sensibility would choose people directly from the teaching profession in an organized and coordinated way. What exactly were you thinking? Get the quick response on an Internet forum first, or was that the sum total of your planning? |
Let me add to that now by giving you more constructive advice. If you can't come to Japan (or any other country), then rather than waste your time on unsupported data from Internet discussion forums, why don't you make a list of schools, eikaiwas, and jukus, then send them inquiries to see if they would cooperate in your "study"? I'm sure that with credentials of Assistant Professor, you would receive a fair share of respondents. Yes, it would be a time-consuming arduous task, but what else did you propose to do to collect substantive information in the next year? Much of your communications could be done by email, thus saving expenses, and I'm sure with your physics background, that designing an Excel or Access template to handle the data wouldn't be too hard. The only financial output I foresee at this time is postage, which should not break your budget, I would hope.
As to the second remark (green), I DID answer it, but you ignored my post and missed more valuable data again. What would Sir Isaac say about your attitude?
| Quote: |
| asking people why you can't see and can't verify in the least is better than going to the country where they live and presumably work? Where is the logic in that? |
You try insulting AsiaTraveller here.
| Quote: |
| AsiaTreavellor wrote "he's only writing this pseudo-tome because his department asked him to". Where did that come from? |
Look back at what you wrote, Dr. Phipps. You DID write "the fact is the school wants me to publish something to raise the prestiege of the school and the department ". That's where it came from.
You insult Sherri (one of the rare people who actually responded to your survey!!!) several times:
| Quote: |
Sherri wrote:
Thank you for answering my question. You have no formal TEFL/TESL qualifications.
Martin wrote:
Thank you for establishing that you are a complete and utter moron. |
But, Dr. Phipps, you said yourself (after TWO polite queries from Sherri, by the way)...
| Quote: |
| I do have formal teacher's training from McGill University although it wasn't specifically for teaching EFL. |
So, the petulant Dr. Phipps strikes again. Where do you come off saying things like that to Sherri?
PaulH asked you about your experience taking surveys and doing pilot studies.
| Quote: |
| have you actually studied anything at all, during your undergraduate or Masters degree, on how to conduct research, how to write surveys, how to do pilot studies...? |
You list your publications and talks. I appreciate that, as I'm sure does Paul. None of them show that you have any experience conducting surveys or related pilot studies, however.
Five articles have you listed as first author 3 times, but they are not exactly what I would call highly rated sources (that is, would you say the Phillipine publishers are remotely prestigious in the world of particle physics, or that proceedings of a conference rate highly? Not me.) Two other publications are merely your theses, neither of which deal with conducting surveys.
Your talks, while on topic with your physics major, do not connote any form of pilot studies or survey experience, either.
So, your answer was not even a direct "no", but an act of "academic snobbery", to use your own words. But, that is just how I see it.
You called me cynical when I stated how I felt about one of the books I'd shown you on teaching English in Japan. I was not being cynical. I just responded to a question from another person who had the same opinion. I provided the list of books so you could make your own informed decision, and that was as helpful as I could have been. What did I get? A sarcastic thanks.
| Quote: |
| so he was not being helpful, just being cynical. Thanks a lot, Mr. Glenski! |
And, just to dredge up the past in that same message, you wrote:
| Quote: |
| It's true I wasn't aware about all the books he listed about teaching in Japan but those books don't seem to be available here in Taiwan. Is he seriously suggesting I blow my entire budget ordering books through amazon.com when he can't recommend any of the books on his list? |
Nope, I wasn't suggesting anything of the sort. However, you seem to be pretty limited in resources altogether, so what other alternative do you have? You don't have to order ALL of them. As a researcher interested in cold hard facts, and with those amazing publications under your belt, I would imagine that a PhD in physics would be able to sift through the list and choose what interests him first, putting them on the A list, then glance at whatever is available on the Internet to glean the contents (hey, even I do that for novels I suggest for my HS students, so don't tell me it isn't possible.), and then order what I could. What is your budget anyway? If you want to increase the prestige of your department, school, and self, you should be willing to pay for SOMETHING.
You raised a somewhat valid point with this comment.
| Quote: |
Glenski's comment about "phonics not taught here" seems to be to be, as Jim Dunlop said, "a broad sweeping stereotype". I can't use that "information", but I might be interested in a link to a study that can actually confirm this claim!
I do give credit to Jim Dunlop, however, to making more of an attempt to answer my questions. Amongst other things, he said "The fact that phonics is not taught is a complex problem." Indeed! And yet this claim implies that nobody in Japan is teaching phonics. I suspect that this claim is completely unsupportable! David Paul claims that his David English House is teaching phonics. Is he lying? |
A sample size of one. How scientific, Dr. Phipps. Yes, I may have made a generalization by saying that phonics is not taught in Japan. Let me modify that statement a bit by saying that the majority of mainstream Japanese high schools, private and public, don't teach English phonics. This is from my experience in the school system. The introduction of English in the elementary grades has only just started here, so there are no dictates as to how this is done, or whether things like phonics are even required. What you will likely find on an Internet search is a mixed bag of sites from foreigners with ideas or individual accounts of trying it in classes (traditional and eikaiwa) and ads from eikaiwas who tout this novelty.
I particularly like this recent comment.
| Quote: |
Gordon wrote:
And the authors may have even stepped foot in the country they are talking about. Isn't that a novel concept.
Martin wrote:
Again, assumptions. I have been to Japan several times. I just ahve never taught there. Nor am I writing a book specifically about Japan. |
Yes, yes, we read before that you had been to Japan (although I don't think you said "several times"). Some of us tried to pin you down on just what your travels entailed, but you ignored them. Newspaper reporters would take that as a sign of evasion and would simply feel justified in speculating anything they wanted about that. I actually offered some ideas, but you ignored me. Childish petulance.
However, about your statement about not writing a book specifically about Japan, I beg to differ. You want to compare Japan and othe Asian countries, so by sheer virtue of researching this forum for information on Japan, you ARE indeed writing about Japan. Yeah, sure, not completely, but it IS included.
By the way, in regards to this statement...
| Quote: |
| people have criticized me about not knowing about teaching in Japan when I admitted from the beginning that "my experience only relates to Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines"! |
We have criticized you about your knowledge of Japan merely because (as I stated above) you offer little to explain what you mean by saying things like...
| Quote: |
| I've been to Japan. |
| Quote: |
| I have been to Japan several times. |
| Quote: |
| I studied Japanese for a year, |
and
| Quote: |
| I am not completely ignorant about Japanese culture. |
Would you please tell us what your experience(s) in Japan has/have been so we don't continue to "criticize" you?
So, let's see what we have at this point.
1. I and many others (here and on other forums) offer you suggestions to reword your survey. You can't take constructive criticism and feel insulted.
2. You don't answer direct questions about your EFL qualifications and call people morons when they repeat what YOU said about the lack of them.
3. You act like a child by refusing to read my posts just because... uh, why was that again? Acting unprofessional? Hello, kettle, this is pot. You're black!
4. You continue to post your physics relationship on each post, but you can't even spell University correctly.
5. Yours is the only job description on the Taiwanese university roster that fails to show the city and country of origin. No reason, I guess, and perhaps even a failing in the survey system the school took, but I just thought I'd mention it because there is more than one McGill University. Nice touch, by the way, in trying to translate "McGill" into kanji, a totally unnecessary thing to do.
Here's something I found outright laughable.
| Quote: |
| I am the only foreign teacher here in the Applied Foreign Languages department with a Ph.D. The other foreign teachers are not English majors either but they at leat have Masters degrees in the humanities. Of all the teachers in the department, only five have Ph.D.s, unfortunately, which is another reason why they want people with Ph.D.s to initiate research. |
Then, they must be quite desperate to hire someone without a degree or training in EFL. And, I'm sure your fellow foreign co-worker would relish hearing that he is unqualified to do research on the scale that you are doing. At least he probably has some experience designing surveys and doing pilot studies.
Last thought (for now) comes from this line...
| Quote: |
| I probably know more about teaching English in Asia than all of you people on this board put together and THAT is what qualifies me to write this book, that plus the fact that we ARE going to do interviews with teachers here in Taichung, give out surveys and, as planned, go on to do a study of how their different teaching methods affect the performance of their students. |
It takes quite a swelled head to make that first statement, and I'm surprised you made it out of the physics lab or sandbox with that enlarged cranium. As to the "we" which I have highlighted, I would like to know if it is indeed YOU who are writing this book (you wrote that the school asked YOU, not a plurality of teachers, to write it), or if you are somehow changing the goalposts now and adding more of your colleagues to this survey/book? These are people whose qualifications exceed yours in the EFL field, but you have stated you mistrust such people, so I am very curious about the "we".
And, just in case you consider me totally unhelpful, look here, ok? If you want to do research, do it, don't ask others to do it for you.
http://www.yuldo.net/asian-eng/
www.ed.gov/pubs/JapanCaseStudy/title.html
http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Japan/Education/
www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors.kenji/kitao/tejk.htm
http://clr-tw.u-aizu.ac.jp/izzo/monbusho/99ARart.html
www.jei.org/Archive/JEIR00/0007f.html
www.mext.go.jp/english.shotou/030301.htm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well said, Glenski. Heaven knows, I don't always see eye-to-eye with you on these forum topics, but I think you've summed it up about as well as anyone could.
Thanks! 
JD |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
|
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
One thing I have to give credit to Martin for, this is the first time we've all been in agreement on something.
Martin, if you're still there and I hope you aren't, don't think it is odd that EVERY person disagrees with you. Never have I seen such unanimity before.
The bottom line is that you just grate everyone the wrong way, I can't imagine you have many friends if you act like this in real life. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
This page is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling.
Contact Dave's ESL Cafe
Copyright © 2018 Dave Sperling. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
