Job Discussion Forums

[ChinaMovieMagic]

RE: "THEY"
I've talked to MANY Chinese teachers of English...and they are NOT unaware of the problem, so it's not like we FTs are the ONLY victims. Include ALSO...Chinese teachers...students...the economy...the society...
Even...the WTO!!! So...cui bono? Who benefits?
As the saying (practice) goes: "In China, Precedent rules."
Teach-for-the-test...
One way, would/will be to have Tests for:
*Conversation
*Life-based Listening
*Guessing the meaning of complex input
*Creativity

There's a Stanford U. group (www.ordinate.com) which is promoting computerized, voice-recognition, telephone-based (reliability-based) tests
for Listening AND CONVERSATION.
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Your Bosses REALLY won't allow TPR?

Relevant quotes from Journal of Imagination in Language,
http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html
which is publishing my article on China's English Corners as a strategy for CHANGE. I'm now working w/Matt, fellow Forum-ist in Chengdu, on a Video of my MovieMagic class w/kid, using MULAN, for an exhibit of Humanist Art at Qingdao Museum. BELOW are quotes used in the Video (and in MovieMagic).
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To put it very simply, the purpose of humanistic education is personal growth--becoming the best person we can be. Humanistic education recognizes two important aspects of people--the intellectual and the emotional. So the subject matter taught is combined with the feelings, experiences, and the lives of students. Therefore, humanistic activities deal with developing a more positive self-image, recognizing one's strengths, seeing the good in others, developing satisfying relationships, becoming aware of one's feelings and values, discovering oneself, and having a positive outlook on life. We can think of these as food for the soul, nourishing, replenishing, enhancing us at the deep inner levels of ourselves.

Humanistic Imagination: Soul Food for the Language Class
by Dr. Gertrude Moskowitz, Temple University

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Theater games and improvisations are integral to the course; they stimulate natural creativity, decrease anxiety, help develop fluency, and discourage the mechanical use of language.


Creating Theater in the ESL Classroom
by Maria Guida, New York University
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Perhaps we need, in much of our teaching, to begin with a language of imaginative thought as the basis of how we teach and how children can learn. Perhaps we ought to first bring children into the metaphors of their own playfulness and, once they are securely inside this playfulness, allow them to learn from the inside out.

The Deep Water Had Deeper Fishes: On Creating a Language of the Imagination with Children
by Richard Lewis, Director of the The Touchstone Center for Children, Inc., in New York City

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My hypothesis is that no genuine learning can happen until there is a brainswitch from the left to the right brain. "Genuine" means that the learning happens on the first exposure with zero stress and long-term retention.

Many language instructors have the illusion that left brain learning strategies are effective. Examples are pronunciation exercises, dialog memorizations, pattern drills, and grammar explanations. The evidence shows that only 4% of those who attempt a second language with a left brain "teaching people to talk" approach, continue to fluency. Those few who are successful with a left brain input often become language teachers themselves who are baffled that others cannot follow in their academic footsteps. "After all, I did it; why can't you do it?"Imagination in Second Language Acquisition
by James J. Asher, San Jose State University

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[David Bowles]

The first nine posts constitute one of the most truly beautiful, poetic examples of the dialogue form I've ever encountered. It's breathtaking, and future civilisations will probably devote entire university courses and learned treatises to unravelling its delicately constructed syntax and discussing its manifold meanings.

Good work, I say.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

RE: David Bowles wrote:

[A Token of My Extreme]

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Sincerely seeking

[Long ai gu]

A token of my extreme: yourself and Movie Magic are a fabulous internut comedy team. The head smashing through the computer gives it a nice touch. Thanx for the laugh boys, keep up the good work.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

RE: