Job Discussion Forums

[shmooj]

Prawn, climb down and take a place on the terraces...

Stephen Jones did understand you as I believe many of us do here. We've heard explanations like this before. THey are fine... but not for the classroom. They do not help students and make a mockery of the APPLIED nature of Applied Linguistics in terms of ELT.

What you say is totally valid. The only exception anyone would take to it is the style in which it was conveyed. Didn't you do a module on Discourse Analysis somewhere back there? Try it on your own discourse

[prawn]

leeroy, you're wrong on both counts.

(i) you had not "covered" anything previously (due to the fact that there had been little to no understanding of the concepts under discussion)

and

(ii) i was not "showing off". i was presenting my thesis on what has long been considered a "problem" by those who are not engaged Systemics, and it was obviously wasted on you.

but then again you really have no interest at all in professional development and that is why - if you are working in the field at all - you are slaving away for a pittance and having no positive affect on your students. (though of course we are at odds here, because it seems that you are one of those who knows or cares so little about what you are doing that you consider encouraging learners to parrot your juvenile and trashy slang, progress. i don't.)

good luck with it all anyway, i honestly couldn't give a f#$% about you as long as you maintain that sort of attitude, though i do thank you for allowing me a few minutes respite and relaxation from my professional duties. i'm open to discuss the value of Systemics in linguistic pedagogy and analysis anytime with anyone, even you. there are 2 major conferences on Systemics coming up in China, and i can assure you that you if you are content in your ignorance and insecurity, you should also be content to stay where you are now, buried under the pseudolinguistic mud within which a few of the old charlatans still writhe, mud that has long since been displaced by the crystalline waters of Sytemics; mud that has long since percolated down to the bottom of that sea of garbage to which eventually all things half-baked, ill-conceived and usless are consigned.

schmooj. you have never seen this before, or if you have you have never taken the time nor made any effort to understand it. you do not know what you are talking about. i do. you might discover sometime that this sort of thing is exactly what students need and respond to (though i wouldn't put a Systemic analysis of the "wanna/gonna" contraction at the top of my list of things to talk about even on my slackest day). you might also at that time discover exactly why you have a crap low paid job i.e. because you do not have even a modicum of understanding of the concepts involved. you are welcome to come to my class anytime or to inspect my syllabus anytime with a view to making an effort to discern what i am talking about, and to see the monumental leaps in comprehension that a Systemic approach has engendered. if you have an understanding of Systemics and are able to develop a methodology based on Systemics, you can command a salary here that is many times higher than that paid locally and much better than anything you'll get in HK. i leave you to guess how i know this.

salary issues aside, one of the great benefits of engaging in this sort of approach is job satisfaction, which derives not only from the intellectual exercise of materials development but also -and perhaps primarily from - the pleasure of seeing engaged and interested students take English , make it their own and feel so strongly about their own views on structure and the relationship of structure to meaning and expression that they are willing to openly challenge and often correct my own interpretations.

...but as long as you're happy with it, you just carry on with what youre doing. i have offered you something, but you are under no obligation to take it and i take no offence. i can but try, and i will keep trying for the sake of what i know and what i love to do, and for the sake of the quality of English language pedagogy in this country....and, no, i don't have delusions of grandeur, it's just that i don't regard my time here teaching with such scant regard as the many others such as yourselves who are either merely marking time here or on some poorly funded "look at me, i'm important" holiday.

anyway the people who either already understand Sytemics, or who allow themselves even to attempt to see the light on this are the only ones that matter anyway.

if you have anything constructive to discuss i would be most happy to listen and respond; if you can ever prove to me that you have a superior approach or even an approach that remotely approximates the quality of the one that i advocate, i will admit my error immediately and follow or at least consider your way. however, my advantage over you is that i crossed the bridges you are stuck on quite some time ago; you have a way to go until you get to mine.

in the meantime i have no need to respond further to insecure whining.

thanks for your time, it's been fun.

love prawn.

[leeroy]

This is fun!

You're right prawn, my job is terribly paid and my job satisfaction suffers as a result.

It had already been concluded in this thread, though, that "gonna" can only occur when it is followed by a verb. A degree in linguistics is not necessary for this, surely! The linguistic terminology you use is very impressive, I don't pretend to understand half of it.

I loved this though;

[struelle]

[Stephen Jones]

Systemics the new Amway. Phoenix sells real gold nuggets, Halliday hypothetical ones. Our crustacean friend is a zany zealot.

[johnslat]

I think I'll take Ludwig over prawn. At least Ludwig doesn't always take him/herself with such deadly seriousness and has been known to occasionally make fun of his own pomposity.
Regards,
John