Search found 1303 matches

by woodcutter
Tue May 18, 2010 9:56 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Breaktime!
Replies: 20
Views: 29351

I think it (Q2) could be seen as a dangler, but if we assume it is spoken, it is just a kind of one off informal discourse marker.
by woodcutter
Tue May 18, 2010 9:52 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Do the Brits have a corner on the grammar book market?
Replies: 7
Views: 10309

I find the domination of the US English market by Oxbridge publishing very odd.

However, my uni in Britain is using US published stuff with US English and US style pedantry as well. Odder.
by woodcutter
Tue May 18, 2010 9:50 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: What do you think?
Replies: 2
Views: 5130

I suspect that is a pretty common "mistake", and becoming more common.
by woodcutter
Fri May 14, 2010 8:36 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Is it true that Azar, Murphy and Swann are the biggies?
Replies: 3
Views: 4681

Swan(n) and Murphy are the ones you often see about in the UK and places where Brits head off to. There are too many for people to easily discuss really, and not many people use a great number of them.

There ought to be a toptenapedia section to wikipedia for things like this.
by woodcutter
Fri May 14, 2010 1:11 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Indentation Nazism
Replies: 14
Views: 111320

Indentation Nazism

I have been quite hot on putting indentation arrows at the start of paragraphs in my marking recently. Is it always necessary? Are the habits of computer based writing spilling over onto the hand-written page? Would you obey the sometimes heard rule "NO indentation after a title" when typing? Writin...
by woodcutter
Fri May 14, 2010 1:01 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Complex? Simple?
Replies: 4
Views: 14501

Complex? Simple?

Right, having cleared that up for Fluff, here's my problem. My houseguests returned from a long day of shopping and went straight to bed. No, not literally. This is the example W.R. Smalzer uses to introduce the term "simple sentence". It's not the one I would choose, since it has a tricky "double h...
by woodcutter
Fri May 14, 2010 12:53 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Breaktime!
Replies: 20
Views: 29351

No. No.
by woodcutter
Sun Apr 25, 2010 10:32 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Was Wall Street Institute the first to use computers?
Replies: 7
Views: 4958

ESL is a huge and diverse global industry, and most ESL people don't have very good general knowledge about it - the sources aren't very good to get that, for my money. Reputations are localized, and mostly negative. Computers are not necessarily used "effectively" anywhere in the classroom, though ...
by woodcutter
Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:32 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: fanboys
Replies: 2
Views: 9104

I'm also fairly partial to the comma-as-pause school of thought, but yes, academia doesn't seem much in favour (Mr.Pullum attacked the idea very recently on LL, I seem to recall). I think that clearly very many native writers use commas that way, because they don't know clause from gauze for one thi...
by woodcutter
Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:37 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: fanboys
Replies: 2
Views: 9104

fanboys

The UK university I work for gives foreign students a US book which teaches the FANBOYS rule, which states you should have a comma before for, and, but, etc (all conjuctions) which separate clauses. (My mother taught the polar opposite). That's a rotten rule for the UK, I'm sure, but does it have an...
by woodcutter
Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:56 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Silent Way
Replies: 3
Views: 7377

I cannot locate my readings, I'm afraid, Ibrahim. I have been (sorta) allowed into the ivory towers back in the old UK, you'll all probably be disgusted to hear, and curiously even here nobody seems to make use of "the silent way" we were all trained in. They rather seem to favour the pompous and bo...
by woodcutter
Fri Apr 23, 2010 10:46 pm
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: Was Berlitz the first school to use total immersion?
Replies: 12
Views: 27186

Direct method has no real meaning. This is what the collective brain of humanity says: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_method_(education) Sounds just like any typical modern ESL really. As ever, the most important thing is to bash the process of carefully translating sentences out your native la...
by woodcutter
Fri Mar 05, 2010 10:22 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44188

Korea mixes you up more than Spain I think. I'll finally be leaving soon though. And region is important too. I have you down as Home Counties - I can't remember if you ever said. I think that "wrong" is something you wouldn't use yourself in the same context and wasn't used simply because the user ...
by woodcutter
Sun Feb 21, 2010 5:49 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44188

I'm sure your ability to intuitively spot what is not the norm in standard British English is better than mine Juan. However I doubt you or anyone else have eyebrows inside, and unless the wincing that experts mention is meant to have the force of "wrong!!" then I don't know why they feel the need t...
by woodcutter
Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:47 am
Forum: Applied Linguistics
Topic: too or either
Replies: 16
Views: 44188

Astonishingly, that bending before pure unexamined intuition currently often seems to be the "correct" academic attitude to take about wrongness. For one thing though, US English often grates on British English ears, even when we are trying not to let it happen. They are big and brash and we are sma...