What's the most ambitious teaching-related project you've ever undertaken, or are planning to undertake?
For me, few things have been as exhausting as the guide to Chinese characters (hanzi) I'm currently writing - there's been lots of eye-straining detail, manual cutting pasting and jiggling of variant characters, proof-reading etc etc required.
Next up might be compiling a dictionary that will allow one to find words not only by spelling but also purely by sound - could save everyone a fair bit of time, help attune learners to sounds, etc. But could be a bit of a white elephant ultimately though, this one!
My ultimate goal though is to one day write a pedagogical grammar and/or coursebook for my own use at least - the glossy but flimsy stuff available from most publishers just doesn't cut it IMHO!
Ambitious projects...
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fluffyhamster
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Sally Olsen
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fluffyhamster
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I didn't realize you'd had some stuff published, Sally (I just looked you up on Google Book Search). Seems pretty grand to me - appearing on GBS is probably more than most of us will ever achieve!
My stuff isn't bad, but I'm doing it more for my own use and reference (for example, if I were to apply to do a PGCE in Chinese/MFL), though I must admit that I wouldn't exactly mind if it did get noticed and published in some form eventually!
Regarding the "sound-entry" dictionary, I once saw one in Shanghai that was a great long list of IPA, should've made some notes as to how they ordered especially the vowel-initial entries. But I've worked out a system that is actually much easier and faster than determining exact vowel values. (Maybe I am giving too much away here, but if I were to get hit by a bus, at least there'd be the seed here for others to complete my "life's work"!
).
My stuff isn't bad, but I'm doing it more for my own use and reference (for example, if I were to apply to do a PGCE in Chinese/MFL), though I must admit that I wouldn't exactly mind if it did get noticed and published in some form eventually!
Regarding the "sound-entry" dictionary, I once saw one in Shanghai that was a great long list of IPA, should've made some notes as to how they ordered especially the vowel-initial entries. But I've worked out a system that is actually much easier and faster than determining exact vowel values. (Maybe I am giving too much away here, but if I were to get hit by a bus, at least there'd be the seed here for others to complete my "life's work"!
).Corpus of English Use by Chinese Business People
Not really considering it, but what I'd really love to do and would expect to find interesting results from, is:
To travel around Beijing, Shanghai and maybe one or two other major cities, working closely with Chinese business people who use English to some degree in their daily work lives, recording conversations, collecting e-mails, reports, and other documents, to really map out the typical needs of a Chinese business person.
I just find that many current course books (like Market Leader) assume that every "business person" is managing a huge international organisation (2,000 employees minimum), organising staff outings in far off places and conferences for 100's, making mergers and conduncting aggressive take overs every second week, is a stock analyst in their free time, and spends every business dinner at the classiest horse races or tennis matches in the city.
It'd be great to find out what kind of uses the more typical Chinese business person has for English. Probably interdepartmental e-mails, chatting with a new foreign employee by the water cooler, and surviving a surprisingly casual interview despite being fraught with nerves due to the interviewer being a (supposedly more fluent) English speaker.
To travel around Beijing, Shanghai and maybe one or two other major cities, working closely with Chinese business people who use English to some degree in their daily work lives, recording conversations, collecting e-mails, reports, and other documents, to really map out the typical needs of a Chinese business person.
I just find that many current course books (like Market Leader) assume that every "business person" is managing a huge international organisation (2,000 employees minimum), organising staff outings in far off places and conferences for 100's, making mergers and conduncting aggressive take overs every second week, is a stock analyst in their free time, and spends every business dinner at the classiest horse races or tennis matches in the city.
It'd be great to find out what kind of uses the more typical Chinese business person has for English. Probably interdepartmental e-mails, chatting with a new foreign employee by the water cooler, and surviving a surprisingly casual interview despite being fraught with nerves due to the interviewer being a (supposedly more fluent) English speaker.
Adult continuing L1 acquisition.
Oh, I'd also like to either do research into, or at least read about others' research into, continuing L1 acquisition.
That is, how do adult native speakers improve and develop in their knowledge and use of their own language?
Some examples from my own experience:
Over the past 4 years, since starting and completing my post-graduate studies, and reading lots of ELT related books, my English has increased in relation to ELT language. I've gained hundreds of new words (from 'catatonic reference' and 'lexical cohesion' to 'arbitrary' (yes, I didn't even know that common word before!), to 'semantics', etc) and hundreds of new uses for old words (including new meanings or uses for 'chunks', or even 'chunk' as a verb, 'connotation', etc).
During the several years in which I taught Business English my ability improved in a similar way in that area (from new words/phrases such as 'a bull market' to better understanding of words that were partially known such as 'commodities') as well as conventions (eg. conventionalised expressions 'in response to [your application]') and style formats and discourse structures (how to structure 'a letter of complaint') specific to Business writing or formal speaking.
Forever widening language in relation to literature (there was a time when words as disparately connected as 'vista', 'griffin', and 'obtuse'... even the word 'disparate' were unfamiliar to me).
The language I learn in relation to the collectible card game I play, called Magic: the Gathering, where lexis like 'flying', 'first strike', 'land fall', and 'suspend' take on new meanings and where the difference between 'you may pay 2, if you do, draw a card' and '2: draw a card' or between 'whenever you play a blue or red spell draw a card' and 'whenever you play a blue spell draw a card; whenever you play a red spell draw a card' are key to understanding, and winning, the game.
Then there's my move from Australia to New Zealand...
I no longer talk about the 'doona' on my bed, I talk about the 'duvet' on it.
My English actually got less fluent when it comes to 'twink', or is it 'white out', or 'liquid paper', or 'tipex', or 'correction fluid' - now I know more words for it, but it takes me longer to choose the appropriate one ("Hmm... she's Chinese. Is she more likley to understand the American or British term?")
I still use the word 'dunny' at home, but change it to 'toilet' or 'loo' anywhere else.
And let's not talk about pronunciation (or the fact that everyone thinks I'm British, not Australian and not a Kiwi - how did that happen!?)
etc, etc, etc...
There must be so much we could learn about L2 acquisition from continuing adult L1 acquisition... why is the only comparison we make with child L1 acquisition?
That is, how do adult native speakers improve and develop in their knowledge and use of their own language?
Some examples from my own experience:
Over the past 4 years, since starting and completing my post-graduate studies, and reading lots of ELT related books, my English has increased in relation to ELT language. I've gained hundreds of new words (from 'catatonic reference' and 'lexical cohesion' to 'arbitrary' (yes, I didn't even know that common word before!), to 'semantics', etc) and hundreds of new uses for old words (including new meanings or uses for 'chunks', or even 'chunk' as a verb, 'connotation', etc).
During the several years in which I taught Business English my ability improved in a similar way in that area (from new words/phrases such as 'a bull market' to better understanding of words that were partially known such as 'commodities') as well as conventions (eg. conventionalised expressions 'in response to [your application]') and style formats and discourse structures (how to structure 'a letter of complaint') specific to Business writing or formal speaking.
Forever widening language in relation to literature (there was a time when words as disparately connected as 'vista', 'griffin', and 'obtuse'... even the word 'disparate' were unfamiliar to me).
The language I learn in relation to the collectible card game I play, called Magic: the Gathering, where lexis like 'flying', 'first strike', 'land fall', and 'suspend' take on new meanings and where the difference between 'you may pay 2, if you do, draw a card' and '2: draw a card' or between 'whenever you play a blue or red spell draw a card' and 'whenever you play a blue spell draw a card; whenever you play a red spell draw a card' are key to understanding, and winning, the game.
Then there's my move from Australia to New Zealand...
I no longer talk about the 'doona' on my bed, I talk about the 'duvet' on it.
My English actually got less fluent when it comes to 'twink', or is it 'white out', or 'liquid paper', or 'tipex', or 'correction fluid' - now I know more words for it, but it takes me longer to choose the appropriate one ("Hmm... she's Chinese. Is she more likley to understand the American or British term?")
I still use the word 'dunny' at home, but change it to 'toilet' or 'loo' anywhere else.
And let's not talk about pronunciation (or the fact that everyone thinks I'm British, not Australian and not a Kiwi - how did that happen!?)
etc, etc, etc...
There must be so much we could learn about L2 acquisition from continuing adult L1 acquisition... why is the only comparison we make with child L1 acquisition?
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Sally Olsen
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Interesting point, Heath. I know there is research in Literacy on how much people study after they leave school and it is amazing when you get people to think about it - from learning a new bus route to how to use that new camera or IT equipment to taking courses to just reading on their own, especially with the Internet.
All those areas require their own language.
Incidentally, Professor Bernie Mohan routinely used Black Jack to help us understand language and how we use it. We used to tape our conversations while learning the game and then examine it for different categories of use.
All those areas require their own language.
Incidentally, Professor Bernie Mohan routinely used Black Jack to help us understand language and how we use it. We used to tape our conversations while learning the game and then examine it for different categories of use.
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fluffyhamster
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Stuff like 'catatonic reference' puts me into a stupor, leaves me speechless, Heath!
Hmm, Wizards of the Coast stuff, unfortunately I left FT education (and unwittingly gave up a pension!) the year it came out and didn't then have the money to continue with my gaming interests (plus Games Workshop had pretty much sold all its decent stock by that point). I'd still like to try SJG's Munchkin Cthulhu, and get Trail of Cthulhu, but nowadays content myself mainly with just trips down the RPG memory lane, courtesy of my old collection of Games Review Monthly (though old White Dwarf and Imagine aren't bad).
BTW, has anyone seen the movie Call of Cthulhu?
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&so ... =&aq=f&oq=
It's not quite Shadow of the Vampire (which isn't all b/w old-style photography and acting), but enjoyable in its own way.
Hmm, sorta looking forward to Dorian Gray coming out on DVD...
A few gaming-related threads:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9143
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=2284
Hmm, Wizards of the Coast stuff, unfortunately I left FT education (and unwittingly gave up a pension!) the year it came out and didn't then have the money to continue with my gaming interests (plus Games Workshop had pretty much sold all its decent stock by that point). I'd still like to try SJG's Munchkin Cthulhu, and get Trail of Cthulhu, but nowadays content myself mainly with just trips down the RPG memory lane, courtesy of my old collection of Games Review Monthly (though old White Dwarf and Imagine aren't bad).
BTW, has anyone seen the movie Call of Cthulhu?
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&so ... =&aq=f&oq=
It's not quite Shadow of the Vampire (which isn't all b/w old-style photography and acting), but enjoyable in its own way.
Hmm, sorta looking forward to Dorian Gray coming out on DVD...
A few gaming-related threads:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9143
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=2284
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Stephen Jones
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