Teacher Discussion Forums

"Your ‘imperative thought’ is quite different from your ‘ interrogative thought’."


Rinvolucri

Hard to say without more context...it could be riveting, essential stuff!

Can I just ask, why the apparent fixation with Rinvolucri recently? Is he Linguistics 101 lecturer of the month? Artiste of the year? Amazon bestselling ESL niche author?

I guess I am more intrigued by your reasons for presenting such quotes than the quotes themselves, metal. Dabbling in a little amateur psychology, are we? Remember, you could post something even like 'Larry Latham: Saint or sinner?' and still elicit some "anti" responses, these are "Discussion" forums after all, and whoever is put up for that discussion can get some indirect flak in the course of the developing arguments, even when they don't really deserve much or any of it!

fluffyhamster wrote:Can I just ask, why the apparent fixation with Rinvolucri recently? Is he Linguistics 101 lecturer of the month? Artiste of the year? Amazon bestselling ESL niche author?

Several posts is/are a fixation? Mm?

fluffyhamster wrote:I guess I am more intrigued by your reasons for presenting such quotes than the quotes themselves, metal. Dabbling in a little amateur psychology, are we? Remember, you could post something even like 'Larry Latham: Saint or sinner?' and still elicit some "anti" responses, these are "Discussion" forums after all, and whoever is put up for that discussion can get some indirect flak in the course of developing arguments, even when they don't really deserve much or any of it!

Bring it on, hombre.

fluffyhamster wrote:Hard to say without more context...it could be riveting, essential stuff!

Essential? I'm not sure about that as Mario is keeping a bit mum as to what he really means:

And now for a classroom exercise from the deep pool of Waldorfian methodology:

:: Take a composition topic, let’s say Canberra.
:: Ask a fifth of the class, working each on their own, to write 7 declarative sentences about Canberra.
:: Ask the next fifth to write 7 negative sentences each about the topic.
:: The next fifth write 7 questions, again about Canberra.
:: The next fifth write exclamations
:: The last fifth write 7 imperative sentences each.
:: Tell the groups to put their heads together and share what they have written.
:: Now ask the students to form new groups of five with a declarative, negative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative person in each group. They share their sentences.
:: The sentences all go up on the walls and the students go round and read.
:: After this 20-minute brainstorm, ask the students to write a composition in pairs.

Until I did this exercise with a group, I had no idea of the different mindsets brought forth by each syntactic shape. Your ‘imperative thought’ is quite different from your ‘ interrogative thought’. And these Steiner realisations have been around all through my 35-year-long EFL career

http://www.matsda.org.uk/folio_article_nov03.htm

I liked the liposuction thing, maybe it helps fight the flab in texts. Could be a godsend for typewriter monkeys unable to produce original texts themselves.

Hmm, Steiner, Gone with the Wind, too much Waldorf salad perhaps, but might make a nice accompaniment to the Canberra canticle.

Bet my Chinese students could've whiled away many happy hours telling me how many letters were in each word they said, as R says, we all know how much they love counting strokes in those cute characters they write! Almost as many hours perhaps as they spent playing drinking games where you have to miss out sevens or multiples of seven whilst taking turns to count around in a circle...

'I guess some people thought this was a bizarre exercise,' (yes you could say I thought that, not that I don't make music in my mind or improvise on a theme from time to time in my own time, outside of class) 'but that is perhaps because there are very few well-used activities in the EFL canon that involve talking to self, writing to self or any form of inner monologue or dialogue.' That doesn't mean that people don't do this all the time, or need to be shown how to.

'Even student diary-writing is often contaminated by the teacher reading what has been written, which makes it hugely less ‘inner’. Unless it is intensely private stuff (a non-class journal?), I presume a student would prefer a teacher take a look at it, horror of horrors, perhaps offer some feedback, guidance and, dare I say it, correction from time to time.

I really liked your :: bullets there, they were, like, intense, man, y'know? (Sofia Coppola has nothing on me when it comes to screenplay inane dialog writing).

Thanks for the MATSDA link.

metal56 wrote:

fluffyhamster wrote:Can I just ask, why the apparent fixation with Rinvolucri recently? Is he Linguistics 101 lecturer of the month? Artiste of the year? Amazon bestselling ESL niche author?

Several posts is/are a fixation? Mm?

You sound like Hopkins playing Lector writing to Clarice (Moore), in voiceover, with that 'Mm?' there.

fluffyhamster wrote:I really liked your :: bullets there, they were, like, intense, man, y'know? (Sofia Coppola has nothing on me when it comes to screenplay inane dialog writing).

BTW I enjoyed Lost in Translation, good movie. Couldn't quite believe anyone could be that inane, though (the photographer boyfriend, the B-movie starlet). What did you guys think of the movie?

Hmm, I just had a thought: that "Canberra" activity kind of reminded me of Searle's "Chinese Room" thought experiment...instructions that treat a person as if they were a computer, and which, in between the input and output stages, seem to just be "processing" stages that require no intelligence to follow.

fluffyhamster wrote:Hmm, I just had a thought: that "Canberra" activity kind of reminded me of Searle's "Chinese Room" thought experiment...instructions that treat a person as if they were a computer, and which, in between the input and output stages, seem to just be "processing" stages that require no intelligence to follow.

They might suit you then, Fluff.

fluffyhamster wrote:

metal56 wrote:

fluffyhamster wrote:Can I just ask, why the apparent fixation with Rinvolucri recently? Is he Linguistics 101 lecturer of the month? Artiste of the year? Amazon bestselling ESL niche author?

Several posts is/are a fixation? Mm?

You sound like Hopkins playing Lector writing to Clarice (Moore), in voiceover, with that 'Mm?' there.

Sorry, can't chat now. Got someone in the oven.



"The production of language is a bodily action, which always evokes, forms and expresses the body's emotional drives.
The making of sentences is a passionate, exhausting business."

Don Cupitt, Creation out of nothing

metal56 wrote:Sorry, can't chat now. Got someone in the oven.



"The production of language is a bodily action, which always evokes, forms and expresses the body's emotional drives.
The making of sentences is a passionate, exhausting business."

Don Cupitt, Creation out of nothing

Hmm, sniff sniff, YUM, who's cooking?

Cupitt wasn't so knackered he couldn't force out those sentences. Mm?

metal56 wrote:

fluffyhamster wrote:Hmm, I just had a thought: that "Canberra" activity kind of reminded me of Searle's "Chinese Room" thought experiment...instructions that treat a person as if they were a computer, and which, in between the input and output stages, seem to just be "processing" stages that require no intelligence to follow.

They might suit you then, Fluff.

I'm sorry, but I'm not quite following you here!