Random Quote
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
---- George Orwell
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi
I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
---- Isaac Newton
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Opprobrius
I came across this word while reading Rod Ellis and had no clue as to what it means. According to The New Oxford Dictionary of English, which cost me almost us$100.00 it means:
adjective: (of language) expressing scorn.
Not sure that I will ever use it, but I find it an interesting word to say the least.
Second Language Acquisition
A new category all about second language research as I take this unit. I receieved my books for this course yesterday, but not my other class on managing second language programs… Hmm.. will they arrive late - who knows.
While reading the introduction to the Text The Study of Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis I read one particularly striking passage:
...unless we know for certain that the teacher’s scheme of things really does match the learner’s way of going about things, we cannot be sure that the teaching content will contribute directly to language learning
pg 4
the reason I found this passage striking is that one of my colleagues at my past job is probably the best natural teacher I know, but he doesn’t really see a need or use for theory.
Read the rest of this post
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Feb 18, 2004 at 04:29 PM
SLA | teaching_application |
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To Draggle
draggle (DRAG-uhl) verb tr.
To make dirty by dragging over ground, mud, dirt, etc.
verb intr.
1. To become dirty by being dragged.
2. To trail or follow.
Another word I got from a word a day link. I like this word and will find it very useful when describing my daughter. She is constantly draggling her clothes and toys through the sand at the playground.
New Books
I went to the bookstore today and bought two new books. One for my SLA class that will start in March and the other just out of general interest. The first book is An Introduction to Second Langauge Acquisition Research. I am hoping that this book will be far more readable than the Rod Ellis book that is the set text, which I find incredibly difficult to read and stay focused on.
The second book I bought is Technology and Teaching English Language Learners. I bought this book out of a general interest in CALL. I am a little disappointed that my masters program at Macquarie University does not include a unit on CALL let alone a major. It’s not that I need a class to follow as I can learn all I need on my own. But I do think it would be better to have a more principled approach to my studies.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Monday Feb 16, 2004 at 05:21 PM
general_linguistic_study | Book_Gigilo |
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