Random Quote

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett

The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself.
---- Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
---- John Ciardi

Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown

No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.
---- Albert Einstein

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett

Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)

To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland

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

Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown

Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel

A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous

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

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater.
---- Gail Godwin

Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)

To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov

We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells

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 Thursday February 19 2004

logo

Still ironing out my logo design. Not happy with what I have now - will work on it more tomorrow.

Yech, it’s ugly



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Feb 19, 2004 at 07:25 PM
web_site | Permalink |

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.



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Feb 19, 2004 at 12:52 PM
Vocabulary | Permalink |
 Wednesday February 18 2004

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 | Permalink |
 Tuesday February 17 2004

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.



Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Feb 17, 2004 at 11:02 PM
Vocabulary | Permalink |
 Monday February 16 2004

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 | Permalink |
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