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Describing Nature
I don’t know what to say about the school schedule over here in Korea. It is, all at once, breathtakingly stupid and perfectly reasonable. I don’t know whether to rise up and fight it or applaud it...
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The Fine Line of Praise
Even if it is your job Excepting the few very self-confident extroverts, most foreign language students exhibit quite a bit of shyness, or fear of judgment, that holds back their willingness to really...
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Language and Authority: Why languages disappear
Language and Authority – part 1 We began this discussion on the broad topics of defining language and we found it more difficult than perhaps popularly believed. This time, we will discuss the trend...
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정 and The Four Loves
Broadly speaking, it is always a delicate task whenever a foreigner attempts to speak with any amount of insight on the major cultural tenets of their host country. Specifically, it is perhaps even...
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National Unification, Bilingulism and Official English
Language and Authority – part 1 and part 2 Proponents of Official English claim that they seek merely to recognize a state of affairs that has existed since the founding of the nation. After two...
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A Plea for Sanity this National (US) Grammar Day
Reblogged from harm·less drudg·ery: I love National Grammar Day. I also hate National Grammar Day. That may be surprising--after all, I'm a journeyman grammarian. I make my bread deciding whether a...
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Linguistic Consciousness-Raising
A few months ago, I saw a video of the Star-Spangled Banner being sung in Navajo. It triggered a moment of clarity for me in that, I recognized in myself no conflict with the song being sung in...
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The Foreigner Fallacy
“They said most English teachers use students for money and show no respect to Koreans and have an arrogant attitude to us because they can speak English. One friend said they want teacher who has...
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The sad, beautiful fact
Surrender is the moment when you say, “I bet every single one of those 1,000 books I’m supposed to read before I die is very, very good, but I cannot read them all, and they will have to go on the list...
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The 20/80 Experience: A look at English Input/Output at one Korean Middle School
I’ve heard many times (though, interestingly, never in my university theoretical classes) that the ideal amount of teacher input to student output is 20% to 80%. This magic number actually does not...
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The 20/80 Experience: Initial data and analysis
The 20/80 Experience: part 1 – background Last post, we introduced the idea of input/output as described by Krashen and Swain; and their importance or relevance in the second language classroom....
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Sneaky Grammar: Why you’re not in the habit of taking just one tennis lesson
Linguistics, for me, has been something of a drug. There is something delicious about using the scientific approach to the study of language that I never experienced in my K-12 education. In the...
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“I don’t understand why I have to follow this textbook”
Teaching from a textbook can be frustrating. It provides safety and structure but limits creativity and,as we have seen, can’t always be trusted to provide authentic data-driven input. The above...
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Unstressing with the Schwa
It’s that special time of year again for students here in Korea. Final exam time. And the bi-yearly festival of putting off your studies and instead cramming for standardized tests has been in...
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Learner Motivation
Yesterday, my students did a practice essay test. They had to write, basically, one paragraph that made some sense and try, if you can please, to limit the grammar errors. The topic was, “what is...
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Historical and moral arguments for language reclamation
Reblogged from History and Philosophy of the Language Sciences: Ghil‘ad Zuckermann University of Adelaide Language is an archaeological vehicle, full of the remnants of dead and living pasts, lost and...
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Extremely Embarrassing Spelling
I’ve finished grading essays and spent the last couple of days evaluating my students speaking abilities, of which I do have some things I want to say. But before I write that piece, I want to write...
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Rachel Jeantel, Black English and Linguistic Authority
As a linguistics undergraduate who was interested in preserving Endangered Languages, I realized quickly that the general population of the United States holds mostly contrary views concerning language...
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Virtues and Weakness, Cross-culturally
I often find that who I think I am, and the things I value, present a completely different image to other people than to myself. That who I think I am, often is interpreted as something that I...
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Language Exchange Lament (and a lesson plan for Listening)
There is a popular method for informal language learning here in South Korea (and I’m sure other places) that goes by the name “language exchange”. The name is appealing. It suggests a business-like...
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