SHARE
Year
6
Number 142 March
5th 2005
6700 SHARERS
are reading this issue of SHARE this week
__________________________________________________________
Thousands of candles can be lighted
from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being SHARED
__________________________________________________________
Dear
SHARERS,
After all I did not
get up so early this morning. 7:30? Almost 8:00? I forget now. But it was not
that early or else good old Ernie would not have got up with me. Ernie, in his
old age now (he´ll be fourteen next August), has taken to sleeping long
hours,especially during the morning (as a good friend of mine would say that´s a
“half-truth” as Ernie actually sleeps most of the day). For not so old dear
SHARERS, let me clarify that old
Ernie is our Doberman! Martin had breakfast with me this morning
(unusually early for him!) because he´s studying for a final exam at College
next Monday and, as it usually happens to all of us, we only discover we would
have needed “a little bit longer” two days before the test. Sebas slept until
Marina called everyone for lunch. He insists that, this being his last year at
secondary school, he has all the right to rest since University is bound to be
pretty hard next year (he´s not quite decided what he will take up,
yet).
I spent all morning
finishing SHARE with both windows of the study wide open and Marina getting
everything ready for an afternoon with friends by the poolside . I have almost
finished this issue of SHARE and soon it will be in your mailboxes. La vita è
bella, isn´t it? Well, it´s Saturday and it´s summer. What else could you
expect? Why can´t we have a year which is all bright Saturdays? It´s only a
question of trying, I suppose.
Love
Omar and
Marina
______________________________________________________________________
In
SHARE 142
1.-
Applying Corpus Linguistics to Classroom Teaching.
2.- How to deal with fallacies in
Education.
3.- Adapting Tasks to Learning
Styles.
4.-
First Virtual ELT Conference.
5.-
III Encuentro de Gramática Generativa.
6.-
New Tools for Teachers Easter Course.
7.-
Resourceful Teaching and NLP.
8.-
“El Placer de Traducir”.
9.-
Positions Vacant.
10.- Support
Learning at ZEAL.
11.- B.A.
in English (Literature).
12.- Immersion
Course for Teachers of English in
13.- Conference on Critical Discourse
Analysis.
14.-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.- APPLYING
CORPUS LINGUISTICS TO CLASSROOM TEACHING
Our dear SHARER
Daniel Krieger wants to generously SHARE this article with all of
us.
Corpus
Linguistics: What It Is and How It Can Be Applied to Teaching
Daniel Krieger
Siebold University of Nagasaki (Nagasaki, Japan)
Introduction
In recent years a
lot of investigation has been devoted to how computers can facilitate language
learning. One specific area on the computer frontier which still remains
quite open to exploration is corpus linguistics. Having heard a
declaration that corpora will revolutionize language teaching, I became very
curious to find out for myself what corpus studies have to offer the English
language teacher and how feasible such an implementation would be. This
article will address those questions by examining what corpus linguistics is,
how it can be applied to teaching English, and some of the issues involved.
Resources are also included which will assist anyone who is interested in
pursuing this line of study further.
What is Corpus
Linguistics?
Corpora,
Concordancing, and Usage
In order to conduct
a study of language which is corpus-based, it is necessary to gain access to a
corpus and a concordancing program. A corpus consists of a databank of natural
texts, compiled from writing and/or a transcription of recorded speech. A
concordancer is a software program which analyzes corpora and lists the
results. The main focus of corpus linguistics is to discover patterns of
authentic language use through analysis of actual usage. The aim of a corpus
based analysis is not to generate theories of what is possible in the language,
such as Chomsky's phrase structure grammar which can generate an infinite number
of sentences but which does not account for the probable choices that speakers
actually make. Corpus linguistics’ only concern is the usage patterns of
the empirical data and what that reveals to us about language behavior.
Register
Variation
One frequently
overlooked aspect of language use which is difficult to keep track of without
corpus analysis is register. Register consists of varieties of language which
are used for different situations. Language can be divided into many
registers, which range from the general to the highly specific, depending upon
the degree of specificity that is sought. A general register could include
fiction, academic prose, newspapers, or casual conversation, whereas a specific
register would be sub-registers within academic prose, such as scientific texts,
literary criticism, and linguistics studies, each with their own field specific
characteristics. Corpus analysis reveals that language often behaves
differently according to the register, each with some unique patterns and rules.
The Advantages of
Doing Corpus-Based Analyses
Corpus linguistics
provides a more objective view of language than that of introspection, intuition
and anecdotes. John Sinclair (1998) pointed out that this is because speakers do
not have access to the subliminal patterns which run through a language. A
corpus-based analysis can investigate almost any language patterns--lexical,
structural, lexico-grammatical, discourse, phonological, morphological--often
with very specific agendas such as discovering male versus female usage of tag
questions, children's acquisition of irregular past participles, or
counterfactual statement error patterns of Japanese students. With the proper
analytical tools, an investigator can discover not only the patterns of language
use, but the extent to which they are used, and the contextual factors that
influence variability. For example, one could examine the past perfect to see
how often it is used in speaking versus writing or newspapers versus
fiction. Or one might want to investigate the use of synonyms like begin
and start or big/large/great to determine their contextual preferences and
frequency distribution.
Applying Corpus
Linguistics to Teaching
According to Barlow
(2002), three realms in which corpus linguistics can be applied to teaching are
syllabus design, materials development, and classroom activities.
Syllabus
Design
The syllabus
organizes the teacher's decisions regarding the focus of a class with respect to
the students’ needs. Frequency and register information could be quite
helpful in course planning choices. By conducting an analysis of a corpus which
is relevant to the purpose a particular class, the teacher can determine what
language items are linked to the target register.
Materials
Development
The development of
materials often relies on a developer's intuitive sense of what students need to
learn. With the help of a corpus, a materials developer could create exercises
based on real examples which provide students with an opportunity to discover
features of language use. In this scenario, the materials developer could
conduct the analysis or simply use a published corpus study as a reference
guide.
Classroom
Activities
These can consist
of hands on student-conducted language analyses in which the students use a
concordancing program and a deliberately chosen corpus to make their own
discoveries about language use. The teacher can guide a predetermined
investigation which will lead to predictable results or can have the students do
it on their own, leading to less predictable findings. This exemplifies data
driven learning, which encourages learner autonomy by training students to draw
their own conclusions about language use.
Teacher/Student
Roles and Benefits
The teacher would
act as a research facilitator rather than the more traditional imparter of
knowledge. The benefit of such student-centered discovery learning is that the
students are given access to the facts of authentic language use, which comes
from real contexts rather than being constructed for pedagogical purposes, and
are challenged to construct generalizations and note patterns of language
behavior. Even if this kind of study does not have immediately quantifiable
results, studying concordances can make students more aware of language
use. Richard Schmidt (1990), a proponent of consciousness-raising, argues
that “what language learners become conscious of -- what they pay attention to,
what they notice...influences and in some ways determines the outcome of
learning."
According to Willis
(1998), students may be able to determine:
Barlow (1992)
suggests that a corpus and concordancer can be used to:
Problematic Issues
Involved
Several challenges
are involved in implementing the use of a corpus for the purpose of
teaching. The first is that of corpus selection. For some teaching
purposes, any large corpus will serve. Some corpora are available on-line
for free (see appendix 2) or on disk. But the teacher needs to make sure
that the corpus is useful for the particular teaching context and is
representative of the target register. Another option is to construct a
corpus, especially when the target register is highly specific. This can be done
by using a textbook, course reader, or a bunch of articles which the students
have to read or are representative of what they have to read. A corpus
does not need to be large in order to be effective. The primary
consideration is that of relevance to the students--it ought to be selected with
the learning objectives of the class in mind, matching the purpose for learning
with the corpus.
Related to the
issue of corpus selection is that of corpus bias, which can cause frustration
for the teacher and student. This is because the data can be misleading;
if one uses a very large general corpus, it may obscure the register variation
which reveals important contextual information about language use. The
pitfall is that a corpus may tell us more about itself than about language
use. Another obstacle to confront is the comprehensibility issue: if you
use concordancing in a class, it can be quite difficult for the students (or
even the teacher) to understand the data that it provides. Lastly, the
issue of learning style differences--for some students, discovery learning is
simply not the optimal approach. All of these points reinforce the caveat that
careful consideration is required before a new technology is introduced in the
classroom, especially one which has not been thoroughly explored and
streamlined.
Exploiting a Corpus
for a Classroom Activity
Although corpora
may sound reasonable in theory, applying it to the classroom is challenging
because the information it provides appears to be so chaotic. For this
reason, it is the teacher's responsibility to harness a corpus by filtering the
data for the students. Although I support having students conduct their
own analyses, at present I see corpora’s greatest potential as a source for
materials development. Susan Conrad (2000) suggests that materials writers
take register specific corpus studies into account. Biber, Conrad and
Reppen (1998) emphasize the need for materials writers to acknowledge the
frequency which corpus studies reveal of words and structures in their materials
design. (See Appendix 1 for an example).
Taking a Closer
Look at "Any"
As an English
teacher, I have always taught "any" in the following way:
A corpus study by
Mindt (1998) concluded that 50% of any usage takes place in affirmative
statements, 40% in negative statements, and only 10% in interrogatives. My
own concordance analysis bore his claim out, so I constructed the following
exercise to represent the percentage distribution of the three structural uses
of any, using ten representative examples. The purpose of this exercise is to
get the students to discover three usage patterns and their relative
frequency. These concordance lines can also be exploited for other
purposes such as defining functions and common language chunks of any. It is
assumed that an exercise like this would be part of a lesson context in which
the students were studying quantifiers or something related.
Appendix
1
A Closer Look at
"Any"
Part
1
Read through the
following lines taken from a concordance of the word any.
Source: Corpus of
Spoken Professional American English
What conclusions
can you draw about the use of any?
Part
2
What are the three
main uses of any in order of frequency?
Any 1:
Any 2:
Any3:
Appendix
2
Links to Help You
Get Started
References
© Daniel Krieger, 2003.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.-
HOW TO DEAL WITH FALLACIES IN EDUCATION
Our dear SHARER
Juan Carlos Demarchi has sent us this article:
In a previous (and
generous) serving
of well-argued hooey, Professor Plum
raised the intriguing question of how looney and harmful "movements" catch on in
education. Why aren't they hooted off the stage with signficiant vigor as
soon as their proponents show up with red nose, fright wig, clown shoes, and
fake flower squirt?
One answer is that the essential goofiness is hidden
within cleverly disguised logical fallacies of which teachers, administrators,
ed students, and families are unaware. They are therefore easily
gulled.
Now these same fallacies would never work in other
situations. For example, you are visiting Uncle Ned (perhaps YOUR
Uncle Ned) in London, England, and you order a large shipment of fish and chips
(or perhaps jellied eels). And you are instead served a bowl of foul
gruel. You say to the gruel purveyor, "Hey, what's this mess? This
isn't what I ordered." And they say, "All the BEST people are now eating
gruel. In fact, Her Majesty, The Queen, tucks into her luncheon rations
with great delight." And you say, "The Queen. The Queeeen! I
don't care WHAT 'The Queen' tucks into. Since when is she an authority on
lunch?"
In other words,
you're not taken in for one second by this OBVIOUS fallacy called appeal to
authority.
Why, then, are we
such idiots when it comes to eduillogic? An ed perfesser or conference
speaker spouts, "Piaget says...." and everyone nods like an amiable cow chewing
its noonday portion of cud.
I think it's because the world of daily life
(outside schools and ed schools) has pretty clear consequences, and these
keep us alert to nonsense and other forms of oompus-boompus. I
mean, if you don't find SOMEthing wrong with the Her-Majesty-The-Queen scam,
you're going to end up with a bowl of gruel. But teachers and ed students
don't KNOW what's going to happen if they fail to challenge the drivel they get
in conferences, workshops, and courses. And so, they willfully suspend
disbelief.
Professor Plum has written this post in the Yuletide Spirit,
in hopes it will make his Dear Readers hypercynical to what they read and hear
in edland. "Oh, yeah, sez you!" In other words, Readers will see
everything presented by the ed establishment as an opportunity to test the null
hypothesis--which in this case is, "What bunk. Pure nonsense. Odious
piffle."
Second, this post provides tools for identifying hidden
hooey. A later post will provide opportunities to apply the logical tools
to statements made by educationists.
So, here we go...
Common Fallacies of Relevance
and Ambiguity
Fallacies of relevance and ambiguity have to
do with logical errors in everyday (and research) arguments. The errors may the
result of sloppy thinking; they may be unintentional slips; or they may be
rhetorical tricks to sway gullible audiences. By studying these
fallacies, you will become fluent at spotting errors in your own and in other
persons' arguments. Definitions of the fallacies are from the work of Copi
(1986) and Downes (1996). Useful exercises involve spotting fallacies in
articles and books, TV commercials, political speeches, and everyday
conversation. For example:
"My husband was having, you know, personal
difficulties," says Mrs. Reginald Waddington Bassett-Bassett of Upper
Bingley. "But now he takes Niagara!! And what a difference!
He's up all night!!"
[So, based on ONE case--an anecdote--we
should all run out and get a bottle of Niagara?]
1. Arguing Against the
Person (argumentum ad hominem)
The fallacy of ad hominem is committed
when an argument attacks an opponent (e.g., a person or group with a different
view) rather than the opponent's evidence and logic. Sometimes, the person or
group is said to have negative qualities; and therefore, the opponent's argument
should not be accepted. This is the abusive version of the ad
hominem argument. For example:
"You can’t accept the implications of B.F.
Skinner's research. After all, he was a behaviorist."
Sometimes the ad
hominem argument is that a person's or group's position should not be
accepted because of their special circumstances. This is the circumstantial
version of the ad hominem argument. For
example:
"Oglethorpe is an engineer. Of course she
advocates focused and systematic math instruction based on solid research. She
must be biased."
In other words, it's implied that the opponent's
argument is invalid because the opponent benefits from the argument or because
the opponent has to believe what he or she says, and therefore the argument
cannot be trusted. However, these considerations are irrelevant to the
validity of the opponent's argument.
Ad hominem arguments can
be handled by: (1) determining whether the arguer presents credible evidence in
support of his own position and/or against the opponent's position; (2)
identifying the negative characterization of the opponent and revealing how this
characterization is used to invalidate the opponent's argument or position; and
(3) showing what sort of solid evidence is needed to invalidate the opponent's
position and/or support the arguer's position.
2. Prejudicial
Language
This invalid argument uses emotionally
loaded words to persuade an audience that the arguer's position, conclusion,
or suggestion is reasonable and acceptable because it seems morally good, or
that an opponent's position, conclusion, or suggestion is unacceptable because
it seems morally bad. The emotive words "pump up" the audience, and give the
audience the sense that it is on the side of right. For example,
"In contrast to the rigid, piece-meal and
conformity-fostering curricula forced on children by advocates of explicit
instruction, our child-centered curriculum provides children with a seamless
series of authentic and meaningful experiences that foster self-esteem and
enable children to develop their inner potentials."
Appealing as it
sounds--assuming that pure twaddle has an appeal--this argument gives no data on
what "explicit" vs. "child-centered" curricula actually do and what the
curricula actually yield--so that a reasoned comparison and choice can be made.
Instead, the arguer uses words (not precisely defined) appealing to the
audience's negative sentiments about conformity and piece-meal instruction, and
positive sentiments for children, authenticity, and development. The implication
is that anyone who disagrees with the arguer is against children, individual
development, and authenticity.
This argument can be handled by: (1)
identifying prejudicial words and showing how they are used to sway the
audience; and (2) showing that the arguer has no credible evidence for his or
her position or against his or her opponent's position.
3. False
Dilemma
In this fallacy, an arguer makes it seem as
if there are two or three (and only two or three) opposing options; e.g., two
possible ways to understand things, two ways to interpret data, two conclusions
that can be drawn, or two responses to a problem. Then the arguer tries to
discredit or invalidate the position(s) he or she opposes. This appears to leave
only the arguer's position--which, by elimination, the audience is logically
bound to accept--if the audience falls for the false dilemma. For
example:
"There are only two kinds of
data--quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (meanings, interpretations,
narrations). Quantitative data say nothing about how children make sense
of their school achievements. But this is just the sort of information we need.
Therefore, we must choose qualitative over quantitative data."
The false
dilemma, here, is that research cannot be divided neatly: (1) into
qualitative vs. quantitative data, and (2) into data that tell about persons'
experiences vs. data that do not tell about persons' experiences. In fact,
quantitative data can speak to how persons see things (e.g., teachers can count
the number of times per day that they blame students for not getting the
material); and some qualitative data say nothing about how persons see things.
So, the argument gives a false choice. The way out of this argument is to
show that the forced, limited choice is false and to suggest additional
options.
4. Appeal to Popularity (argumentum ad
populum)
This invalid argument involves persuading an
audience to accept a speaker's or writer's conclusions because other persons and
groups already do so. For example,
"Hundreds of schools and businesses in the
United States have school-to-work programs. So do some foreign countries. There
is substantial government funding for these programs. Obviously, Smith's
opposition goes against the trend."
The implication is, "How can Smith argue
against these programs? How can Smith be right and so many other persons and
groups be wrong?"
Unfortunately, this argument is often effective. For
instance, a study by Solomon Asch showed that at least one-third of the
participants in his experiments agreed with the majority's judgment about which
line was longer even when the group's judgment was obviously wrong. Subjects
went along to avoid being the lone nonconformist. Similarly, jurors in trials of
teachers and day care workers accused of child abuse said they went along with
the majority even though they believed the defendants were innocent; they just
could not see how they alone could be right when so many other persons had the
opposite opinion.
This fallacy can be handled by: (1) showing how the
arguer appeals to popularity to support his or her conclusions; and (2) showing
that the popularity of a position is not evidence for the validity of the
position. For example, jurors have convicted innocent persons; our species
long thought the sun revolved around the earth; and education in the United
States and other countries has been dominated by faddish ideas and methods that
later proved worthless.
5. Appeal to Pity (argumentum ad
misercordiam)
This fallacy is similar to the appeal to the
population; it, too, relies on emotion. An arguer implies that his or her
explanations, conclusions, positions, or suggestions should be accepted, and/or
that alternative explanations, conclusions, positions, or suggestions should be
rejected, because failure to agree would injure the arguer or some other
persons.
For example, before there was much research on whether full
inclusion of students with special needs did any good, many groups advocated
full inclusion of children with severe mental retardation in classes for
typically developing children by appealing to readers' sympathies.
"Will we continue to keep these children in a
shadowland--outside the circle of warmth and protection with their fellow human
beings? Will we add even more misery to their lives? Or will we at last provide
them with their rightful place?"
The appeal to pity can be handled by:
(1) showing how the argument appeals to the audience's sensibilities (e.g.,
about the difficult lives of many persons with disabilities); (2) showing that
the argument does not give direct evidence that supports the position (e.g.,
that inclusion leads persons with disabilities out of a "shadowland," decreases
"misery," or helps them achieve a "rightful place") or that refutes opposing
positions; and (3) that the argument (e.g., advocating full inclusion) may be
against the interests of persons whom the argument claims to support.
6.
Fallacy of Division
This fallacy is the argument that the
characteristics of a whole (e.g., an automobile engine is heavy) apply to all of
the elements (therefore all of its parts are heavy). An example of the
fallacy of division in education would be an argument that the average
test scores in a school are high; therefore, all children in the school (or all
classes in the school) got high scores (or were proficient). In fact, some
classes may have gotten very high scores, which pulled up the average (school)
scores.
7. Fallacy of Composition
This fallacy is the flip side of the fallacy
of division. It's the fallacy of arguing that the characteristics of elements
(e.g., an engine's parts are light) apply to the whole (therefore the engine is
light). An example of the fallacy of composition is arguing that: (1)
since all of the children and teachers in a school improved their skills a great
deal, therefore, (2) the school as a whole improved a great deal.
The problem is that the school is a social
organization; it has features (organizational features) that its elements
(individual human beings) do not have. Teachers and students (elements) may have
learned new skills, but: (1) the school division of labor (a feature of the
whole) may still involve a high degree of specialization and little
collaboration among teachers; (2) there may have been no change in patterns of
power; and (3) there may have been no change in relationships with
families.
8. Argument From Ignorance (argumentum ad
ignorantiam)
There are two forms of this fallacious
argument:
1. There is no solid evidence that
supports a position, conclusion, or suggestion. Therefore, the position,
conclusion or suggestion must be false, invalid, or generally unacceptable.
Or,
2. There is no solid evidence that a
position, conclusion, or suggestion is false, invalid, or unacceptable.
Therefore, the position, conclusion or suggestion must be true, valid or
acceptable.
For example:
Ms. White: "You say new teachers should be
assessed for licensure by portfolios. But you don't have evidence that
portfolio assessment leads to the selection of better
teachers?"
Ms. Wong: "Maybe not. But you don't have
evidence that portfolio assessment doesn’t lead to selection of better
teachers."
Ms. White is right; Ms. Wong is wrong.
Advocates for a conclusion, technique, treatment, curriculum, or social policy
are obliged to provide positive evidence (supporting data) for what they
advocate. In other words, lack of evidence is not evidence. That's why
prosecuting attorneys must prove that defendants committed a crime; defendants
don't have to prove that they didn't.
9. Slippery Slope
In this argument, a person claims that
failure to accept his or her conclusions or suggestions, and/or acceptance of an
opponent's conclusions or suggestions, will have increasingly bad effects. For
example:
"If state boards of education require
publishers to have empirical evidence that their textbooks or curricula are
effective, that will be the thin end of the wedge by which school boards take
away more teacher autonomy. Soon they will require that we submit lesson plans
to school boards for approval. Moreover, this policy will inhibit publishers
from developing new materials, and so we will have to use increasingly obsolete
materials."
This is an appeal to fear. No evidence is presented that
adverse effects will occur or cannot be stopped.
10. False Cause
(post hoc ergo propter hoc)
"Post hoc ergo propter hoc" is Latin for
"After this, therefore because of this." An argument commits this fallacy when a
person claims that because one event follows another event, it was caused by
the prior event. However, the fact that one event follows another event may
be coincidence. There may be no causal connection at all. Each event may be
caused by a separate chain of causation. Or two events may be caused by a third,
unknown event. Here is an example of post hoc ergo propter hoc.
"We pre-tested students' math skills. Then we
implemented the new 'Creative Calculus' math curriculum. And then we gave
students a post-test. Post-test scores were much higher than the pre-test
scores. Therefore, Creative Calculus is effective."
After Creative Calculus, therefore because of
Creative Calculus. Math
scores may have changed, but not because of the new curriculum. Perhaps teachers
communicated to students that they had high expectations that students would
succeed (which they did not communicate with the old curriculum); or
perhaps the post-test was easier than the pre-test; or perhaps some students
with the lowest math aptitude dropped out after the pre-test (and so their
likely low post-test scores could not drag the average down). Many other
extraneous factors could account for the findings.
We could more clearly show whether the
curriculum does or does not work by conducting an experiment with equivalent
groups. One group gets the new math and the other gets the old math. If the
group that receives the new math has higher pre-test to post-test differences,
and if all other extraneous variables are pretty much equal across the two
groups, then we can begin to suspect that the curriculum makes a
difference.
11. Wrong Direction
In this fallacy, the direction of cause and
effect is reversed. For example,
"The rates of mental illness increase
as we examine data from suburban to inner city areas. Therefore, inner city
areas cause mental illness more than suburban areas."
It is more likely
that as some persons who live in suburban areas become mentally ill, and cannot
hold their jobs, they lose income, abuse drugs and alcohol, lose their families,
and end up homeless in the inner city. In other words, moving into the inner
city does not cause mental illness. It’s the other way around; some people move
into the inner city because of impairments resulting from mental illness.
Here is another example of the fallacy of
wrong direction.
"When you observe cooperative learning
groups, you find that the high status students end up running discussions and
learning the most. Therefore, cooperative learning groups produce social
inequality."
It's just as likely that causation runs in the opposite
direction; students who enter cooperative learning groups with high social
status and skills control discussions from the start. The cooperative learning
format may sustain inequality, but inequality was already there.
12.
Begging the Question (petitio principii)
In this fallacy, no empirical evidence is
given to support a conclusion. Instead, the conclusion merely restates the
premise. For example,
1. "God exists."
(premise)
2. "I know God exits because if
something exists I will know it." (evidence)
3. "Since I know God exists, God must
exit." (conclusion)
Well, that clears things up nicely! Here's
another example:
1. "Children who are most disruptive in
class have ADD (conclusion) because
2. Children with ADD usually engage in
a lot of disruptive behavior (premise)."
It may be true that ADD is associated with
(indeed is partly defined by) disruptive behavior. However, this does not imply
that most disruptive behavior in classes can be traced to children with
ADD. Children without ADD also engage in disruptive behavior.
Read the two statements again. Note that the
conclusion and the premise say virtually the same thing. If you aren't careful,
the premise seems to provide good reason for the conclusion.
Here's still another example of petitio
principii (begging the question).
1. "Whole language is an effective way
to teach children to read (conclusion) because
2. "Whole language uses literature rich
environments and authentic materials which are conditions that foster
reading skill (premise: evidence)."
Again, the premise that is supposed to
provide good reason (evidence) for the conclusion merely restates the
conclusion. However, no empirical evidence is given on, for example, how many
children in a group could read before and after whole language, in contrast to a
comparison group that received an explicit phonics curriculum.
13.
Converse Accident (Hasty Generalization)
The fallacy of hasty generalization is
committed when a generalization is made from an exceptional case (or what
later turns out to be an exceptional case) to a larger population of events.
For example, I helped develop a curriculum for autistic children. This
curriculum was quite successful. However, it would have been a hasty
generalization to imply that the curriculum would be as effective with
other autistic children in the larger population. Why? Because our sample
of 35 children may have been exceptional in some way--i.e., not representative
of the larger population of autistic children. The children we worked with may
have been younger; less impaired; living with parents who were more skilled at
teaching their children. What worked with our sample of children may not have
worked with other children. Therefore, before generalizations were made about
how the curriculum might be used with other children, it was replicated
with more and more samples of children--younger, older, more impaired, less
impaired, single-parent families, two-parent families, families with much social
support, families with less social support, etc. The more times the curriculum
was replicated with different samples, and still shown to be effective, the more
confident we could be about making generalizations to the larger population of
children with autism and their families.
14. Equivocation
This fallacy is committed when the meaning
of one or more important words changes during an argument to make the
conclusion seem valid. For example,
"Virtually all of experience consists
of constructs such as time, space, objects and cause-effect (premise).
Therefore, we may say that children construct their own experiences
(conclusion)."
The conclusion that children construct experience seems
plausible--because the meaning of "construction" changes between the premise and
the conclusion. In the premise, "construct" is a noun. Constructs are
things--tools--by which children create experience. In the conclusion,
"construct" is used again--only now it is a verb synonymous with "make."
Since the same word is used in the premise and conclusion, a reader may accept
the conclusion, just as one would accept the argument, "A rose is a rose is a
rose." Well, of course it is! However, just because experience consists of
constructs, does not mean that experience is constructed. Constructs (and
experience) could be transmitted through communication, shaped without a child's
noticing as the child interacts with her environment and learns
language.
We have examined informal
fallacies--arguments using words in a way that makes false or unsupported
conclusions seem reasonable--to an inattentive or naive audience. But we
are no longer inattentive or naive. We will not be fooled
again.
From
Professor Plum's
Relentless Rants on Eduquackery
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.- ADAPTING TASKS TO
LEARNING STYLES
Our dear SHARER Liliana Geranio has sent us
written this article to SHARE:
Adapting
Tasks to Learning Styles
Prof.Liliana
Geranio
Universidad Autónoma
de Entre Ríos, Argentina
Undoubtedly, we, language teachers, are
always in search for the latest innovative technique to achieve success in our
lessons. Yet, more often than not, we find out that the least elaborate lessons
may turn out to be the most memorable.
What does success in language teaching and
learning depend on? How can we make it happen? We can revise some of the options
we have at hand so as to make a difference in our learners and in our
lessons.
The brain is the site of language
acquisition. How can teachers "help" brains learn faster and better?
Choosing the appropriate tasks is one important step and it will depend
on the level the students have and
also on their learning styles.
Sometimes, we choose a task thinking it will
work and it does not. Or it works for a group, but not for the others.
I have spent a lot of time analysing why this happens. And I
came to the conclusion that it is because their different learning
styles.
That is the reason why I consider we
have to know the group before we
choose the tasks we will use in the classroom..
What I
generally do, is to provide the students with different kinds of tasks
taking into account whether their learning styles are active, reflexive,
theoretical or pragmatic.
Of course there is always a predominant style
in the group, so the majority of the activities will be chosen according to that
style. But we do not have to forget the minority.
To provide our students with the same
opportunities to learn does not mean they have the same book, the same schedule,
the same activities, the same tests... The teacher’s favourite teaching style
may mean an unconscious favouritism to those students with the same mental
thought and qualities. Analyzing learning styles offers psicological indicators
that help to guide personal interactions and facilitate a way although limited
of self-knoledge.
Many educators ignore their students learning
styles, their capacity to keep new information or acquire new skills. A
great improvement has been proved when students receive teaching adapted to
their own learning styles.
Investigations have proved the
diversity and relativity of learning. We can find people who organize their
thoughts in a lineal, sequential way while others prefer a holistic one. These
different points of view will condition the use of time, daily planning, change
vision and future
perspective.
More than this, different authors have showed that
people “think” differently, get the information, process it and keep it and
recover it in different ways.
Learning Styles Theories have confirmed this
diversity among people and proposed a
way to improve learning through the teachers’ and students’ personal
conciousness on the different
learning styles.
So, we face an extraordinarily important
subject in a world in which “learning to learn” is going to become one of the
capacities of social “survival”.
Researchers have proved that external
manifestations respond to natural dispositions and also to a result of past
experiencies and learning, different according to context and
culture.
Learning Styles are defined in
different ways by different authors and according to different investigations.
The majority of them coincide in the fact that it is related to the way in which
information is processed by the mind or how this information is influenced by
each person’s perceptions.
A learning style is a student’s consistent
way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning. There are
various instruments used to determine a student's learning style. The first
style to be discussed is VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic), which is derived
from the accelerated learning world, and seems to be about the most popular
model nowadays. Its main strength is that it is quite simple, which appeals to a
lot of people.
Kolb's learning inventory describes a
learning process and a style, which makes it quite interesting. It can be
thought of as a simpler version of the MBTI (Carl Jung and Myers Briggs Type
Indicators) which is based upon determining the personality type. Kolb's version
uses two dimensions, while the MBTI uses two similar dimensions, plus two
additional ones.
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences seems
to provide the most promising outlook for diversifying
learning.
VAK Learning Styles
The VAK learning Style uses the three main
sensory receivers - Vision, Auditory, and Kinaesthetic (movement) to determine
the dominate learning style.
Learners use all three to receive
information. However, one or more of these receiving styles is normally
dominant. This dominant style defines the best way for a person to learn new
information by filtering what is to be learned. This style may not always to be
the same for some tasks. The learner may prefer one style of learning for one
task, and a combination of others for another task.
As teachers, we need to present information
using all three styles. This allows all learners, no matter what their preferred
style is, the opportunity to become involved. It also allows a learner to be
presented with the other two methods of reinforcement. Just because we prefer
one style, does not mean that the other two do us no good. On the contrary, they
help us to learn even faster by reinforcing the material. Some hints for
recognizing and implementing the three styles are:
Auditory learners often talk to themselves.
They also may move their lips and read out loud. They may have difficulty with
reading and writing tasks. They often do better talking to a colleague or a tape
recorder and hearing what was said. To integrate this style into the learning
environment:
Visual learners have two subchannels -
linguistic and spatial. Learners who are visual-linguistic
like to learn through written language, such as reading and writing tasks. They
remember what has been written down, even if they do not read it more than once.
They like to write down directions and pay better attention to lectures if they
watch them. Learners who are visual-spatial usually have difficulty with
written language and do better with charts, demonstrations, videos, and other
visual materials. They easily visualize faces and places by using their
imagination and seldom get lost in new surroundings. To integrate this style
into the learning environment:
Kinaesthetic learners do best while touching
and moving. It also has two subchannels - kinaesthetic (movement) and tactile
(touch) They tend to lose concentration if there is little or no external
stimulation or movement. When listening to lectures they may want to take notes.
When reading, they like to scan the material first, and then focus in on the
details (get the big picture first). They typically use color highlighters and
take notes by drawing pictures, diagrams, or doodling. To integrate this style
into the learning environment:
Putting the Styles
Together
First, it should be noted that no single
measurement of style ensures that a learner's needs will be met. It is perhaps
more important to build an adaptable learning environment that presents the
material in a variety of methods than try to determine each learners personal
style. Likewise, recognizing our own style will help to ensure we do not
unintentionally force one learning style upon the learners. The more styles we
address, the easier the instruction will be received by the learners. This is
because we will be striving to reach their needs, not ours. Also, material
presented in a variety of methods keeps the learners interested and reinforces
itself.
4. Bibliography
v
Alonso, C.M.
(1991)Estilos de Aprendizaje: Análisis y Diagnóstico en Estudiantes
Universitarios.
Madrid:
Universidad Complutense.
v
Alonso C.M. y Gallego,
D.J. (2003) Cómo diagnosticar y mejorar los estilos de aprendizaje.
Madrid: UNED, Formación
Permanente.
v
Alonso C.M., Gallego,
D.J. y Honey, P. (1999) Estilos de aprendizaje. Bilbao: Mensajero.
v
Alonso C.M. y Gallego,
D.J. (2004) Estilos de Aprendizaje: teoría y práctica. CDROM, Madrid: UNED.
v
Butler, K. (1988) Learning
and teaching style in theory and practice. Columbia: The Learners
Dimension.
v
Canfield, A. A. y Lafferty, J.
C. (1976) Learning Style Inventory. Detroit: Humanics
Media.
v
Claxton, C. S. y Murrel, P. H.
(1987) Learning Styles. Washington, DC: ASHE-ERIC.
v
Conner, Marcia & Hodgins,
Wayne (September 14, 2000). Learning Styles http://www.learnativity.com/learningstyles.html
v
Conner, Marcia & Hodgins,
Wayne (September 14, 2000). Learning Styles
v
Duda, R. y Riley, P.
(1990)Learning Styles. Nancy:Press Universitaires de Nancy.
v
Dunn, R. (1996) How to
implement an supervise a learning style program. Alejandria, VI: Association
for Supervisión and Curriculum Development.
v
Dunn, R.y Dunn, K.
(1984) La Enseñanza y el Estilo Individual de Aprendizaje. Madrid: Anaya.
v
Dunn, R.; Dunn, K.y Perrin, J.
(1994) Teaching Young Children Through Their Individual Learning Styles.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
v
Dunn, R. y Griggs, S. A. (1995)
Multiculturalism and learning styles: Teaching and counseling
adolescents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
v
Dunn, R. y Griggs, S. A. (1998)
Learning Styles and Nursing Profesión. New York: NLN
Press.
v
Gardner, Howard (1993).
Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (10th Anniversary
Edition). NY: Basic Books.
v
.Grasha, A. y Richlin, L. (1996)
Teaching with style: A practical guide to enhancing learning by understanding
teaching and learnings styles. Pittburgh, PA: Alliance
Publishers.
v
Griggs, S. A. (1991) Learning
Styles Counseling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of
Michigan.
v
Honey, P. y Mumford, A. (1986)
Using our Learning Styles.Berkshire, U.K.: Peter
Honey.
v
Hoover, J. J. (1991)
Classroom Aplications of Cognitive Learning Styles. Boulder, Colorado :
Hamilton Publications.
v
Jung, C. G. (1933).
Psychological Types.
New
York: Harcourt, Brace.
v
Keefe, J.W. y Thompson, S. D.
(1987) Learning style theory and practice. Reston,
VA:NASSP.
v
Kolb, D. (1985) LSI (Learning
Style Inventory): User´s guide. Boston: McBer &
Company.
v
Riding, R. y Buckle, C. (1990)
Learning Styles and Training Performance. Sheffield: The Training
Agency.
v
On-line:
http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/Academia/KierseyLearningStyles.html
or http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon.
v
Congreso Internacional
de Estilos de Aprendizaje. (2004) .UNED. Madrid.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.- FIRST VIRTUAL ELT
CONFERENCE
First virtual ELT conference - the Future of
Modern Languages Teaching - hosted entirely on-line by the Department of Modern
Languages, Cultures and Literatures, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, from
4-10 July 2005.
Participants log on from all over the world at their own
location and in their own time
and are invited to comment on other papers
submitted. This virtual conference is FREE.
Papers are welcomed within one or more of the
following thematic categories:
1. Education
Teaching of Modern Languages, Cultures and
Literatures;
2. Multiculturalism in Languages
Courses Classes;
3. Internet for Modern
Languages;
4. Composition, Creative Writing and
Grammar;
5. Teaching Foreign
Languages;
6. Teaching Cultural
Studies;
7. Teaching Foreign
Literatures;
8. The Bologna Process and Modern
Languages Courses.
Papers may still be submitted for
presentation in this virtual forum. Please send abstracts (up to 500 words) to
cfmceia@netcabo.pt no later than June 19th,
2005.
For further details please see http://www.fcsh.unl.pt/cv2005
-----------------------------------------------------------
5.- III
ENCUENTRO DE GRAMÁTICA GENERATIVA
Our dear SHARER Elena Ganazoli de Marson has
sent us this announcement:
III Encuentro de
Gramática Generativa
Los días 18, 19 y 20
de agosto de 2005 se llevará a cabo, en la Facultad de Humanidades de la
Universidad Nacional del Comahue, de la ciudad de Neuquén, el III Encuentro de
Gramática Generativa. Al igual que en las dos primeras ediciones, celebradas en
la Escuela Superior de Idiomas de la Universidad Nacional del Comahue (General
Roca) en noviembre de 2001 y el I.E.S en Lenguas Vivas "Juan Ramón Fernández"
(Buenos Aires) en agosto de 2003, el principal objetivo de este encuentro es
estimular la discusión acerca de los temas salientes de la lingüística
generativa actual y, paralelamente, establecer un ámbito de encuentro e
intercambio para los grupos de investigación sobre gramática generativa de
nuestro país.
Trabajos
El tiempo de
exposición para cada trabajo será de treinta minutos, con diez minutos
adicionales para preguntas (aproximadamente 12 páginas A4 con letra Times New
Roman 12 y espaciado simple). La selección de los trabajos se basará en los
resúmenes, que podrán ser enviados hasta el 1º de mayo de 2005 y en los que
deberá explicitarse marco teórico, hipótesis y objetivos del trabajo (extensión
máxima: 1 página A4 con letra Times New Roman 10 y espaciado simple). El 31 de
mayo se informará a los autores si su ponencia ha sido aceptada para su
presentación.
Los trabajos deberán
ser contribuciones originales a la teoría lingüística y/o a la descripción
gramatical de una lengua particular. Las áreas temáticas son fonología,
morfología, sintaxis, léxico, semántica, interfaces (fonología-morfología,
sintaxis-morfología, sintaxis-léxico, etc.), adquisición del lenguaje, filosofía
del lenguaje.
Arancel
El arancel de
inscripción al encuentro es de $30 para todos los participantes, salvo los
estudiantes de grado, que quedan exceptuados del pago. Se otorgarán certificados
a los ponentes y a los asistentes.
Comité
académico
Elena Benedicto
(Purdue University)
Marcela Depiante
(Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
Angela Di Tullio
(Universidad Nacional del Comahue)
David Embick (University of
Pennsylvania)
Olga Fernández Soriano
(Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Celia Jakubowicz
(Université de Paris V – CNRS)
Nora Múgica
(Universidad Nacional de Rosario)
Jairo Nunes
(Universidade de Sao Paulo)
Josep Quer (ICREA
& Universitat de Barcelona)
Comisión organizadora
Por la Universidad
Nacional del Comahue: Ángela Di Tullio, Adriana Álvarez, Marcela Depiante,Andrés
Saab, Sandra Cvejanov,
María de los Ángeles
Dalmau y María Eugenia Llambí.
Por CONICET/
Universidad de Buenos Aires Moira Alvarez, Lucía Brandani y Laura Kornfeld y
Pablo Zdrojewski (CONICET)
Informes: Para mayor
información, escribir a: encuentrogg@yahoo.com.ar
------------------------------------------------------------
6.- NEW TOOLS FOR TEACHERS
EASTER COURSE
Thursday,
March 24 - 10:00 to 13:00
VULGAR ENGLISH
In this workshop we broach the
subject of taboo words, vulgarities and insults. We discover the hidden meanings
of innocent looking words and we reflect on how languages differ when expressing
violence, anger and some biological processes. We attempt to answer the often
asked question, “How do you say...” which lots of students put to us. We will
listen to a comedian elaborating on the seven words you cannot say on the
radio or TV. Participants will receive a full set of exercises, an answer
key, and an annotated bibliography.
A repeat version will be offered on
Saturday, April 16, 10:00 to 13:00
Thursday,
March 24 - 14:30 to 17:30
BRAIN BASED LEARNING AND TEACHING
We learn
mostly with our brains, anyway, but is the teaching that our students are
subjected to brain compatible? We will explore the notion of brain
compatibility and whether the research on how the brain works is relevant to the
teaching of English as a foreign language. We will set a framework to elucidate
if brain compatible teaching can bring about a revolution in the EFL classrooms,
and to answer the question of whether BBL/T is a genuine new trend or just a
fashion.
Repeat version: Saturday, April 23, 10:00 to 13:00
Friday,
March 25 - 10:00 to 13:00
MODELS OF THE WORLD: AN INTRODUCTION
Most
difficulties in communication stem from the fact that we think that our model
of the world is the same as that of our interlocutors. In this session we
will discuss how understanding the way in which we build our models of the world
can help us connect with most people respectfully and compassionately.
Awareness of the diversity of models of the world should be a key concept in
educational theory and practice.
Repeat version: Thursday, May 12, 17:30 to
20:00
Friday,
March 25 -14:30 to 17:00
CORRECTING ERRORS: A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
In this session we will
quickly review how attitudes towards errors have changed over the past twenty
years, fundamentally from a linguistic point of view. We will then proceed to
present a humanistic perspective which is applicable not only in language
teaching but in the whole spectrum of education and in the art of
living.
Repeat
version: Thursday, June 9, 17:30 to 20:00
Saturday,
March 26 - 10:00 to 13:00
EXPERIENCING MEDITATION
What is meditation
anyway? Is it something that just yogis or hermits engage in? Is it
something removed from the concerns of the busy teacher whose valuable
time can perhaps best be spent on catching up with the latest trends in ELT or
going to the gym to let off steam? Can meditation be just an alternative to
physical exercise or can it offer something quite different that can really help
people unwind at a deeper level and assist them into connecting with their
essence? In today's world and in a country where an increasing number of people
are on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication either medically or self
prescribed, with the ensuing negative consequences, meditation can prove to
be a true oasis and a starting point for true transformation. Teachers owe
it to themselves to become knowledgeable of it and, bold and strange though it
may seem, consider ways to introduce it in the classroom. Foreign language
teachers have a unique opportunity to introduce meditation unobstrusively
in their lessons. Come and find out how.
Repeat version: June 30, 17:30 to
20:00
•
Venue for the whole Easter Course : New England School of English – Santa Fé
5130
Ciudad de Buenos
Aires. Repeat versions will be held at SBS Palermo, Coronel Diaz 1747, Ciudad de
Buenos Aires.
•
Admission fee for each session $20. Any three sessions $50. Any four sessions
$60. Whole course $70. These discounts are not valid for the repeat versions.
•
Limited vacancies. Registrations on a first come, first served basis. We cannot
reserve your seat unless you have paid for it.
All sessions will be conducted
by Oriel E.
Villagarcía
Profesor
en Inglés, Universidad Nacional de Tucuman, M.A. in Linguistics for ELT from the
University of Lancaster, England, graduate studies at the University of Texas,
Fulbright and British Council Scholar, Master Practitioner of NLP, Certificate
of Completion, NLP University, Santa Cruz, California, Certified Administrator
of the Myer Briggs Type Indicator, CAPT, Florida, Certified Breema Practitioner,
Certified reflexologist. Oriel has studied Thai Massage, Esalen Massage, Jin
Shin Jyutsu, Polarity, Shiatsu, yoga and Chi Kung among other mind body
disciplines. He was Head of English Department at the Universidad Católica de
Salta, taught Linguistics at the Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto, and NLP at
the Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero. He is a co-founder of what is
today FAAPI (Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de Profesores de Inglés) and
co-founder and first president of ASPI, Asociación Salteña de Profesores de
Inglés.
REGISTRATION
1.
Personally at any of the SBS Brances throughout the country. Check addresses,
phone numbers, etc. by visiting www.sbs.com.ar Be sure to indicate
exactly which sessions you are registering for. Once you have paid, email
newtoolsforteachers@yahoo.com.ar
with the
information. Include your full name, address, phone number and email.
2. By
fax. Select the session you will attend and make a deposit in any of the
following Stratford Book Services accounts:
Banco de Galicia cce
9750 442-1006-1
Banco Bisel cce 75636-5 suc 185
Ban Sud ca
672-472277
Banco Suquia cce 32-16-028759-0
Send a
fax of your deposit slip with your full name clearly written and the
sessions that you are registering for to SBS Parque Chacabuco, (011) 4 926 0194,
4921 8983, and send an email to
newtoolsforteachers@yaho.com.ar
with the relevant information, i.e. full
name, phone number, address, sessions you will be attending and details of your
deposit in the SBS account.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7- RESOURCEFUL TEACHING AND
NLP
Our dear SHARER Jamie Duncan has sent us this
article:
Resourceful
Teaching and NLP
Many teachers
already know what NLP is. If it is
a new term for you, you are welcome to visit our webpage www.resourcefulteaching.com.ar for
more information, or send us an email with your snail-mail address to receive
our free booklet with information about NLP and our courses and
publications.
As there has been
an increasing growth in the use of the term "the Resourceful Teaching Approach"
we would like to clarify a little bit what RT is. Even though the basis of everything we
do is NLP, when we started to specialise in the field of Education, we carried
out research in other fields, complemented our courses with knowledge and
information that came from other disciplines (following the NLP adage which says
that we should use everything that works, and making our approach functional and
eclectic). After a couple of years,
our students and ourselves discovered that we had given birth to something new, and
started calling it "The RT Approach".
We would like to
point out that "The RT Approach" is NOT an ELT Methodology, but rather, it is a
practical philosophy. In
Resourceful Teaching we work on three areas of interest:
1.
The first one is
the teacher.
When we speak about
the great need of changes in Education, we know that as teachers -unless we
start to work for the Ministry of Education in the area of design and planning -
there is not much we can do, unless we do things to grow and improve
ourselves. We teachers and parents
agree that there are lots of things which should be done, but very few people
take the first step. When we work
in this area, we require that the teachers get to know themselves better, become
more complete and fulfilled human beings, develop a level of awareness that
helps them see beyond their classes.
We guide teachers to develop their vision, discover their mission and
align themselves with their beliefs and values. We show them ways to establish rapport
with their students, the students' parents, the coordinators and heads of their
schools and institutes. We help them become aware that the best place to start
to improve Education and the world is US, our own selves. We analyse peaceful
ways to solve conflicts and put them into practice! We support their learning process with
patience and love, modelling the attitude we would love to see in the educators
of our time. Training: we offer the RT NLP Practitioner Course, and Master
Practitioner Course, and the three-day retreat like course "A Spa for the
Teacher's Soul" (For more info, write to spaforsoul@aol.com ) For teachers who want to work on their
own we are about to publish "Really Thriving, a manual for teachers who want
to grow". We will let you know
as soon as it is available.
2. The second area
of application is the one which is more similar to a traditional teaching and
learning approach, which is the development of materials, activities, classroom
ideas to foster creativity, flow and enthusiasm during the learning
process. We have one book available
now: Passionfruit by Jamie Duncan with loads of ideas to use in the
classroom. We offer our short courses twice a year in Buenos Aires, and we
travel to other cities, provinces and countries and participate in Conferences
to share what we do with our students with our colleagues.
3. The third area of application is the
student itself. We have developed
materials and ideas to help our students know themselves and their learning
styles better, so they can take the reins of their own learning, be committed
with the learning material and find ways to make good use of their time, energy
and inner states. The RT approach
here goes beyond traditional student training, as it is not a simple list of
"tips"-though they can be extremely useful to start with-, but a responsible way
to lead our students through insights that will help them be the protagonists of
their learning. The book
"Aprendiendo ingles y disfrutando el proceso" by Laura Szmuch is a book
for students- though a lot of teachers, schools and institutes are using it -
with RT and NLP techniques to guide them through the process of acquisition of
the language.
If you would like
to get more information about the publications send an email to : resourcefulbooks@aol.com
So when our
students finish our courses, they are not only NLP Practitioners, but also they
have specialised in Education with the empowering awareness of their own inner resources plus all the knowledge
and experience that they gain throughout the course.
We feel more than
satisfied when we see so many teachers who have taken our courses who tell us
that their relationship with the profession is completely different after they
have taken the course, that they have improved their personal lives and their
teaching, that they have started training teachers around the country in
workshops, seminars and conferences using our approach and materials, that some
of them have developed their own materials based on what they learned in the RT
NLP Practitioner course (e-mail us if you want more info about what they are
doing as regards, for example, the teaching of Phonetics, or the teaching of
Literature using RT/NLP techniques and we will connect you with
them).
This is part of a
fourth aspect of our work, which has to do with networking, putting people
together, growing and expanding, reflecting on values and helping teachers be
the great professionals our world deserves.
Enrolment for this
year’s Practitioner Certificate in NLP for Education is now open. The course starts in April and is held
one Saturday a month. If you would
like more information about it please contact us at rtcourses@resourcefulteaching.com.ar
We are giving a
FREE TALK on Saturday 12 March from 10.00 – 12.00 Versailles, City of Buenos
Aires.
Find out more about
Neuro Linguistic Programming, its application to education and the Resourceful
Teaching approach to teaching and learning. Get information about the Practitioner
Certificate in NLP for Education.
Enrolment for the
FREE TALK is essential.
Contact us to enrol or for any other
information: Laura Szmuch:
Lauraszmuch@aol.com, or Jamie Duncan jamie@abaconet.com.ar or
rtcourses@resourcefulteaching.com.ar
Phone enquiries to (011
4641-9068)
Venue: Gallardo 719, Versailles, Ciudad
Autónoma de Buenos Aires
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8- “EL PLACER DE
TRADUCIR”
Our dear SHARER Sylvia Falchuk has sent
us this invitation:
Torre de Papel y AATI
– Asociación Argentina de Trductores e Intérpretes-lo invitan a la presentación
del libro de Leandro Wolfson :”El Placer de Traducir”
Actividad no
arancelada, con inscripción previa.
Miércoles 30 de marzo
de 2005, de 19 a 21
Hotel El Conquistador
– Salón Hidalgo, Subsuelo - Suipacha 948 - Buenos Aires,
Harán referencia al
autor y la obra María Cristina Pinto, presidenta de AATI, Miguel Ángel
Montezanti, docente de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata e investigador del
Conicet, y Sylvia Falchuk, directora de Torre de Papel.
En la segunda parte de
esta Presentación, Leandro Wolfson responderá preguntas que le hayan formulado
por escrito los inscriptos. Cada asistente deberá consignar su pregunta en el
formulario de inscripción. ¿Qué le preguntaría usted a un traductor profesional
de muchos años de experiencia?
Formulario
de Inscripción Clic aquí
Si por alguna razón,
después de haberse inscripto, usted no puede concurrir, le solicitamos nos lo
haga saber para que otro colega pueda inscribirse en su lugar.
Informes e
Inscripción: Torre de Papel www.torredepapel.com.ar
jornadas@torredepapel.com.ar -
Tel./Fax: 00-54-11- 47752198
Habrá un puesto de venta de material
bibliográfico especializado de Torre de Papel.
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