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The Passionate Skeptic |
Presentation The Journey of a Passionate Skeptic - speech in Zhengzhou, China, to graduating students from the Holmes Institute - Zhengzhou RVTC International Joint Venture, 8 June 2010
Research [Applied Linguistics] [Formal Linguistics] Language Tangle - Predicting and facilitating outcomes in language education Doctoral dissertation in knowledge worker productivity (specifically, language teacher productivity), from the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 2010. This thesis argues that foreign and second language teaching productivity can only reach its proper potential when it is accorded priority, second only to language learner productivity, amongst the many competing productivities which are always asserted by stakeholders in educational institutions. A theoretical foundation for the research is established by examining the historical concept of productivity, and its more recent manifestation as knowledge worker productivity, especially as applied to teachers. The empirical basis of the thesis is sourced from a chronological series of twenty biographical case studies in language teaching venues in Australia, New Zealand, Oceania and East Asia. The biographical case study methodology, although rare in applied linguistics, is justified by reference to its wide and growing application in other fields of qualitative research. The case studies are analysed for common patterns of productivity, as well as teaching productivity inhibition or failure. Fluency and Accuracy in Language Teaching Abstract : This is the outline of a seminar on teaching methodology given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, in November 2009. The seminar indicates a fundamental difference in objectives between language learning for certification and learning for live use. Whereas accuracy is an absolute goal within schooling contexts, its value on the street is highly variable. This difference is reflected in teaching perspectives. ... Other articles on language teaching herePhotos A photo essay from students in Zhengzhou photo index
Thor's New China Diary - Somebody Else’s Problem
~~~~ odd man out ~~~~ The Peoples Republic of China has many faces, and its inhabitants come in every imaginable shade of character. The seven deadly sins are richly represented, and a healthy bouquet of virtues can be found as well. There are however some constants in public life. Whoever the PRC belongs to, it is not Joe Wang and Molly Liu on Jiefang Lu in any of the 700 cities or countless thousands of villages. It probably isn’t the old men in Zhongnan Hai either, or even the Black Hands that shadow every lucrative trade. Perhaps, in the tradition captured so well by Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the place is really owned by some prissy field mice wheeling a UFO above the Yellow River plains. In any case, it is totally predictable in every imaginable situation that in China nobody traceable is responsible for anything, ever. continue reading SHORT CUTS 225. The Friendless Road of Independence He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and slurred, "I'll take you to a place that has some girls". He meant, of course, a brothel and became offended when I declined. Our cross-cultural friendship hit the rocks. Yet this estrangement was not really about a taste for working girls. It could have been about praying to this god or that, to belonging to one academic clique or another, to being a willing participant in some 'company culture' (regardless of whether it was corrupt or honest), or even about sharing a cigarette. Above all, people crave converts to their cause, co-conspirators in their crime, or fellows in shared weakness (this last, the foundation for many a marriage). Without the validation of others, few can rest at ease. An orgy of shared backslapping is as close to truth and certainty as many care to come. True independence, in the world of men and women, is not often a road to friendship or acceptance. _______ 224. Celebrity as Aphrodisiac Celebrity is amongst the most powerful of all human motivators. It is a potent aphrodisiac: witness the camp followers. It drives Hollywood wannabes, pop stars, sports 'heroes', would-be terrorists (thanks to George Bush et al with their trillion dollar 'eternal war on terror' ), politicians and stunt men. The spermatozoa's race for the egg has a lot to answer for. _______ 223, Innovation is not Problem Solving Innovation is the habit, or the knack, or finding new premises. It is problem questing rather than problem solving. Our best schools and universities hone problem solvers of a certain kind. Give the finest graduates of these places a problem with well-defined premises and they are awesomely efficient at finding a solution that fits the premises. In fact, their education is largely a matter of fitting their brains out with a list of acceptable premises. They are clever twits. Historically universities have been holding pens for clever twits, but the high paying habitats of corporations and government departments have attracted them in increasing numbers. Witness Wall Street's financial whiz kids for a recent consequence. Most human problems have long been familiar, especially the social and economic kind. That is, their premises have been defined, typically by culture and tradition. In each culture, the local clever twits enforce their solutions based on accepted premises. Yet the human social and technical matrix, mixing and whirling ever faster, also crashes repeatedly. Injustice is rife, incompetence endemic, happiness elusive. When things fail utterly, the clever twits in desperation seize, in the most amateurish way, upon any stray proposition thrown into the ring, In such unstable environments the clever twits frequently have neither a moral compass, nor a skeptic's trained eye, nor the eccentric habits of innovators who can cast old premises through a new prism, and find the hidden catalyst in an unsuspected premise, the key to unlock those old problems that we thought we knew so well. more short cuts .... Unwise Ideas 47. The contest for Competence If some people don't break the rules sometimes, then a normal society will cease to function. Breaking the wrong rules for the wrong reasons is like breaking legs though. And if everyone breaks the rules, then a society will disintegrate. A paradox? Yes. See how this cake is baked... more. Poetry [ also see Thor's Poems at http://thormay.net/literature/poems.html ]
Feature Life, Content Mangagement Systems, and the Answer to Everything From time to time I have picked at CMS/blog machines, and wondered how to migrate the now denigrated "static" html of my sprawling site to the tidy content of databases. The main attraction has been the incorporation of some way to give readers a voice, assuming there are any readers left out there. A few years ago, they used to send a steady stream of e-mails, but now expect something more instant and public. The voices have fallen silent.... more
WRITING Managing Downward Spirals - Getting from Here to There Hey, will you be here tomorrow? Seg back twenty years and all the news was of a planet overrun by recklessly breeding humans. Today in the media of rich nations, the slightly hysterical whisper is that liberated women are on a baby strike and we’ll all be doomed to robot care in our old age. This downward spiral of fertility is an almost sedate affair in the grand scheme of things. Compare it to the supposed disappearance of dinosaurs after the nuclear winter from earth's traffic accident with a giant meteor. People though, count for more than dinosaurs, don't they... (continued ...)
<> Bus to Heaven (a story for learning English) Every morning Helen put her left shoe on before her right shoe. She combed her hair before she put on any mascara. And she made her bed before she ironed her dress. There wasn't any special reason for doing things in that order. It was just a habit, and she never thought about it... (continued ...) <> Mr Dog Looks for Breakfast Mr. Dog woke up one Spring morning and yawned.He stretched his legs and wrinkled his nose.Then he sniffed the breeze. There were many interesting smells in the air.He could smell the jaoze steaming in Mrs. Li's kitchen. That made his to tongue hang out, and he panted a little with pleasure.Presently he caught another scent. It was that damned Tabby cat. He frowned, and growled deep in his throat.The silly thing was watching him for sure, hiding behind a fence or something. He looked around suspiciously, but Tabby was not to be seen... (... continued)
writing & photography on this site is
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see the video, "Born 1945 - Still Running Strong" (2.5 minutes) here
see the video, "Teaching English is Fun " (4.5 minutes) here
see the video, "The Journey of a Passionate Skeptic " (4 minutes) here
©2009 Thor May