Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I'm curious if other countries have days dedicated to love, as well? What are they? When are they? What special things do you do?

Image via www.rachelsenglish.com

Here are a few posts around the internet about Valentine's Day and language used in love:

How technology changes the way we date

Nicknames for people we love in English--What's your favorite? We call our daughter "Sweet Pea" and "Peaches."

How to be romantic in English

What's your love language? Mine is "Acts of Service."

A Valentine's Day lesson plan.

Not a romantic? Here's the opposite of Valentine's Day.

Image via grammar.net

Have a great weekend!

Secrets for Adults ELLs, Part 2

I recently posted about secrets for adult ELLs, and the difficulty some students can have with immersing themselves in English when they have young families or spouses who don't speak English. I won't go into detail in this post; you can read the original post here. My original post was a reaction post to Alexandra Lowe's TESOL blog post, which discussed "secrets" adult language learners provided for other language learners. 

Image via TESOL.org

Alexandra recently posted a follow-up which provided some clarification about her original post about how students can increase their English exposure and use, even if they can't "run away" from their native languages. She wrote, "the advice was certainly not intended to discourage students from  speaking their L1 at home with their family. Rather, it is designed to encourage adult ESL students in the United States to resolve to speak English whenever they have an opportunity to interact with the English-speaking world around them." Because this is really what we ask our students to do, isn't it? We encourage them to speak English whenever they can because they already have enough exposure to their L1 (native language). They speak it with their spouse, parents, children and/or friends. Teachers should be encouraging them to use English in every other situation when they aren't communicating with loved ones. 

Alexandra elaborated on different ways adult learners can improve their language skills. These include: speaking to English customer-service representatives (rather than those who are Spanish-speaking); declining translators at their children's school meetings; inviting English speaking children (and their parents) over for play dates, which result in English practice for both children and parents; establishing ESL meet-ups for informal conversation practice with people who speak languages other than their L1. You can see her whole post and read all of the suggestions here. 

Image via http://union.unimelb.edu.au/clubs/let-s-talk-conversation-group

The last suggestion (group conversation meet-ups) reminds me of CMU's Conversation Partner Program. We set up students with native English speakers, but I like the idea of groups of students getting together to chat. I think it would be even more effective if the students set up the groups so that learners who have children can discuss with other parents. They could even bring their children if they cannot find babysitters. This option may be more effective and practical for students with families and spouses, especially if their spouses also want to practice speaking English. 

There are, of course, other ways for students to increase their exposure to English. They can join student clubs and volunteer. I think the lesson to take away is that it's essential for students to try to use the target language as much as possible, and it is essential for teachers to help students figure out ways to increase their English language use. Other suggestions for how students can increase their exposure to the target language?

Slash, Part 2.

Do any of you watch Parks and Recreation on NBC? I love it; and in last Thursday's episode Andy (supporting character) uses slash as a conjunction! Check it out witht the link below. It starts at 5:44 and ends about 6:02.

Parks and Recreation: Swing Vote

He's the "lead singer, slash song writer, slash t-shirt designer, slash nacho chef." Love it!

Slash

Here's a great article by Dr. Anne Curzan, a fabulous University of Michigan linguist, on the use of slash as a conjuction, i.e. "I am a teacher slash blogger." I didn't have the opportunity to take Dr. Curzan's class, as she was on sabbatical when I was enrolled in  "her" education course, but I did read her book. I think she's brilliant.




Picture via NPR.org

This is a great example of how typing has influced the way we speak, like when people say "OMG," as they would in a chat, rather than saying "Oh My Goodness."

Here's the full link: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/04/24/slash-not-just-a-punctuation-mark-anymore/ or read a synopsis of it here from NPR.

P.S. More by Dr. Curzan

Idioms

NPR's Morning Edition had a great story about idioms in English. They interviewed the editor of the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms... a true lover of words. The interview was loaded with great expressions that we use (and often take for granted) every day.

Elephant in the Room via NPR.org and iStockphoto.com

What a great way to share expressions with students who are interested in expanding their idiomatic vocabulary!  I like that so many of our expessions come from Shakespeare, such as "cold fish." We're in the middle of mid-terms now and the one that seems most apropos is "the straw that broke the camel's back." What are some of your favorite expressions?

Check it out here: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/28/173060110/dictionary-of-idioms-gets-everybody-on-the-same-page

Scene from "The Miracle Worker"

The "water" scene from The Miracle Worker is a great way to introduce the power of language.

 

My writing students are going to be writing literary autobiographies (autobiographies of their literary, written, reading, and spoken, experience), and I am going to show this video as an introduction to the theme of literacy and the power of language. There is also a nice quotation in our textbook from Helen Keller's biography The Day Language Came into My Life, which shows how powerful this moment was in her life:

"I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of [Annie's] fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of languaeg was revealed to me. I knoew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living world awakened my soul, gave light, hope, job, set it free... I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave a birth to new thought. As we returned to the house, every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me" (p. 122-3).

I wonder if my students ever had this "realization" in English. Does anybody remember a feeling like this with learning another language? Did it ever just "hit" you and you "got" it?

That's What They Say

I found a great show from Michigan Public Radio called, "That's What They Say," and it's with University of Michigan professor Ann Cruzan. Lots of great segments on langauge, so check it out here.