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分享 [轉載]Reading Into Writing 2

carldy 2012-2-26 10:58

http://eca.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/BR/functionalsec2_2.htm Reading Into Writing 2 Contrastive Rhetoric Robert B. Kaplan This chapter begins by discussing the concept and origins of the term contrastive rhetoric. In a brief description of the writing process, the questions of appropriate topics, acceptable evidence, and effective organization are discussed, and culturally and linguistically specific ways of describing the world are described. A model for the writing process is presented, focussing on the impact of author, content, audience, purpose, time, place, and genre of the writing situation. Finally, effective and ineffective examples of written English are presented and analyzed. Introduction What is contrastive rhetoric? Partly based on Whorfian ideas of the relationship between language and thought, it is an hypothesis claiming that (while mathematical logic may be universal) the logic expressed through the organization of written text is culture-specific; that is, it posits that speakers of two different languages will organize the same reality in different ways (Kaplan, 1988; 1987). That they should do so seems self-evident, because different languages provide different resources for organizing text. However, this filtering of text logic through language is largely unconscious; that is, learners of an L2: are not aware of the way in which their L1 influences the way they organize text logic, are not aware of the way in which an L2 organizes text logic, and are not aware that there is a difference. As Kellerman notes, Coping with new ways of 'thinking for speaking ...' means attending to features of context that are either not relevant or are defined differently in the native language... (1995: 141). Initially, the idea underlying contrastive rhetoric arose from practical daily experiences of L2 writing teachers, who can, with astonishing accuracy, identify the first language of students writing in the L2 on the basis of the way in which they structure their texts. Christensen (1967) devised an outline-like methodology for examining the way in which propositions were related to each other in text. Kaplan (1966) applied that analytic mechanism to texts written in English by speakers of other languages to show that such writers organized their texts differently; he extended the analytic technique to a pedagogical method to help students become conscious of these differences. He believed that, if students could see differences between the way they organized text in their L1 and the way typical English texts were organized, they could more closely approximate the text logic--the propositional relationships--characteristic of English. Admittedly, the earliest work in contrastive rhetoric was significantly flawed, attempting to compare student writing in L2 with professional writing in L1, ignoring differences in genre, and assuming that there was a single general text-logical structure for English. Subsequent research has demonstrated these flaws (Leki, 1991). Much recent work has concentrated on contrastive studies between two specific languages in which the constant was English text-logic and the variable was the text-logic of another language; there has now been fairly extensive study of English and some other languages (for which, see e. g., Kaplan, et al. , 1983; Connor and Kaplan, 1987; Purves, 1988). More recent work, rather than attempting to generalize across genres, has focused on particular text genres (e. g., Cantor, 1994; Kaplan, et al. , 1994; Lux, 1991; Mauranen, 1993; Swales, 1990a, 1990b; Touchstone, 1995; Touchstone, Kaplan and Hagstrom, 1995). The Act of Writing There are four questions, entirely culturally based, that a writer must face at the start of any cross-linguistic exercise in writing: What can be discussed? What is evidence? How can that evidence most effectively be organized? To whom may a text be addressed? What can be Discussed? A native speaker of American English, may, for example, be willing to discuss intimate aspects of his/her sex life, but may be unwilling to discuss bathroom functions, labeling any attempt to do so as scatological. English contains euphemisms for bathroom functions and facilities (pee pee, number one, men's room, lavatory, bathroom). Similarly, native speakers of American English may be reluctant to discuss death, using euphemisms in this register as well (the deceased, the dearly beloved, crematorium, mortuary park). Speakers of other languages may be reluctant to discuss their intimate relationships, but may find a discussion of bathroom functions or of death quite natural. What is natural in any given cultural context constitutes the key. What is Evidence? Confucianists are likely to regard the sayings of Confucius as evidence; devout Moslems may regard the precepts articulated in The Koran as evidence, and devout Christians are apt to quote The Bible as evidence. Inexperienced students may be unable to differentiate between an article in TIME or Newsweek and an article in a scholarly journal with respect to the validity of evidence, or they may be willing to accept as evidence something said by Donahue, or Oprah Winfrey (or one of their guests) during their respective television programs. Indeed, it is this area of evidentiality that gets many students into trouble in the context of plagiarism. In many cultures, if someone has already said something well, there is no need for a student to revise it, and if the source is widely known (e. g., Confucius, The Koran, The Bible) , there is no need to attribute it. It is perceived wisdom that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In the academic world, the criteria for evidentiality are rather more complex, and the English-speaking world is marked by the capitalistic notion that not only ideas but the actual words in which they are couched are the property of the writer. Evidentiality is defined discipline by discipline, and students must learn what counts as evidence in English academic writing and recognize that the standards in other languages might be different. How can Evidence Most Effectively be Organized? Here is the crux of the matter. Writers arrange evidence in terms of their ...abilities to convey just those analyses of the event that are most compatible with the linguistic means provided by their languages... (Berman and Slobin, 1994: 12). Kellerman (1995: 138-139), citing Berman and Slobin's evidence, presents four versions of the same phenomenological event interpreted in four different languages to illustrate the point that the resources available to speakers of different languages prompt somewhat different presentations of the event. Below is a (slightly abbreviated) cross-language example showing how different languages filter the way in which events are related. It comes from transcripts of children with different native languages relating the Frog Story from a set of pictures without words (Berman and Slobin, 1994: 11). All of the children in these examples are native speakers: English And he starts running. And he tips him off over a cliff into the water. And he lands (9; 11) German Der Hirsch nahm den Jungen auf sein Geweih und schmi b ihm den Abhang hinunter genau ins Wasser. (9; 11) Spanish El ciervo le llevó hasta un sitio, donde debajo había un rio. Entonces el ciervo tiró al perro y al niño al rio. Y después, cayeron. Hebrew Ve ha'ayil nivhal, ve hu hitxil laruts. Ve hakelets rats axarav, ve hu higia lemacok she mitaxat haya bitsa, ve hu atsar, ve hayeled ve hakelev naflu labitsa beyaxad. (9; 7) Berman and Slobin claim that the difference between these excerpts is to some extent determined by the linguistic possibilities inherent in each of the languages. The first two, in English and German, describe the complexity of the fall via a series of adverbial particles and prepositional phrases (tips off, over a cliff, into the water; schmib, den Abhang hinunter, ins Wasser). The verbs tip and schmeiben signify the manner in which the deer causes the fall. The Spanish and Hebrew versions resemble each other but differ from the English and German versions. In the former pair, the event is recounted as a series of episodes. First there is a description of location (cliff with river below, place with swamp underneath); then the deer acts and, as a result, the boy and the dog fall. Berman and Slobin point out that the verbs chosen (throw, fall, stop) are bare descriptions of change of state, with no elaboration of manner (Berman and Slobin, 1994:12). Furthermore: These are not random differences between the narrative styles of these...children, but rather show their abilities to convey just those analyses of the event that are most compatible with the linguistic means provided by their languages. English and German provide large sets of locative particles that can be combined with verbs of manner, thereby predisposing speakers toward a dense style of encoding motion events....A different style arises in the other...languages, which rely more on simple change-of-state and change-of-location verbs,...predisposing speakers towards more extended analyses of motion events (Berman and Slobin, 1994: 12). The order of presentation appears to be very culture specific, conditioned by the linguistic resources available in the L1 but also by customary modes of perception. To Whom may a Text be Addressed? All cultures define who may speak and to whom. Academic writing assumes an equality of addresser and addressee; that is, academic writing presumes a context in which peers discuss mutually held ideas. This notion implies that addresser and addressee are defined discipline by discipline; a professional chemist may address another professional chemist, etc. The undergraduate world is, however, differently structured, with an uneven distribution of power; the teacher is more powerful than the student. Students learning to write must learn to cope with this essentially schizoid environment in which they recognize that there is an unequal relationship but must pretend that the relationship is in fact an equal one. Aside from the classroom artificiality, different cultures also have internally consistent hierarchies, and some languages (e.g., Chinese, Japanese) are syntactically marked with elaborate politeness structures designed to deal with that complex hierarchy, differentiating between males and females, elders and juniors, and so on. English to a large extent lacks the syntactic marking (though the hierarchy of English-speaking society is certainly preserved in semantics--see, e. g., the difference between sweat and perspire ). Scollon (1991) takes up the matter in the context of English and Chinese, and there are other studies of specific language pairs (e.g., Yoshikawa, 1978). Towards a Model Thus, text occurs within the phenomenological perception of the community of speakers; it is also constrained historically by the way text has been used in that community and by the kinds of genres available to that community. A speaker of English knows what a sonnet, for example, is, and what it may be used for; a speaker of English is unlikely to use a sonnet to transmit a culinary recipe; a speaker of Japanese is unlikely to use a haiku to transmit a business contract. Speakers of a language recognize certain genres and their uses, and therefore their text production is constrained within that knowledge. A speaker of English is unlikely to write an eight-legged essay, while a speaker of Chinese may, even given that the form is obsolete, produce such a form if it is within the speaker's inventory of available genre. Additionally, there are four kinds of difficulty which may affect a text: Contingent difficulty --use of arcane or technical reference (jargon) familiar only within certain sub-communities; Tactical difficulty --willingness of a writer to be understood only up to a point (perhaps because being fully explicit may be impolite, or politically awkward, or simply dangerous); Modal difficulty --presentation of a view of the human condition which is unfamiliar or inaccessible; e. g., the notion that a White person cannot understand the Black experience; Ontological difficulty --constraints created by the limits of the language itself, best illustrated by nonsense verse (e. g., in Alice in Wonderland or the poetry of e e cummings ). Model of Text Generation and Reception Phenomenological Reality / | Cultural and Historical Constraints / | Availability of different genre | | | text Generator | | | performative ability, intent , and intent to cater to the perception of the receiver, stance toward text, stance toward content -------- Shared Experience | | TEXT | | | four kinds of difficulty* -------- Recognition of available genre | | | Text Receiver | | | performative ability, intent and intent to cater to the perceptions of the generator, stance toward text and content the receiver, stance toward text, stance toward content the generator stance toward text and content Effect On Generator *Four Kinds of Difficulty Effect On Text Effect On Receiver contingent (arcane/techinical references which need to be looked up) tactical (willingness of the generator to be understood only up to a point) ontological (limitations of the language itself) modal (inaccessible or alien interpretations of the human condition) (after Kaplan 1991) Table 1 Given these various considerations, one may construct a rough model of what is involved in the generation of text in any language. Text may, of course, be either written or spoken--the focus here is on written text. (It is not clear to what extent the model for the generation of spoken text is identical to that for written text.) The text generator, text, and text receiver are connected by arrows pointing in both directions, because, obviously, the text generator is also invariably one of the text receivers; text generators normally read what they have written as part of the writing process. When text generator and text receiver are the same person, the shared world knowledge is perfectly matched; this is never the case with any other text receiver. This model addresses the question: Who writes what to whom, to what end, why, when, where, and how? When the model is different across two languages, the task of text creation is difficult, because the information contained at some or all of the nodes of the model will be different; that is, the persona of the writer, the available genres, and the persona of the audience will be different in each language. A COVEY OF EXAMPLES Students may be introduced to some taxonomy of genres like the following: Audience Writing without Composing Writing through composing Knowledge Telling Knowledge Transforming self shopping list diary one known other greeting card personal letter one unknown other check business letter small group known sermon small group unknown large group application form play, poem, novel, story Table 2 A few example genres are provided to suggest what is being sought. Learners can fill in the rest of the taxonomy based on their own writing experience. Once various genres have been inserted into the taxonomy, attention may be given to identifying the features of each cell; e.g., a shopping list is a selected set of items, normally arranged in columnar order, and stated as nouns or brief noun phrases. Not much composing is required to prepare a shopping list . A diary , on the other hand, consists of brief complete sentences; it is narrative in form, recounting selected activities over some stipulated time period (e. g., daily, weekly). Because its purpose is to record events, it is often chronologically organized. The intent is not to comment to any significant degree on the meaning of events; rather, it is to enumerate events, so while composing is involved, it is only a matter of telling what happened, not a matter of transforming events into a story or some other more complex text form. Because a diary deals with past events, the tense is likely to be dominantly past. A personal letter may be seen as a sort of diary made public; one tells a friend or relative about what one has been doing. Questions may occur in a letter, but would be unlikely in either a shopping list or a diary. Furthermore, while a diary may be non-selective--it can list everything the writer remembers--a letter is more selective, since one may choose not to share everything that has occurred since the last letter. These explications of a few of the types are intended to serve as examples of the sort of analysis students may be asked to undertake. The taxonomy also permits the introduction of a discussion of audience. When one writes a shopping list , the audience is quite probably one's self. (If it is some other person, the list will require annotation.) In such a case, the world knowledge of writer and reader are absolutely co-terminus; the writer and the reader have the same knowledge, and there is no need to worry about presuppositions concerning shared information. Once one moves to a form in which even one other reader is involved (e. g., a personal letter ), a different set of considerations must come into play; the writer is obliged to be concerned about the extent to which knowledge is shared between reader and writer and is obliged to explain some events in greater detail so that the reader has a context within which the event can be understood. In each case, students can be asked to define the audience in some detail. For example, in a sermon, the audience and the writer know each other quite well, since they are likely to be together on a weekly basis, but they know each other only in one very specific content--that in which a minister and his/her congregation interact. Some things can be considered shared, while others may not be shared to any significant degree. A minister may choose to deliver a sermon based on the story of the Widow's mite; in doing so, s/he may assume that his/her parishioners know the story and are prepared to grasp what the minister wishes to communicate. On the other hand, if the minister wishes to deal with a complex or controversial topic--for example, abortion--s/he must construct an argument rather than tell a story, with information supplied to establish a common base of understanding, and probably s/he needs to avoid some of the more abstruse points of theology. A simple form may be chosen--for example, a process--and students may be asked to compose the process in different ways based on different audience assumptions; e.g., How to Start a Car assuming cultural and individual familiarity with cars, keys, and locks on the one hand, and on the other hand assuming little experience with this technology. The learners may not initially be asked to write such a text; it is enough for purposes of audience awareness to be able at first to construct an oral text. Up to this point, learners have been asked to manipulate events and impressions; it is time for learners to begin to manipulate ideas. The compositional skills required for texts of narration, description, process, classification, and definition are different from the compositional skills required for texts of analysis and synthesis. (See the important distinction between knowledge telling and knowledge transforming in Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1987.) In the earlier stages of composition instruction, the objectives are to establish a comfort level with the writing activity, to provide practice in the manipulation of grammatical structures, and to increase vocabulary knowledge. All of these objectives can be met through the kinds of writing undertaken at the lower levels--narrative, descriptive, etc. These minimal skills are likely to carry over, to some extent (depending on how well they have been learned), to the essayist writing involved in argumentative, analytic, and synthetic writing. The compositional skills involved in these cognitively more complex activities are significantly different. Contrastive rhetoric analysis is based on an attempt to visualize the relative levels of subordination among the propositions that constitute a text. A proposition is not necessarily a sentence; it may be a phrase, a clause, a sentence, or a cluster of several sentences. In contrastive rhetoric analysis, a proposition is called a discourse unit, and a cluster of closely related discourse units is called a discourse bloc. A discourse bloc analysis looks something like an outline. The similarity in appearance is misleading. First, an outline is a planning document; under ideal circumstances, an outline can be recovered from a text, but in most circumstances it is difficult or impossible to recover an outline (though it is certainly possible to create an outline which reflects the structure of the text). Although a discourse bloc analysis looks like an outline, it has a rather different purpose. The further to the left a unit is placed, the higher it is in dominance of the text. The further to the right a discourse unit is placed, the less dominant it is in the text. Those discourse units occurring furthest to the right often consist of examples and illustrations supporting the text argument. Such discourse units are subordinate to ones placed further to the left. Some discourse units are, of course, parallel to each other--or coordinate. Let us look at an analysis of a shorter text in which it is possible to get down to the level of individual discourse units. (The sentences are numbered for ease of reference.) On the trail of the first Americans (1) It has been believed for a long time that the first inhabitants of America were people from northeast Asia. (2) Anthropologists believe that small bands of nomadic hunters followed herds of animals across the Bering Straits land bridge and into what is now Alaska, later spreading throughout North and South America. (3) There is now some evidence to support this belief. (4) Examination of 20 teeth and 64 tooth sockets of paleo-Indians (the first Americans) which were discovered in Chile in 1936 shows a number of common characteristics which are also found in Asiatic teeth. (5) These characteristics include a shovel-like slope on the front and back of the incisors, an L-shaped ridge on the chewing surface of the lower molars, small bumps on the chewing surface of the lower molars and three-rooted front molars. (6) Since dental features are genetically determined and do not change over long periods of time, it is significant that these teeth are similar to the teeth of northeast Asians (as well as the teeth of present-day North and South American Indians). (7) For example, 353 teeth of paleo-Indians, present-day Indians, and northeastern Asiatics were examined, and all had the shoveling on the incisors. (8) Of 8,000 white American and European teeth, less than one-third had this feature. (9) These findings, then, corroborate the theory that the first Americans came from northern China, Mongolia, Japan, and Asiatic Siberia (Chedd, 1954). In this text, evidence is systematically introduced to support the initial contention. A detailed analysis might look like the following table. (The major semantic link is printed in bold italics; there are also other sets of semantic links through the text.) On the basis of this information it is possible to define the intended audience. (See Table III) Certain generalizations can be drawn from this analysis. Before any generalizations are attempted, it is important to reiterate that no single pattern can represent the complexity of genres available in English or in any other language. While the potential number of available genres in English (or in any language) is very large, academic essayist English does demonstrate certain regularities. Such texts often display complex patterns of semantic collocations which signal the relative relationship of propositions to each other. Further, academic essayist texts often display relatively complex patterns of subordination; there are often many levels of subordination in a text. (At the same time, both relatively simple and excessively complex patterns of subordination tend to mark the text as non-standard; thus, there seems to be a parabolic curve of complexity, with English academic essayist text falling roughly at the apogee of the parabola.) There is nothing in this text type that does not directly contribute to the flow of the argument; tangential information is not comfortably accommodated in such texts. Finally, it appears that the text progresses in a linear fashion from statement of aboutness to termination. This latter phenomenon belies the possibility of the template three- and five-paragraph essay and the notion that the three-paragraph essay has the obligatory features introduction, body , and conclusion . The presence or absence of introduction and conclusion depends on the nature of the text. The illustrative text above does not contain a formal conclusion (although it does contain a summary/recapitulation of the thesis). It might be argued that the first sentence of this text constitutes an introduction , though, more realistically, the first sentence seems to state the thesis of the text. The propositions of this text are not necessarily equated with grammatical sentences. Table III 1.I. Topic statement: ...the first inhabitants of America were people from northeast Asia .... 2.1. Support: ...Anthropologists believe that small bands of nomadic hunters followed herds of animals across the Bering Straits land bridge and into what is now Alaska... a. Support: ...later spreading throughout North and South America... 3.A. Claim of Evidence: ...There is now some evidence to support this belief ... 4.1. Evidence: ...Examination of 20 teeth and 64 tooth sockets of paleo-Indians ... which were discovered... shows a numberof common characteristics which are also found in Asiatic teeth .... a. Definition: ...(the first Americans )... b. Location: ...in Chile... c. Dating: ...in 1936... 5.d. Detailed support: ...These characteristics include:... (I.) List: ...a shovel-like slope on the front and back of the incisors ,... (II.) List: ...an L-shaped ridge on the chewing surface of the lower molars , (III.) List: ...small bumps on the chewing surface of the lower molars and... (IV.) List: ...three-rooted front molars .... 6.e. Argument: ... dental features are genetically determined (I.) Support: and do not change over long periods of time, f. Argument: ...it is significant that these teeth are similar to the teeth of northeast Asians ... (I.) Sub-Argument: ...(as well as the teeth of present-day North and South American Indians ).... 7.2. Evidence: ...For example, 353 teeth of paleo-Indians , present-day Indians , and northeastern Asiatics were examined, and all had the shoveling on the incisors. 8.3. Evidence: ...Of 8,000 white American and European teeth , less than one-third had this feature... 9.B. Summary and Recapitulation: ... These findings , then, corroborate the theory that the first Americans came from northern China, Mongolia, Japan, and Asiatic Siberia .... It may be useful to look at a non-standard text. The following text was written by a native speaker of Tsez who speaks Russian as a second language and is learning English. Language Policy in the Former USSR (1) Soviet period is the most intensive for language planning activities and therefore the understanding not only mechanisms of Soviet language policy, but also the political, historical and demographic context in which all these decisions were taken are of crucial significance to understanding the present day language situation in as well as any other regions. (2) In general two factors determined the character of L Pol in Soviet Union, which are: demographic on the one hand, and political on the other. (3) The significance both of them difficult to overestimate. Political factors: (4) When the soviet power had been established the administration was faced with two pressing requirements: mass communication and mass education. (5) The majority of the indigenous population remained to be uneducated, the majority of the former languages remained to be unwritten. (6) Within this particular situation a certain Language policy become necessary. (7) However its realization was mostly determined by Central Policy, which took into consideration one or another ideological concepts. (8) At the same time those ideological concepts could be realized within certain political and psychological context. (9) The following factor also played significant role in L Pol in Soviet union: it was believed that the contact of different cultures and languages is at least potentially beneficial. (10) Based on this assumption many liders of national minorities work toward the realization of this goal. (11) The first effort of the government toward the promotion of Russian naxodil vseobshuju podderzhku i ponimanije v nacional´nyx regionax.... This text can profitably be compared with the one entitled On the trail of the first Americans, which is roughly similar in length. Both are English academic essayist texts. (The latter text is, obviously, marked by some surface-level non-native speaker characteristics which will be ignored in this analysis.) Much of the development in this text occurs largely at the same level; that is, there isn't much subordination. Further, it will be noted that the argument does not flow smoothly; there is the substantial parenthetical section-- a digression--which interrupts the text flow, and there is a good deal of jumping around from topic to topic without developing any topic adequately. The logical structure of the text is not marked by the presence of advance organizers. Table IV 1.I. Topic Statement: ...Soviet period is the most intensive for language planning activities and A. Explanation: ... therefore the understanding not only mechanisms of Soviet language policy, but... B. Explanation: ... also the political, historical and demographic context in which all these decisions were taken are of crucial significance to understanding the present day language situation in as well as any other regions.... 2.C. Explanation: ...In general two factors determined the character of L Pol in Soviet Union, which are:... 1. Specification: ...demographic on the one hand ... 2. Specification: ...and political on the other .... 3.D. Explanation: ...The significance both of them difficult to overestimate.... 4.E. Explanation: ... When the soviet power had been established the administration was faced with two pressing requirements: 1. Specification: ... mass communication and mass education .... 5.F. Parenthetical material: ...The majority of the indigenous population remained to be uneducated, the majority of the former languages remained to be unwritten.... 6.G. Parenthetical Material: ...Within this particular situation a certain Language policy become necessary.... 7.H. Contrast: ...However its realization was mostly determined by Central Policy,... 1. Specification: ...which took into consideration one or another ideological concepts.... 8.2. Explanation: ... At the same time those ideological concepts could be realized within certain political and psychological context... 9.I. Explanation: ...The following factor also played significant role in L Pol in Soviet union:... 1. Explanation: ...it was believed that the contact of different cultures and languages is at least potentially beneficial.... 10.2. Explanation: ... Based on this assumption many liders of national minorities work toward the realization of this goal 11.J. Explanation: ...The first effort of the government toward the promotion of Russian naxodil vseobshuju podderzhku i ponimanije v nacional´nyx regionax.... Clyne (1994) presents a number of contrastive analyses of various languages (see, esp., Ch. 5, section 5.2 - 5.8, pp. 168-175). Clyne's analysis is derived from a set of five cultural parameters he proposes: Form vs. Content -- English cultures more strongly foreground form while other cultures are more content oriented (186); Verbal vs. Literate -- English cultures stress the written language as the main medium of effective communication while other cultures stress oral language (189); Rhythm of Discourse -- English cultures tend to stress symmetry and do not stress positive politeness while other cultures function differently in both contexts (190); Directionality -- English cultures tend to be unique in their emphasis on linearity (190); Abstractness vs. Concreteness -- English cultures tend to stress concreteness and reasoning (191). These parameters are not to be interpreted as polar oppositions; rather, certain culturally-defined writing practices tend to move in one or the other direction along the posited continua. It seems to me that this sort of analysis of student texts can help students to understand how to organize a text and how to avoid some of the more egregious faults that occur in student text organization--some deriving from first language interference, but some deriving as well from inexperience with text organization. A purpose of such analysis is to bring to consciousness what is typically not perceived. The issue is summarized by Mauranen in a contrastive text linguistic study of Finnish and English: ... differ in some of their culturally determined rhetorical practices, and these differences manifest themselves in typical textual features. The writers seem not to be aware of these textual features, or the underlying rhetorical practices. This lack of awareness is in part due to the fact that textlinguistic features have not been the concern of traditional language teaching in schools....Such phenomena have therefore not been brought to the attention of struggling with writing....Nevertheless, these sometimes subtle differences between writing cultures, often precisely because they are subtle and not commonly observable to the non-linguist, tend to put... at a rhetorical disadvantage in the eyes of readers....This disadvantage is more than a difference in cultural tastes, since it may not only strike readers as lack of rhetorical elegance, but as lack of coherent writing or even thinking, which can seriously affect the credibility of non-native writers (1993: 1-2; emphasis added). The technique can be used as well in helping students to understand summarization, and more generally in helping students to abstract meaning from reading texts. In the classroom, students can be asked to analyze texts they have read; ideally, small groups can work together, and several small groups working on the same text can subsequently compare their analyses and discuss discrepancies. It is perhaps too painful for students to analyze their own texts initially. Teachers may wish to submit for analysis texts written in a prior term. Teachers need to model the approach several times before students are asked to undertake their own analyses. A problem is that texts of reasonable length are required to facilitate the process, and longer texts take more time to analyze. The technique produces results, and students' sense of text organization improves as a result of contrastive rhetoric analyses. Thus, contrastive rhetoric posits that speakers of two different languages will organize the same reality in different ways. That they should do so seems self-evident, because different languages will provide different resources for organizing text. The techniques discussed here are intended to bring these differences to awareness and to help students perceive how text in an L2 (English, in this case) is organized and how that organization may differ from the learner's L1. Robert B. Kaplan is Emeritus Professor, Applied Linguistics at the University of Southern California. Dr. Kaplan is the past Editor-in-Chief and currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, which he founded in 1980 and serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals. He has previously served as President of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, TESOL, the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs and several other organizations. He has authored or edited 27 books and written more than 100 articles or chapters in books.

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分享 一個美國人的“中國夢”

熱度 9 qiongfeng 2012-1-10 03:30

呵呵，今天NYtimes刊登了一個美國人（ Jonathan Levine，現任教清華 ）的“中國夢”，標題很震撼"Go East, Young Man". 文中提到中國有大把大把的工作機會，有美食，中國人民也熱情友好，最重要的是他提到了CCTV比fox news更公正，嘻嘻。 當然，他也提到污染，食品安全，不過這都是小問題。 最后他說機會垂青于勇敢的人，鼓勵美國人來中國找工作。 We live in grim times, but fortune favors the bold. So if you are reading this from some occupied encampment, a soul-crushing cubicle, your parents’ basement or anywhere else in America really, maybe you should consider paying me a visit. 我有點懷疑他的動機了，大家小心...... 原文如下 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/opinion/china-as-a-destination-for-job-seekers.html NOT long ago, I was stuck in a dead-end job near Greenwich, Conn. I was in my early 20s, overeducated with a series of non-performing degrees from New York University and Columbia, and frustrated. When I saw the Occupy Wall Street protesters on TV, fed up with the economic status quo in the United States, I saw myself. Or rather, I saw my old self, before I figured a way out. To the occupiers and their sympathizers, I say vote — not with the ballot, but with your feet. Now that your encampment has disbanded, don’t just leave Zuccotti Park: leave America. For China. At least, that’s what I did. It was the best decision I ever made. In February of last year, I moved to Beijing, having landed a job teaching American culture and English at Tsinghua University. While I was not a global neophyte, I had never set foot in Asia. China had 1.3 billion people, and I didn’t know any of them. But now, after living almost a year here, I feel that China is my second home. My work is fulfilling and my workload is manageable enough to give me time to travel. I have found friends among China’s large expatriate community, my colleagues and, of course, my eager students. The food is outstanding and caters to both the gastronomically meek and the profoundly adventurous. Most of all, my experiences here have been enriched by the Chinese people themselves. Their patience, courtesy and hospitality leave me in no hurry to return home anytime soon. And guess what? I’m not so special. China wants you. Job prospects are abundant. The effects of the Great Recession of 2008 may be felt in the United States for years, but they barely scratched China. Demand for native English speakers is white-hot. ChinaJob.com, TheBeijnger.com and Dave’s ESL Cafe are just a few of the places where you can search for work. There are problems here, of course. China is a nation that unapologetically rejects Western democracy — and yet I am surprised to find that Chinese citizens and the news media have as much freedom as they do. For my money, CCTV News English, a channel offered by China’s major state television broadcaster, is more fair and balanced than Fox News. Pollution is bad. Beijing, like much of China, is often enveloped in what local residents euphemistically call “mist.” But there are nice days, too, more than you might think. Many critics have rightly pointed out the shocking failures of the Chinese food safety system — the most famous being the tainted-baby-formula scandal of 2008. But what you may not know is that China meted out swift justice in that case to the perpetrators. That is more than can be said for the handling of many corporations in the United States that have harmed their consumers and remain unpunished. We live in grim times, but fortune favors the bold. So if you are reading this from some occupied encampment, a soul-crushing cubicle, your parents’ basement or anywhere else in America really, maybe you should consider paying me a visit. I’ll buy you a duck.

2586 次閱讀|10 個評論  

分享 [轉載]讀書的心態 Rewards of Reading

熱度 1 carldy 2014-11-27 21:32

讀書的心態 劉鴻伏（摘自《特別關注》） 煩惱時讀書，書便如一把梳子，把你從頭到腳渾身梳理一次，在一種麻麻癢癢之中，心情就好起來，漸漸就進了忘憂之境，忘了面對的煩惱，進入書中編織的風景里去。所以，書可以助人遺忘眼前的不快和逆境，獲得撫慰（一種來自前人的慈愛的輕撫）。 　　 　　　　人生需要常常梳理，人的心情更需在讀書的忘憂中得到一種超脫，否則，人的心情往往難得平和。人的煩惱來自現實生活，而作為高于生活的書本，它是可以將人的靈魂提升到一定高度的，書可以將你的心境與現實用一道智慧抑或超常美麗的籬笆隔開，是一種緩沖，更是一種溫暖的安撫，撫平你心上的皺褶。 　　 　　　　落寞時讀書，便如面對一位不期而遇的故人。最好是寒冷的冬天，窗外雪滿草樹，無酒無人，心情無聊到極點，便隨意從書架上抽一本書來讀讀，最好讀的是野史或浪漫又帶點傷感的東西，當然，那些明清的筆記也好，蒲松齡的故事也頂好。喝著有些苦味的綠茶，一個人袖著手，把書攤開在小茶幾上，看一頁，用手指粘一頁，一頁頁翻過去，漸漸就忘形，就要讀出聲來，或者就以掌擊掌，口里喊一個“好！”字。陶陶然如對久別知交，不知不覺間窗外雪已無聲，偶爾抬頭賞一眼雪景，心從書里游離出來，想起一些關于雪的詩句，心情便很愉悅，甚至有些興奮，免不了在攤開的書頁空白處，寫下打油的詠雪詩，詩曰：“江上一籠統，井上黑窟窿；黃狗身上白，白狗身上腫。”雪天讀書，書是故人，心情先是落寞，不久就沉醉忘形，豈不快哉？ 　　 　　　　失意時讀書，書便是一劑醫治心病的好藥。一個人難免為得失揪心，難免失意時多而得意時少。凡夫俗子中，有誰能擺脫“得失”二字呢？何況人生天地間，如果不愿做平庸之人，心中就占了“得失”兩字。失意太多，就有了心絞痛，治心絞痛，只有兩味藥：一是忽然就得了意；二是全身心沉醉在書中。 　　 　　　　為此，可以選閱一些輕松的書或情節極佳的小說，當然也可以讀點《莊子》。讀著讀著，漸開三境：第一種境就是達到忘形，不再計較得失；第二種境就是從書中悟出一些人生哲理，對“得”、“失”驀然有了新見解，如卸重負，有一種豁然開朗之感；第三種境就是從書中找到自身相似的人物際遇，然后看他是如何面對失意，從中可以學到反敗為勝的本領。總之，書是療心之藥，可以讓失意的人生重新煥發出勇氣和力量。名人說，書籍是人類前行的金杖，的確是如此。 　　 　　　　 在高興愉快時讀書，書便如春天的風，樽中的酒，箏中的雅曲。愉快是人生的美酒，養分很多，于身心大有補益。而在愉快中讀書，更有扶強固本之功。此時，最好尋一本歸有光的文集來讀讀，讀幾篇他的感傷文字。你在高興時讀到它們，心情激動難抑，正如一川江流，忽遇大石橫空，難免浪花飛揚，所以，對那份悲涼就有一種新感受，忽然就對人生有了一種貫通感。當然，也可以讀沈復的《浮生六記》，去感受那種帶點悲涼人生況味，但因為你的心情是愉快的，心態會由愉快時的興奮轉為平和寧靜。快樂地讀悲涼之書，是讀書人至佳之盛宴之上，忽遇一味平日想吃而吃不到的家鄉小菜，所有的滋味都齊全了。悲苦之間，便有悟道的可能。 　　 　　　　讀書是有癮的，正如人有煙癮或酒癮一樣。有了癮，就不可一日或缺，如嗜酒或者缺酒喝，嗜煙者缺煙抽。那種煩惱，或許不亞于仕途忽然受挫，買賣忽然虧本。這種體會，不足為外人道。有時，也有厭倦之感，仿佛食肉過多難免膩味一樣；有時，忽然感嘆滿世界竟尋不出一本好書；有時，見別人的書室四壁皆書，其實，自己的心中很不以為然，并不覺得架上書多，其人必定學富五車。凡此種種，是讀書時常出現的心理風景，過后就“柳暗花明又一村”，還是照樣手不釋卷，照樣把眼睛讀成紅燈籠，照樣在讀書中讀出種種人生況味來。 【 王昌齡 譯 】 Rewards of Reading Reading when vexed is like being massaged from head to toe, and you are tickled and tingled into a buoyant mood. Gradually you lose yourself in the scenery woven by the author of the book, totally forgetting all the troubles you have. In this way reading consoles you by driving your unhappiness and adversities of the moment into oblivion. Life needs frequent reorganization, and your mood, to be detached from earthly cares through reading. Otherwise, you won’t feel at ease. Vexation originates in real life, but books, being above reality, can elevate your soul to a higher altitude, establish a buffer between your state of mind and reality by setting up a fence of splendid wisdom, thus consoling you and smoothing over your restless mind. Reading when lonely is like meeting an old friend unexpectedly. Winter is the best season for reading, when falling snow shrouds trees and grass. You feel dreadfully bored as you are alone with no company to enjoy drinking with. To divert yourself, you take a book from the shelf at random. Unofficial history or something romantic tinged with sadness may be the most suitable readings for such an occasion. Of course, short essays by writers of the Ming and Qing Dynasties or tales of anomalies by Pu Songling will also do. Sitting alone with folded arms, sipping slightly bitter green tea now and then, you enjoy yourself by reading, the book placed on the tea table. Fingering one page after another, you gradually get beside yourself with glee and begin reading aloud unconsciously, occasionally striking the tea table, uttering loudly “Wonderfully written!” You feel elated as if chatting with a bosom friend reunited after a long separation. Outside snow ceases falling, unnoticed. In snowy days a good book is one’s best company, that drives away your loneliness. What a felicity it is! Reading when frustrated is like taking some tonic that will lift your spirit. One can hardly avoid worrying about gains and losses as people usually encounter more disappointment than satisfaction. Few mortals can transcend such worldly worries and their hearts ache, for which there are only two cures: one is sudden success and the other indulgence in books. For that purpose, light readings or novels with enthralling plots are the most appropriate, and surely Zhuang Zi may also be your good choice. As you read on, you may reach three states: First, you are so engrossed in books that you no longer care for personal gains and losses; second, through reading you realized certain philosophy of life, which sheds new light on your view of pains and losses and so you will feel relieved and suddenly enlightened; third, you find in books someone who has suffered similar frustrations like you, and from whom you learn how to turn defeat into victory. In a word, books are medicines to dispel one’s heart ache by rejuvenating one’s courage and will power. Reading when lighthearted is like enjoying spring breezes, a glass of mellow wine, or refined melodies flowing out of zheng , an ancient musical instrument. Happiness is nectar nutritious to your body and mind. So reading when delighted will reinforce the essence of your life. Six Chapters of a Floating Life by Shen Fu will suit such an occasion as tragic stories can be best read in a happy mood. Your excitement will turn into peace and tranquility. Reading sad stories in a happy mood, you will reach a consummate state as if you chance upon at a sumptuous banquet a genuine dish of your hometown you have been yearning for. It brings you all the tastes you like, and through sadness and bitterness of the characters in the book you feel enlightened about the way of life. One may get addicted to reading as to smoking or drinking. Once addicted, you will find it indispensable even for a single day like heavy smokers and drinkers crave for cigarettes and wine. The gnawing annoyance is hardly known to those who haven’t had such experiences. You may also occasionally feel tired of reading just as one gets fed up when he consumes too much meat. Sometimes you may bewail that you just cannot find a good book to read however you try. Things like that often occur for a reader, but soon a beauteous scene with shady willows and blossoming flowers materializes before you when you think you have come to the end of the world. However, you will remain an eager reader and often keep devouring books until your eyes are bloodshot like two tiny red lanterns, but like always you will gain various insights into life through reading. http://www.en84.com/article-8415-1.html

個人分類: 翻譯教學與實踐 Translation Practice & Teaching|1564 次閱讀|2 個評論

分享 Make reading a habit

JudyZhu 2014-8-29 02:50

My husband told me days ago that it was getting more and more difficult for him to focus, especially when listening to others, of whose speech more than 90% of the information would escape. And he wondered if it was because of aging or not. Then I asked him would he like to have a listen to me, because I held a different opinion on it. His work is tightly related to data mining and programming, so his brain is intense all day long. While after work, his attention seems center around monitoring the smartphone. When he heard I talk about this, he began to laugh because he thought I was making a complaint. But I was just describing the fact. As what I observe, in a single 5-minute span, he keeps checking email, chatting with his collaborators via google talk or skype, rolling down his phone screen to update the news. I think he really needs to give his brain a rest. He agreed with me finally and the conversation ended to a consensus reached: watch less, read more. Needless to explain in details here how much one can benefit from reading. As to me, the act of reading every day has helped me in nearly every aspect of my life. When reading a book, all of my attention is focused on the story, and I can immerse myself in every fine detail I’m absorbing. And I believe that reading will help my husband to reduce stress as well as improve memory. In the meantime, as parents, we should try our best to be a good example for Nicole, and help her make a habit of reading regularly. Reading is fundamental. But I’m afraid that what a lot of today’s computer-age children never learn is that reading is also fun. Especially to those post 2010s, a generation which I’d rather like to name as an I-generation (Ipod, Ipad, and Iphone). They will experience more of the advanced IT industry, both the benefits and the downsides. In our internet crazy world, attention is drawn in dozens of different directions at once. People tend to divide a short time span into several sub-sections, for example, in a minute or two, one will be busy chatting with a couple of people on QQ, keeping an eye on facebook updates, and surfing on the internet. This type of addiction like behavior causes stress levels to rise, and lowers working efficiency. That’s why we always feel exhausted while found a total blank in mind when recalling the whole day’s work. My husband himself is a bookoholics actually. Every time we make the relocation, we have to give away hundreds of books because they are too heavy and expensive to shift. In his eyes, books fall into a different category of consumables. Once the information and knowledge has been dug out and digested by a reader, the remaining piles of papers become valueless to him. However, it is still valuable to other readers. Thus to give away is to make the best use of a book in our case. When we moved here I found that the Swiss people are fond of reading. It seems that they have a tradition of reading. You can find people reading newspapers, magazines, or books everywhere at every time –- when they are waiting for a bus, when they are on trams going to work, during the coffee time, etc. Last week we spent a short time in Turku and found that the Finnish people also like reading. It was a Monday morning, when we passed by the city library, we found that so many people, young and old, have already been there, reading kinds of materials quietly. It was nice seeing this and it reminded me of my childhood, when it was common for my homeland people sitting at the door reading newspapers or other materials in the early morning or the late afternoon. Teaching a child to love reading is a process that can start long before she knows how to read. I started reading to Nicole very early in her babyhood. The cloth book used to be a best friend and toy of hers. And when she was around ten months old, I replaced the cloth books with real paper books. These are baby books with large, clear, bright, and cheerful illustrations and short, simple text. I set a regular story time for her, at least once in the daytime, and once before going to bed in the night. She loves reading now. She always passes her book to me and asks me to tell her the story. And she loves to hear the same story over and over and over again. Sometimes I am so surprised that she can focus on such a long time span. Maybe the books allow her to imagine her own stories in the young head. This is really wonderful. The blog was originally posted on the chinadaily forum. Please refer to to the link below: http://blog.chinadaily.com.cn/blog-309597-16043.html

個人分類: diary: growing with my daughter|1636 次閱讀|0 個評論

分享 Selecting references for your literature review

shenshenjin 2014-4-29 21:13

When first reading literature, the chanllenge is to select what to read intelligently, however, for writing literature, the chanllenge changes to what to cite. Many people try to include literatures they have read as more as possible, because there is no standard rules for citations you should include. But there have obvious flaws, because more is not better, else there is no end to how many references you will include. So there is an opposite way, you can make your citations as more as nessary. Firstly, you can start with simple, and add more when it is need to do so. Then you can search the best papers to serve a specific purpose. For example, using their work as your research basis. Conducting readers for more information on a topic that didn't cover in this artical. then it can server as a data source, providing a comparasion or context for your work, giving an example of using a specific technology or idea in a field or the best work in a particular area and so on. However, nerver cite anything just because it exists, nerver citing anything you don't understand, never cite anything you have never read. The reasonable reason to focus on quality but not quantity is citation leads credibility to what you have write. There is no doubt that your argument would be weakened when citing poor quality research. Therefore, it is essential to take a critical view of the literature, and not just citing all the reference that you have find. Secondly, high quality literature is easily readable and writable, how to prove the importance of your research, by first justifying why the top papers are important, but there exists some gaps and flaws, then your research is happend associated to fill it. Thirdly, it leads to good feeling of quality of your thesis. when other people reads literature review, they found qulity, quality and quality, it will gives them a deep impression. It is important to realize that find high quality references means finding best papers for the specific needs you are trying to meet at that point in your writing. That means relevance is crucial factor. Last but not at least, you shouldn't need to cite a paper because it has been highly cited, there is no valuable if the paper isn't relevant to what you are talking about. When talking about a very specific point, there may not be many resources and highly cited papers,in this case, it depends on your own judgment whether it is a relevant source.

個人分類: 個人心得|1211 次閱讀|0 個評論 

分享 [轉載]EvidenceUpdates: What's everyone reading now?

xupeiyang 2013-5-27 11:08

Dear Prof. Peiyang: We thought you might enjoy reviewing the most interesting articles for the past month, based on the frequency with which subscribers viewed these in detail. The top 10 appear below. Brian Haynes MD, Editor, Evidence Updates # Article Title 1 Use of azithromycin and death from cardiovascular causes. N Engl J Med 2 A randomized controlled trial of nurses vs. doctors in the resolution of acute disease of low complexity in primary care. J Adv Nurs 3 Does this woman have an ectopic pregnancy?: the rational clinical examination systematic review. JAMA 4 Different antibiotic treatments for group A streptococcal pharyngitis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 5 Diagnostic accuracy of conventional or age adjusted D-dimer cut-off values in older patients with suspected venous thromboembolism: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 6 Pharmacologic treatment of pediatric headaches: a meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatr 7 Outcomes after coronary computed tomography angiography in the emergency department: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized, controlled trials. J Am Coll Cardiol 8 Prenatal valproate exposure and risk of autism spectrum disorders and childhood autism. JAMA 9 Efficacy of cytisine in helping smokers quit: systematic review and meta-analysis. Thorax 10 Ibuprofen with or without an antiemetic for acute migraine headaches in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev

個人分類: 循證醫學|992 次閱讀|0 個評論

分享 [轉載]Value and Meaning of Education: The magic of reading

LongLeeLu 2013-4-24 09:37

Edited Note: Debating on the value of education is serious. This deep-wrought and immensely funny play illustrates thoroughly about the value and meaning of education in a way you don't think it is serious while seeing the movie. Only afterwards do you realize that is serious. Some interesting twists show the nuts and bolts of educational value. “ The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours ” ― Alan Bennett , The History Boys “One of the hardest things for boys to learn is that a teacher is human. One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.” ― Alan Bennett , The History Boys “ 'But to put something in context is a step towards saying it can be understood and that it can be explained. And if it can be explained that it can be explained away.' 'But this is History. Distance yourselves. Our perspective on the past alters. Looking back, immediately in front of us is dead ground. We don't see it, and because we don't see it this means that there is no period so remote as the recent past. And one of the historian's jobs is to anticipate what our perspective of that period will be... even on the Holocaust.” ― Alan Bennett , The History Boys History nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It’s a performance. It’s entertainment. And if it isn’t, make it so.” ― Alan Bennett , The History Boys Want to Read saving… A play of depth as well as dazzle, intensely moving as well as thought-provoking and funny. -- The Daily Telegraph This play explores the question of what is the ultimate goal of an education?Is it to allow an individual to reason, develop his own ideas and identity, and to express himself? Or is it to learn how to be political, a salesman, who can create himself as a brand and sell it to as many people as possible, no matter how little unique content there might be? Perhaps that last is more harsh than what the playwright inteneded, but I found this play to be lacking the sense of gentle, A wonderful, but flawed, look at the nature of education -- a subject that is STILL being debated in classrooms and school districts around the country and around the world. Douglas Hector, a British teacher looks at his working-class boys and sees the possibility that the things they learn will have practical meaning to them at some point in their lives. Even if they just remember the words of a poet they'd read in his class when they encounter unexpected beauty in the world years later An unruly bunch of bright, funny sixth-form (or senior) boys in a British boys' school are, as such boys will be, in pursuit of sex, sport, and a place at a good university, generally in that order. In all their efforts, they are helped and hindered, enlighte ...more Paperback , 109 pages Published April 4th 2006 by Faber Faber (first published June 17th 2004) Manny 's review Mar 28, 13 5 of 5 stars bookshelves: well-i-think-its-funny , too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts , parody-homage , story-review , pooh-dante Read in January, 2006 IRWIN: So, what do we think of The History Boys then? RUDGE: It's a classroom drama, sir. Set in Yorkshire during the early 80s. Features a clash between two different styles of teaching, embodied by the two contrasting teachers, Mr. Hector and Mr. Irwin, who... IRWIN: Yes, yes, yes, everyone will write that. I am results-focussed, Mr. Hector teaches you the true value of culture. Perfect if you want to get into Bristol. Ideal for Sheffield. Someone else? SCRIPPS: It's got witty and inventive dialogue, sir. IRWIN: Such as? You need a striking example, you know. DAKIN: Mr. Hector calls me sad at one point, sir. Mrs. Lintott corrects him, and says she prefers the word cuntstruck. She points out that it's a compound adjective. The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett . The play premiered at the Lyttelton Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006. The play won multiple awards , including the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play . Synopsis The action of the play takes place in Cutlers' Grammar School , Sheffield , a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play follows a group of history pupils preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance examinations under the guidance of three teachers (Hector, Irwin and Lintott) with contrasting styles. Hector, an eccentric teacher, delights in knowledge for its own sake, but the headmaster ambitiously wants the school to move up the academic league table; Irwin, a supply teacher , is hired to introduce a rather more cynical and ruthless style of teaching. Hector is discovered sexually fondling a boy and later Irwin's latent homosexual inclinations emerge. The character of Hector was based on the schoolmaster and author Frank McEachran (1900–1975). The History Boys National Theatre, London Share 0 in Share 0 Email Michael Billington The Guardian , Wednesday 19 May 2004 12.29 EDT Photo: Tristram Kenton A small fire in the Lyttelton lighting rig delayed the first night of Alan Bennett's new play by an hour. But, exasperating as the hold-up was, nothing could diminish the incendiary achievement of this subtle, deep-wrought and immensely funny play about the value and meaning of education. Bennett's setting is a northern grammar school in the Thatcherite eighties and his focus on the varied methods of training post A-level students for life. The headmaster, obsessed with league-tables and results, wants them all to be Oxbridge candidates. To this end, he engages a young historian, Irwin, who knows that the key to exam success lies in singularity and that the wrong end of the stick is the right one. In the opposite camp is the gentle English master, Mr Hector, who argues that exams are the enemy of education and who Audenishly believes that words alone are certain good. Clearly Bennett is writing in praise of Hector and the non-utilitarian, anti-Gradgrind approach to education. At the same time, he is fair enough to show that in history, above all, you need a certain grounding in facts before you can begin to achieve interpretation. Bennett also complicates the issue by making Hector an amiable pederast who likes to grope the boys as they ride pillion on his motor-bike and by making Irwin a closeted homosexual terrified of acting on his impulses. What is astonishing is how much territory Bennett manages to cover: the teaching and meaning of history, inflexible and imaginative approaches to education, and the idea, as in Forty Years On, that a school has the potential to be a metaphor for English life. It is no accident that the play is set in the eighties, when the arguments between beleaguered humanism and pragmatic functionalism were at the very height. The play is also blissfully funny, not least in a scene where Hector improves the boys' French by getting them to impersonate the clients of a bordello, only to be interrupted by a surprised and astonished headmaster. But behind the almost ceaseless laughter lies a hymn to the joys of language, intellectual exploration and inspirational educators. Nicholas Hytner's production also contains a clutch of fine performances. Richard Griffiths is overwhelmingly moving as the unfashionable Hector, whose love of the boys embraces their bodies as well as their minds. Stephen Campbell Moore makes Irwin both meretricious in his methods, yet effective in his results. And there is priceless support from Frances de la Tour as an isolated woman history teacher in a male-dominated club, as well as from Clive Merrison in the role of the rattily authoritarian headmaster. In short, a superb, life-enhancing play. · In rep. Box office: 020-7452 3000.

個人分類: On education|2066 次閱讀|0 個評論


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[Teaching skills] Habit to learn

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Teaching Good Study Habits, Minute by Minute | Edutopia

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/good-study-habits-minute-by-minute-heather-lambert

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Jan 11, 2016 - Teaching Good Study Habits, Minute by Minute. With clear goals, timed ... How, then, are we to help our children develop their studying skills?

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Study Skills & Study Tips | Study Skills at Sylvan Learning

https://www.sylvanlearning.com/study-skills/study-skills

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Thankfully, you don't have to teach your child good study skills all by yourself. ... we've found that establishing great study habits early is the secret to making a ...

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科学网—Teaching skills - 英语写作

bbs.sciencenet.cn › 群组 › 学术科研 › 管理综合 › 英语写作

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To learn more about how to get published, you got prepared for writing in English" (Science) ... Our long-term goal is to establish a habit of daily writing in English because we believe that's the only way ... 收藏|RSS|积分: 484|群主: LongLeeLu.

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3G娱乐城【www.3g8.com 】汇丰在线|云端娱乐|娱乐天地。独家微信支付宝充值通道。狗年豪礼首存可得￥3333。独家平台,信誉保障。网上娱乐首选3G品牌。

Specific English - simply speak討論區主題: Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait ...

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[Teaching skills]Habit to learn[複製鏈接] · LongLeeLu · 發短消息 · 加為好友 · LongLeeLu當前離線 ... How much time do you invest on learning your English?

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I'm not saying that the ability to show this much consideration is easy. ..... a good example for Nicole, and help her make a habit of reading regularly. ..... 分享 [轉載]Value and Meaning of Education: The magic of reading · LongLeeLu 2013-4-24 09:37 ... One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.

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I had classes to teach, relationships with new colleagues to navigate, a lab ... an early-career habit so that they don't repeat my years of writing frustration. ...... 分享 Jackass can trash but it takes scholarship to create one · LongLeeLu 2013-2-14 06:04 ...... 個人分類: 論文撰寫技巧skills for graduate thesis|1392 次閱讀|0 個評論.

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机器学习（Machine Learning） Stanford University via Coursera 开课时间：3rd Apr, 2017 地址： ...... This makes it easier for people with few computer skills to work with and use ...... University Press of Mississippi, 2001) Teaching Writing A writer can't be ... The Peculiar Habits of Writers at Work, by Genevieve L. Brown Related ...

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