Mental Indigestion

Library Noticeboard - what is 'Warwick Jailbreak' ?

REFLECTION: It's the end of week 4 of my MA ELTAM (ELT/ICT/MM) .  I seemed to have squeezed a lot in and it's still October.  I've been taking modules in Spoken English, Issues and Research in ELT, Second Language Acquisition and Classroom Language Learning , Text and Discourse Analysis and Research Methodology.  The first part of the first marked assignment is done, although I still have to hand it in and there is little time to rest until Christmas. I say, 'rest', but there is still time to drink, but only mildly, and I have yet to go to a single SU event. I have no interest in the nightlife - that's for freshers and maybe 2nd years,  innit? Not us postgrads.  I've been out in Leamington a few times - with my housemates - most notably the Jug and Jester (a Weatherspoons pub) - but I am keeping the drinking to a sensible level, knowing that there is seemingly bottomless pit of reading to do and, being the conscientious student I am, I don't want to miss the opportunity to get a 'distinction', which my tutor, Russell,  candidly said I should aim for.  I've only missed one seminar so far and despite feeling poorly, it has more to do with the bus not turning up on time.  

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOUR: As I mentioned before it is very international on the MA ELT with 29 out of 57 students coming from China, another 5 from Taiwan, 5 from Syria - which is interesting in itself considering the political turmoil taking place right now in that country.    Another 20 countries are represented, with myself, Christine and Joanne (see later) being the only Brits.  As you can imagine, I feel entirely comfortable in this environment.  We have a closed MA ELT facebook group to share thoughts, ideas and videos.  That currently has 26 members.

 

MA ELT module breakdown below:

SPOKEN ENGLISH:  My favourite module so far is the ethnomethodological inspired area of conversation analysis.  The minutiae of everyday conversation/talk - with each other and in the classroom.    I have already finished the first part of my first marked assignment.  This was based on an informal chat with Luke Phillips in the Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar in the Angel Islington, London (23 October).    I recorded this after failing to get what I wanted at the Language Show (see later).   I absolutely love breaking down and analysing in depth what people actually say when they speak. I guess I have developed this fascination over many years, including the way we initiate, take turns, self-repair and end conversations.  The module has also been our introduction to the hyper and talkative Keith Richards.   A man who can't let silence go uninterrupted, he has entertained and informed with passion.  He really knows his specialist area and leads by example, although one or two of the international students get lost with some of his  anectdotal references.

ISSUES AND RESEARCH - a thorough look at the history, theory, methods and practices of ELT - such as Audiolingualism, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Task-based Learning (TBLT), and applied linguistics.  It features a significant summary of the history of ELT from the joint author of the UK directory of research and as mentioned in Scott Thornbury's A-Z of ELT.  It draws upon experiences in the classroom and is, therefore, not open to students who haven't had at least 2 years language teaching experience.  It includes some focus on Reflective Practice for language teachers and as an extension of that a number of co-operative development groups have begun, co-ordinated by Steve Mann, who has worked with people like Julian Edge and Thomas Farrell - who spoke at last year's IATEFL conference.  More to follow.

SLA:  Being reflective also forms part of the Second Language Acquisition module.  A jointly-presented module, between Japanese-born but Irish-raised Ema Ushioda and Hungarian-born Annamaria Pinter.  This module concerns key concepts around second language learning, invidvidual factors, such as age, motivation, interaction and output.  It also involves learning Hungarian and Irish (Gaelic) using different methods (deductive/inductive) to remind us what it is like to be beginner learners.   

SLA Lecture

TEXT AND DISCOURSE - so far, a literary-filled romp through textual cohesion - learning about exophoric, endophoric, andophoric, catophoric referencing - and genre analysis from a 100 year-old (sic) expert in Language and Intercultrual Communication.  Yup! We have crossed the muddy, tempestuous waters of ideational meaning in an interdisciplinarity analysis of minutiae, and deconstructed Coldplay's Yellow along the way. Warning: reading more than one article per day causes 'Mental Indigestion'. Yup!

RESEARCH METHODS:  Obvious, really.  An ongoing foray into the ethics, practice and obstacles surrounding collecting original data. This goes into term 2 and, naturally, leads into the final dissertation. I've been here before, of course, with my first degree in Sociology, at Anglia.

GUEST SPEAKER:  As part of the Issues module, and on the invitation of Richard Smith, a visting professor, John Gray came to talk (19 October) about 'Neoliberalism, celebrity and 'aspirational content' in ELT textbooks.  Interesting because as English language teachers we often find UK/US published textbooks promote the role model of 'celebrity' as an appropriate resource for learning the language.  I had never really thought about it before at the level he spoke of.  I whipped my camera out to record it and was soon having to forward this onto the department for the benefit for those that missed it and wanted to watch it later.

LANGUAGE SHOW LIVE / RUSSELL'S TRAINING SESSIONS: As I mentioned, I went down to London last weekend for the Language Show at Olympia, Kensington.  I stayed in Hackney overnight.  I primarily went to see Johanna Stirling give her talk on 'Spelling Myths and Enchantments' and to record the audio of this for my Speaking English assignment.  I also recorded several other pieces but had to abandon the idea of using it due to background noise and a very monologic (one way) delivery.  As a bonus, I saw Russell promote his website, Teacher Training Videos and give a demo on Mailvu - easy-to-use video email, which can be utilised by students for submitting homework and giving feedback to students.  He went through this again on Friday with an online session, conducted from his office.  He also talked about using Todays Meet and Jing.  All of these are incredible simple to use.  I seem to have heard a lot about the connected classroom lately.  But this is just the beginning of getting to try out a whole range of web tools and write about this in term 2. Other such items already tried out include: Brainshark, Blackboard, Audacity, Soundscriber and  Webex, although there's nothing like the simplicity of 'Snipping Tool', which comes free with Windows 7, for a straightforward screen-capture.

At Russell's presentation at the Language Show, 22 October

Jo Gakonga is a part-time, two-year MA student who has already overturned her sceptical view of technology and started her own blog, teacher training website and online training sessions.  She has quickly adapted to using various tools, like the ones mentioned above, and she is becoming a good person to hang around due to the significant progress she has made on the course, by drawing on her personal experiences.   When it comes to devising my own blog for the second term, well, I've already got one.  I could start again, or I could develop the one I've already got.  I will continue to adapt it, therefore, for the purpose of my MA and the future.  But how to increase page views? That's the trick.  Well as this happens, it may become less personal.  However, I have the opportunity to develop other ways of expressing personal development, without resorting the publishing this for anyone to potential see (not that they do currently, page views for individual posts on this blog are generally in the single figures at the time of writing!)

CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT GROUP:   Being a reflective professional is something that has already come up and with the help of Steve Mann, mentioned above, a 5 person group has been set up.  This includes Joanna, Christine (the 2 other Brits), a teacher and fluent French speaker from Trinidad and Tobago, and one from India.   It could lead into Steve's optional module on Teacher Education and Development in Term 2.   Although there are very interesting modules on Literature and Drama, Professional and Academic Discourse and Language Testing to choose from, I think this is likely to be the module I pick for Term 2.  It leads into my long-term goal of being a teacher training.   I recorded a 30 minute video in the first session, during which I took the chair and spoke at length about how I came to be at Warwick and how my 'personal' and my 'professional' entwine themselves.  The others generally listened and gave reflective responses only as 'understanders'.  Much like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, their role was not to add their opinions, advice or ask too many questions, but instead they would gently prompt me.  I went into knowing what I wanted to reveal and this seemed like the perfect, safe place to do it.  I didn't write a script, however and I didn't write any notes down beforehand. 

Being a Reflective Teacher and getting some free counselling

STEPHEN FRY'S PLANET WORD: I have been watching  Stephen Fry's Planet Word and telling others about it. Very good.  Pompous, as always, but he covers a lot of ground on the history and use of language.

Fry at Carrow Road

DIVING THEORY:  I've joined the British Sub-Aqua Club and enroled on an ocean-diver course.  I've had two theory lessons so far, but I have postponed the swimming pool sessions until the new year.  The reason is I want to focus on training for the trip to Cornwall in March when, after a weeks worth of diving in the sea I should quality as an ocean diver.

185 TACHBROOK ROAD:  I've run out of time and I want to post.  Suffice to say, we recently received our 10th housemates, Harriet, but we also have a mysterious 11th housemate, called 'Barry', who lives in the cellar.

Signing off.

TP