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I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie...

7/23/2013

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I had a student when I taught in Korea who named himself Augustine. He was in his sixties, and didn't say anything for the first few weeks of my class. I began to wonder if he was understanding anything of what was going on. I asked him how long he had been studying English, and he told me he had been studying at our institute for a few years. I began thinking, "Oh... that's way too late to start. This explains why he is so quiet--he must not have very strong English skills." But after every class, he brought in a mystery novel and had a couple pages highlighted and he would ask me what a few words meant. I remember thinking, "Why are you trying to study something like a book, which is so far beyond your level?" Yet every week he would sit quietly through class and say little during discussion time, and at the end of class, he would quietly walk up to me with a mystery novel with more pages highlighted and ask me what a few idioms  or phrases meant.

Then one day he spoke.

We were having a discussion about the purpose and meaning of life, and out of nowhere, slowly, carefully, eloquently, and clearly... he spoke.

I was awestruck. He still had some pronunciation difficulties, but the complexity of his grammar and vocabulary stunned me. I couldn't believe it!

"What do you mean?" one of the twenty-something students asked him. I found myself stammering and grasping for words to explain the very deep and complex thoughts Augustine had just articulated in simpler English to the younger students. I felt like a skilled magician had replaced my student Augustine with an entirely different person. Everything I knew before was wrong.

I had to figure him out. I asked him more questions and he responded to each of them so thoughtfully. Clearly, I was mistaken about this one. I talked to him later and he said he had no English-speaking friends and hadn't studied English past high school, but that he really enjoyed reading mystery novels and crime dramas, and that he read them all the time.

This experience has taught me to question my assumptions about three things, 1) quiet students, 2) older students, and 3) the value of reading for personal enjoyment.

In my last blog post, I mentioned a 2007 article about the power of extensive reading by Willy A. Renandya. I thought it would be good to expand on that a bit:

Basically, there are two kinds of reading, intensive reading and extensive reading.

Intensive reading is the kind of reading we typically do in school: A teacher chooses a book, has a goal in mind that the students will gain from it, and then has the students read it. Naturally there is a test of some sort.

Extensive reading, on the other hand, is when students read a lot of different stuff and they read it for their own fun and enjoyment (usually they say "reading for pleasure" but I don't like that word for reading, personally). 

As you can imagine, extensive reading is very different from the kind of reading we typically do in school (which is intensive). There is something different going on in your brain when you are reading something you WANT to read, reading at your own pace, and just freely enjoying yourself.

It turns out, students who read extensively for enjoyment perform better on reading tests as seen in the figures below:
If you're a teacher, I hope you're encouraging your students to read for fun, and if you're a student, I hope you're reading for more than just class or the TOEFL or IELTS or whatever. Find something you enjoy reading about and do it! You will improve your English, and you might have some fun along the way.

Have a good one, and good luck out there!

-Bill
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"Well, it sounds right, but is it?"

7/21/2013

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I was reading an article about lexical chunking by Ben Zimmer, and he mentioned the growing popularity of corpus linguistics in ESL language instruction to teach "chunks." Basically groups of words and collocations like "How's it going?" function like one word. I'm sure you've experienced someone walking by saying, "howzitgowin?" like it was one word (if not, listen closely next time someone greets you!). This is somewhat related to pragmatics, which is the field of linguistic study that focuses on language rituals and context. 

Being a corpus enthusiast myself, the article caught my attention when I saw the objections of Michael Swan to the bandwagon approach in using corpora in the ESL classroom:

“Native English speakers have tens or hundreds of thousands — estimates vary — of these formulae at their command... a student could learn 10 a day for years and still not approach native-speaker competence."

I appreciate Swan's realistic appraisal, but it wouldn't do much for my confidence as a second language learner. It reminds me of what my Japanese tutor told me when I was beginning to learn kanji (Chinese characters):

"It's really hard until you get to 300 or so."

I laughed when I heard this. I knew 10 at the time, and could not imagine committing 290 more to memory, but as I got closer to 300 kanji, I started to notice regularities and patterns and they did become easier to learn. How do we know English collocations and chunks aren't the same?

Call me a dreamer, but I think it's always good to try--even if a task seems impossible. To me, lacking the motivation or will to learn something is the kiss of death for actually learning it, and nothing can be more demotivating than someone telling you there is no point in trying. I think learning chunks of language can help students grasp vocabulary more accurately (as opposed to memorizing lists of words only), and I think reading is the best way students can come across these language structures more frequently and see the chunks in action (see Renandya's (2007) article on the power of extensive reading).

What I really want to say is if you're a language learner, don't give up!

-Bill
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How Academic are You?

7/14/2013

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I like to tell my students that there is no such thing as difficult vocabulary--only unfamiliar vocabulary. If you know a word, then it's not difficult. But how do you know if a word is a word you should know?

Here is a text analyzer where you can input a text sample and it will categorize and color-code the words based on frequency. Here is a paragraph from an article on former president of Egypt, Mohamed Mursi:
Mursi's opponents say these demonstrations are still much smaller than the ones that brought him down. However, the Brotherhood has shown its organizational muscle by keeping its vigil running into a third week and bringing in coachloads of supporters from the provinces during the Ramadan fasting month.
You can enter this text into the analyzer and it will color-code it like this:
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All words that show up in the top 500 are highlighted blue, and all words that occur from 501-3000 are green, and words that are not in the top 3000 are highlighted yellow. If you don't know some of the blue words, then you need to study more, because they are the top 500 English words (they are the most common, so you should know them)!

If you don't know a word that's highlighted yellow, on the other hand, then you shouldn't feel so bad since the word is not so common (when is the last time you heard someone use the words opponents, demonstrations, organizational, and supporters at the dinner table with Mom and Dad?).

If you click on the section marked ACAD, it will show words that are associated with academic writing:
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I think this is a wonderful tool for non-native speakers to be able to compete with native speakers in writing, as well as measure their understanding of English vocabulary. It may take an ESL writer years to develop a native-like intuition about vocabulary usage, but I think this can serve as a good support in the meantime.

PLEASE NOTE: Some students seeing this tool for the first time have the mistaken impression that academic writing consists of 100% academic vocabulary. This is not the case! You still need common words to connect your sentences. In my experience, academic sources usually measure from 15-30% academic vocabulary (depending on the topic).

Play around with this. If you're brave, enter a sample from something you've written and report your results in the comments below: How academic are you?

-Bill
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#1 Thing People are Guilty of in English

7/13/2013

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After seeing the results of the Zimmerman trial, I was curious about the top ten collocations with the word guilty in the COCA. This is what I found:
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The word murder shows up more than any other crime (fraud is the next crime at #26 with 150 occurrences). It's also pretty clear that this word has courtroom connotations, with forms of plead, found, jury, charges, verdict, and proven making it in the top 15. Nevertheless, it still gets used in more common situations like feeling guilty. The first example is Governor Chris Christie being asked in an interview if he feels guilty for being so overweight. It's interesting that a word can be used to describe something so serious as well as something so innocuous.

-Bill
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"A Method to My Madness"

7/9/2013

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There are many versions of this expression, which first started out in Shakespeare's Hamlet when the protagonist pretends to be crazy. If you search the COCA, method is the second most popular word to collocate with madness (#1 is the month of March--thank you NCAA Basketball!).

As I worked with a student today, I found some grammar errors that I have not encountered before. What did the sentence mean? More importantly, why was the student making the error?

Call me crazy, but I like to think students are rational, and the mistakes students make are rational (unless of course they can spot them on their own--then I lean more toward thinking the mistake is a random fluke). I think understanding why we make an error is the first step in retraining our thinking so that the error decreases. The downside of finding out why an error happens is that it takes some digging.

It's especially hard to keep digging when you have the tried-and-true "because we just don't do that in English" response. English, like any language, is chock full of exceptions and logical inconsistencies, so most students will accept the existence of one more oddity of English, and if the teacher is insistent enough that "this is just the way it is in English," it will stop even the most inquisitive student from probing any further on understanding a grammar problem. At the same time, digging for why an error happens takes time, and I don't want the student to become frustrated or impatient with me (and some cultures might view a teacher without a ready answer as not knowledgeable or worse, incompetent). So I find myself in a race against time when I'm working with a student.

How can I avoid giving the cop-out answer "because I say so"?

How can I figure out why the student is making the mistake?

How can I explain the identified to the student concisely and clearly?

How can I make sure I don't look like I don't know what I'm talking about?

Today I figured out the student was trying to use the passive voice, and so we had a little mini-lesson about how to form the passive voice correctly. Sure, one minute and three failed questions into the meeting had me hovering my finger over the "because I say so" button, but it was worth it to ask one more question, to look at it from one more angle, and to go out on a limb.

What is a time you tried really hard to figure out a student error or your own language learning error? Did you figure it out?

-Bill
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New Video: Simple Past vs. Present Perfect

7/7/2013

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I've posted a new grammar video in my Video section on the distinction between simple past versus present perfect. You can also view it here:
Have a good one, and good luck out there!

-Bill
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Happy Independence Day!

7/4/2013

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Since today is July 4th, I figured I would make a post about independent clauses... get it? Independent... like Independence Day?

Okay, I'm joking. I figured it would be more interesting to write some English expressions about independence, freedom, and opportunity--three things that make America great:

to stand on one's own two feet
I would like your help, but I want to be able to stand on my own two feet.
(I want to be independent.)

to be off the hook
I thought I would be in trouble for not reporting to work this Saturday, but there was a huge snowstorm so they closed the office. I guess I'm off the hook!

to get off Scott free
He really should have been punished, but he got off Scott free. 
(he wasn't punished)

to be in the clear
My coworker had a terrible cold but it's been a week since then, so I think I'm in the clear. 
(I'm free from getting sick, too)

to be free and clear
(see "to be in the clear")

to be master of one's own destiny
No one tells me what to do. I am the master of my own destiny.

the world is one's oyster
I just graduated with top marks and five prestigious companies have asked me to work for them. I feel like the world is my oyster! (he has so many options and opportunities right now)

to be under someone's thumb
She has to ask him permission for even going to the movies. He has her under his thumb. (she has no freedom; he controls everything)

to be on a tight leash
His wife keeps him on a pretty tight leash. (he is like a dog on a short leash, so he cannot go where he wants).

"my hands are tied"
I would love to help you, but the policy states that I cannot. My hands are tied!

to be strong-armed into VERB-ING or to be strong-armed TO VERB
They strong-armed him into volunteering
; he felt like he had no choice.

to be VERB(PASSIVE) against one's will
Although news media say he is in police custody voluntarily, he is actually being held against his will.

to be pushed into VERB-ING
I  wanted to be an artist, but my parents pushed me into being a mathematician.

to be forced into VERB-ING
I was making a great salary, but I was forced into retiring early.

Do you have any other expressions that describe freedom, independence, or opportunity?

-Bill

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New Video: How to Pronounce Past Tense -ed

7/3/2013

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I posted a new video in my videos section about how to pronounce the -ed at the end of past tense verbs.
Have a good one, and good luck out there!

-Bill
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New Video: Park and Bark - The Difference Between Voice and Voiceless Consonants

7/2/2013

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I made a new video about the difference between /p/ and /b/, which is usually pretty tough for Arabic speakers who are learning English. You can find it in my Videos section or view it below:
Have a good one, and good luck out there!

-Bill
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    Hi! I'm Bill.

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    I'm all about making English more accessible to English language learners and their teachers. Click here to learn more about me and my site.
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