Unit 9

Rewriting John's Story:

His brother bought land last winter, but he sold it to the neighbor when the economy crashed. John loves to fish, but longs to be more successful. When he was feeling down, he painted and shined his boat, “Troubled Waters”. John asked his brother what he thought of the new look, but his brother just laughed and said, “You like to fish for compliments.”

If John had more energy left, he might argue with his brother, but instead, he began to make more nets. He hopes to increase his catch the next day.

-- The things I figure would be difficult for an ELL are:

1. 'when the economy crashed'

2. longs

3. 'fish for compliments'

4. 'feeling down'

These expressions would probably need to be explained for students to understand what they mean.

Timeline:

Past:

Brother bought land.

Brother sold land.

Present:

John loves to fish.

Wants to be more successful.           

John painted and shined his boat.           

John asked his brother what he thought.

John made more nets.

Future:

Hopes to increase his catch.

I think some aspects can be acquired. You at least get used to knowing 'what sound right' from a lot of exposure to the language, but there some things that would need to be explicitly taught. I think it's different for each person, so the teacher must be alert to what each student is having difficulties with and explicitly teach them those grammar points they are having trouble with.

Universal Grammar Mind Map

(u08a3) Application Questions

Read and analyze the following dialogs. Answer the questions related to one of them on the blog.

#1 A good school? (Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Rashid are both parents of students in the district where Mrs. Thomas also teaches.)
Mrs. Thomas: Johnny has Mr. Smith as a teacher next year. I hear he is an excellent teacher.
Mrs. Rashid: He’s very nice.
Mrs. T: Are you happy with the school district?
Mrs. Rashid: There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.

1. Choose one dialog. Identify where the miscommunication occurs. Explain what each speaker might be thinking.
2. Explain what cultural factors may contribute to the miscommunication in the conversation. Post your answers on the blog; be sure to identify which conversation you are referring to.

A.   From the beginning Mrs. Rashid is avoiding saying her opinion on the school district. When Mrs. Thomas says Mr. Smith is a good teacher, Mrs. Rashid says he’s nice. Mrs. Rashid must be thinking that the school district is not very good, but that it is not polite to possibly offend Mrs. Thomas by saying so, especially since she is herself a teacher in the district. Mrs. Thomas must be thinking that Mrs. Rashid agrees with her because Mrs. Rashid’s answers are so amiable.

B.    Americans tend to think polite answers are a way of agreement. They expect more bluntness in speech, so they would expect the person to say whether or not they disagree. Other cultures consider it very rude to disagree with someone, or to speak badly of someone’s home, or place of work.

(u08a2) Grice's Conversational Maxims

 

The Maxim of Relation/Relevance

Be relevant (Stay on topic)

Cousin: Have you talked to my uncle?

Aunt: Oh, what happened to this? It’s broken.

My Aunt is just crazy and in her own little world.

The Maxim of Quality

Be genuine and sincere, speak the truth. Do not say things that are false, or for which you lack evidence.

Gossip. Friend: I think her boyfriend is hitting on his ex-girlfriend.

Me: How do you know?

Friend: I heard someone talking about it.

People just like to gossip to pass the time.

The Maxim of Quantity

Do not make your contributions more or less informative than necessary.

My mom does this all the time.

Me: Mom, who was the third person of the United States?

Mom: You really have to understand the historical context…. (And she’ll go on to lecture me for half an hour.)

My mother enjoys being a talking encyclopedia.

The Maxim of Manner

Avoid ambiguity and obscurity. Be brief and orderly.

Cousin: If you want you can go start the car.

I don’t do it because it’s cold and I don’t want to go outside, and then he gets mad because he asked me to start the car and I didn’t. I point out how he phrased the question, but he’s still mad.

My cousin seems to think I can read his mind.

Freeman and Freeman- U06a2

Freeman and Freeman exercises:

10 words and their etymologies:

1. ersatz- ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from German, literally ‘replacement.’
2. hurricane- ORIGIN mid 16th cent.: from Spanish huracán, probably from Taino hurakán ‘god of the storm.’
3. giraffe- ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from French girafe, Italian giraffa, or Spanish and Portuguese girafa, based on Arabic zarāfa. The animal was known in Europe in the medieval period, and isolated instances of names for it based on the Arabic are recorded in Middle English , when it was commonly called the camelopard
4. primrose- ORIGIN late Middle English : compare with Old French primerose and medieval Latin prima rosa, literally ‘first rose.’
5. Maw- ORIGIN Old English maga (in the sense [stomach] ), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch maag and German Magen ‘stomach.’
6. Magazine- ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from French magasin, from Italian magazzino, from Arabic ma k zin, ma k zan ‘storehouse,’ from k azana ‘store up.’ The term originally meant [store] and was often used from the mid 17th cent. in the title of books providing information useful to particular groups of people, whence sense 1 (mid 18th cent.). Sense 3 , a contemporary specialization of the original meaning, gave rise to sense 2 in the mid 18th cent.
7. Garage- ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from French, from garer ‘to shelter.’
8. Serendipity- ORIGIN 1754: coined by Horace Walpole, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”
9. Bedlam- ORIGIN late Middle English : early form of Bethlehem , referring to the hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, used as an asylum for the insane.
10. DECORUM- ORIGIN mid 16th cent.(as a literary term, denoting suitability of style): from Latin, neuter of the adjective decorus ‘seemly.’

Spellings:

Phonetic Demand	Semantic Demand	Etymological demand
Woof	Infinite/infinity	Geist
Purr	Action/acting	Giraffe
Beep	Dieting/dietician	Fish
Sad		Rheumatism
Cod		Germ

Letter g:

/g/                              /j/

girl                            gin

go                              giraffe

gifted                       ginger

gastronomy           germ

gaff                           gee

geist                         german

ghost                        geanie

goad

goal

goat

guacamole

guava

gear

glee

geek

gurney

Most words that are pronounced /g/ have Germanic, Norse, or Scandinavian origins. /j/ words have French or Latin origins.

Dialects

Well the only dialects that I know well are in Spanish. In Puerto Rico there are differences in vocabulary between the North and South part of the island. There are syntactic differences between Spain and Latin America. Spaniards use the verb 'haber' much more than Latin Americans. For ex. Spain: He ido a la oficina. Latin America: Fui a la oficina. (Translation: I went to the office.) We all have different accents. Most people say we Puerto Ricans talk fast, and in a sing-song way. There is definitely a lot of preconceived notions associated with some accents. Dominicans have to overcome the stereotype that they are dumb. In Puerto Rico if you roll your 'r's too much people will assume you are from the country, and therefore ignorant. The television channel Univision had a lot of their news casters take classes to strip away accents, and have them talk in a 'neutral' Spanish. I think some soap opera actors are doing this too. I personally don't like it. I think the way you speak is part of you identity and it's horrible to strip people of their identity.

Minimal Pairs Activity

Put words inside a box and have students each pick out a word. The students with the matching minimal pairs pair up and write a poem or story using at least one of the words in each sentence.