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How do you express what cannot be said?

music_expresses

This is a beautiful quotation.

But now I'm giving it some deeper thought.

Really? ... "what cannot be said" ... what is it that cannot be said that music can express?

I would love to hear your ideas, because there are some incredibly eloquent writers and speakers whom I admire hugely, and I cannot help wondering what it is that they cannot express that music can...?

And add to that the criterion ... "on which it is impossible to be silent"

Do comment!

Another thought that occurs to me is that we use images as we speak sometimes, and they add a new dimension to our spoken words.

What is the role of music here? Would it add a dimension, or speak for itself?

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Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean

Journalist and language expert Erard believes we can learn a lot from our mistakes. He argues that the secrets of human speech are present in our own proliferating verbal detritus. Erard plots a comprehensive outline of verbal blunder studies throughout history, from Freud's fascination with the slip to Allen Funt's Candid Camera. Smoothly summarizing complex linguistic theories, Erard shows how slip studies undermine some well-established ideas on language acquisition and speech. Included throughout are hilarious highlight reels of bloopers, boners, Spoonerisms, malapropisms and eggcorns. The author also introduces interesting people along the way, from notebook-toting, slip-collecting professors to the devoted members of Toastmasters, a public speaking club with a self-help focus.

According to Erard, the aesthetic of umlessness is a relatively new development in society originating alongside advents in mechanical reproduction, but it may be on its way out already. http://bit.ly/XZdPfe

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The Power of Words

Did you see this when it went viral on Facebook? It really is a powerful reminder that every word we use has an impact - in our sales presentations, our speeches, whatever their desired outcomes and our marketing - not to mention any communication that we use.

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Words …

I have always loved this quote ... I like the thought of words taking on their own energy.

Sometimes I feel they do, and that is when they truly can engage an audience ... or assault the unthinking.

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.

John Maynard Keynes

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Grothe … Words have incredible power …

"Words have incredible power.
They can make people's hearts soar,
or they can make people's hearts sore."

--Dr. Mardy Grothe

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Give credit to build your credibility

In public speaking, there are times when the best way to support the points you are making is by using data or quotations. Well-chosen quotations are certainly powerful, adding backup to our own opinions. Data comes in many forms - dates, figures and statistics, as well as visuals using graphs, diagrams, tables and more, and it can also be a powerful support for the ideas or opinions you want to sell.

Most of the time, these quotations and data are not our own. Often we are quoting other people's work - or using other people's work.

Imagine what would happen if we did use other prople's work - not crediting the source of our quotations and data? We might very well get away with it, just as we might get away with all sorts of indiscretions, on-stage and off. But sooner or later it will be obvious to someone if not the entire audience that you are not crediting your sources. Your credibility will drop to zero, or maybe even into the negative. It's plain good manners to quote the source. Not doing so, really, amounts to theft. And audiences know that, they feel that.

Always quote your sources. Your originality should be evident in the propositions you put; and the power of your speech or presentation comes from that originality, that uniqueness. There is no weakness in quoting the sources of your facts and figures or of your quotations. In fact you gain even further credibility, because it is obvious you are familiar with the information out there on your subject. You are knowlegeable or you have researched or both.

The process is easy, really - to be able to quote sources. When you are researching, you need to start at the beginning of every book, webpage, or report. Before you start to take notes or store the content, note the details of the resource and its author. Then take the notes you need, and when the time comes to use them, if you are using them, you will have the details of the source ready at hand to quote... and another reason to keep your audience engaged.

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Grammar Teaching: Implicit or Explicit?

Based on my 15 years of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching experience, the statement "grammar teaching should be implicit, not explicit" could be argued both for and against. Whether to teach grammar as an extracted focus of ELT (English Language Teaching) or more passively as an inductive, integral topic has been the theme of countless debates on the part of institutions, professors, grammarians and language researchers for decades. Grammar is the branch of linguistics dealing with the form and structure of words or morphology, and their interrelation in sentences, called syntax. The study of grammar reveals how language works, an important aspect in both English acquisition and learning.
In the early 20th century grammarians like the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen began to describe languages and Boas' work formed the basis of various types of American descriptive grammar study. Jespersen's work was the fore-runner of such current approaches to linguistic theory such as Noam Chomsky's Transformational Generative Grammar.
Chomsky, who studied structural linguistics, sought to analyze the syntax of English in a structural grammar. This led him to view grammar as a theory of language structure rather than a description of actual sentences. His idea of grammar is that it is a device for producing the structure, not of a particular language, but of the ability to produce and understand sentences in any and all languages. Since grammar is the means by which we can understand how a language "works", a definitive study of language grammar is essential to language study.
Strictly explicit grammar study however, and even grammar-focused lessons are often not communicatively based. They can therefore be boring, cumbersome and difficult for students to assimilate. The strict teaching of grammar / structure, except with students of the Logical - Mathematical or Verbal - Linguistic multiple intelligences, can be frustrating and highly ineffective.
Grammar teaching should be implicit
In the early 20th century, Jespersen, like Boas, thought grammar should be studied by examining living speech rather than by analyzing written documents. By providing grammar in context, in an implicit manner, we can expose students to substantial doses of grammar study without alienating them to the learning of English or other foreign language. I also agree with this implicit approach of teaching grammar. The principal manner in which I accomplish this is by teaching short grammar-based sessions immediately followed by additional function-based lessons in which the new grammar / structure is applied in context.
The hypothesis is that adult language students have two distinct ways of developing skills and knowledge in a second language, acquisition and learning. Acquiring a language is "picking it up", i.e., developing ability in a language by using it in natural, communicative situations. Learning language differs in that it is "knowing the rules" and having a conscious knowledge of grammar / structure. Adults acquire language, although usually not as easily or as well as children. Acquisition, however, is the most important means for gaining linguistic skills. A person's first language (L1) is primarily learned in this way. This manner of developing language skills typically employs implicit grammar teaching and learning.
Grammar teaching should be explicit
This does not exclude explicit grammar-teaching entirely, however. Some basic features of English language grammar structure are illogical or dissimilar to speakers of other languages and do not readily lend themselves to being well understood, even in context. In cases where features of English grammar are diametrically opposed or in some other way radically different from the manner of expression in the student's L1, explicit teaching may be required.
Aspects of English language grammar that may offer exceptional challenge to EFL students include use of word order, determiners (this, that, these, those, a, an, the), prepositions (in, on, at, by, for, from, of), auxiliaries (do, be, have), conjunctions (but, so, however, therefore, though, although), interrogatives, intensifiers (some, any, few, more, too) and distinctions between modal verbs (can, could, would, should, may, might, must). Phrasal verbs also present considerable difficulty to Spanish speakers learning communicative English.
Some students also are logical or linguistically-biased thinkers who respond well to structured presentation of new material. Logical-Mathematical and Verbal-Linguistic intelligence learners are prime examples of those that would respond well to explicit grammar teaching in many cases.
Based on my English language teaching and on my second and third foreign language learning (L2, L3) experience, an exclusive approach using either implicit or explicit methodologies is not as effective as utilizing one or the other of these approaches as required. Although it is essential to teach elements of language and develop communicative abilities in our students, there is no one best way to introduce and provide practice in them. Young learners have more natural facility in acquisition, while adults may benefit substantially from more "formal" language learning. Learning styles and intelligence strengths are also a significant factor.
There are many generally accepted ways of introducing the sounds, structure and vocabulary of English, including colloquial forms of conversation and the four basic communication skills. Grammar provides for "communicative economy". Grammar teaching should be implicit, or explicit, as teaching / learning conditions may dictate helping to minimize the student response teachers fear most, "Teacher, I don't understand."
Note: Academic references for this article are available on request.
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Related language learning and teaching articles in this series available online include:
"Learning a Language: 6 Effective Ways to Use the Internet"
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=76453
"Six Quick Tricks for Learning a Language"
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=72718
"What's the Strangest Thing you've Ever Eaten?"
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=81349
"What Makes a Person Intelligent?"
http://EzineArticles.com/?id=81350
Teach English in Colombia: Grappling with Grammar, Gold, Guns, and Guayaba
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=85995
Try This for Perfecting Past Tense Pronunciation Practice
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=86780
7 Steps to Better Business English: Choosing a Business English Training Program
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=81697
English Only in the EFL Classroom: Worth the Hassle?
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=89180
Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free.
For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost PDF Ebook, "If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here's What You Need to Know", immediate delivery details and no-obligation information are available online now at: http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/
Need professional, original content or articles for your blog, newsletter or website? Have a question, request, or want to receive more information or to be added to his articles and teaching materials mailing list? Then contact the author at this website for a prompt response.

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The Importance of Rhyme

Recent research into the development and acquisition of early literacy skills has conclusively shown that rhythm and rhyme play a hugely important role. This is because children's early literacy skills are about listening and speaking rather than reading and writing. These first two skills are the bedrock foundation for the latter, and create much stronger ability in the latter if ingrained deeply and early on.
In days gone by it was second nature for parents to sing nursery rhymes, chants and songs to their babies, dangling them on the knee, bouncing them up and down and inventing actions and silly games to accompany them. But according to this research, many children are no longer hearing these nursery rhymes as often (or if they do, just a very few) and therefore not benefiting in the same way as they once were. During my 10 years of teaching 5 year olds, I met many who had never heard or sung a single nursery rhyme in their lives, and indeed had been spoken to very little at all.
A report about this topic in the US found that in 1945 a typical child had a vocabulary of 10,000 words, compared to the 2,500 average of today. It concluded that many of the literacy problems faced by today's children are due to the fact that they are not memorising rhymes and stories in the way that they once were. [See this link for more information about this research.]
What's so great about rhyme? => http://bit.ly/l0dsNn