... ideas, tools, etc for practical use of technology in the classroom
=> http://bit.ly/lvLr3s
"A visionary is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world."
Oscar Wilde
Planning on giving a talk?
If you're a nervous speaker, you might be tempted to write your speech and then read it. Don't!
Here are 5 reasons why reading a speech is an invitation to disaster.
The debate over electronic textbooks and ever-increasing costs for traditional textbooks continues to rage. Part of these Web-era dilemmas ironically involves the willingness to face contradictions from the university’s past. Reliance on textbooks is the rub. It can be understood as a legacy of the post-WWII GI bill. Schools needed industrial-strength solutions to handle the unprecedented waves of new students. Publishers stepped to the fore to offer a commoditized solution, albeit with the best of intentions. They would work with a select group of faculty to produce a wide variety of textbooks, they would entice other instructors with free review copies, and students would incur reasonable shipping and costs. => http://bit.ly/lqwxt2
One thing is for certain: If Hermione Granger was real and living in New York City, she’d be at this library reading every single book in it (again). The Conjuring Arts Resource Center in midtown Manhattan holds 11,000 books about the history of magic “and its allied arts” (which includes psychic phenomena, hypnosis, and slight-of-hand techniques) and functions primarily as a research library. Don’t you love it when things like Hogwarts and Ray’s Occult Books join imaginary forces to form something real? => http://bit.ly/iR9obD
The Magic of Three
The number three is a magical number in the English language. We see it in movie titles as in "The Three Stooges, The Three Musketeers and The Three Amigos," we see it as far back as being the most famous phrase in the Unites States declaration of independence - "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness", and we see it by speakers and comedians all across America.
I don't know why this is so. We can theorize the reason for this phenomenon from today till tomorrow, and in fact some people have, but my philosophy is, "if something works - just go with it!" Why spend your energy trying to figure out the "why" of it when you can just be in the "now" and just go with it. If it is good for our founding forefathers, if it is good for Hollywood, then it is good for me - You see, there is the rule of three in action!
In speaking, the "rule of three" is mostly used to create humor. When comedians create their humor, they use what is called the "set up - punch". Comedians use this set up-punch formula to get every one of their laughs. Comedians don't always need to use the rule of three, they are so good at creating humor that they don't always need to rely it, but for the rest of us speakers, using the rule of three is a technique that we should always use, and that if done right, can almost guarantee a laugh from the audience.
The psychology of the Set up-Punch Formula
What is the comedian's secret to getting a laugh from the audience? Comedians are not psychologists, but they know how the human minds works - at least when it comes to getting a laugh. Comedians know three things about the human mind very well when it comes to humor.
1. That a "Spontaneous shift" is the key.
2. That proper timing is crucial
3. That the content must be appropriate for the audience
Spontaneous shift
So what is a spontaneous shift? A spontaneous shift is when the speaker puts the audience on one track. The speaker fills up the mind of their audience with a vivid picture of one particular thought or idea and just at the point when the audience is expecting to continue on that track, the speaker suddenly puts them on a totally different track and Walla a laugh occurs!
The key here is spontaneous. From the speakers perspective, it may not seem spontaneous, because the speakers is prepared and knows what he or she is planning to say. However, from the perspective of the audience it definitely comes across as spontaneous. How many times have you had conversations with friends or family and laughs seemed to easily flow. If you think about it, you will probably realize that the instant the laugh occurred, someone said something spontaneous and which also put everyone else's thoughts on another track.
Proper Timing
Putting your audience on another thought track is not enough. You also need to have your timing down in order to make an impact and receive a laugh. Your punch line needs to come immediately after the set up. If you wait too long, you will lose the impact potential of your punch line.
When using the rule of three, you are essentially doing the same thing as what comedians do with their set-punch in their comedy routines, but your set up will be a bit longer.
The rule of Three in Action
A friend of mine and fellow speaker, Marry Cheyne, had used the rule of three extremely well when she delivered her speech "Nelly" at the Toastmasters 2009 international convention. She gave some background about how challenging and uncomfortable it was for her to come to Australia as a 7 year old Chinese. She then said, "I was so uncomfortable that I felt like a fish out of water, like a bird out of its nest, like a "guest (pause) at a toastmasters meeting." The last line, "like a guest at a toastmasters meeting" was the punch line. The other two lines were the set up for her punch line.
The background story gave the audience the "thought track" of her being uncomfortable, The first two lines went along that track - uncomfortable like a fish out of water, uncomfortable like a bird out of its nest and then she throws the twist - Like a guest (she pauses) and then says "at a toastmasters meeting". The audience was expecting her to stay serious, but she doesn't. She spontaneously puts their thought on another track and walla she gets a laugh!
The Rule of Three must be Adaptable to Your Audience
When coming up with the right content for the rule of three, make sure your content is applicable to your audience. When Marry came up with her content, she knew who her audience was. It was a room full of fellow toastmasters. So everyone in her audience knew how uncomfortable a guest at a toastmasters club meeting feels, because at one time or another everyone was a guest before they became a member. That is why it was funny to that audience. Her line would not have been funny to a group of people no affiliated with toastmasters and surely she would not have used it. So always make sure that your content is appropriate to your audience. Enjoy tinkering with "the rule of three" for your next speech!
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Lewis Roth helps speakers build a presentation that is memorable and keeps their audience members on the edge of their seats. Lewis is an award winning speaker, certified world class speech coach, keynote speaker and presentation skills trainer. To receive his free audio download, please visit http://www.hightouchspeaking.com
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/
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"Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling." -- Vincent Van Gogh
Want to write a great book review? Two of the Guardian's top children's book reviewers, Philip Ardagh and Linda Buckley-Archer, share their expert tips to help you get started http://bit.ly/jELI91
