Thanks for very thought-provoking and well-presented contributions today! I was pleased to see that your interests in ELF are wide-ranging - it's a broad research field, with all kinds of issues to consider, and your presentations reflected this - all very encouraging indeed, and we haven't even started looking in detail at ELF interactions yet!
I thought the format worked well, and we covered a good range of areas relevant to ELF (although I'd organise things a little differently next time and ensure more time was available for discussion and leg stretching!)
Comments welcome!
Sam and I both agreed that we hadn't discussed ELF&Writing yet in the class and that a written form of English should not be ignored when looking at the lnaguage acquisition, so we chose this topic. But it was really difficult to find relevant references on written ELF...but maybe, that's why it's worth looking into.
ReplyDeleteTo explain more about recent Japanese situation of language learning, the government made an action plan named "strategic Plan to Cultivate 'Japanese with English Abilities'" in 2002. They allocated extra budget for English education; They promoted having NESs at each school(8400 NESs in total!); they appointed some schools for extensive English educational bases and those schools were called "Super English Language High School" (Funny name!); they gave finacial aid to teachers who wanted to study abroad. (This wonderful system doesn't exist any more...what a shame!) etc. This plan resulted in a lot of waste, but from my perception, at least,it helped to enhance students' positive attitude toward English communication.
Then going back to my argument, written forms of English (grammar&vocabulary) is likely to be ignored. If you look at those students, they might appear to be communicative and positive in speaking English, but they actually have nothing to talk about. Just superficial. I believe well-balanced language learning will develop learners' thinking, which will enable them to communicate in English more effectively.
But how can I integrate all of the English skills in balance?
How can I put ELF concept in written English?
Need to read more and more...back to the library.
I also had a very good time this morning! It's true that for some, time was an issue, but overall the seminar showed us that the subject of ELF can inspire students in every possible direction!
ReplyDeleteSophie
Well,during the preparation, Emily and I had many problems in conviencing ourselves, each time we came up with an idea, it seemed unlogical, so we started over and over again and questioned ourselves. Maybe we didn't organized it logically, but we gained a lot during the discussion. :)
ReplyDelete