Diamond Geezer

Here's a link to a video of Jared Diamond lecturing on why societies collapse from a lovely website called TED. There's a wide range of talks and lectures on this site, many of which are quite short (some are under 6 minutes) - useful either if you're busy or if you want to do some really intensive listening practice (one of my students recently told me that he memorised the tapescript on markets and morality; I think such an exercise is far easier with a shorter recording...not that I'm advocating this approach).

An impressive and useful feature of the TED website is the way that interactive tapescripts are linked to recordings. You can see the tapescript to the right of each video, and clicking on a word will take you to that point in the video...not only that, you can call the tapescript up as subtitles...in English or - if you're desperate for help - in a choice of alternative languages. With listening resources this good available for free, I don't think any students need English teachers any longer...

Who's the bad guy?

Some ethical questions to discuss today. Professor Michael Sandel referred the following issues in his lecture on markets and morality. What are your opinions on these matters:

- Is it wrong to drop litter if you are happy to pay the fine for doing so?

- Is it wrong to offer your children financial incentives for success at school?

- Is it wrong for the US government to introduce a $50,000 fee for people who wish to immigrate to the USA?

- Would it be wrong for the UK to pay Ireland to accept refugees that the UK did not want to take?

- Do you think health care, prisons, and schools should be run as businesses with the aim of making profits?

...and which of these people is the worst? Can you put them in order from worst to...err...least bad? (the best of a bad bunch?)

Alex sees an elderly neighbour drop a £20 note in the street. He knows that she does not have a lot of money. He picks up the £20 and keeps it for himself.

Beth was burgled, but she had home contents insurance and claimed for all the things that were stolen from her house. She also claimed for a digital camera and iPod, even though she never owned these.

Clive is the CEO of a car manufacturer. It is discovered that a very dangerous fault is affecting a very small number of the cars his company produce. The cost of paying compensation for deaths and injuries resulting from the fault is much lower than the cost of recalling all cars which might be faulty. Clive decides not to recall any vehicles.

Diane is a marketing executive for a major European producer of dairy products. She instigates an advertising campaign to tell young African mothers that breast-feeding is unhealthy, so that they become more likely to buy her company’s milk.

Edward is an accountant and realises that his wife, who works for the same company that he does, is claiming false expenses. He says nothing

When you're smiling...

The article we looked at from the New Scientist is available in full here (including a link to the research it reports on). If you would like to test your ability to distinhuish genuine from fake smiles, you can do so via this link to the BBC Science & Nature site.

And just in case anybody cares, I've posted the key to last Friday's grammar exercise here.

Thursday LisP materials

Some links for today's class:

• The Reith Lectures via the BBC gives you a wide variety of lectures to listen to, dating back to 1948.
• Professor Michael Sandel's lecture on Markets and Morals, which is what we started to listen to in class
• Transcript and further reading on Professor Sandel's lecture, including a relevant podcast if you find this subject interesting
• A Wordle cloud for the lecture's introduction, which shows you the most commonly used words in Sue Lawley's introductory speech
• The AWL highlighter, to help identify "useful" new vocabulary
• Cambridge Dictionaries Online is my preferred online dictionary for checking new vocabulary
• iTunes, for downloading and managing podcasts, as well as the new iTunes U section with university-produced audio and video

Even if and even though

Three sentences from this morning's class:

1) Abdullah smokes, even though he knows it’s bad for him.
2) Abdullah will not give up smoking, even if the price of cigarettes goes up.
3) Abdullah would not give up smoking, even if Mark paid him a million pounds.

So what's the difference? Sentence 1 deals with two facts - two things which are already true now. Abdullah knows that smoking is bad for him. Surprisingly, he smokes. It's surprising, but it's a fact.

Sentence 2 refers to the possibility that cigarette prices might rise, so it has a conditional function. It's about something that may happen in the future. Sentence 3, meanwhile, is also conditional, but this time there is no chance that it will ever happen. This is just hypothetical speculation and its puporse it to express how committed Abdullah is to smoking.

You may also be interested in the following ways that a modal or other auxiliary verb can be used in the conditional clause of a sentence:

If you start a sentence like this, it will be fine.
If you forgive me, I will be thankful.

If you will smoke, your health will be a problem.
(If you insist on smoking…)

If you will bite your nails, they will look ugly. (willingness / volition)

Do not forget to bring your books. If you do forget to bring your book, your classmates might not want to share theirs.

Monday Morning Modals

In our discussion of modal verbs this morning (handout available here) we produced this advice to anyone coming to Colchester:

- You should be patient.
- You should bring a lot of money.

- You must read about Colchester before coming, because your friend Adel isn't prepared to help you.

- You have to register with the police as soon as possible after arrival.
- You have to get a visa.
- You have to be careful.

- You will need to bring your chest x-ray.

We discussed the fact that if Mark wants you to like him, he's more likely to say "
You have to do a GVD test at the end of this period " than "You must do a GVD test at the end of this period". English people, with their strange sense of humour (see here for some bad jokes), may we say something like "You have to see An Education" to recommend a movie, but the semingly much milder "You really should stop smoking" in order to save someone's life.

...and we decided (I hope) that "have to" is not a modal verb, because it is grammatically very different to other modals. Compare the following two sentences:

a) You mustn’t talk to anyone on the underground. (it is necessary not to…)
b) You don’t have to bring a lot of clothes. (it is not necessary to)

...which brings us back to where we started...just after the revelation that in some parts of the world you can buy special gloves for driving, we discovered that:

- Fadia didn't need to bring her ID card to the UK.

- Maha didn't need to bring all her jewellery.

- None of the male students needed to bring a car. (note that none of these "needs" are modal verbs)

...and finally (with some modal needs) that:

- Adel needn't have brought his ID card.

- Mohammed meedn't have brought any books (which is worrying).

- Reham's family needn't have sent her a satellite receiver.

A Celebration of Essex?

The article we looked at in our GVD class today is here on the Independent website. Below is the paragraph that we collaborated on beforehand...I think it's pretty goood.

Indian scientists are checking the usefulness of traditional ways of forecasting the weather, such as the old saying which links the arrival of the monsoon rains to the flowering of Cassia fistula, a common tree. This has been used by farmers to select either peanuts or castor to sow in wet or dry conditions respectively. Dr Kanani of Gujarti Agricultural University has found that the tree successfully predicts “the appropximate date of the monsoon’s arrival”.

...or in just one sentence:

Indian scientists have proved the usefulness of traditional old saying to farmers, forecasting the monsoon’s arrival using the flowering of a local tree.

After our "fascinating" discussion of nuts and seeds, I thought I'd share this incredibly exciting explanation of why a nut IS a seed , and for those of you who might be getting hungry, a nutritional guide to nuts and seeds, a highly intellectual discussion on what a coconut is, and some Jamie Oliver recipes (which may contain nuts, seeds, and coconuts).

The Sounds of Spoken English

The powerpoint file from today's class is available to download here. You can also click here for the IOWA Phonetics Project - a fantastic website which helps you explore the sounds of English and shows you animations to help you to pronounce the sounds correctly. If you're put off by the site's American English content, a good dictionary like the online Cambridge Advanced Learner's dictionary will show you any key differences in the pronunciation of words with a British English accent.

Below you can see the phonemic chart with a list of consonants in context:

LisP

Some random vocabulary that arose in today's LisP class:

-I leant against the wall
-The tree has many branches
-I threw the stone into the sea and it created ripples
-there was an earthquake
-the earth shook

.

..and some corrections:

- a wooden (not wood) door
- make (not do) a mistake
- walk along (not through) a path
- he isn't (not doesn't or doesn't be) afraid of death
- she climbed / stepped / jumped over the tree (rather than just "she across the tree")
- escape from the bear (not "escape away")
- problems that she faces or problems that confront her (not "problems that face her")
- I'd like to analyse (not analysis)

Finally, do you know the difference between THROWING A STONE AT A BEAR and THROWING A STONE TO A BEAR?

Tiny summaries and definitions

I found out this morning that I have a class who can write well but who can't count to 15. I suppose you can't have everything. When given the instruction to write something in fewer than 15 words, they came up with:

- Sociolinguistics is the study of language from a social point of view.

- Titanic is still regarded as the best film because it earned the highest profit of any film in history.

- Titanic is a film combining romance with tragedy. It is based on the true story of a giant ship sinking.

We then became pseuso-academic, with statements like the following:

- Alenazy (2010) claims that “Colchester is a very nice town to the extent that [he] cannot find the exact words to describe it”.

- Alenazy (2010) claims that Colchester is such a “nice town” that he “cannot find the exact words to describe it”.

- Colchester is a tiny town (to the) East of London. It is well-known for Essex University, which has an international reputation.

- Al Hosan (2010) claims that Colchester, situated to the North-East of London, is worth visiting.
- Al Hosan (2010) defines Colchester as “a city located to the North-East of London” and describes it as “a good place to visit”.

- According to Al Hosan (2010), Colchester is “a city located to the North-East of London” and is worth visiting.

GVD Language Review

This morning we went through some error correction activities to review a few language issues which arose in last week's writing task. We also discovered that the only way to reduce the power of people from Jeddah is to mix them with "outsiders"! You can find corrections of your mistakes corrected in this Word file, while the powerpoint file is available to download here.

We also discussed and discovered the following:

Separating subjects and verbs with commas is only possible if there are two commas to separate out extra information. So, I, Abduoo, love you is OK, but I, love you is not.

SO and SUCH are used in a longer pattern that some of us had previously realised. Hopefully these examples show you how:

Colchester is so boring that I would rather watch paint dry than go to the town centre. (so + adjective)

Colchester is such a boring place that I regret ever coming here. (such + noun phrase)

Muhammed is so intelligent that he can answer any question without even thinking.

My girlfriend is so beautiful that when she walks in the garden the flowers feel jealous.

In reported speech, we don't have to shift every verb back one tense. If we want / need to show that what we are reporting is still true, we use a tense / aspect combination that reflects this. For example:

She told me she loved me. (she told me in the past, she loved me in the past...and probably not now)
She told me she loves me. (she told me in the past but, as far as I'm concerned, she still loves me now)
She tells me she loves me. (she tells me often - every day perhaps - and yes, she loves me now)

Apostrophes are found after the s in plural nouns. So, I stayed at my sister’s house refers to only one sister, while my sisters’ house would suggest that I have more than one sister and that they both live in one house. Likewise we'll see a difference between the respondent's answers and the respondents’ answers, and even between Maha's homework and Mahas' homework. Maybe my final example is just getting silly, but I hope you get the point...

Finally, we touched briefly on the difference between that and which, and I'd like to save time by directing you towards a previous blog post in which I tried to answer this question. Let me know what you think...