English Grammar Seminar

Goodbye!

2009-08-15T17:48:00.004+02:00

Dear friends, as I announced in my previous comment, I will concentrate my writings and compositions in My English Journal: http://ejvb-myjournal.blogspot.com/, where I will upload comments and personal compositions starting this week. You are welcome to my new blog.

Thank you. Good luck!

Saturday morning. Third day.

2009-07-06T09:22:00.003+02:00

Saturday morning. Third day.

I took the bus at about 09:05 at Plaza de España (also know as Horses Square). Nice talk with new friends. Arrival at about 09:35. Some juice from the vending, some talk and ready for the last session. In Aula 10 I learned about an initiative to help students of Telecommunications to achieve a satisfactory level of English, about changes via Tic and projects in a subject in Commerce, how to integrate a contest organized by students as an extra or complementary curricular activity in a degree in Advertising, about a moving experience in Delaware: The University hosting children from families in need. We were told about some of the activities organized by University students with those children and finally how Physics has changed in the new curricula. Then some posters and some coffee and biscuits. Some old friends to update knowledge.

Then, finally the last talk: José Gimeno Sacristán: Educar por competencias, ¿qué hay de nuevo?

Prof. Gimeno was quite critical with respect to the way the new methodologies based on competences have been presented. This notion is neither new nor it is the only sound methodological approach -for him not the best one, of course- to the teaching and learning processes. Habermas, Barnett and some other well-known references were mentioned. Bologna's bureaucracy are interested in evaluating the acquisition of competences because of economic and mercantilist interests.

Prof Gimeno made some very illuminating remarks about the notion and term "competence." First of all, the generalized use of this term is misleading. Global competences are entelechies, constructs, that try to incorporate different areas and degrees of expertise on different areas of activity. Competences are properly defined -they are functional- when dealing with limited and precise operations, not when accounting for wider areas of experience and activity. Once the levels of complexity and abstraction increase the concept "competence" becomes imprecise and, of course, very difficult to handle in a satisfactory evaluation. The speaker illustrated these ideas by means of some slides. He also listed the different meanings the term "competence" may have: (aptitud, poder para, competencia, destreza, conocimiento práctico, efectivividad: aptitude, ability, know how, skill, applicability, utility). A very precise economic interest and a narrow conception of what "functional" is in education seem to play a decisive role in the new reform.

Prof. Gimeno also reminded us that Bloom's taxonomy was nothing new (American, the seeventies) and that there are some other rational approaches to education that could do much better in his view that this "not so radically new" approach favoured by the Bologna bureaucrats. Finally, of course, something already mentioned: if competences are imprecise constructs then the process of evaluation will not be fair. Marking is not evaluating. Round of applause, an intervention defending the positive values the new approaches based on competences may have and some others asking for some extra comments on the main points of the talk.

Then, closing ceremony. Some words by the Dean of the Scool of Economics and the Vice-rector Membiela, some beautiful songs by the University choir -exquisite taste-, moving Gaudeamus Igitur -Juvenes Semper!- very good white Ribeiro and red Ribeira Sacra. Some more friendly conversation and goodbye. Rewarding experience. Congress over at 15:00 hours. Now, to do the homework.

P.S. Need, not only of correction but of some extra elaboration.

Vigo, 6th July 2009 09:20.

First Congress on Education. 2nd day.

2009-07-05T22:19:00.004+02:00

First Congress on Education. 2nd day. (Friday 3rd)

Unfortunately, in the morning I was quite busy in my office doing some final work on my 2008-09 courses. I also found some time to write my comment on the first day. Consequently, I couldn't go to any of the excursions organized for the participants.

Very pleasant lunch in Económicas. Nice conversation and exchange of ideas and points of view with old and new friends. Some of the guest speakers in one of the sessions could not land in Vigo due to the foggy weather and the afternoon-evening session had to be rescheduled. I saw some more posters and attended another session in infamous Aula 3. Being cloudy we could see half well, but as soon as there was a sunny spell we could not tell head or tail about the presentation. Interesting ideas on how to promote and use the Tics, in tutorial global networks, in courses and degrees of different areas (Law), how to incorporate the organization of advertising contexts in the new curricula, how to organize data in a course of studies avoiding overlapping by means of a Semantic network, how to design new projects by means of a Tic in Law.

It is always interesting to contrast what one has been doing during these years and what other colleagues have attempted and achieved.

After coffee and some biscuits, the big session: A round Table with three speakers: Felipe Trillo (Santiago), Esther Balboa (Aneca) and Pedro Membiela (Vigo) ... on whether the "conditions" have finally been met or not.

Felipe Trillo was quite critical about the present situation. The process to transform a system based on the transmission of knowledge from teachers to students based on objective evaluable knowledge to a new learning environment and methodology in which the students become the main agents of their own learning process oriented and supervised by teachers in courses formed by activities that aim at the acquisition of competences is neither consolidated nor well precised. If I understood correctly there is a process of mystification of the whole Bologna process: one thing is the creation of common European teaching standards, a different thing is what is going on in this country. The Aneca is responsible for the way in which the reform is being conducted. Neither the system of competences is satisfactorily designed in many areas nor its methodological basis is the only sound methodological alternative to the traditional system in educational terms. For him it was clear that the next year was going to be hard because the basic conditions for the deployment of the new system have not been met yet.

Esther Balboa insisted on concepts such as innovation, reflection, exchange of ideas, the need to offer the students an array of options and activities, of finding new modalities and ways to teaching. That is, hard but challenging work in which the Aneca will contribute with new criteria to evaluate the experience based on what is going on in other European countries and, of course in Spain. Once the process has taken some shape it will be the time to start drawing conclusions and proposing new measures. Gradual process in which one of the main priorities is to monitor and evaluate the new teaching experience.

Pedro Membiela commented on the different activities offered by the University of Vigo to help teachers to get 1) basic teaching formation, 2) specialization in new methods and technologies, 3) update knowledge and recycle themselves, 4) participate and publish in teaching forums. He stressed the enthusiasm and dedication with which many teachers are working on the reform. He confessed he was somewhat "eurosceptical" and that he considered that the new degrees would not bring about that innovative radical change and improvement that has been officially prophesied. The university has tried to offer as much help as possible. Now, let's see...

In the debate I raised my hand to participate and expressed my concern about what the change of orientation and method may suppose in the first year of the new experience... taking into account: 1) The situation in Secondary School nowadays, 2) The fact that in First Year the students are not acquainted with the Erasmus exchange programs yet (they have no international experience, any University experience), 3) The high degree of maturity that is presupposed in a system based on self-organization, personal initiative and regular work evaluated by means of activities and competences, being the new students 18 year old or so, 4) The quite high working knowledge of the Tics and other online teaching methods it is presupposed in many of the activities. I have taught English First Year for many years and I know that it is very hard for many students to get used to the new methods, to the high degree of responsibility that studying at university supposes and to the need of being regular to achieve satisfactory results. According to the feedback I received in the recent past, the two main key areas now are: the consolidation of a regular system of study based on compulsory and optional activities that pursue the development of competences and the creation of a fair evaluation system that can account for this new method effectively. In my experience -satisfactory in the end- this means moments of indecision and of change in the course, of positive and negative experiences. and of some internal rearrangement. Some other interventions were very eager on the results of the Pisa report on Secondary Teaching and to what an extent they were relevant for the new process. Some other interventions stressed the need to take into consideration the intense work many people have already done for free, "at no cost" whatsoever as Trillo mentioned in his first intervention. Balboa said that the Aneca would help and orient as much as possible, Trillo proclaimed himself radically "Anecasceptical" and made some interesting comments on how the work of this kind of agencies is received at Oxford and other European universities. Pedro Membiela said that "enough was enough" and the Round Table was over. Then some very elegant tangos were played by the Aurum Quartet and at 09:00 I took the bus to Plaza de España while many of the participants went down to the Official dinner.

One final comment tomorrow on the third day... and first homework on the congress done.

[One final reflection, I've trained myself to keep this teaching journal as part of what I consider university work should be. Now... I've spent a couple of hours organizing my ideas and writing this first draft. Will my English First Year students be able to do something similar on a minor scale... That I fear!]

Congreso de Docencia Universitaria, 2...

2009-07-03T13:30:00.003+02:00

It's been a long time since I last published in this blog. I'm afraid that in the future, due to work and teaching need I will have to concentrate my three teaching blogs in one. One article today about the Congreso de Docencia Universitaria 2nd-4th July 2009, one final closing article and time for reform in late July beginning of August.

Congreso de Docencia Universitaria, 2-4th July 2009.

First Day.

Quite pleasant the first day. Good organization and some unexpected problems. For instance, when sunny nobody could tell head from tail in the slides shown in Aula 3, even though the blinds were down. Friendly atmosphere, participation, some old friends and some new acquaintances.
In the opening ceremony the Rector of our university expressed some ideas that I consider quite reasonable and constructive: 1) The antagonism between teacher and doing research is negative and unjustifiable. A university needs to combine these two main areas of interest in its daily activity, 2) If in the past this false dichotomy may have led to a lack of appreciation of the research on teaching, the new European context: new degrees, student oriented methodologies, online technology is making the pendulum search for a new balance, 3) Not only teaching and researching but also creativity in the classroom. The vice-rectors from A Coruña and Vigo -Santiago's representative could not participate in the act due to unexpected health problems- stressed the need for these kind of conferences in the present circumstances and congratulated themselves for the success in this first edition.

Juan Manuel Álvarez Mendez: A avaliación o servicio de quen aprende.

Interesting and entertaining first plenary talk. The speaker started with a first important precision: marking and selecting students according to a success based on "objective" exams is not the same as evaluating them in a continuous, transparent and joint process in a course. Examining students pursuing the exam result leads to false knowledge. Prof. Álvarez made some critical remarks on the methodological and ideological foundation of a teaching system based on "objectivity" that he extended to the new Bologna ideas on competences. For him the ultimate goal is clear: fierce economic competition. He criticized the standard view on exams on ethical, esthetical and technical grounds. He proposes: transparency, participation and debate, creativity and the development of a fair critical approach to the learning process that can lead to the construction of real knowledge not to the repetition and mystification of the official one. He mentioned Paulo Freire, quite consistently in my view. In his classes he uses jokes, he encourages the students to get to know each other and work in group. The students contribute to the evaluation process by means of self-evaluation.... and the system seems to work, even though they may find difficulties later on in other courses that follow the traditional organizational pattern. Quite an active debate about how to apply these ideas in an extended and efficient way.

Apart from hanging around a little bit (some posters) I followed -quite thoroughly- the session on the use of Tics and teaching blogs in aula 3. Positive experiences at different stages of development and debate about finding solid reasons and objectives to apply the new technologies in teaching at all levels, how to train the students so that they develop a positive attitude in the courses and how to adapt and create new teaching materials.

Personal and social need -my garage had been burglarized some days ago- and I had to go home made me leave before the last Round table. Education and social need always meet.

Let's see how things go in this afternoon-evening's session!

What I learned about dyslexia and sign language before Easter.

2009-04-05T17:32:00.009+02:00

What did I learn in these two weeks' complementary lectures? Homework.

I have always considered campus to be the ideal place not only to get to know specialists in your main areas of teaching and research, but also to complete your education in other areas of knowledge or technique. These last weeks have been quite fruitful I write down here a couple of brief reports on two disabilities that enrich my global knowledge of the COMPLEXITIES involved in language, communication and interaction. Here, either the lack or the distortion of the basic organic mechanism to have access language and cognition call for the need to develop alternative -remedial-systems that compensate that need. Could I relate these two seminars with our seminar on English Grammar about Complexity? I think I easily could. In terms of cognition, in terms of the grammar system, in terms of interaction. The only usual problem is our pressing need for time.

1.- Joanna Nijaklowska. University of Lódz on dislexia.

The introductory morning talk given by this Polish specialist and now friend was quite informative. The way she built up her talk was gradual and consistent. After some preliminaries, she first dealt with the genetic and organic basis of this disability and then she started exploring the cognitive and communicative consequences. These people face very important problems in coding and decoding language: recognition, discrimination, remembrance, of letters and sounds (boundaries, graphemes, higher units). Consequently, they have big difficulty in reading and writing. Their responses are very slow, and they are affected by problems in their short term memory -even though their intellectual ability is not harmed.

The afternoon-evening workshop was very illustrative about how to discriminate and pair sounds and letters and how to build up and recognize more complex -lexical, grammatical- units. Plenty of participation. We all enjoyed the activities.

I've found a couple of references about Dr. Joanna Nijaklowska I could upload in my personal reference website. I use now one of my favourite methods before getting too specialized: I look up "dislexia" in a standard encyclopaedia to contrast what I've heard with the general ideas held about that illness. This helps me to contrast and relate information. Later on, if time available I look up some specialized literature.
(My representation of an example on distortion prof. Nijaklowska used in the morning presentation. In the material I reproduce below, The comments in red are mine. I have also used red to stress the most important ideas in the text. Green is for things that are new to me).

Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by problems in the oral or written language. The word dyslexia is comes from the Greek "dys" (meaning poor) and "lexis" (language).

Problems may begin to show up in reading, spelling, writing, speaking, or listening. Dyslexia is not the result of low intelligence. Dyslexia results from differences in the structure and function of the brain. Their problems in language processing distinguish them as a group. This means that the dyslexic has problems translating language to thought or thought to language.
Some common signs of Dyslexia are:

Lack of awareness of sounds in words

Difficulty with word identification

Difficulty with spelling

Poor sequencing of numbers or letters

Problems with reading comprehension

Difficulty expressing thoughts both in written and oral form

Delayed spoken language

Confusion about directions in space or time

Confusion about right or left handedness. ?

Utile et dulce. What about ....

2009-03-22T19:39:00.003+01:00

As I have an excessively favourable opinion of my wit, I feel the need to mention another important concept in which there is a manipulation of what could be a normal serious standard language: conceit with respect to what witty prof. Grumbles says in today's cartoon. A kind of opaque humour, as well: difficult to understand without some linguistic background information.
A good review of the figures of speech could lead to some interesting discussions... but time always goes too fast!

Conceit.
–noun
1. an excessively favorable opinion of one's own ability, importance, wit, etc.
2. something that is conceived in the mind; a thought; idea: He jotted down the conceits of his idle hours.
3. imagination; fancy.
4. a fancy; whim; fanciful notion.
5. an elaborate, fanciful metaphor, esp. of a strained or far-fetched nature.
6. the use of such metaphors as a literary characteristic, esp. in poetry.
7. a fancy, purely decorative article.
8. British Dialect.
a. favorable opinion; esteem.
b. personal opinion or estimation.
9. Obsolete. the faculty of conceiving; apprehension.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conceit

conceit

Utile et dulce. What about irony?

2009-03-17T20:41:00.001+01:00

I've spent one hour today trying Pixton's new strip. Nothing too original. However, when I was creating the story I thought about the notion of irony. What kind of complexity lies in a skilful use of images and rhetoric effects? Fascinating topic, for another class.

How to play with words.

2009-03-16T22:16:00.011+01:00

This year's seminar is going quite fast. Complexity of thought, structural complexity, conversational complexity. We need to know "how to do things with words," we need to know how to express ourselves and organize our ideas. Do we neeed to know how to play with words? When we are children, if I recall well, we are able to create games based freely on language. Some words can get a hidden significance, some others can become symbolic, we can use double meanings in a naive way. Then, later on, as teenagers, we become serious and mature and we are often ashamed of "how infantile our favourite games were". However, even later, we feel some nostalgia for our first games. Some people try to recreate the children's logic in literaryh and artistic productions. In a way, the strip I present here tries to reflect this chain of thought. The Panopticon series shows influences of many Spanish comic strips I read when I was about 14 years old: Pulgarcito,T B O, and some others. At that time there were no computers, only the black and white television, the radio, some books and the Sunday cartoon magazines.

[Also in Stripgenerator]
Schema (plural schemata). A pre-existing knowledge structure in memory typically involving the normal expected patterns of things, eg. an apartment schema has a kitchen, a bedroom, etc. [85]. George Yule. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.

Performative hypothesis. A proposal that, underlying every utterance, there is a clause with a verb that identifies the speech act. [51] George Yule. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.

Ects. Short for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System. European standard of equivalences for University studies enforced since 2004.

Etc. Short for et cetera (et caetera).

Pun. Pun or paronomasia "... is a form of word play that deliberately exploits ambiguity between similar-sounding words for humorous or rhetorical effect." (Wikipedia)

About precise language.

2009-02-25T21:39:00.002+01:00

About precise language.

We need to have clear notions about what we want to say. We must be able to use the appropriate language rule to construct the sentence we need to express that message. Our conversation partner should react as we expected. Isn't all this very complex! Besides, in our case, we are using the non-native language we've learned at school and university to account for all the range of potential meanings as if we were natives. One problem is common to natives and non-natives, though: the need to use precise language. Defining words and concepts is a very useful activity not only to clarify ideas, but also to find out about reality, about analogical thought and about language behaviour. Comic strips are very useful to unveil language dissonances. This is why I take them so seriously -not only as a scholarly pastime. They serve me to explore reality from different perspectives.

Give me reasons! by dada20087

A first class sketch.

2009-02-04T13:45:00.013+01:00

Um...titled. by taterprint

1.- Introduction. Jotting down ideas.

What could we discuss about this joke in a seminar on Grammatical complexity both in purely syntactic and in pragmatic terms? What has happened here. Why is it a joke? Can we point at one item of language as the main trigger of the humorous effect? Yes/No. Why? Could we extend our talk about politeness and interaction, about social conventions?, about cultural assumptions. Is this useful in any way in an advanced course on Grammar Theory?

Imagine you are the one involved in the situation? How would you react? What does your act mean in terms of communication, an excuse? an apology? Is it a lie? Can we tell lies when we are talking to people?

I think that we should follow an order in our discussion.

1.- What is the joke about? Can I explain what's expressed there using both language and images?

2.- There is one critical point in the exchange in terms of communication. The addressee considers that the speaker has made a comment that is not only wrong, but that it could be taken unpolite. The speaker tries to explain what he really meant.

3.- Both the speaker and the addressee need to use the recourses of language, both structure and conventions to grant interaction. The speaker needs to be tactful and dispel the wrong impression. Will he succeed. He's got several alternatives in his comunicative strategy. Will he use them well?

4.- We should examine the sentences of the exchange both in terms of the structure, the vocabulary, the conventional meaning and the contextual meaning. Why does the addressee react as she does in the first part? What does she think the first sentence mean? Why does she provide the information that she is not pregnat? Why does the speaker feels the need to be more precise with respect to the lexical item "due." Is this item of vocabulary that complex?

5.- Finally. Non verbal communication provides information that help us understand the dialogue. We can put what we see in words, that is, we translate visual images and symptoms into concepts and language.

Now, let's have a closer view to the sentences:

1.- So... when are you due?

Preliminary questions, in terms of discourse, in terms of grammatical structure:

1.1.- Is this connector "so" indicating the beginning of the conversation or is it really linking pieces of discourse:

Tentative idea I need to check:

1.1.1.- Two people meet in a party, Charlie's party. They are both very shy. They don't know what to talk about. One of them starts...

- So... you and Charlie are good friends. Do you work together at university?

1.1.2.- Well, I've already given you my reasons, so don't ask me again why I refuse to talk to Charlie.

First grammatical item to review then: "so as connector," not as comparative, not as intensifier, not as tag.

1.2.- Is this sentence complete?

The meaning of this adjective, by the way, is not subject to gradation. You cannot say that "you're very due," at least that I know. You can precise on due by means of time expressions or by means of a prepositional phrase indicating readiness. This adjective can, of course be used with specialized meaning with respect to pregnancy: "You deliver the burden in due time," so to speak. That is, a specialized deadline. A good occasion to think of the cognitive processes that may lead to metaphorical, metonimical, conventional use of words and expressions and their miseries. Apparently, if we use the adjective due when addressing a member of the female species who happens to be a little bit overweight then we may trigger first the presupposition that you're pregnant. By asking you "when are you due?" I may imply something more than simple curiosity or interest about the exact date, but the context does not provide much clues. Now, I don't think that the speaker has intended to imply that the woman is fat. Of course you can crack jokes on bellies, especially those of the male species, indicating precisely that you're overweight. However, here, the speaker has taken for granted that she was pregant. That is, he has made a mistake. Of course, we can believe his later excuse, but this is a different issue.

2.- I'm not pregnant.

The woman has interpreted the question in the specialized sense of "due" that is, end of pregnancy. therefore she denies the man's presupposition (pragmatic). She may be fat, but she is not pregnant, therefore she is not due in any conceivable time in the future. Unless we consider that she has understood his question as when do you calculate you are you going to give birth?the sentence would not make any sense, it would not relate (maxim of relevance) to what the speaker said.

What about... "um....I meant for an oil change? This means sweats a lot! He is too deep in thought! He is trying to be precise. His question meant a very complex sentence in terms of meaning and in terms of syntactic structure.

3.- Is this sentence "complex" on what grounds?

In terms both of syntax and meaning, a person cannot be due for an oil change. The change of state indicated in the post-modifier cannot be applied to humans or animals. Oil change, incidentally is a specialized term used for machines. By the way this kind of oil is not edible.

When are you due for an oil change" is wrong. Now, I understand that this expression can be used, perhaps, to refer to when a person's car needs to be serviced. I kind of doubt, however that the expression is acceptable in grammar terms, However, as I'm a non-native speaker and besides English is a huge language, I'd need to document the possible example. However, I "understand" the relation: a person standing for his/her car. I know besides that in my native language I can use "creative", "0riginal," "weird" expressions to try to create expressive effects. That is, I can breach the rules of grammar on purpose to show a personal point of view. Now, I normally use this kind of creativity -at least consciously- in well delimited contexts and with people I know.

I could say that the notion of attributing the adjective "due" to a person to refer the time in which her car must be serviced is so difficult that language cannot account properly for it. In that context and talking to a human to be due cannot be associated with a mechanical fix. This sentence betrays, cannot imply, the speaker's main concern, there is no other way to explain the meaning of 'due' in that case.

The explanation is therefore not very convincing either in terms of grammar or as an explanation. I don't think it is a effective "white lie." However, a weak "white lie" betrays an excuse. By sweating, getting absorbed and providing an explanation the speaker cannot solve the previous conversational bad effect, but he seems to be sincere in lamenting his confusion. He did not mean to make any bad taste comment on the woman's obesity. Now, the communicative act in the second part of the exchange could be labelled a failed justification that leads to an implied acknowledgment of the confusion and an indirect way of asking for excuses by showing his concern. Now, we have only an incomplete declarative sentence (statement) that cannot correspond to a Speech Act either direct or indirect. Can white lies communicate? They can betray what they cannot hide. This would lead to a very interesting discussion.

4.- To conclude.

In this seminar I would like to discuss the notion of "complexity" in conversational terms, rather than in informative terms. Complexity is a very interesting grammatical phenomenon that tries to account for the clustering of grammatical relations in the sentence structure both in syntactic and informative terms. This approach can illuminate central problems in some rules and help avoid many ambiguities. My interest is not that sentence specific.I want to study complexity in terms of communicative need. To express one idea I need first to organize my ideas and then select that pattern that can fit my purposes best in a given context. That is, I will use one of several possibilities. In each choice there are two kinds of complexity involved: the purely syntactic (and informative) one and the communicative complexity of using the structure in a context (syntactic (informative)//communicative) in terms not only of conveying information but of achieving a particular communicative effect in conversation. Now, what about trying a possible sequel to this story?

2009. Getting ready.

2009-01-26T20:59:00.001+01:00

In a week or so the second semester will begin. I'd better start putting my ideas straight. What are my notions about this course? I'm afraid my students will not understand this witticism in the first two weeks of the semester. A good way to start may be uploading here the original presentation of the III Xornadas de Innovación Educativa held at the University of Vigo before Christmas. In this way I can link this beginning with what I wrote after the Aneca Conference before the summer break.I can also keep in experimenting with the Slideshare viewer to publish documents.

Presentación Xornadas Innovacion 11208 3 Definitivo.

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: metodoloxía)

Implied meaning

2008-09-21T17:17:00.001+02:00

A second attempt of another tentative project.

First day , of Course!

2008-09-01T17:44:00.000+02:00

First day, of Course! and first exam. English Grammar Fourth Year! Not difficult from my point of view. First projects for this course in this blog, even though it is scheduled for the second semester. English Brunch! new English media program! featuring "Modern Deco & Its Items of Wisdom."

Some more reflections on course structure, regularity, knowledge, training and competence.

2008-07-26T23:16:00.000+02:00

I think that all teachers would agree on the principle that learning without an objective, without a purpose is useless. The dychotomy "to know" and "to know how" is useful precisely because it delimits both a body of knowledge that should be always present, perfected and updated and an activity that should be done propely and efficiently. Impractical knowledge leads nowhere. Therefore, everybody would agree, in principle, with the new approach based on developing the students' competence and skills if and only if the students also acquire the knowledge, technique method and principle they will need to perform their task. Further, in pinciple as well, almost everybody would volunteer to train their students in practical skills if somebody else provided them with the basic knowledge they need or if somebody would tutor them through their learning process once the essential references and data have been provided clearly and orderly. Traditionally, a good exercise, a good analysis, a good practical case is considered much more difficult than the discussion or repetition of theoretical knowledge because "doing things embodies the theory of doing them well." What's the problem then? Why some many people are against the plasticine approach?
First of all, a course based on competences, on the students' [self work and organization supervised by their teacher in a well-delimited span of time in which they need to assimilate and discuss the knowledge they need to produce their evidence so that they can prove that they are competent to perform the global and specific activities set for a give course] requires a very mature and professional approach on the part of teenagers. It also requires capacity to organize their schedules and be ready to work hard. The number of hours per course is always tentative, but I'd say that some more hours than the official ones are needed to do well in a standard course.
Secondly, who supervises the quality, clarity, precision, value of the knowledge these students need to acquire? Further, how many hours will they need to elaborate a syhthesis of basic knowledge. Will they be able to do both things at the same time? Will they read and condense the bibliographical references-and other sources of information- provided in a regular course? How will they gain self-confidence in tasks that require analysis and synthesis, for instance. Besides, one thing is an encyclopaedia and a different thing is a text or collection of texts or materials specificically designed for a particular activity.
Finally, in the evaluation, what happens if those parts of the exam that deal with the basic knowledge of facts, techniques and skills are deficient? Will the learning outcome be satisfactory? A student can handle well in computers or media, for instance, but his/her basic knowledge of a foreign language can be defective and iconic, for instance.
It is evident that for many years a lot of impracticable and abstruse knowledge, was transmitted in the traditional lecture hall while the practical skills and matters were left for the beginning of the learning practical period that started once the students had got their certificates. It is true that the system did not work. Besides, computers have radically changed the transmission of knowledge. Nobody needs to dictate or take notes in class in the old fashioned way.
It's not difficult to teach the students the basics of one activity. However, a good performance will depend on their personal work and on a body of reliable knowledge that they will need once the complex variables and difficulties start to appear in the daily work. A doubt about a medical procedure, some basic legal knowledge, some sound inferential processes, the intiative to explore an alterative way or routine. When and how are these students going to learn that? A little bit far-fetched perhaps, but what about having to write exams and pieces of texts without spellers? Somebody would say that my reasoning is not complete, but...
One thing is the ability to know where to find the precise instructions needed in each case, how to expand and complete a piece of knowledge or technique and how to search for other sources and references, a different thing is being "competent enough, "to the degree that is necessary" in one activity. If not, everything will become shallow and schematic and many people will be unable to respond satisfactorily in many moments because of lack of preparation or expertise. They won't know how to take decisions. Unfortunately, this is already the case in many areas of activity nowadays. To get experience one needs to count on his/her previous knowledge to handle a situation.
Time will be central in the new educational process. Shorter courses, o.k., and practical competences and abilities. But, who caters for the technique and basic knowledge? Will the learning process be homogeneous? Will it be precise and sufficient? The emphasis on "knowing how" to do something is positive, the same as the conception of continous education and improvement, but where and how can one find reliable knowledge. What about the time for self-study? How can course work and personal study be balanced?

[First draft correction 28th 0708]

I had include dhere an interesting piece of music by Cat Stevens about the good old day's in the schoolyard....[ What will we need to change? Simplicity versus complexity.] but it is not longer available in Youtube. I have found another protest song by Cat Stevens also about children.It title is well know:"where do the children play'"

Testing skills and competences.

2008-07-22T21:23:00.000+02:00

To me, it's quite clear that the "new system of evaluation" is going to find some unconscious resistance on the part of the teachers, who were trained to keep and transmit different areas of institutionalized knowledge. Nowadays, knowledge is seen as a means to an end. The students need to get access to that knowledge in order to develop their skills and competences. O.K., but who will help and monitor this learning process? We all know that studying on one's own is limited. Sooner or later we need a piece of advice and or the tricks of the old master. In Humanities, who is going to teach the old techniques? It seems as if the reform, sooner or later, will bring as a side product a body of assistants, technicians, helpers who will have to do this job. Will they become the "new teachers?" Will they be paid for that? This is the main idea in today's cartoon.

Evaluations and Evidence

2008-07-18T18:42:00.000+02:00

I'd like to dedicate some time during this summer to think about a key problem related to the notion of "student evaluation." Some teachers have received very poor evaluations from their students even though they've dedicated a lot of hours to their classes. Why do some dedicated teachers receive such bad evaluations? Ideology? Poor classes? Ugly personalities? They have been accessible to their students, they have not abused them and they have not used offensive or sexist language in their examples. They have done their work regularly and they have been very careful not to fall in the easy trap of showing jealousy or animosity against those colleagues who have been successful. It is sad, but the negative consequences in their salaries, in their health and in their social and family relations are real. Some of them were even quite good in the past. Why such a radical change? There must be of course a number of reasons. However, apart from each individual case, a number of personal, social, political, professional reasons are always present in a negative way. Universities can become hectic. A person showing an individual course of reasoning and behaviour can be misinterpreted or simply excluded. Besides, unfortunately the human derisive tendency to choose some people as spitting images seems to be a universal. In these cases, I don't consider it a good solution to search desperately for "friendly ears" to talk about one's anguish. In the end, everybody can resent from talking too much (notion of self-esteem). Unfortunately, one must be consistent with what one believes, rely on one's lawyer or union in case the situation becomes complicated and finally use the same criteria one applies to his/her students: evidence, rubric, calendar of activities, deadlines, complementary courses, extra work. If, at the end of a tense academic year, one finds in his/her computer a negative evaluation and if one can then visit a Tic where he can easily trace what (s)he has done during the course then the bad moment can be overcome and vacations can start. Even though, of course, negative results erode and make life not that easy.
However, if teaching excellence is one of the guiding criteria to promote people, the need to defend the basic rights of teachers who may have been affected by a negative environment should also be enforced by the same Agency. It is not only a question of +/- popularity. It is a question of +/- salary and promotion in times of redefinition and hard work.

Aneca 14th-15th July 2008. First recapitulation.

2008-07-15T16:37:00.000+02:00

Two busy and rewarding days. This Aneca conference was very useful to me in a number of ways. First it helped me to complete what I already knew about the new trends in university education with respect to a very thorny area, that of the students' evaluation in the new courses of studies. The lectures and activities were helpful in this respect. Here I highlight the need to include detailed criteria in the course design and the utility of the rubrics to justify the students' evaluation. Second, it provided some useful examples of projects and activities from different centres which have been applying the new methods with more or less success. Finally, central concepts in the specialized literature such as "competence", "learning outcome," "evidence" were defined and discussed. This was the most difficult part. It is very difficult to replace the traditional view of the role of teachers at University transmitting a solid and coherent body of knowledge to the present redefinition: advisors and organizers. They help students to develop different skills in a new educational environment in which the body of specific knowledge is instrumental: The students must know how to perform one particular activity satisfactorily. The new courses organize the learning process, but the students must get used to making the most of their teacher's help and guidance. They need to be able to organize the pace of their studies, the design and handing in of their evidences, the use of additional sources and references. They must show maturity and eagerness. They must develop their own initiatives. The evaluation process set for each course will have to account for all these different aspects, not only for the facts and items of knowledge a student has learned in a course. Evaluation means: "already" or "not yet" in each of the different activities, skills and competences dealt with in each course.
I still need to digest all I learned but two main ideas are clear. The new education is already on its way. The new courses will be designed about the "learning outcome of each degree" and (together with, in addition to, including) competences classified in, at least three groups: global, central to each course of studies, informally acquired.
One final comment: Online resources are already integrated -to a higher or lesser degree- in the structures of practically all the courses taught at university nowadays.

About Selectividad

2008-06-30T11:12:00.000+02:00

I have always taken the Selectivity English Exam into account in my design of English First English Philology. This exams supplies me with some background knowledge about the overall level of the students each year, so that I can foresee some of the main problems I can find in my First Year classes.
I still need to write a summary of this year's impression. However -leaving aside grammar problems and vocabulary now- the main problems I thought of when I wrote my comic strip were: 1) Loss of inflections and multifunctionality of words (forcing the morphological mechanism of functional conversion in English), 2) Difficulties to combine clauses to express complex messages.
This is why I publish this note here: English Grammar Seminar: Course dealing with communicative and grammatical complexity. I hope you like the cartoon.

And, finally, farewell.

2008-06-14T19:46:00.000+02:00

Saturday 14 June 2008. To celebrate this course blog redesign, and keeping in mind the Graduation Ceremony of the 20th, another of my favourite songs by one of my favourite singers: painfully admirable Leonard Cohen in the delicate company of Judy Collins in this performance.
End of course, teacher and students, not lovers, hopefully not enemies:

Now, it's come to distances...
Hey that's no way to say goodbye!

Background Information.

2008-06-14T19:26:00.000+02:00

Let's suppose that my joke is funny. Now, a preliminary question: will it be funny for everybody AND will everybody understand it? What specialised knowledge do I presuppose on the person I'm targeting?
Two main kinds of specialized knowledge:
1.- About football and footballers.
2.- About linguistic concepts and terminology.
I also presuppose some shared contextual knowledge about University life.
Once that all this is clarified, what implied meaning(association) we need to draw to "understand" the joke in conceptual and linguistic terms?
That is, welcome to Pragmatics and Cognition.

About felicity conditions. John McCain on suffocation.

2008-06-06T08:46:00.000+02:00

Speech Act Theory became one of the main points of interest during this course. We didn't have much time to stress one of the key aspects in this theory: those conditions that make the act felicitious. It is easy to see that if I press or intimidate a person to perform a speech act then this act is not valid. Can we talk about true/false speech acts? This is something necessary, but a speech act involves something more in terms of meaning.
Why all this? Yesterday I traced a video in which John McCain, the Republican candidate in this year's American elections told his opinion about the use of sophisticated torture techniques in interrogations. I should also review what Miguel de Cervantes wrote about the same issue (¿Ginés de Pasamonte?) when somebody has been subjected to the "ansia" (suffocation) in prison. According to M.C.S. "to say either yes or no in these cases is irrelevant." This is why I've always been against tautological torture as part of tautological reasoning. Any reasoning in which there's no possibility of introducing changes and reformulating even axioms is no reasoning. Torture is expensive, brutal and ridiculous in terms of reasoning. In military terms, in my view, the opposite of what bravery and honesty is. Besides, being slightly cynical... with three or four substances properly injected..., but I suppose that this must be too easy in certain kind of "rituals."
This video is very useful in two ways: 1) Linguistically, 2) Politically. A conservative politician who states his point of view freely in a debate is a conforting example of at least two things: 1) Ability to use argumentation in a debate, 2) Democratic conviction.
Why have I uploaded this video? Simply because I believe in language and reasoning and because, as I wrote at the beginning, this illustrates some key aspects of what we've seen in our course. I have to say as contextual information, that John McCain was tortured when he was a war prisoner in Vietnam, I think.
Principles are principles. Let's define torture and then let's find the way to eradicate it.

This does not mean, of course, that I'm in favour of Napalm, for instance, I'm not. But principles are principles and conventions are conventions.

Wrapping up

2008-06-04T09:43:00.000+02:00

The course is over, and the most important conclusions have already been drawn. Grammar and proper communiction are essential in human life to avoid [+/- big problems]. They are also a wide and fascinating area of research.
Can we apply the pragmagrammatical jargon to everyday encounters? Have a look at this new strip. Then we'll talk!

Language performance

2008-05-24T13:08:00.000+02:00

A joke on the pragmatic jargon used in class to remind you of another key concept: PRAGMASTYLISTICS! I hope you'll like it!

Brother, can you spare a dime?

2008-05-24T10:49:00.000+02:00

This seminar has only one week left. We have explored some very important areas in which linguistic structure and communicative need interact to try to make the most efficient use of our language recourses. This is always vital in human social life. It is vital and difficult in second language learning, where we have to explore the conventions of appropriate language use as well. In Depressing times it is still more important.

[I should revise all this paragraph and check gradability and absolute adjectives here.]

Brother, can you spare a dime? I read about this expression when I was doing American literature. I should trace it in Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo. We could analyze it notionally here. Writing a paper on the language of begging? Why not? On apologizing, on thanking, on begging. I've decided to upload a very well-known song of the American Depression entitled: Brother could you spare a dime? Quite moving. It reminds me of some tangos I know. In what sense? This topic would have provided an interesting conversation class in the 70s 80s. The story is sad and moving.

Argumentative structure on Cap's lecture.

2008-04-04T12:33:00.000+02:00

Phase One text sample:
(Feb. 26, 2003, Bush's AEI address) We are facing a crucial period in the history of our nation, and of the civilized world. On a September morning, threats that had gathered for years, in secret and far away, led to murder in our country on a massive scale. As a result, we must look at security in a new way, because our country is a battlefield in the first war of the 21st century. We learned a lesson: the dangers of our time must be confronted actively and forcefully, before we see them again in our skies and our cities. Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction are a direct threat to our people and to all free people.

Phase Two text sample:
(Nov. 19, 2003, Bush's Whitehall address) By advancing freedom in the greater Middle East, we help end a cycle of dictatorship and radicalism that brings millions of people to misery and brings danger to our own people. By struggling for justice in Iraq, Burma, in Sudan, and in Zimbabwe, we give hope to suffering people and improve the chances for stability and progress. [...] Had we failed to act, the dictator's programs for weapons of mass destruction would continue to this day. Had we failed to act, Iraq's torture chambers would still be filled with victims, terrified and innocent. The killing fields of Iraq -- where hundreds of thousands of men and women and children vanished into the sands -- would still be known only to the killers. For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Sadam Hussein's rgime is a better and safer place.

These are the two main samples thar Piotr cap used in his lecture last Thursday to illustrate his axiological interpretation of the rhetoric used by the US government to try to legitimize the war in Iraq. I also recommend what I've written on this lecture in my English Grammar blog: A pragmatic lesson to see what I learned from his talk.
What I'd like to discuss in class is:
1.- Conceptual and communicative complexity. The enumeration and piling up of arguments to express the basic idea that the Iraq was /was legitimate and necessary, and the vocabulary used. Mind you, the conceptual study, not the ideological study.
2.- Following Dahl's ideas and what we now about grammatical complexity, the discussion of the two samples in terms of linguistic complexity.

I'd like to introduce a couple of new terms: "Atomic propositions" and "atomic sentences." Keep in mind that a redundant system must be always available in complexity. That is the possibility of using simpler structures even though the cost increases. Dah'l example: a. File, b. Compressed file.

Today's strip is...

2008-04-02T17:51:00.000+02:00

The language foundation of today's (bad) strip lies on the conceptual relation established by Cartoonist between two possible meanings of "complex" and one bad side effect of studying Pragmatics. Names for the characters: Weirdo (Edward), Paper Moon (Humpty Dumpty, the loyal student, Weirdo's alter ego) and Tinderella, Thinderella (Cinderella: the poor student who is doomed to write endeless papers). My sense of humour is not absurd, it is pragmatic, rather.
[I've found a new way to paste my cartoon in matrix website!]

Some more terms from Östen Dahl's book.

2008-03-31T09:41:00.000+02:00

We've used Dah´s Book to define what "complexity" is in terms of information and in terms of system. Then, later on we dealt with complexity in terms of thinking and communicating and in terms of grammatical complexity. I commented on two factors: 1) Complexity is the shortest description that accounts for one unit, structure, pattern, 2) Units of different complexity are often combined in sentences. In fact, this second kind of complexity: the "difficulty" and "precision" required to account for constructions that convey different grammatical relations is the kind of complexity we are familiar with in linguistic analysis. We have not gone much in functional approaches, but if we went into Halliday, for instance, we could see that semantic processes in the embodiment of messages can also be accounted for in terms of combinations of simple and complex elements of thought. In fact, this is the reason why I suggested two different kinds of papers: a) Those that go from notions, from the intended message to the different grammatical messages (top-down) and b) those that study grammatical structures first and construct different meanings (bottom-up). In both cases the need to compress those specifying (defining) elements that account for one grammatical case will constitute the complexity of this phenomenon. Now, to study complexity involves some difficulty, and besides, we should qualify the central concept a little bit more.

1.- Irrespective of how we want to measure thee complexity of a system, I think it is essential, not least in linguistics, to keep complexity as an information-theoretic notion that is at least in principle "objective", in the sense of being independent of the use to which we put the system. This means that we should keep complexity apart from other notions such as "cost," and "difficulty", which must always be related to a user or an agent.
Cost is essentially the amount of resources -in terms of energy, money or anything else- that an agent spends in order to achieve some goal.
Difficulty is a notion that primarily applies to tasks, and, as already noted, is always relative to an agent: it is easy or difficult for someone.(39)

System complexity.
Given that a language as a system can be seen as involving both resources and regulations, it follows that a language could be characterized as more or less complex with respect to both these notions....
The distinction beteween resources and regulations is crucial here. The size of the lexicon is mainly a question of the richness of linguistic resources and thus concerns the expressive power of a language. It does appear desirable to keept the question of what can be expressed in a language separate from the complexity of the system of regulations that which can be expressed. It is the latter that is of prime importance in this book and that we shall refer to as a system complexity. (43).

Structural complexity.
Consider now the words maid and paid. With respect to phonetic weight, these words are equal, and the same holds for the complexity measured in numbers of phonemes. On the morphological level, on the other hand, paid is more complex, consisting of two morphemes. I shall use the term structural complexity as a general term for complexity measures that pertain to the structure of expressions that pertain to the structure of expression, at some level of description. Structural complexity then is distinct both from system complexity on the one hand and cost of transmission on the other. (44)

Conceptual complexity.
Grammatical regulations (what are usually called "rules") often involve conceptual distinctions....
the complexity of a grammar (system complexity) sometimes dependes on the complexity of concepts. (45)

Choice structure.
... behavioural patterns tend to nest into one otherr, forming complex hierarchical systems. A pattern may involve one or more choice points .... that is, possibilities for an agent to make a choice ("degrees of freedom" in statisdtical terms). We are then dealing with a schematic pattern or schema for short. Consider, as a simple example, a standard three-course dinner, consisting of appetizer, main course, and dessert (disregarding beverages for the time being)-- ech of the courses constitutes a choice point.
The three-course dinner schema is a pattern which has an enormous number of possible and actual manifestations in restaurants all over the world.... Each restaurant will have itw own set of possibilities for the customers to choose from. We thus have at least three levels of abstraction:
- the general pattern of a three-course dinner as already described;
- the set of choices offered by a particular restaurant on a particular day.
- the paticular dinner chosen by an individual customer. (47)

That is, the set of choices and dependent choices.
We can try to apply these notions to English grammar by means of one example:

- Intensive Complementation.
1.- I am a teacher as opposed to he likes teachers. (Intensive- Transitive)
2.- I am a teacher and I am happy. (Not only Nouns but also Adjectives)
3.- I became a teacher. (Not only "be" but "become" and some other "auxiliary verbs)
4.- I am what I am. (Not only adjectives but also wh-clauses)
5.- I am a pedagogue. (not only teacher but a kind of teacher).
6.- I am a teacher. I work in education. I work at a school giving English classes. I've got a degree in Education....
7.- a. Could you help me to write this letter?
b. I'm a teacher.

What about notions?

OUR STRIPPED BLOG.

2008-03-16T16:49:00.000+01:00

A new innovation in our course blog. I introduce Ecos to you, our alien specialised in communication.
My first attempt has been inspired by an item of views I've read today in the press: Saint Exupéry [Le Petit Prince, The Spanish Civil War, The Second World War] dead in 1944 in a war episode by a German pilot.

The old paradox: Language must be as precise as a weapon.

Jotting down

2008-03-06T12:47:00.000+01:00

Ten minutes before the class hour, I scribble one final note that could help to raise a debate, even thoughI still have to read the theory in depth.

The notion of information packaging is introduced in Chafe (1976). ...
The basic idea is that speakers do not present information in an unstructured way, but that they provide a hearer with detailed instructions on how to manipulate and integrate this information according to their beliefs about the hearer's knowledge and attentional state: "to ensure reasonable, efficient communication, (t)he speaker tries, to the best of his ability, to make the structure of his utterances congruent with his knowledge of the listener's mental world' (Clark and Haviland 1977: 5).

[Information Sharing, edited by Kees van Deemter & Rodger Kibble. 2002. CSLI. Stanford, California]

You may see why: Communicative Competence // Grammatical Competence. First point in our syllabus.

About John Sinclair.

2008-03-05T21:03:00.000+01:00

Aedean's latest Nexus is dedicated to the memory of two linguists: John Sinclair and Richard Hogg. I reproduce one full paragraph here of the article written by Prof. Aquilino Sánchez (um) on Sinclair's life and work because it deals with some of the issues we were discussing in the last class. Top-down and bottom up mechanisms, schemata and frames and some other. John Sinclair's approach to grammar has been mentioned quite often in our classes, even though not with the detail it deserves:

... La obra clave en la trayectoria investigadora deSinclair es para muchos Corpus, concordance, collocation, publicada en 1991. Probablemente ha sido también su obra más influyente y la que para algunos ha constituido casi el libro de cabecera. Sinclair enuncia lo que suele llamarse 'the open choice principle' y 'the idiom principle' y aporta un sinfín de datos que avalan su tesis. El 'open choice principle' predice la selección de palabras individuales atendiendo a las restricciones de combinación impuestas por la gramática inglesa. Es pues, un principio que funciona de arriba abajo, justo al contrario que el 'idiom principle', que actúa de abajo arriba y es de naturaleza léxica. El primero no es suficiente para producir discurso por parte del hablante. La potencialidad comunicativa se complementa con el 'idiom principle'. En estilo llano y fácilmente comprensible -cosa infrecuente en el mundo académico- argumenta que la potencialidad creativa en el uso de la lengua es bastante baja, a menudo prácticamente nula (afirmación poco grata para los generativistas). Pr el contrario, lo más frecuente es expresarnos echando mano de recursos ya preestablecidos y almacenados en nuestra mente. La producción lingüística de los hablantes está plagada de 'trozos de lengua' (chunks of language), segmentos de oraciones prefabricadas que se adquieren como conjuntos ya disponibles previamente y así se almacenan en nuestra memoria; sólo recurrimos a la gramática cuando estos elementos 'preestablecidos y almacenados' no son suficientes para formular lo que queremos decir. En realidad, el hecho no es despreciable ni debe minusvalorarse: el recurso a los 'segmentos de lengua' preestablecidos y almacenados en la mente favorecen la fluidez de la comunicación. 118

Aedean. Nexus.2008.1. Aedean.

This quotation should help us in our next class.

NEW DEFINITIONS AND SOME PRACTICE.

2008-03-02T17:16:00.000+01:00

The first sessions of the course were dedicated to studying what "complex" may be in terms of communication and in terms of linguistic systems and subsystems. Normally, in human interaction we need to complicate our expression in order to convey what we mean. Besides, we need to elaborate our messages to represent accurately what we have in mind: contrasts, priorities, hierarchies, criteria, evaluations, nuances of meaning. We cannot say all we mean straightforwardly in simple terms not only because this could be inexact but because it would not fulfil my communicative purpose in terms of politeness, comprehension, reasoning even persuasion. Complexity in thought requires a thorough practical knowledge of the grammar of one language that calls for the theoretical knowledge of the grammatical system in terms of complex grammar rules, lexicon, equivalences, compounding of aysmmetrical elements, for instance. That is, the main body of this course syllabus.
This means that we should explore a little bit more our communicative needs in terms of those everyday notions that we learn to relate with grammatical structures in the English Language textbooks labelled as communicative. If you like creative expression and you don't abhor writing compositions,you could toy with the idea of writing a short story, for instance. There you can test yourselves. I think that most writers of all times have defended the need to study grammar quite in depth as a preliminary step to self expression.Even though, they may acknowledge that grammar in itself may be a little dry unless you find a theoretical or applied pursuit. In fact, you well remember that last week I explored the possibility. I proposed I notion, a communicative need that I wanted to explore both in terms of communicative and grammatical complexity. Exploring some archetypical situations dealing with the performative verb "refuse" I had to face both how to express what I wanted to express, no more nor less to perform a Speech Act of refusal, the declarative structure that I had to use (I refuse... noun/ to clause/ -ing clause) and also those equivalent structures I could use to perform the same function without having to use the formal and explicit speech act. Relying on the context to express something (explicit/implicit language) also calls for conventional and cognitive complexity in communication. The participants in a conversation may be able to agree, disagree, put to question what they say in a given context using not only their actual words but also what they imply not only by structures of different complexity but also by the complex use among between what is said and unsaid in each turn of conversation. That the drawing of inferences and the actual use of language involves a highly sophisticated complex mechanism is so relevant that we may ignore it too often. What I wanted to propose in last week's presentation isd that you may write your paper on complexity taken a communicative notion to start with and then study both the communicative situation and the linguistic structures. [If somebody is interested rather in something more theoretical you can explore structures in terms of equivalence, in terms of layering, in terms of restriction and distribution, in terms of categorization, in terms of replacement and substitution in the structure. I'll expand this a little bit more in another session.]
Unfortunately, I've not had time to correct and rewrite the first chapter of the class notes since I first wrote them two years ago. However, the main flow of ideas is clear. Starting with our communicative needs as proficient learners of English as a second language and with those questions, both theoretical and applied in English textbooks and grammars I ended the chapter with the central ideas to be dealt with subsequently about compounding, complexity and equivalence. I used Quirk et alii 1985 and other sources to express what concerned me about complexity of structure and human communication. In the lastsession we saw ten minutes from a vie on the role of language in therapy. I wanted to stress precise, how vital is to grant that the communication channel functions properly.
We've already delay with the notion of "redundancy," but we have not defined complexity in communicative terms. I will quote now a definition and a list of topics dealing with this central term, first.Then I will make some linguistic comment on one example.

I will reproduce key ideas from a long passage in Dahl's book (2006. 21, 24, 25). They will help to see some of the ideas we've discussing in terms of information, system and linguistic system:

Generalizing, the complexity of an object would then be measured by the length of the shortest possible specification or description of it. In mathematics, one tends to think in terms of algorithms, rather than descriptions, and this measure is therefore called algorithmic information content, i.e. the length of the shortest possible algorithm that can generate an object....
Now with the help of the notion of pattern we can obtain an alternative measure of complexity --what Gell-Mahn (1994) calls "effective complexity". That is, we measure the length of the specification not of an object as a whole, but of the specification of the totality of patterns it contains (Gell-Mann's term is the "set of regularities). This corresponds better to an intuitive understanding of the notions of complexity. We also come close to a notion which may feel more familiar to linguists: the set of pattern that an object contains can be said to equal its structure, so the complexity of an object is really a measure of the complexity of its structure.....
A system or an object, may be part of a larger system, although we may not always be able to observe the latter in its entirety. It is thus often the case that an observed object has a property that appears random if we look at that object alone, but one which is in fact part of a larger pattern. For instance, if we study a linguistic utterance, we may observe "internal" patterns that consist of relations between the elements of the utterance itself, and "external" patterns that go beyond the utterance. The latter may involve relations both to other elements of the language and to non-linguistic elements. Having meaning, in the broadest sense of the word, always involves being part of an external relationship or pattern.

PERSONAL COMMENT.
This seems to suggest that we can find complexity in:
1.- The constituents of a pattern. Obligatory elements, optional elements of lower or higher classes. Not to mention types of words.
2.- The grammatical relations that integrate those constituents in the pattern.
3.- The pattern itself. Functions and processes.Basic and derived structures. Constrains. Restrictions.
4.- Equivalences between patterns in terms of meaning in terms of function.
5.- The relation between the linguistic structure and the external world. Naming, referring, describing, comparing, relating.
6.- The actual use of one structure or expression in context to convey a message.
7.- The correlation thought (message)- language (sentence) to mean intentionally.

That is,
The students love music, They love music, they love it, they love listening to music. (1)

Those interested in art love music. (2)
The students love music from the Internet, the music they find in the Internet. (2)

Donald admires Rembrandt's paintings. Rembrandt's paintings are admired by Donald.
I want the students to open a free internet account. I see the students open a free internet account. I supervise them doing so. I told you the truth.I told the truth to you. I said something to you. *I said you something. I want you to dictate that course. I want that course to be dictated by you. I told you to dictate the course. *I told the course to be dictated by you. I saw her cross the street. I advised her to cross the street. (3)

Please, close the books, hand in the exam and leave the classroom.
Please, leave the classroom after you've closed the books and handed in the exam.
Please, leave the classroom once you've closed the book and hand in the exams.
Please, close the books and hand in the exam. Then (you may) leave the classroom.
(Time over). (4)

I've read the Times. Times are changing. What time is it? (5)

I won't take that English course.
I don't consider this English course is necessary.
I'm not interested in English.
I'd rather do something useful.
I'm not good at English.
I don't have much time for English now.
I prefer Italian. (6)

I wanted to cheer you up,to help you overcome this difficult moment.I did not mean to patronize you, to criticize or blame you. I only meant help!
So you need a critical work on Shakespeare focused on his early plays, right?(7)

Now, in what reference grammars can we find more examples and preliminary descriptions?

Sunday 2nd March, 2008.

Topic 1. First useful quotation.

2008-02-27T22:05:00.000+01:00

I include here some useful quotations that can help us to understand what "complexity" is in terms of communication and in terms of language systems.

The first book I read by Östen Dahl was Logic in Linguistics. 1977, book written with J. Allwood and L-G Andersson. It was a very useful book about propositions, truth tables, functions, quantifiers, possible worlds and "reductio ad absurdum." His book: The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity, 2004, is illuminating about central issues in linguistics and information nowadays. We still keep Shannon and Weaver's model of communication as central when dealing with the basics of natural languages, even though this model is considered old and limited to many nowadays. I will borrow from Dahl's work some ideas, some quotations that we can discuss in class... any examples? This is the first one.

1.- About Redundancy.
To transfer a certain amount of information, one must spend a certain amount of communicative resources. This amount may be distributed over time in different ways depending on the capacity of the communication channel....
The term "noise" is used in information theory for anything that interferes with the transfer of information, including of course noise in its everyday sense. Most information channels are noisy in one way or another, resulting in loss of information on the way. A message may thus arrive in more or less garbled form on the way. A message may thus arrive in more or less garbled form, but may still be understood, however, if it contains enough redundancy for the message to be reconstructed by the receiver. A message is redundant if there is a less complex message that could -in principle- transfer the same amount of information, that is, if more communicative resources are spent on it than are theoretically necessary for its successful delivery.
A sender can manipulate the redundancy level spending more or less energy and/or time on the message. 9

In what sense is this quotation relevant to our discussion of complexity and grammar?

- Enough for the day.
- We've got plenty of material for today's lesson.
- I think this quotation will take us the full class.
-....................

Any clues?

An interesting talk about language and therapy.

2008-02-27T21:58:00.000+01:00

I think that this video can help us to see people's communicative needs in a complementary perspective: Therapy. Please, contrast what it is said about language here with what you've learned in your studies. (A little bit long but useful).

Some clues about the structure of this course.

2008-02-27T21:39:00.001+01:00

Here you have my report on the course on the possibilities of the Web 2.0 I took during the exams break. You can see it as, 1) An example on how I write reports by means of a Power Point presentation, 2) Some information about an interesting and useful course, 3) Some ideas on methodology that I applied intuitively to our Seminar -in fact to all my teaching- before this specialized course. I hope you find it interesting!

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One classic on exact thinking (and expression)

2008-02-20T21:37:00.000+01:00

To start an advanced seminar on grammar complexity with this video is both paying respect to the tradition and refreshing some universal concerns about human communication, even though, unfortunately this video is short and deteriorated:

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Language and Culture

2008-02-13T21:07:00.000+01:00

[Creative Commons by fabbio: Flickr Photo Download]

The need to communicate, to talk, to express our ideas is big.

PRESENTATION

2008-02-13T11:33:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the advanced course: English Grammar Seminar, Fifth Year English Philology. This is an optional subject in the degree, therefore I know that you are interested in this topic personally. I hope that the course will help you in your studies.
You can contact me, not only in class or in tutorials but also by means of the Internet and by means of thuis blog.
Welcome to my personal page: http://webs.uvigo.es/evarela