The_History_of_My_English

2021

I. Why Study the History of English? An interest in the past is one characteristic of human beings that distinguishes them from the other animals. Since it is the medium by which speakers of a certain language express their thoughts and feelings, conduct their business and government, transmit science, philosophy, and poetry, language is certainly worth studying. Of course, not everyone should be a philologist (i.e. a specialist in language, especially its history and development) or should master linguistics, but an educated person should know something about the structure of his/her language, its position in the world, its vocabulary and the sources of its enrichment, as well as its different varieties of speech. It is true that English is not your native language, but since you have chosen to specialize in it, it is reasonable to know something about its history.

2010

As far as my memory goes, the earliest scenario I can remember of English and me is a 4-year-old kindergarten girl learning the alphabet by heart--she rote-memorized the order of the letters by rehearsing aloud the letters in the alphabetic order again and again. Growing up in a very poor family in the 1970s of Hong Kong, she and her three elder brothers and one elder sister didn't have any toys. The first toy she got was a small red model car that her father gave her when she came first in her school exam.

2012

He has an M.A. in English Language Teaching at the University of Southampton in U.K. He also holds a B.A. in English Language Teaching at UABC. He obtained a COTE certification by Cambridge University. He has 22 years of experience working as an English teacher for both the educational systems, at all levels, and the private sector. He is currently the Coordinator of the Language Center at the Faculty of languages. He is also a teacher at the Faculty of Languages at the UABC in Tijuana. He has been developing tests for the language school. He is a three-time winner of the digital materials design contest by Center of Open Education (CEA) at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. [email protected]

2020

, for the availability and collaboration for this paper. My colleagues from NucLi, for sharing such an enriching experience. My directors and fellow actors, for understanding my limitations due to academic purposes. My family and friends, for always being there and for the everlasting encouragement both on my studies and in the craft.

2010

The following article is an introspection into my childhood and early youth memories in relation to language acquisition and learning of foreign languages. This analysis will help me determine to what extent these experiences, positive and negative ones, may have influenced my teaching methods and style to the present day.

Good language learner studies show that attending to form is associated with successful learning. This paper reports interviews with three university English majors who had been the best students in a talk show program and got a score band of 7 or beyond in IELTS. The interviewees regarded text memorization and imitation as the most effective methods of learning English. They had been initially forced to use these methods but gradually came to appreciate them. The practice enabled them to attend to and learn collocations and sequences, to borrow these sequences for productive use, to improve pronunciation, and to develop the habit of attending to details of language in the context of language input. The paper concludes that such practice enhances noticing and rehearsal and hence facilitates second language acquisition.

2021

was born in Brighton, and decided as a boy that he wanted to live and work abroad. Starting out as a high school teacher, he subsequently worked in English language education (ELE) and applied linguistics in Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and Asia. Over a career spanning 50 years, he has been a language teacher, director of language institutes, curriculum adviser to ministries of education, prolific contributor to, and editor of, journals and books, and a professor of applied linguistics. This book is his personal history and the story he tells is intrinsically interesting, but it also constitutes a wide-ranging and critical review of the field of second language education over the past fifty yearshow some aspects will continue to challenge academics and practitioners in future years. Such issues include: Communicative Language Teaching; English for young learners; the commercialisation of ELE; technological developments in ELE; the professional development of English language teachers; 'nativespeakerism'; linguistic imperialism and language planning; and English as the medium of instruction. Many readers who are involved in language education will be able to relate these issues to their own context and career trajectories.

2011

The thesis of this paper is that linguistic feedback is to ground—in the fundamental sense—changes in symbolic, linguistic and incarnate meanings, changes in daily street-walk and street-talk, as well as academic-walk and academic-talk, changes that might appear quirky, idiosyncratic, or prideful, but that in good time mediate a fuller realization of who we are, where we came from, what we want, and where we are going.

Social Behavior Research and Practice – Open Journal, 2020

This autobiographical narrative focuses on my life experiences learning two languages as well as the cultures. It acts as an archive from which I elicit evidence in exploring issues and themes related to learning language and culture, particularly those issues and themes relating to the complex dynamics of context. It explores factors influencing learning language/culture, such as subjective constructions and interpretations of teachers and learners, cultural, social, geographical, political, and local community aspects.