Week 8 ( 課文) The War of the Two Languages

Week -8 ( 課文 )

The War of the Two Languages

By Prof. Stephen Ohlander

In the short video you see a country divided by--as the reporter, Morley Safer, calls it--“a war of words.”  But, ironically, they are words from two different languages: French and English. 

Here’s the general situation: the province of Quebec, which is in Eastern Canada, is mostly French-speaking (francophone) and the majority of its residents wants it to stay that way.  In other words, they don’t want their language and their culture to be dominated or “swallowed up” by the English language and its cultures—something that, they point out, has happened in the rest of Canada.

In fact, along with other like-minded politicians and their support groups, Louise Beaudoin, the female minister that you see interviewed in the video, is in favor of Quebec breaking away from the rest of Canada entirely and forming its own nation.  Actually, the people of Quebec have already voted this idea down (rejected it) twice in the past so, as of now, it doesn’t look like this will happen any time soon.

Nonetheless, the government of Quebec clearly feels: if we cannot get enough popular support to separate (secede) from Canada, at least we can prevent a wholesale takeover of our French language by English by making laws that limit the written usage of English in public notices. 

Specifically, written public notices can be entirely in French—without any English—or they can be in French accompanied by English translations.  But that’s not all: the English letters (fonts) must be smaller than the French letters.  In the video, someone mentioned that the English words must be half the size of the French words.

Also in the video, I was surprised to learn that the government of Quebec also wants all business dealings to be conducted (spoken) in French.  If true, that means that the government wants to control not only the written use of English, but how much English is spoken in certain settings as well!  OMG!  The government really wants to restrict their people’s use of English, whether the people like it or not! 

That doesn’t sound like a free country to me.  As you can see from the dialogue I have written between Jeff and Marge, I believe in giving people the right to speak the language of their choice, though I do agree that every country should have one official language spoken by everyone, or nearly everyone.  By having one official language, a nation has a better chance of maintaining unity and not splitting apart, which would be an unfortunate outcome if the people really have common interests and want to stay together.

In Quebec, however, I think the government has gone too far in its demands regarding restrictions on English usage. And quite of number of its residents agree with me:  as reported in the video, over 250,000 have left the province, having gotten fed up with all its restrictive language laws. 

To sense their frustration, you can listen to the PowerPoint slides in which Rebecca Wolfe, who runs the café Mandy’s along with her sister, complains to the reporter about how difficult it is to run even a small business like theirs when they have to worry about the language restrictions of the OQLF.

To sum up, the government of Quebec may have good intentions, but it has gone too far!

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影音對話參考
The Language Police – Quebec’s Own

Presented by Prof. Stephen Ohlander
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Under the headline, “Quebec language police order Mandy's Salad Bar to remove English signs from shop in anglophone [English-speaking] area,”…
…Canadian newspaper, The National Post, filed the following report…

Mandy’s, a Montreal salad bar, is under fire from (in trouble with) the Language Police because its décor (decorative signs) features vintage (very old) English signs.

The Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Language Police) told sisters Mandy and Rebecca Wolfe they would have to remove the decorative signs from their shop in the traditionally anglophone Westmount district.

Rebecca Wolfe, who doesn’t plan to remove the signs, spoke to the National Post’s Hillary Robert on this matter.
(Next slide shows a photo of the two sisters with one of their signs.)

Rebecca & Mandy with their English Sign

Recently, the OQLF went after the Facebook page of a boutique (small shop) in Chelsea, Quebec called Delilah in the Parc.
It was operating a “supposedly prohibited [forbidden] unilingual [one-language] social media presence.”

Though the store’s staff was fully bilingual and its signs and documents were in line with the law (i.e., legal), its online updates had to be in French, too, according to the OQLF.

The agency sent owner, Eva Cooper, a letter threatening legal and financial action (e.g., a fine) if she did not translate into French her Facebook page.
Fortunately, both sides were able to reach a mutually satisfying agreement.
At Mandy’s, however, the problems were not as easy to solve…

Here is a series of questions and answers between the reporter and Rebecca:
Q (by reporter, Hillary Robert): Did you ever think that your décor might be a problem?

Rebecca: No, we take pride in having bilingual images all over our store and making sure that it’s 90% French.
We do have a little English because 95% of our clients in Westmount are English.
Q: Is your other location different?

A: If you go to our store in the French community, we have zero English. It’s all French.
At our English location because we do have English clients, we felt that it wasn’t the end of the world [i.e., not very serious] if we put up some anglo [English] text.
Rebecca and the OQLF


Q: What was your reaction when you were confronted by the OQLF?
A: We said our signs were artistic. They were “decorative pieces that we picked up along the way of our travels with our family, pieces of our heritage, of our background.”

“It was at a place that we go to in Maine that we picked them up. We do have other pieces of décor in the store from that same place.”
We want our shop to have a vintage-feel.

Mandy’s Decorative English Sign

Q: The name of your store is in English, has that ever been an issue with the OQLF?
A: No, we don’t have the apostrophe on the outside of our store, so they can’t really come after us for that. It just says “Mandys.”
And it says “Salades Gourmands” in French underneath it.

Mandy’s Window Sign (in French)

(N.B. The photo does show the apostrophe, and it says “Salades Gourmandes.” –ed.)
Q: You seem to be shocked by the OQLF’s response to your décor--that it attacks the way you run your store. How do you feel about the French images of things?

A: We love them! We have a lot of French-speaking clients, we have a lot of French-speaking employees, and we have a lot of French-speaking suppliers.
We’re very proud to be in Montreal.
We love that it is a bilingual community.

Mandy and I are both very bilingual.
We have Quebec francophone [French-speaking] members of our extended family.
It is a part of the richness of living in Montreal in terms of its culture, so I just think this [the OQLF] is a very unfortunate turn of events.

Q: Do you feel your shop was targeted because it is in Westmount?
A: I don’t know why we were targeted. I think that they go door-to-door in Westmount because it is an English-based community.

The only person that has ever criticized [us] was an employee of [the OQLF] that came in, took photos and sort of intimidated [made anxious] our customers.
He stayed here for a long while during our busy lunch hour and just took photos of everything, took notes and then took off.

Q: How do customers react when an OQLF employee is present?
A: All the customers were very clearly disgruntled [upset], and know what [is] going on when this happens. This climate of animosity [ill-will, conflict] between the two communities is so unnecessary.

The English community is well aware that it’s an issue [problem] since it has happened twice; … people have noticed what is going on.
Q: I understand that the first time you were contacted by the OQLF was over a separate issue regarding your menu, could you elaborate on [explain] that?

A: They don’t want to have English translations.
We [had] a double-sided menu [English on one side, French on the other], with the English & French texts the same size.

[But] the English has to be significantly smaller than the French text.
Everything had to be reprinted.
(N.B. The OQLF say it does not seek to control the spoken language, only written English. –ed.)

Q: In other interviews, you have mentioned feeling like you are “fighting to stay here,” could you elaborate on that?
A: It’s more of an inner conflict. We’re fighting with ourselves.
What are we really doing here if our own people don’t want us here?

We have a lot of friends that are leaving, most of whom are going to Toronto, [though] some are going to the states
 We’re sort of at a pinnacle [peak, high point] of political unrest here.

It’s based on these small petty [trivial] roles that we feel quite frankly is a waste of everyone’s time.
(End of interview)

Everything is a little bit scary and unstable in Quebec right now.
It is more of a fight against, do we leave? Do we stay? Are we made to feel comfortable?
Are we encouraged as small businesses in Quebec to thrive [prosper] or are we just made to feel uncomfortable?

Week 7 (課文) Tips for Improving your English Reading

Tips for Improving your English Reading

1. Always Make Special Time to Read

Reading for fun can be done anywhere. You could take a fun book out on a bus, in bed or at the office, and you can enjoy it. However, if you’re reading to improve your comprehension, you need to focus and study.

This means you need to make a special time for this reading. Making time for your reading will let you focus well without risk of being interrupted. This time should be quiet, and you should avoid being distracted. You should try to spend at least 30 minutes every day on focused reading. That’s how to improve your reading skills seriously and successfully. The more you read, the more you’ll improve.

Try this:

Turn your reading process into a ritual, something you repeat every time you sit down to focus on reading English.

Follow these steps, or any other steps that you’d like to make a part of your reading process:

·         Find a quiet, comfortable spot with bright lighting to sit.

·         Get everything you might need ready before you sit down. For example, you might want to have a pen, your notebook, a dictionary and something to drink.

·         Decide how long you will read. (30 minutes is a good minimum amount of time.)

·         Put all your electronics on silent mode (or turn them off) and put them away.

 

 

2. Ask Lots of Questions

Speaking of questions—ask them. Ask a lot of them! The more you question what you read, the deeper you get into the meaning.

Asking questions is also a good way to make sure you understand what you’re reading. Asking questions like “what’s happening now?” or “who’s speaking here?” can help keep you focused. Asking questions like “why did he do that?” or “what is she thinking?” can help you think deeper into the story.

Try this:

Keep some Post-it notes and a pen nearby. Write down any questions that come to mind as you’re reading on the Post-it notes. Stick them in the text.

When you finish reading, go back and see how many of the questions you can answer now. If there are any questions you still don’t know the answer to, re-read that part of the text and try to find the answer.

3. Read It Again

The poet Ezra Pound says that with books, “no reader ever read anything the first time he saw it.” Sometimes reading a text just once isn’t enough to understand it. This is true if you’re reading something difficult, or even if you’re not—reading something more than once can help you understand it much better.

Re-reading is great for those times when you read the words but can’t get them to make sense. It’s also great for finding things you might have missed the first time. If there are any new words in the text, you’ll see them again every time you read again, helping you remember them.

In short, reading things again is great!

4. Read Many Kinds of Texts

Today we don’t just read books and newspapers. We read blogs, emails, Tweets and texts. The more you read anything in English, the better you’ll get at the language.

Don’t just read books and news. Read anything and everything! Find a magazine that you enjoy, follow some interesting people or websites on Facebook, or visit a blog you like reading.

Magazine Line is a good place to go to find digital or print magazines on just about any subject. They give you lower prices on magazine subscriptions, and you may be able to save even more if you’re a student (check the “Student and Educator Rates” section for details).

Week-6: (課文) How to Improve your English Listening

Week-6: 課文

How to Improve your English Listening

Tip 1: Start with a Positive Mindset

The first thing you want to learn to do is to listen optimistically.

Why? You have to actually believe that you can hear and understand what people are saying.

I know English listening can be very difficult, especially with speakers who have a strong accent or who talk really fast. But you’ve actually done it before! You learned how to listen and understand and speak a language when you were a baby. Why should it be any different now that you’re an adult? If you listen with a good frame of mind, you’ll see it’s not impossible.

Tip 2: Choose Diverse English Listening Materials

Don’t just listen to the same kind of English audio materials all the time.

Don’t stick to listening to only the news, or only watching the same TV shows over and over. Instead, listen to a variety of different kinds of situations and topics.

As long as you find a resource that makes you happy, keeps you learning English by listening and lines up with your goals and interests, you have my full support.

Tip 3: Predict Audio Content

Pretend you’re listening to the radio.

You hear a helicopter in the background, and a speaker is mentioning the names of streets, roads and avenues, and talking about how many vehicles are currently on these roads.

What do you imagine he’s talking about? Most likely, you’re listening to a traffic report.

You can then expect to hear other words like “bottleneck,” “traffic jam” and “rush hour.” You’ll probably also hear the imperative (command form of verbs): “Don’t take the highway” or “Avoid 4th Avenue.”

Based on the context, you can often predict the words and even style of language you will hear. That’s a big first step forward!

Next time you’re watching or listening to an English TV show or the radio, pause after every few sentences. Try to predict what’s going to happen or what the speaker might say next.

For instance, the words “avenue,” “vehicle,” “jam,” “bottle” and “neck” all have their own separate meanings, but when you hear them together, they form the context of a traffic-related conversation.

Tip 4: Listen for the Big Ideas

At first, you should resist the impulse to try to understand every single word people are saying.

It’s more important to keep up with the conversation and try to understand the main ideas.

English is like a road. As with any road, there are “signposts,” which are words that help us follow the sequence of what’s going on—in this case, they help us understand what we’re hearing. These words link ideas and help us understand what people are talking about. They’re especially relevant in talks or presentations.

For example, if a university professor giving a lecture says, “I will talk about three reasons supporting…” be on the lookout for expressions such as “first of all,” “moving on to” and “in summary,” that link the ideas and indicate the next parts of the lecture.

Focus on keywords like these to grasp the most relevant parts of a conversation. Once you relax and make it a priority to understand the main idea, you’ll have the freedom to complete your comprehension with the details and clear the air later by asking questions.

Tip 5: Listen for the Details

After you’ve focused on the big picture, now look for specific details that will help you understand better.

When listening for details, you’re interested in very specific information such as a name or a number. Ignore anything else that doesn’t sound relevant to what you’re listening for. This way, you’ll be able to zoom in your search and get the details you need to understand the message.

For example, if you’re interested in knowing the age of a person, pay attention to any words related to age like “old,” “years,” “born in” or even a number, which could be that person’s age.

Week 5. 10 Reading Comprehension Strategies

10 Reading Comprehension Strategies All Students Need

Why Addressing Reading Comprehension Is Necessary

by Melissa Kelly

Updated January 16, 2019

Here are ten (10) effective tips and strategies that teachers can share with students to improve their comprehension of a text.

01 of 10

Generate Questions

A good strategy to teach all readers is that instead of just rushing through a passage or chapter,  is to pause and generate questions. These can either be questions about what has just happened or what they think might happen in the future. Doing this can help them focus on the main ideas and increase the student's engagement with the material.

After reading, students can go back and write questions that could be included in a quiz or test on the material. This will require them to look at the information in a different manner. By asking questions in this way, students can help the teacher correct misconceptions. This method also provides immediate feedback.

02 of 10

Read Aloud and Monitor

While some might think of a teacher reading aloud in a secondary classroom as an elementary practice, there is evidence that reading aloud also benefits middle and high school students as well. Most importantly, by reading aloud teachers can model good reading behavior.

Reading aloud to students should also include stops to check for understanding. Teachers can demonstrate their own think-aloud or interactive elements and focus intentionally on the meaning “within the text,” “about the text,” and “beyond the text” (Fountas & Pinnell, 2006) These interactive elements can push students for deeper thought around a big idea. Discussions after reading aloud can support conversations in class that help students make critical connections.

03 of 10

Promote Cooperative Talk

Having students stop periodically to turn and talk in order to discuss what has just been read can reveal any issues with understanding. Listening to students can inform instruction and help a teacher to can reinforce what is being taught.

This is a useful strategy that can be used after a read aloud (above) when all students have a shared experience in listening to a text.

This kind of cooperative learning, where students learn reading strategies reciprocally, is one of the most powerful instructional tools.

04 of 10

Attention to Text Structure

An excellent strategy that soon becomes second nature is to have struggling students read through all the headings and subheadings in any chapter that they have been assigned. They can also look at the pictures and any graphs or charts. This information can help them gain an overview of what they will be learning as they read the chapter.

The same attention to text structure can be applied in reading literary works that use a story structure. Students can use the elements in a story's structure (setting, character, plot, etc) as a means of helping them recall story content.

05 of 10

Take Notes or Annotate Texts

Students should read with paper and pen in hand. They can then take notes of things they predict or understand. They can write down questions. They can create a vocabulary list of all the highlighted words in the chapter along with any unfamiliar terms that they need to define. Taking notes is also helpful in preparing students for later discussions in class.

Annotations in a text, writing in the margins or highlighting, is another powerful way to record understanding. This strategy is ideal for handouts.

Using sticky notes can allow students to record information from a text without damaging the text. Sticky notes can also be removed and organized later for responses to a text.

06 of 10

Use Context Clues

Students need to use the hints that an author provides in a text. Students may need to look at context clues, that is a word or phrase directly before or after  a word they may not know.

Context clues may be in the form of:

Roots and affixes: origin of the word;

Contrast: recognizing how word is compared or contrasted with another word in the sentence;

Logic: considering the rest of the sentence to understand an unknown word;

Definition: using a provided explanation that follows the word;

Example or Illustration: literal or visual representation of the word;

Grammar: determining how the word functions in a sentence to better understand its meaning.

07 of 10

Use Graphic Organizers

Some students find that graphic organizers like webs and concept maps can greatly enhance reading comprehension. These allow students to identify areas of focus and main ideas in a reading. By filling in this information, students can deepen their understanding of the author's meaning.

By the time students are in grades 7-12,  teachers should allow students to decide which graphic organizer would be most helpful to them in understanding a text. Giving students the opportunity to generate representations of the material is part of the reading comprehension process.

08 of 10

Practice PQ4R

This consists of four steps: Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, and Review.

Preview has students scan the material to get an overview. The question means that students should ask themselves questions as they read.

The four R's have students read the material, reflect on what has just been read, recite the major points to help learn better, and then return to the material and see if you can answer the questions previously asked.

This strategy works well when coupled with notes and annotations.

09 of 10

Summarizing

As they read, students should be encouraged to stop periodically stop their reading and summarize what they have just read. In creating a summary, students have to integrate the most important ideas and generalize from the text information. They need to distill the important ideas from the unimportant or irrelevant elements.

This practice of integrating and generalizing in the creation of summaries make long passages more understandable.

10 of 10

Monitor Understanding

Some students prefer to annotate, while others are more comfortable summarizing, but all students must learn how to be aware of how they read. They need to know how fluently and accurate they are reading a text, but they also need to know how they can determine their own understanding of the materials.

They should decide which strategies are most helpful in making meaning, and practice those strategies, adjusting the strategies when necessary. 

Week 4. ( 課文) 如何在英語課堂上使用歌曲

Week 4

How to use songs in the English language classroom

By Adam J. Simpson 

( https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-use-songs-english-language-classroom )

What makes for a successful song-based lesson? Adam Simpson, second-time winner of the British Council’s Teaching English blog award for his post on conditionals (written with Paul Mains), explains.

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners’ interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless of the age or background of the learner.

Planning for the use of songs in class

The process of selecting a song is one of the most difficult aspects of using music in a lesson. Here are some things you probably need to think about to ensure you get the right song.

Carefully examine what it is you want your class to learn in the lesson

Is this going to be a lesson focusing on vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, or a particular topic? I once used ‘You’re so vain’ by Carly Simon to introduce a text that looked at vain people. In another lesson, I used ‘In the air tonight’ as it uses the present perfect continuous tense. Whatever your focus, remember that this doesn’t necessarily place a limit on what you can do with the song. For instance, you might wish to use the song in question to exemplify a particular verb tense, and structure your lesson accordingly, but you might at the same time wish to take the opportunity to look at those interesting idioms in the lyrics!

Think about the language level of your class

The language level of your class will determine not only which songs you can use, but also what other activities – such as games or written exercises – you will use to develop the lesson. Lower levels will become extremely frustrated with fast-delivered lyrics, for instance, while simple repetitive lyrics might not be interesting for more advanced-level learners.

1.      How old are your learners?

2.      Are there any specific cultural issues regarding the make-up of your class?

3.      What kind of access do you have to the song?

Six steps for making a song the focus of your class

My intention here is to provide a basic outline you can use with any song. Remember, these are just suggestions so make sure to keep the profile of your learners in mind.

1. Listen to the song

2. Ask some questions about the title

3. Listen to the song again, this time with lyrics

4. Focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar

5. Focus on vocabulary, idioms and expressions

6. Round things off with some creativity

Week 3. ( 課文) 用影片學英文

Week 3. Learning a Language through Video

Hopefully, Marianna Pascal’s video gave you some insight into how attitude affects learning and how having the proper attitude can facilitate your communication skills. As she says, students sometimes try to make things too complicated, get stuck searching for the perfect word, or lack confidence and are afraid to try to communicate.

If you are motivated, there are lots of great free resources for you to try to help you improve your English ability. This lesson will introduce four sites that can give you hours of practice on improving your listening and vocabulary skills. In addition, you may learn something about science, history, education, and different cultures.

The Voice of America website has videos with tapescripts, vocabulary lists, learning strategies, and quizzes. You can click at the top of the page to try Beginning Level, Intermediate Level, or Advanced Level.  In addition, at the far right, there is a Video button you can click to get to 1-minute Video lessons that introduce vocabulary, phrases, and idioms.

TED has numerous videos that are generally at an intermediate or advanced level.  When you go to the website, you can click on Watch at the top and you will see a drop-down menu. You can choose TED Talks or TED-Ed Videos.  If you click on TED Talks, you can then search by topic or language. If you choose Chinese, it will show you a list of talks that have Chinese subtitles and tapescripts.  If you click on TED-ED Videos, you will find shorter videos developed by educators, many with Chinese subtitles. 

The British Council Learn English website has a section called Skills, where you can click on Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking.  It also has a menu for Grammar, Vocabulary, and Business English practice.  At the top of the page there are links especially for kids and teenagers.  There is a way to set the interface to Chinese, but most of the time that just translates the basic intro to the activities. The English videos and exercises are all-English.

Finally, you can try ESLVideo, which has a menu with choices of Level, Songs, Pronunciation, and Grammar. Most of the videos will have transcripts and quizzes. 

While it may be intimidating and challenging at first, you will soon get used to using these all-English websites.

Week 2. 學習單字的應用軟體

Week 2. 學習單字的應用軟體

Learning Vocabulary: Quizlet and how to use it

Video Link:  

1. https://classroom.google.com/u/1/c/NDA0Njk4NTA2MjVa/a/MzcwOTUyNjM0NjZa/details

2. https://classroom.google.com/u/1/c/NDA0Njk4NTA2MjVa/a/MzcwOTUyMjc5NTha/details

 

Learning a language is hard work. To be successful, you need to develop some strategies that fit with your goals, you need to have determination, and you need to make practicing it a part of your daily life.  There are various ways to think about language learning. You hear people talk about the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. You also hear your teachers talk about improving your vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. This lesson is going to focus on vocabulary and how you can learn words by using apps, specifically, Quizlet.

Perhaps you have classmates or friends who read through a dictionary trying to memorize vocabulary. Maybe you know people who keep lists of words, studying the vocabulary whenever they have free time. If this works for you, that is great. While memorizing lists of words in isolation may work for some people, it is recommended that you try to learn vocabulary in context. In other words, when study vocabulary, it might be more beneficial for you to study words in sentences.

The old-fashioned way is to make flashcards where you write the Mandarin word for ‘apple’ on one side of the card and the English word ‘apple’ and ‘noun’ on the other side of the card. For this kind of vocabulary, this may be sufficient. However, once you start learning higher level vocabulary, especially more abstract words, you may want to change the way you make your cards. As many Taiwanese have trouble with bored vs. boring, you could make some cards that have ‘This movie is boring. I’m bored.’ on one side and the Mandarin on the other side. You could make multiple sets of cards with similar uses to drill the difference. You could write ‘This lecture is boring.’; ‘How do you like the book (you’re reading)? It’s boring.’; ‘This game is boring.’; ‘I’m bored. Do you want to play basketball?’

Besides using the vocabulary in sentences, another key point is to try to use the words as you might use them in daily life. Often times textbooks and tests use vocabulary in sentences in ways that are not natural-sounding or the way people usually use the words in daily life. When you learn or practice something in a daily life context, you will be more likely to remember it and maybe even use it in your daily life one day!

Take a look at the videos about Quizlet and try to play around with the computer version or smartphone app.  It is probably better to make your own set or cards or search for cards that other people have already prepared on your computer. You can try the different ways to practice the vocabulary on the computer and with the app. Through the different functions, you can practice vocabulary as well as listening, spelling, typing, and reading.