Recently on one of the language Lists a discussion brewed up over the use of “less? in places where the grammar mavens insist on “fewer’. (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
Self-censorship
09/25/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently I posted to the blog some comments about what goes on in my school. I thought it was balanced, but someone kindly pointed out (Continue Reading)
NCLB a paranoid (properly so) view
09/24/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis morning on npr I heard several letters from teachers regarding NCLB and its effects on their classrooms. They described their efforts to combat those (Continue Reading)
Fun & Games
09/24/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentCatalogues for language teachers usually have a section on games, quite a bit smaller than the section on how to teach the….. IO pronouns, subjunctive, (Continue Reading)
“skills”
09/24/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe term “skill” is so often used in language learning we don’t seem to question it. But one person, I know for sure, did: Frank (Continue Reading)
Research in the Classroom
09/10/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrom time to time, I read posts where the writer/teacher assures me that he has observed certain phenomena and no amount of SLA research will (Continue Reading)
Covert Benefits & Advantages
09/10/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentCommon sense has its short-comings. The main short-coming is that common sense tends to be embedded in a culture. One of the great delights for (Continue Reading)
School marms
09/10/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentA recent post from a native speaker of Spanish appeared on one of the Lists. In it, she declared that the “v? and “b? of (Continue Reading)
What I do in the classroom – concrete examples
09/06/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentI’ve been asked to provide concrete examples of what I do in the classroom that has students using verbs in various persons and tenses (even (Continue Reading)
Brain Research
08/08/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentInteresting in-service today on brain research. Not that we all hadn’t heard most of it before. But it was well presented. I’ve just always been (Continue Reading)
Why it’s Tough To Be a Teacher
08/08/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentSchool starts soon. I look forward to teaching; I do not look forward to school. Why is that? let’s start with the way I was (Continue Reading)
Response to Marilyn’s post on flteach
08/07/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentAnd herein lies the glitch in communication (yeah, communications R us) on this List. I’ll bet you anything that Marilyn’s class is awash in Spanish. (Continue Reading)
Curran’s Community Language Learning – response to Wes
08/06/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentMay I offer Shrum & Glisan’s summary of Curran’s Community Language Learning (p. 446 3rd ed)? ?1976 – The teacher, in the role as “knower? (Continue Reading)
How words change
08/02/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentI just read a blurb from Studs Terkel containing two examples of language change. The blurb is: ?….uncannily captures the thoughts and hopes, inchoate though (Continue Reading)
Censorship and political correctness: a fine line
07/28/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentOn a fl teacher List recently there occurred an exchange on the issue of censorship. While I despise the term “politically correct? as an invention (Continue Reading)
Tentative foray into politics
07/28/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe dictionary defines “foray? as a raid for plunder. So maybe “toe in the water? would be a better title. This is a response to (Continue Reading)
Fear and Loathing
07/06/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentA listener to a radio program called in to thank the guest for her “service toward our nation? illustrates the observations of a recent writer (Continue Reading)
Political Correctness
06/22/2006 Pat Barrett Add Commentcries of “p.c.? were raised Recently, Toni Morrison’s Beloved was selected as the best American novel of the last 25 years by a large panel (Continue Reading)
Origins of English
06/20/2006 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere is a bibliography. The page number citations will have to wait a bit as I will be on the road for a while. But (Continue Reading)
Where do ganas come from?
09/16/2000 Pat Barrett 1 CommentRecent comment on a mailing list: The best teacher, best curriculum, best school and the most per pupil expenditure cannot make a child learn against (Continue Reading)