Here’s a post to a language teacher Listserv: “I’ve heard guácala used a lot by our Mexican teenage relatives who come to spend a year (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
The issue, my children, is control
10/15/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently I read a post about tprs where the teacher said he didn’t like the lack of control over what the students were learning using (Continue Reading)
Can complexity be reduced?
10/13/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAnyone who looks at a REAL grammar of a language knows the complexity we language teachers deal with. A recent comprehensive grammar of English has (Continue Reading)
Where it all starts
10/12/2007 Pat Barrett Add Comment“OMG, they’re coming for us!” The upsurge in discussions of school violence stemming from two incidents in two days reveals the lack of knowledge that (Continue Reading)
The difficulties of cultural stereotypes
10/11/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentWes gave flteach members a website to go to on Amazon. The book is about how to advertise in various cultures based on the author’s (Continue Reading)
Iraqi women need training
10/10/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe lovely news from Iraq, always a joy to read esp after the administration cleans it all up for us, includes the story of two (Continue Reading)
Back to basics
10/09/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentRecently a large response was garnered when I offered a list of Latin words with their Romance reflexes. I got balled up in trying to (Continue Reading)
Do flashcards work? If yes, why, if no, why not?
10/08/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere is a post from an extremely astute language teacher: I’ve been pondering something. Why is it that we think flash cards are a good (Continue Reading)
The Grammar Wizard
10/07/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentA poster posted: “I remember being taught, and therefore have always taught my students, that when you modify a body part, you need the definite (Continue Reading)
Connections between culture and language
10/07/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI read the following post on a Latin list: “I tell my students, as some of you have heard me say, that language does not (Continue Reading)
Why stories are good for us
10/03/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentFrank Smith wrote the following: “Stories are our way of making sense of the world. If we can’t make up a story about something we (Continue Reading)
“my” as possessive pronoun
10/02/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentA discussion on one of the listservs revolves around whether the neat categorization of ’my’ as a possessive adjective and ’mine’ as a possessive pronoun (Continue Reading)
Subjunctive
09/25/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentA post on a language teacher Listserv referred us to a site dealing with Spanish grammar. There the subjunctive is treated. I got frustrated reading (Continue Reading)
Memorization
09/24/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere’s a post on language learning that reflects the common belief that we learn our native language the same way we learn algebra. “It’s not (Continue Reading)
Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
09/24/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentProtests. Warnings. Outrage. Denials. Empathy. Sympathy. More outrage. More protests. Jena, Louisiana? No, Columbia University. Guess who’s coming to speak? Good ol’ that guy whose (Continue Reading)
Spreading Democracy to Jena and…..?
09/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI am a sixty-five year old African American woman and a retired school counselor. I am just appalled at what is going on around the (Continue Reading)
Anytown
09/13/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentBack in 77 or so, I volunteered as an advisor to a human relations youth camp. The kids were all 16, about 120 of them, (Continue Reading)
Response to David’s post
09/08/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn a message dated 9/8/2007 8:26:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, pbarrett@COX.NET writes: David, the attack of 9/11 led to the attack on Afghanistan, not on (Continue Reading)
Response to Godfrey’s post re multiculturalism
09/08/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere is Godfrey’s post: So it seems you are saying that informing American students about other people and their cultures will not have a strong (Continue Reading)
Ebonics Redux
09/01/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere it is again. The Houston Police Department has put out an oh so clever “ghetto dictionary of Ebonics”. Just as we saw in 1994, (Continue Reading)
Two Days in Middle School
08/31/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI had to throw over my job teaching Sp at a charter school so I’m subbing now, 2 days at a Middle School, and how (Continue Reading)
Reply to Godfrey
08/25/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI don’t have the room here to demonstrate how languages balance themselves when some form is “lost” i.e. becomes moribund and eventually dies out. I’m (Continue Reading)
Adding new words
08/25/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentTwo examples from my own speech of how words can be misinterpreted. About 45 years ago I made a friend (he’s still a very close (Continue Reading)