I 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)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
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)
Reply to Alex’ post – what is communicative teaching?
08/23/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentTalk about Pandora’s box!! It’s like asking a politician what he’ll do for us. OK, communicative approach…. With a teaching certificate, you must have taken (Continue Reading)
similarities between teaching and psychotherapy
08/20/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentTrue confession time: I’m a bit of a mystic. Not in the sense that I believe in things unseen but in the sense that I (Continue Reading)
To consider
08/19/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentJust off the top of my head, an example of folk etymology on my part. I thought “sleight of hand” was spelled “slight”. Altho both (Continue Reading)
How People Slide Around in Arguments
07/28/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn a recent long and heated exchange on a listserv I saw something over and over which seems to be inherent in human thought processes. (Continue Reading)
Proficiency and Mastery
07/27/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentMy own take on them is that proficiency is a term from SLA (second language acquisition) and refers to what a student can do with (Continue Reading)
How Much To Practice – a post
07/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentHere are some examples to add to my response to Amy Pento’s response to Mary Young re: practice. Go to the flteach list and read (Continue Reading)
Now We Know What It’s Like….
07/23/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentJosh Rushing, reading from his book, Mission Al-Jazeera, tells of operating out of Washington, D.C. for the English-language service of Al-Jazeera, the Middle Eastern news (Continue Reading)
Good Old Timothy Mason
07/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentBack in the 90s, Timothy Mason was a frequent contributor to flteach. He has a series of responses to the battle between Krashen and Ron (Continue Reading)
The Cuban Healthcare System
07/22/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn a post today, June 22, to flteach, a New York teacher cited a documentary film on the Cuban healthcare system in response to posts (Continue Reading)
Warm Fuzzies
07/21/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentKristy Placido put a message out on moretprs thanking everyone and acknowledging the honor of receiving an award at NTPRS. She made it very clear (Continue Reading)
Please look at the dates
07/21/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentLook at the dates of the “assignments” listed here (this is from a List I am on that deals with slavery): The court records of (Continue Reading)
Old South/New South
07/21/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentToday there was a piece on npr about the Jackson (Mississippi) Advocate, a newspaper renowned for its strong civil rights stand. What is germane to (Continue Reading)
Sicko
07/20/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentSome of the posts on flteach are addressing the movie Sicko because it deals with the health care system in countries like Canada, France and (Continue Reading)
Response to What’s Interesting About Grammar
07/02/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAfter the initial responses on this thread, I stopped responding to individual posts and printed out all the subsequent posts up to the point where (Continue Reading)
Well, here then, take it!!!
07/02/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs we received news of the Supreme Court’s decision in school integration cases, there was something about the term ’color blind’ that tickled my memory. (Continue Reading)
Signs of the times – linguistically
07/01/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentDespite being a modest sort, I am forced to admit that I live in a tony, up-scale neighborhood. I found it interesting that one of (Continue Reading)
Against the grain…
07/01/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentJust to encourage those of you who are trying to hold on to some values and standards in a new America where both have been (Continue Reading)
Strange & monitory dictionary experience
06/28/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentAs I was wandering through the house talking to myself, I found myself using the word ’instantiate’. “That’s a rare word,” I thought, “I wonder (Continue Reading)
Gratitude
06/27/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentI just want to than Wes Groleau for making this blog possible. He works very hard and displays great patience with me. I am truly (Continue Reading)
Teachers should tremble…..
06/27/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhy should teachers tremble? Listen to several things my 5 year old granddaughter has said recently. She starts kindergarten July 23. When I asked her (Continue Reading)
Old Ship of Zion
06/26/2007 Pat Barrett Add CommentNo, I haven’t turned religious; it’s just the title of a great book I just finished. It’s by William F. Pitts, deceased, who did field (Continue Reading)