By the way, this has been a huge week. We're under contract for a house in NE DC. Woo-hoo! I mean, keep your fingers crossed that it all works out, but if it does, we'll be the lovely owners of a 68 year old house with a hideous red-and-white awning, which will clearly come down.
National Council on the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (funded/supported by CAL? and Charles Ferguson)
Survey by Dr. Allen and Fritz Eeyani on the teaching of English in the US (done by the Office of Education sometime in the 1950s)
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
A brief list of things I need to learn about...
Origins of the TOEFL Test
Kenneth Mildenberger
Charles Ferguson
History of the Center for Applied Linguistics
...
To be continued....
Kenneth Mildenberger
Charles Ferguson
History of the Center for Applied Linguistics
...
To be continued....
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Wikipedia has ethics, rules, peer review???
I'm discovering the elaborate system that is Wikipedia. Why? One of my initial goals for starting my oral history project is to create a Wikipedia page about Dr. Alatis. Wikipedia does have strict standards for articles which are biographies of living persons; however, I feel that I will be able to abide by their standards as well as those governing the prohibition of original research. As long as I reference Dr. Alatis's publications and other publicly available material (including research I conducted at the Georgetown archives), I think this will be easy provided I apply the Wikipedia standards of neutral point of view, etc.
It is a really sophisticated system. I have often referenced it as a quick way to learn about a topic, but I had no idea how elaborate a community it was. It's actually really cool.
Anyway, you can check out my user page and see what I'm currently working on over there.
It is a really sophisticated system. I have often referenced it as a quick way to learn about a topic, but I had no idea how elaborate a community it was. It's actually really cool.
Anyway, you can check out my user page and see what I'm currently working on over there.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
lost and found
So I managed to make a pretty good stab at it after my post earlier today. I'm now back into the nitty-gritty (currently reading Wikipedia's policies on creating biographies of living persons.) My eyes are starting to zone out, but here is some of the stuff I have so far:
by way of introduction:
Dr. Alatis's life is important to me because of his profound influence on the field of foreign language education. He discovered a love of language at Greek school in West Virginia as a child, and throughout his life has worked with teachers, scholars, administrators, and students to foster a love of language and find ways to make language education successful. He gave out grant monies from the National Defense Education Act, and he was instrumental in professionalizing of the field of teaching English as a second language by serving as Executive Director of TESOL for over twenty years. Most of these facts, however, can be learned through a quick Google search. Oral history allows me to delve deeper, to ask questions, to hear the story from the individual and those surrounding him, and ultimately to create a new archive of knowledge from an accomplished man. My belief is that Dr. Alatis's story will not only serve to remind the foreign language community of the battles fought over the past 50 years, but as a model for oral historians of how we can use digital tools to breathe new life into an ancient method of collecting history. In this article, I discuss practical, how-to aspects of technologies I have used in this project and their implications for what Michael Frisch calls a return of aurality to oral history as well as ethical considerations of digital tools.
by way of talking about technology:
I also turned to the popular site Wikipedia. Despite the attention that Middlebury College received when their history department limited the use of Wikipedia as a primary source1. Brock Read, “Middlebury College History Department Limits Use of Wikipedia,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 53 Issue 24, February 16, 2007. , other scholars find Wikipedia to be a good first source that can often lead researchers in new directions2. Cathy Davidson, "We Can't Ignore the Influence of Digital Technologies," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 53, Issue 29, March 23, 2007; . The collaborative capability of Wikipedia allowed Ann Kirschner to create an article on Ala Gertner and use the research she had done for her book, Sala's Gift, culled from a trove of letters her mother had kept from her time in Nazi work camps3. Kirschner, Ann, "Adventures in the Land of Wikipedia," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 53, Issue 13, November 11, 2006. . Wikipedia is often a way for those with similar interests to collaborate in the creation of knowledge, and the creation of knowledge by the crowd has been the subject of debate. I discuss the real-time and collaborative creation of knowledge through technology later in the article.
Voila.
by way of introduction:
Dr. Alatis's life is important to me because of his profound influence on the field of foreign language education. He discovered a love of language at Greek school in West Virginia as a child, and throughout his life has worked with teachers, scholars, administrators, and students to foster a love of language and find ways to make language education successful. He gave out grant monies from the National Defense Education Act, and he was instrumental in professionalizing of the field of teaching English as a second language by serving as Executive Director of TESOL for over twenty years. Most of these facts, however, can be learned through a quick Google search. Oral history allows me to delve deeper, to ask questions, to hear the story from the individual and those surrounding him, and ultimately to create a new archive of knowledge from an accomplished man. My belief is that Dr. Alatis's story will not only serve to remind the foreign language community of the battles fought over the past 50 years, but as a model for oral historians of how we can use digital tools to breathe new life into an ancient method of collecting history. In this article, I discuss practical, how-to aspects of technologies I have used in this project and their implications for what Michael Frisch calls a return of aurality to oral history as well as ethical considerations of digital tools.
by way of talking about technology:
I also turned to the popular site Wikipedia. Despite the attention that Middlebury College received when their history department limited the use of Wikipedia as a primary source
Voila.
Writer's block = bunch of crap
Well, at least that's what I'm telling myself.
I just sat down to start composing this "article" that I have had swimming in my head for at least a month now, and I don't know what it is - fear, nervousness, anxiety, the sense that I have never, ever read enough, whatever - but I just can't seem to write the thoughts down. Writing seems to be the hardest part of all the research that I'm doing, because every time I'm faced with the blank word processor screen, I freeze up. I even wrote down some partial thoughts at one point to get "warmed up," and it didn't seem to work.
But I can write here, maybe because I can see that some people are listening. So I'm going to warm up here and writer's block be damned.
When I began my work with Dr. Alatis, I entered another world. James E. Alatis was born in 1926 in Weirton, West Virginia. He is the son of Greek immigrants, his mother coming from Chios and his father from Cypress. At 82 years old, he is Dean Emeritis of the Georgetown School of Languages and Linguistics and Professor of Linguistics and Modern Greek. He teaches four days a week at Georgetown, and although at our first meeting he told me that he met with a colleague to discuss his retirement, he shows no signs of slowing down despite a debilitating eye condition.
Why is Dr. Alatis's world so different from my own? I am the daughter of two IT professionals, first generation college student, and avid technophile. During my time as a graduate student, I have conducted many interviews while learning the craft of both oral history and ethnography. I use a variety of technologies to help me transcribe interviews, record my observations, and write my conclusions. Without realizing it at first, I have been taking part in what Alistair Thompson calls the fourth paradigm transformation of oral history, the digital revolution in oral history (1). Ignoring all else that has occurred during the past half century, the digital revolution has created a divide for me to cross when interviewing Dr. Alatis. I have learned that the key is to enter his world completely, and then bring his stories back into my own, where I can use my abilities as a 21st century oral historian to bring new meaning to them, meaning that may have not been possible 10 or 20 years ago.
Ugh. I still feel like there's no "there" there - I'm working through it. Basically I want this to be an introduction to my work - giving the reader some key, interesting details about Dr. Alatis (like why do I want to know about this guy?), highlighting my methodology and especially why I am in a unique position to bring his story to life (I'm adept with technology, can bring his story to a wider audience), and finally, some meat to what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Also, the goal is that this would be a publishable article - something that would give other oral historians some insight into new ways to bring oral history to life. I guess I can bring up the fact that I'll be using Wikipedia, why Wikipedia, etc, my blog, what that means. Even my Twitter - whenever I post here, it goes on Twitter, which then goes on facebook, which then draws in readers to read about my work and therefore about Dr. Alatis. And all of these things are simple to do. I guess the differences are that I (and others from my generation) tend to create in real-time... we don't research, write, edit, re-edit, edit, then edit some more. We write and hit "publish post," and then it becomes part of the public domain. What implications does that have for our narrators and for our craft?
OK. I'm definitely on to something here. Thank you, Google, Blogger, readers, whomever... I think blogging definitely cures writers' block.
(1) Alistair Thompson, "Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History." Oral History Review 34 (1) (2007): 49.
I just sat down to start composing this "article" that I have had swimming in my head for at least a month now, and I don't know what it is - fear, nervousness, anxiety, the sense that I have never, ever read enough, whatever - but I just can't seem to write the thoughts down. Writing seems to be the hardest part of all the research that I'm doing, because every time I'm faced with the blank word processor screen, I freeze up. I even wrote down some partial thoughts at one point to get "warmed up," and it didn't seem to work.
But I can write here, maybe because I can see that some people are listening. So I'm going to warm up here and writer's block be damned.
When I began my work with Dr. Alatis, I entered another world. James E. Alatis was born in 1926 in Weirton, West Virginia. He is the son of Greek immigrants, his mother coming from Chios and his father from Cypress. At 82 years old, he is Dean Emeritis of the Georgetown School of Languages and Linguistics and Professor of Linguistics and Modern Greek. He teaches four days a week at Georgetown, and although at our first meeting he told me that he met with a colleague to discuss his retirement, he shows no signs of slowing down despite a debilitating eye condition.
Why is Dr. Alatis's world so different from my own? I am the daughter of two IT professionals, first generation college student, and avid technophile. During my time as a graduate student, I have conducted many interviews while learning the craft of both oral history and ethnography. I use a variety of technologies to help me transcribe interviews, record my observations, and write my conclusions. Without realizing it at first, I have been taking part in what Alistair Thompson calls the fourth paradigm transformation of oral history, the digital revolution in oral history (1). Ignoring all else that has occurred during the past half century, the digital revolution has created a divide for me to cross when interviewing Dr. Alatis. I have learned that the key is to enter his world completely, and then bring his stories back into my own, where I can use my abilities as a 21st century oral historian to bring new meaning to them, meaning that may have not been possible 10 or 20 years ago.
Ugh. I still feel like there's no "there" there - I'm working through it. Basically I want this to be an introduction to my work - giving the reader some key, interesting details about Dr. Alatis (like why do I want to know about this guy?), highlighting my methodology and especially why I am in a unique position to bring his story to life (I'm adept with technology, can bring his story to a wider audience), and finally, some meat to what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Also, the goal is that this would be a publishable article - something that would give other oral historians some insight into new ways to bring oral history to life. I guess I can bring up the fact that I'll be using Wikipedia, why Wikipedia, etc, my blog, what that means. Even my Twitter - whenever I post here, it goes on Twitter, which then goes on facebook, which then draws in readers to read about my work and therefore about Dr. Alatis. And all of these things are simple to do. I guess the differences are that I (and others from my generation) tend to create in real-time... we don't research, write, edit, re-edit, edit, then edit some more. We write and hit "publish post," and then it becomes part of the public domain. What implications does that have for our narrators and for our craft?
OK. I'm definitely on to something here. Thank you, Google, Blogger, readers, whomever... I think blogging definitely cures writers' block.
(1) Alistair Thompson, "Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History." Oral History Review 34 (1) (2007): 49.
Friday, March 13, 2009
still here, just overwhelmed
just letting you know I'm still hanging on. Work has been a bit overwhelming with the influx of new applicants to the program, and then on top of that add dissertation research, wedding planning, etc.
Also I could go into the litany of things wrong with my apartment, starting with the fact that my landlady cashes our rent checks ages late. Also that she complains bitterly anytime we ask her to fix something, like, say, the heat. Or the dishwasher. I'm like, I don't care, lady - you own the place.
But - SPRING BREAK COMETH!!! As in, tomorrow.
Also I could go into the litany of things wrong with my apartment, starting with the fact that my landlady cashes our rent checks ages late. Also that she complains bitterly anytime we ask her to fix something, like, say, the heat. Or the dishwasher. I'm like, I don't care, lady - you own the place.
But - SPRING BREAK COMETH!!! As in, tomorrow.
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