In December, 2011, the first Words and Music conference was held in Maribor, Slovenia. Words and Music II will take place at the sunny Slovenian seaside. This conference will explore the relationship between words and music, and the place of that relationship in modern culture.
Conference Website: http://events.ff.uni-mb.si/wordsandmusic/
Conference FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wordsandmusicconference/
A piece of news for anyone thinking about “The Thinking Approach to language teaching and learning – TA”:
For the past 15 years the TA team has been developing an approach to language teaching and learning that allows for an integrated development of language and thinking skills (The Thinking Approach to language teaching and learning – TA). Nowadays the TA is being used in many European countries and has trained over 500 teachers across Europe. You can find more details about the TA here:
http://www.thinking-approach.org/ (description of the approach and materials for teachers of English)
http://www.ta-teachers.eu/ (a community of teachers using the approach)
http://www.ta-parents.eu/ (materials for family learning based on the approach)
A residential week long TA course for language teachers will take place in Riga in March 2013. This course is included in the official catalogue of the European Commission, therefore all costs associated with the course can be covered by an EU grant (including travel and accommodation). Detailed information about the course, including feedback from the previous course participants, can be found here:
http://www.ta-group.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86%3Acourse-1&catid=47%3Aresidential-courses&Itemid=81
This is a link to the course page in the EU catalogue where you can also see the preliminary course programme:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/trainingdatabase/index.cfm?fuseaction=DisplayCourse&cid=37808
The deadline for the EU grant application is 17 September. The applications are to be sent to the National Agency of the applicant’s country. The list of the Agencies can be found here:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/national_en.htm
Dear SDAŠ members,
We are happy to inform you that our own Smiljana Komar has been elected ESSE Secretary. She will assume her new role in the ESSE Executive (http://www.essenglish.org/history.html#Executive) January 1st, 2014. Congratulations, Smilja!!!
SDAŠ is proud to announce a new volume of its academic journal ELOPE (Vol. X – Spring).
If you would like a printed issue, please write to our treasurer Andrej Stopar. SDAŠ members and the authors of the articles will receive their free copies in the next couple of weeks.
Let us remind you that the journal is also available on-line: http://www.sdas.edus.si/elope.html
Posredujemo vabilo Bralnega društva Slovenije:
“TUDI MI BEREMO. Različni bralci z različnimi potrebami”,
ki bo v ponedeljek, 9. septembra 2013,
v Klubu CD, Cankarjev dom v Ljubljani, Prešernova cesta 10
Spoštovani!
Bralno društvo Slovenije (BDS) vsako drugo leto obeleži mednarodni dan pismenosti s strokovnim posvetovanjem. Letošnje posvetovanje namenjamo problematiki različnih vrst bralcev s posebnimi potrebami v različnih starostnih obdobjih. Osredotočamo se na težave, kot so disleksija, odpor do branja, težave slepih in slabovidnih, gluhih, ljudi z govorno-jezikovnimi motnjami.
Strokovno posvetovanje namenjamo članicam in članom Bralnega društva Slovenije, strokovnim delavcem vzgojno-izobraževalnih zavodov, knjižnic, fakultet, založb in študentom. Vabimo vas, da se srečanja udeležite, sodelujete v strokovnem dialogu in ga obogatite s svojim razmišljanjem!
V nizu strokovnih prispevkov se bo dr. Milena Košak Babuder posvetila mladostnikom z disleksijo, ki jih je v naših šolah iz leta v leto več. Dr. Martina Ozbič bo predstavila, katere veščine mora usvojiti otrok, da lahko bere. Dr. Cirila Peklaj se bo poglobila v premoščanje odpora do branja. Slepim bo posvečenih nekaj referatov po odmoru, ki jih bodo predstavile Tatjana Murn, dr. Aksinija Kermanuner ter Nina Schmidt. Temo bo zaključila zanimiva delavnica. O pismenosti pri učencih z govorno-jezikovnimi motnjami bosta spregovorili Anja Štrekelj in Nika Vizjak, o odnosu med branjem in učenjem pa Suzana Vasič in Tjaša Burja. Bralni pismenosti in branjem v slovenskem znakovnem jeziku sta posvečena referata mag. Irene Dornik in zaposlenih v Zavodu za gluhe in naglušne Ljubljana. Primer iz prakse iz sežanske Kosovelove knjižnice nam bo predstavila Tanja Bratina Grmek. V zaključni delavnici pa bomo spoznali branje s pomočjo znakovnega jezika.
Po koncu dopoldanskega dela programa bomo člani BDS izkoristili čas tudi za občni zbor. Vse nečlane vljudno vabimo, da podpišejo pristopne izjave in se nam v društvu pridružijo.
Med odmori bo obenem čas za ogled plakatov s predstavitvijo dobre prakse, predstavile se nam bodo tudi avtorice, s katerimi se bomo pogovorili pri pogovoru, ki bo zaokrožil naše letošnje srečanje. Njihovo znanje in izkušnje bodo predstavljena v drugem delu zbornika, ki bo izšel v elektronski obliki.
Program posveta in prijavnica za udeležbo sta priložena. Udeleženci boste prejeli potrdilo o udeležbi.
Lepo vas pozdravljamo.
Savina Zwitter, dr. Zoltan Jan,
predsednica Upravnega odbora BDS predsednik Bralnega društva Slovenije
This is the final note for this academic year, and it’s an odd one because it has to do with a single word. That said, the odd Language Note has of course been lexical.
The word is “odd.”
“Canada sent the odd performer behind the Iron Curtain in those years” can mean “…sent the WEIRD/STRANGE/KOOKY performer…”
It can also mean something like “EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE Canada sent a performer behind the Iron Curtain in those years.”
Check out the sub-titles next time you watch a film. Very, very often even good translators flub “odd,” making for odd translations.
Sentences like “She has the odd beer every now and then” come out as grammatical but incomprehensibly bizarre.
All Language Notes of the Week are available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf
A new application for 101 English Tips:
This is a follow-up to last week’s Note.
If you are talking about the European Union, say, “European Union.”
“Slovenia is in Europe” is obvious.
“Switzerland is not in Europe” is a bizarre statement.
“Croatia is going to Europe” is cryptic if you mean “is about to enter the European Union.”
All Language Notes of the Week are available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf
A new application for 101 English Tips:
As I have already mentioned in many of my classes and in Writing Short Literature Essays, you want each paragraph of your essay to look forward.
Let’s try that again.
As mentioned in Writing Short Literature Essays, you want…
When referring to earlier points in your essay, you can almost always chop “I have already.” That saves three words and takes the focus away from the self, repetition and the gloomy past.
Another tip: move “I have already mentioned” or “As mentioned” to the second sentence position.
Compare:
“As I have already mentioned in this essay, Slovenia is in Europe.” (Yawn.)
“Slovenia, as mentioned, is in Europe.”
Colons cause problems. In 101 English Tips, I wrote:
a) a colon “shouts out that an example or summary is about to follow.”
b) “Another colon tip: when continuing to write after a colon in your sentence, it is often a reasonable and admirable idea to make it snappy and not produce a sentence that looks like a little poodle with a long, long tail. Oops.”
The only punctuation following a colon will generally be a period or question mark or exclamation mark (and commas, of course). Do not start a new clause.
This is bizarre:
Ogden Nash writes of a hunter: ‘This grown up man with pluck and luck / Is trying to outwit a Duck,’ AND THIS shows…
Write this instead:
Ogden Nash writes of a hunter: ‘This grown up man with pluck and luck / Is trying to outwit a Duck.’ THIS SHOWS…
Also, never, ever use two colons in a single sentence. A colon and dash in a single sentence? Nope.
A final point: one-third of the mistakes students make are explicitly covered in 101 English Tips, however, they persist (this sentence- five or six).
All Language Notes of the Week are available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf
Two short and simple ones this week:
1) 1970s. Not:
a) 1970ies (wrong)
b) 1970’s (wrong; what can a decade own?)
c) in the 70s of the previous decade (too long)
d) 70s (fine if the WHEN is clear. In formal writing, you’ll often want to stretch this out to 1970s)
You can do similar things with other decades.
2) “to crush” vs. “to crash”
“crushed” is good for cans, bugs, and emotional hardship.
a) “Kunigunda crushed the beer can with his foot.”
b) “He was crushed by a Japanese monster.”
c) “I was crushed when my crush on John…”
Unless the car/bicycle/skateboard is totalled from above (falling rocks? UFOs?), write: “crashed the car…”
All Language Notes of the Week are available at:
http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LNW.pdf
