'Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much
arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinions in good men is but
knowledge in the making.' --John Milton
The epigram above goes a long way in providing an answer to this
oft-repeated question. Of course, we must make a distinction between
Aristotle instructing passionate disciples on the definition of happiness
and a humble foreign language teacher attempting to familiarize a horde
of boisterous adolescents to the intricacies of the English interrogative
sentence. Whether adolescents back in the 4th century BC were radically
different in demeanor to today's is for the anthropologists and historians
to decide; in any
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Enthusiasm
is eerily contagious.
Waiting for my first lecture on "Advanced Word Morphology" last year, I
feared the worst. The lecturer, a plump and immaculately dressed man,
stormed into the room and, from that moment on, never lost our attention.
To think that someone could be so excited about the irregular plurals
in English was a little odd at first, but it nevertheless made us listen
to find out what could induce such animated grimaces and gesticulations.
In the following week, the attendance doubled. The good teacher then, has
a veritable passion for what he teaches or, less romantic but equally
effective, can pretend to be. To assume that a human being can be
veritably fascinated by the prospect of describing a picture in English
would transcend the boundaries of good sense. Once the teacher's enthusiasm
has infused into the pores of his pupils, the more cerebral aspects of his
character come into play. He must possess a sound knowledge of
whatever he teaches and be ready to answer in a clear and persuasive manner
the arguments and opinions that Milton says will inevitably follow. The
teacher-pupil interaction must be symbiotic, not merely a master-slave
relationship with the teacher acting as an all-knowing, infallible tyrant.
Patience is an important asset in a profession where abilities invariably
differ from pupil to pupil and remaining enthusiastic is by no means an
Still Alice tells the story of Alice Howland, who was a Professor at Harvard University and at the age of 50 noticed she was having problems remembering words that once came to her easily. The booked presented how Alice stood in front of her class to deliver what she expected would have been another powerful lesson on Linguistics, but suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, staring at her class and forgetting the word ‘Lexicon’,
However, studying Greek and Shakespearean works was not without its challenges. The most daunting task I faced, as I had encountered many times before, was comprehending the texts' complex use of language. Extensive passages, unfamiliar syntax, and archaic vocabulary had, for many years, frustrated me and kept me from exploring the classics. Reading Shakespeare often felt like deciphering a foreign language, despite the words being written in English,
Simon states “some people are pleased to call linguistic evolution was almost always a matter of ignorance prevailing over knowledge” (209). This statement shows the opposing view of the liberal -linguist. On the other hand, the other group of people the opposition of the liberal-linguist mentioned by Simon believe that “there is such thing as Standard English” (208). This makes the works of this article balanced and truthful. As a conservative, Simon wants individuals to preserve the English language and not just go with any fad that may come upon us. Henceforth, Simon wants us to teach ourselves and he stresses training yourself. Though Simon presents favoritism toward what he describes as the minority or the conservatives. “we are here… to arrest unnecessary change” (209). He accurately reveals the two viewpoints regarding good English usage.
Professor Jordan is the type of teacher that many students love because she engages them so thoroughly. The students had broadened their horizons by learning the differing contexts of English; this lead to the conundrum of which dialect should they chose to represent themselves, but words possess the power to sway ones opinions, to initiate a change in how something is viewed.
From this it becomes apparent that knowledge should be useful, and the acquisition of such language should be carried out in an effective manner. In other words, performance and practice prevailing over pure theory (Bisenz 18). They are also taught a hypothetical language which does not have any use in the real world, but is nevertheless taught to all students. This is a parody against the enforced study of Greek and Latin in England, and the "Victorian cultural appropriation of ancient Greek to undergrid ideologies of class difference and colonial conquest" (Whitmarsh 67).
"A person who teaches, especially in a school; noun" (Google, 2016.) Google gives a very obvious definition to the question "What is a teacher?" However, those of us who have had an experience with teachers know they 're much more than someone who instructs. They are mentors, encouragers and educators. Each of these are far more in depth than an instructor.
This book was revolutionary not only because it sought to "Americanize" the classroom, but because of the tone of the book. Most previous grammars were prescriptive, meaning that they informed the student how the words should be spoken or spelled. The "Blue-Backed Speller," on the other hand, was a descriptive work, meaning that it merely showed how words were actually used and pronounced by real speakers of the language (Millward 245).
Learning is a necessity for some people and an obligation for others. My interpretation of a teacher is a person who provides education to another person, in a manner that helps the person understand what has been taught to them. Different people learn in different ways and for different reasons, and it is important for a teacher to be able to assess which approach will provide the greatest understanding. Adler and Van Doren (1972) wrote, “A teacher may help his student in many ways; it is the student himself who must do the learning” (p.8).
Many argue that studying Latin is a waste of time. However, most of the English language is derived from Latin. Statistics show that 80% of our English vocabulary is extracted from the Latin. Imagine a young student learned the English word, father. As the child begins to progress in school, they’ll encounter challenging, abstract words with 3-5 syllables that could possibly come from the Latin word for father: pater and patris. When they meet words such as patronize, paternalism, and expatriate, will the young student be able to define the word? Instead of looking through the dictionary, studying Latin is another option in which one can define a word easily and master English vocabulary. Not only will studying Latin teach you the roots words, it can also help students
When comparing my evaluations of the qualities that produce effective educators from the beginning of this course to what I now believe, it is clear that I have grown in my perceptions of this field and what it takes to be a great teacher. In my Effective Teacher Baseline, I focused mainly on the personal qualities that make an effective teacher, and I did not speak at all about the professional qualities that exist as well. Education 1220 has taught me an enormous amount on the professional traits and characteristics that effective teachers embody, and this is an expansion of my original thoughts on the personal qualities that are found in great educators incorporated with the knowledge I have gained over the course of the semester about the additional personal qualities expressed as well as the professional roles effective teachers take on. Truly effective “superstars” (Stewart) are found in combination of these many qualities, and this course has given me a clear path to follow for my own future success as an educator.
When I first met my 9th grade English teacher, I never imagined that she would make such a tremendous impact in my life. Teachers are much like a second parent, you spend just as much time, if not more with them than your parents. My parents fought a lot and the constant fighting between them was unbearable.
And semantic indeterminacy is the ether of attitude of language. It fills the interstices of our intentions and pervades accounts of presupposition, tense, fiction, translation, and especially, elusiveness. Language is primarily formed through the interaction of people. This interaction could be of any nature, but in today’s world when English is undoubtedly the universal language, external factors play a pivotal role in English language’s evolution. Therefore, it would be imperative to look at the influences of these factors on the English language. The English language of today reflects many centuries of development (Naomi 24). The political and social events that have in the course of English history so profoundly affected the English people in their national life have generally had a recognizable effect on their language. The Christianizing of Britain brought England into contact with Latin civilization and made significant additions to our vocabulary. The Scandinavian invasions resulted in a considerable mixture of the two races and their languages. The Norman Conquest made English for two centuries the language mainly of the lower classes, while the nobles and those associated with them used French on almost all occasions (Baugh 2). And when English once more regained supremacy as the language of all elements of the population, it greatly changed in both form and vocabulary from what it had been in the 11th century.
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event.[1] The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment.
I was the child who never knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. I could see myself doing everything because I knew that I could do anything. Fascinated by their complexity and similarities, I slowly fell in love with languages. Nothing is quite as beautiful as their nuances and how they vary among people. With this novel fascination, I decided that I wanted to learn as many languages as I possibly could and everything about them and their connections to other languages. In addition, understanding intricate grammar rules comes easily to me, and I have always enjoyed its structure and patterns. If I combine these two interests of mine, it is apparent that I should study linguistics. I had figured out what I wanted to study, but not what to do after college. I remembered helping my friends in Latin last year with the grammar rules of English and how I am constantly correcting my family’s improper grammar, and I realized that I love explaining and teaching languages. With this realization, I decided that I want to teach English as a second language. Now I had to decide what college to attend. After obsessing over the magnificent Hogwarts in all of its glory in Harry Potter, I couldn’t imagine not wanting to go to castle-looking college. Who doesn’t want to go to a college that looks like a castle? Being the perfect amalgamation of appearance and exemplary linguistics department, Cambridge is the school for me.
Anyone can ask someone why they want to be a teacher. The answer could be very simple. They would answer something along the lines of they enjoy working with children. However, there is a variety of different of occupations that give someone the opportunity to work with children, but what truly attracted me to Early Childhood Education?