Natural vs. Standard, Descriptive vs. Proscriptive

October 10, 2012 by Leave a comment

This “Ask the Editor” clip from Merriam-Webster provides some great food for thought on natural versus prescriptive language, what is “correct,” and how a language authority figure (whether dictionary editor or foreign English teacher) can and should balance the two.

Remember that natural language is language as acquired and produced by humans’ natural cognitive abilities – i.e. what people actually say.  Prescriptive language imposes [often arbitrary] rules that do not exist in natural language, but it is the only kind of language that is acceptable in writing for all but the most informal/unorthodox/creative settings.

 

Filed under Teaching Tips Tagged with , , ,

YCTB Vol. 1 No. 2 Introduction

October 15, 2010 by Leave a comment

Introduction    by Brendan Woo
The second edition has arrived! I have a couple things to share with you:

  • Public Internet Security – Especially if you’re on the road, be careful about what you’re sending out into the air from your computer. Remember that if a wireless network has no password, then anyone can (fairly easily) intercept the data you’re transmitting. Steps such as using the VPN, using WPA wireless encryption (i.e. adding a password to your network), and using a secure connection on Gmail can keep your personal information safer. This article and related ones on the same site have some tips.
  • Syntactic Structures Database – A little technical, but it might be interesting to take a look a this database that compares the structural grammar of the world’s languages: http://sswl.railsplayground.net/

Remember to start working on your Share Fair presentations, and I’ll see you in Changsha for conference (if not before)!

Filed under Yale-China Tagged with , , ,