Attendance

Hi all,

Just a quick word to say that attendance and timekeeping for my classes recently has been very poor in some cases. It is imperative that you are in (and on time) as we still have quite a few assessments to complete. I am aware that some of you had contacted Jordi if you were to be off, and of course in these cases you will be authorised. I have extended the hand in date for the film review to Monday 7th March. In the case of anybody not having seen either of the films, Anna will bring back MNIJ tomorrow and Aaron will return MOW.

See you tomorrow for the class at 9 on the fourth floor and if you can, wear something red!

All the best, Mark

Defend FE in Scotland petition

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/defendfescotland/

Please sign the e-petition against FE cuts to funding and the devastating effects that these cuts will have.

This affects us all.

Many thanks, Mark

Phillipe Petit et al win the Oscar!

Always the entertainer!

MAN ON WIRE

Today we watched Man On Wire and I gave out the brief for the writing assessment. I am aware that some students have missed both films, so should make arrangements to watch one or both of the films shown. You are to pick one of these films to review.

Remember, a film review can be positive, negative or neutral, that is up to you!

I hope you have enjoyed the two showings and I look forward to your reviews.

We will use both the Monday and Tuesday sessions to write the reviews up.

NB - WE WILL BE IN THE LEARNING CENTRE ON THE 2ND FLOOR ON MONDAY 28TH FEB AT 9 AND IN THE SELF ACCESS CENTRE ON THE 4TH FLOOR ON TUESDAY 1ST MARCH AT 9.

All the best, Mark

My Name is Joe chat

I really enjoyed the discussion this morning on the MNIJ film. Thank you to those in attendance. I also distributed a short handout on how to write a film review and there are quite a few links to film reviews on this blog. Please ensure you are prompt tomorrow for the second film we will be watching.

Many thanks, Mark

My Name is Joe

Thank you to those of you who were in attendance this morning to watch the first film, My Name is Joe. It seemed in the brief chat we had after the showing that everybody enjoyed it. I always think it is thought provoking at the end, with a few loose ends ripe for discussion. Loach uses this technique in many of his films. Sweet Sixteen is another excellent film along the same lines as MNIJ, you may wish to buy, rent or download that at your leisure.

We will have a discussion about the film on Monday to get a feel for our individual and collective thoughts and if you haven't submitted your Word of Mouth responses yet, please bring them on Monday or e mail me them. And don't forget to give me one of your excellent essays too!

Have a wonderful break everybody and I will see you on Monday 21st at 9 in room 120.

All the best, Mark

I need your essay!

Hi all, just a quick reminder that I would like you to e mail or hand in an essay of your choosing that you have completed for Evan. This will count as a submission for one of the two writing outcomes for Comm. 4. The other submission will be a film review on one of the films we will watch (Tuesdays 15th and 22nd February). The ones I have been given so far were wonderful. Some really good writing and referencing going on there by the way! See you all tomorrow for the showing of film one...

All the best, Mark

PS - listening responses to me asap too. If I get them tomorrow, I can mark them when the film is on.

We have a new permanent room on a Tuesday at 9!

Hi all,


Dieca has been working hard on our behalf with her colleague Sarah and we now have the Self Access room (not 411 as I thought but opposite there) for our Tuesday morning slot at 9. Please be sharp next week as we will be watching a film (of two). I hope you like it. If you don't, your film review will be more interesting at least!


Regards, Mark

Listening assessment - does PP force us to think and speak in different ways?

Hi all,

As always, I'm on the hunt for some feedback! I'm interested to know your thoughts on the Word of Mouth programme that we listened to today for our first listening assessment (of two).

Maybe you agree with some of the points raised by the experts, perhaps you feel PowerPoint is an unhelpful aid to speaking, do you think PP has (had) a damaging effect on the art of public speaking?

Interestingly, it could certainly be argued that many of the great orators and keynote presentations over the last hundred years or so were delivered without any visual aids of any description. That said, when you log in to the TED website, often some of the more illuminating talks tend to use a variety of visuals (but not always).

When I first learned the art of oral presentation delivery at University some twenty years ago, visuals to anchor the spoken word generally came in the form of OHPs / acetates. I remember in my final year at University giving a wrap up presentation on my dissertation 'Music as Communication' and I was making reference to two high profile theorists - Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. To my horror, I realised that I had spelled the latter as 'Fisher' and despite me having prepared the talk some weeks before and looked at my slides scores of times, I just hadn't noticed the error! Fortunately I had time to get to a design shop in Morningside to rework the slide and delivered the talk as I had intended. But I never forgot the importance of that lesson.

One thing is for sure in this WOM Programme, there are a lot of interesting arguments offered by a variety of different analysts and could provide the basis for some further discussion.

So, over to you, the floor (cyberwise) is yours...

Note taking strategy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3EZmUqgpZU

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/videos/video_nt.html

The links above might be helpful to you when taking notes. It is known as the Cornell method. A bit like mind mapping, aka spidergrams, the success of this method can depend on what type of learner you are. It might work for you!

All the best, Mark

Sample answers for unassessed listening task

Hi all, today we went over the answers to the unassessed listening task on the 'Word of Mouth' transmission. You had some very detailed responses and I'm sure you won't have any problems dealing with the 'text' tomorrow. Just to remind you all, we will be in the Learning Centre on the second floor for the assessment so please be there for 9 sharp (take note LRT bus company!!)

Well done and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Mark

Top judge says young can't listen!

According to the BBC, a top English judge recently claimed that young people may not be reliable jurors as they don't have the same level of listening skills as older generations.

Here's a link to a quick test based on that BBC story (although, I agree with one of the comments at the end that the test's a bit flawed): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7715868.stm

I find it a bit ironic that a top judge accuses young people of poor listening skills. Top judges are just the kind of folk who end up in the House of Lords - a place full of, amongst others, retired judges popping off to sleep during other people's speeches.!

Thoughts?

Thinking about listening skills

Today we moved away from presentations and started to look at another aspect of communication: listening.

Although we are looking at something different, the same features of communication analysis arise. We've talked a lot about structure, purpose, audience, point-of-view in relation to essays and presentations. Then, you were the producers of communication "texts". Now, you are not producing texts - you are "receiving" information. In this case you are receiving information aurally (ie. via your ears) in the form of radio and television programmes.

We are now interested in how other people structure a piece of communication. We're interested in working out their purpose, intended audience and point of view. When we analyse these aspects we are in a position to judge the quality of the piece.

And hopefully we learn from what is good (and not so good) about the way they've put the piece together. We should be able to apply the principles that make a good piece of oral communication (like a presentation or programme) to a piece of written communication (like an essay or report).

Students in university and college spend a lot of time listening (or should). It is one of the main, and most traditional, ways of communicating information and ideas to students. That's not to say that it's always a good way to learn. One lecturer transmitting information to a lecture theatre of 150 students may be cost-effective for a university, but does it make sense educationally? Maybe pod-casts are the way ahead?

The point is that students will do a lot of listening and we need to spend a bit of time practising that skill.

So we have now listened to the documentary on BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth series (see link at the right hand side of the blog) on "borrowing" in language.

If you weren't at the class today or haven't had a chance to finish answering the questions, please do so for the class on Monday (at 9) where we will discuss the responses that you have come up with and I will give you a set of sample answers.

All the best, Mark

Yearbook feedback!

Hi all,

You now have the Access to Languages Yearbook, so I thought I would pop a post on our blog to see what you think of it. Please post your comments below. I am very pleased with it personally and I have contacted Lorna, one of our resident DTP experts with some positive feedback already. Over to you...