Re:Midterm #1-2

[kellogg]

Original>

T: Hello, everyone.

S: Hello, teacher.

T: Today, we are going to read a book.

Look! What’s this?

S: 와~ 무다.

T: Yes, it’s 무. What is 무 in English?

S: 몰라요.

T: We call it ‘radish’ in English. Repeat ‘Radish’.

S: Radish

T: Ok, today’s book is about radish.

a) Can you find examples of iconic, indexical, and symbolic (second order symbolic?) meaning making?
=> iconic: 무

Yes, of course--ALL signs are iconic in some way: all signs have materiality. Words, for example, are made up of sound waves, and the sound waves are...themselves. We perceive them as sound waves, because they ARE sound waves, and we have evolved to perceive sound waves as sound waves. So in that sense they are iconic.

But this isn't very useful, Hayeong! We need to know HOW TEACHERS USE action to teach! So you will HAVE to tell us what the teacher is DOING and not simply what the teacher is saying.

You can't really talk about iconic meaning without telling us about ACTION. This means, that although in the classroom, symbolic meaning is the most difficult and mediated iconic meaning is the most simple and unmediated, when you are writing your TEST, with a TRANSCRIPT, the situation is really the other way around: symbolic meaning is the easiest (because that's what transcripts are made of) but iconic meaning is very difficult (because you have to tell us what the teacher is doing).

If you think about it you will see this is related to the point I made at the beginning of Taeyeong's data!

indexical: Look!, Yes. OK 

Yes, of course--ALMOST ALL signs are indexical in some way, because we gesture when we talk, and even if we didn't we would use intonation and stress to POINT to certain aspects of talk. So in that sense everything we say is indexical.

But this isn't very useful, Hayeong! We need to know HOW TEACHERS USE gesture, intonation and stress to teach! So you will HAVE to tell us HOW and not simply WHAT the teacher is saying.

You can't really talk about indexical meaning without telling us about INTONATION, STRESS, or GESTURE.

   second order symbol: 무-radish

The teacher doesn't say this. But the teacher DOES say this:

T: Yes, it’s 무. (sic) What is 무 (sic) in English?

S: 몰라요.

T: We call it ‘radish’ in English. (sic)  Repeat ‘Radish’. (sic)

S: Radish

A VERY interesting problem: articles! As we saw, articles are ICONIC (they are often confused with 으 sounds that Koreans use when they pause), and INDEXICAL (the difference between "a" and "the" is the difference between an example and a DEICTIC), and SYMBOLIC (they have a relationship to the idea of countability and concreteness).

b) What goes wrong? How does the teacher solve the problem?

=> The teacher gives the answer too easily and shortly.

But why is this a problem? Isn't the point of the lesson the story?

 Students are just given the answer.

c)       Can you think of a way of doing this activity that adds MORE meaning?

=> Here is revised teaching.

<Revised>

T: Hello, everyone.

S: Hello, teacher.

T: Today, we are going to read a book.

Look! What’s this?

S: 상자. 검은 상자. Black box

T: Right. It’s a black box.

(Shaking the black box) What do you hear?

S: 어, 뭐가 들어있다. 뭐에요?

T: Good question. This is what today’s book is about.

Make a guess. You can ask me 10 questions.

S: Is it an animal?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: 먹는 거에요?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘O’)

S: Apple.

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: Is it a vegetable?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘O’)

S: What color is it?

T: It’s white in the bottom and green at the top.

S: 배추요.

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: 무 아니에요?

T: Bingo. 무에요. What is 무 in English?

S: 몰라요. 뭐에요?

T: We call it ‘Radish’ in English. Repeat ‘radish’.

S: Radish.

T: Ok, today’s book is about radish.

S: Is it an animal?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: 먹는 거에요?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘O’)

S: Apple.

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: Is it a vegetable?

T: (arm gesture showing ‘O’)

S: What color is it?

T: It’s white in the bottom

and green at the top.

S: 배추요.

T: (arm gesture showing ‘X’)

S: 무 아니에요?

T: Bingo. 무에요. What is 무 in English?

S: 몰라요. 뭐에요?

T: We call it ‘Radish’ in English. Repeat ‘radish’.

S: Radish.

T: Ok, today’s book is about radish.

It's estimated that children need to learn about one word every ninety minutes of their lives, sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, to become native speakers. You can see that if we teach ALL vocabulary this way, our children will NEVER really learn a second language and will ONLY ever speak their first one!