Late Writers Must READ More!

[kellogg]

Well, from MY point of view, of course, it makes no difference whether you submit early or late. I guess if I have a preference it is that SOME people should submit early and OTHERS should submit late, so that we all have time to read things over and think about them.

But from YOUR point of view, it really does make a difference. The FIRST person to submit really doesn't have to read very much, although it would help if you read my example carefully. But the second person to submit really has to read BOTH my example, AND the first person's homework, AND my comments on the first person's homework.

Why? Because being a grad student is NOT like being an undergraduate. You aren't writing reports and submitting them for a grade. That's why I get a little annoyed when Munjeong talks like an undergraduate about what you NEED to do and HAVE to do and why I get a little irritated when Yeong says that homework is a pain.

Graduate students don't really HAVE homework any more than they have homeroom teachers or Physical Education. Nobody is going to send a note to your parents if you don't do your homework. And very often when you DO do your homework I give you even MORE work.

What graduate students have is an intelligent conversation with other teachers about teaching. That's REALLY what we're trying to do here. And when you join an intelligent conversation, you have to listen a while to see what other people are saying and refer back to it when you say what you have to say.

For example, one of the things we've been saying in this intelligent conversation is that the game has to be FAIR. By that I do NOT mean that we have to do "Rock paper scissors" to decide who is Julie and who is Minsu. It seems to me that it doesn't really matter very much.

I also don't think it's very important to give a good reason why Julie should go first rather than Minsu (in general the person who initiates goes first, and in this case, that's Julie).

But what IS important is that BOTH sides have to initiate. In other words, if the first turn ends with a question, then the SECOND turn should ALSO end with a question. Let's see if our Late Writer passes the test.

[text]

Julie : Do you like apples?

Thomas : Yes, I like apples. / No, I don't like apples.

If you look in our book, you will see that most of "Listen and Repeat" dialogues are like this:

Question-->Answer  "Do you like apples?  Yes/no

Offer-->Acceptance/refusal "Would you like an apple?" "Yes, please/no thanks"

Invitation--respond "Would you like to come to my house? "Thanks; that would be great/Sorry, I can't"

etc.

Yongho Kim called these "frozen pairs" in his thesis work, and he noticed that there are far FEWER frozen pairs in GAMES. Take a look at this:

Kim and Kellogg AL Article.pdf

What we are really trying to do with this game is to MELT the frozen pairs. I am going to argue that UNLESS you melt the frozen pairs, you have text, but not talk.

a) Casting the Roles: "Over here, you are Julie! Show me Julie! Now, over here, you are Thomas. Who are you?

If you read the previous homework, you will see that we had some discussion about how the students can "Show me Julie" and where the teacher can offer the appropriate gesture in advance of the question. Munjeong solves this problem extremely well. Take a look at her solution.

b) Explaining the Rules: "Julie serves first saying like this: Do you like apples?

"Do you like apples?" is FOUR words. But "Julie serves first saying like this" is SIX words. It's also not clear what "saying like this" means. Do you mean repeat exactly, or say something similar?

 Repeat, Julie!

So why do you say "saying like this"?

 Then, Thomas answer! 'Yes, I like apples.' or 'No, I don't like apples.'

Now suppose SOME of the members of Thomas' team LIKE apples and some of them do NOT. Does Julie get a point?

 Now it's Julie turn. What do you say? Nothing! Nothing comes from nothing! No point for you. One point for Thomas. This time, Thomas serves. 

How does Thomas serve? Does he serve with a question or a statement? If you look back at the homework, you will see that SOME of the homework has a kind of a "reset" button where the whole game starts anew after each point. But SOME of the homework tries to CONTINUE the conversation.

Now, ONE kind of homework is MUCH more promising--in terms of talk. The other one is MUCH more likely to simply repeat text.

c) Putting the kids in pairs: Now, you are Julie. And you are? Right! You are Thomas! One is Julie and the other is Thomas. Let's play tennis. In five minutes, tell me the score! Chocolate for the winner!

Notice that this is the FIRST mention of the NAME of the game. What do you think? Should the name of the game come at the END or at the BEGINNING? 

dk 

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