Saturday, January 3, 2009

TEFL Teaches me Things.

My TEFL Course offered me these chunks.  They actually made it interesting this morning.

"Did You Know...

...that the 2 longest one-syllable words in English are 'stretched' and 'screeched'; that no word in English rhymes with 'month,' 'orange,' 'silver'; that 'dreamt' is the only word in English that ends in 'mt'; or that there are only four words in English ending in 'dous': 'tremendous,' 'horrendous,' 'stupendous,' and 'hazardous'?"

These are quotes found in the margins of lessons.

"Language is a process of free creation; it's laws are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied.  Even the interpretation and use of words involves a procss of free creation."
-Noam Chomsky, an interesting quote considering the intricacy and concreteness of the lesson that preceded it.

"I have never let schooling interfere with my education."
-Mark Twain

"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself."
-Edward Bulwar Lyton

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery."
-James Joyce

"Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish) but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right."
-Igor Stravinsky

"When we study language, we are approaching what some might call 'human essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that are, as far as we know, unique to man."
-Noam Chomsky

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
-Francis Bacon

These are all interesting for me, considering the course and its structure.  Many of them couldn't be more opposed to the course in content and structure.  


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