Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of Language

Dotadots

Reading

1. False "They are easily transportable and difficult to trace."
2. True "By checking an online register, police are able to identify owners of the stolen items once they have been recovered."
3. False "Identification numbers are not new."
4. False "One particular product."

Lexicon

• possess --- own
• moveable --- transportable
• decreased --- fallen
• lifeless --- inanimate

Phonetics

1. personal, permanent
2. mobile
3. developed

Use of English

1. "My iPod was stolen last night," Sue said.
   Sue said that her iPod had been stolen the night before/the previous night.
2. The dots can even be incorporated into thread.
   It is even possible to incorporate the dots into thread. / For the dots to be incorporated into thread.
3. Car theft in Australia has fallen dramatically.
   There has been a

Total Physical Response (TPR)

TPR stands for Total Physical Response. It is based on the coordination of language and physical movement. In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language, and students respond with whole-body actions. Therefore, grammar isn't taught explicitly but can be learned from the language input. TPR is a good way to learn vocabulary, especially idiomatic terms. For example: "Put your hands up."

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It consists of learning content through an additional language, by teaching both the subject and the language. The idea is to use the language as the medium of instruction. It provides exposure to the language... Continue reading "Effective Language Learning Methods and Classroom Analysis" »

Entrepreneurship

An entrepreneur is a person who pursues an opportunity, often commercially driven, to bring a new product or service to market with limited resources and high risk. The process of creating a new business is entrepreneurship, also defined as organizing limited resources to capitalize on a business opportunity.

Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Curious, flexible and adaptable, persistent, passionate, willing to learn, visionary, motivated.

Types of Entrepreneurs

• Intrapreneur: An employee who is tasked with developing an innovative idea or project within a company, with a bit less freedom and higher risk.
• Social Entrepreneur: Interested in starting a business for the greater social good and not just the pursuit of profits.
• Scalable Startup

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a book written by John Boyne. It is a historical novel that explores the main themes of loneliness, boredom, and the divisions between the Jews and the Germans. The story revolves around Bruno, a boy who moves with his parents next to a Nazi death camp. He befriends Shmuel, a small and pale boy, and one day they both enter the gas chamber and tragically die.

Main Characters:

• Shmuel: A small and thin boy, similar to Bruno
• Bruno: The main character, son of a powerful commander
• Mother: Bruno and Gretel's mother, with red hair
• Gretel: Bruno's older sister
• Father: Bruno's dad, commander of the German army

I highly recommend this book as it vividly portrays the historical context and the problems of that time.

Getting Around Tokyo & Kyoto

Understanding Tokyo's Address System

While you can often plug in your destination's name into a map, understanding Tokyo's address system can be incredibly helpful. Tokyo is divided into "cities" (e.g., Chuo-ku, Shinjuku-ku), which are further divided into neighborhoods and then smaller numbered districts called "chome." An address typically consists of a word followed by three numbers.

Thankfully, maps are readily available at train stations and on main thoroughfares. These maps, along with numbered lampposts, can help you navigate. However, be prepared for a bit of a challenge, as building numbers are assigned based on their construction order, not consecutively.

Tips for Navigating Tokyo's Streets

Tokyo can be

Presumptions

Linguistic Presumption (LP)

The hearer is presumed capable of determining the meaning and the referents of the expression uttered.

Communicative Presumption (CP)

Unless there is evidence to the contrary, a speaker is assumed to be speaking with some identifiable communicative intent.

Presumption of Literalness (PL)

Unless there is evidence to the contrary, a speaker is assumed to be speaking literally

Conversational Presumptions (ConPs):

• Relevance: The speaker's remarks are relevant to the conversation.
• Sincerity: The speaker is being sincere.
• Truthfulness: The speaker is attempting to say something true.
• Quantity: The speaker contributes the appropriate amount of information.
• Quality: The speaker has adequate evidence for what they say.

Strategies

Linguistic Concepts

2. (1.5p) Define the following concepts as they have been used in this course, giving an example of each:

Meronymy

Meronymy is the semantic relation between a lexical item denoting a part and that denoting the corresponding whole. Meronyms are mentally triggered, since our minds have scripts, e.g., knowledge about event sequences due to knowledge of the world. We have scripts for events that commonly occur in our lives, such as going to a doctor's office, a restaurant, a library, or the supermarket.

Converses

Converses are pairs of opposite terms characterized by the following feature: when one member of the pair is substituted for the other, the new sentence can be made logically equivalent to the original one by interchanging... Continue reading "Linguistic Concepts: Definitions and Examples" »