Graham Davies

Mike writes: My sentiments too. Most days when I log in and search for new posts there is nothing new apart from contributions to the JFK discussion, so I log straight out again. Maybe it's time to bring the JFK discussion to an end. I post in several different sections of the Forum, but there is often no reaction to my postings apart from an acknowledgement by John (bless him!) and most discussions in which I have an interest seem to fade quickly. I belong to other forums too and they all tend to be on the quiet side, with one exception, The Linguanet Forum, which is aimed at teachers of foreign languages: http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/linguanet-forum Andy writes: In principle, it's a good idea but - and I know I'm riding my hobby-horse again, so don't tell me off - such resources have to be copyright cleared. I write from experience as editor of a site that encourages resources to be shared. I cannot use most resources that I am sent as they are often a compilation of other people's materials: texts, images, sound clips etc. As editor of the site, I carry the can if I post anything that breaches copyright, so I am naturally cautious, and ask teachers who send in contributions to endorse a statement worded along the following lines: "Guarantee of originality: The Author warrants that the Work is an original composition and that it in no way infringes any existing copyright either in whole or in part and that it contains no material which may be considered libellous or defamatory. The Author shall indemnify the Publisher against all actions, proceedings, claims and demands made against the Publisher by reason of anything contained within the Work constituting an infringement of copyright or being libellous or defamatory and against all costs, damages or expenses in respect of such action, proceeding, claim or demand." My experience is not unique. An education college that runs a resources section at their website had to remove at least half of the resources sent in by teachers when they were found to be in breach of copyright. They did, however, find that when teachers sought permission to reproduce images, texts and sound clips, many of the originators were willing to grant such permission. This has also been my experience.

Dear Colleagues, Forwarded from Claire Dugard, CILT, the National Centre for Languages: You may be interested to hear about three new services from Becta, to which CILT, the National Centre for Languages and the Association for Language Learning are lending their expertise in the area of ICT in language teaching and learning. For those of you who may not be aware, Becta is the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 'the Government's key partner in the strategic development and delivery of its ICT and e-learning strategy for the schools and the learning and skills sectors.' All three services relate to both primary and secondary phases and are completely free of charge: 1. Ask an Expert: Spotlight on MFL, starting January 10th 2005 The ICT Advice site's Ask an Expert slot will focus on MFL from next week until 4 February on the theme of 'Exploiting ICT-based authentic materials.' From 10 January, you will find introductory ideas, in-depth background information and website links related to the theme, with the opportunity to pose questions to the panel of experts via web-based form. We will send out a reminder during the live period, but in the meantime you can visit the Archives in the Ask an Expert area of the Becta ICT Advice website at http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?sect...ure_theme&theme =80 to get a flavour of previous spotlights on other curriculum subjects. 2. ICT Advice e-magazines Becta's new 'ICT in Primary' and 'ICT in Secondary' e-magazines are available for viewing online at http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?sect...e=nwslttr_index or printing out. The Primary publication has articles across the curriculum and the Secondary version has a dedicated section for MFL at http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?sect...nwslttr_index&i cttypeid=2&icteditionid=3&ictsectionid=5&ictsubsectionid=15. 3. Ask an Expert: ICT across the curriculum This is an Ask a Question service, whereby teachers of any subject in any phase can ask a question about ICT in their subject and receive a response from a panel of experts (which will be provided by CILT and ALL in the case of MFL!) Go to http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=ae&theme=73 to send in your query by web-based form. You can use this service at any time of the year in the context of any ICT focus. Best wishes, Claire Dugard Language Teaching Adviser CILT, the National Centre for Languages 20 Bedfordbury London WC2N 4LB E-mail: claire.dugard@cilt.org.uk Tel: (020) 7379 5101 ext 264 Fax: (020) 7379 5082 http://www.cilt.org.uk Important - Any opinions expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual and not necessarily those of CILT, the National Centre for Languages

Whoops! I must sort out my own language development! I meant, of course: "and this is what makes us different AS human beings" not "and this is what makes us different FROM human beings".

Chomsky didn’t actually say that language is inherited but that the human mind is a genetically determined cognitive apparatus that enables us to pick up languages to which we are exposed, particularly in our formative early years, and this is what makes us different from human beings - although I am sometimes amazed by the number of different words that my dog can recognise even when I am not talking to him directly. When my first daughter was born I noted down every new recognisable utterance that she made. It began slowly, with her first recognisable utterances consisting mainly of bilabial consonants and a variety of vowels - apparently randomised. By the age of 18 months the new utterances were coming in a flood, so much so that I gave up trying to note them down, and they were becoming more and more recognisable. I am from the South East of England and have a typical Estuary accent. My wife is from Northern Ireland and retains her Belfast accent. Our first daughter was born and grew up in Devon until the age of three. She had begun to mix with local children at play school, and by the time we left Devon she pronounced the Devon rolled “r” and produced sentences such as “’Er’s mucking about, ‘er is”. Peer-group rules, OK? My first granddaughter has just reached the age of six months, and I can recognise familar early language development signs already, e.g. playing around with different, easy-to-produce sounds. Some years ago a friend of mine was severely brain-damaged by a German Measles virus that deprived him of the power of language – not just speech but language in general. While he was in hospital I was most interested in how the speech therapist helped him regain his language. She used a chart produced by David Crystal that maps a typical child’s speech development and submitted him to language exercises that followed the chart, e.g. one month he would be given exercises that could be tackled by a 4-year-old and the next month exercises that could be tackled by a 5-year-old. It took him around 18 months to recover fully the language of an adult – which seems to indicate that his language was not lost but just lurking beneath the surface. I helped out by providing simple computer programs, mainly Cloze exercises and text reconstruction exercises in which he had to key in missing words. This was in response to the speech therapist’s request for such programs. Practice, practice, practice was the key to success, she said, and she could never give my friend the same kind of intensive practice that the computer programs could give him. My friend never regained the power of speech, as the virus had damaged the part of his brain that controls the larynx, the swallowing reflex etc, but he was able to read again, understand everything that I said and communicate with me with a laptop speech synthesiser.

The following websites have recently been revamped: ALL: The Association for Language Learning's website: http://www.all-languages.org.uk. Lots of information and useful links.You can browse the ALLNET Discussion List archives at: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/allnet.html. See also Languages ICT (below), a new CILT/ALL initiative. CILT: The Centre for Information on Language Teaching, London - now known as the National Centre for Languages - which is a single national body embracing CILT and the Languages National Training Organisation (LNTO). CILT is, in my opinion, the leading information centre on language teaching in Europe - maybe the world. They’re doing a grand job! CILT is a partner in the ICT4LT project and collaborates with the LTSN Subject Centre for Languages Linguistics and Area Studies, Southampton University. ICT features prominently in CILT's activities - check the website's publications section and the ICT links. See also Languages ICT (below), a new CILT/ALL initiative. This is a new initiative: Languages ICT Website & Forum: A website and a forum for people interested in ICT and languages, maintained by CILT and the Association for Language Learning: http://www.languages-ict.org.uk & http://www.mailbase.org.uk/lists/languagesict-forum

e-Learning Factory (ELF) The e-Learning Factory (ELF) is a concept developed by Lynn O'Neill, a CPD/ICT specialist with over 25 years experience of designing and delivering comprehensive training solutions within the UK education sector. ELF consists of experts in education, teacher training, the National Curriculum and ICT. The team provides a range of courses and support facilities to enable organisations and individual teachers and trainers to make effective and appropriate use of ICT in their teaching and training programmes: http://www.inevent.com/elf/

I am not a historian, so I would not like to comment on a history book. I am a linguist / literary historian. Historians seem to be at variance regarding the term "Dark Ages". I have always used it as an alternative term for the Early Middle Ages, and many historians use it this way. The Viking invasions of Britain were earlier than the 10th century. They began to take place in the second half of the 8th century and they have left their mark on the dialects spoken in the North East of England and Scotland, which preserve many Viking words - as do the place names. The Magyars (a branch of the Finno-Ugric nations) moved into Central Europe in the 7th-9th centuries. The other main branch of the Finno-Ugric nations headed northwards to Finland. The Hungarian and Finnish languages have very little in common with the other languages that surround them, a testimony to to the distant origins of the Finno-Ugric nations who hail from East of the Urals - where related languages such as Mari are still spoken One of my local pubs dates from the late Middle Ages: The Bell, Waltham St Lawrence. The building is 15th century. I was there yesterday evening! White Waltham church - just a couple of miles from where I live - has substantial parts dating back to the 12th century.

Just one piece of advice: Bring England into line with our European neighbours and abandon the policy of allowing schools to stop teaching modern foreign languages to children aged over 14.

In one respect I think Davies and Hart are right. The Web is becoming more commercial. Many sites, e.g. certain newspapers, that used to be free are now operating a subscription service if you wish to access the latest information, and many online learning sites now only offer "taster" courses for free - if you want to take part in the full course you pay for it. This is inevitable. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone always pays for it. The BBC website, for example, offers language courses for free (I was involved in the development of one of them and paid well as a consultant), but you, the public, pay for such courses through your licence fee and the BBC, in turn, makes cuts in other areas, e.g. phasing out broadcast TV language courses for adults. The BBC Web language materials are, however, of poorer quality than the TV broadcasts that they used to offer. Having said that, Google works for me nearly 100% of the time. I rarely fail to find what I want with Google. My business website records statistics about visitors, which search engine they used to find us and which key words they used. Google is the most prominent search engine in our statistics.

Andy writes: So I guess there’s no hope for me as I approach 63 in 2005 I am obviously going downhill – which is true, actually: I shall be going downhill skiing sometime early next year. My IQ is still quite high, although I tend to forget people's names these days. BTW, I have nothing to do with Ofsted and never have done. I think it’s a dreadful organisation. I look back fondly to my first year as a Newly Qualified teacher when the LEA Adviser (note NOT Inspector) for my subject area dropped in to observe me teaching and then sat down with me in the staff room offering a bit of friendly (and useful) advice over a cup of tea.

Arthur Horner was certainly monitored closely by MI5, and I guess they knew all about my grandfather too. The Maerdy (also spelt Mardy) Lodge of the NUM was very militant and at one time was expelled from the South Wales Miners' Federation. A museum that is well worth a visit is the Rhondda Heritage Park, Trehafod, just outside Porth: http://www.rhonddaheritagepark.com It's built on the site of the winding house of a former colliery. Retired miners conduct visitors around the site, which includes a short trip underground (actually a mock-up just a few feet below the surface, but it's very convincing). Be prepared for a slightly left-of-centre commentary on the history of the mines in South Wales

David writes: There are lots of packages of this sort on the market. The spectograph is mainly a gimmick, but some students can be encouraged by such gimmicks and will really make an effort to match their voiceprint with that of a native speaker - but, even as an experienced language teacher - I cannot read a voiceprint with any degree of accuracy. I have just been in contact with a business that has received a substantial grant to develop a package to teach listening skills and pronunciation (in French, German and Spanis) with the aid of a voice synthesiser that reads out texts. I questioned the advisability of this approach and asked them why they could not use native speakers to record the texts. Their reply was that they wanted the user to be able to input ANY sample text. I listened to a couple of sample texts - not bad and certainly a useful tool for the visually impaired, but isn't this another typical case of the technology driving the pedagogy?

Karl asks: Two main reasons: 1. e-Learning is perceived by the administrators as saving money: i.e. mass delivery of courses with a small number of content providers and teachers: v. the fiasco at York University, Toronto, which resulted in a bitter strike and gave rise to David Noble's thought-provoking series of articles: Noble D. (1997-2001) "Distance Education on the Web", a series of five articles: http://communication.ucsd.edu/dl 2. As Karl says, a political front-end. It is rumoured that the current UK government has pumped money into ICT because Tony Blair is a technophobe and is desperate to dispel this image.

Karl Donert writes Of course! But if you describe an old idea with a new term, people will think that you have actually invented something new - except those of us who are not so easily fooled

Thanks! Please don't hesitate to contact me. In anticipation of next year's EUROCALL conference: Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia i Szczesliwego Nowego Roku! In the language of the Land of my Fathers: Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! In the language of the land where my wife was born: Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain Faoi Mhaise! In the hardest language that I have ever had to learn: Kellemes karácsony ünnepeket és boldog új évet kivánok!

The eLC funding year runs from 1 September to 31 August, so it has already been allocated for this year. My business is a registered eLC supplier. This year we experienced an unprecedented last-minute rush to spend eLC funding during July, just before schools shut down for the summer holiday, and we had a huge backlog of orders - which then became a cashflow problem while we waited for teachers to return to work in September. It would be helpful if spending was more evenly distributed over the budget year - and there is no reason why it should not be. Here's our own info page on eLCs: http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/elcfaqs.htm The official Curriulum Online info is at: http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/AboutELCs/WhatareeLCs.htm http://www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/Howto/E...ngResources.htm You can only spend the money on resources that have been registered at the Curriculum Online site. We find this a bit restrictive as a Modern Foreign Languages specialist supplier, as most of the resources that we stock are produced abroad, and foreign software developers/suppliers don't understand the registration process - so they ignore it. We have also found that the evaluation agencies that COL has appointed are not doing a very good job in our subject area. Very few resources have been properly evaluated and some have been inadequately evaluated.

I've just spent a very interesting weekend in South Wales, visiting one of my last surviving relatives in the Rhondda Valley, an aunt who has reached the grand old age of 94. I learned something new from her that shed new light on my past. When I left university on the 1960s I wanted to get into the Diplomatic Corps, so I applied for admission to what was then called then Administrative Grade. I passed the written examination and passed two days of tests at the Civil Service Commission, and I got through to the final interview. The final interview panel consisted of three civil servants, one of whom was a softly-spoken Welsh knight. The Welsh knight looked at my application form and then looked at me, saying, "Your father's name was Gomer, wasn't it? Now there's a typical Rhondda name. Old Testament, isn't it?" I nodded politely, adding that I also had a great-uncle Moses and a great-uncle Lot. The Welsh knight continued, "So your father was from Maerdy? We used to call Maerdy Little Moscow". My heart sank. He obviously knew that my father's family were committed Socialists - and so did I, of course - but until this weekend I was not really aware of just how deep their commitment was. According to my aunt, my grandfather Sam Davies was a close associate of Arthur Horner, a well-known Communist agitator in Maerdy, who later became President of the National Union of Mineworkers. Sam Davies was very active during the years immediately before and after the General Strike, working with Arthur Horner and eventually getting himself and his three miner sons locked out from the pits. That's how my father ended up in Kent, working not as a miner but as a male nurse. I have only just found out all the details, but the spooks had obviously done their research back in the 1960s! I tried for a couple of other jobs in the Civil Service, but I couldn’t get in. That’s how I ended up as a teacher. I guess Arthur Horner is pretty well known to historians, isn’t he? And I guess the spooks were pretty active when he was alive.

Information on eLCs is clearly still not reaching teachers at grass-roots level. There was a large underspend in the first two years of the eLC funding initiative, with the result that the money just went back into the government's coffers. Spending on eLCs in this third year of the initiative is still slow.

Jean writes: Yes, I saw it last year. Lovely, isn't it? I'm a dog lover too and an owner of a retired racing greyhound called Swifty - the fourth that we have adopted over a period of more than 20 years. Have a look at the Christmas card on the homepage of Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare: http://www.greyhoundwelfare.homestead.com/

The best Irish joke (and this one is in very good taste) I ever heard goes as follows: An English builder is keen to implement the EU’s policy of job mobility, so he advertises a job in an international trade paper. Three applicants turn up: a Frenchman, a German and an Irishman. When the builder interviews them he points out that a basic knowledge of English is essential, especially of terms used in the building trade, so he has devised a little test. He asks each one of them the same question: “ Can you explain to me the difference between ‘girder’ and ‘joist’?” The Frenchman shrugs his shoulders, admitting that he does not understand the terms. The German also admits that he has no idea. Before the builder puts the question to the Irishman, he says “I know you speak English, but in the interests of equal treatment I have to ask you the same question as the other two: “What is the difference between ‘girder’ and ‘joist’?” The Irishman replies, “Sure, everyone knows that. Goethe wrote ‘Faust’ and Joyce wrote ‘Ulysses’.” I guess most people know that what the English call Irish jokes originated as Kerryman jokes in Ireland – and there are some very good ones.

I like “Goldwynisms”, the verbal fluffs attributed to film producer Sam Goldwyn: "An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." "Gentlemen, include me out." "I've gone where the hand of man has never set foot." "Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined." "If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive." "They stayed away in droves." "Don't improve it into a flop!" "I don't want yes-men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs." "I read part of it all the way through." "I had a great idea this morning, but I didn't like it." "If I look confused it's because I'm thinking." "That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg." "Tell them to stand closer apart." "For your information, just answer me one question!" "You fail to overlook the crucial point." "In two words, impossible." "It's absolutely impossible, but it has possibilities." "Go see that turkey for yourself, and see for yourself why you shouldn't see it." "A hospital is no place to be sick." "Give me a couple of years, and I'll make that actress an overnight success." "If I were in this business only for the business, I wouldn't be in this business." "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong." "Give me a smart idiot over a stupid genius any day." "Even if they had it in the streets, I wouldn't go." -- On Mardi Gras. "Yes, but keep copies." -- When his secretary asked him if she should destroy files that were over ten years old. "True, I've been a long time making up my mind, but now I'm giving you a definite answer. I won't say yes, and I won't say no -- but I'm giving you a definite maybe." "I don't care if it doesn't make a nickel. I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it." "A bachelor's life is no life for a single man." "Can she sing? She's practically a Florence Nightingale." "Let's have some new cliches." "Why did you do that? Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Sam!" -- When a friend told him he named his son Sam. "I paid too much for it, but it's worth it." "Yes, but that's our strongest weak point." -- When a reporter asked a young Samuel Goldwyn if he'd ever made a picture before. "The trouble with this business is the dearth of bad pictures." "You've got to take the bull between your teeth." "We have that Indian scene. We can get the Indians from the reservoir." "I have been laid up with intentional flu." "He treats me like the dirt under my feet." "I want to make a picture about the Russian secret police -- the GOP." "Let's bring it up to date with some snappy nineteenth century dialogue." "There is a statue of limitation." "I never put on a pair of shoes until I've worn them at least five years." "Never make forecasts, especially about the future." "I don't think anyone should write his autobiography until after he's dead." "Modern dancing is old fashioned." "This makes me so sore it gets my dandruff up." "Why is everything so dirty here?" Goldwyn once asked of a film director. When told it was supposed to be a slum, Goldwyn responded, "Well, this slum cost a lot of money. It should look better than an ordinary slum." "Keep a stiff upper chin." "Gentlemen, listen to me slowly." "Don't worry about the war. It's all over but the shooting." "To hell with the cost, if it's a good story, I'll make it." -- When told a particular script was "too caustic" for film. "Our comedies are not to be laughed at." "Put it out of your mind. In no time, it will be a forgotten memory."

Just checking my facts.... A search for the terms Dark Ages and Middle Ages in Google reveals that the term Dark Ages is - as I thought - mainly used to cover the period from from the fall of the Roman Empire to around 1000 AD. The period from around 1000 AD onwards to 1500 AD is usually described as the Middle Ages - though, of course, these dates are by no means set in stone. The period to which I referred in my early email, the Age of Chivalry, can be described as a period of flowering of European culture, and far from dark. The term "dark" - again, as I thought - often refers to the scarcity of historical and literary evidence in comparison with the preceding period of Roman rule and the period post-1000 AD, but it is also associated with a breakdown in law that was maintained under Roman rule and brought about by the Vikings invasions in the North and by the Anglo-Saxons in the South. The Vikings destroyed a good deal of the art and records of the early Christian Church: for example, the Viking raid of 793 on Lindisfarne (Holy Island). If you ever get a chance do visit Lindisfarne. It's a fascinating place, oozing atmosphere and history. It's located just of the coast of Northumberland and connected to the mainland by a causeway which is only accessible at low tide.

Andy asks: I have a small home LAN, which I protect with Norton AV 2004 (Symantec). It's always worked well. The only time it let me down was around 4-5 years ago when FunLove sneaked in through a Microsoft "hole". Fun Love was the first Web-borne virus to hit me. The Web-borne viruses were fairly new at the time, and many network managers claimed that they didn't exist! Norton AV 2000 trapped FunLove but only after it had sneaked in through the hole and had already done some damage. I should have patched the hole, of course, but then Microsoft shouldn't have developed such a tacky, insecure system. Many schools that I know use Sophos, which network managers seem to like: Sophos: http://www.sophos.com But you need more than just AV protection. I use the ZoneAlarm Pro firewall - which seems very secure. If you think your system is secure from intruders then you can run a series of tests at the Gibson Research Corporation (GRC) site in the ShieldsUP! section. GRC will try to hack into your computer and report if they succeed: http://grc.com It tried it, and GRC couldn't hack me while ZoneAlarm Pro was running. I use MailWasher Pro to filter out email-borne viruses: MailWasher Pro: http://www.firetrust.com I also use SpyBot: http://spybot.safer-networking.de - software for spotting and removing adware and spyware. Finally, I always "wash" my system on boot-up, removing Web clutter left over from browsing sessions, cookies, etc: Window Washer: http://www.webroot.com - a package for removing caches, cookies and other Web clutter from your computer.

It appears that SDbot exists in various forms. Is this what you are looking for? http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...door.sdbot.html http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcen...r.sdbot.ae.html http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-sdbot-trojan.html http://www.pchell.com/virus/sdbot.shtml I am surprised that it got into your system. Most antivirus software seems to be able to detect an invasion of SDbot, providing the data regarding new virus threats is downloaded.

Surely the term "Dark Ages" refers to the period immediately preceding what we now call the Middle Ages, doesn't it? I was always under the impression that the term Dark Ages (as taught in UK schools) refers to the period immediately following the Roman Occupation of Britain, when facts about our history became a bit obscure, i.e. from around the end of the 5th century and up until the beginning of what we now refer to as the Middle Ages, i.e. around the middle of the 11th century. The term "dark" is used to refer mainly to the lack of historical evidence and the absence of surviving literature from this period. From around 1050 onwards the historical evidence is abundant (v. the Domesday Book of 1086), and great poets such as Chrétien de Troyes (writing in Medieval French) and Hartmann von Aue (writing in Medieval German) appeared in the 12th century. The Middle Ages gave us Chaucer in the 14th century (writing in Middle English). The Middle Ages in the History of German Literature, for example, are referred to as its first "Golden Age", the second "Golden Age" being the Age of Goethe 1749-1832. My PhD thesis focused on Medieval German Literature, covering the period from 1150 to 1450, which is often described as the Age of Chivalry. The topic of my thesis was the terminology used in Medieval German to describe the tournament and heraldry - two closely associated products of the Age of Chivalry. I gathered evidence from numerous literary works, e.g by 12th century authors such as Gottfried von Strassburg, Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach and a rather eccentric Austrian knight of the 13th century, Ulrich von Lichtenstein, who wrote a series of poems called "Frauendienst" (In the Service of a Lady) describing his exploits as a jouster and participant in tournaments.