ghoti

Introduction of elite language education at Tokyo University

It’s about time such a program was introduced anywhere in Japan. Tokyo University will start streaming some students into an elite language program to groom future global leaders (13 July 2012, Daily Yomiuri). Although many unversities in Japan have something similar running nothing with such vision and aim is available. Tertiary institutions have to take…
Word Grammar

Came across a new-ish theory today – Word Grammar. Its creator and champion is Richard (Dick) Hudson at UCL. Seems worth exploring as a theory. Considered a minor branch of cognitive linguistics.
Teaching function words: the cognitive and corpus perspectives

I will be giving a presentation on function words, what we can learn from corpora about them, how we understnad them in light of conceptual metaphor theory and what this all means for second language teaching. The venue and date: PanSIG @ Hiroshima University, 16 June 2012.
Two new books on corpus linguistics

(Update: this paperback edition is new) I have just acquired two of the latest titles on corpus linguistics. Contemporary Corpus Linguistics is edited Paul Baker, a collection of seventeen essays on the latest (hence ‘contemporary’ in the title) techniques used utilizing corpus linguistics. Three chapters are of relevance to my research: the Alice Deignan chapter…
Apple Digital AV Adapter for iPhone/iPad

Wow. Who needs a computer anymore when you have an iPhone or iPad. With this digital AV adapter you can do your powerpoint presentations from your igear. Check out jetdaisuke‘s video on YouTube (sorry, in Japanese but you can get an idea of how it works).
A lesson from running

I ran into a retired professor who had taught me during my Masters degree recently. He had taught me about the difference between study and research (let’s leave that one for another post). Being the teacher that he is he told me about his chance meeting of an old coach of the ekiden (Japanese style…
Our Fictions

Why are we — as a species — so hopelessly addicted to narratives about the fake struggles of pretend people? Good question. We are a strange species. Our access to the thoughts of others has given us morality. It gives us society as we know it. Without this ability we would not be much more than just another animal.…
Words

This is an old podcast about words produced by Radiolab. It features intereviews with Charles Fernyhough who about the relationship of words and spatial relationships, Susan Schaller who studied a man who literally had no words until the age of 27, Ann Senghas and Elizabeth Spelke who watched a language generate among deaf children, James…
corpora blog revamp

This blog is going through a revamp. Material is being added as well as simplifying content output. After all blogs are supposed to make content production easy.
The alphabet as object

In a novel study of baboons it has been found it is possible for the animals to recognise ‘words’ (real word letter sequences) as opposed to jumbled letter sequences. This may indicate we may need to rethink our understanding of symbols as abstractions to a simpler concrete interpretation as if they are plain objects. I…