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Academic Publications
Blogging - What is it and why is it so popular?
John Pustulka
(Submitted to Wikipedia, June 5, 2006)
(Submitted to Atomi Jr College Library, July 15, 2006)
(Submitted to NHK Cultural Center, Aoyama, August 11, 2006)
Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of most early blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
The term "blog" is a blend of the words web and log (Web log). "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
In November 2006, blog search engine Technorati has tracked over 57 million blogs.[1]
Contents
* 1 History
o 1.1 1983-1990 (Pre-HTTP)
o 1.2 1994–2001
o 1.3 2001–2004
o 1.4 2004–present
* 2 Types
* 3 Popularity
* 4 Blurring with the mass media
* 5 Blogging Consequences
o 5.1 Blogging and defamation or liability
o 5.2 Blogging and employment
o 5.3 Blogging and other consequences
* 6 References
History
Chronicles, commonplaces, diaries, and perzines can all be seen as predecessors of blogs.
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists [2] and bulletin board systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads". Threads are topical connections between messages on a "corkboard". Some have linked blogging to the mass-observation movement of the mid-20th century.
1983-1990 (Pre-HTTP)
USENET was the primary serial medium included in the original definition of the world wide web [3]. It featured the Moderated Newsgroup which allowed all posting in a newsgroup to be under the control of an individual or small group. Most such newsgroups were simply moderated discussion forums, however, in 1983-84, one exception, named [mod.ber], was created, named after and managed by an individual: Brian E. Redman. Regularly, Redman and a few associates posted summaries of interesting postings and threads taking place elsewhere on the net. With its serial journal publishing style, presence on the pre-HTTP web and strong similarity to the common blog form which features links to interesting and cool places on the net chosen by the blogger, mod.ber had many of the characteristics commonly associated with the term Blog. It stopped operation after approximately 8 months.
1994–2001
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves journalists or journalers. A few, just a few, called themselves "escribitionists". The Open Pages webring included members of the online-journal community. Justin Hall, who began eleven years of personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers. [4]
Other forms of journals kept online also existed. A notable example was game programmer John Carmack's popular journal, published via the finger protocol. Websites, including both corporate sites and personal homepages, had and still often have "What's New" or "News" sections, often on the index page and sorted by date. One example of a news based "weblog" is the Drudge Report founded by the self the tongue-in-cheek personal website that was frequently updated by Usenet legend Kibo.
Early weblogs were simply manually updated components of common websites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we often see today. For example, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services, such as DreamHost.
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who, as a joke, broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999.[5][6][7] This was then adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").
After a very slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity: the site Xanga, launched in 1996, had only 100 diaries by 1997, but over 20 million as of December 2005. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
* Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
* Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal in March 1999.
* Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a website, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.[8]
* Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999 (taken over by Google in February/March 2003)
Blogging combined the personal web page with tools to make linking to other pages easier — specifically permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks. This, together with weblog search engines, enabled bloggers to track the threads that connected them to others with similar interests.
2001–2004
Several broadly popular American blogs emerged in 2001: Andrew Sullivan's AndrewSullivan.com, Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com, Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, and Jerome Armstrong's MyDD — all blogging focused on politics (two earlier popular American political blogs were Bob Somerby's Daily Howler launched in 1998 and Mickey Kaus' Kausfiles launched in 1999).
By 2001, blogging had become so popular that how-to manuals began to appear, primarily focusing on technique. The importance of the blogging community (and its relationship to larger society) increased rapidly. Journalism instructors/students at universities began researching blogging and explaining the differences between journalism and blogging.
In 2002, Jerome Armstrong's friend and sometime business partner Markos Moulitsas Zúniga began DailyKos. With up to a million visits a day during peak events, it has now become one of the Internet's most popular blogs.
Also in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president.
Lott's critics saw these comments as an approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond during his 1948 presidential campaign. Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
The impact of this story gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media.
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go well beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.
Blogging by established politicians and political candidates, to express opinions on war and other issues, strengthened blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.)
The second Iraq war was the first "blog war" in another way: Iraqi bloggers gained wide readership, and Salam Pax published a book of his blog. Blogs were also created by soldiers serving in the Iraq war. Such "warblogs" gave readers new perspectives on the harsh realities of war, as well as often offering different viewpoints from those of official news sources.
Blogging was used to draw attention to obscure news sources. For example, bloggers posted links to traffic cameras in Madrid as a huge anti-terrorism demonstration filled the streets in the wake of the March 11 attacks.
Bloggers began to provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a new meaning of the word "blogging": to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television. (For example, "I am blogging Rice's testimony" means "I am posting my reactions to Condoleezza Rice's testimony into my blog as I watch her on television.")
2004–present
In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Even politicians not actively campaigning began to blog to gainsupport among constituents.
Minnesota Public Radio broadcast a program by Christopher Lydon and Matt Stoller called "The blogging of the President," which covered a transformation in politics that blogging seemed to presage. The Columbia Journalism Review began regular coverage of blogs and blogging. Anthologies of blog pieces reached print, and blogging personalities began appearing on radio and television. In 2004, both United States Democratic and Republican Parties' conventions credentialed bloggers. Mainstream television programs, such as Chris Matthews' Hardball, formed their own blogs. Merriam-Webster's Dictionary declared "blog" as the word of the year in 2004.[9]
Blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal, television journalist Dan Rather presented documents (on the show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view, and CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques. Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.v
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely as Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counter-point, Hugh Hewitt, a mass media personality, has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger.
Some blogs were an important news source during the December 2004 Tsunami such as Medecins Sans Frontieres, which used SMS text messaging to report from affected areas in Sri Lanka and Southern India.
Similarly, during Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and the aftermath a few blogs which were located in New Orleans, including the Interdictor and Gulfsails were able to maintain power and an Internet connection and disseminate information that was not covered by the Main Stream Media.
In the United Kingdom, The Guardian newspaper launched a redesign in September 2005, which included a daily digest of blogs on page 2 of their newspaper. Also in June 2006, BBC News launched a weblog for its editors, following other news companies.[10]
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis.
There are various types of blogs, and each differs in the way content is delivered or written.
Types of Blogging
By media type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog,[11] a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog.[12] Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs. A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.
By device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone is called a moblog.[13]
Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs or legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs). While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog. A Slog (Site or website log) is a section or 'slice' of a regular business website, which is integrated within the regular website structure but is produced with blogging software.
Legal status of publishers
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to improve the communication in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR purposes are called corporate blogs.
Blog search engines
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere), such as blogdigger, Feedster, and Technorati. Technorati provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings.
Popularity
Recently, researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity much more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it noteworthy in certain cases.[14]
The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by popularity. It can thus be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are also given rankings by Technorati based on the amount of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on the web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati listed the most linked-to blog as that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei and the most-read blog as group-written Boing Boing.[15]
Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal website reaches 100 million.
Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of such medium will wear off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom or lack of free time. The firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" (unwanted objects on the Web).
It was reported by Chinese media Xinhua that the blog of Xu Jinglei received more than 50 million page views, claiming to be the most popular blog in the world.[16] In mid-2006, it also had the most incoming links of any blogs on the Internet.
Blurring with the mass media
Many bloggers differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user generated content are behind Time magazine naming their 2006 person of the year as "you".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list such as Maragtas Online Community. The first known use of a weblog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.[17]
Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages, whose creators can be found as far away from traditional Gaelic areas as Kazakhstan and Alaska. Minority language publishing can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
Blogging Consequences
The emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences. One area of concern is the issue of bloggers releasing proprietary or confidential information. Another area of concern is defamation. A third area of concern is employees who write about aspects of their place of employment or their personal lives, and then face loss of employment or other adverse consequences. A number of examples of blogging and its sometimes negative or unforeseen consequences are cited here.
Blogging and defamation or liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or liability. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (in general) are immune from liability for information that originates with Third Parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that very stringent standards had to be met to unmask anonymous bloggers, and also took the unusual action of dismissing the libel case itself rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to find the ISP address of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.[18]
In Malaysia, eight Royal Dutch Shell Group companies collectively obtained in June 2004 an Interim Injunction and Restraining Order against a Shell whistleblower, a Malaysian geologist and former Shell employee, Dr John Huong. The proceedings are in respect of alleged defamatory postings attributed to Dr Huong on a weblog hosted in North America but owned and operated by an 89 year old British national, Alfred Donovan, a long term critic of Shell. The Shell action is directed solely against Dr Huong. Further proceedings against Dr Huong were issued by the same plaintiff companies in 2006 in respect of publications on Donovan weblog sites in 2005 and 2006. The further proceedings include a "Notice to Show Cause" relating to a "contempt of court" action punishable by imprisonment.
The contempt hearing and a related application by the eight Royal Dutch Shell plaintiff companies for Dr Huong to produce
Alfred Donovan for cross-examination in connection with an affidavit Donovan provided, was scheduled to be heard in the High Court of Malay (Kuala Lumpur) on 17th August 2006. Donovan's principle weblog is royaldutchshellplc.com. In January 2007, Jeff Ooi and Rocky's Bru are sued for defaming a pro-government newspaper.
In Britain, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed his views in the same blog) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for 10,000 pounds in damages.[19]
In the United States blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005.[20] According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results."[21] Wall and other search engine consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case was watched by a lot of bloggers because it addressed the murky legal question of who's liable for comments posted on blogs.[22]
Blogging and employment
Losing one's employment as a consequence of personal blog commentary about the place of employment has become so commonplace that there is now an informal verb for the event: "dooced". The word dooce originates from the pseudonym of Heather Armstrong, who lost her job after writing satirical accounts of her place of employment on her blog. In general, attempts at hiding the blogger's name and the place of employment in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blogger.
Ellen Simonetti, a US airline attendant, lost her job for informal photos of herself in uniform on an airplane and for inappropriate comments posted on her blog "Queen of the Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant".[23][24] This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention.
Simonetti took legal action against the airline, Delta Air Lines for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost of future wages".[25] The suit is postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings
In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics was ordered by his department to "destroy" a blog in which he discussed student life at the school.[26]
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.[27]
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.[28]
Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired,[29] she wrote a novel based on her experiences and a blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.[30]
Catherine Sanderson, aka "La Petite Anglaise", lost her job at a Paris accountancy firm as a consequence of blogging.[31] Although given in the blog in an anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering.
Blogging and other consequences
Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically sensitive areas.v
In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their weblogs.[32
]
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged of insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his online blog.
It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mr Mubarak.[33]
After expressing opinions in his personal weblog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk, United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan, was given three days notice to leave the country. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.[34][35][36]
References
1. Blogosphere sees healthy growth (2006-11-08). Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
2. The term "e-log" has been used to describe journal entries sent out via e-mail since as early as March 1996.Norman, David (2005-07-13), Users confused by blogs [link accessed 2007-Feb-20], Research staff and students welcome ‘E-Log’. University College London (December 2003). Retrieved on 2007-02-20.
3. Berners-Lee, Tim. WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
4. Harmanci, Reyhan (2005-02-20). Time to get a life — pioneer blogger Justin Hall bows out at 31. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2006-06-09.
5. "It's the links, stupid", The Economist, 2006-4-20. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
6. Merholz, Peter (1999). Peterme.com. The Internet Archive. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
7. Kottke, Jason (August 26, 2003). kottke.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-21.
8. Jensen, Mallory A Brief History of Weblogs
9. "Wikinews blog declared Word of the Year", Wikinews, 2004-12-01. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
10. Wilson, Dawn. "Down with blogs... so here's another", BBC News, 2006-06-26. Retrieved on 2006-06-26.
11. Perrone, Jane. "What is a weblog?", Guardian Unlimted, 2004-05-20. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.
12. What is a photoblog. Photoblogs.org Wiki. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.
13. "Blogging goes mobile", BBC News, 2003-02-23. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.
14. Marlow, C. Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community. Presented at the International Communication Association Conference, May, 2004, New Orleans, LA.
15. a b Fickling, David, Internet killed the TV star, The Guardian NewsBlog, 15 August 2006
16. "Xu Jinglei most popular blogger in world", China Daily, 2006-08-24. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
17. "blogging Bonnie.", Poynter.org, 18 September, 2003.
18. "John Doe No. 1 v. Patrick Cahill and Julia Cahill
19. Gibson, Owen. "Warning to chatroom users after libel award for man labelled a Nazi", The Guardian, 2006-03-23. Retrieved on 2006-05-17.
20. Kesmodel, David. "Wall Street Journal Blogger Faces Lawsuit Over Comments Posted by Readers", Wall Street Journal Online, 2005-08-31. Retrieved on 2006-11-18.
21. Wired Magazine, Legal Showdown in Search Fracas, Sept 8, 2005
22. Slashdot, Aug 31
23. Twist, Jo. "US Blogger Fired by her Airline", BBC News, 2004-11-03. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
24. "Delta employee fired for blogging sues airline", USA Today, 2005-09-08. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.
25. "Queen of the Sky gets marching orders", The Register, 2004-11-03. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
26. "Lecturer's Blog Sparks Free Speech Row", The Guardian, 2006-05-03. Retrieved on 2006-10-15.
27. "NBA fines Cuban $200K for antics on, off court", ESPN, 2006-05-11. Retrieved on 2006-06-23.
28. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=152721
29. "The Hill's Sex Diarist Reveals All (Well, Some)", The Washington Post, 2004-05-23. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
30. "Steamy D.C. Sex Blog Scandal Heads to Court", The Associated Press ,MSNBC, 2006-12-27. Retrieved on 2007-03-28.
31. "Bridget Jones Blogger Fire Fury", CNN, 2006-07-19. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
32. Kierkegaard, Sylvia (2006). "Blogs, lies and the doocing: The next hotbed of litigation?". Computer Law & Security Report.
33. "Egypt blogger jailed for "insult"", BBC News, 2007-02-22. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
34. "Sudan expels U.N. envoy for blog", CNN, 2006-10-22. Retrieved on 2007-03-14.
35. "UN envoy leaves after Sudan row", BBC NEWS, BBC, October 23, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.
36. "Annan confirms Pronk will serve out his term as top envoy for Sudan", UN News Centre, UN, October 27, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.
English Speaking Practice Through Presentations
John Pustulka, 2003
(Submitted to Atomi Jr College Library, November 8, 2006)
(Submitted to NHK Cultural Center, Aoyama, November 15, 2006)
Like most teachers, you're probably constantly looking for new ways to encourage your students to practise their oral English and speak spontaneously. I am going to consider the value of the 'presentation' in achieving this goal of having your students improve their English.
Asking students to give presentations has the following advantages:
* it gives the presenting student a good opportunity to practise unaided speaking
* it gives the other students good listening practice
* it increases the presenting student's confidence when using English
* it can be good practice for the real situation for those students who may actually need to give presentations in English in their professional lives
* it is an excellent generator of spontaneous discussion
First of all, we should define what is meant by 'presentation'. For our purposes here, a presentation is:
* 'A short talk by one person to a group of people introducing and describing a particular subject (for example: a new product, company sales forecast or a proposed advertising campaign).'
This is a narrow definition. In reality, presentations may be given by more than one person, are not usually short and are not necessarily a 'talk' since they may be by video, Internet, etc.
Here we are considering, not so much the 'presentation' as an end in itself as the use of presentations for speaking practice.
Whether your students themselves will be eager to give presentations will depend on various factors. One factor is their level. From intermediate upwards, students should derive real benefit from this type of activity. Culture is another factor we must consider. Some nationalities are quite used to speaking in public and may be only too happy to have the opportunity to practice their spoken English in this way. Other nationalities are much more reserved and will be reticent or unwilling. At the individual level, a student who is an expert on something of great interest may be keener to talk than one who apparently has nothing to talk about.
Only you can judge the situation. It may be necessary to introduce the idea of presentations with a certain amount of tact. Imposing a presentation on unreceptive students is usually counter-productive. Asking, suggesting, implanting the idea are more likely to be productive approaches.
Choice Of Subject
The first question that goes through any student's head is 'What will I talk about?' That is where preparation on your part, perhaps weeks before, can help.
Before any mention of a presentation, elicit interests from each student. These may be hobbies, professional activities, past holidays etc. Rarely do you find that every student in a group is a professional sky-diver, brain surgeon or nightclub comedian. Yet, with a little prompting, you will often find that each student has an interest or skill that is particular to her but of potential interest to others. Having dug a little into each student's mind, you can store the interests for the moment when you propose presentations. Even then, you do not normally need to suggest to each student what he could talk about. Say something like: 'The subject could be anything, for example, your work, your hobby, a holiday.' Only if a student is at a complete loss do you need to help the student with your previously elicited list of interests. But students are often more imaginative than we suppose. One of the best student presentations I ever saw was 'How To Change Baby's Daiper', illustrated with a life size doll, Pampers, talcum powder and a flask of water!
Time limit
If students are apprehensive about giving a presentation, it may help to point out that it need not be a long presentation, 'just 5 or 10 minutes, plus questions.' In reality, it is more difficult to prepare and give a 5-minute presentation than a 20-minute one. In addition, once underway, students very often overrun on their time. The important thing is that they be given a time-limit of some kind. It is up to you to decide this. It will depend on how many students there are, the time available, and whether the presentations are to be given during the same lesson or during other lessons. In general, it is probably best to limit the number of presentations to two per lesson and to set a time-limit for each of 10 to 15 minutes plus questions. You should include a certain amount of "overrun time" into your lesson plan. You may wish to adhere strictly to time limits, but the speaking practice and discussion generated by presentations are so valuable that it may better to be more flexible than to adhere to time limits.
Equipment
Clearly, this will be controlled by your environment. The main thing is to encourage students to use support material and visual aids. There should be at least a whiteboard. If an OHP is available, so much the better. But encourage students to bring in additional material, for example wall maps or photos.
Preparation
Without doubt, preparation is the key element of any presentation. Give your students a proper amount of time to prepare. They can use homework and/or classroom time for preparation. You can help them to prepare by explaining what they really need to think about.
The Presentation
You could also help your students by teaching the principles of presentations. It depends on your objective. Are you just teaching a'presentation', or are you using presentations as a means to practice and improve English? In any case, explaining the value of, for example, preparation and signposting will help. As a teacher, you are presenting all the time and probably take for granted the sheer mechanics of presentation and forget nervous people get when they give a presentation.
Keywords And Notes
Remind students that the objective is not to come to class, show everybody the top of their head and read a text. The objective is speaking, admittedly prepared, but without a text. Key words, yes! Notes, yes! But no texts please. Again, you can help them prepare their notes or keywords.
Questions
Presenters usually indicate to their audience when they will answer questions - ie, during or after the presentation proper. For your purposes, it may be best to encourage question-taking after rather than during the presentation. This will give the presenting student more time for uninterrupted, unaided speech and avoid any danger of the presentation becoming a "out-of-control" lesson. But a well managed question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation is of real value. Encourage the presenting student to invite questions and the audience to ask them. You can certainly start the ball rolling, but try not to dominate. Don't be worry about silence! Students need time to think of and formulate questions.
Teacher Feedback
If you are actually teaching presentations, you will probably want to give feedback on each presentation. You are best placed to judge the value of such feedback, depending on level and culture. You might prefer to use a prepared observation feedback form, divided into sections such as body language, signposting and audience rapport. Then you can give your comments verbally and/or in writing. A feedback form is particularly valuable in giving the presenting student something tangible to take away as a mark of achievement. And you should certainly strive to ensure that overall the feedback is positive, while also including important negative points that need to be worked on.
Peer Feedback
Depending on group, level and culture, you may wish to invite feedback from other students on the presenting student's performance. You can give the audience a prepared feedback form, listing the points to watch out for and comment on. This will definitely depend on the group, its level and culture. Some nationalities will be unwilling to, as they see it, 'criticize' their colleagues. At lower levels, students may be demoralised by such 'critical' feedback. In all cases, the audience should be looking for positive points at least as much as for negative ones. This can be a useful activity as it makes all the students aware of the do's and don'ts of giving a presentation. However, keep in mind that this type of feedback may do more harm than good.
Presentation Resources
A number of ELT coursebooks deal with the language and art of presentation giving. There is a particularly useful chapter in Business Class by David Cotton & Sue Robbins. You'll find useful presentation vocabulary at EnglishClub.com Business English. Students and teachers who want to study presentations in greater depth will find a wealth of information in Presentations & Public Speaking in English. The bonus package includes power words for students and an observation feedback form for teachers.
Using Video
You could try videoing each presentation for subsequent playback and comment, perhaps giving each participant a cassette of his performance. Again, this depends on various factors. The important point is that any such exercise should have a positive, beneficial result. If there is a danger that videoing will be counter-productive, it should be avoided. If you're not sure, get some feedback from your students.
Testing Academic Vocabulary
(Submitted to Atomi Jr College Library, January 15, 2007)
(Submitted to NHK Cultural Center, Aoyama, January 22, 2007)
John Pustulka
Introduction
The testing of foreign languages for academic purposes has become a very important activity around the world. Every year, large numbers of candidates to both undergraduate and graduate programs have their knowledge of a second/foreign language -mostly English- tested in order to ensure that their level of language ability enables them to pursue university-level studies in Anglophone institutions. However, the practical experience of many ESL instructors and professors of other disciplines indicates that high scores in tests such as the TOEFL do not necessarily correlate with students' ability to use language effectively for the particular tasks that their academic activities involve. These perceptions are supported by Spolky's assertion that the need for practicality in the mass administration of commercially successful tests has led to construct validity problems (Spolsky, 1995, p. 133).
As stated by Read (2000), test takers “need to have a thorough knowledge of words that occur frequently in different academic texts” (p. 92). However, for tests of academic vocabulary to be useful in Bachman and Palmer's terms (Bachman and Palmer, 1998), they need to be based on a definition of academic vocabulary (and of the vocabulary ability that it implies) that is theoretically sound. This paper aims at showing how systemic-functional Linguistics (SFL from now on), schema theory and discourse theory can inform our understanding of the constructs of academic vocabulary and how it can be tested in a context-dependent manner. The final section of the paper presents suggestion for further research regarding the nature of academic vocabulary and vocabulary ability, and the manner in which test takers’ cognitive traits interact with test tasks.
Approaches to the issue
In general, vocabulary researchers have construed three different levels of vocabulary according to their contribution to the realization of different registers: general service vocabulary, academic vocabulary (non-specialized), and technical vocabulary (specialized). The middle level -academic vocabulary- consists of words that occur more frequently in academic texts than in non-academic texts, but do so consistently across different disciplines and discourse-genres (see Carter, 1988 for a definition of discourse-genre) without being field-specific. Academic vocabulary has received different names in the literature, such as 'sub-technical vocabulary' (Cowan, 1974; in Nation, 2001, p. 187) or 'specialized non-technical lexis.' (Cohen, Glassman et al., 1988; in Nation, 2001, p. 187). A more adequate term for academic vocabulary might be that of peripheral lexis (Jones et al., 1998, p. 262). The use of this term provides a way of avoiding the confusion between non-technical and technical vocabulary, which are both found in academic registers and can therefore be called academic vocabulary.
What constitutes academic peripheral lexis is an elusive concept, yet an important one since this is the kind of lexis that is often most problematic for students of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) (Jones et al.,1998; Read 2000). Three questions regarding the definition of peripheral lexis are important for second language testing purposes: a) which lexical items are to be classified as peripheral lexis?, b) when can we say that a learner 'knows' any given lexical item that follows under the category of peripheral lexis?, and c) how many such items does a learner need to 'know' in order to participate successfully in the discourse community of his/her field of study?
Academic peripheral lexis does not fall into any one specific grammatical category (Jones et al., 1989, p. 263). Relational verbs, nouns, and adjectives can be classified as peripheral lexis. Interestingly, the nouns presented as examples by Jones et al. belong to the category of discourse nouns identified by Carter (Carter, 1988), which are nouns that perform a discourse function by referring to other parts of the text, usually in an anaphoric manner. Different attempts have been made to arrive at a comprehensive list of peripheral lexis words, such as Praninska's American University Word List (Praninskas, 1972 in Nation, 2001) , Farrell's semitechnical vocabulary list (Farrell, 1990 in Nation, 2001), Salager's Fundamental Medical English list (Salager, 1984), Xue and Nation's University Word List (UWL) (Xue and Nation, 1984 in Nation, 2001), Coxhead's Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 1998 in Nation, 2001), and Coxhead's New Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). These lists are drawn from corpora of academic texts, either from a single discipline (Farrell's and Salager's) or from a variety of disciplines (Praninska's, Xue and Nation's, Coxhead's). Despite the fact that different word selection criteria and corpus-design principles were used for each of these lists (Coxhead, 2000, p. 217), there is “substantial overlap” between them (Nation 2001, p. 193), which points at the existence of an academic peripheral lexicon.
A major characteristic of those lists is that they group words into families or lemmas in order to solve the problem of what to count as a word. Thus, the UWL contains over 800 word families and the AWL contains 570 word families. Underlying this approach to establishing the size of the peripheral vocabulary is the assumption that knowledge of a base word or lexeme can greatly facilitate the comprehension of its derivatives (Coxhead, 2000, p. 218), as well as the notion that word families are an important organizational unit of the mental lexicon (Nagy, Anderson et al. in Coxhead, 2000, p. 218).
Considering word families as the constitutive units of peripheral lexis poses several problems for the testing of both depth and breadth of word knowledge for this type of lexical items. This way of looking at peripheral lexis seems to focus on knowledge as representation (Bialystok and Sharwood Smith 1985 in Gass and Selinker 2001). Following Tyler (1989, p. 444 in Gass and Selinker 2001, p. 376) “the representation of a word cannot contain all the various and subtle interpretations that the word could have in different real-world contexts.” It follows that representational knowledge is not sufficient if learners are to comprehend and understand words in a way that approximates that of competent speakers (Gass and Selinker, 2001). Schmitt and Zimmerman's finding that knowledge of any given stem does not amount to knowledge of its derivatives, especially at the productive level (Schmitt and Zimmerman 2002) seems to support this claim. Furthermore, there is evidence suggesting that competent speakers do not associate words based on morphological/phonological factors of the type involved in word family construction, but on semantic (paradigmatic and syntagmatic) factors (Meara 1978, and Schmitt and Meara 1997; in Gass and Selinker 2001; p. 378, Chapelle, 1994, p. 166). In addition, the type of vocabulary lists mentioned above fail to take into account both single-word general service lexical items and multi-word lexical items that occur frequently in academic registers and perform particular functions within them. Further exploration of the nature of peripheral academic lexis, word knowledge and vocabulary ability is therefore crucial to advancing our understanding of what peripheral lexis is and how it can be best tested.
Defining what it means to know a lexical item is a problem that has been tackled by many researchers (Richards, 1976; Nation, 1990; Bogaards, 2000; Chapelle, 1994). All of them include considerations of morphology and syntax as part of word knowledge, but only Bogaards (Bogaards, 2000, p. 493), and Chapelle (Chapelle, 1994) add a dimension of discourse/context to word knowledge. Chapelle's work is particularly relevant for vocabulary testing, as it distinguishes between the construct of vocabulary knowledge and that of vocabulary ability. Vocabulary use in real communication tasks is therefore a combination of both vocabulary knowledge and ability, with the latter being the mediating force between the mental lexicon and the target language use situation. Test designers need to take into consideration that both constructs are to be measured if increased validity and authenticity (i.e. closer mimicking of target language use situations) are sought.
It follows that theoretical positions defining lexical knowledge as independent and separate from vocabulary ability, such as the one advocated by Nation (Nation 2001), are not fit for approaching context-dependent vocabulary testing. In contrast, Chapelle’s interactionalist model of vocabulary ability (Chapelle, 1994) provides a useful framework for approaching this kind of testing. She considers three components of language ability, namely context of vocabulary use, vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes, and metacognitive strategies. These components are not independent but interactant with one another and overlapping in actual vocabulary use.
Chapelle (1994) operationalizes context of vocabulary use in terms of field, tenor, and mode. Along the same SFL guidelines, several researchers in the field of science education have also explored the role played by vocabulary in the construction of academic registers (Jones et al., 1989; Halliday and Martin, 1993; Martin, 1993; Celce-Murcia, 2002; Schlepegrell, 2002; Gee, 2002). Underlying their work is a common social semiotics view of language as a meaning-making device that enacts different social functions depending on the lexicogrammatical choices made by speakers/writers. In this view, different types of texts are realized by different registers, a register being “the constellation of lexical and grammatical features that realizes a particular situational context.” (Halliday and Hasan, 1989; in Colombi and Schleppegrell, 2002; p. 9) In the paragraphs below, examples of some of those researchers' findings will be presented and discussed regarding their relevance to the definition and testing of academic peripheral lexis.
One of the shortcomings of present operationalizations of academic peripheral lexis (i.e. academic word lists) is their lack of attention to the situated meanings that general service words can acquire in academic registers. Gee (Gee 2002, p. 165) gives an example that illustrates how the words name, list, describe, and below (none of which appear in Coxhead's AWL) help a student in the mapping of meaning from a colloquial to an academic register. Gee shows how general service words can acquire specific meanings and functions that assist the realization of academic registers.
Lexical choices are also known to shape writers' syntactic choices (Winter, 1977 in Carter and McCarthy, 1988, p. 207), which has an effect on their communicative effectiveness (i.e. how effectively they convey meaning within according to the register requirements/conventions of the specific genre and discourse community they participate in). Schleppegrell (2002) analyzed the presentation of assumptions in four lab reports of a Chemical Engineering course, one of which was written by register-competent native speaker of Engish (the model report). The other three were written by ESL students. After analyzing and comparing the four reports, Schleppegrell found that the writer of the model report was able to use derivatives of the lexeme “assume” in a way that enabled her to create texture in her report (mode), to project an authoritative stance (tenor) and present a well-organized statement. In contrast, the other reports displayed “no lexical variation in the way they present assumptions, using only the word 'assume' in one of its forms to state assumptions,” (ibid., p. 127) which resulted in impoverished communicative effectiveness as defined at the beginning of the paragraph. Thus, Schleppegrell's findings provide a way of operationalizing Chapelle's vocabulary ability model in that they show how the context of vocabulary use intersects with vocabulary knowledge in real texts. These findings along with those of Gee have implications for the estimation of academic vocabulary size as it will be discussed in the following paragraph.
Schleppegrell’s analysis highlights the importance of controlling different derivatives within a lemma. Current indicators of academic peripheral vocabulary size take into account word families only. However, in the light of the fact that different tokens of the same lemma might perform different discourse functions and even convey different meanings, the size of the lexicon as measured by word families might not truly reflect a learner's ability to use the lexical items being measured for real communicative purposes. Furthermore, Gee's suggestion that general service words also play a role in the realization of academic registers also bears on the estimation of academic peripheral vocabulary size.
The social semiotics approach to construing vocabulary knowledge/ability can be complemented by interactive models of schemata theory in order to arrive at a more comprehensive interactionalist model of discrete, context-dependent vocabulary testing that could result in enhanced validity and authenticity. Interactive models see text comprehension as “the outcome of generating hypotheses [about lexical choices] and confirming or disconfirming these hypotheses by resorting to what exists in the texts.” (Khodadady and Herriman, 2000, p. 205). Khodadady and Herriman applied this notion to the construction of schema-based multiple choice cloze tests in which the distracters all shared some semantic features with the correct response. This allowed for the testing of depth of word knowledge and fundamental processes (i.e. drawing the required meaning from the context).
Unresolved problems and suggestions
As seen above, the constructs of academic vocabulary and vocabulary ability need to be further understood. The integration of social semiotics approaches (SFL and discourse theory) with schema theory can provide an interesting research avenue to explaining how test takers and test tasks interact in the production of academic peripheral lexis. For instance, to what extent does the linguistic input (register) presented in tests contribute to the engagement of a certain discourse domain and the activation of schemata? Is the process of answering a context-dependent vocabulary test a matter of choosing different words within the same schema, with the register being the governing factor for the hypotheses formulate by the test taker? Exploring these issues is interesting in its own right, but such exploration is also necessary if we wish to obtain more accurate and informed inferences from vocabulary tests.
Furthermore, ways of incorporating the theory to actual testing practices in order to increase the usefulness of vocabulary tests need to be explored. Several attempts have been made to address discourse competence via the use of adapted cloze tests (Alderson, 1979 in Read, 2000; Jongsma, 1980 in Carter 1988; Deyes, 1984; Bensoussan and Ramraz, 1984 in Read, 2000; Carter, 1988; Singleton and Little, 1991 in Chapelle, 1994). I suggest that the cloze test has the potential to be adapted to integrate both trait (i.e. schema theory) and textual considerations (i.e. SFL, discourse theory) into useful vocabulary tests that are nonetheless practical.
Finally, the construct of peripheral academic lexis needs to be expanded to include multi-word lexical items. Recent corpus-based studies (Gledhill, 2000; Luzón Marco, 2000; Cortés, 2002) show that certain items such as collocational frameworks and lexical bundles occur idiosyncratically in certain registers and discourse-genres within those registers, i.e. some collocational frameworks tend to occur in the methods section of research articles, whereas others occur more frequently in the discussion or conclusions sections. The ability and knowledge constructs underlying the use of these lexical items need to be addressed, as do potential ways of testing them.
Although it would be naïve to assume that principled modifications of vocabulary tests would automatically translate in positive backwash (Spolsky, 1995), the potential of such modifications to generate that kind of backwash cannot be overlooked. Therefore, efforts should be made to bring theory and practice together for the benefit of language learners, of our field and of society at large.
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The Practice Of English Language Teaching
John Pustulka
(Submitted to Atomi Jr College Library, January 15, 2007)
(Submitted to NHK Cultural Center, Aoyama, February 19, 2008)
Why do people learn languages?
People learn languages for different reasons: because it is in the school curriculum; it is the students’ parents will; for pleasure to understand Shakespeare’s language; to get a better job (advancement in professional life); from curiosity or as a hobby; for cultural reasons (to become familiar with a foreign country’s civilization and culture); learning a foreign language for specific purposes (e.g. air traffic controllers, Academic purposes).
Language teaching is not just about teaching languages, it is also about helping students to develop themselves as people. A perspective which has gained increasing prominence in language teaching is that of the student as a “whole person”. These beliefs have led to a number of teaching methodologies and techniques which have stressed the humanistic aspects of learning. In such methodologies the experience of the student is what counts and the development of their personality and the encouragement of positive feelings are seen to be as important as their learning of a language.
WHAT A STUDENT SHOULD LEARN AS A LANGUAGE STUDENT?
(1) PRONUNCIATION (2) GRAMMAR (3) VOCABULARY (4) DISCOURSE (5) SKILLS (6) SYLLABUS
(1) The PRONUNCIATION’S teaching aim is to give students communicative efficiency. They have to differentiate between sounds like / i / (live) and / i: / (“leave”), to use rhythm and stress correctly, to recognize intonation while speaking. Listening to tapes is important and necessary as students are exposed to other voices of people speaking the language correctly as possible.
(2) Competent users of a language have proper GRAMMAR knowledge. The students’ awareness about the creative use of grammar depends on their level and implies discovery, reading and listening activities.
(3) VOCABULARY is selected according to the students’ level, and it is given in a context. Students learn what words mean and how they are used.
(4) DISCOURSE supposes to organize what students say and write into a coherent whole. Students have to know the difference between formal (“I really must apologize.”) and informal (“Sorry.”) language use, by learning language functions (e.g. agreement, invitation, congratulation, promise, etc.)
(5) SKILLS and sub-SKILLS are transferred to the use of English. Students’ proficiency at skills will be different. We will emphasize reading for gist or listening for detailed comprehension, for instance.
(6) The SYLLABUS represents the organization referring to “how is the language going to be organized and what skills should we concentrate on”. Some syllabuses are short lists of grammar structures or functions, others are more detailed (language lists, topic activities, tasks). A)Functional syllabuses should be taught first and the grammar later. They contain introductions, apologies, requests, invitations, etc.B)Organizing syllabuses in terms of vocabulary (“at the bank”, “at the police station”, etc.) refers to diverse situations. There are topic-based syllabuses (fashion, school, health, family, holidays, etc.) - which are useful for skill-based (+sub-skills) courses and vocabulary-based ones. The syllabus should be restricted according to the students’ needs (sports, informatics, etc., class profile).
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