I guess you could say I had a pretty good day. It started with Study Skills, my freshman integrated skills class. The students enjoyed the interactive grouping activity about topic sentences. They found it mildly boring to write topic sentences for paragraphs, but they were happy to work in groups. At the end, to keep the mood high, I decided ( Read more... )

I know I should write. I know it will help me sleep better tonight. It will help me organize my thinking. But where to start? Many of my readers are missing about a year and a half of details, and I'm certainly not going to re-hash that tonight. In fact, many nights I do my best effort to just forget those things ( Read more... )

So, I've got a beef to pick with the KBS/SBS/MBC coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics. Certainly, I wasn't expecting perfection. I know that countries tend to focus on their own athletes and on sports in which they do well, but come on Korea. You can do better than this ( Read more... )

It's 8:16 pm, and I'm sitting at home crying. I hate my life. I want to go home and curl into a ball. Why, you ask ( Read more... )

My day was craptastic ( Read more... )

Source: My husband and I are having an intellectual discussion about L2 reading. Should students free read authentic texts of their choice or graded readers? This discussion was prompted by my 510 readings (Cobb).

GJ: If we assume your position…
me: inhale [ʃk]
GJ: stares Listen. pause Listen. I'm speaking. If we assume your position…

( Read more... )

Source: Visiting my grandparent in Garnavillo.

Grandma: It's been a while since we've had [ajtæliən].

Reflection: I will omit the analysis of this sample for time purposes. I wonder why my grandmother's pronunciation is so awkward to me. Given our age gap, I wonder if this word has changed pronunciation over the last 100 years. Also, after ( Read more... )

I have to include this just because it's funny.

Source: An hour before departing for Minneapolis, my husband sends me a text:
Hit the load!

Reflection: I'm so glad that my husband is learning popular American phrases, but the R/L problem never seems to fade. At least it left me laughing for 10 minutes.

Source: Sitting in my office in LA

GJ: I just came from the Rec [sɛnɾər].
me: shocked What? What did you say?
GJ: I just went to the Rec [sɛnta].
me: No, no. The other way. The first way.
GJ: Huh? Rec [sɛnɾər]?
me: Yes! Exactly!

Analysis: GJ's initial pronunciation used [ɾ] instead of [t]. Similar to the tapping rule, Americans do not ( Read more... )

Source: A tangent during ENGL 500 discussion. I mentioned wanting to show my husband a tractor pull, and the conversation derailed to the more farmer-like stereotypes of Iowa.

Meg concluded the conversation with "Welcome to [əˈmʌrəkə]!" We all broke out laughing.

Analysis: Meg only changed the pronunciation of one vowel (the ɛ to ʌ) but it made ( Read more... )