In Scott Thornbury's blog, A-Z is not used figuratively as you have probably thought; it is literally an A-Z ELT blog. Unlike most blogs which display more recent articles first and older ones come after that, this blog deliberately lists the articles alphabetically, and each letter stands for an issue in ELT and language acquisition which is discussed through an article. For instance, the discussion about the issue of Age comes first, then it might be followed by an article about "bad" language learner, etc.
You're worried because you think each letter stands for one topic only and you won't be able to read an article about Dictionary and another about Drills? 😒
I agree. This would be awful and uncreative 😫IF it were like that! 😂
Each letter stands for various entries, which means different topics which begin with the same letter ARE actually written about in the blog!
You are wondering how the topics are addressed in this blog! 🙇
Take it easy. I'll tell you 😉In many instances in this blog, Scott Thornbury tries to show us the other side of the story: A side we are not likely to have thought about.
How?
Examples speak louder than fire alarms. It is believed, and much research has proved, that fluency of language is harder to acquire than accuracy. However, in his article entitled "A is for Accuracy", Scott Thornbury argues that Accuracy can entail accurate use of language at all linguistic levels (which sounds intimidating). Moreover, he argues that the word "accurate" is relative, for what you believe is accurate in your dialect might be completely wrong in another dialect.
In addition, in his "A is for Accent", Scott Thornbury discusses the idea that learners usually try to get rid of their accents and try to sound more like a native speaker, while in fact to think about language learning as to unlearn something and to master something else is a misunderstanding of SLA. Thornbury argues that language learning is about addition rather than subtraction; learners learn new things and develop their interlanguage (they add to it rather than remove from it).
In short, Scott Thornbury's blog is an excellent one that insightfully critiques different issues in ELT and SLA and in many instances shows us the other side of the story.
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ReplyDeleteThornbury's Blog is indeed interesting. Regarding his refutation of the idea "fluency of language is harder to acquire than accuracy", I can't add my point of view. His different perspective is very thought-provoking, but I think that it still not more research. The borders between fluency and accuracy are very close that it's very difficult to say if accuracy truly entails fluency or fluency comes later after accuracy. However, I do agree with him that accuracy is relative.
ReplyDeleteFinally, in his "A for Accent", he mentions that it's not important to change one's own accent to sound like native speakers. My opinion:
1- Unlearning your own accent is not necessary, but if u want to master a native language accent, you need to get into the HABIT of USING their accent. This is not unlearning, this is just mastering their accent in order to sound more native.
2- Humans, generally speaking, naturally want to fit in any community they live in. I don't believe that losing your own accent means losing your own identity. It is just a natural psychological phenomenon that comes as a result of us being social creatures.
Even though I don't agree with him on everything, but his blog needs more studying.