The Last Lecture


Book Description

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.




Teaching Speaking


Book Description

"Drawing on wide-ranging literature from a variety of relevant disciplines, as well as their own extensive experience in teaching spoken English, the authors give a fascinating, comprehensive, and insightful account of the nature of second language speaking skills. The research and theory they survey then serves as the basis for the principles, strategies, and procedures they propose for the teaching of spoken English. This book will, therefore, provide an invaluable resource for teachers, teachers in training, and researchers, providing both a state-of-the-art survey of the field as well as a source of practical ideas for those involved in planning, teaching, and evaluating courses and materials for the teaching of spoken English"--




Creating a Speaking and Listening Classroom


Book Description

Providing children with opportunities to talk about their learning enables teachers to hear what children are thinking. Talking with one another allows children to question, elaborate, and reflect on a range of ideas. Classroom talk can be motivating and involving, and helps children to think and learn. And yet it is difficult to organise such talk in a classroom. Children unaware of the importance of talk for learning may think of talk as ‘just chat’ – and learning falls away as they slip into social talk. This book provides teachers with strategies and resources to enable whole classes to work together through the medium of talk. Creating a Speaking and Listening Classroom provides timely professional development for teachers. Based on a theoretical approach underpinned by classroom research, this book offers classroom-tested strategies for engaging children in their own learning. Such strategies involve the direct teaching of speaking and listening. Activities in the book can ensure that children know how and why to support one another’s learning in whole-class and group work. The approach enables teachers to ensure that personalised learning programs are based on what children already think and know. The suggested strategies for teaching speaking and listening can enable children to use one another’s minds as a rich resource. This stimulating book will be of interest to professionals in primary education, literacy co-ordinators, and trainee primary teachers.




A First Language


Book Description

For many years, Roger Brown and his colleagues have studied the developing language of pre-school children--the language that ultimately will permit them to understand themselves and the world around them. This longitudinal research project records the conversational performances of three children, studying both semantic and grammatical aspects of their language development. These core findings are related to recent work in psychology and linguistics--and especially to studies of the acquisition of languages other than English, including Finnish, German, Korean, and Samoan. Roger Brown has written the most exhaustive and searching analysis yet undertaken of the early stages of grammatical constructions and the meanings they convey. The five stages of linguistic development Brown establishes are measured not by chronological age-since children vary greatly in the speed at which their speech develops--but by mean length of utterance. This volume treats the first two stages. Stage I is the threshold of syntax, when children begin to combine words to make sentences. These sentences, Brown shows, are always limited to the same small set of semantic relations: nomination, recurrence, disappearance, attribution, possession, agency, and a few others. Stage II is concerned with the modulations of basic structural meanings--modulations for number, time, aspect, specificity--through the gradual acquisition of grammatical morphemes such as inflections, prepositions, articles, and case markers. Fourteen morphemes are studied in depth and it is shown that the order of their acquisition is almost identical across children and is predicted by their relative semantic and grammatical complexity. It is, ultimately, the intent of this work to focus on the nature and development of knowledge: knowledge concerning grammar and the meanings coded by grammar; knowledge inferred from performance, from sentences and the settings in which they are spoken, and from signs of comprehension or incomprehension of sentences.




Legal Institutions and Collective Memories


Book Description

In recent decades the debate among scholars, lawyers, politicians and others about how societies deal with their past has been constant and intensive. 'Legal Institutions and Collective Memories' situates the processes of transitional justice at the intersection between legal procedures and the production of collective and shared meanings of the past. Building upon the work of Maurice Halbwachs, this collection of essays emphasises the extended role and active involvement of contemporary law and legal institutions in public discourse about the past, and explores their impact on the shape that collective memories take in the course of time. The authors uncover a complex pattern of searching for truth, negotiating the past and cultivating the art of forgetting. Their contributions explore the ambiguous and intricate links between the production of justice, truth and memory. The essays cover a broad range of legal institutions, countries and topics. These include transitional trials as 'monumental spectacles' as well as constitutional courts, and the restitution of property rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Australia. The authors explore the biographies of victims and how their voices were repressed, as in the case of Korean Comfort Women. They explore the role of law and legal institutions in linking individual and collective memories in the transitional period through processes of lustration, and they analyse divided memories about the past and their impact on future reconciliation in South Africa. The collection offers a genuinely comparative approach, allied to cutting-edge theory




Rhetorical Public Speaking


Book Description

Rhetorical Public Speaking: Civic Engagement in the Digital Age, Third Edition offers students an innovative approach to public speaking by employing the rhetorical canon as a means of constructing artful speech in a multi-mediated environment. It provides a foundation to guide students in understanding, constructing, and delivering messages that address matters of public concern. This edition features contemporary as well as historical examples to highlight key concepts and show how rhetoric works in practice. Each chapter includes speech excerpts, summaries, and exercises for review and retention. Students of public speaking are encouraged to employ their new skills as engaged citizens of society.




Iconicity in Syntax


Book Description

The papers in this volume all explore one kind of functional explanation for various aspects of linguistic form iconicity: linguistic forms are frequently the way they are because they resemble the conceptual structures they are used to convey, or, linguistic structures resemble each other because the different conceptual domains they represent are thought of in the same way. The papers in Part I of this volume deal with aspects of motivation, the ways in which the linguistic form is a diagram of conceptual structure, and homologous with it in interesting ways. Most of the papers in Part II focus on isomorphism, the tendency to associate a single invariant meaning with each single invariant form. The papers in Part III deal with the apparent arbitrariness that arises from competing motivations.




Public Speaking Skills


Book Description

We all can agree that being a good public speaker is an attribute. Great leaders, prominent business people and others we admire, are known for their ability to communicate. Public speaking is a key skill whether you want to stand up as a leader, become more competent at work, or just improve your day-to-day communication. Some are born with the natural gift of being an excellent public speaker. Others have developed it over the years. Regardless of where you are on your public speaking journey, you can always improve and hone this ability. Our communication is one way people size us up or judge us. Whether you agree with it or not, It is used as a gauge at work and in social settings to determine where we stand. Being a better communicator will help you climb both the work and social ladders. Sometimes being a good communicator is mistaken with being knowledgeable. We all know of countless examples of good communicators being successful despite their lack of knowledge or hard work. I will admit, as I improved my public speaking and communication skills, I was the beneficiary of being seen as more competent in a management role than I actually was. Just imagine if you were able to be a better public speaker or communicator. By pairing this communication skill with your knowledge and hard work ethic, there is no limit to where you will end up both professionally and personally. I can’t even count how many successful presentations, speeches, sales pitches and social engagements I have been a part of. More importantly, I have taught and helped numerous students and clients become better public speakers. These speakers have gone on to be better salespeople, move up their corporate ladder and become more likeable in their social circles. Some have even made it so far down the path, that they are now true masters of public speaking. This book is a collection of the strategies and tactics that I share with them. This is your opportunity to take a crash course on becoming a master public speaker. Just think of the impact that we could have. Good public speakers can empower, encourage and persuade entire crowds with just one speech. At work, you can motivate your team, land that big sale or project as well as talk your way into a promotion. Have you ever overheard someone having a conversation at a restaurant or other public setting and their simple conversation sounded like an authentic yet well rehearsed speech? Look at how others admire orators like that. There is no reason that you can’t excel in the same way. I am sure we agree that the above points are important, but why do we really need to improve our public speaking skills? The possible benefits are powerful and endless. Imagine having an improved sense of self-esteem. Picture yourself having better communication and leadership skills. You can have more friends and a larger professional network. Your personal satisfaction will go through the roof. This isn’t a scam. It’s a promise. Just work on the skills in this book, get out there and get exposure.




The First 20 Hours


Book Description

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.




Taking the Stage


Book Description

Many women today wonder: what will it take to get that seat at the boardroom table? Earn that coveted promotion? Or simply have their voices heard? Taking the Stage provides a comprehensive, proven approach that enables women to come forward into the spotlight and speak up, stand out, and succeed. Based on a program from the Humphrey Group that has been delivered to over 400,000 women worldwide, Taking the Stage shows women—no matter their age, rank, or profession—how to communicate with courage and confidence in every situation, from formal speeches to brief hallway conversations. Judith Humphrey provides the inspiration and practical advice for women to “take the stage” mentally, verbally, vocally, and physically. Women can make the most of every opportunity by understanding how best to: Speak up confidently, even when others don’t agree; Convey their accomplishments without self-doubt; Be assertive but not aggressive; Deliver clear and convincing messages; Move beyond “minimizing” language and apology; Find their own powerful and authentic voice; Achieve confident body language and a leadership presence. By applying these techniques and others to every communication— whether making a presentation, speaking at meetings, conducting an elevator conversation, or selling themselves in job interviews—women will be recognized as the leaders they are and attain positions of influence. For women at all stages of their career, and for managers and executives committed to supporting and guiding women on their leadership journeys, Taking the Stage is the practical, broad-based solution that will allow women to speak up confidently, gain respect, earn the promotions they deserve, and secure their places at the boardroom table.