on writing …

was watching an episode of NIE Education Launchpad (thanks rab for introducing this newly launched site to me), and this was what Dr. Anitha Devi Pillai said in chapter 3:


“Every single writer I know, has this mantra. It’s mine too. Write and revise. Write and revise. Revision is such an important part of writing. You never get it right in the first draft you know. It is a draft. It’s just a draft. You write, you think about it, walk away from the text, come back to it, revise it.”

affordance 能供性

“affordance” 一词在最近的聊话中经常会涉及。但其实也不是最近的事,应该是12470在2014年开始时就已经常要接触到了。but i just realised i have not blogged an entry on this so very important term. so here we go:

affordance 华文我选择使用“能供性”作为翻译。affordance在我们涉及科技的谈话中,它其实是指 technological affordance. 但无论affordance也好,能供性也好,这两个词都还是太抽象了。如何解释得较容易理解和被接受,我尝试将能供性进行扩展,即:

能供性=够提给学习的可能

举个例子:

增强版乐学善用互动平台 (aka iMTL)中的协作便利贴为学习提哪些可能呢?

  • 每个学生都能有机会发言了 (every student has a voice;从语言学习的角度,能够作语言输出是关键的)
  • 学生都针对同学的发言进行交流讨论 (meaning negotiation & meaning making in collaborative learning;从学习的角度,意义的理解的建构或许不是他人可以灌输的)
  • 你还想到其他的能供性吗? (:

i shall end this quick post here. 如果你在作报告或写论文需要整理文献出处,feel free to cite this post:

Tan, Y. H. (2018, May 17). Affordance 能供性 [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://edublog.net/wp/2018/05/17/affordance-%E8%83%BD%E4%BE%9B%E6%80%A7/

OR

陈育焕. (2018, May 17). Affordance 能供性 [博文]. 取自 https://edublog.net/wp/2018/05/17/affordance-%E8%83%BD%E4%BE%9B%E6%80%A7/

若要对affordance有进一步的了解,欢迎参考拙文中的说明 (:

lastly, 要谢谢 Thomas忠伟 for engaging in knowledge co-creation together at Keming Primary this afternoon, and inspiring this post (:

which term is the ‘correct’ use?

身为华文老师,经常得面对自己或学生的提问,例如“春节”、“农历新年”两个词应该用哪个?有没有哪个是“对”的?还是都不对或都对?

语言的使用本来就没有对错,是约定俗成的。但语文老师因为教学的特殊关系,经常需要把握对错的问题。对错的问题有时没有办法直接回答,一个方法是看看官方报章怎么用。如何寻找报章用语,可使用 NewspaperSG – Search Term Visualiser

(screenshot credit: NewspaperSG)

网址:http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Visualiser

要注意的是,在作搜寻时,记得要加引号quotation marks. 因为 “农历新年” 和 农历新年 的搜寻结果是不同的。以前者为准。

have fun (:

translation error phenomenon and the phenomenon behind

received this advertisement pamphlet by singtel selling 3G services in view of the impending 2G termination:

as a CL teacher, the choice of term in the blue bubble immediately caught my eyes – “赶忙”. in the same moment, i hypothesised it’s #ThankUGoogleTranslate problem. indeed, a quick check on Hurry, the term used in the EL bubble, yielded 赶忙 as the 3rd translation. anything in the top 3 must be good right? (:

posted the photo on fb, and we observed different reactions, with mostly sympathy of the error’s occurrence.

while such occurrence of error is not a first, nor will it be the last, i think we should look beyond the phenomenon itself, and ask WHY it occurs at all. the reasons could be many.

as a CL teacher (educator), my immediate question is how did these grown-ups learn CL when they were in schools? Were they taught to become a lifelong learner of CL, or were they taught to inherit the language (contents) from the teachers? to become a lifelong learner, it means that one is able to learn and to use the language when my teacher-guru is no longer around me. but, the over-reliance on Google Translate (or some other online translation tools) appears to suggest otherwise. it appears to me that these grown-ups are using Google Translate in place of the trust-me-all-guru who is no longer around. in short, they lack the know-how of learning the language in life beyond schools (and exams).

in terms of know-how, if a Science teacher is to teach students to think like a real-world scientist, what is a CL teacher teaching his/her students to think like? a writer, a poet, a linguist, or an exam-Acer/passer? the outcome goal is critical; with only the outcome goal clearly set can a teacher possibly design his/her lessons to enable students to learn to being and becoming the goal.

if you are a CL teacher reading this, what is your goal? what are you already doing to enable your students to learn, and to use the language lifelong? the transmission of large amount of knowledge has probably proven to be futile as the singtel pamphlet has revealed.

现象一则

saw this post shared on fb this morning:

(credit:zaobao.com)

这里边所描述的现象其实如果我们有关注的话,是一点也不新鲜的。换句话说是已存在多时的。 just to quote some words:

“…包括教师在内的一般国人,仍持有这样轻视和不以为然的学习态度,令人费解,更令人担忧…我真切地希望时间还站在我们这一边”

着眼这些现象,我们在各自不同的岗位能做些什么、应该做些什么? #timeNotOnOurSide #未为晚也