Ideas To Stimulate Me Re Presentation Please

[stripes4]

Interview for a teacher training post coming up. Ideas welcome from all, but particularly from those in education. I am working on my presentation, which is about Language acquisition and development, and it's importance to learning.
Bloody obvious bits about communication - verbal, written, English is cross curricular etc. Going to also throw in how language is important for developing and maintaining relationships - social bonds, so important for self esteem, confidence, which in turn affects ability to learn in school.
Also talk about sign language, which I have a great deal of experience in - hearing impaired students communicating and learning using sign


any more ideas guys? Come on. Stimulate me!!!

[Seth]

Interview for a teacher training post coming up. Ideas welcome from all, but particularly from those in education. I am working on my presentation, which is about Language acquisition and development, and it's importance to learning.
Bloody obvious bits about communication - verbal, written, English is cross curricular etc. Going to also throw in how language is important for developing and maintaining relationships - social bonds, so important for self esteem, confidence, which in turn affects ability to learn in school.
Also talk about sign language, which I have a great deal of experience in - hearing impaired students communicating and learning using sign


any more ideas guys? Come on. Stimulate me!!!

Look into early (and I mean pre-natal) learning. There's some recent research on long-term memory in fetuses, ability to recognize the parent's voice, and the issue of pre-natal exposure to music has been around a long time. It might look good to discuss richness in both prenatal and early post-birth education.

It's my experience, for example, that using a large vocabulary of adult words with even small infants, consistently as they grow, leads to much better language skills at 4 or 5, and even as young as 22 months (my youngest nephew) who learns new words incredibly quickly and correctly connects them to their objects in the world. I've never thought that "baby talk" was useful for small children, and I think it's harmful.

We know, for another example, that the facility for learning multiple languages occurs quite early in a child's life, and then decreased markedly as the neuronal pathways in the brain are winnowed down.

[floppit]

What about the role of language in understanding emototions?

Also you could play the eq opps card re immigration and the issues non english speaking pupils face.

I have a slightly woolly memory that there's some study re expected norms of language developement in deprived areas being lower and therefore problems not coming to light.

Then there's signing, makaton but also adding visual cues, descriptive gestures to spoken language to increase engagement where people struggle with language.

What do you really want to say? Even if you don't get the job it's a chance to speak to and influence the managers, what do you want toi say about language?

[hadespussercats]

I'm curious about how sign language has been used for facilitating communication with babies that are too young to have verbal skills-- apparently, language skills form before the ability to speak does, and sign language helps to access those skills in ways that facilitate parent-baby communication and bonding.

Would signing help autistic children, or other non-verbal people, even without hearing loss?

[Elegant Mule]

The first bit of advise is 'know your audience!" So, excuse my ignorance, who heirs teacher trainers? If you're talking to profs you need to show competency, if you're talking to admins you need to impress them with something and show you won't be a pain. (Huge generalizations obviously, but 'know your audience' stands.)

Looking at the posts that beat me to it, my favorites are modern sound recording techniques that allow large databases of speech for analysis, and neurological studies of speech.

:edit for spelling

[hadespussercats]

I had years of speech therapy as a child, and, especially since reading David Sedaris's commentary on same, not to mention the story of the author of "The King's Speech," I'm curious about links between speech pathology and other genetic/social traits, as well as how an early, intense focus on speech production can influence later interests and learning-- possible links between speech therapy and speech-giving later in life, writing skills, etc.

[stripes4]

Keep em coming. These are brilliant topics. Early language develpment, multi cultural is very important in inner city Stoke on Trent, and link between language and psychology. I will be starting to pinch.. i mean.. develop these over the next week, and thank you again guys.

[tattuchu]

You should sign the entire interview! Speak and simultaneously sign everything you say

[stripes4]

You should sign the entire interview! Speak and simultaneously sign everything you say

An interesting approach, but I think it would be deemed unecessary!!
It would be great if one of the other candidates or panel were hearing impaired though!! Whoa!

[hadespussercats]

What about graphic representations of language ideas? I'm thinking of diagrammatic pictures used to communicate across language barriers-- that sort of thing.

Do visual languages have a leg up in a sense, because so much of our brains are devoted to the interpretation of visual signals?
When you interpret an image, are you using the same parts of your mind as when you interpret a spoken word, or a written sentence?
If there is a disconnect between those parts of the brain (visual, verbal, auditory, etc.), is using techniques that access those different areas a help or a hindrance when it comes to developing desired language skills?
Do current popular teaching techniques make optimal use of what we now understand about how language works? How could those techniques be improved?

[cowiz]

Imagine that you are on the toilet and you are naked and you have a terrible case of the shits. I find that that takes the nerves away.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I've been in a lot of foreign countries. You can't say you have experienced the country until you can speak the language and read it. Knowing the language is the key to the people and the country.

Random bit: I have been in seventy-two countries at least over night, and I was rarely out of range of someone who spoke English. Or Engrish in some cases. English seems to be everywhere in the world. Nicaraguan jungle or Russian monastery, there was always somebody around who could help.

[Elegant Mule]

I hate to yell, BUT! KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!

I don't mean to discount anyone's idea bout the study of language, rather, my point is that they are all interesting, to someone. But you only have to talk a few people into loving you for the position! You can't know everything, and if you pretend to know everything you'll come off as a pompous ass or a-know-it-all!

If you can't divine what it is they want from you, then let them see what it is that you're passionate about, what moves you, why it is you want to work for them.

And if 'what you're passionate about' isn't 'what they what to heir' then get a better job. One that you love.