LINGUIST List 6.1673

Wed Nov 29 1995

Qs: Teaching English, Hebrew, Proverbs, Funktionsverbgefuge

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Nigel Green, Teaching English
2. , AGR-S and Tense in Hebrew
3. "ANNE BARRON (GERMAN, proverbs (Sprichworter) & linguistics
4. "ANNE BARRON (GERMAN, Funktionsverbgefuge

I 've been teaching English for fourteen years in Paris. A year and
half ago I began working in a new school teaching the (long term)
unemployed in groups of 12 - for four hours a day.

They are paid to be in the school and to learn English by the state,
in the hope that they will eventually find jobs. Many of them are
already well qualified in one field or another.

Due to the fact they are unemployed, or unemployed because, these
students (as a whole) have a very negative attitude towards any
authority, guidance or teacher figure and numerous *social*
problems. e.g.:
They frequently arrive late for class
They wish to leave class early
'I'm French why should I learn English to work?'
'I'm tired. I don't want to do anything today' or 'This
exercise/game/subject doesn't interest me.'
'I don't like role plays'
etc.; etc.

Along with the other teachers in this school, I'm getting depressed
and discouraged. Any help, ideas, comments and encouragement would be
welcome.

___________________________________________________________________________
 FRANCE PRATIQUE - http://www.pratique.fr
___________________________________________________________________________

I'm wondering if anyone is aware of claims in the literature about the
relative dominance of subject agreement (AGR-S) and tense (INFL) in
Hebrew? I know there's been some discussion regarding the
(im-)possibility of establishing a universal dominance relationship
between the two.

Chomsky, for English/French, has AGR-S dominating INFL (which itself
dominates AGR-O).

Hebrew is somewhat problematic as its tense and agreement morphology
are often of different types (suffixal vs. templatic).

Please reply to me directly, and I'll summarize for the list (if
interest warrants).

Mary Tait

Information on proverbs (Sprichworter) in a linguistic context?

Information on Funktionsverbgefuge?