FL courses

[John E Richardson]

Dear Maria,

apologies if I am intruding on a conversation between you & Linnea...
but I thought I'd just say that your research sounds interesting. It
isn't really my area of expertise so I can't really comment on whether
it is sufficiently original to be, for instance, a PhD (perhaps other
members could comment - Lufti haven't you done some work on FL/TESL?)
but it certainly seems an interesting area.
I always tell my students that the best thing to research  is what
interests *you*. The research process is a long one & choosing a topic
you're interested in is essential to make it as painless as possible.
When I did my PhD (on broadsheet newspaper reporting) my superviser was
always trying to make me widen my sample to include tabloids, but I was
not interested in them. Focusing entirely on the discourse practices of
one genre of journalism made my PhD less 'marketable' in one way, but to
be honest I don't mind this. Research what you're interested in, I say.

oh, and welcome to the list (and no need to apologise for your English -
it's very good!)
best wishes
John


> Hi, Linnea plus discussion group,
> just to answer very briefly your question, (sorry for my terrible
English!):
> since I am a language teacher, my main area of interest is
communication in
> foreign language (FL) courses - I am thinking of analyzing discourse types
> which are relevant for FL-courses, for example, how Slovak students
discuss
> in German the meaning of a picture. (I would restrict the discussions to
> dialogues or trialogues). On the one hand,I hope to detect particular
> "frames" (is this the proper word??..)of perception of the picture
which are
> culturally specific, on the other hand, I want to find out which
strategies
> Slovak students use in the course of "negotiation" on the meaning of a
> picture. However, I am not sure if this is realy a goog idea, so I am very
> grateful to all of you for your reactions.
> Have a nice evening,
> Maria
>
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John E Richardson
Dept of Journalism Studies
Sheffield University