Future journalism? The paper or the blog?

Most English students here in NSW spend part of their time studying the mass media from various angles.

Last night ABC 1’s Media Watch had a special edition that will interest teachers and senior students:

 Wired for the Future

© 2008 ABC

Indirect or reported questions

A student the other day made a series of mistakes in his writing, things like:

• My father asked me what sport will I like…
• I wanted to know will you go out with me…

What is happening here is that the grammar of direct questions, the actual words someone would have said, is being mixed in with a report structure.

The father in the first example would have said “What sport will/do you like?” The second example would have been “Will you go out with me?”

But when you report a question, things change. First, word order changes. Second, question words often disappear. Third, word order changes. Fourth, tense changes to suit the time frame of the report.

So our examples would become:

• My father asked me what sport I would like…
• I wanted to know if you would go out with me…

Reported questions are more common in rather formal registers, but they do quite frequently occur in narrative, partly for variety, and partly for focussing the narrative viewpoint in a certain way. 

Many of the rules are just the same as in Indirect or Reported Speech.

MORE INFORMATION

Indirect questions (British Council)

Questions in reported speech

Reported questions

Quiz on Indirect Questions

Welcome to the Sydney English Student Blog

Here is a new blog designed, it seems, for the many overseas students here in Sydney:

The blog is written by English teachers, for English students. Here you will find everything you need to know about accommodation, work, schools, technology, English resources… Everything you need to live and study in Sydney, written in clear, simple English - you can practice your English as you learn about Sydney.

     Some features that you might like to explore on the blog are:

• Translate - if your English is not so good, choose a flag above to translate the site.
• English Resources - links to GOOD English resources online to help with your study.
• Ask a Question - if you have any questions you want answered, pleases leave a message. Every week 1 question will be answered.
• Entertainment - a list of things to do in Sydney (bands, galleries, concerts etc.), mostly FREE.
• Subscribe - stay up to date with the blog by subscribing (click the FEEDBURNER button).
• Share - share this site with friends on Facebook, Digg, Mixx and Stumbleupon.
• Games - play games between classes, some English games, some just for FUN.
• More to come…

It has only just started, but already there is some useful material there.

Fascinating stats

On Jim Belshaw’s Personal Reflections the following appeared this morning, though dated yesterday.

Australia’s Global Ethnic Rankings

We all know that Australia is a country of migrants. A short search of Wikipedia shows that, measured by ancestry, Australia is in global terms:

• The second largest Irish, Maori and Maltese country.
• The third largest English country.
• The fourth largest Scottish country.
• The fifth largest Greek, Vietnamese and Dutch country.
• The seventh largest German country.
• The ninth largest Italian country.
• The eleventh largest Serbian country.
• The fifteenth largest Han Chinese country.
• The sixteenth Turkish country.
• The seventeenth largest Indian country.

What do we make of all this? Well, it’s just a measure of diversity.

More good educational/English Studies blogs

Just had this email:

I am a regular reader of your English/ESL–and more! blog and I have found your site to be an inspiration. I am a teacher of high school English at Katikati College in New Zealand and I have been blogging for about nine months…

So I checked them out. I suggest you do the same.

This one is for Year 13 students (New Zealand):

This one is for other years, the majority of students at Katikati College.

Students here will find many relevant articles and links.

Tutoring site

Emma’s English Tutoring is a Sydney site that is partly commercial, in that it offers services. However, her background is certainly interesting. I am quite flattered that she has chosen to reproduce, with acknowledgement, How can I improve my essay grades, especially in exams, without learning “model essays” off by heart? from my pages here. There are some good pointers appearing on other posts on Emma’s site.

As you will know from my About page, I also do some tutoring, but not through these pages directly. If you want more information on that, use the contact page.

New edition of Wordweb

I have mentioned this excellent program before. Everyone should have one, and it is free. Now, however, you have to state that you been on no more than two commercial flights in the past year! That could make life harder for some ESL students I know…

NOTE: Click on that screen shot to access Wordweb downloads.

Update to one of the most popular posts

Physical journeys and Peter Skrzynecki’s poems has been checked and updated today. There are some new resources there, but sadly one that seems to have gone, and one that may have.

There are also some new HSC videos in the VodPod.

New closed page

You will note a new page in the page list in the side bar, just above the VodPod. Since it concerns a very limited readership that page is password protected; the password is known to those who need it. What marginally affects everyone is that I have removed the “top clicks” widget from the sidebar as that may have granted access to certain files linked on that closed page. No great loss really as I still see the top clicks on my admin page.

English/ESL honoured

I am really pleased about this. Go to Creating a Community of Writers Using Technology and you will find details of a March 7, 2008 Conference in Grand Rapids, MI.

Activity 3 (30 min.): Show examples of blogs and evaluate how well they would add to the community of writers in the classroom; teachers can follow links while facilitators show the link on the screen.

• http://bobsprankle.com/blog/ (4th grade in Maine, US)
• http://www.pageflakes.com/room116/12266518 (5th/6th grade in Gaines, MI, US)
• http://mr-fisher.edublogs.org/ (7th/8th in Manitoba, Canada)
• http://neilwhitfield.wordpress.com/ (high school in Australia)

Thanks, people. Have a good conference!