Semantic mapping

How our brains group words

Excellent video which deserves our attention.

Hope you enjoy watching it.

Can we trace the origin of human language through the analysis of animals behaviour?

Here you might find the answer. Or, at least, one of the answers.

Babbler Birds and Babbling Journalists

Hope you enjoy it!

The Bilingual Brain

It’s obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier — like traveling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged.

                             The Bilingual Brain

Un interesante artículo

el-segundo-idioma-y-el-cerebro-bilingue

Excellent talk by Steven Pinker

Linguistics as a window to understanding the brain

Good food for thought!

Do bilingual children learn language differently?

Do bilingual children learn language differently?



Let's read about it.

A few more myths about speakers of multiple languages | British Council

A few more myths about speakers of multiple languages | British Council



Very interesting article.

A few myths about speakers of multiple languages

Really good food for thought!

A few myths about speakers of multiple languages

Jerome Bruner

¿Qué necesita el cerebro para aprender? Nse. Prof. Mirta Polla Rossi. Ne...

Thinking about thinking

Thinking about thinking

An interesting talk about dyslexia

Really useful for anyone who wants to be a teacher.
Dyslexia

Fixed vs Growth
A very interesting article for my Psycholinguistics students.

An excellent piece of art!

This set of pictures might give students attending Psycholinguistics some food for thought.
We'll discuss them in class.
Follow the link:

http://www.yorokobu.es/el-tortuoso-camino-para-decir-lo-que-uno-piensa-en-ingles/

No "todo tiempo pasado fue mejor"

Este es un muy interesante artículo para pensar nuestras prácticas docentes.

Por Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry
En Inglaterra se vuelve a usar la estilográfica para que los estudiantes aprendan la grafía. En Francia también se considera que no se debe prescindir de esa habilidad, pero allí el problema reside en que ya no la dominan ni los maestros.
Aunque el mundo adulto no está aún preparado para recibir las nuevas inteligencias de los niños producto de la tecnología, la pérdida de la habilidad de la escritura cursiva explica trastornos del aprendizaje que advierten los maestros e inciden en el desempeño escolar.
En la escritura cursiva, el hecho de que las letras estén unidas una a la otra por trazos permite que el pensamiento fluya con armonía de la mente a la hoja de papel. Al ligar las letras con la línea, quien escribe vincula los pensamientos traduciéndolos en palabras.
Por su parte, el escribir en letra de imprenta implica escindir lo que se piensa en letras, desguazarlo, anular el tiempo de la frase, interrumpir su ritmo y su respiración.
Si bien ya resulta claro que las computadoras son un apéndice de nuestro ser, hay que advertir que favorecen un pensamiento binario, mientras que la escritura a mano es rica, diversa, individual, y nos diferencia a unos de otros.
Habría que educar a los niños desde la infancia en comprender que la escritura responde a su voz interior y representa un ejercicio irrenunciable. Los sistemas de escritura deberían convivir, precisamente por esa calidad que tiene la grafía de ser un lenguaje del alma que hace únicas a las personas. Su abandono convierte al mensaje en frío, casi descarnado, en oposición a la escritura cursiva, que es vehículo y fuente de emociones al revelar la personalidad, el estado de ánimo.
Posiblemente sea esto lo que los jóvenes temen, y optan por esconderse en la homogeneización que posibilita el recurrir a la letra de imprenta. Porque, como lo destaca Umberto Eco, que interviene activamente en este debate, la escritura cursiva exige componer la frase mentalmente antes de escribirla, requisito que la computadora no sugiere.
En todo caso, la resistencia que ofrecen la pluma y el papel impone una lentitud reflexiva.
Como en tantos otros aspectos de la sociedad actual, surge aquí la centralidad del tiempo. Un artículo reciente en la revista Time , titulado: Duelo por la muerte de la escritura a mano, señala que es ése un arte perdido, ya que, aunque los chicos lo aprenden con placer porque lo consideran un rito de pasaje, "nuestro objetivo es expresar el pensamiento lo más rápidamente posible. Hemos abandonado la belleza por la velocidad, la artesanía por la eficiencia.
La escritura cursiva parece condenada a seguir el camino del latín: dentro de un tiempo, no la podremos leer". Abriendo una tímida ventana a la individualidad, aún firmamos a mano. Por poco tiempo...
El autor es educador y ensayista.

Propósito: Que llegue a maestros, educadores en general y -por supuesto- padres de familia y/o abuelos con niños en edad escolar.

As a teacher of future teachers I consider it is necessary to start developing everybody's lateral thinking. This is why I have decided to include these concepts I took from Edward De Bono's website.
I hope you can profit from reading it.

Lateral Thinking

EDWARD DE BONO

"On the Internet there is much misleading and erroneous information about 'lateral thinking' and 'parallel thinking^tm'. Some of the sites make false claims about me and my work. Because this is my official website I want to take this opportunity of clarifying matters regarding lateral thinking and parallel thinking^tm*.

LATERAL THINKING

I invented the term 'lateral thinking' in 1967. It was first written up in a book called "The Use of Lateral Thinking" (Jonathan Cape, London) - "New Think" (Basic Books, New York) - the two titles refer to the same book.

For many years now this has been acknowledged in the Oxford English Dictionary which is the final arbiter of the English Language.

There are several ways of defining lateral thinking, ranging from the technical to the illustrative.

1. "You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper"

This means that trying harder in the same direction may not be as useful as changing direction. Effort in the same direction (approach) will not necessarily succeed.

2. "Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and perceptions"

With logic you start out with certain ingredients just as in playing chess you start out with given pieces. But what are those pieces? In most real life situations the pieces are not given, we just assume they are there. We assume certain perceptions, certain concepts and certain boundaries. Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. Lateral thinking is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organise the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.

3. "The brain as a self-organising information system forms asymmetric patterns. In such systems there is a mathematical need for moving across patterns. The tools and processes of lateral thinking are designed to achieve such 'lateral' movement. The tools are based on an understanding of self-organising information systems."

This is a technical definition which depends on an understanding of self-organising information systems.

4. "In any self-organising system there is a need to escape from a local optimum in order to move towards a more global optimum. The techniques of lateral thinking, such as provocation, are designed to help that change."

This is another technical definition. It is important because it also defines the mathematical need for creativity.

Useful link for students in the second year

This link will be included in the bibliography for Psycholinguistics. It is an excellent hypertext where you can find severeal definitions with brief explanations.
Keep it at hand!
http://www.tlumaczenia-angielski.info/linguistics/psycholinguistics.htm

The most dangerous word for our brains

A colleague has shared this article which I consider might be of great interest for teachers and parents.
Really useful for students attending Psycholinguistics.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/words-can-change-your-brain/201207/the-most-dangerous-word-in-the-world
Enjoy!