Re: [xmca] Sam I Am

Thanks for the clarification, Tony.
David, are there some web-accessible games that members of
XMCA might try out? My impression is that when we try to talk
about "serious gaming" we have no solid grounding in a common
referent.
mike

On 7/7/07, Tony Whitson <twhitson@udel.edu> wrote:
>
> Mike,
>
> David Shaffer's post was helpful in many ways. It clarified the
> commitments motivating the article (for him, in any case, being careful
> not to speak for his co-author). A commitment to Latour's ontology does
> not seem so important for David's project.
>
> It might help clarify to note that the idea of "Actant" (at least in
> Greimas' work, which is where it comes from in Latour) is not part of a
> position on ontology. Greimas formulates "actants" as part of a theory of
> the logic of narrativity. Our deep personal and cultural theories about
> how the world is structured and ordered are expressed in narrative form,
> with "actants" figuring in the narratives we tell and think. These
> narratives may express our ways of making sense about ontology, but
> "actants" are part of the theory of how sense-making is ordered
> structurally, not part of an ontology as such.
>
> On Sat, 7 Jul 2007, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> > There for sure MANY varieties of English, Michael. If, as I suspect,
> > we can all agree to that,(I am sure I will be corrected if I am wrong!)
> > it might provide a good spring board for pursuing the important issue
> > of "starting from an ontology of difference."
> >
> > In this regard, I was puzzling over the point that David Shaffer made
> > about the ontology of Latour's symmetry position. I am not well trained
> > in philosophy, which is certainly part of the problem, but in what
> senses
> > in the ontology that accompanies the symmetry position can artifacts
> > and humans both be actants and have symmetrical agency but be
> > (in some/what?) sense different?
> >
> > mike
> >
> > On 7/6/07, Wolff-Michael Roth <mroth@uvic.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi,
> >> I find it interesting for you to note that there are "several
> >> varieties of English ...." I think this is astonishing from a
> >> particular ontology, but from an ontology of difference, an ontology
> >> that the philosophers I have repeatedly referred to, are not
> >> astonished about. I articulate such a different perspective on
> >> language in a couple of upcoming pieces, one that shows how language
> >> never is identical with itself, and therefore always different, not
> >> only a few. . . and another paper that picks up on an article Jean-
> >> Luc Nancy writes about culture, language, identity, each as a form of
> >> mêlée...
> >>
> >> We need to begin rethinking our approaches and take non-self-identity
> >> as a starting point, and then all the arguments about difference are
> >> problematized in very different ways, sameness is constructed, even
> >> self-sameness is the result of a constructive process, which has
> >> interesting consequences for theorizing Self, language, cognition,
> >> culture, and so on....
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Michael
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 6-Jul-07, at 6:34 PM, Phil Chappell wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi David,
> >>
> >> Many interesting points (with some interesting sign/symbol
> >> combinations thrown in:-) My main concern was that on a public forum
> >> you were appearing to represent others' points of views on the global
> >> status of English. "The Americans say this...the Brits say that".
> >> Your arguments for teaching English as school subject are sound and
> >> reflect what goes on in bilingual and international schools in places
> >> that I am familiar with, although don't forget the large and growing
> >> demand for adult programs; and from my experience, many students in
> >> those programs practice what Kumaravadivelu describes as self-
> >> marginalisation (or similar term) by demanding "native-speaking
> >> teachers", even though the likelihood is that they'll be
> >> communicating with others who are not "native-speakers", and their
> >> learning experiences are likely to be more enriching if they were to
> >> have an expert-novice relationship with someone more familiar with
> >> the social practices that the novices are learning to engage in -
> >> using English to get things done with other people who do not use
> >> English as their main language.
> >>
> >> In an interesting twist, the macrostrategic framework of
> >> Kumaravadivelu was criticised by BANA applied linguists as not
> >> representing anything innovative in ELT, to which Canagarajah
> >> responded that it has been in use in outer and expanding circle
> >> contexts for a long time, but the framework has not been stored in
> >> the academic literature. I tend to think they're maxims that
> >> sensitive language teachers have likely been practicing for a few
> >> decades now. I've pasted them below for any interested readers, but I
> >> think discussions of other matters are waiting in the wings!
> >>
> >> One side note, having recently returned to my BANA home country after
> >> 12 years in a country where English is big in demand but low on the
> >> everyday usage scale, I am struck every day at how bi- and multi-
> >> lingual the population has become. There are several varieties of
> >> English inside this "inner circle" BANA country that I am not sure
> >> have been documented. I am becoming a public eavesdropper...the whole
> >> constructs of ESL/EFL/EIL/ELF/EI-EI-O need dismantling!
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >>
> >> Phil
> >>
> >> Macrostrategies for achieving situation-specific, need-based
> >> classroom techniques: (Kumaravadivelu, 2003)*
> >>
> >> 1. Maximise learning opportunities,
> >> 2. Minimise perceptual mismatches,
> >> 3. Facilitate negotiated interaction,
> >> 4. Promote leaner autonomy,
> >> 5. Foster language awareness,
> >> 6. Activate intuitive heuristics,
> >> 7. Contextualise linguistic input,
> >> 8. Integrate language skills,
> >> 9. Ensure social relevance,
> >> 10. Raise cultural consciousness
> >>
> >> *Kumaravadivelu, B. 2003, 'A Postmethod Perspective on English
> >> Language Teaching', World Englishes, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 539-550.
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
> Tony Whitson
> UD School of Education
> NEWARK DE 19716
>
> twhitson@udel.edu
> _______________________________
>
> "those who fail to reread
> are obliged to read the same story everywhere"
> -- Roland Barthes, S/Z (1970)
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Received on Sat Jul 7 13:54 PDT 2007