Why do some journal articles have to be such a nightmare?

[Gandalf]

I know I am supposed to be a wizard and full of knowledge and wisdom but I have just spent two hours trying to read a ten page article. Frustrating as hell and the worst article I have read so far in this module. Not bad in terms of points made but a nightmare in trying to decipher what the points actually were. All about knowledge of language and our ability to use the language. I had to reread passages multiple times and even had to get out my COBUILD dictionary. Surely there should be some kind of rule against people who use more than 60 words per sentence. 60 words per sentence and too high a proportion of lexical words at that. A bloody nightmare to read.

Do they write these pieces just so they can feel superior to us or is it to make them feel big about themselves? Actually, the writer makes some astute observations regarding language and its application for classroom instruction but it just took a long time to actually work out what any of them were.

Im done study for today. Its Friday night...beer is calling...

[Douglas]

I guess so they're so hyper and excited about what they're printing, they just don't want to shut up and end the sentence.

[brucelee]

I know I am supposed to be a wizard and full of knowledge and wisdom but I have just spent two hours trying to read a ten page article. Frustrating as hell and the worst article I have read so far in this module. Not bad in terms of points made but a nightmare in trying to decipher what the points actually were. All about knowledge of language and our ability to use the language. I had to reread passages multiple times and even had to get out my COBUILD dictionary. Surely there should be some kind of rule against people who use more than 60 words per sentence. 60 words per sentence and too high a proportion of lexical words at that. A bloody nightmare to read.

Do they write these pieces just so they can feel superior to us or is it to make them feel big about themselves? Actually, the writer makes some astute observations regarding language and its application for classroom instruction but it just took a long time to actually work out what any of them were.

Im done study for today. Its Friday night...beer is calling...

That's the problem I have when writing. I'm more of a feature writer and writing for a journal really takes effort. I agree with you that articles in a journal should be easy to understand.

It just feels good to write something only you can understand sometimes at your own detriment when editors return your paper with major modification.

[Gandalf]

Probably not the most interesting of threads to start....but I was just having a little venting session. Been a long day today and Ive spent over four hours reading articles as well as doing my regular teaching slog. Not much fun and it was 30 degrees celsius today. God I hate the summer. I need to plough through six more articles this weekend in order to stay on schedule. Grrrr.

[brucelee]

Probably not the most interesting of threads to start....but I was just having a little venting session. Been a long day today and Ive spent over four hours reading articles as well as doing my regular teaching slog. Not much fun and it was 30 degrees celsius today. God I hate the summer. I need to plough through six more articles this weekend in order to stay on schedule. Grrrr.

Me, I have to read cases and bunch of cases for my students in the master's program.

[Gandalf]

I know I am supposed to be a wizard and full of knowledge and wisdom but I have just spent two hours trying to read a ten page article. Frustrating as hell and the worst article I have read so far in this module. Not bad in terms of points made but a nightmare in trying to decipher what the points actually were. All about knowledge of language and our ability to use the language. I had to reread passages multiple times and even had to get out my COBUILD dictionary. Surely there should be some kind of rule against people who use more than 60 words per sentence. 60 words per sentence and too high a proportion of lexical words at that. A bloody nightmare to read.

Do they write these pieces just so they can feel superior to us or is it to make them feel big about themselves? Actually, the writer makes some astute observations regarding language and its application for classroom instruction but it just took a long time to actually work out what any of them were.

Im done study for today. Its Friday night...beer is calling...

That's the problem I have when writing. I'm more of a feature writer and writing for a journal really takes effort. I agree with you that articles in a journal should be easy to understand.

It just feels good to write something only you can understand sometimes at your own detriment when editors return your paper with major modification.

Writing a good article takes a tremendous amount of effort and Ive nothing but admiration for that. Generally I manage to work my way through reading them okay, but this one wore me down. I can understand that academic writers use specific terminology but this guy seemed to be writing in Kerouacesque stream of conciousness mode at times. But Jack Kerouac seldom worked to an 80% lexical density ratio. And you dont expect academic writers to forget to use punctuation!!

[brucelee]

so you're an English teacher?

[Gandalf]

Probably not the most interesting of threads to start....but I was just having a little venting session. Been a long day today and Ive spent over four hours reading articles as well as doing my regular teaching slog. Not much fun and it was 30 degrees celsius today. God I hate the summer. I need to plough through six more articles this weekend in order to stay on schedule. Grrrr.

Me, I have to read cases and bunch of cases for my students in the master's program.

Are you an instructor too? What kinds of cases are these?

[brucelee]

financial management cases

[Gandalf]

so you're an English teacher?

Yep, ESL is my calling. Been doing it for ages now.

[brucelee]

English as a second language in Korea? That's quite difficult...


Many koreans are coming to the Philippines to study english. My wife, who is an English instructor, sometimes has students from Korea and she would usually complain.

[Gandalf]

English as a second language in Korea? That's quite difficult...


Many koreans are coming to the Philippines to study english. My wife, who is an English instructor, sometimes has students from Korea and she would usually complain.

The Koreans are bonkers for studying English. They send their kids all over the place in order to learn. Groups of Koreans outside Korea are notorious for being difficult to deal with!

I like teaching but have conflicts with the Korean educational system. Everything is geared towards passing the multiple choice public school exams. Many teachers use old fashioned methods of instruction and communication skills get neglected. Im left with the task of trying to work on improving fluency and communicative competence. A tricky task when you get the students for only 50 minutes a week.

[brucelee]

English as a second language in Korea? That's quite difficult...


Many koreans are coming to the Philippines to study english. My wife, who is an English instructor, sometimes has students from Korea and she would usually complain.

The Koreans are bonkers for studying English. They send their kids all over the place in order to learn. Groups of Koreans outside Korea are notorious for being difficult to deal with!

I like teaching but have conflicts with the Korean educational system. Everything is geared towards passing the multiple choice public school exams. Many teachers use old fashioned methods of instruction and communication skills get neglected. Im left with the task of trying to work on improving fluency and communicative competence. A tricky task when you get the students for only 50 minutes a week.

Yeah, they don't respect their teachers. They actually don't respect women.

Whew, 5o minutes a week? It's better not to teach if you are only given that time.

Multiple choice exams in English? No essay writing?

[Gandalf]

English as a second language in Korea? That's quite difficult...


Many koreans are coming to the Philippines to study english. My wife, who is an English instructor, sometimes has students from Korea and she would usually complain.

The Koreans are bonkers for studying English. They send their kids all over the place in order to learn. Groups of Koreans outside Korea are notorious for being difficult to deal with!

I like teaching but have conflicts with the Korean educational system. Everything is geared towards passing the multiple choice public school exams. Many teachers use old fashioned methods of instruction and communication skills get neglected. Im left with the task of trying to work on improving fluency and communicative competence. A tricky task when you get the students for only 50 minutes a week.

Yeah, they don't respect their teachers. They actually don't respect women.

Whew, 5o minutes a week? It's better not to teach if you are only given that time.

Multiple choice exams in English? No essay writing?

Actually, I have no issues with controlling them. A death stare along with a scowl usually does the job for me. I dont need to do that most of the time though. I generally enjoy my classes. I only teach the higher level students and some are remarkably fluent.

50 minutes is not enough time. Especially when they are getting 250 minutes at my school studying endless grammatical rules with the other teachers. Unfortunately they are given little opportunity to put their knowledge of the language into spoken use and to use language creatively. Its a problem. They also study 6 further lessons a week in public schools. Koreans study English about 10 hours a week but there is too much reliance on grammar translation. Its old hat and doesnt help anybody.

Korea is changing and the spoken element is becoming more important but changes are slow. Im gonna be earning my living here for quite some while yet.