Talk/Colloquium
Title: Formalized English Teaching Technique
Speaker: Dr. Anatole Minkowsky (EPAM Systems)
Host: Ralf Lämmel, Inst. for Software Technology and CS
Date/Time: 12 Sep 2011 (Monday), 3pm (ct)
Room: B 132
Abstract
There is a linear axis and there are words on it. They convey information. There’s a certain word-order in a language so that information could be understood. For most languages the word-order in statements could be expressed with the formula Subject-Verb predicate-Object-Location-Time. If we fill the formula we can detect that in most cases S-O-L-T finds its language expression in substance. To specify the information conveyed in this arrangement we introduce in an external word order possessiveness, preposition of place, definiteness and proposition of time. To complete the utterance we can choose the verb (verbs) agreeing its sense. Thus, coming from this general idea and the thought that a surface form speaks of the content much more than it’s generally accepted, we present an overview of a program to help students cope with English as an alternative to a traditional technique. In favor of the implementation of the mentioned program speaks the flexibility of choosing the vocabulary (data bank) in teaching students the language in accordance to their specialization. To enhance the capacity and the efficiency of the designed product (paper option) the assistance and help of software developers (software option) is badly needed.
Biography of the Presenter
Dr. Anatole Minkowsky is an instructor-consultant to hold trainings for management and customers and a teacher of English at the IT Company EPAM Systems. Together with this, he is the teacher of English at the IT Company Itransition (Belarus) and a coordinator of high tech products at the Main Directorate of Science of the Belorussian State University (Belarus). Previously he was a senior lecturer at IT company Visutech Systems (Belarus), Business Management Academy (Belarus) and Gomel State University (Belarus). He held a doctoral degree in Germanic Languages from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Great Britain. His major area of research is Psycholinguistics.