http://spajal.targeteil.org:80/?q=node/229

While the latest version of my wordlist uploads, I'll pop into this cooliris window and post a blog entry for the first time in six months or so.

It's been a fine time for me. Just got back a week ago from three weeks in Victoria (brother) and Prince George (parents). One of the big highlights was a two-hour canoe trip with my old friend Brock and my five-year-old son, Ben. Ben's a natural. With a little coaching and observation, he was dipping and feathering like a pro. Unfortunately, here in Kaohsiung, we won't get many opportunities to glide on lakes.

One little event that will have repercussions for the next several months at least is my invention of behavioural grammar. I had been reading Skinner's The Technology of Teaching and was just starting Chomsky's The Minimalist Program when it hit me that grammar-in-use is behavioural, not conceptual, and that I could develop a behavioural grammar that would guarantee consistently, continuously correct performance. I got on it right away and wound up with a good start on a behavioural grammar for verb inflection.

These days, though, I'm back to slogging it out over Multilist. I still have half a dozen sources to input, but yesterday I decided I had enough to start an acquisitional wordlist. Basically, I'm paring the list down to useful items, grouping the items by useable base form and splitting the result into two lists: the first containing the base forms and the second containing so-called derivations. The idea is to teach the base forms as a resource for extrapolative reading, add the derivations as fodder for extrapolation, and leave students with a solid intermediate vocabulary and trusty vocabulary building skills. Naturally, I'll eventually put together a complete basic-through-advanced list, but it will take time. I'm hoping to have the current project done by Saturday so I can test it on a new TOEFL student.