Publications - Thor May

publications & writings by Thorold (Thor) MAY, PhD

internet location

http://thormay.net

contact

thormay AT yahoo.com

address:;

Brisbane, Australia. Mobile tel. (+61)  0479 154 831

occupation:

Writer, lecturer, researcher, teacher, teacher trainer (English language & linguistics)

Online Publications

 

aphorisms / e.s.l. / linguistics /  teaching methodology  / technical writing / china (old) / china (new) / korea / australia / travel notes / photos /  unwise ideas /  poetry / stories (fiction) /   odds & ends / about thor  /

        Publication :

 

34. Teaching Productivity and Its Enemies, published Plain & Fancy Press 2011. 371pp. ISBN 978-0-9871390-0-9. This is a re-titled commercial eBook version (pdf format) of Thor May's doctoral dissertation.

33. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) 2010, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. Thesis topic : "Language Tangle : Predicting and Facilitating Outcomes in Language Education". Through examining a series of twenty case studies, this thesis deals with issues of knowledge worker productivity. An abstract of the dissertation can be seen here. The thesis itself (pdf) may be viewed here. The testamur (diploma document) is here. The letter of completion (pdf file) from the University of Newcastle, formally announcing the award may be viewed here. A current reference (2010) from Dr Christo Moskovsky, Thor May's doctoral supervisor, may be viewed here. The thesis is also online in the University of Newcastle research depository at http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/804346 . A further link is the Australian Research Directory.

32. Corruption and Other Distortions as Variables in Language Education ; 9315 words; TESOL Law Journal, Vol.2 March 2008; (pre-publication draft also on thormay.net )

31. Fractional Language Learning; 5218 words; published at Asian EFL Journal Quarterly Vol. 9, No.4, December 2007; presentation : Global Congress English International Language Conference, Korea University, Seoul, May 26, 2007

30."North Korea - Pick Your Godfather"  THE ASIAN TIMES ONLINE on October 12, 2006; also available at http://thormay.net/koreadiary/nkorea_godfatherl.html

29. When Grammar Doesn't Help (an analysis of the role of grammar in language teaching), [ 6000 words; external publication pending; pre-publication draft on this site]

28. Standing Room Only - Posture, Space and the Learning Process in ESL Classes, [ 4800 words; external publication pending; pre-publication draft on this site ]

27. "Today has lasted for 4 billion and 2 years, 6 hours, 12 minutes and 13.5 seconds" poem published as part of an article in THE HINDU (Indian national newspaper), February 1, 2006. Also available on this website

26. "Rude Thoughts About IT In Language Education" a) on this site, 2005 (full version); b) An earlier, less referenced version of this paper was published in the ASIAN EFL JOURNAL, vol.1, 2005 at http://asian-efl-journal.com/pta_jan_04_tm.html. c) A slightly shorter (6,637 words) but up to date version has also been published as "Brief Thoughts About IT in Language Education" in TEACHING ENGLISH WITH TECHNOLOGY, vol.5/2 May 2005 (IATEFL Poland) at http://www.iatefl.org.pl/call/j_article21.htm

25. "On Her Majestey's Australian Service", a short story; 3000 words; September 1996. Published in RETORT MAGAZINE (Australia), July 2005 at http://www.retort.brentley.com/05/id_07.05_thor_may.htm

24. Submission to the Australian Parliamentary Senate Inquiry on the Status of Australian Expatriates , 2004; this has been tabled in the Australian Parliament andt can be viewed on the website of that parliament at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/expats03/submissions/sub437.pdf2

23. "North Korea - The Japanese Card" (commentary) in THE ASIAN TIMES ONLINE, 20 February 2003; also available at http://www.thormay.net/koreadiary/japansnkoreacard.htm

22. "North Korea - The Smell of Rat" (commentary on North Korea's plans for Sinuju), in THE ASIAN TIMES ONLINE, 2 October 2002; also available at http://www.thormay.net/koreadiary/nkorearat.html

21. "Apprentice Literacy  -  Designs for a Bonfire of the Vanities", in FINE PRINT (Journal of the Victorian Adult Literacy & Basic Education Council Inc.), Vol. 20, No.4, December 1997;   pp3-7.

20. "Is There a Star to Steer By? - Fourteen Points on the TAFE Mission", in CAMPUS REVIEW (a weekly newspaper for academics with Australian nationwide circulation) April 16-22 1997, p.13 (2000 words); also tabled in the Australian Federal Parliament, December 1996 as part of the Senate committee hearings on The Status of Teachers; [online Senate reference http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/eet_ctte/teachers/report/e03.htm ]

19. ENGLISH FOR MECHANICS; 95 units of teaching text with questions for oral response. A 1st edition of this e-book is for sale commercially in PDF format for US$15.00, and a hard copy version is available from www.lulu.com for $21. It has been used on industrial sites in Australia, Indonesia, Hungary, Poland and South Korea. .

18. CONSULTANT'S PROJECT REPORT:  J.B.I. TECHNICAL ENGLISH PROGRAM at P.T. Koba Tin, Pulau Bangka, Indonesia, 22 April 1996; pp.1-26

17. CONSULTANT'S INTERIM REPORT:  J.B.I. TECHNICAL ENGLISH PROGRAM at P.T. Koba Tin, Pulau Bangka, Indonesia, 15 April 1996; pp.1-20

16. "The National Reporting System: A Critique", in FINE PRINT (Journal of the Victorian Adult Literacy & Basic Education Council Inc.), Vol. 18, No.1, March 1996; pp21-24.

15. "Postsupposition to Pastiche Talk: Mediating Chaos and Order in Language"; WORKING PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, Vol. 14, 1994: 22pp. University of Melbourne. Developed from a paper  delivered at University of Melbourne Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, May 1994. [online abstract at http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/research/mplal/wpling14.html ]

14. "Aspects of Repetition", WORKING PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, Vol. 13, 1993: pp.79-90, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. [abstract online at http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/research/mplal/wpling13.html ]

13. "Purposive Constructions in English";  THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, Vol.10, No.1, 1990: pp.1-40 (online Journal listing at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tjcurnow/AJLcont/Vol101.htm ). A journal copy of the article is available for sale from Routledge at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a901643112

12. "Verbs of Result in the Complements of Raising Constructions"; AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, Vol.7, No.1, June 1987: pp.25-42 [ online Journal listing at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tjcurnow/AJLcont/Vol071.htm ] A journal copy of the article is available for sale from Routledge at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a901640896~db=all

11. 10. Review of Newman, J (1985) WORKBOOK IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN LINGUISTICS, pub. SEAMEO; AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, Vol.6, No.2, December 1986: pp.297-298 [online listing at http://members.ozemail.com.au/~tjcurnow/AJLcont/Vol062.htm ]

10. "Plain Speaking: Judgine an Oratory Contest"; FIJI ENGLISH TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER, August 1989; 9pp. (Pitched at teachers. I was a judge in the contest).

Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the criteria which judges are likely to apply in the Fiji National Oratory Contest. It comments upon some features of the 1989 contest, and suggests factors which may have underlain the performance of contestants. However, the analysis is not merely local to an historical time or place. Oratory contests are a special case of the “speaking competitions” which are widespread in countries where English is learned as a second language. The cultural beliefs and traditions which come into play in public speaking are especially important in cross-cultural situations. The solutions discussed here have universal relevance for speakers and judges.

9. "Evaluating Linguistic Difficulty"; TESOL NEWS, Vol.8, No.3,1987: pp.24-33 (Advice for teachers).

Abstract: While ESL teachers cannot eliminate linguistic difficulties, with an awareness of the factors involved it is possible to minimise the confusion of their students. This article systematically analyses some important problem areas in language learning. It itemizes a range of syntactic and semantic phenomena, considering in each cas how the rule or pattern might pose a difficulty for some learners. This paper has been published for a number of years now, and the writer has become aware that many teachers themselves have found it a useful aid in preparing and presenting course material. Table of Contents: INTRODUCTION // orders of complexity // LEXICAL DIFFICULTY // Syllabic length:// Clusters // Irregular spelling // Irregular stress // Affixes // Multiple denotation // Range of connotation // Specialized application // Frequency of lexical items // Selectional restrictions // Subcategorical restrictions // MEASURES OF STRUCTURAL COMPLEXITY IN SENTENCES // Sentence length // Qualifying words // Adverbial and prepositional phrases // Conjunctive sentences // Equi-deletion // Deletion by convention // Permutation // Transposition // Embedding // Sentential complements // Topicalization // Presupposition // Tense // Aspect // Agreement (concord) rules // Anaphoric, cataphoric and exophoric references // DISCOURSE COHESION // CUEING // IDIOM // CONCEPTUAL DIFFICULTY // More accessible reference // Less accessible reference // Types of Inference // REFERENCES

8. "This is Your Problem, Friend, Not Mine: Towards a Solution for Formal Language Errors in Papua New Guinea (& Elsewhere)"; published by RELC in ADVICE FOR TEACHERS, July 1986: pp.1-10; (Regional  English Language Centre, Singapore; originally delivered at the TESLA Conference, Goroka, PNG, in July 1985. Pitched at teachers).

7. WORKING PAPERS, SOLOMON ISLANDS LANGUAGE PROJECT; (Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education (now Southern Cross University), 1983.  180 copies x 61pages of English teaching resource materials distributed through primary school teachers in the Solomon Islands).

6. TRANSCRIPT FOR A LANGUAGE COURSE IN BANJALUNG*, 1983; 31pp.; commissioned by Northern Rivers College of Advanced Education** for Aboriginal teacher trainees. [4Mb pdf file]
(*aka Bundjalung, Bunjalung, Badjalang, Banjalung & Bandjalang; ** NRCAE is now Southern Cross University)

5. "Language and Communications: A Linguist's Reply to Dr. Koji Kobayashi"; ELECTRONICS TODAY INTERNATIONAL, July 1984: pp.52-53

4. "English Language Teaching: a licence to poach resources", published in TESLA Newsletter of Papua New Guinea, 1985: 2pp.; ed. Angie Philip, Southern Regional Teachers College, P.O. Box 1216 Boroko, PNG

3. "The Price of Freedom"; AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY, October 1984; (factual account of a Vietnamese military officer's escape from Vietnam by boat, and its aftermath).

2. "The Five Minute Future"; OMEGA magazine, April 1984; (a science fiction short story). [online reference in Australian bibliography of Science Fiction -> here ]

1. "When is a presupposition not a presupposition?"  in  WORKING PAPERS IN LINGUISTICS, 1979: 4pp.; University of Newcastle Linguistics Student's Association;

UNPUBLISHED & PRIVATELY PUBLISHED MATERIAL
(also mostly available online at http://thormay.net )
                                                   
Thor May      last update: 2012

 

31. PLEASE TELL ME SOME IDIOMS TO LEARN   (2012) What is an idiom? The answer is both complex and fuzzy. This short paper is a colloquial discussion that begins with a student inquiry about learning idioms and progresses to the realization that idioms are an indeterminate category which raise deep questions about the nature of collocation and cognitive language processing.

30. Fluency Vs Accuracy OR Fluency and Accuracy for Language Learners? (2009) This seminar paper indicates a fundamental difference in objectives between language learning for certification and learning for live use. Whereas accuracy is an absolute goal within schooling contexts, its value on the street is highly variable. This difference is reflected in teaching perspectives. // This is the outline of a seminar on teaching methodology given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, in November 2009.

29. BASIC TIPS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS (2008) The notes [2300+ words] consist of three parts : 1. Some short backround notes on the profession of teaching languages; 2. A few useful links for teaching tips and content; 3. A collection of ten activities which the seminar presenter has invented or borrowed, and found to be popular with students.// This is an outline from one of a monthly series of seminars by Thor May on teaching skills. The seminars were given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. This seminar was conducted on 10 June 2008

28. GRAMMAR FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS  1. What are we doing when we do grammar ? / 2. So what is grammar?/ 3. Where do the rules in book grammars come from ? / 4. So is grammar just about the links between words ? / 5.Language grammar always happens at the same time as lots of other things in your brain / 6. What should grammar teachers teach ? / 7. Do students learn useful language control from studying grammar books? / 8. Can teachers teach grammar? / 9. How can language teachers be most useful? / 10. Do grammar mistakes matter? / 11. Is accuracy more important than fluency? // This is the outline of a seminar on grammar teaching given as a teacher inservice for Chinese English teachers in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, on 13 May 2008. Thor May has been teaching language and linguistics since 1976.

27. PUSAN UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES GRADUATE TESOL PROGRAM ... Lectures, notes and resources for a graduate program I have taught for aspiring TESOL teachers in Busan, South Korea, from 2003.

26. South Korean Language Policy - A letter to President Roh Moo-hyun , 2003

28. POPUP ENGLISH ... ESL materials and ideas developed in South Korea for 2-year college students

25. THOR'S APHORISMS ... quips and brief observations on life accumulating since 1988

26. THOR'S UNWISE IDEAS ... short essays on a wide range of topics

24. THOR'S KOREA DIARY (September 2000 - June 2007) An account of life in Pusan, then Chungju, South Korea

23. a) THOR'S OLD CHINA DIARY (August 1998-July 2000) An account of life in Wuhan, China (70,000 words +; book projected)

       b) THOR'S NEW CHINA DIARY - blog - (July 2007 to current). Mostly sourced from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, central China

22. SHORT TEXTS FROM OZ; sixty-nine short texts for teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, plus questions and an introduction to the methodology of using short texts. Contains an index of all English words used (2850 vocabulary items); 133 pages. Ready for publication, excepting for glossaries and a table of idioms. Copyrighted to Thor May under the imprint of the Plain & Fancy Language Company, Australia, 1998.

21. STUMPY AND THE DECISION TREE; daggy Internet-serialized blank verse + cartoons in Australian argot; continuing

20. TOM WILEY'S AUSTRALIA; serialized story (fictional) about an Australian man, designed to give advanced learners of English some insight into life in Australia from at least one point of view. Fifteen thousand words (34 episodes) written to date (February 1999). The final document should be double this. The intention is to publish this material with glossaries and idiom lists in a bilingual English-Chinese edition.

19. WHAT NEXT: ONE HUNDRED THINGS FOR A LANGUAGE TEACHER TO DO WITH TECHNICAL STUDENTS, volume in active preparation, 1997

18. THE ATHEIST'S CATECHISM, privately published by The Plain & Fancy Language Company, & on Internet; 50pp, 1997. [ .. a wry look at the nature of religious belief and disbelief].

17. GENERATIVE OSCILLATION MODEL : 50,000 words of unfinished PhD research material with extensive bibliographies - a unique proposal to account for the natural generation of language.

16. TIME PASSING: A MISCELLANY OF POEMS (1970- 2005), privately published by The Plain & Fancy Language Company, 1996-2005

15. "The Sale of Tabu Soro - A Post-Colonial Parable"; August 1996

14. "Learning Our Lines: A Lesson For The Second Millennium?" a review of , David Hare's play 1. Skylight, Melbourne Theatre Company at the Fairfax Studio until 31 August, 1996.

13. THE WRONG ADDRESS - FRAGMENTS FROM AN AUSTRALASIAN LIFE, twenty prose-poems (autobiographical); privately published by The Plain & Fancy Language Company, 1995.

12. Language Shift and Language Maintenance - A Contrarian Viewpoint from Thor May [sociolinguistics]

  • Note 1: These are observations which grew out of an Australian Linguistics Institute workshop on Language Shift & Maintenance in the Asia Pacific Region. It was held at Latrobe University, Victoria, Australia on 9 July 1994. At the time I was doing doctoral research at the University of Melbourne, and put this material aside. However, a decade later it still seems relevant. The content is also online at http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/ng/94/0315.html

11. "Generative Oscillation: from phrase structure to discourse"; a model of cognitive processing, delivered at University of Melbourne Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, May 1993; 30pp.

10. "Unclever Talk: Mnemonic Resonance and God Knows What"; paper on speculations in discourse analysis, delivered at University of Melbourne Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, May 1992.

9. "Language in Suva : A Sociolinguistic Survey of an Urban Pacific Population"; paper delivered to the Australian Linguistics Society Conference, September 1990; monograph in preparation; based on a survey of 834 Suva residents in selected census wards. Supported by University of the South Pacific research grant. 9pp + 8 pages of tables + 7 page research proposal + letter of funding approval from Research Committee.

8. "Double-Cross"; (a 16,000 word radio play in twenty-six, three minute episodes for advanced learners of English. Written under contract to TAFE, Newcastle, 1983).

7. "Script Theory", University of Newcastle, NSW, 1979: 39pp.; early exploration of discourse analysis; subsequently taken up in second Ph.D. study at the University of Melbourne in 1990.

6. "The Lexical Nature of Thematic Features", University of Newcastle NSW, 1984:20pp; extract from unfinished first Ph.D. thesis; further editing required.

5. "Inherent Features as Constituents of Grammatical Agency", University of Newcastle NSW, 1984: 18pp.; extract from unfinished first Ph.D. thesis; further editing required.

4. "The State of State", University of Newcastle NSW, 1984: 13pp.; extract from unfinished first Ph.D. thesis; further editing required.

3. "Experiments in Linguistics for Teachers", University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji, 1988: 8pp.; paper on experimental method; in preparation.

2. A number of privately circulated commentaries up to 10pp. each on a range of topics, from international relations, to conflict resolution, to ESL curriculums.

1. A miscellany of materials published on several Internet sites, including some of the above, but much else in addition. Equivalent to many hundreds of A4 pages overall.

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