Laura McLoughlin
I am a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Galway - School of Languages, Literatures & Cultures.
My main research interests are Applied Linguistics, Audiovisual Translation and E-Learning.
Location Galway, Ireland
Activity
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Very user-friendly.
I am sorry I am lagging well behind, still at week 1 but will get there :-) -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Done! Very straightforward, thank you.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Very interesting, thank you. I am particularly interested in learner corpora. I have a small corpus of FL subtitles gathered over a few years teaching subtitling and would like to know how best to use it. Looking forward to the rest of the course.
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Så flott :-)
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Michelle Ostler
I see, maybe we should have an additional option (Other:.. explain what you do), but the whole idea is really to think about what we do when we encounter new words, the options are not exhaustive
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It's really what works for each one of us. We develop a personal way of learning/reading/listening etc. Thinking about what we do and how we do it, however, can help us improve/speed up our methods, if or when necessary.
Awareness is part of learning -
Yes, that works for me too
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Well, that's the main aspect of these courses. We support each other and we learn from each other. It's very interesting!
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Exactly, academic titles normally require knowledge of the discipline and its terminology
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Yes, you need to be familiar with the academic topic
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Eventually you will find that you use them all. As you move from the lower to the higher thinking skills you will have touched on all or almost all the other actions.
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Good point! It' s a nice way to start, makes the presentation more "personal".
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Rose Gabriela Varela Ruiz
Good prediction
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Correct, and eye contact of course is also part of the non-verbal sphere
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The tone would belong to the non-verbal, the sentence to the verbal.
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Yes, non-verbal is anything to do with body language, facial expressions, gestures, but also intonation and pits. Anything that is not "words".
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Yes but there are some more actions associated wit each level, as listed in the right-hand side of the pyramid.
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I understand what you are saying, but sometimes guessing can help. Of course we can guess wrong, but the fact that we then realise we made a wrong assumption, that we need to go back and reconsider will help us to build up a larger vocabulary.
Ultimately, however, as language learners we will find a strategy that suits us personally and it may be very... -
I understand what you are saying, but sometimes guessing can help. Of course we can guess wrong, but the fact that we then realise we made a wrong assumption, that we need to go back and reconsider will help us to build up a larger vocabulary.
Ultimately, however, as language learners we will find a strategy that suits us personally and it may be very... -
Yes, visual aids help us to focus and normally summarise the main points. Great help.
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I bet you will find that very soon you have a better understanding of English specialist texts on this topic than the average native speaker :-)
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You sound very determined but your goal shouldn't be to speak like a native, that can be very frustrating. The goal of learning a language should be to be able to communicate effectively. You will be fluent when you are able to adapt the language to the context (colloquial language with friends, academic language at university/for research, formal language...
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Hi everybody. Nice to see you in week 2. This is a more "practical" week as we consider listening to academic texts. Enjoy!
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Thank you for all your comments. Glad to hear you have enjoyed this introductory week. Next week we will go into more details analysing academic texts. We look forward to having you with us again.
Have a nice weekend. -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Glad to hear that you all like the Learning Diary. As it is a template, you can adapt for any other course you take or for your own students.
We would be interested to know how you get on with it. -
Interesting comment. The second one is certainly more specific and specialised.
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correct
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Yes, Michelle is right. Of course, the two audiences are different and their needs are also different. Students probably have tests and exams at the end of the course, while the general public only listens to learn something new, not to take exams. That also determines the different style.
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Yes, the audience is not made up of specialists, yet they can still follow because the topic is clearly explained.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Yes, you all correctly pointed out his choice of vocabulary, not really typical of colloquial speech among "normal" people :-)
Normally, spontaneous colloquial conversations rely on more common, less specific words and constructions. -
Yes, he is using all these difficult words!
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Yes, research proposals are an important example of texts in academic language. A poorly written proposal for a good research project is unlikely to get funded.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Reem Al-Mashaan
I would say "scholarly" information, rather than "official". Official communications are more likely to come under bureaucratic language.
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Hi, nice to meet you here.
The idea of speaking like a native is a myth. There are many different native speakers who speak very different varieties of a language, some natives speak their language "well" (compared to a standard variety), others not so well.
The important thing is to be able to communicate our message. As we become more fluent, we are able... -
Hi Olga.
I hope you like the course and that your students can also join us. I'd love to hear about that. -
Hi Leticia,
we won't be covering grammar as such, we will concentrate more on skills and strategies. But you can take advantage of the Discussions to practice your language. -
I like your attitude. An I think it's great to see so many participants from so many different countries but with similar goals!
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Reshmi V M
Good idea, we'll try and make the image it as clear as possible.
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Well, official and academic is not the same thing. Official language is a language that has a special status in a country. So for example English would be the official language in the UK, etc. But academic is a variety of language used in specific contexts (universities, research, essays etc).
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We certainly hope so and that you will enjoy progressing with us.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Hallo everybody.
Great to "see" you all here. I look forward to working with you all over the next six weeks and hope you will enjoy the course. -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Welcome to the first week of this course.
We look forward to your comments and interactions and hope you enjoy the next six weeks. -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Hi, I am Laura and a late comer to the course. I have a strong intetest in kanguage teaching so I really look forward to this course.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Great to see you made it to the end of Week 2 and we look forward to meeting you again next week.
Have a great weekend. -
The role of other languages is difficult to gauge without going into more specifics (another MOOC needed :-). It really depends on the similarities between the languages, our level of fluency etc. Anyway,the verbs associated with the different levels in the pyramid help define HOTS. I would agree that conscious code switching falls into HOTS
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I am glad you are not discouraged. These definitions may seem confusing, but it is good to know the terminology and you can go back to it in the future. You are aware of them now and that awareness will stay with you.
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Good list, thank you
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Absolutely, using the correct register is of paramount importance in communications. As you say, it doesn't always happen and not only among language learners. Sometimes native speakers also use the incorrect register and therefore may come across as either rude, or naive, or more generally inappropriate.
In academic texts, register is doubly important... -
The aim of the Mooc is actually to help you become aware (or more aware) of skills and strategies that you can use or are already using, and the. make the most of them. So if this step got you thinking, that is great.
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Hopefully at the end of this week you will feel more confident.
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Yes, and the more aware you are of these strategies, the more you can optimise them.
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That is true, our learning strategies change as we progress and acquire more knowledge. However, it is useful to know which strategies can be applied when we are faced with a challenge.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
As you all predicted, the talk is about Earth, oceans etc. Of course, evend finding that our predictions were not correct is important and useful as we consciously reassess what we think the theme is going to be.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Weihua Huangfu
Yes, that is exactly the point. We may not always be aware that we are predicting/confirming but when we face something more challenging is good to activate these strategies.
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Language skills are certainly complex skills that encompass all HOTS, although probably with a different mix depending on our fluency level. While we may start with just remembering, we then need to move through the other layers of the pyramid in order to construct and use meaningful utterances, i.e. in order to communicate effectively. Both listening and...
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Can you access YouTube? This is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV7IvRT5Qyw
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Hi everybody,
welcome to Week 2. We are now going deeper into our topic of academic English. I hope you will enjoy the content. Keep posting :-) -
Yes, we will cover this during the week
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We have a combination of videos and texts to suit different types of learners
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Some very good points made here: calm speaker, personal accounts, use of displays and jokes, easy flow to drive the topic. In the next steps we will se how/if this differs from academic talk.
Well done, keep going. -
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, the title is Talking "difficult", rather than talking "academic" and it was just meant to introduce the topic of the next steps in a light-hearted way. Above all, our goal was to get conversation and comments going, so that you all interact with each other as well as with us. -
And this is a very good point. As a matter of fact, that is just the way he talks all the time
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Yes, don't worry. This is just the Introductory Week, we will go back to scientific texts in the next weeks.
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Indeed it is not easy at all. Hopefully our Week 4 will help. In Week 4 we concentrate on writing skills, let us know how you get on.
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Will we focus on reading skills in Week 3. Let us know when you complete week 3 if you feel more confident.
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Yes, I would say some textbooks too, at least those that are written for scholarly audiences.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Giovanny Campos Chavarria
Thank you. Glad you are enjoying it.
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Strange, could you try with a different browser?
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Don't look at them as flaws and shortcomings. Inaccuracies are part of the language learning process :-)
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If you like, you can print it if you prefer to write by hand and take notes. Otherwise, you can just save it online and type your reflections as you go along.
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Hi Everybody,
So nice to "see" you all. Welcome to our course, I hope you will enjoy our activities and interactions over the next six weeks.
It's great to read all your comments, so keep them coming. -
Hi Angelica, please note that this is specifically "academic" English, for stydying and researching in English-speaking environments.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Yes, this course is specifically for those interested in academic language because they are studying/researching in an English-speaking environment at university level. The course is not geared towards every day conversation.
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Yes, of course our learning styles vary greatly and our frame of mind, mood, tiredness etc also have an impact on the way we approach foreign language texts. However, knowing these strategies means that if you encounter difficulty in understanding a text you can consciously apply them to solve at least some of the comprehension issues, sometimes we do this...
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Laura McLoughlin made a comment
You are half way through the course. Weel done!
Don;t forget that you can check the results of our little Word Cloud here: https://www.mentimeter.com/s/2307cc91330ebd87c4eb82f03340d5df/2ff3bd78eaac -
Laura McLoughlin replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
Good to know.
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Yes, you are right. The audience is (or should be!) the main factor determining the style and register of a text.
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Hi Tao, thank you for your comment. Your views are really important to us. I'd be interested to know why the video may be misleading.
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Stressful situations do that to us all, we lose our calm and don't think strategically anymore. What you can do is practice these stretegies and apply them as much as you can before you get to an exam. Practice until they become second nature to you, i.e. until you no longer need to think about what to do before, during etc, you just mechanically do it. If...
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Laura McLoughlin replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
I have reset this now. Could you try again?
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But your predictions are correct! The actual content could be difficult to guess if we are not familiar with the topic (mathematics may not be our specialist subject, for example), but there is very little room for fanciful interpretations.
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Yes, but the difficulty here is more our understanding of the topic than predicting what the articles will be about. In other words, academic titles are usually very specific and don't (or shouldn't) allow for multiple interpretations.
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That is really great, I am delighted that you feel like participating now. Of course, lurking is fine too but interaction is communciation and after all the goal of any language (academic or not) is always communication. Welcome aboard!
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Olga Shekun
If you try to predict what the text is going to be about (before you read it), you can then check whether your predictions were correct (after reading it). Being able to do that means you understood the text. For example, did the title suggest something to you that wasn't really in the text? Or did you find exactly the type of information you were expecting?...
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Laura McLoughlin replied to J PASTOR
Yes, generally speaking marketing is not a major concern for academic writing
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:-D I love that bit about bored housewives!!
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We certainly hope so. We would love to know how you get on.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to KENAN MORANI
You may well be right as far as sources of entertainment go and even in academic environments there is an ever increasing use of multimedia visual aids. Yet reading material is not dead, far from it, especially in our specific context. These strategies are of course not new, but we sometimes forget or neglect to use them when we encounter difficulties. I hope...
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Keshab Magar
No, it was a genuine mistake. :-)
Thank you for pointing it out, it's been corrected now. -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Well done for completing week 1. I had a look at the word cloud: https://www.mentimeter.com/s/2dcb9dff5176edc05218c3c70ee251d2/d3e8d96de2e2 - fascinating, especially the smaller print that includes anything from "boring" to "hope" :-)
Thank you so much for posting all your comments and we look forward to meeting you again next week. Have a lovely weekend.
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Yes, we will go into more details in weeks 2-4. Thanks for your comments.
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Thank you for sharing your concern. Understanding every word is often a myth. Even in our own language we may encounter words and expressions that we are not familiar with, we don't understand or simply we can't hear. Imagine you are listening to a radio bulletin in your own language, but the signal is not good. You hear most/some of the words but not all of...
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Melanie Straub
Yes indeed, you are correct. Thank you for the bibliographical reference.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to Melanie Straub
'Metalanguage' is normally used to refer to language that describes or analyses language. Here we follow Baumann and Graves' definition: "Metalanguage:
Terms used to describe the language of literacy and literacy instruction and words used to describe processes, structures, or concepts commonly included in content area texts [...] Language of Literacy and... -
Laura McLoughlin made a comment
Isn''t it interesting how a 'simple' adjective can lead to some many comments and discussions? Very exciting!
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Intriguing, by linking language structure and thought structure you just showed how powerful language is.
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Interesting comment. I wouldn't say that academic research is an "independent stream" and more than ever academic researchers collaborate with non-academic partners. However, we could say that academic research is not necessarily linked to economic gains as other market or industry-led research is. Action research, on the other hand, is a process that can be...
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Absolutely! And of course the objective is important as it also determines the structure and the syle of a talk.
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That's correct: involving the audience emotionally is very important in public talks.
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Laura McLoughlin replied to dawa kalsang
Make a note of this difficulty in your Learning Diary. As you progress through the course you should find the answer (we will cover understanding first, then producing texts too). Let's get back to this later in the course. You can raise this question again when we start working on producing oral/written texts.
