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THE PASSIONATE SKEPTIC
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owner: Thorold (Thor) May Chinese name: Méi Tianxiào
internet http://thormay0.tripod.com
locations: http://angelfire.lycos.com/az/passionateskeptic
http://members.fortunecity.com/thormay
http://thorsdocs.8m.com;address: Department of English, Sungsim College of Foreign Languages
249 Bansong-Dong, Haeundae-Ku, Pusan 612743, South Korea
telephone: [+82 051] 545 9484
position: Lecturer in English Language
last update: August 2001 go to end
Table of Contents
1. Philosophy...a rough brew of ideas
2. Poems
3. Political Debate ... a bit of polemic
4. Inventions & Ideas ... the odd idea to kick around
5. Stories ... tales from long ago and far away
6. Technical Reports and Technical Writing
7. Technical Stuff (Linguistics )
8. Language Teaching Methodology & Critique ... a selection of papers
9. Samples of ESL Teaching Materials ... brain surgery with a blunt axe
10. Self ... in which our hero advertises himself 11. Stumpy and the Decision Tree - a daggy tale growing bit by bit (Australian argot) 12. Thor's China Diary (August 1998 - July 2000) 13. Thor's Korea Diary (September 2000 ~ ) 14. Thor's Unwise Ideas - a forum for The Passionate Skeptic with regular additions
15. Your Comments
16. Links to Other Sites
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1. Philosophy ... a rough brew of ideas
The Atheist's Catechism ...
a wry, curious, sometimes furious collection, where TM arm-wrestles with the persistence of religious belief.
Curiosity Questionnaire
A Personal Declaration of Membership in the Human Community (would you like to sign?)
Signatories to the Personal Declaration of Membership in the Human Community (... the pioneers)
Social Innovation (and resistance to...) the odd idea to kick around
Notes to Myself from The Bottom of the World
[fragmentary thoughts on who does what to whom and why.. ]
Part I : Qualities and Values [dropping an anchor against the tide]
Part 2: The Human Circus [looking askance at political culture]
Super-Culture & the Ghost in the Machine
(a whimsical essay on keeping the batteries of civilization charged)
EDINN: Respinning Intellectuals into the Social Fabric
(coffee shop babble ... or sparks for a new social order?)
Psychological Time & May's Constant (an eccentric graph of time passing)
Thor's Unwise Ideas ... opinionated opinions from 2001
2. Poems
Stumpy and the Decision Tree : a daggy epic of the unexpected (growing day by day)
The Wrong Address: fragments from an Australasian life (an anthology)
Extraordinary
Adrift
Wood Paper Plastic
When Eyes Came Out of Hiding
3. Political Debate ... a bit of polemic
Technical & Further Education in Australia: Is there a star to steer by?
This document has been tabled (December 1996) in the Senate of the Australian Parliament as a submission to the Enquiry into the Status of Teachers. It has also been published in:
Campus Review (a nationally distributed Australian newspaper); April 16, 1997
The News (weekly publication of the Australian Education Union); May 29, 1997
The De-Skilling of 100,000 Skilled Tradesmen This document was sent to:
The Hon. John Howard, Prime Minister reply from A. Greer, 1st Asst. Secretary, VET Division, DEETYA 3/10/97
The Hon. Kim Beazley, Leader of the Opposition reply from Kim Beazley 29/8/97 ; reply from Martin Ferguson 29/9/97
The Hon. Jeffrey Kennett, Premier of Victoria reply from Phil Honeywood 18/9/97 (Minister for Tertiary Education & Training)
The Hon. John Brumby, Leader of the Victorian State Opposition reply from John Brumby 18/8/97
The Hon. Cheryl Kernot, Leader of the Australian Democrats Party
National Literacy
Note: This letter was sent to The Australian (newspaper) on 17 September 1997 in order to assist informed community debate. Nobody has a monopoly of wisdom on issues as complex as this one..Performance-Linked Micro-Tariffs
Note: This letter was addressed to Prime Minister Keating, 8 July 1995. The reply from a minder was what you might expect: vapid. Nevertheless the points made here remain germane to any Australian government
The South Pacific & Someone's Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Note: This piece was written while I was a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji (1987-1990). Not so much has changed -- certainly not for the better. The observations below still have some currency.
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4. Inventions & Ideas ... the odd idea to kick around
Technical Innovation
Social Innovation (see also Philosophy)
Inventions we have to have ** Do you have some bright ideas? If I like them, I'll add them to the list**
5. Stories ... tales from long ago and far away
Stumpy and the Decision Tree : a daggy epic of the unexpected (growing day by day)
Folk Tales [Nasreddin & other stories]
The Five Minute Future [Science Fiction (?)]
The Price of Freedom [actual story of an escape from Vietnam]
Loss [ a short story of invented truth, if that's what our memories are made of ...]
The Sale of Tabu Soro[a post-colonial parable]
6. Technical Reports and Technical Writing Consultancy Report on a Technical English Program for P.T. Koba Tin, Indonesia
7. Technical Stuff(Linguistics )
Postsupposition & Pastiche Talk [cognitive linguistics]
1. This paper related to my second PhD candidacy, since withdrawn from.
2. The material is presently published in two places in addition to this site: a) "University of Melbourne Working Papers in Linguistics" [hard copy]; b) "Dynamical Psychology" at http://goertzel.org/dynapsyc/ [an e-journal edited by Dr Ben Goertzel in New York, concerned with the theory and applications of cognition.
Purposive Constructions in English [formal linguistics]
Note 1: This paper was first published in Australian Journal of Linguistics, 1990:Vol. 10,1.
Note 2: The content was accepted as a thesis, submitted to the Faculty of Greenwich University, Hawaii, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in Formal and Applied Linguistics. Approved: Date: 6 June, 1994. Examiner: Peter Peterson, PhD, Head of Department, Dept. of Linguistics, University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia
Verbs of Result in the Complements of Raising Constructions [formal linguistics]
Note 1: This paper was first published in the Australian Journal of Linguistics 7 (1987), 25-42.
Note 2: The material was researched while the writer was doing doctoral research in Linguistics at the University of Newcastle, N.S.W. The analysis is quite technical, and presupposes that readers have some familiarity with generative grammars, in particular Noam Chomsky's Government & Binding model, and Joan Bresnan's Lexical Functional Grammar.
Language in Suva: language use and literacy in an urban Pacific community [sociolinguistics]
Note 1: This paper was first delivered in its present form to a conference of the Australian Linguistics Society at Macquarie University in Sydney, NSW, 1990.
Note 2: The material for the study was gathered in a pilot survey in Suva, Fiji, while the writer was a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of the South Pacific.
8. Language Teaching Methodology & Critique
... a selection of papers
Evaluating Linguistic Difficulty [guidance for teachers]
Note 1: This paper was first published in TESOL News Vol. 8 NO 3 1987 (Australian Commonwealth Schools Commission). The analysis it contains is still very relevant to ESL teachers.
Note 2: At the time of writing Thor May, was preparing a doctoral dissertation in theoretical linguistics, and teaching in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology.
This Is Your Problem, Friend, Not Mine: Towards A Cure For Formal Language Errors In Papua New Guinea (& Elsewhere) (advice for teachers]
The material in this article is as relevant as it was a decade ago. Some things don't change. It was first published in Guidelines - A Periodical For Classroom Language Teachers, Vol.8, No.1, June 1986, SEAMEO Regional Language Centre, Singapore. This is an extended version of a paper given at the TESLA Conference in Goroka, PNG, in July 1985.
Plain Speaking: The 1989 Fiji National Oratory Contest
[advice for teachers & speech judges]
In 1989, as a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of the South Pacific, I was asked to be one of the judges in the Fiji National Oratory Contest. This contest was to be a precursor for the winners to participation in international contests. Further, traditions of oratory in Pacific Islands cultures are radically different to those found, for example, in Anglo-Saxon styles of presentation. It was therefore an excellent opportunity to compare varying styles of oratory, and the possible consequences for Pacific Islands speakers in international forums.
Technical & Further Education in Australia: Is there a star to steer by?
This document has been tabled (December 1996) in the Senate of the Australian Parliament as a submission to the Enquiry into the Status of Teachers. It has also been published in:
Campus Review (a nationally distributed Australian newspaper); April 16, 1997
The News (weekly publication of the Australian Education Union); May 29, 1997
The De-Skilling of 100,000 Skilled Tradesmen
This document was sent to:
The Hon. John Howard, Prime Minister reply from A. Greer, 1st Asst. Secretary, VET Division, DEETYA 3/10/97
The Hon. Kim Beazley, Leader of the Opposition reply from Kim Beazley 29/8/97 ; reply from Martin Ferguson 29/9/97
The Hon. Jeffrey Kennett, Premier of Victoria reply from Phil Honeywood 18/9/97 (Minister for Tertiary Education & Training)
The Hon. John Brumby, Leader of the Victorian State Opposition reply from John Brumby 18/8/97
The Hon. Cheryl Kernot, Leader of the Australian Democrats Party
National Literacy
Note: This letter was sent to The Australian (newspaper) on 17 September 1997 in order to assist informed community debate. Nobody has a monopoly of wisdom on issues as complex as this one..
Apprentice Literacy: Designs for a Bonfire of the Vanities
[ref. CBT (competency based training), self-paced learning]
This piece was commissioned by Fine Print, journal of VALBEC (Victorian Association of Literacy and Basic Education Council) for publication in December 1997. Although the paper is structured around questions of literacy, it also raises issues about the New Apprenticeship Scheme, CBT (competency based training), self-paced learning and course evaluation.
The National Reporting System: A Critique [ref. CBT]
A shorter version of this paper was first published in Fine Print Vol.18, No.1 1996 (Journal of the Victorian Adult Literacy & Basic Education Council). The analysis it contains is still very relevant to ESL teachers in Victoria.
Observations on the Adult Migrant Education Service's Certificate in Spoken & Written English [ref. CBT]
This paper, and another entitled Assessment in the AMES CSWE, were circulated as memoranda in the Adult Migrant Education Service teaching centres, Victoria, in early 1993.
Assessment in the AMES Certificate in Spoken & Written English [ref. CBT]
This paper, and another entitled Observations on the AMES Certificate in Spoken and Written English, were circulated as memoranda in the Adult Migrant Education Service teaching centres, Victoria, in early 1993.
Fraudulent Certificates of Language Competency [ref. CBT]
This was a letter forwarded to the Federal Ministers of Immigration and Employment, Education & Training on 31 July 1997. Their minders showed no real sign of wanting to know about the issues raised. The communication followed internal critiques of CBT which I had made to the Adult Migrant Education Service, Victoria.
Colour Sheet Publishing
[proposal for publishing standards in tertiary institutions]
Note 1: This paper makes a number of concrete suggestions about publication standards within TAFEs. However, it goes beyond simple technical recommendations to identify an existing situation of plagiarism and low publication standards which undermines the very educational mission of tertiary institutions.
Note 2: The document has been circulated privately to educational managers and others, twice, within a two year interval. The silence has been deafening: there simply seems to be no genuine interest in reform.
Productivity in an Educational Institution
The Director of John Batman TAFE* in 1995 had hectored staff at length on the need for improved productivity. He was dealing with "productivity" in the economic rationalist mode. It seemed useful to give a reasoned response.
Exit of a Hack Teacher
Note 1: This letter, written to the director of Kangan Batman TAFE in early 1998, records my exit from the institution. There are thousands of such departures every day from Australian workplaces. The details of this one are not of any special significance. However, taken out of its personal context, the letter is a kind of historical window, for this moment in time, into the reality of teaching in a TAFE.
Note 2: Reply from John Parish, Director of Kangan Batman TAFE
Note 3: Reply from the Hon. Phil. Honeywood, Minister for Tertiary Education and Training, Victoria
9. Samples of ESL Teaching Materials ... brain surgery with a blunt axe
English for Mechanics ..Paragraph Units on Topics in Automotive Mechanics for teaching to NESB students (non-English speaking background) and others
Over ninety units of this material have been written and trialed with overseas trained mechanics who are learning English in Australia. It has also been used with unskilled immigrant men who are interested in mechanics. In 1996 it was licensed for use by a mining company in Indonesia. The content requires further development, especially with regard to diagrams and extra learning activities. Because it is ultimately intended to market English for Mechanics for commercial use, only sample extracts are provided on this web site.
Short Texts from Oz .. ..Paragraph Units on topics drawn from Australian culture and lifestyle for teaching to NESB students (non-English speaking background) and others
Sixty-eight units of material are displayed here. All the units have been trialed over a number of courses with adult immigrants to Australia. Each unit is accompanied by about ten questions. The content is intended to be delivered and questioned orally (after dicussion and priming for vocabulary), then distributed in written form later. It can be put to many uses, and should be adapted flexibly, expanding or contracting units for particular situations. Although the themes are Australian, their application is often universal and interesting cultural contrasts can be made. Short Texts From Oz can thus be used with foreign language students as well as immigrants.
Bus to Heaven A quirky story of unexpected events in an ordinary life... for teaching to NESB students
Practice Dialogues for English Conversation
These little dialogues are best practised between pairs of students in a class after modelling by the teacher. They are deliberately a bit whimsical (that helps recall) and should be delivered with expression. Most of the scripts were written for industrial students in the city of Melbourne, Australia.
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10. Self ... in which our hero advertises himself
The Plain & Fancy Language Company
A Resume for Optimists
Documentation for Thor May
2. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Diploma Document
3. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Thesis Approval Document
4. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Thesis - "Purposive
Constructions in English"
5. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Degree Approval Document
6. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Transcript Document1
7. Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Transcript Document 2
8 Master of Arts in Formal & Applied Linguistics - Transcript Document 3
9. B.A. 1st Class Honours (Equivalent) - Letter of Approval
10. Bachelor of Arts - Diploma Document
11. Bachelor of Arts - Transcript Document
12. Postgraduate Diploma of Teaching - Transcript Document
15. Your Comments
16. Links to Other Sites
contacts: thormay@mailcenter.com or thormay@yahoo.com
copyright (c) Thor May 1999 - 2001, all rights reserved go to top