John Hodgson

Nearly five decades ago, when I left university, I wanted to teach in Zambia. The prospect offered adventure in an apparently stable African country, using my interests in language and education to do some good. But other interests and adventures intervened: I got married and began my career teaching in England. This year, I fulfilled my Zambian ambition. Despite its long name, TTCSZ (Training Teachers for Community Schools in Zambia) is a small charity, set up in England on the initiative of Lyn Hall from Huddersfield University, with trustees in both the UK and Zambia. [ 1,514 more word ] http://johnhodgson.org/…/when-will-you- come-back-training-…/

The lime is old and tall; fresh branches protect its base with leaves. The elder has multiples of branches, A spray of witch's hair. Leonardo's arboreal Glad Day. The swing and goalposts in the playground are sawn cylinders. The fir is covered with dangling clumps Of serrated leaves, but its trunk Is densely wound and bound with leaved ivy. Other firs are naked to their head. Tall chimneys lift the house behind. Where does the short avenue of four tall trees lead? http://johnhodgson.org/2019/07/31/trees-a t-belsey-bridge/

Doing a Turing test
Recently I initiated an online chat with Apple support because I had a problem with my iPhone. The agent, Jayson, told me to turn the device off and on, but this didn’t fix the issue. Jayson then suggested I have the phone serviced by Apple, and arranged an appointment with the ‘technicians and geniuses’ in a local store. I thanked him and this exchange ensued:
Jayson... You’re most welcome! Thank you for your kindness, understanding & patience. Much appreciated John! Was I able to help you today?
Jayson By the way ~ May you have a prosperous 2019!
John Thanks for your help. Bye now.
Jayson I really appreciate you John, Don’t forget to eat your breakfast, lunch & dinner okay,? Its been my pleasure assisting you today, again my name is Jayson. Have a great day and take care always~
Jayson All is well! You deserve the best in life and Cheers for a great 2019!
TuringTestRunning a very elementary Turing test on this dialogue reveals that Jayson is an artificial rather than human intelligence. He (it) says things that no adult human agent would say in this situation. Yet Jayson’s mistakes are almost human, like those of a toddler learning to use language. He writes his own name phonically rather than conventionally. He can’t deal with my question – beyond the standard remedy of turning the device off and on – and so passes me on to the adult Apple technicians and geniuses. Unlike a traditional machine, he expresses affection and care: he wishes me a prosperous 2019 (in March) and reminds me to eat regularly, as his parents might have told him. No human programmer would make these mistakes; Jayson’s algorithm needs the capacity to adjust its warm, supportive language according to the season and the relationship.
Within a few years, it will become much more difficult to know whether one is ‘chatting’ to a human or machine agent (although we shall probably assume the latter). And this of course raises the question of the nature of knowledge: given appropriate technology, could a machine learn so adequately that the distinction between human learning – a activity of the embodied mind – and machine learning is elided? In Bladerunner 2049, there is no evident difference between the humans and the replicants. In Cultural Literacy (1988), E D Hirsch states that researchers in artificial intelligence have concluded that knowledge is the key component of all cognitive skills: ‘Once the relevant knowledge has been acquired, the skill follows’. Machine learning, according to this view, is not a mere simulacrum of human learning, but its paradigm.
This view clearly has very profound implications for educational policy, and aligns with current influential views on the teaching of language.
To be continued …
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The Will of the People; or, the right to change one's mind
Theresa May, Prime Minister (for the moment) of the UK, has repeatedly claimed that Britain is leaving the European Union (the process known as Brexit) because this is the will of the people as expressed in the 2016 referendum, which she is pledged to deliver.
The phrase “the will of the people” has accrued complex meaning. To some, it represents a promise which, if broken, will destroy democracy in the UK. The govern...ment promised to implement the decision of the majority in the referendum, and people will lose all faith in the political process if this doesn’t happen.
This view disregards the fact that, legally, the referendum was advisory. It required Parliamentary ratification. Ironically, one of the demands of those who campaigned to leave was to restore parliamentary sovereignty (which they claimed had been lost through membership of the EU). Parliament should have reflected on the result of the referendum. Even at the time, there were several cogent reasons to doubt the wisdom of the majority in this case.
Read more at: https://johnhodgson.org/
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Writing: a special issue of English in Education, spring 2019
from the Editorial by Jenifer Smith and Mari Cruice:
Attempting to understand how a teacher enables a student to transform thoughts into words on a page – in different genres, styles and tones – is a complex enough endeavour in its own right. Trying to develop excellent writing pedagogy in a system dominated by standardised, politicised assessments makes the task even more challenging.
...Continue Reading

Ofsted‚Äôs 2017 review of the Reception year curriculum disregards research into the nature of reading in the early years and the professional wisdom of early years teachers. https://research1english.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/reading-in-the-re‚Ķ/

Are you a teacher who writes? or a writer who teaches? A few places available on the NWP residential in Herts, 21-23 October: a calm and beautiful space in which to write in the company of others. http://www.nwp.org.uk/2018-residential.ht ml

Trump’s impeachment may hang on a point of grammar.
“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Donald Trump spoke these words to James Comey, former Director of the FBI, at a private meeting in the Oval Office. As Alex Ward of vox.com states, these are the most important words of Comey’s testimony today to the House Intelligence Committee. Comey felt that these were a direction to him by the P...resident of the United States.
From a limited view of language separate from context, Trump’s words do not include an imperative and are not an order. However, Comey felt that they had an imperative meaning if not an imperative form. Pressed by Risch as to whether, as the former director of the FBI, he knew of any case where a person had been charged with a criminal offence for "hoping for" an outcome, Comey replied:
This is a president of the United States with me alone saying I hope this. I took it as, this is what he wants me to do. I didn’t obey that, but that’s the way I took it.
Comey is drawing attention to the context of Trump’s words, and in particular to the power relationship between himself and his interlocutor. He is implicitly making a grammatical analysis of language as a social semiotic – as deriving much of its meaning from the context of use.
It remains to be seen whether the Senate Intelligence Committee will accept this more adequate socio-linguistic analysis of the President’s words.
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Testing Grammar
There has been much comment, discussion and even fury in the media about the new grammar, punctuation and spelling (GPS) tests for primary school pupils. Parents, teachers, academics and other commentators claim that the tests are inappropriate for primary pupils and that these high-stakes assessments have a deleterious effect on teaching and learning.
Part of the problem lies in terminology. Children have to spot examples of grammatical constructions such as ...“fronted adverbials”. This term has become notorious as it has not previously been used in grammatical descriptions and seems sometimes to apply to phrases that are essentially “adjectival”. The deeper problem is that the label becomes more important than the underlying reality. It is obviously good to teach children the structures of language, particularly if such knowledge helps to express themselves more accurately. But testing a knowledge of labels is very different from testing an understanding of language structures.
Such understanding requires a connection between children’s everyday understanding of language and the grammar they have to grasp. Linguists such as Halliday have developed a functional approach to language that gives meaning to everyday interactions. However, GPS relies on ‘ideal’ forms of language that contradict everyday experience. The Oxford or ‘serial’ comma is outlawed when it is in fact common and correct usage. GPS requires that ‘exclamations’ must begin with ‘How’ or ‘What’ and include a finite verb – which is not the case in real language use. Terms like ‘command’ or ‘exclamation’, which have a social function, refer in GPS only to specific grammatical structures.
This context-free view of grammar implies that children’s language is either right or wrong. Lord Bew’s review (2011) of Key Stage 2 testing, assessment and accountability seized (p.60) upon “spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary” as elements of writing “where there are clear ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers, which lend themselves to externally-marked testing”. GPS performance thus becomes a key indicator of a school’s success or failure – even though the view of language enshrined in the tests is so limited.
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Checking Phonics - the latest post on my blog https://research1english.wordpress.com/. For a much fuller analysis, go to https://www.academia.edu/5637036/Phonics_ and_early_reading

My publications ... https://westengland.academia.edu/JohnHodg son

Multimodalities is my page of links to my various activities in writing and media ...

In his latest monthly commentary (May 2016), Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools, states: “We need to put as sharp a focus on the other subjects (of the primary curriculum) as we do on English and mathematics.” Wilshaw goes on to remind inspectors to look closely at “the wider primary curriculum, including science and modern languages, as set out in the inspection handbook.” [ 908 more words. ]
https://research1english.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/a-professional-con‚Ķ

A new report by QS, a firm of global education analysts, places the quality of the UK’s higher education system as second only to that of the world leader, the United States. This finding may come as a surprise to those who have become used to international league tables that rate the quality of education in both countries as well below such states and jurisdictions as South Korea, Shanghai and Finland. [ 393 more words. ]
https://research1english.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/assessing-national‚Ķ

Shortly after its inception in 1963, NATE joined with the US National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Modern Languages Association (MLA) to secure funding for a month’s long seminar at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. The plan – as John Dixon has written, perhaps surprising today – was that a group of 40 to 50 teachers in schools and universities would thrash out the fundamental questions about English teaching and, through their national associations, spearhead a new approach. [ 453 more words. ]
https://research1english.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/why-dartmouth-mat‚Ķ/

Last Saturday, the London Association for the Teaching of English ran a day conference at the Institute of Education on the work and legacy of James Britton. Some of the large gathering had known and worked with Britton; others had had only recently completed training in the institution where his ideas had influenced the practice of generations of English teachers. Others, myself included, had less direct knowledge of the man and the institution. [ 495 more words. ]
https://research1english.wordpress.com/‚Ä ¶/renewing-acquainta‚Ķ