We could add all of these
dialects to the bingo grid and use at our next staff development
workshops?!?!
Wonderful!
Also ACAB*LL*CKS, the academic dialect so nonsensical and cowardly that it
dare not speak its name
And of course SEDAN, the dialect that transports staff and educational
developers in such style
David
+++++
Perhaps one of the
reasons that in UK Higher Education 'Academic' English
has become so
important is that we all seem to be required to speak
various dialects of
this to survive!
It may be helpful to explain some of these
dialects.
BIDSPEAK: a dialect used to gain funding, believed to have
originated in
business schools or management centres.
QAAHILI: a
dialect used in interactions (interventions?) with the Quality
Assurance
Agency for Higher Education.
HEACADEMESE: a recently formulated dialect
of Academese, but where it
seems necessary to include the word
'scholarship' in most sentences
(taking due care not to be particularly
clear exactly what may be meant by
'scholarship' in any given
context).
ASSESSPERANTO: the term is believed to have been coined by
James Wisdom,
for the dialect which needs to be learned by students if they
are to
succeed in assessments - particularly those requiring advanced
competences
with academic English.
ACCREDITIONIAN: a more advanced
form of the above, designed to ensure that
teaching staff continue to
develop their academic English.
WIPARTESE: a dialect used to wax
lyrical about how different the student
population is as it nears 50% of
the 18-30 age group, and to express what
a good thing this must
be.
SENDANIAN: a special dialect for discussions of how unlawful it has
become
not to cater for special educational needs and
disabilities.
I hope that the recognition of these dialects of Academic
English may help
to simplify the task of using the right one in the right
circumstances.
I hope even more that readers of this missive may share
some further
dialects they have discovered or invented.
Phil
Race
www.phil-race.com
David
Baume PhD FSEDA
64 Princess House
144 Princess Street
MANCHESTER
M1
7EP
Phone 0161 273 6454
Mobile 07747 045 931
E-mail
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