Language as culture - QuickTopic free message board hosting

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To: Members of the SIETAR-Europa Project Group: "Language as culture"

Hi, hallo, salut, ciao...

This ChatBoard is a space for us to post and discuss ideas – it's a combination of a Chat Room and a Bulletin Board (thus the name ChatBoard) and it is an e-mailing service as well. Let me explain it to you, starting with the last point.

The ChatBoard is an e-mailing service in that messages posted there will be automatically e-mailed to every member of our Project Group. But first, every one of you must click on the "SUBSCRIBE" button above. I can't enter your e-mail address for you: YOU have to subscribe (this is an anti-spam precaution). So please do click the "SUBSCRIBE" button NOW (the service is free of charge).

Don't bother clicking the "SIGN IN" button or any of the other buttons at the top. The only person who must register and sign in is me, as the administrator of this ChatBoard. Your job as a contributor is simple: just click on the "POST A MESSAGE" button above and leave whatever comments you wish. And that's all. No signing in, no signing out, no passwords, no Topic selection, no hassle whatsoever.

Another way of posting a message is to REPLY to one of the e-mails you receive containing the latest messages on the ChatBoard. When you click the REPLY button on your e-mail program, your REPLY message will be sent to all members of our Project Group and, in addition, it will be posted on the ChatBoard – just as if you had written it directly there.

Since the messages you post and receive remain on the ChatBoard in chronological order (the older messages at the bottom), the Board will constitute a permanent record of our discussions -- our history. And since we have the ChatBoard as our collective Archive, when we receive ChatBoard e-mails we can read them and delete them immediately – there is no need to clutter our computers with them.

As I mentioned at the beginning, we can also use the Board as a chat room: all we have to do is to choose a date for everyone to be on line at the same time.

So now we have a discussion space, easily accessible for everyone.

What shall we begin discussing?

The first task I propose for our "holiday meditations" is deciding how to fill out the SIETAR-Europa Board "PROGRESS REPORT" which you'll find on our Group homepage:
http://www.sietar.de/Congress2003/project8/ (click PROGRESS REPORT)

The Board's idea (actually Jeff's) is to get us to establish goals and deadlines so that we actually accomplish something. That way of proceeding may, of course, seem like an (Anglo-American) cultural imposition. But it probably fits with the upbringing most of us have had, so unless any of you have reserves or objections (in which case please speak up!), I propose doing as asked.

We've already agreed on the general goal:

    Developing the concept of "learning languages as culture"
       as a new FLT (Foreign Language Teaching) paradigm
     and creating materials to put our ideas into practice.

Now we'll have to start thinking in the more specific terms suggested by the Progress Report:

- expected benefits

- SE Board support required

- short term Action Items (next 3 months)

- long term Action Items (next 3 years) [Wow!Thinking big! -- p.]

Anyone have any suggestions on what to write?

Happy summer!

Patrick

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   *** SE Project Group "Language as Culture" ***
Homepage: http://www.sietar.de/Congress2003/project8/
ChatBoard: http://www.quicktopic.com/22/H/5Ebu2BKEG2c