Welcome to a new day

Welcome to a partially redone Tom's ESL Corner. It has the good fortune of having tomseslcorner as its url, but has always been one of my more obscure sites.

In December of 2020 I started this blog by putting a job resource directory and tesol directory here, but that was because I had moved out of SIUC eight years earlier, and didn't believe SIUC would save them, and believed they were still of some use to somebody. But. they were already eight. years outdated at that point, and today, they're thirteen years outdated. They are not being. updated, and things change fast in the ESL/EFL world (you can probably tell I'm old-school just by my use of ESL/EFL). In any case, I still want to save them, if only to remind myself where we've been, and to remind myself of an unwavering commitment to be of service to the world of ESL/EFL teachers, who are a various, diverse and widespread bunch. I say hello to you all and provide you a corner where you set your pack.

The ESL/EFL world as I knew it has been under assault and is hurting. I think this will drive ESL/EFL learners underground; I certainly wouldn't visit the US as international these days. Yet it's still as important as ever to learn English, just as it is to learn Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. In these violent times it may be best to remember that world peace is best served by our being able to understand each other.

I will try to make this site a hub of my feelings about the above. Nothing for it now but to pick up the pieces, and start all over.

By way of introducing the site, I'll say that I will not probably update the job resources or tesol directories, at least not right away, since I have too much going on, and am not in the best position to do it. I will mostly focus on linking clearly to things that matter to me: my old writing, my new novel, esl exercises that I develop regularly to keep myself going. It's a way of slowing down, gently, clearly, with peace in my heart, in spite of what is happening out there. If I gave anyone the illusion that this was a nice, peaceful place to live with good neighbors and a generosity of spirit, it's because I grew up white and experienced it that way. Now that it's ruled and dominated by mean, small-minded xenophobes, I'll have use my Texas strategy: you can keep playing music as long as you don't talk politics, or mess with Willy's music or the Star Spangled Banner.

Say No to obvious racism

Although this is a sleepy site, as I have been retired from ESL/EFL for many years, I feel that it's necessary that I say this no matter who is reading/listening/paying attention.

The current president has been described as the meanest, lowest, most racist president ever, and I agree. If you are against equity, what are you for - inequity? His platform is to have ICE go drag out people, legal or illegal, from their jobs oor even from their immigration hearings. This basically tells people not to go to their immigration hearings. Splitting up families will make generations of angry people.

The vast majority of the people I taught were legal and stayed that Way. But these days, they're going after everyone - legal, illegal, married, working, following the rules, doesn't matter. If you are not white they're coming after you.

I urge my fellow Americans to get out in the street. This is wrong and they need to know. To my many international friends, I'm sorry. The USA is better than this, but it's not a good place to be right now.

new book on the horizon

OK here's the story. Now I'm seventy, looking back on a thirty-year career teaching ESL. I'd like to use this site to talk about everything I learned and know; after all, I'm a perpetual loudmouth and have always been vocal about my opinions. But lately I'm putting it all in a book, or maybe two.

The main book will be Vowels in an Elevator: Language as a self-organizing system. I might have it done by the end of the year, if I'm lucky. I use this site to talk about my thinking both about the book itself, and about the topic. It has been a lifetime of gathering information and evidence. But here's the kicker. I've run out of time. I've had a cochlear implant operation; I've gone back to work (door-dashing); I have grown kids addicted to pot in a way that has made me look like an amateur, and I'm trying to avoid paying for it; and finally, my peace and quiet, and ability to research psychology or sociology, has run out. I have to take what I've got and lay it on the table.

Much of the book is written. I have been saying that language is a self-organizing system for many years and I could take any one of those tracts and slip it in there. But I don't want to simply keep repeating myself; just saying it is does not make it true. I want to show how the parts of the system work together to make a whole system, a system which, from above, looks like a fantastic mandala, evolving and changing and adjusting to minor abberations. It's a system that organizes itself because its moving parts organize themselves in similar ways. We just have to idemtify those parts and show how they relate to each other.

I will keep you posted here on my general progress on the book. This morning I tried to print it out and the printer wore out about halfway through, leaving me about sixty pages of mostly white, small-printed text that is not in very good order. I am not even sure I will use what I've printed except that I'm always short of scrap paper and can surely use it for that. The central question for the book is order - how soon should I bring in Chomsky? How thoroughly should I discuss or disprove other major language theories? What kind of lit review should I have or should I even separate it out? I've been stuck on that lit review question because, frankly, I have tons of sources yet no coherent organization. I need the overall organization to be solid before I go further.

But then, I'm ok with going with what I've got. I've got plenty. I have a strong argument. People can take it or leave it. And the title is good; it shows what I'm doing. I can explain this theory in a short elevator-rap where I give people the boiled down version: Chomsky was wrong. Language is a self-organizing system.

My other book is a novel, Sorry for Late. It will document my ESL teaching years in the same way Tall Corn State documented my life as a vegetarian cook. Like most novels it will have fictional characters, a plot, and an intense setting. I have no idea when it will be done. It too is at least half written. The characters are good. I like what it's becoming; I just need time to delve in and finish.

My ESL compatriots have turned out to be my best friends over the years. As a tribute to them, a gift to them, I want both of these to be as good as I can make them. They may or may not read what I've written, and that's true for my family and family books too. I can't control how much someone really cares about who we are or where we came from, or about what it's like to be an ESL teacher. I myself have been almost unable to think about it for years, I was so burnt out from working so hard. But now I feel the obligation to document what I learned. I didn't do all that work for nothing, or rather, if feeding myself and my kids was the only outcome, that would be ok but would not be ideal. I want to say I got something else out of it, knowledge that I can share.

OK so I admit, this site has gone a little stale over the years. Back when I was active in ESL, ESL had no job-seeking links, no TESOL directory either, and I addressed those needs. I got links for many years from people who appreciated that I had two of the best directories around, and I kept them updated the best I could. But then I retired, and that was twelve years ago, aand things went downhill fast. It wasn't that I didn't want to keep them up, I just couldn't bear thinking about it; it was like work. After too much ESL, I just couldn't go back.

I'm still that way. I have two books, both important to me, and they're each half done, but when I get into them I have a hard time applying myself to the work angle of it, because basically I'm retired. I just don't want to think about it anymore, sometimes.

One of them is a novel that documents the most interesting aspects of my teaching. It is actually the coolest of projects, because it moves like a novel, has heroes and villains, has a plot, etc. Yet it's like going back to work: almost unbearable. I can practically feel the classroom when I write about it.

The second is the language as a self-organizing system project, which actually requires linguistic thinking, thus making it even harder to finish. Yet it is even more important, because it is my legacy, what I leave to the language world, and language philosophy badly needs the voice of someone who has watched thousands of learners cross the line into fluency. My writing is important, at least to me, yet I can barely sit down and finish it.

Back to this site. I have a couple other sites related to my experience teaching. One is about how we adopt technology without thinking about its effects on our language or on learners. Another is about the chat revolution. But the only one I really keep updated successfully is the wiki people site. I was once a good materials creator, and could have done well in textbooks but just didn't want to get involved with publishers; in my era they were already overcharging by 2 or 300 percent for every textbook, and worse, changing them every year so people couldn't trade old ones. But the wiki site is the last of my work.

I will organize, and put it here, I promise. Right now it appears this site is not even linked to any of them. That will change.

memories

original photo by Tugi Tugiyanto

wiki people readers

This little pop-art represents an experiment which I will explain. It is here.

At this site you will find esl/efl exercises. At one time I was really good at making them, but now I admit to being a little rusty. I am trying to get my chops back by working on these.

The genius of the project, from an esl point of view, is that you can read about the people you are interested in, or the people whose names you recognize. If this project is successful it will have hundreds. People's names will make up a nice huge list in the template, and you can just work your way down getting the ones you like. I may categorize them as high, intermediate and low, or short, medium and long, depending on how hard they are or how much English they have in them. I plan to provide the answers as well. It's kind of a long-range project.

After thirty years in ESL I can say this much: I can get this skill back easily, but, having burnt out a little (in esl one works very hard for a very long time, for very little pay), I find myself giving up easily as well. In other words, I am enjoying retirement.

I am experimenting with ways to develop a market for books. My books are on the esl/efl side: they are readable americana. I am hoping that these exercises will also be readable, practical, and interesting, in that interesting people will be in there. I hope you enjoy them.

Unloading: The early esl stories

now on ACX

Here is my other work....