Talking the Talk

I have spent most of the last month preparing a talk for the annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. This conference was last week, May 27-30, at York University in Toronto. My talk was on if/how/why second-language learners of English learn to "introduce" quotations, as in "I said, 'blah blah'", "I was like, 'blah blah'", "I 'blah blah'", etc. It might look weird to see them written, but as I am studying spoken language, just about anything can happen. Basically, no foreign language teacher is going to tell you to say "I was like, 'Wow!'" So, do any second language learners say that? If they do, do they do it in an 'english-like way' or in a 'non-english-like way" and what are some ways they could have learnt it. Really, that's my talk and my research in a nutshell! The short answers are: yes, yes, and the evidence is pretty weak (i.e. is it from talking to people, watching TV, what?) My "exciting" finding was that learners who DO watch TV, movies, etc in English use be like and everything thing else right, while those who don't hardly use any verbs, and use no verb in a "non-english-way". The implications of this, though, are pretty circular. Since this was just a class project that I beefed up a bit, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And I'm certainly glad it's over!! Now I've got my first real presentation under my belt. (I "co-authored" a presentation back in 2004, but my involvement was mostly behind the scenes with that one) One of my collegues took some photos of the talk. A warning - it is accepted to read from a text, and given the time constraints, preferred by many. However, this means almost all the shots are of me looking down. And since I was using a power point, I didn't have a nice podium to hold my papers to make it easier to look up. argh! Sorry for the lack of wittiness - my brain is fried. Some of the more "interesting" aspects of the trip include, but are not limited to: a surprise heat wave (31 C, with humidex of 41), a transit strike, massively blistered feet, my host's boyfriend suffering a fractured skull after getting kneed in the head playing soccer, and a barbeque serenaded by an a capella choir singing "I wanna dance with somebody"

It was, all in all, a memorable time. And now I can say I've been to Toronto!