on using Inductive Teaching Methods to Escape Black Holes

Who I Am...

I am a dual national (British/Romanian) and a bilingual, Cambridge University English Language Teacher (CELTA – with ‘Distinction’ at that), with more than a decade of international experience across a range of specialist communication areas, starting with Academic & Professional English (FCE, CAE, CPE, BEC, IELTS, UCAS applications and counselling) up to, and including, Aviation English, English for Medical Professionals, Legal English, English for the hospitality industry, and translations.

The rather flattering post-course feedback received upon teaching General & Business English in the UK, and the rest of the specialist communication areas mentioned above, in Italy and Romania, owes to my track record in communicating an engaging picture that motivates my trainees to achieve well.

Revealing myself as a facilitator (of achieving specific aims) and a resourceful assistant of people’s discoveries (in Mark Van Doren’s mould), I employ an inductive, student-centred approach that identifies one’s specific needs while nurturing their learning enthusiasm.

As such, I elicit participation from all the class members to enable peer-led learning as far as this is practically possible. Where teacher-led instruction is required, I am clear and concise while checking understanding across the whole cohort. 

I am also a seasoned translator of a number of international bestsellers (see the Vellant Publishing House's titles) which include: Allain de Botton’s Status Anxiety, Penguin Books, 2015, Julian Bell’s Mirror of the World: A new History of Art, Thames and Hudson, 2007 (co-host &/interpreter at the book’s launch in Romania, at the Carturesti Bookstore, in Bucharest), Alain de Botton and John Armstrong’s Art as Therapy, Phaidon, 2013, Thomas Nagel’s The View from Nowhere, Oxford University Press, 1986, Noam Chomski’s Interventions, Hamish Hamilton, 2007, Oliver James’ The Selfish Capitalist, Vermilion, 2008, Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, 2007,  Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor & Aids and its Metaphors, Penguin classics, 2002, Valentina Iancu’s Leon Misosniky, 2014, etc.

Aside from my Cambridge University qualifications, I am a graduate of Politics and Government from Canterbury at Kent and I also hold a PhD in Sociology from the NSPSPA (The University of Bucharest).

My professional expertise spans both the public as well as the private sector. To exemplify this by pointing to a single experience from each of the sectors detailed in my professional resume attached to my electronic signature, I will refer to my five-year stint in the Romanian Central Government, where I’ve worked as a Senior Counsellor (not a 'civil servant' due to the restrictions that existed at the time on dual nationals) and a Deputy Programme Officer (PHARE 9707/The Young Professionals Scheme RO 01.06.03), during which time I’ve played a part in several European programmes designed to reform the country’s public administration.

Undergoing a number of training modules in Project, Services & General Management, including that of Trainer of Trainers in European Affairs (InWent/The National Institute of Administration) gave me a good platform to move on to the private sector.Finally, as Project Manager for the RIFF Group, I’ve played a central role in the Group’s acquisition by Moore Stephens International. As Editor-in-Chief of the Group’s monthly magazine, the New Business, I was granted exclusive permission to disseminate Harvard Business School Review’s articles in Romania.

My Teaching Methodology

Though the title of this short presentation more than hints at Stephen Hawkins' theory, according to which there's something (information, that is) in each and every one of us allowing our escape from the enormous pull being exerted by a black hole's gravity, the analogy which I'm trying to make here actually infers something rather different come its (event) horizon...

I should therefore need to explain beforehand that my analogy actually refers to a student's innate ability to become an autonomous, self-directed learner, and in the process of their doing so, escape the gravitational pull exerted by the Direct Instruction teaching methods that they may have been subjected to over the years.

Given my proven track record in motivating students to achieve well - by employing an Inductive, student-centred approach that identifies one’s specific needs while nurturing their learning enthusiasm - I can assist those looking to further their academic/professional careers aptly.

The 'I' Method

Using the Inductive Teaching method for the purpose of 'assisting' one's own 'discoveries' (as Mark Van Doren would have it) offers a positive and rewarding contrast to old school teaching methods, namely Direct Instruction.

Thus, instead of stating beforehand a particular grammatical item proposed for study, on a Monday morning class, there is a better way of assisting and facilitating your trainees' 'own' discoveries of the rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases and words being used in the English language.

Whether the task at hand requires a student to attempt the structural analysis of a poem, in terms of its literal meaning - or apparent lack thereof - its auditory effect, rhythm and imagery, or whether they are required to find patterns of social interaction in an increasingly alienated society or, say, review a black hole's makeup and the outcomes of its transit, such theoretical pursuits are all about exercising one's critical thinking abilities in a more or less complex inquiry process.

Whereas the Direct Instruction method primarily focuses on the outcomes of one successful mastery of a target language's linguistic structures (morphology, syntax, phonology, phonetics, semantics and pragmatics), Inductive strategies help one focus more on the very processes by which knowledge is being formed and acquired. 

These strategies set people on the right track in their becoming critical users of the means by which (social) scientists codify such information - rather than (uncritical) human 'resources' (sic!), trained to reproduce ad literam a body of scientific information.

As such, they are able to formulate - as well as address, in an appropriate manner, which is using suitable methodologies - questions that show their ability to collect and analyse information, as well as draw proper conclusions to that end.

Though inductive methods can be both convergent - as the case stands when guiding students towards discovering a unifying concept - as much as they can be divergent - whereby they allow for a greater number of concepts and generalizations to be made in the process - it is the latter variant that appears to allow for significantly greater margins with regard to one's personal expression abilities.

Suchman's (1962) Inquiry Training lesson's model enables the observation of facts awaiting their theoretical codification. This strategy adds value to a student's natural curiosity by inviting them to take a seat at a "Select Committee Panel's" table (aka peer-led learning) where all the relevant questions that serve to propel one's learning further are being asked.

The Description of a Typical Inquiry Training Lesson

In an Inquiry Training lesson, the teacher/trainer present the students with a phenomenon (called a discrepant event) that is bound to stir their curiosity. A discrepant event can therefore be defined as an occurrence producing an incompatibility between the students' expectations and what actually happens in real life.

We will consider, for this purpose, Archimedes’ Principle. For expediency reasons, please refer to the known experiment here.

Upon presenting the discrepant event (or stimulus), students are invited to ask 'Yes-No' questions in order to ascertain whether their explanations for the observed phenomenon are logical or otherwise. By asking such (relevant) questions, students proceed to make causal connections explaining the discrepant event.

Even though Suchman's model was designed for science classes, as long as a teacher is comfortable finding, presenting and conducting relevant discrepant events or stimuli inquiries, such a type of training can be used across a whole host of subject areas. 

It is worth noting, however, that although this model is useful for students of most ages, younger children and English learners will need extra support in formulating their Yes-No questions:

Ice-breakers/Introduction:

1. Present a discrepant event or a puzzling situation;

Presentation/Practice/Production:

2. Describe the procedure: Students are tasked with forming explanations for what they are seeing by asking questions that can be addressed with a straight 'Yes' or 'No' answer.
3. Questions checking the understanding of the observed events and conditions will be allowed.
4. Put causal questions on hold until reaching the next stage.

5. Allow questions showing that relevant variables had been properly identified and test their underlying hypotheses.

6. Guide students towards stating/codifying the explanations formulated during the inquiry stage.

Closing remarks/Conclusions:

7. Prompt students to analyze their inquiry strategies.

N.B. It is worth pointing out here that the Inquiry Training method is more than a questioning game. Therefore, the answers given by students should be written down on the white-board/flip-chart, for reference purposes. 

Should a student state the correct explanation early on, the teacher ought to remain unfazed, pretending that this is as good an answer as any, which will have to be verified through empirical testing at a later stage. Throughout this stage, it is crucial that the classroom atmosphere is conducive to getting the students to listen to and interact with each other.

Using Inductive methods - such as case studies, concept attainment/formation, role playing etc. - at this data analysis stage in the discovery process serves to stimulate the students’ ability to discern patterns while it enables their ascertaining of structures and the discovery of important ideas that will help them structure and codify new concepts.

Moreover, by categorizing/grouping component items into classes of objects, students get to keep abreast of the constant flow of information, reduce the frightening complexity of their environments, make decisions without the constant need the verify every single variable, by inter-relating/ordering classes of events (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1960) and, most importantly of all, make their learning processes equally effective as they are efficient.

I will conclude this rather brief presentation by mentioning that the learning cycle itself favours this Inductive approach for it provides a smooth transition from firsthand experiences to a properly-structured understanding of its content and real-world applications.

The constructivist learning theory - which defines the act of learning as being both a process as well as a result of our own inquiries and expositions in the on-going process of integrating current and past experiences (Marlowe & Page, 1998) - is the basis for my drawing on a rather remarkable (admittedly) personal life experience, which allows me to give my students a more realistic sense of purpose to what should otherwise be but a life-long pursuit of building background/content knowledge. This, incidentally, is particularly useful for younger/EFL learners.

Bibliography:

A COLLECTION OF DISCREPANT EVENTS – NSTA 1999 Courtney Willis Physics Department University of Northern Colorado Greeley, CO 80639.

A Study of thinking [by] Jerome S. Bruner, Jacqueline J. Goodnow [and] George A. Austin ; with an appendix on language by Roger W. Brown.

Inductive Teaching, http://pedagogy21.pbworks.com/f/IPM_finalcomments.pdf

Joyce, B. and Weil, M. Models of Teaching, Eighth Edition. Pearson, 2014.

Stephen Hawking explains how to (sort-of) escape a black hole, http://qz.com/487418/stephen-hawking-explains-how-to-escape-a-black-hole/

Assistant Discoverer or Human(?) Resources' Trainer?

True...ish, methinks! 

Though this statement is essentially true - when considering the fact that a teacher without calling can never be the 'discovery assistant' claimed by Van Doren - there may be more than meets the eyes here... 

For this quip should never be interpreted (willfully) as a licence for denying teachers the means (i.e. decent paychecks) to make ends meet (i.e. of supporting their families and paying their bills)!

Beware, therefore, of the technocratic langue de bois, inferred by the catchy use of words, such as 'income' and 'outcome', that appears to condone the exploitation of teachers by ungrateful former pupils, who grew up to become corporate drones (with or without a human face!) seeing teachers as trainers of (de)human(ised) ‘resources’, rather than lifelong educators...

The above-said notwithstanding, you may find this useful...

How to Use Reading to Become a Better Writer

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo

There are two ways to become a better writer, in general: write a lot, and read a lot.

There are no other steps.

Of course, within those two general directives, there are lots of more specific advice I can give you, and that other professional writers would offer. Let’s take a look at the second general directive: read a lot.

Why Reading Makes You a Better Writer
I’ve been an avid reader since childhood, and I would submit that most good (and especially great) writers could say the same. What we probably didn’t realize was that our trips into the fantasy worlds of these books were actually training us for our future careers. I’m glad I didn’t know — it might have taken a bit of the joy out of it.

Read can be pure joy, if you’re reading a good book. By that, I don’t mean good literature — I mean anything that captures your imagination, that compels you to read more, that tells you a good story, that creates wonderful characters, that builds new worlds.

But beyond reading for pleasure, a good writer also reads with an eye for the writing. Maybe not all the time, but at least some of the time. And many times that writer doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.

What we learn as readers, we use as writers. Maybe we don’t always do the best job at putting that knowledge to use, but that just takes practice. Over time, our writing becomes in some ways a compilation of all the things we’ve learned as readers, blended together in our own unique recipe.

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” – Groucho Marx

How to Use Reading to Improve Your Writing
There’s no one way, of course. Every writer reads his own stuff, and puts that stuff to use in his own way. Below are just some tips of what’s worked for me — take what you like from it, and use what you find useful.

1. Create the reading habit. It can’t be a matter of just reading a book and then forgetting about reading after the initial burst of enthusiasm for reading. It has to be a habit, that you create and keep for life. As someone who has learned a lot about creating habits, I know that the best way to form the habit of reading is to focus on it exclusively — don’t try to form any other habits during this time. Write down your goal (i.e. “Read for 30 minutes every day” or something like that) and post it up somewhere you can see it. Tell a lot of people about it and report to them regularly to create accountability. Log your progress daily and give yourself rewards. Do this for a month and you’ll have a decent habit in place.
2. Have regular reading triggers. A habit has a trigger — a regularly occurring event that immediately precedes the habit. The stronger the association with the trigger, the stronger the habit. What triggers will you have for reading? For me, it’s eating, going to bed, using the bathroom, and waiting somewhere (like in a doctor’s waiting room). Every time those triggers come up, I read, without fail. Choose your triggers, and do it without fail. If you take my triggers as an example, if I read just 10-15 minutes for each trigger, that’s 6 times a day (three times eating and once for each of the others) for a total of 60-90 minutes a day. Sometimes it’s more, but that’s the minimum (I often read for much longer before bed).
3. Carry your book with you. When you go on the road, always carry your book in the car or wherever you go. You might not need it for 9 trips, but the 10th time, you’ll be glad you brought the book. When you have a lull, whip out the book.
4. Read great writers. By “great writers” I mean not only the greats (Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, Joyce, and Fitzgerald are some of my favorites here) but also the great storytellers. People who can write with wit, create great characters, reach into your soul, create new worlds for you to inhabit. Writers who can teach you something.
5. Get inspired. When I read great writing, I am filled with inspiration to write. Sometimes I throw down my book and go to my computer to start hacking away at the keyboard. Other times I’ll jot down stuff in my notebook for later. Use these writers to inspire you to greatness.
6. Analyze character, plot, theme. Break down the books you read. You can either do this as you read, or afterward, when you reflect on them while doing something else (for me it’s running and doing housework and when I’m in the shower). Why did the writer make the choices she made? How did she create the characters and convey their qualities? How did she start the book and lay out the plot? How is the theme of the book conveyed throughout the book.
7. Pay attention to what they do with words. Beyond the big things mentioned above, the writer does little things with words, in every paragraph and sentence and phrase. A good writer pays close attention to words, the effects they create, how they mix together with other words, twists and turns of meaning. See how he does this, as it is the best instruction you can get.
8. Rip them off. A writing teacher once told me not to mimmic other writers — but instead to rip them off. Steal blatantly. Take things that you discover in other writers, things that work, things that you love … and use them in your own writing. Don’t worry — you can always revise later or throw it out completely. For now, rip them off. It’ll help you make these techniques your own.
9. Riff off them, experiment. Once you’ve ripped off a few dozen writers, start to riff. Do variations and experiments on stuff you’ve found. Give their techniques and styles your own twists and flair.
10. Expand beyond your normal genres. If you normally read one or two genres, break out beyond it. If you only read sci-fi and fantasy, read more mainstream literature, read romance or thrillers, read “chick lit” (a term I hate, but oh well). There’s a lot you can learn from writers beyond your normal scope.
11. Above all, enjoy your reading. Reading, of course, is about much more than just learning and analyzing and experimenting. It’s about joy. So don’t let your “reading to become a better writer” interfere with that. If a book bores you to tears, go ahead and put it down for something you enjoy more. If you start to lose track of the story because you’re overanalyzing, just forget about analysis and lose yourself in the book. You’ll still be learning, so fear not. If you read for pleasure, you won’t be able to help it.

“I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.” – Woody Allen

On The Gory History of Nursery Rhymes...

Most of our traditional nursery rhymes ought to be packaged with a PG Warning for they are hardly the stuff of dreams... 

These seemingly nonsensical rhymes, designed to amuse children, have a rather sinister message embedded in them - some of whom date from as early as the times of the Vikings in England, while others record political and religious upheavals or are merely waxing lyrical over daily occurrences, scandals and gossip.

The Dark Side of Nursery Rhymes

Many nursery rhymes appear in books attributed to the fictional Mother Goose, who was first mentioned in a fairy tale book published by Charles Perrault in 1695 (Credit: Corbis)

By Clemency Burton-Hill

11 June 2015

Plague, medieval taxes, religious persecution, prostitution: these are not exactly the topics that you expect to be immersed in as a new parent. But probably right at this moment, mothers of small children around the world are mindlessly singing along to seemingly innocuous nursery rhymes that, if you dig a little deeper, reveal shockingly sinister backstories. Babies falling from trees? Heads being chopped off in central London? Animals being cooked alive? Since when were these topics deemed appropriate to peddle to toddlers?

Since the 14th Century, actually. That’s when the earliest nursery rhymes seem to date from, although the ‘golden age’ came later, in the 18th Century, when the canon of classics that we still hear today emerged and flourished. The first nursery rhyme collection to be printed was Tommy Thumb's Song Book, around 1744; a century later Edward Rimbault published a nursery rhymes collection, which was the first one printed to include notated music –although a minor-key version of Three Blind Mice can be found in Thomas Ravenscroft's folk-song compilation Deuteromelia, dating from 1609.

The roots probably go back even further. There is no human culture that has not invented some form of rhyming ditties for its children. The distinctive sing-song metre, tonality and rhythm that characterises ‘motherese’ has a proven evolutionary value and is reflected in the very nature of nursery rhymes. According to child development experts Sue Palmer and Ros Bayley, nursery rhymes with music significantly aid a child's mental development and spatial reasoning. Seth Lerer, dean of arts and humanities at the University California – San Diego, has also emphasised the ability of nursery rhymes to foster emotional connections and cultivate language. “It is a way of completing the world through rhyme,” he said in an interview on the website of NBC’s Today show last year. “When we sing [them], we're participating in something that bonds parent and child.”

So when modern parents expose their kids to vintage nursery rhymes they’re engaging with a centuries-old tradition that, on the surface at least, is not only harmless, but potentially beneficial. But what about those twisted lyrics and dark back stories? To unpick the meanings behind the rhymes is to be thrust into a world not of sweet princesses and cute animals but of messy clerical politics, religious violence, sex, illness, murder, spies, traitors and the supernatural. A random sample of 10 popular nursery rhymes shows this.

The stuff of nightmares

Baa baa black sheep,


Have you any wool?


Yes sir, yes sir,


Three bags full.


One for the Master, 


One for the Dame,


And one for the little boy


Who lives down the lane.



Baa Baa Black Sheep is about the medieval wool tax, imposed in the 13th Century by King Edward I. Under the new rules, a third of the cost of a sack of wool went to him, another went to the church and the last to the farmer. (In the original version, nothing was therefore left for the little shepherd boy who lives down the lane). Black sheep were also considered bad luck because their fleeces, unable to be dyed, were less lucrative for the farmer.

Ring-a-ring a' roses,

A pocket full of posies

Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush!

We're all tumbled down

Ring a Ring o Roses, or Ring Around the Rosie, may be about the 1665 Great Plague of London: the “rosie” being the malodorous rash that developed on the skin of bubonic plague sufferers, the stench of which then needed concealing with a “pocket full of posies”. The bubonic plague killed 15% of Britain’s population, hence “atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down (dead).” 
N.B. Though the rhyme first appeared in print, in Kate Greenaway's Mother Goose, in 1881, the theory goes that the 'ring' of roses is but the ring of sores around the mouth of plague victims, who subsequently sneezed and fell dead.

Hush-a-by baby

On the tree top,

When the wind blows

The cradle will rock.

When the bough breaks,

The cradle will fall,

And down will fall baby

Cradle and all.

N.B. This is the original version printed from Mother Goose's Melody (London, c. 1765)

Rock-a-bye Baby refers to events preceding the Glorious Revolution. The baby in question is supposed to be the son of King James II of England, but was widely believed to be another man’s child, smuggled into the birthing room to ensure a Roman Catholic heir. The rhyme is laced with connotation: the “wind” may be the Protestant forces blowing in from the Netherlands; the doomed “cradle” the royal House of Stuart. The earliest recorded version of the words in print contained the ominous footnote: “This may serve as a warning to the Proud and Ambitious, who climb so high that they generally fall at last”.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary may be about Bloody Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII and concerns the torture and murder of Protestants. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and her “garden” here is an allusion to the graveyards which were filling with Protestant martyrs. The “silver bells” were thumbscrews; while “cockleshells” are believed to be instruments of torture which were attached to male genitals.

Goosey Goosey Gander,

Whither shall I wander?

Upstairs and downstairs

And in my lady's chamber.

There I met an old man

Who wouldn't say his prayers,

So I took him by his left leg

And threw him down the stairs.

Goosey Goosey Gander is another tale of religious persecution but from the other side: it reflects a time when Catholic priests would have to say their forbidden Latin-based prayers in secret – even in the privacy of their own home.

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,

Your house is on fire and your children are gone,

All except one,

And her name is Ann,

And she hid under the baking pan.

Ladybird, Ladybird is also about 16th Century Catholics in Protestant England and the priests who were burnt at the stake for their beliefs.

Lucy Locket lost her pocket,

Kitty Fisher found it;

Not a penny was there in it,

Only ribbon round it.

Lucy Locket is about a famous spat between two legendary 18th Century prostitutes.

Three blind mice, three blind mice

See how they run, see how they run,

They all ran after the farmer's wife,

Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,

Did you ever see such a thing in your life

As three blind mice?

The first written variation of Three Blind Mice dates from 1609. The three blind mice were three Protestant loyalists who were accused of plotting against Queen Mary I. The 'farmer's wife' refers to the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I aka 'Bloody Mary' - a staunch Catholic famed for her violent persecution of Protestants and for the massive estates she and her husband King Philip of Spain possessed.

Oranges and lemons,

Say the bells of St. Clement's.

You owe me five farthings,

Say the bells of St. Martin's.

When will you pay me?

Say the bells of Old Bailey.

When I grow rich,

Say the bells of Shoreditch.

When will that be?

Say the bells of Stepney.

I do not know,

Says the great bell of Bow.

Here comes a candle to light you to bed,

And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!

Oranges and Lemons follows a condemned man en route to his execution – “Here comes a chopper / To chop off your head!” – past a slew of famous London churches: St Clemens, St Martins, Old Bailey, Bow, Stepney, and Shoreditch.

Pop Goes The Weasel is an apparently nonsensical rhyme that, upon subsequent inspection, reveals itself to in fact be about poverty, pawnbroking, the minimum wage – and hitting the Eagle Tavern on London’s City Road.

Not safe for children?

In our own sanitised times, the idea of presenting these gritty themes specifically to an infant audience seems bizarre. It outraged the Victorians, too, who founded the British Society for Nursery Rhyme Reform and took great pains to clean up the canon. According to Random House’s Max Minckler, as late as 1941 the Society was condemning 100 of the most common nursery rhymes, including Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice, for “harbouring unsavoury elements”. The long list of sins, he notes, included “referencing poverty, scorning prayer, and ridiculing the blind… It also included: 21 cases of death (notably choking, decapitation, hanging, devouring, shrivelling and squeezing); 12 cases of torment to animals; and 1 case each of consuming human flesh, body snatching, and ‘the desire to have one’s own limb severed’.”

“A lot of children's literature has a very dark origin,” explained Lerer to Today.com. “Nursery rhymes are part of long-standing traditions of parody and a popular political resistance to high culture and royalty.” Indeed, in a time when to caricature royalty or politicians was punishable by death, nursery rhymes proved a potent way to smuggle in coded or thinly veiled messages in the guise of children's entertainment. In largely illiterate societies, the catchy sing-song melodies helped people remember the stories and, crucially, pass them on to the next generation. Whatever else they may be, nursery rhymes are a triumph of the power of oral history. And the children merrily singing them to this day remain oblivious to the meanings contained within.“The innocent tunes do draw attention away from what's going on in the rhyme; for example the drowned cat in Ding dong bell, or the grisly end of the frog and mouse in A frog he would a-wooing go”, music historian Jeremy Barlow, a specialist in early English popular music, tells me. “Some of the shorter rhymes, particularly those with nonsense or repetitive words, attract small children even without the tunes. They like the sound and rhythm of the words; of course the tune enhances that attraction, so that the words and the tune then become inseparable.” He adds, “The result can be more than the sum of the parts.”

on figurative language

What is figurative language?

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language.

Simile

A simile uses the words �like� or �as� to compare one object or idea with another to suggest they are alike.
Example: busy as a bee

Metaphor

The metaphor states a fact or draws a verbal picture by the use of comparison. A simile would say you are like something; a metaphor is more positive - it says you are something.
Example: You are what you eat.

Personification

A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to an animal or an object.
Example: My teddy bear gave me a hug.

Alliteration

The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or group of sounds in a series of words. Alliteration includes tongue twisters.
Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Onomatopoeia

The use of a word to describe or imitate a natural sound or the sound made by an object or an action.
Example: snap crackle pop

Hyperbole

An exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe the statement is true. Tall tales are hyperboles.
Example: He was so hungry, he ate that whole cornfield for lunch, stalks and all.

Idioms

According to Webster's Dictionary, an idiom is defined as: peculiar to itself either grammatically (as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements.
Example: Monday week for "the Monday a week after next Monday"

Clich�s

A clich� is an expression that has been used so often that it has become trite and sometimes boring.
Example: Many hands make light work.

It's "Helt Texas"

Why do Norwegians use 'texas' to mean 'crazy'?

By Vanessa BarfordBBC News Magazine, Washington DC

• 24 October 2015

Norwegians use the word "texas" as slang to mean crazy, it has emerged. But when did this start happening, and how unusual is it?

To most of the world, Texas is known as a big state in southern America.

But to Norwegians, it is also a word that frequently crops up in everyday conversation - often in the phrase "Der var helt texas!" [That was very completely/totally texas!].

The word is slang for "crazy" or "wild" and is used to refer to a chaotic atmosphere, Texas Monthly first reported.

It became part of the language when Norwegians started watching cowboy movies and reading Western literature, according to Daniel Gusfre Ims, the head of the advisory service at the Language Council of Norway.

"The genre was extremely popular in Norway, and a lot of it featured Texas, so the word became a symbol of something lawless and without control," he says.

Its first usage dates back to 1957, when it appeared in a novel by Vegard Vigerust called The Boy who wanted to buy Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The author writes "he would make it even more texas in the village?".

Nowadays, the word is widespread all over Norway. It's frequently used in the phrase "helt texas" [completely crazy], which has appeared in Norwegian newspapers 50 times this year, he says.

It's often used negatively, but not always. "It could be a party out of control, a class out of control, or traffic. It could also be used by someone who had sold many products," he says.

Gusfre Ims says this language phenomenon - metonymy, where a thing or concept is called not by its own name, but by another name which is associated with it - is pretty common in Norway, and language generally.

Norwegians also use the term "hawaii football" to describe an "out-of-control" match, he says. The word "klondike", a region in Canada associated with the gold rush, is used to describe economic expansion, and also has a hint of something going out of control.

He also points to terms such as "Armageddon" and "champagne".

"People don't mean the place in the Bible, or the area in France," he says.

Erin McKean, the founder of the online dictionary Wordnik, agrees that words are often adopted into language in this way.

"I'm not surprised Norwegians would use this kind of geography to convey a quality. This is how we make language - emphasing one aspect of the word, or using metaphors," she says.

McKean says there are plenty of examples of the English language using perceived characteristics of people from other places, which is a common occurrence with neighbouring countries.

"Dutch courage is associated with having to drink to be courageous. A Dutch treat [when people pay for their own share of an expense] isn't exactly a treat. We talk about taking French leave, or an Irish goodbye.

"The closest thing to we probably have to 'texas' in America is berserk from the Norse warriors, but that's apparently Icelandic, although disputed," she says.