Strange Seas of Thought - Plenary by Peter Grundy

If we look out of the window, we do see the sea - the rather gray, gloomy Brighton seaside.

However, inside The Brighton Centre, Peter Grundy takes us in a very pleasant journey through Semantics and Pragmatics, where we are stimulated to ponder on what we teach our students, and how. "How French is French wine?" or "Is an English garden really English?" Not always.  The talk was punctuated by jokes and light hearted comments about his personal life and day-to-day conversations to show us how the English language should not be taken literally. The same utterance may have various meanings, depending on its context.

Switching colour "to wake up the audience" - as if it was necessary -, Peter pointed out our thoughts are much more precise than our words, rarely can we capture the real essence of what we mean to say. He also mentioned idioms reflect the use of language in its real environment, as used by local people, and reminded us of metaphors such as 'by the way', which noone gives any thought to when they use it, but in fact it means 'I'm going to take you on a journey'...

In another wise comment, he explained that Tongue Twisters are demystified when you think about their image before you say them, and then bingo! you can say them over and over again without a mistake. Try yourself: Red lorry, yellow lorry... First think about the images changing in your mind, then say it. There you go!

He came to a great end saying that people tend to look in only one direction when teaching EFL, I mean, they think only about thought or meaning. Actually, teachers should look both directions, as if one was crossing a road. You always run the risk of being run down if you're not careful enough.