2024 USHERED IN TWO FIRSTS FOR MILITARY WOMEN. WE’RE ALL CELEBRATING.

PETULA DVORAK Adaptado de washingtonpost.com, 15/01/2024.

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    The disjunction between method as conceptualized by theorists and method as conducted by teachers is the direct consequence of the inherent limitations of the concept of method itself. First and foremost, methods are based on idealized concepts geared toward idealized contexts. Since language learning and teaching needs, wants, and situations are unpredictably numerous, no idealized method can visualize all the variables in advance in order to provide situation-specific suggestions that practicing teachers need to tackle the challenges they are confronted with every day of their professional lives.

    Not anchored in any specific learning and teaching context, and caught up in the whirlwind of fashion, methods tend to wildly drift from one theoretical extreme to the other. At one time, grammatical drills were considered the right way to teach; at another, they were given up in favor of communicative tasks. At one time, explicit error correction was not only favored but considered necessary; at another, it was frowned upon. These extreme swings create conditions where certain aspects of learning and teaching get overly emphasized while certain others are utterly ignored, depending on which way the pendulum swings.

    The limitations of the concept of method gradually led to statements such as “the term method is a label without substance” (Clarke, 1983, p. 109), and that it has “diminished rather than enhanced our understanding of language teaching” (Pennycook, 1989, p. 597). This realization has resulted in a widespread dissatisfaction with the concept of method.

(Kumaravadivelu, B. Beyond Methods: Macrostrategies for language teaching. Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2003. Adaptado)

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    The 2020s have brought a degree of chaos not seen in decades. A pandemic was followed by a full-scale war in Europe; both sent food and fuel prices surging. Extreme weather events have shown that climate change is beginning to bite. The phrase “unprecedented times” soon sounded too common.

    This all affected the global standards of living. One measure of this, the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI), fell in 2020 for the first time since its launch. It fell again in 2021. The HDI is one of the most widely used measures of countries’ development, after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is not complete, though. It does not account for economic inequality, for example, or disparities between ethnicities and genders.

    The latest figures show that the global HDI is rising again, but progress has been slow and uneven. It seems the long-term trend appears to have suffered a permanent setback since the pandemic. This setback will deeply affect the world’s poorest.

    Yet there are reasons for hope. The chaos of the 2020s has also shown that governments can collaborate on some big issues. During the pandemic, vaccines were developed, produced and distributed at remarkable speed, saving an estimated 20 million lives in their first year alone. At the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in 2023 the world proved that it could agree on a deal to tackle climate change (even if fulfilling it is another matter). More of that will be needed to overcome the setbacks from the start of the decade.

Why Climate Change Could Mean More Delayed Flights 

    No one enjoys a delayed flight, but as our weather gets warmer, we can expect more of them.

    That's according to experts, who say that the heat of the summer might cause more delays.

    Bloomberg looked at US data for flight delays at airports in Chicago and New York from June to August in 2022 and from January to March in 2023. It found that there were more delayed flights in the summer months at both airports. 

    When the temperature rises above 39 degrees Celsius, things get very difficult for airlines, Bijan Vasigh, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the US, told Bloomberg.

    The air is thinner when it gets hot and that makes it harder for planes to take off. In thinner air there is not as much lift, so more power is needed.

    When they need more power, it helps to have a lighter airplane.

    That might mean pilots have to make last-minute decisions to reduce the weight on board by dumping fuel, passengers or baggage — meaning the plane will probably be delayed.

    The problem gets worse at airports that are at a higher altitude where the air is already thinner, and at airports with short runways, since planes need more space to get up to a high speed.

    But thin air is not the only problem. Smoke from wildfires — that have been happening all around the world in the summer of 2023 — can also cause flights to be delayed and canceled.    

    Of course, the summer is also a busy time when millions of people fly, and weather is not the only cause of delays — but our hotter climate doesn't seem to be helping.

Internet: Engoo

Internet: BBC News  

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Internet: <www.gocomics.com > (adapted).