Survey: exercise of leadership remotely—online language schools

Hello! Thank you for reading my post. I’m new to the Forum, but not to ELT, and I’m a learner, as well as an instructor. I am currently conducting research for my dissertation toward a Ph.D. in leadership. The topic of my study is Leadership in Online Language Schools. Accordingly, I am inviting instructors who are or have been employed by an online language school to work remotely (e.g., from home) teaching English to speakers of other languages via the World Wide Web to complete an anonymous electronic survey form, which comprises 45 multiple choice questions and will take approximately 20 minutes.

The study has been approved by the University of the Cumberlands Institutional Review Board. This research aims to investigate perceptions regarding the exercise of leadership in online language schools. If you are interested in participating in this study, please proceed to this web address by clicking this link https://transform.mindgarden.com/survey/36992/d75 Please click on the link only if you have 20 minutes to devote to completing the survey form. Please respond to the items as they pertain to your current or most recent manager at an online language school where you are working, or have worked, remotely (e.g., from home) teaching English to speakers of other languages via the World Wide Web.

If you have any suggestions about other websites or online forums where I could post a notice about the survey to obtain responses, I would greatly appreciate your letting me know by replying to this post!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Sincerely,

Brad Cole

None of us teachers at UsingEnglish.com are remunerated for our work here. We are all volunteers. I suppose that means you don't want to hear from us?

probus said:

None of us teachers at UsingEnglish.com are remunerated for our work here. We are all volunteers. I suppose that means you don't want to hear from us?

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Hi! Thank you very much for replying to my post and expressing your interest in the nature of my study! I would want only those who work or have worked remotely (that would be from home in most cases, but I know that some teachers use commercial workspace-sharing arrangements, and there are probably all sorts of other places people work from) teaching English via the World Wide Web to non-native speakers of the language and who are or were supervised remotely while doing so. Remuneration or lack thereof is not a factor for this purpose. Thus, the key elements that a legitimate participant in my study should have are:

• Work remotely (most likely that would be from home, but could be another arrangement, as I mentioned).
• Teach English to non-native speakers of the language (EFL or ESL).
• Supervised remotely by (a) manager(s) in the remote teaching.

I hope that this clarification helps. Please, by all means, let me know if you have any further questions!

As a moderator here I am one of the managers, but I am nevertheless outranked and supervised to an extent by the owners and administrators of our site, so I've gone ahead and completed your survey.

probus said:

As a moderator here I am one of the managers, but I am nevertheless outranked and supervised to an extent by the owners and administrators of our site, so I've gone ahead and completed your survey.

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That's a broad interpretation of the invitation, which was written using the standard meanings of everyday terms. Thank you very much for your interest in my study, and for allowing my post on the website!

I did it about my last boss.

Thank you very much for your interest in my study!

Do the exclamation marks indicate your excitement?

Tarheel said:

Do the exclamation marks indicate your excitement?

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Emphatic force. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/adding_emphasis/punctuation_marks.html

Thank you for responding to my post!

The point of an exclamation mark is to say something that's not said with either a period (full stop) or a question mark. In other words, something exclamatory. (See below.)

Stop!
Go!
Go away!
Stop that!
Shut up!
Get out of here!
Push!
Help!
Help me!
Hey!

Tarheel said:

The point of an exclamation mark is to say something that's not said with either a period (full stop) or a question mark. In other words, something exclamatory. (See below.)

Stop!
Go!
Go away!
Stop that!
Shut up!
Get out of here!
Push!
Help!
Help me!
Hey!

Click to expand...

Do you have a citation to support that?

"Punctuation Marks Are Writing Conventions​

Exclamation marks make a sentence more exciting, emphatic or emotional. They serve a specific purpose when setting a sentence’s tone." https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/when/when-to-use-exclamation-marks.html

"People tend to use a lot of exclamation marks in informal writing such as emails or text messages, but you should avoid using them in formal writing." https://www.lexico.com/grammar/exclamation-mark-point
I see from your posts that this sub-forum "for teachers and language experts to chat" is a formal context (e.g., ), so I should have avoided using exclamation marks. And used emojis instead.

I don't need a citation to support my opinion. It would never have occurred to me that I would need a citation to explain something so basic.

Exclamation marks are for exclamations.

That being the case, the sources I cited—such as https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/when/when-to-use-exclamation-marks.html, "Exclamation marks make a sentence more exciting, emphatic or emotional. They serve a specific purpose when setting a sentence’s tone"—are irrelevant.

BradCole said:

That being the case, the sources I cited—such as https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/when/when-to-use-exclamation-marks.html, "Exclamation marks make a sentence more exciting, emphatic or emotional. They serve a specific purpose when setting a sentence’s tone"—are irrelevant.

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The explanation in that source begins "Exclamation marks, also known as exclamation points, were originally called the "note of admiration." They are used to exclaim something. They are commonly used after interjections (words or phrases that are used to exclaim, command or protest like “wow” or “oh”)."

That sounds very similar to what Tarheel wrote.

5jj said:

The explanation in that source begins "Exclamation marks, also known as exclamation points, were originally called the "note of admiration." They are used to exclaim something. They are commonly used after interjections (words or phrases that are used to exclaim, command or protest like “wow” or “oh”)."

That sounds very similar to what Tarheel wrote.

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From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/exclaim:

exclaim​

verb
. . .

ex·claim | \ ik-ˈsklām \
exclaimed; exclaiming; exclaims

Definition of exclaim​

intransitive verb
1: to cry out or speak in strong or sudden emotion
/ / exclaimed in delight
2: to speak loudly or vehemently
// exclaimed against immorality
transitive verb
: to utter sharply, passionately, or vehemently : PROCLAIM

Other Words from exclaimSynonymsMore Example SentencesLearn More About exclaim

Other Words from exclaim​

exclaimer noun

. . .

Examples of exclaim in a Sentence​

“Here he comes!” someone exclaimed. She exclaimed in delight over the Christmas tree. The children exclaimed with wonder when they saw the elephant.

. . .

The claim was that "Exclamation marks are for exclamations," and the claim was unqualified, with examples given only of interjections, quite apparently in an attempt to imply that only interjections are exclamations and thus qualify for an exclamation mark. From the definition and example sentences in Merriam-Webster, it is apparent that exclamations encompass more types of utterances than only interjections (e.g., "to speak loudly or vehemently // exclaimed against immorality;"
“Here he comes!” someone exclaimed.") The posts clearly implied that any use of an exclamation mark other than following an interjection is somehow prohibited, offensive, or incorrect. No evidence has been presented to support that categorical pronouncement. Exclamation marks may very well be "commonly used after interjections;" however, "commonly" is a far cry from exclusively.

From https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/common:

common​

adjective
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com·mon | \ ˈkä-mən \

Definition of common​

(Entry 1 of 2)

. . .

3a: occurring or appearing frequently : FAMILIARa common sight

. . .

Other Words from common​

Adjective

commonly adverb
commonness \ ˈkä-mən-nəs \ noun


For example, cars are commonly used to commute. Cars are also used to transport groceries, for trysts, as planters, and have even been sent into space. And that isn't rocket science.

If anyone is offended by exclamation marks, and the state of being offended has become increasingly common (see what I did there?) in this century, then I apologize (an act that has become increasingly necessary, to appease the perpetually offended).

Feel free to disagree.

Tarheel said:

Feel free to disagree.

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Feel free to agree.

Those who love prescriptive linguistic rules that can be imposed on their fellow native-speakers of their language would be more comfortable as Francophones:

"Language is not static. English, particularly, is flexible and inconsistent. Perhaps English’s development into a contemporary ‘global language’ or lingua franca is due in part to its lack of a formal regulatory body. Though English Enlightenment writers Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift debated the issue, and Americans John Adams and John Quincy Adams suggested the creation of an institution that would “collect, interchange, and diffuse literary intelligence” to “promote the purity and uniformity of the English language,” today there is still no institution to regulate English. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, adapts itself to the changing nature of the language rather than dictating it.

French, on the other hand, is under the official control of the Académie Française — the French Academy."

From https://harvardpolitics.com/the-factory-of-words/

The Primary Function of the Académie​

Officially, the Article 24 outlines that "The primary function of the Académie will be to work, with all possible care and diligence, to give our language definite rules . . ."

From https://www.thoughtco.com/academie-francaise-1364522