language

The Study of Linguistics – A reflection

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(964 words)

My initial thought would be to give my general view of linguistics. Therefore, linguistics is the study of human languages where within this the science examines not only the structure of language but also its use and the structure in the mind. A layman may think that a linguist, the person who is skilled in linguistics, only looks at rules and grammar but it is so much more than this. The subject takes in such fields as humanity, science, society, philosophy, and literary criticism. Language is not as routine as some may think and it is astonishing to think that language came from one source which spread across the world to create 6000 more. A learner of linguistics then would be amazed how many branches of linguistics have been created. Without language where would we be?

The first recognizable factor, I found, was the highlighting of daily use of language which has to be the main dynamic in anyone’s scaffolding of knowledge. The more any speaker uses it, the more they will be able to use their fresh available knowledge of language. Reading and writing inspire to make people more creative with their writing and speaking. This is a sensible choice to further anyone’s linguistic knowledge. This would seem straightforward. However, the path that I followed was not the one that I thought and as such, I would like to draw attention to some further points.

I felt my reading took in many factors and showed me that linguistics is a broad church. I was asked where the word ‘Santa Claus’ came from and then I remembered I read about it in a book called The Power of Babel by John McWhorter who is famous for studying creoles. In it, he speaks about how it was a Dutch word that was spoken by immigrants coming to America and following their tradition they spoke about it and Americans misheard the word to be Santa Claus. This field of study in linguistics is actually called ‘Etymology’ where it recognizes the origins of words and sees how they have changed over time. I actually picked up my old copy of The Power of Babel book because I was reading a book called Introduction to Linguistics.

One chapter in the Introduction to Linguistics book spoke about how words have changed through time. They called it variation; this means that languages take on their own route. English people especially in the northern region took the word ‘butter’ and pronounced it with the ‘er’. For me, linguistics is not just about words. Language takes on its own form and even one language like English below the surface lies a myriad of factors that are distinguished by linguists. For example, I read that language which was described by Ronald Langacker who is a founder of the field of ‘cognitive linguistics’, makes three fundamental assumptions: ‘that language is symbolic in nature, that a linguistic community creates linguistic conventions, and that grammar is a speaker’s knowledge of linguistic conventions’. This gave me a better insight into the linguistic community creating the language and grammar. The speaker uses sentences that are built by selecting appropriate words from their vast lexicon that are learnt from his local language community.

Furthermore, if we are to talk about language communities, I can think back to watching the movie Sense and Sensibility. I was faced with sociolinguistics and the use of language around 1800 in England. The pioneering sociolinguist, William Labov,  recognized the value of society, cultural norms, and expectation on language. As for the film, it has a language of propriety of upper-class England. What people say and what they mean can be of different meanings. People had to behave properly and women were kept in place. There is a great scene where the daughter of the deceased father has to move to another residence where the owner speaks his mind to the disgust of the quiet and proper sisters. The movie certainly purports this as the characters are of higher social standing and speak rather eloquently.

In addition, I looked up the meaning of some of the branches of linguistics and as such, I read more about sociolinguistics. I recognised that language is seen as being used in a social context and is not this thing that is external to human beings but something that makes us who we are. We could also add the branch of linguistics called ‘historical linguistics’ which actually started around the same time as Jane Austin wrote her book. This field of study grew of philology which is the study of ancient texts and documents. Not all fields of linguistics started that long ago. The name Noam Chomsky was mentioned a few times. He is an American linguist among other positions. In the 1950s, his branch of linguistics was ‘generative grammar’ which is a particular approach to syntax. He came up with ‘universal grammar’ which highlights innate properties in the brain. This means that any person born to parents from one background  (i.e. China) can easily be brought up to speak another language if they were immersed into another country (i.e. America) from an early age which means that the brain is programmed to accept speech at any level. This idea went against the behavioural idea that B.F. Skinner proposed.

In this reflection, my knowledge of linguistics took many paths and found that language works in many ways. It is interesting to see the use of language that has spread over the world and the variety of new words added. I think the main factor when studying linguistics is to take it on how it is used, not how it should be used because maybe there is no clear right or wrong way; what matters is meaning.

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Classroom based report on language acquisition

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1.1.1 (classroom research aquisition)Download

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A love of diversity

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(583 Words)

There have been noticeable effects on language that have come about due to explorers and the like that journeyed from their motherland many years ago. The journey of Christopher Columbus in 1492 was one that would herald the changing of the times for world languages. Such were these countries, a la, Great Britain with its English language and the colonies, and Spain with its Spanish in South America, that they spread their voice over many continents. This being said, there is still an emphasis that language existed long before the arrival of these powerful empires to far away lands. Languages such Chinese, Hindu and Arabic are still spoken by many millions of people around the world. We also have to recognise that many indigenous people still use their native language. In many respects, any of these rarer languages, relatively speaking, could have spread through the world as much as English and Spanish as we are all homo sapiens and have remained one species.

So, what do languages distinguish? Some of the aspects of many languages that although they evolved generally on their own, there is a general likeness found; for example the use of singular and plural nouns. English, French and Spanish retain in their language the distinction of one or more of something. However, in these languages, there is sometimes not a clear distinction as to what we are talking about, as with ‘I have some flowers’. There could be an array of different types of flowers and no actual number. This is opposed to Chinese which can use the same word for one or more than one. There are also other languages that will distinguish between the flowers being all of one kind or a mixed bunch.

Moreover, looking at world speech, it shows some languages make the clear distinction with a sentence to show that an object can be seen as the speaker speaks or not in eye sight. Visibility is central to their language. One example is of a woman with her arm in a sling, and how would an English speaker refer to this picture. English people could say ‘she has broken her arm’, but there is no certainty.  English people can report the evidence and assume. Other languages have to make it clear how they know the information and not let a statement be glossed over.

Furthermore, over the world within languages, related words may take on different meanings. The sentences the ‘The colours are nice’ and the ‘The curtains are red’ have the same structure and relate to the same word types; nouns, verbs and adjectives but they are not the same in meaning. Other languages do not see the same as an English speaker sees, and end up putting the same sentences into other grammatical orders to explain the same sentence such that it may end up as ‘it is nice in colours’.  This can also cross over to objects in space and the angle that people see objects in the world. All people look at a picture differently and can only give a subjective view. Also, some languages do not have words like the English ‘inside’ or ‘between’ thus their explanation is different for spatial objects. What’s more, some speakers only see an object from their exact position in the world. English speakers may not need to be so accurate.

To conclude, this essay highlights the diversity of language throughout the world, and the myriad of approaches to explain any situation where language is used.

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What are the effects on sentences and vocabulary in general use as a result of the rise of social networking?

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(1795 Words)

The purpose of this essay is to show how social networking on the internet has had such an effect on the English language that new lexicons have appeared that change the established order of sentences and vocabulary. The rationale of this essay is the fact that on-line communities start these new genres of language through their daily communication. Although internet social networking is relatively new, its massive growth has brought on the rise of language development and expansion. The history of this growth and some of the reasons for this language development will be given highlighting why sentences and vocabulary varieties come to be used within these social networks. Examples will be given throughout the essay highlighting English language’s unique components that can still produce meaning from dismembered sentences and vocabulary. Overall thought will also focus as to whether this use of internet language has actually permeated into the general conversation in daily life.

In an age where internet users have a myriad of avenues to communicate with each other all around the world in real time, it can be recognized that initial programs such as AOL and its instant messenger in 1997 and Friendster in 2002 allowed users to keep in contact with other members that helped create paths for chat and messaging. The combination of these two ideas for bringing people together, that nowadays many websites such as Facebook and Twitter followers, allows for friends to form closer internet relationships allowing for more chat and language with reduced formal rapport. Twitter, as a present day on-line social networking example which sends and receives messages from an assortment of devices simultaneously at the moment the message is sent, has also introduced the concept of micro-messaging where the user just comments on what is happening in the now. Here, introduces users to the concept of summarizing messages and statements giving instant gratification through their minimalization of sentences and vocabulary that creates competition for interest and a doorway to be creative.

Adapting sentences and vocabulary to use in online conversations many purists would argue diminishes the English language but it could be just a way of being creative and effectively using new technologies. It would seem unimaginable 10 years ago to envisage a new global language that has developed through such famous websites as Facebook and Twitter. Speed has to be the number one factor that affects the users’ use of long-drawn-out sentences and messages. Social Networking is about instant messages that satisfy all parties. Of course, it has to be recognized that in the first instance users are limited in how much they can say which contributes to the downsizing of their message. Twitter actually has a maximum of 140 characters per instant message. The user has no choice but to compress their new information. On the whole, within instant messages and online chat users are telling little snippets of their lives and in most cases do not need to produce long sentences for online conversing.

Conversations in social networking groups change as the rapport between people in these groups becomes enhanced and as a result users become savvy with each other. Just as an engineer would not understand a doctor and vice versa, if they started to use their own technical language, online users start their own language to create secret groups, be inventive, try to be cool, or hide the meaning of their message from others. For example, an overbearing parent may be wary of their child and try to check up on what they are talking about on the internet. If that parent was to discover their child’s chat conversation they would find it hard to unravel some of the meaning if it is littered with bizarre wording, incomplete sentences, and acronyms such as  ‘PAW’ for ‘parents are watching’.

Moreover, online secrecy has no bounds, instead of saying the actual word like ‘drugs’, the online user can use other words as in this case ‘OG’ being orange juice in the phrase ‘U hv OG’ literally translated as ‘Do you have drugs?’. The effect is a new global language that on the surface is hard to fathom but actually has meaning and ingenuity. The effect is that teenagers can easily make up new words when they need or want without a lengthy, explicit explanation on the internet or not.

Furthermore, the fast pace of information sent and received around the world, and the instant gratification for users telling their friends of their interesting ongoing action highlights the change and creation of new language, be it for the best or not, within online communication. For example, if a new networking user was to receive a message telling them that the sender was ‘Getting MWI’ they would be flummoxed to get to the meaning. The receiver would already notice that the sender has broken many rules of English. There is no subject so we do not who is doing the action. We have to presume it is the sender. The grammar is wrong. The sender uses the acronym MWI which is certainly not easily recognized and where is the punctuation? All these points may be well and good for the grammarians to argue about but a look at the point the sender is trying to make has to be recognized. The sentence, if we can call it that, actually deciphers as ‘I am getting mad with it’ which although is now presented in a more rule-based proper manner still can be misunderstood. “Getting mad with it’ actually means getting drunk.  In all regards, the message starts to belong to a form of an idiom that highlights its ambiguous meaning. The point here is the meaning in the sender’s message which is the only factor they want to portray. In the sender’s mind, they have actually produced a coherent, away from the norm, message albeit a form of stripped-down English.

Messages and instant messaging are not completely dissected English. In many cases, these senders’ sentences and vocabulary allows them to get their point across in a message in as short a way as possible. The message albeit short is just an introduction to more information. The sender and receiver could well be meeting later and the sender will continue the story in more detail. For example, a user’s daily status message may read ‘.. understands that hard work pays off in future but Laziness pays off now !’.  The readers of this, in reality, have not got a clue what this incomplete sentence means and has to imagine what might be happening to their friend but usually it is not the start of a long dialogue on the internet, it shows that talk is rooted in face to face conversation and these online sentences are just sound bites. It shows that instant messaging in some respects does not affect general language use.

In all the movement away from existing parameters of explaining clearly in complete sentences, an observer can recognize there is a transformation of English within internet social networking while one matter of debate is the effect it is having general language use. It has to be stated that there is clear distinction between the virtual internet world and the real world outside. For example, any online user may seem a wise and cool person on the internet but in the real world, this language can make them look silly and continually misunderstood. This illustrates on-line chatting or messaging can seem like two worlds.  The detachability of internet conversing has certainly changed conditions of impersonal contact. While people may spend many hours on the internet, they still have to be in contact with other people face to face in a myriad of social settings and figure out what the other person, close friend or not, is saying.  This is where it could be argued that the distinction between the internet and school or someone’s job can be seen.  So, it could be said informal English that is said online only really works within those constraints or if outside of that within close-knit groups.

Moreover, like-minded groups are not just on the internet. For example, a skateboarder may say I did a ‘bitchslap’ in his group where all understand but would be lost on his mother. ‘Bitchslap’ actually means ‘touching the front wheel of the skateboard with your hand’, but within other circles, it can mean ‘to open handedly hit someone’. So, it is recognized that the internet is not the only place where people change and develop language.  Even so, online users still can take words from the internet such as ‘WTF’ or ‘what the f##k’ and use them in the outside world. The phrase would be understandable in a bar or at school but to just say ‘WTF’ may well seem strange and if ‘WFT’ is used it can cover the rudeness of the full word such as ‘WTF, mum!’.  By the same token, certain acronyms have entered general use. LOL, OMG and WTF have spread from written to the spoken word.  This being said you would more than likely hear a teenager commenting with acronyms on someone’s clothes or haircut than a car crash.

Moreover, the excess of instant messaging and chat talk, problems have become prominent in formal written forms where acronyms and shortened words are being used as the norm as well as other mistakes in assignments. The informal language used in these assignments is preferred where words like ‘dat’ is used instead of ‘that’ and ‘cuz’ instead of ‘because’. There are also punctuation, capitalization and apostrophe errors. The effect of too much internet time is that some of these children do not know the difference which will make it more difficult for educators to change.

In an ever-changing world that includes the changing uses of English, this essay has highlighted how internet language and its use can have an effect on normal speech and writing. It has also been argued that the internet is only a small part of people’s lives and language formality still exists outside of social networking. It has been recognized that people have to communicate in normal grammatical language in real life although there are many specific groups of people that create their own vocabulary. It was also seen that many people nowadays can have virtual relationships on many social networking sites. Most of this talk is of an informal nature. This essay has shown that this raises the level of interest into making new kinds of language and meaning. In addition, it was acknowledged that new words are forever creeping into the English language. The moral of this essay is that if someone starts using social networking language in general use, they should take a step back and contemplate if they are spending too much time logged on.

(1795 Words)

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Mention the features of Community Language Teaching

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The Community Language Teaching (CLT) model has many features. A lot of these features are completely opposite to a traditional school model of learning. It is true that teachers like to stand in front of the class and take control. This is what anyone would think of as a normal approach and what most students expect. This allows the teacher to be the instigator of most topics while the students sit passively at their desks. CLT goes against the traditional grain and tries to make the learning experience more group structured. In this essay, I will show that the learning experience is based more on a type of counseling learning where the use of counseling techniques are used to develop language for all concerned. Everybody has a part to play and a community is born where students can empathize with each other.

This CLT method was developed in the early seventies by Charles Curran. It involved recognizing the affective and the emotional factors as paramount in a classroom. It is always hard for a student to feel relaxed in a new class let alone having confidence in speaking let alone a second language. There is a consensus that views community language as learning that can help reduce anxiety. This is, of course, one of the main factors in learning (a language) where the students feel anxious about expressing their feeling in a class full of people that in the main they do not know. There is a move towards the interpersonal contact between student and teacher as well as student and student. The teacher should have the skills that involve counseling and bring the students together through their techniques. If the class can have a good relationship language and confidence should flow better. One way to get the students to be more familiar with each other is to get the learning group into a circle. There is less turning of heads and the shy people can not be stuck in the corner. In all of this, the teacher is more of a facilitator and tends to sit outside the circle. This format is fine if the group is of a smaller size that helps everyone to be seen and heard. A desirable amount of students would be about 10. This gives the students more time to speak, less time to get distracted, the teacher also has more time to cater to all the students.

The process of the CLT pertains to a pervading tone in the classroom where the students can take control and build their skills and language with the help of others. The students become active learners in their own right. It has been said that the teacher should not control the conversation in CLT, but let students talk about whatever they want to talk (Rardin et al., 1988). Firstly the group can sit in a circle and think about what they want to say. If ideas are flying around they can be written on the whiteboard and brainstormed to see which is liked the best. Students are allowed to use their mother tongue and the teacher translates this language and the building process starts. Students are made to feel more comfortable talking in the conversation circle. This allows them to express their feelings. The student can mention something in their own language. This is then put into small phrases by the teacher and then the students can work with the teacher before they open up to the rest of the class. There is not so much error correction.

Even though the layout of the class and the relaxed atmosphere may bring on some anxiety at first, the students through the CLT feel less stress as goes on and begin to work with their peers which is the goal. This highlights the awareness of community which is in a non-competitive atmosphere with a sense of involvement. The students also take responsibility for their learning and make themselves become active learners that are inquisitive of language and each other.

Once the class has finished a reflection session is essential in the CLT approach. Trust between the teacher and learners or among learners is established by sharing their feelings, anxieties, frustrations or demands. By sharing anxiety, learners may build a sense of unity to do one task together (Rardin et al., 1988). The teacher also uses less error correction during the class as not to stop the flow. If any correction is used it should not be intrusive as the method is to let the students express their meaning. The teacher’s job is to try and extract as much information as can be without pressuring the student. There is a focus on meaning over accuracy.  After class, the teacher’s job is to write up a report of the students’ language during the lesson as to be a reflection of all that went on and give the students some resources to look back on. This shows all the key structures and vocabulary they used.

To conclude, the CLT method certainly helps promote better communication in the class. The classes will succeed if the students get used to taking part in their learning. It also focuses on the teacher’s ability to promote this working relationship with all involved.

(869 Words)

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