language

Classroom based report on language acquisition

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A love of diversity

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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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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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Classroom based report on language acquisition

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Abstract

Learning any second language can be challenging. Lower level students, who are new to learning, are those students that need all the support and understanding for their acquisition of a new language. For this paper, I have produced a research plan for a new class of lower level students. This was devised to create thinking on how students were learning their second language. I wondered how I could facilitate their learning and their classroom experience that would help make English language easier for them to comprehend. My initial thoughts were on using as many different ways to reinforce a language point. My thinking was that if the students get to look at a specific grammar/language point, whilst using it and thinking about it, in different ways, the language will stay in their memory that much easier. I felt that if you used the language in various ways such as activities, methods of teaching and games, their possession of the language could be helped.

I looked at my ideas for lesson plans and checked how I planned to use the time in class to vary my methods. I also looked on the internet for any information that would correspond with my area of interest. I tried reading as much material that honed in on my specific area of interest. This was the material that was related to different methods and activities. It was while I was acquiring my new knowledge that I got to read about an interesting theory where different activities were used regarding multiple intelligences. This I found on a website called ‘developingteachers.com’. The article in question that took my interest was called ‘Starting with multiple intelligences – activities for foreign language teachers’ by Rolf Palmberg. I immediately realised this article was very much linked in with my ideas, that I had proposed. I did a lot of preliminary reading on the subject until I felt that I should put my old and new ideas about how to get the students speaking more into effect. This paper and the theories within is helped by what I found from the initial article by Rolf Palmberg and increasingly by reading about American psychologist Howard Gardner who developed ‘The Theory of Multiple Intelligences’.

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