Study
The Study of Language
(613 words)
Linguistics is the systematic study of language and, as such, should ideally be approached objectively. However, a fundamental methodological difficulty arises from the fact that humans are studying an aspect of their own behaviour and cognition. Moreover, language is the principal means through which we describe and analyse language itself. This reflexive relationship may introduce subjective assumptions that would potentially be less influential if language were being studied by an entirely external observer.
Communication is not exclusive to humans; numerous species use sounds and other signals to convey information. Although the precise complexity and semantic structure of non-human communication remain subjects of investigation, it is reasonable to consider how variations in factors such as pauses, pitch, tone, and repetition may contribute to the transmission of meaning. Visual stimuli may also assist in establishing associations between particular signals and specific situations or behaviours. For example, a child’s scream or a snake’s hiss commonly occurs in particular contexts and may function as a signal of distress, threat, or danger. By observing recurring sounds within different environmental and behavioural contexts, researchers can therefore develop hypotheses concerning the potential meanings and functions of these signals.
Humans possess a particular advantage in the study of language because we are capable of distinguishing between involuntary physiological sounds, such as sneezing or coughing, and deliberate linguistic communication. We recognise that language consists of structured units, including words, which combine according to particular grammatical and semantic principles. Nevertheless, it is important to avoid assuming that linguistic units possess identical meanings across different languages. Words are embedded within the cultural and conceptual systems of the communities that use them, and consequently, their meanings may not correspond precisely to apparently equivalent terms in another language.
For example, the Navajo term shima is commonly translated into English as ‘mother’. However, such a translation may not fully encompass the conceptual range of the original term. Its meaning can extend beyond the biological relationship implied by the English word ‘mother’, incorporating broader notions associated with nurturing and the giving of life. Consequently, concepts such as the earth or trees may be understood within a broader semantic framework associated with motherhood. This illustrates the limitations of assuming that direct lexical equivalents necessarily possess identical semantic or cultural significance across languages.
Another important consideration, particularly in relation to English, is the distinction between written and spoken language. Orthographic representation does not always correspond directly to phonetic realisation; that is, the spelling of a word does not necessarily indicate how it is pronounced. This discrepancy creates challenges for the systematic representation and comparison of speech sounds and contributed to the development of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The IPA provides a standardised system for representing the sounds of spoken language, enabling researchers to describe pronunciation independently of conventional orthographic systems. In this respect, the IPA represents a highly systematic and scientific approach to the analysis of language. There is also a certain methodological irony in the fact that a specialised symbolic system must be employed to describe and analyse the sounds of the languages through which humans ordinarily communicate.
The scope of linguistics extends beyond the analysis of language itself and intersects with numerous other academic disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. Although linguistics is sometimes classified within the humanities because of its close relationship with culture, society, and human thought, its methodologies frequently involve systematic observation, empirical investigation, classification, and analysis. Consequently, linguistics occupies an interdisciplinary position, combining aspects of both the humanities and the sciences. Its scientific character derives not simply from the subject matter it investigates, but from the systematic and evidence-based methods employed to understand the structure, development, acquisition, and use of human language.
What salient aspects of an Asian university and the students that attend do you see as a contradiction?
(1600 Words)
Abstract
‘Manners maketh the man’ (William of Wykeham, 1350). Whether you are in the street, in a restaurant or for this case in an Asian university certain etiquette prevails. My observations were done to draw attention to the value of etiquette and also to show the extent of contradiction to normally accepted good manners there are in the university in question. The results showed that the philosophy lecture room in this seat of learning far from being a quiet room of studious individuals was, in fact, a myriad of factors void of study ethics. The conclusion is, that when it comes to study, there is not a universal ideal as the acceptable method.
Introduction
Etiquette is not a new idea and is changing all the time, as we see nowadays with the development of the smart telephone, but propriety still holds to essential tenets. There are unspoken rules about daily etiquette such as talking loud, jumping queues and generally being aware of others. There certainly can be a lot of daily life that breaches social manners. In a recent survey, 90% of people thought it would be rude to receive a telephone call at a church which goes to say certain arenas are faux par for telephone use. It is a fact barriers are being crossed.
In a social minefield for new students to their university, one business has recognized what many would not think was needed for learning, and as such, CLM Business Etiquette Consulting in Austin Texas has advised how students should invest in their courses to get them through their time at university. CLM’s study courses highlight factors such as establishing meaningful relationships with your professors and other students to ascertain a co-operative experience.
My observations will show that new students in this certain Asian university need to be shown, taught, and given rules as to how to behave in a lecture room whilst having a clear understanding of other fellow peers’ feelings and education.
Methods
Participants
In general, classes consisted of up to 60 to 70 people but due to lateness and students deciding not to come or come back from lunch break, numbers fluctuated.
Instruments
Observations were done using a tally system where marks were put onto a written table in the notebook .
Procedures
As most of my pre-research knowledge so far had been through watching I thought it would be the right transition to do my research using observations. So, my first thought was to think of categories for my research which were the aspects of study I had found strange.
- Telephone ringing – students don’t put their phone on vibrate. So the lecture room has many ring tones going off.
- Telephone SMS – although not as bad as ringing it still has a high pitch sound
- Coming late – the lesson is supposed to start at 9am although it does not actually start till 9.30am so this gives even later than late students time to arrive.
- Going in and out of class – it is generally presumed that you have prepared for a lecture so you would not need to go out of the lecture room before the next break.
- Lecturer making students quiet – this tags with students talking excessively. It is generally excepted than university is not a school.
- Playing computer (games) – even though this seems strange, it was added because students were observed playing fighting games and using facebook.
- Listening to music – as above, it was observed on the computer and shown from wire coming from student’s ears.
- Sleeping – be it at the start of the morning or the start of the afternoon period, students find they need to sleep more.
- Dress code – Thailand being a hot country does mean people get hotter with more clothes but some decorum still has to be kept. Also, the fact that students think that that university is like a fashion show and they must look their best.
- Acting inappropriately – this goes along with the example above, with regard to playing with university equipment, but also to generally being not interested in the lecture thus doing something different.
- Food/snacks – again everything is okay if kept within reason but excessive snacks is not really needed.
So, it was now time to set up my observation times. It seemed obvious to set up an observation in the morning on the first class. I generally had the rule that once the lecturer says ‘good morning’ he expects the students to be quiet, listening and generally be ready for study. This was always around 9.30am so I made this the start time. We normally had a break at 10.30am so this worked well to have a 1 hour observation time. I thought it would be best to observe in the afternoon too, to see how students reacted to having a lunch break and seeing as they had been studying since 9am and it was an all day lecture what their endurance level was. There was also the case of how many hours I would observe so with the philosophy course, which I was observing, being only a month I had 3 lectures to observe. This meant I would observe 3 mornings and 3 afternoons. In total a period of 3 hours for morning and afternoon lectures. I then wrote up a tally sheet as to help me keep a record of the times students and the lecturer performed anyone of the categories I had suggested.
Results
I actually ended up with only 7 categories.
- Telephone ringing
- Telephone SMS
- Coming late
- Going in and out of class
- Lecturer making students quiet
- Sleeping
- Acting inappropriately
I think this was mostly due to the lecturer advising students not to do certain. It was also due to the lecturer being professional and knowing his subject matter. I had a feeling of respect due to the professionalism of the lecturer and felt that other students did too, thus they were less interested turning to other means of interest.
For the morning results, I was amazed how many times the lecturer had to make the students quiet. In the space of 3 hours the lecturer had to tell the students 22 times to be quiet. That works out at once every 8 minutes. It has to be noted that there was a genuine disrespect for the lecturer, not only his lecturing but also the years of study he had completed to become so knowledgeable and competent in his job. I was also surprised by how many students needed to go out even though they had time before the class and also the break after the lecture to do anything they needed. I recognized that the telephone problem had already been talked about several times and students had heeded the lecturer’s warnings. I had a little bit of confusion as to why students still turned up late when the lecturer started 30 minutes late. I felt that if he started 1 hour late they still would be late because they knew when the lecture started they would arrive sometime after.
For the afternoon session, I always immediately noticed big groups of students missing. I was not sure if they just came to sign in and thought that was good enough. The rate of people going in and out of the class worked out at one every 3 minutes during a 3 hours period. Some students actually arrived late and then left. This actually created two points on the tally card, one for late and one for going in and out. Again I was confounded by the amount of times the lecturer needed to tell the students to be quiet, even to the extent of asking one group ‘what did I just say?’ as to question them if they were listening. This was done two times over a space of 10 minutes and was met by laughter and a general nonchalance to the lecturer job in hand.
Conclusion
It is recognized that in some countries certain etiquette is not thought about and study ethics is laughed at. Some students although being new to university still adopt old ways of studying so even though they have reached adulthood they still adopt a child like attitude to learning. They feel that it is the lecturer job to keep them quiet and not their own personal position to be individuals who think. The overriding factor that has been shown through this observation has been some student’s lack of awareness of others and their general detachment from other people who are at the university for the purpose of learning. You get the feeling that they deride people that show a willingness to learn. Students gets distracted easily so even someone going outside creates noise and a quick glance. I also amazed because the attitude of the lecturer in this study who has a PHD who has shown to be the epitome of a university lecturer was scorned by many who felt the need to go in and out of the class and talk.
References
William of Wykeham, Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford
(1324 – 1404)
Patricia Lee MA (Oxon), MA (QUB) holds qualifications from the British Psychological Society and in teaching adult literacy. She has been a school governor, sat on the working party for the Jigsaw Visitors’ Centre at Armley Prison and made 1933-style shorts for the Leeds Metropolitan University Gymnastics Squad.
Getting used to study methods in Asia – My research
(1611 words)
RESEARCH QUESTION
What salient aspects of XXXXX (An Asian) University and the students that attend do you see as a contradiction?
ABSTRACT
‘Manners maketh the man’ (William of Wykeham, 1350). Whether you are in the street, in a restaurant, or in our case in a university certain etiquette prevails. My observations were done to draw attention to the value of etiquette and also to show the extent of contradiction to normally accepted good manners there are in a university. The results showed that the philosophy lecture room in this Asian University far from being a quiet room of studious individuals was in fact a myriad of factors void of study ethics. The conclusion is that when it comes to studying there is not a universal ideal as the acceptable method.
INTRODUCTION
Etiquette is not a new idea and is changing all the time, as we see nowadays with the development of mobile telephone, but propriety still holds to essential tenets. There are unspoken rules about daily etiquette such as talking loud, using telephones in the wrong place, and being aware of others. There can be a lot of daily life that breaches social manners. In a recent survey, 90% of people thought it would be rude to receive a telephone call at a church which goes to say certain arenas are faux par for telephone use.
In a social minefield for new students to university, one business has recognized what many would not think was needed for learning, and as such, CLM Business Etiquette Consulting in Austin Texas now advises how students should invest in their courses to get them through their university course. CLM’s study courses highlight factors such as establishing meaningful relationships with your professors and other students to ascertain a cooperative experience.
My observations will show that new students in this Asian University need to be shown, taught, and given rules as to how to behave in a lecture room whilst understanding other people’s feelings.
METHODS
Participants
In general, classes consisted of up to 60 to 70 people but due to lateness and students deciding not to come or come back from lunch break numbers fluctuated.
Instruments
Observations were done using a tally system where marks were put onto a written table in the notebook.
Procedures
As most of my pre-research knowledge so far had been through watching university life, it was thought that it would be the right transition to use observations in this part of the research. So, the first thought was to think of categories for the research which were the aspects of study that been had found to be strange.
- Telephone ringing – students don’t put their phone on vibrate. So the lecture room has many ring tones going off.
- Telephone SMS – although not as bad as ringing it still has a high pitch sound
- Coming late – the lesson is supposed to start at 9am although it does not actually start till 9.30am so this gives even later than late students time to arrive.
- Going in and out of class – it is generally presumed that you have prepared for a lecture you would not need to go out of the lecture room before the next break.
- Lecturer making students quiet – this tags along with students talking excessively. It is generally excepted than university is not a school.
- Playing computer (games) – even though this seems strange, it was added because students were observed playing fighting games and using facebook.
- Listening to music – as above, it was observed on the computer and shown from wire coming from student’s ears.
- Sleeping – be it at the start of the morning or the start of the afternoon period, students find they need to sleep more.
- Dress code – being a hot Asian country does mean people get hotter with more clothes but some decorum still has to be kept. Also, the fact that students think that that university is like a fashion show and they must look their best.
- Acting inappropriately – generally being not interested in the lecture thus doing something different.
- Food/snacks – again everything is okay if kept within reason but excessive snacks is not really needed.
So, it was now time to set up observation times. It seemed obvious to set up an observation in the morning on the first class. There was generally the rule that once the lecturer says ‘good morning’ he expects the students to be quiet, listening and generally be ready for study. This was always around 9.30am, so this was made the start time. Normally, there was a break around 10.30am, so this worked well to have a one hour observation time. The thought was that it would be best to observe in the afternoon too, to see how students reacted to having a lunch break. Also, they had been in university since 9:00am, and there was all day of lecture, so it was interesting to see their endurance level. There was also the case of how many hours of observation would be done. With the philosophy course, which was being observed, it was only one month, so three lecture days were observed. This meant observations would be over three mornings and three afternoons. In total a period of three hours for morning and three hours for afternoon lectures. Then, a tally sheet was written up as to help keep a record of the times students and the lecturer performed anyone of the categories that had been suggested.
RESULTS
In the end only 7 categories were calculated on.
- Telephone ringing
- Telephone SMS
- Coming late
- Going in and out of class
- Lecturer making students quiet
- Sleeping
- Acting inappropriately
These categories not scoring, I thought were mostly due to the lecturer advising students not to do certain actions. Another factor was due to the lecturer being professional and knowing his subject matter. The feeling was there was some respect to the lecturer which came from his professionalism thus students were less interested in turning to other means of interest.
For the morning results, there was amazement regarding how many times the lecturer had to make the students quiet. In the space of three hours the lecturer had to tell some of the students twenty two times to be quiet. That works out at once every eight minutes. It has to be noted that there was a genuine disrespect for the lecturer from parts of the class, not only his lecturing but also the years of study he had completed to become so knowledgeable and competent in his job. Surprise was felt by how many students needed to go out even though they had time before the class and also that the break was not far away. It was recognized that the telephone problem of ringing and SMS messages was very low in the tallying. This was mainly due to already being talked about several times. Students actually had heeded the lecturer’s warnings albeit warnings many times before observations. A little bit of confusion was shown as to why students still turned up late when the lecturer started thirty minutes late. It was felt that even if he started one hour late they still would be late because they knew when the lecture started they would arrive sometime after.
For the afternoon session, it was always immediately noticed that big groups of students were missing. It was assumed that they just came to sign in the morning and thought that was good enough for the whole day. For some reason during the afternoon session, the rate of people going in and out of the class increased by 55% from the morning session. This worked out at one every three minutes during a three hours period. Some students actually arrived late and then left. This actually created two points on the tally card, one for late and one for going in and out. Again, there was bewilderment by the amount of times the lecturer needed to tell the students to be quiet, even to the extent of asking one group ‘what did I just say?’ as to question them if they were listening. This was done two times over a space of ten minutes and was met by laughter and a general nonchalance by those students who were devoid to the lecturer’s job in hand. There was actually an 83% increase in the lecture making the students quiet from the morning session.
CONCLUSION
It is recognized that in some countries certain etiquette is not thought about and study ethics are laughed at. Some students, although being new to university, still adopt old ways of studying so even though they have reached adulthood they still assume a child like attitude to learning. They feel that it is the lecturer job to keep them quiet and not their own personal position to be individuals who think and take responsibility for their actions. The overriding factor that has been shown through this observation has been some students total lack of awareness of others and their general detachment from other people who are at the university for the purpose of learning. One gets the feeling that students deride people that show a willingness to learn. Students studying get distracted easily so even someone going outside creates noise which is acknowledged with a quick glance from a studying student. It is also amazing because the attitude of the lecturer in this study who has a PHD and has shown to be the epitome of a university lecturer was scorned by many who felt the need to go in and out of the lecture room and talk.
Bibliography:
William of Wykeham, Motto of Winchester College and New College, Oxford (1324 – 1404)
Patricia Lee MA (Oxon), MA (QUB) holds qualifications from the British Psychological Society and in teaching adult literacy. She has been a school governor, sat on the working party for the Jigsaw Visitors’ Centre at Armley Prison and made 1933-style shorts for the Leeds Metropolitan University Gymnastics Squad.
What salient aspects of XXXXX University and the students that attend do you see as a contradiction?
(895 words)
The topic that I chose to cover in my research paper was etiquette at an Asian University. In a lecture room with a vast array of cultures and backgrounds, some students seemed to have a different understanding of how to act in front of a professor delivering their lecture. During this project, some of the observations really opened up my eyes to the misbehaviors within the study environment resulting in astonishment at the results.
According to Wikipedia, etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group. My simple definition was: the way you are expected to act in a particular environment. My conclusion based on the findings of my research is that the word “etiquette” was left out of the university’s code of conduct and some of the students’ minds on campus.
To begin this project, I first had to come up with a list of the acceptable characteristics that would be deemed appropriate in any university’s rules of appropriacy, otherwise, I could not argue that the behaviors found in my results were questionable. I called these the “top 7 rules to create a peaceful classroom.” In many respects, these were not hard to propose as they had already been observed. These are as follows but not in any particular order;
- Not eating and drinking in class
- Not talking when someone else is speaking
- Not arriving late/leaving early
- Not addressing the Professor inappropriately
- Not answering a phone call, or habitually texting
- Not Sleeping, or laying your head on the table
- Concentrate on the lecture
Gathering information for this research project was done in a variety of different ways such as personal observation, controlled survey results, one-on-one interviews, and group discussions.
For the first part of my research, I counted and tracked the number of times the professor had to say “shhhh” to the class, or tell some students to “please be quiet”. This was tallied for the 3 hours before lunch, as well as 3 hours afterward. Before lunch, the class size was significantly smaller (by almost 33%) but still brought in 17 “shhhh” compared to 22 after the break. Every time, except twice, this was directed to the back tables in the lecture room. Although I made a variety of intelligent guesses as to why fewer people would command a higher “shhhh” count, none of them could claim to be 100% accurate. The seemingly most appropriate outcome for this result was based on calculating the results on a Monday after a weekend. Students were most likely talking about their weekend activities, and catching up on each other’s lives. However, a certain ignorance was notable as well as the lack of propriety.
In the second part of my research, I sat and monitored the different tables and the groups that formed together. This was a very interesting observation for me to take part in, and I noticed a lot of similarities between friends. At one table, I counted 8 Iphones on show. At another separate table were 6 girls all wearing uniforms, and at a different table 5 people all listening intently taking notes while the professor gave his lecture. The idiom I based on the congregation of students was “birds of a feather flock together”. I concluded that this plays a very important role in the etiquette of this university class. I believe that if I separated the groups into different tables, the results of my first observation would not have been as meaningful to my research.
For the final part of my project, I created a 15-question survey asking various questions regarding personal opinions and facts about students here at the university. On the top of my survey was a 7-sentence paragraph with detailed instructions that were meant to be read before filling out any information. This was a crucial paragraph to read and without reading it people would fill out the wrong information which would yield inaccurate results. Out of the 35 questionnaires that we passed out only 2 people read it and followed it exactly.
A few other interesting observations that I made whilst gathering information were;
- Students that wore the university uniform were hardly ever the ones to practice proper etiquette.
- Students that sat in the back of the class, were the ones that had the worst test scores overall.
- The majority of students that showed up late, were also habitual talkers.
- The tables in the back had more students sitting at them that 7 tables up front.
Conclusion
It is recognized that in some countries certain etiquette is often overlooked and study habits are non-existent. A lot of students that study here at the university are fresh out of high school and underestimate the value of solid and uninterrupted university education. Some students appeared to have been, in their life, surrounded by many influential models, such as friends within their peer group, teachers at school, and the school environment. These models provided them examples of behavior to observe and imitate albeit not to the established appropriate behaviour expected in a learning environment. Given more time, I would have liked to do similar studies at other international universities, as well as survey the rest of our campus that does not enroll foreign students.
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