This week's class started with us discussing the video that we watched about non-verbal communication. It was interesting to hear my classmates share about what is acceptable and offensive in their cultures as far as gestures and body language is concerned. I think non-verbal communication is somewhat of an untapped research area in the realm of E.S.L.
We then got into groups and did an activity and talked about our final projects it was helpful to ask questions of my classmates and hear the struggles they were having. That makes me feel like I am not alone.
We also talked about our peer groups and it seems that I am in a group with Aaron (Charlie) and Jason. I am excited to have people to bounce ideas off of.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Readings on Chapter 13
This weeks readings were all about how language has changed over time. Language is a very clear and accurate indicator of what happened in world history. Language is the evidence that, for instance, there were massive migrations from Central Asia to Europe in 4000 B.C. The ancestral language is linked to that particular culture and society.
The information on Polynesians and their protolanguage was very interesting. It was beneficial to learn that Polynesia formed a language family and there were 5 'daughter' languages that are subordinate to the 'parent language' of Proto-Polynesian. The way in which all of the languages evolved as shown in tables 13-1 and 13-2 was surprising in some aspects. It seems some parts of the language evolved and changed quite a bit and in other areas the language stayed virtually the same.
Another surprising fact that I learned when reading the chapter is that Chinese is spoken by 1.2 billion people and English comes in at 325 million people. It was also interesting to read about the people of Papua New Guinea, and that it is a nation of 5.4 million people with more than 800 languages that are spoken. It makes me wonder what exactly constitutes a language in that respect. If only two people in the world spoke a certain language, is it still a language? I would still think that it is a language and that the number of interlocutors does not change the fact that it is a language. It is interesting to think about for sure.
There are some implications for teaching within this chapter and that is languages are always changing. (I got this idea from Kurt on one of the discussion boards. Thanks Kurt!) Finally, knowing that languages belong to a specific family may enable students to tap into their background knowledge.
The information on Polynesians and their protolanguage was very interesting. It was beneficial to learn that Polynesia formed a language family and there were 5 'daughter' languages that are subordinate to the 'parent language' of Proto-Polynesian. The way in which all of the languages evolved as shown in tables 13-1 and 13-2 was surprising in some aspects. It seems some parts of the language evolved and changed quite a bit and in other areas the language stayed virtually the same.
Another surprising fact that I learned when reading the chapter is that Chinese is spoken by 1.2 billion people and English comes in at 325 million people. It was also interesting to read about the people of Papua New Guinea, and that it is a nation of 5.4 million people with more than 800 languages that are spoken. It makes me wonder what exactly constitutes a language in that respect. If only two people in the world spoke a certain language, is it still a language? I would still think that it is a language and that the number of interlocutors does not change the fact that it is a language. It is interesting to think about for sure.
There are some implications for teaching within this chapter and that is languages are always changing. (I got this idea from Kurt on one of the discussion boards. Thanks Kurt!) Finally, knowing that languages belong to a specific family may enable students to tap into their background knowledge.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Reflection of Class on 4/16
Class on Thursday started with an activity in small groups. We began discussing our final project and any problems that we have had. We then analyzed a Biblical script from 4 varying types of English. It was interesting to see the different ways in which Modern English would write raven or dove in comparison with the older versions of English.
Someone in my group brought up the different word orders of each version and I thought that was interesting too. Personally, when I looked at the script, I noticed there were different names for 'Noah' and the word arc, ark, or Arke. I wonder how such a subtle difference came about.
Then class then got back together and discussed our findings from analyzing the different versions of English. It seems everyone came up with most of the same ideas.
Thankfully, Esther showed us an example of the final project and I feel much more clear about what I am suppose to do and less anxious. The final project actually seems achievable!
Someone in my group brought up the different word orders of each version and I thought that was interesting too. Personally, when I looked at the script, I noticed there were different names for 'Noah' and the word arc, ark, or Arke. I wonder how such a subtle difference came about.
Then class then got back together and discussed our findings from analyzing the different versions of English. It seems everyone came up with most of the same ideas.
Thankfully, Esther showed us an example of the final project and I feel much more clear about what I am suppose to do and less anxious. The final project actually seems achievable!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Readings for Week 14
This week's readings covered the history of English and how it has evolved over time. I learned about the different periods in history for English:
- 700-1100-Old English (Anglo Saxon)
1100-1450 or 1500- Middle English - English spoken since 1450 or 1500 is Modern English
I am glad that I got clarification on which English was spoken at a certain time period. The evolution of English is quite remarkable and it seems that some of the oldest English looks more like a foreign language compared to anything I have read in Modern English. This may be somewhat of a weird question but when thinking of some of the Old English that no one today would be able to read without education in the area, why isn't it consider a different language. I say 'different language' because it is not foreign but it is most certainly different. Perhaps because all English, no matter from what period, has the same roots.
It is helpful to know the history of language when actually teaching it because one can look at the patterns from history with respect to pronunciation and intonation, stress, and rhythm. If a student knows a language such as German or French he or she may be able to use that knowledge to recognize roots in English words and therefore pronounce it correctly. Also, student may gain an understanding of how their old native language and the Old English are similar and different.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Reflection of Week 13 class period
This week's class went well, for the most part. We started the class in groups and went through an activity which I found to be helpful. We were able to use our knowledge of the text that we read and apply it to a real concept. It also helps doing the activity within a group because we can bounce ideas off of each other. The last activity in the small group was to talk about our trial analysis of a written sample. We talked about the errors of the writing and why they may have occurred. I hope we do not have to do that on the final project because my written and spoken samples are coming from native Somali speakers. I am not familiar with the language but I think I could make guesses. I hope that is something that is allowed in the final project.
The class then went to a whole group discussion. I kind of felt like a butt because I confused contractions with conjunctions. Oh well, mistakes happen. It was good to talk about the different terms in the book with the game that we play with Esther. I really appreciate going over what was in the readings.
The class then went to a whole group discussion. I kind of felt like a butt because I confused contractions with conjunctions. Oh well, mistakes happen. It was good to talk about the different terms in the book with the game that we play with Esther. I really appreciate going over what was in the readings.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Finegan Chapter 9 readings
This week’s readings were extremely interesting and I found myself analyzing all of the speech acts I perform in any given day and what they mean. I also began thinking of my relationships with other interlocutors and what that meant.
A few key themes came up when I was reading that I would like to take extra note of. First, when the Finegan book talked about turn-taking and pausing I got to think of one of my close friends and how she signals it is my turn to talk. She habitually says “You know”. After thinking more about this I realized she also used that term for a pause when thinking about the subject. It is so nice to be able to put a real life example to the terms explained in the book.
Next, I thought the Chinese greetings sounded interesting and quite different from English. The whole concept of, “Have you eaten rice yet?” is a different one but I liked reading about the different greetings around the world.
Another interesting point brought up in the Finegan book had teaching implications written all over it! The concept of the pause between interlocutors is quite different among cultures. The book gave the example of Athabaskan Indians and the waiting time of about one and half seconds. That seemed fairly long to me and I think I would be considered rude in their culture. In fact, at times I am sure I am considered rude in this culture. The concept of the waiting time being linked to culture is important for teachers to note, especially E.L.L. teachers. Patience with wait time could go a long way and present students with a greater opportunity to engage in classroom discussions.
Finally, when the book talked about turn taking and pausing, I thought of a HORRIBLE first date I had about 4 years ago. I went to a baseball game with him, (Let’s call him Bob). Well, I would ask Bob a question and I would wait for a response, but there was none! I would then say something like, “This hot dog is really good!” and still nothing! I tried every cue (subconsciously, of course) to get him to contribute to the conversation and nothing worked. I think it is so interesting how people across the world have the implicit knowledge about the complex structure of conversations! Needless to say I did not go on a second date with the guy I say was like talking to a brick wall. J
A few key themes came up when I was reading that I would like to take extra note of. First, when the Finegan book talked about turn-taking and pausing I got to think of one of my close friends and how she signals it is my turn to talk. She habitually says “You know”. After thinking more about this I realized she also used that term for a pause when thinking about the subject. It is so nice to be able to put a real life example to the terms explained in the book.
Next, I thought the Chinese greetings sounded interesting and quite different from English. The whole concept of, “Have you eaten rice yet?” is a different one but I liked reading about the different greetings around the world.
Another interesting point brought up in the Finegan book had teaching implications written all over it! The concept of the pause between interlocutors is quite different among cultures. The book gave the example of Athabaskan Indians and the waiting time of about one and half seconds. That seemed fairly long to me and I think I would be considered rude in their culture. In fact, at times I am sure I am considered rude in this culture. The concept of the waiting time being linked to culture is important for teachers to note, especially E.L.L. teachers. Patience with wait time could go a long way and present students with a greater opportunity to engage in classroom discussions.
Finally, when the book talked about turn taking and pausing, I thought of a HORRIBLE first date I had about 4 years ago. I went to a baseball game with him, (Let’s call him Bob). Well, I would ask Bob a question and I would wait for a response, but there was none! I would then say something like, “This hot dog is really good!” and still nothing! I tried every cue (subconsciously, of course) to get him to contribute to the conversation and nothing worked. I think it is so interesting how people across the world have the implicit knowledge about the complex structure of conversations! Needless to say I did not go on a second date with the guy I say was like talking to a brick wall. J
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Class time reflection from April 2nd
As you can tell this blog is posted a little later than usual. It is that time again, the end of semester crunch time! I can definitely feel the pressures from school which is contending with work. I am not complaining, I am simply explaining the time delay, because after all, I would not give up school for the world and I am very blessed to have a job in this economy.
On with the show....
Last week we talked about pragmatics. I think it is such an interesting topic that could be discussed on and on. I was so happy that we broke into groups to do the exercises in Finegan. I appreciate doing the exercises so much and it was PROFOUNDLY HELPFUL to do so with my very intelligent classmates. So many of us looked at the same text in so many different ways.
It is nice to read about a concept and then put it into practice and we did just that with our exercises on pragmatics.
We then discussed what each group came up with and other topics within pragmatics. It was interesting to hear some of the non-native students talk about their native languages and the different ways in which pragmatics are utilized in their culture.
I am still thinking about one of the sections that was presented in the video, "Colorless Green Ideas..." One section asked why we say, "Big red balloon" instead of "Red big balloon". I now find certain idioms and sayings that seems to only flow and sound right one particular way in English.
Pragmatics seems like a "sticky" thing to teach. Do we correct a student when he or she says, "Red big balloon", after all it is still correct. The balloon is red and big so what does it matter the order with which it is stated? I think pragmatics is important to stress only when considering certain social situations in which the pragmatics are very important in the communication, for example a job setting.
Overall, the class went really well and I look forward to analyzing more sayings in English.
On with the show....
Last week we talked about pragmatics. I think it is such an interesting topic that could be discussed on and on. I was so happy that we broke into groups to do the exercises in Finegan. I appreciate doing the exercises so much and it was PROFOUNDLY HELPFUL to do so with my very intelligent classmates. So many of us looked at the same text in so many different ways.
It is nice to read about a concept and then put it into practice and we did just that with our exercises on pragmatics.
We then discussed what each group came up with and other topics within pragmatics. It was interesting to hear some of the non-native students talk about their native languages and the different ways in which pragmatics are utilized in their culture.
I am still thinking about one of the sections that was presented in the video, "Colorless Green Ideas..." One section asked why we say, "Big red balloon" instead of "Red big balloon". I now find certain idioms and sayings that seems to only flow and sound right one particular way in English.
Pragmatics seems like a "sticky" thing to teach. Do we correct a student when he or she says, "Red big balloon", after all it is still correct. The balloon is red and big so what does it matter the order with which it is stated? I think pragmatics is important to stress only when considering certain social situations in which the pragmatics are very important in the communication, for example a job setting.
Overall, the class went really well and I look forward to analyzing more sayings in English.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Readings for Week 12
As it seems, I was a little confused on the material presented in Chapter 8 of Finegan. This is becoming a recurring blog habit of mine but I would just like to establish the things I was confused about:
Fronting, a little clarification on what the purpose is.
The whole concept of definite vs. given.
I found some interesting aspects about the English language that I did not know had a specific purpose and that is the new-information stress. As a native speaker I have always used that type of stress, but now I realize the importance of teaching it especially in and adult E.L.L. classroom. I think students could both learn the stress and pick it up implicitly.
I liked reading about other languages and how they mark different pragmatics and other aspects of language. One example that I found to be completely fascinating was with Russian and all the ways with which 'The cat is chasing the dog' I think there were 6 examples presented. That is so interesting! The word order of the language marks it's givenness.
The whole concept of the It Clefts and the WH Clefts is again, structures that I have used many times in English, but I was never aware of the purpose they serve.
It seems that all the information is important to identify the pragmatics of a discourse and I think there are some really great advantages for readers to identify the discourse right away. One example, is students could use more context clues to their advantage when guessing the meaning of different vocabulary terms. Overall, the ability to identify the pragmatics of a text is one more tool in the "literacy tool box " of students.
Fronting, a little clarification on what the purpose is.
The whole concept of definite vs. given.
I found some interesting aspects about the English language that I did not know had a specific purpose and that is the new-information stress. As a native speaker I have always used that type of stress, but now I realize the importance of teaching it especially in and adult E.L.L. classroom. I think students could both learn the stress and pick it up implicitly.
I liked reading about other languages and how they mark different pragmatics and other aspects of language. One example that I found to be completely fascinating was with Russian and all the ways with which 'The cat is chasing the dog' I think there were 6 examples presented. That is so interesting! The word order of the language marks it's givenness.
The whole concept of the It Clefts and the WH Clefts is again, structures that I have used many times in English, but I was never aware of the purpose they serve.
It seems that all the information is important to identify the pragmatics of a discourse and I think there are some really great advantages for readers to identify the discourse right away. One example, is students could use more context clues to their advantage when guessing the meaning of different vocabulary terms. Overall, the ability to identify the pragmatics of a text is one more tool in the "literacy tool box " of students.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Reflection of class
We opened the class with a discussion about the "He Said, She Said" video. It seems everyone had a lot to say about what they saw in the video and it seems that it was very informative for everyone.
Next, we broke up into groups and went over the quiz. My group went over the tree diagram of "Helen likes a good cigar". We then went over the matching portion of the quiz. I thought it was funny how my whole group had all the same answers on that part. We all thought the matching was too easy, in that, all the answers were right next to each other.
I am now surprised to find that I had all the same answers as my classmates but I still did not get full credit for most of the diagrams I constructed. What I think happened was I put some of the prepositional phrases too high up in the sentence. I had not realized that it matter that much as to where to connect each portion of the sentence. I also had not realized where to connect them and how to find that information out until Esther explained it in class.
To conclude, I am very happy that quiz is over with and I am now trying to concentrate on obtaining my written and spoken sample for my analysis.
Next, we broke up into groups and went over the quiz. My group went over the tree diagram of "Helen likes a good cigar". We then went over the matching portion of the quiz. I thought it was funny how my whole group had all the same answers on that part. We all thought the matching was too easy, in that, all the answers were right next to each other.
I am now surprised to find that I had all the same answers as my classmates but I still did not get full credit for most of the diagrams I constructed. What I think happened was I put some of the prepositional phrases too high up in the sentence. I had not realized that it matter that much as to where to connect each portion of the sentence. I also had not realized where to connect them and how to find that information out until Esther explained it in class.
To conclude, I am very happy that quiz is over with and I am now trying to concentrate on obtaining my written and spoken sample for my analysis.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Readings in Chapters 10 & 11 in Finegan
This week's readings were interesting and some of the information was implicit knowledge that I already had. I was glad the book presented such material in a way that was easy to analyze and further solidify the information in my head.
Chapter 10 talked about different registers and styles in both the spoken and written word community. This short chapter gave examples of how a languages register is dependent on a speech situation. One portion of the chapter compared the amount of times the 'ing' was used in comparison with the pronunciation of just the 'in' as in "talking" or "walking". It seems that the data concluded that when formal speech is in use the full pronunciation is used but in more informal situations just the 'in' pronunciation was used. The study also examined the differences between men and women in the same situations.
Chapter 10 also reviewed slang and jargon and ways in which is it is used. The difference between the two is that slang is used in very informal situations while jargon is used in a particular group of people such as police officers or lawyers.
Finally, chapter 10 analyzed the difference between spoken and written registers. Obviously, written registers allow for more thought and therefore, can be much more formal, depending on the situation of course. For example, while writing a quick note to my boyfriend to pick up milk is quite informal but when writing a paper for class it can be extremely formal or socially distant.
Chapter 11 covered a little more with respect to language variations in social groups. To reexamine terms used in the book here are some quick definitions:
dialect- language variety which is characteristic to a particular social group or region and only refers to the speakers of the variation
registers- is dependent on the situation in which the language variety is used.
accent- refers to the pronunciation of the language.
The book analyzed how languages merge together to become quite similar. It seems, especially when referring to the language merger in Kupwar this can be a good occurrence.
There were many maps provided showing the different dialects throughout the United States.
With all of this information in mind, one can only think of the implications for teaching. I think an E.S.L. teacher must recognize that along with teaching the fundamentals of the English language she must also make her students aware of the registers, dialects, and accents. To teach which register of speaking in a certain situation can seem to be very difficult but once the students are made more aware, they will only reap the benefits in their future language endeavors.
Chapter 10 talked about different registers and styles in both the spoken and written word community. This short chapter gave examples of how a languages register is dependent on a speech situation. One portion of the chapter compared the amount of times the 'ing' was used in comparison with the pronunciation of just the 'in' as in "talking" or "walking". It seems that the data concluded that when formal speech is in use the full pronunciation is used but in more informal situations just the 'in' pronunciation was used. The study also examined the differences between men and women in the same situations.
Chapter 10 also reviewed slang and jargon and ways in which is it is used. The difference between the two is that slang is used in very informal situations while jargon is used in a particular group of people such as police officers or lawyers.
Finally, chapter 10 analyzed the difference between spoken and written registers. Obviously, written registers allow for more thought and therefore, can be much more formal, depending on the situation of course. For example, while writing a quick note to my boyfriend to pick up milk is quite informal but when writing a paper for class it can be extremely formal or socially distant.
Chapter 11 covered a little more with respect to language variations in social groups. To reexamine terms used in the book here are some quick definitions:
dialect- language variety which is characteristic to a particular social group or region and only refers to the speakers of the variation
registers- is dependent on the situation in which the language variety is used.
accent- refers to the pronunciation of the language.
The book analyzed how languages merge together to become quite similar. It seems, especially when referring to the language merger in Kupwar this can be a good occurrence.
There were many maps provided showing the different dialects throughout the United States.
With all of this information in mind, one can only think of the implications for teaching. I think an E.S.L. teacher must recognize that along with teaching the fundamentals of the English language she must also make her students aware of the registers, dialects, and accents. To teach which register of speaking in a certain situation can seem to be very difficult but once the students are made more aware, they will only reap the benefits in their future language endeavors.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Reflection of Class
Class this week went by pretty quickly. We got into groups and discussed the different semantic fields-
- hyponymy
- part/whole relationships
- synonymy
- antonymy
- polysemy and homonymy
I had a pretty good grasp on the main ideas listed above but it was nice to review the main points of each.
Esther then explained the quiz that we would be taking. So can I just say that I simply dislike tree diagrams! I understand their use and I can see how they may help illustrate how certain sentences are broken down. I appreciate that but it seems that much of a tree diagram can be open interpretation. I just don't understand what exactly constitutes a Noun Phrase. I understand of course that it needs to have a noun but what if there was a phrase such as:
slimy four-horned snail. Now, one would think that this is an Adjective Phrase but a person who may know more about snails would beg to differ. The four-horned snail is a species and therefore that person could say it is a Noun Phrase.
I hope I have explained the ambiguity that I have seen in tree diagrams. Overall, this class is the hardest for me which means I want to do well in it. I only see the benefits it can bring to my teaching career. I think I have just met my mid-semester frustration with not grasping the material as quickly as I usually do.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Readings for Week 10 "My toothbrush is pregnant"
The Chapter in Finegan covered Semantics and the study of meaning. The chapter began with multiple definitions of the word 'meaning'. Meaning can be broken down into 3 basic areas-
- Linguistic
- Social
- Affective
Each of these mentioned above pertain to the meaning of language in various ways. Linguistic meaning is the actual meaning of the individual words. There is a problem with simply taking the meaning of the parts of the sentences to assume the whole meaning of that unit. Two other aspects need to be taken into consideration and that is where social and affective meaning come into play. Social meaning can convey the status or situation of the speaker. Affective meaning can convey the impression or stance that speaker has.
I enjoyed reading about Polysemy and Homonymy and how they can affect meaning. Words like "wind" (the wind is blowing perfectly so we can fly a kite) and "wind" (that wind up toy is broken) can be somewhat tricky for second language learners. These examples bring me to my next point and that there were so many implications for teachers with this chapter!
For example, English has homonyms such as girl and boy with references to the superordinate term "child". Spanish has 'tios' for 'tias' and 'tios' (ignore the lack of accents on the 'i').
Another example is in English has to do with metaphors and the fact that "the heart is where emotions are experienced" such as "I have my heart set on that car" . In many languages this sentence would not make much sense. (This brings about one question for me, What is the difference between metaphors and idioms?) In other languages the stomach is the root of feelings such as the Polynesian language.
The third person pronoun is different in other languages when compared to English. Some languages do not have a 3rd person pronoun at all. Finally, there are 2 demonstratives in the English language and some languages such as Eskimo have 30!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Class time reflection
Today's class was interesting to say the least. I think it was a prime example as to when technology works it is awesome but when it does not work it is at best frustrating. We broke into groups and tried to use the tree diagram to break down a sentence, however; my group and I spent the entire time figuring out the white board. I think it was a nice idea though. My group wanted to break down the sentence "We can hear Charlie" basically because for some reason we could all hear him in our headsets. Anyway, I re-created the tree diagram and posted it on my wiki. I was not able to copy and paste the image to my blog so here is the link if anyone is interested to see it:
http://steviemike.pbwiki.com/browse/#view=ViewAllFiles¶m=All%2520Files
http://steviemike.pbwiki.com/browse/#view=ViewAllFiles¶m=All%2520Files
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Reflection of readings for week 8
First of all, I would like to begin my reflection with a question. Is Mr. Edward Finegan serious when he is talking about a MATRIX CLAUSE!!! What is that!? If I am being completely honest with myself I was lost from page 152 when he started talking about Grammatical Relations. In particular I need clarification on
I finally found out exactly what a NOUN and VERB PHRASE IS!!! I had always wanted to know but no one could ever really define it for me.
Something that I found quite interesting and rather shocking was in the Freeman & Freeman there is an excerpt from two authors that did a study on the explicit teaching of grammar. The shocking part was that the quote overtly advocated that teaching grammar can be somewhat harmful to the education of students. I agree with that statement it was amazing that the book cited a quote with that strong viewpoint. I can see how grammar can be damaging to students motivation to want to learn about the English language. In fact I remember learning grammar and it was horrible! My teacher would have us take out our "I, Me, Mine" books and go through different grammar points. I can still see that book to this day. It was black and had a person fishing on the front of it. Anyway, that was the worst part of the day because the material my teacher was teaching was so dry for lack of a better word.
- auxiliary verbs
- COMP nodes
- subordinators and subordinate clauses
- matrix clauses
I finally found out exactly what a NOUN and VERB PHRASE IS!!! I had always wanted to know but no one could ever really define it for me.
Something that I found quite interesting and rather shocking was in the Freeman & Freeman there is an excerpt from two authors that did a study on the explicit teaching of grammar. The shocking part was that the quote overtly advocated that teaching grammar can be somewhat harmful to the education of students. I agree with that statement it was amazing that the book cited a quote with that strong viewpoint. I can see how grammar can be damaging to students motivation to want to learn about the English language. In fact I remember learning grammar and it was horrible! My teacher would have us take out our "I, Me, Mine" books and go through different grammar points. I can still see that book to this day. It was black and had a person fishing on the front of it. Anyway, that was the worst part of the day because the material my teacher was teaching was so dry for lack of a better word.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Class time Reflection
This week in class we began in small groups and went over the activities 2-12 and 2-14 from Finegan. I am so glad that I got a chance to ask questions in the small groups. It seems my group mates are so smart and they did not mind answering my questions. Thanks, Bekir, Charlie and Kurt! I am happy and relieved that I got most of the answers correct on my activities and I think it is funny that the rest of the class thought that 2-14 was "too simple" because I thought that very same thing.
We then got back into our large group and discussed what the other groups had questions on. Esther then talked about the quiz and gave some helpful hints. I have just began the quiz and I am a little nervous but hopefully I can figure it out. Wow, now I really am a grad student because it is a Friday night and I am working on my Linguistics Quiz. Do I know how to party or what!?
We then got back into our large group and discussed what the other groups had questions on. Esther then talked about the quiz and gave some helpful hints. I have just began the quiz and I am a little nervous but hopefully I can figure it out. Wow, now I really am a grad student because it is a Friday night and I am working on my Linguistics Quiz. Do I know how to party or what!?
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Freeman & Freeman Chapters 7 & 8
These two chapters covered Morphology and its implications for teaching. Some of what was covered was a nice review of material that I have read in other classes. Content and function words were among the terms that were reviewed.Some new material was discusses especially with respect to teaching grammar and whether or not it has a positive outcome when taught.
The book stated that the teaching of grammar rules did not assist in learning a new language. Freeman and Freeman claim that the knowledge of certain parts of speech is acquire and to try and teach it would be fruitless. Freeman and Freeman reached this conclusion when they refer to a summary of studies done by Weaver. What I want to know is if both native and non-native speakers were both analyzed. What is curious is whether or not the study actually took into consideration non-native speakers. I just wonder if grammar rules would actually help those learners. I guess I do not know that answer at this point but it is very interesting. (APP topic?)
I liked reading about how different languages are classified such as the polysynthetic languages, analytic, and synthetic. When the book was talking about Latin and how verbs are used it made sense because I think there is a connection between Spanish and Latin.Something that was very interesting was reading about the stress that is used in compound words and noun phrases. For example, the word highchair has the stress on the first syllable 'high' and if it was a noun phrase the stress would be on 'chair' but I have no idea how I know and use that, I just do. Also, when thinking about the words toothbrush and haircut, the words do not fully represent its meaning.
The book brought up the point that people brush more than one tooth and they get more than one hair cut so should it be, teethbrush and hairscut? I just thought that was a very good observation.The idea of clipping is a cool concept to think about. I think sometimes it can be a little trendy for lack of a better word. What I mean is I have heard someone use the term "bestie" which would mean "best friend" I do not think that is a perfect example of clipping but it gets the point across that meaning could be lost with certain clippings. I have also heard (and am sometimes guilty of using) "apt" for apartment and "rents" for parents.
I liked the story about Friddle. I think that student really thought on his feet!
Lastly, there are many implications for teaching when thinking about Morphology. It makes sense that students would not be able to make meaning out of complex, compound words by simply breaking them down. Would it be better to let the student know of the pronunciation, write down all the words the student was unaware of in the text and then investigate and use them further??After reading Chapter 8 it further solidified the idea that WORDS NEED TO BE LEARNED IN CONTEXT!
The book stated that the teaching of grammar rules did not assist in learning a new language. Freeman and Freeman claim that the knowledge of certain parts of speech is acquire and to try and teach it would be fruitless. Freeman and Freeman reached this conclusion when they refer to a summary of studies done by Weaver. What I want to know is if both native and non-native speakers were both analyzed. What is curious is whether or not the study actually took into consideration non-native speakers. I just wonder if grammar rules would actually help those learners. I guess I do not know that answer at this point but it is very interesting. (APP topic?)
I liked reading about how different languages are classified such as the polysynthetic languages, analytic, and synthetic. When the book was talking about Latin and how verbs are used it made sense because I think there is a connection between Spanish and Latin.Something that was very interesting was reading about the stress that is used in compound words and noun phrases. For example, the word highchair has the stress on the first syllable 'high' and if it was a noun phrase the stress would be on 'chair' but I have no idea how I know and use that, I just do. Also, when thinking about the words toothbrush and haircut, the words do not fully represent its meaning.
The book brought up the point that people brush more than one tooth and they get more than one hair cut so should it be, teethbrush and hairscut? I just thought that was a very good observation.The idea of clipping is a cool concept to think about. I think sometimes it can be a little trendy for lack of a better word. What I mean is I have heard someone use the term "bestie" which would mean "best friend" I do not think that is a perfect example of clipping but it gets the point across that meaning could be lost with certain clippings. I have also heard (and am sometimes guilty of using) "apt" for apartment and "rents" for parents.
I liked the story about Friddle. I think that student really thought on his feet!
Lastly, there are many implications for teaching when thinking about Morphology. It makes sense that students would not be able to make meaning out of complex, compound words by simply breaking them down. Would it be better to let the student know of the pronunciation, write down all the words the student was unaware of in the text and then investigate and use them further??After reading Chapter 8 it further solidified the idea that WORDS NEED TO BE LEARNED IN CONTEXT!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Class Reflection for February 19th
We began the class in small groups and each group analyzed certain grammatical aspects from the sentence :
The hungry linguist quickly ate a delicious sandwich before class.
My group was given the task to analyze the prepositions and the verbs in the sentence. I liked this task because prepositions have always freaked me out a little bit. I think it is because I always use to forget what the heck a preposition is. Now I came up with something to help me remember. The "pre" means the word usually goes before a noun. The "position" indicates the purpose of the word. Prepositions often indicate the location of the noun. I hope that is correct because that is how I have been remembering the meaning of the word.
We then joined the other groups and presented our findings. My group made me present because I hate my voice and they said I haven't spoken much in the class. Well, I presented and I hope it went ok.
After that, Lillian, Leping, and Ling discussed the exercise that was due which involved studying the Chinese language and how it works. That exercise was so fun and can I just say I felt really cool completing it in the library at school. I was secretly hoping people thought I knew a complex language such as Chinese. (yes, I am a little bit of a nerd) Anyone the way the exercise was explained was very helpful and I realized that I got pretty much every other question wrong on the worksheet but I doubt the point was to get them all right. I think we were suppose to get used to looking at a language with a scientific and methodical eye.
The hungry linguist quickly ate a delicious sandwich before class.
My group was given the task to analyze the prepositions and the verbs in the sentence. I liked this task because prepositions have always freaked me out a little bit. I think it is because I always use to forget what the heck a preposition is. Now I came up with something to help me remember. The "pre" means the word usually goes before a noun. The "position" indicates the purpose of the word. Prepositions often indicate the location of the noun. I hope that is correct because that is how I have been remembering the meaning of the word.
We then joined the other groups and presented our findings. My group made me present because I hate my voice and they said I haven't spoken much in the class. Well, I presented and I hope it went ok.
After that, Lillian, Leping, and Ling discussed the exercise that was due which involved studying the Chinese language and how it works. That exercise was so fun and can I just say I felt really cool completing it in the library at school. I was secretly hoping people thought I knew a complex language such as Chinese. (yes, I am a little bit of a nerd) Anyone the way the exercise was explained was very helpful and I realized that I got pretty much every other question wrong on the worksheet but I doubt the point was to get them all right. I think we were suppose to get used to looking at a language with a scientific and methodical eye.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Readings for Week 6
I hope this doesn't make me a complete nerd when I say that I thoroughly enjoyed the reading for this week. I have been looking for a general summary of the different parts of English. As a native speaker, I have no idea what the different parts of speech are I just know how and when to use them. It is important to know exactly what a preposition is or how exactly an adverb is used and formed. I ashamed to say that I was not very familiar with any of these terms until this Chapter.
The book also broke down morphemes and how they are used and categorized. There are two types of morphemes, bound and free. A free morpheme would be "tree" and the bound morpheme would be the "s" that makes "trees" plural. I think it is interesting that words such as, hippopotamus have what seem to be many syllables but only contain one morpheme! How cool is that!? It is interesting that a prefix can completely change the meaning of a word such as "true" + "un" = "untrue" which is the antonym of "true" . Suffixes change the type of word but not the meaning of it. For example, "arrange" is a verb and when the suffix "ment" is added it becomes an noun of "arrangement".
The chapter also talked about how new words can be added to any language and it lists three ways:
The book also broke down morphemes and how they are used and categorized. There are two types of morphemes, bound and free. A free morpheme would be "tree" and the bound morpheme would be the "s" that makes "trees" plural. I think it is interesting that words such as, hippopotamus have what seem to be many syllables but only contain one morpheme! How cool is that!? It is interesting that a prefix can completely change the meaning of a word such as "true" + "un" = "untrue" which is the antonym of "true" . Suffixes change the type of word but not the meaning of it. For example, "arrange" is a verb and when the suffix "ment" is added it becomes an noun of "arrangement".
The chapter also talked about how new words can be added to any language and it lists three ways:
- new words can derive from existing ones
- words can be borrowed from a different language
- words can be made up
I liked reading about how metaphors are created. It appears that they are almost created by accident.
One question I have is about Inflectional Morphology. Can someone explain it a little bit better than the book did. It was a little confusing to me and if it is explained a different way with better examples perhaps I can retain what it means.
Another question I have is about paradigm. Does that mean an inflection in the voice can change the form of a word? I guess I am a little confused about that one too.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Reflection of Class on 2/12
This week in class we immediately worked in small groups to discuss certain topics in the reading. My group had the concept of logographic and we all discussed how we thought a logographic writing system worked. I had the idea that in languages that use this writing system there is a symbol to represent each word. I think that is only partly true, in that there can be certain morphemes that a represented as well. Anyone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong about this. : ) It was interesting to hear Lillian's view on the Chinese writing system and bless her heart for being patient and answering all of our questions during the group discussion. I found that she was able to put the whole concept into a real life context that I was able to understand.
We then got together as a class and discussed the 3 different systems of writing. (the other two are alphabetic and syllabic) It was interesting to hear how the different systems of writing work and how different they are from the alphabetic system that I have come to know and love. I also realized that I want to learn a language that uses the logographic system of language because it seems so poetic and artistic. It seems like a very difficult task to undertake but also rewarding.
After discussing the different types of writing systems Esther talked about our quizzes. Yikes! I am so happy that she decided to drop the last 2 portions of the quiz and I feel better knowing that some other people in the class had trouble with it.
As of now I feel like I have a firm grip on the material and I just need to keep reading every single word assigned otherwise I know I will be a lost duck.
We then got together as a class and discussed the 3 different systems of writing. (the other two are alphabetic and syllabic) It was interesting to hear how the different systems of writing work and how different they are from the alphabetic system that I have come to know and love. I also realized that I want to learn a language that uses the logographic system of language because it seems so poetic and artistic. It seems like a very difficult task to undertake but also rewarding.
After discussing the different types of writing systems Esther talked about our quizzes. Yikes! I am so happy that she decided to drop the last 2 portions of the quiz and I feel better knowing that some other people in the class had trouble with it.
As of now I feel like I have a firm grip on the material and I just need to keep reading every single word assigned otherwise I know I will be a lost duck.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
"Eye sea too feat inn hour rheum" Freeman Chapters 5-6 Finnegan Chapter 12
This week's readings was a lot of material to let sink in but I think it was all very useful knowledge when think about writing. Chapter 5 in Freeman and Freeman discussed the history of writing and how we came to the English writing system. I loved reading about other languages and the forms of orthography used. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE homonyms and palindromes! They are an interesting aspect to the English language and as a kid I read the books that Freeman and Freeman mention. When looking at the exercises suggested for teaching spelling patterns I could not help but wonder if the activities would actually be beneficial or would they frustrate the students. Suggestions included studying words in a text to find patterns. If a group of words do not follow a specific patterns students are suppose to hypothesize why that may be. History of the language is of course and indicator but would the students even bother with that information?
As I posted the same questions on the discussion board I just wonder what good it does to have students dissect a text. I can see the appropriateness it has in an Adult ESL class but what about an elementary setting?
I like the idea of word games because it seems to create actual excitement about spelling patterns and not a mundane act of looking for patterns. Maybe it is just the "hyper Stephanie" talking but even as a graduate student I would not enjoy looking at spelling patterns. As a teacher I would want my students to be excited about learning the language and I think part of that is keeping them interested in the task at hand. I am not trying to depreciate the activities suggested I am only questioning the effectiveness that it may offer.
I still have a hard time grasping the concept of complimentary distribution as talked about on page 113. Other than that I quite enjoyed Chapter 5 of Freeman and Freeman.
Chapter 6 of the same text talked about Phonics. I was interested to read about Phonics because I don't have any experience with it. When I was learning to read my teachers did not use Phonics so I was curious to know how it works. It seems that Freeman and Freeman advocate for a different, more sociopsycholinguistic view. There was evidence to support the idea that phonics is not designed for natural reading. That is to say that our eyes do not read left to right and we do not dissect each letter at a time. The act of saccades has been studied to prove just that point. Although I think that an entire approach to reading using only phonics is not something I would do, I do think there is some room to clarify certain linguistic areas if students are having trouble. I think the only way to teach reading is by reading. Students need to be immersed from an early age.
One thing I did not understand was assimilation. If I had an example of what assimilation was I think I could grasp it. I understood coarticulation that goes along assimilation as two phonemes being articulated in the same area of the mouth. I think assimilation must mean a phoneme's pronunciation can be effected by its neighboring phoneme. I think. : )
Chapter 12 talked more about the history of writing systems and the different writing systems that exist throughout the world. It appears that there are 3 different writing systems in existence, syllabic, logographic, and alphabetic.
I loved looking at the different Chinese characters and only wish I could attempt to write in such a beautiful way. The book pointed out the advantages to the Chinese writing system and one of them was many dialects can communicate through the same writing system.
There are many teaching implications when reading this chapter. It is important to know the linguistic history of each student so the teacher can fully grasp some of the challenges that may arise. For example, a student with a Turkish background will have different obstacles to overcome than a student coming from Korea. If a teacher recognizes the possible obstacles that each individual student may face then she is better equipped to help each student tackle those obstacles! The same goes with the advantages each student brings in depending on their linguistic background. Each language can present great foundations for teachers to work off of, that teacher just needs to be aware of what they are. An example my be that a student with a Spanish background can already recognize virtually the same Roman alphabet which is an advantage, however, that same student is use to pronouncing words just as they appear which could be a possible obstacle that student can overcome.
As I posted the same questions on the discussion board I just wonder what good it does to have students dissect a text. I can see the appropriateness it has in an Adult ESL class but what about an elementary setting?
I like the idea of word games because it seems to create actual excitement about spelling patterns and not a mundane act of looking for patterns. Maybe it is just the "hyper Stephanie" talking but even as a graduate student I would not enjoy looking at spelling patterns. As a teacher I would want my students to be excited about learning the language and I think part of that is keeping them interested in the task at hand. I am not trying to depreciate the activities suggested I am only questioning the effectiveness that it may offer.
I still have a hard time grasping the concept of complimentary distribution as talked about on page 113. Other than that I quite enjoyed Chapter 5 of Freeman and Freeman.
Chapter 6 of the same text talked about Phonics. I was interested to read about Phonics because I don't have any experience with it. When I was learning to read my teachers did not use Phonics so I was curious to know how it works. It seems that Freeman and Freeman advocate for a different, more sociopsycholinguistic view. There was evidence to support the idea that phonics is not designed for natural reading. That is to say that our eyes do not read left to right and we do not dissect each letter at a time. The act of saccades has been studied to prove just that point. Although I think that an entire approach to reading using only phonics is not something I would do, I do think there is some room to clarify certain linguistic areas if students are having trouble. I think the only way to teach reading is by reading. Students need to be immersed from an early age.
One thing I did not understand was assimilation. If I had an example of what assimilation was I think I could grasp it. I understood coarticulation that goes along assimilation as two phonemes being articulated in the same area of the mouth. I think assimilation must mean a phoneme's pronunciation can be effected by its neighboring phoneme. I think. : )
Chapter 12 talked more about the history of writing systems and the different writing systems that exist throughout the world. It appears that there are 3 different writing systems in existence, syllabic, logographic, and alphabetic.
I loved looking at the different Chinese characters and only wish I could attempt to write in such a beautiful way. The book pointed out the advantages to the Chinese writing system and one of them was many dialects can communicate through the same writing system.
There are many teaching implications when reading this chapter. It is important to know the linguistic history of each student so the teacher can fully grasp some of the challenges that may arise. For example, a student with a Turkish background will have different obstacles to overcome than a student coming from Korea. If a teacher recognizes the possible obstacles that each individual student may face then she is better equipped to help each student tackle those obstacles! The same goes with the advantages each student brings in depending on their linguistic background. Each language can present great foundations for teachers to work off of, that teacher just needs to be aware of what they are. An example my be that a student with a Spanish background can already recognize virtually the same Roman alphabet which is an advantage, however, that same student is use to pronouncing words just as they appear which could be a possible obstacle that student can overcome.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Week 4 Class Reflection
This week's class was very interesting! We began in small groups decoding a transcription that was in all phonetics. I found the hardest thing about the transcription was not the letters but the fact that there was no punctuation or capitalization. It was really helpful that we worked in pairs because I would look at one part of the transcription and have no idea and one of my partners could come up with it right away. I think it was really good practice for the quiz and it was nice to have the support of my group.
After the group activity we all got back together and Esther explained what each group had for a transcription. We then went over a few things that were confusing us. I was so glad to hear that I was not the only person having a little trouble with the material. A few things got cleared up and a few remain somewhat of a foggy mystery. For example, I understand the concept of allophones and phonemes but I think if I were to see more examples of the two it would really cement things in my head.
We talked about the exercises that were due and to be honest I still don't understand what we were suppose to do in 4-9. Esther was right when she said we are all learning a completely foreign language. There are so many rules and parts to this new language that make it hard to grasp the material as quickly as I usually do.
I wonder if there are phonetic alphabets for other languages. In fact I am sure there are and that may be interesting to look at compared to the English language. As I type this right now I looked up the Spanish phonetic alphabet. It seems that I cannot find one that is exactly defined as a Spanish Phonetic Alphabet but I did find something defined as the International Phonetic Alphabet. This phonetic alphabet seems to explain certain sounds from different languages. If anyone knows more about other phonetic alphabets, let me know.
After the group activity we all got back together and Esther explained what each group had for a transcription. We then went over a few things that were confusing us. I was so glad to hear that I was not the only person having a little trouble with the material. A few things got cleared up and a few remain somewhat of a foggy mystery. For example, I understand the concept of allophones and phonemes but I think if I were to see more examples of the two it would really cement things in my head.
We talked about the exercises that were due and to be honest I still don't understand what we were suppose to do in 4-9. Esther was right when she said we are all learning a completely foreign language. There are so many rules and parts to this new language that make it hard to grasp the material as quickly as I usually do.
I wonder if there are phonetic alphabets for other languages. In fact I am sure there are and that may be interesting to look at compared to the English language. As I type this right now I looked up the Spanish phonetic alphabet. It seems that I cannot find one that is exactly defined as a Spanish Phonetic Alphabet but I did find something defined as the International Phonetic Alphabet. This phonetic alphabet seems to explain certain sounds from different languages. If anyone knows more about other phonetic alphabets, let me know.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Readings for Week 4
Chapters 3&4 of the Freeman book cover English Phonology and the implications that come along with it.
Chapter 3 went into depth with the subject of phonology and allowed me to digest the previous material that I read in the book. It also covered exactly what happens within the human anatomy when certain sounds are made. The chapter implied that knowing and understanding phonology can better equip educators when teaching English. It seems that English has a lot of phonemes! (40 in total) The book said that Spanish has about 22 phonemes. From these facts, I did not know what to think. Does that mean that English is a more complicated language? I just don't know. Either way, learning a second or foreign language, no matter what language it is, should not be seen as an easy task.
Chapter 4 went into the two views on phonemic awareness, Word Recognition vs. Sociopsycholinguistic View (say that one 5 times fast!) It seems that there are valid arguments for both view points but I tend to lean towards the Sociopsycholiguistic View. It seems that reading can be taught but most of it is acquired and it is best when it is presented in context and not isolated. I think I am bias because I think of how I learned to read. My sister taught me when I was 4 and she handed me a book and taught me. Bless her heart because although I wanted to quit she had me go through this entire book. It was a pretty big book for a 4 year old but the thing that my sister did not know then, is that she was teaching me how to read using the Sociopsycholinguistic View. I had visual clues from the pictures and this is an example of graphophonic cues.
On page 75 there was the discussion about a book written by Stanovich, "Matthew Effects in Reading" This was not a new concept to me but I just love the way it is explained and it makes perfect sense. The whole idea that rich get richer and poor get poorer in the reading department. It seems that reading can have a snowball effect and it can roll either way. For example, when a child likes to read they of course continue to do it. Through reading children acquire a faster reading rate (which leads to greater comprhension) and a greater vocabulary. This in turns leads the child to enjoy reading because they are good at it and the cycle continues. Now the opposite can happen also, and it seems from my encounters with people who do not enjoy reading their are very firm in that thought.
To conclude, I feel much better about the readings of last week. It seems there was a lot of material but it was an introduction of what we would learn later.
Chapter 3 went into depth with the subject of phonology and allowed me to digest the previous material that I read in the book. It also covered exactly what happens within the human anatomy when certain sounds are made. The chapter implied that knowing and understanding phonology can better equip educators when teaching English. It seems that English has a lot of phonemes! (40 in total) The book said that Spanish has about 22 phonemes. From these facts, I did not know what to think. Does that mean that English is a more complicated language? I just don't know. Either way, learning a second or foreign language, no matter what language it is, should not be seen as an easy task.
Chapter 4 went into the two views on phonemic awareness, Word Recognition vs. Sociopsycholinguistic View (say that one 5 times fast!) It seems that there are valid arguments for both view points but I tend to lean towards the Sociopsycholiguistic View. It seems that reading can be taught but most of it is acquired and it is best when it is presented in context and not isolated. I think I am bias because I think of how I learned to read. My sister taught me when I was 4 and she handed me a book and taught me. Bless her heart because although I wanted to quit she had me go through this entire book. It was a pretty big book for a 4 year old but the thing that my sister did not know then, is that she was teaching me how to read using the Sociopsycholinguistic View. I had visual clues from the pictures and this is an example of graphophonic cues.
On page 75 there was the discussion about a book written by Stanovich, "Matthew Effects in Reading" This was not a new concept to me but I just love the way it is explained and it makes perfect sense. The whole idea that rich get richer and poor get poorer in the reading department. It seems that reading can have a snowball effect and it can roll either way. For example, when a child likes to read they of course continue to do it. Through reading children acquire a faster reading rate (which leads to greater comprhension) and a greater vocabulary. This in turns leads the child to enjoy reading because they are good at it and the cycle continues. Now the opposite can happen also, and it seems from my encounters with people who do not enjoy reading their are very firm in that thought.
To conclude, I feel much better about the readings of last week. It seems there was a lot of material but it was an introduction of what we would learn later.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Week 3 Class Reflection
On 1/29 the online class was a little mixed up for awhile but then it got better. We first met as a class and tried to use our microphones. "Tried" is the operative word because it seems many of us were unsuccessful. This fact brought Esther to realize that perhaps the technology was more of a hindrance to our class than a helpful aid. I like the idea of technology, however, in my experience it never seems to work correctly and I get frustrated. At times I feel that I have defeated the point of the online class because I go to the school library and sit near many of my classmates. I like it better that way because I can ask them questions when I have them.
To move on, the class then got into small groups to discuss Phonology and I was happy about that. I was a little confused about some of the terms but now it seems that I have quite a firm grasp on what each term is.
We then gathered as a class one more time to discuss our findings. Esther then went over Phonology terms that seemed to be confusing. I was sooo glad for that because the light bulb finally went on for me with respect to phonemes and allophones! I was relieved to learn that almost everyone had a little trouble with the chapters we read. It was a lot of new material and I am glad we took the time to go over some of the more confusing points.
Lastly, we discussed the difference between pronunciation and accent. We also discussed the difference between "rime" and "rhyme".
Oh! I found something in our class discussion quite interesting. It is random but very fascinating. When Bekir was talking about affricates he stated that babies in Turkey make a different sound when they cry versus American babies. I thought that was so intriguing! Someone in the class then made the point that it may not be the sound of the babies cries that is different but the way those cries are described in a different language.
To move on, the class then got into small groups to discuss Phonology and I was happy about that. I was a little confused about some of the terms but now it seems that I have quite a firm grasp on what each term is.
We then gathered as a class one more time to discuss our findings. Esther then went over Phonology terms that seemed to be confusing. I was sooo glad for that because the light bulb finally went on for me with respect to phonemes and allophones! I was relieved to learn that almost everyone had a little trouble with the chapters we read. It was a lot of new material and I am glad we took the time to go over some of the more confusing points.
Lastly, we discussed the difference between pronunciation and accent. We also discussed the difference between "rime" and "rhyme".
Oh! I found something in our class discussion quite interesting. It is random but very fascinating. When Bekir was talking about affricates he stated that babies in Turkey make a different sound when they cry versus American babies. I thought that was so intriguing! Someone in the class then made the point that it may not be the sound of the babies cries that is different but the way those cries are described in a different language.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
"Not every white house is the White House and not every black bird is a blackbird"
Before I summarize the painful readings for this week I would just like to say that I have acquired even more respect for people who have learned English as a second or foreign language! Holy Cow! The two chapters in Finnegan illustrated how dreadful learning English can be and I did not realize how complicated it was! So, if you are reading this and English is not your native language CONGRATULATIONS!
Anyway, Chapter 3 in Finnegan concentrated on Phonetics. After realizing that my career as a linguist was over before it started I read some really interesting information. It was so interesting that I drew a smiley face next to the things that really got me excited. The first smiley face worthy information was about voicing. The difference between s and z is that z is voiced and s is not. In other words people use their glottis and larynx when speaking the z. The tongue is in the same spot for both the consonants but like the book said I put my hand near my Adam's apple(Wait, do girls have Adam's apples?) and felt the vibration and it was amazing! I never ever noticed that in my whole 24 years of speaking!
Another point in the book that was very interesting was about the nasal sound of m. The book said to say, mmmmmmmmmm and then try and plug our nose. I did it and I could not speak the mmmmmmmmmmm anymore which illustrated perfectly the way nasal sounds work.
After Chapter 3 I found that I am either going to create a word bank of all the important terms or possibly commit an educational faux pas and make flash cards. (Lately I have heard bad things about them).
Chapter 4 was much more painful and I found it to be rather wordy. I did learn that children need to differentiate between all the words that adults make. That is to say that a sentence can seem like a giant string of noises to a child. Over time children learn the words and where they belong in different contexts.
Now I bring up a question. I did NOT understand the concept of complementary distribution on page 108-109. Along with that I do not understand the exact concept of phonemes and allophones. If anyone can give the definitions to me in layman's terms that would be amazing.
To go back to topic, this chapter further dissected the English language and one thing I found interesting was that when speaking we anticipate the next letter in the word which formulates how we say the previous letter. The book used the example of cop and keep. Our tongues go to different places when anticipated the upcoming vowel. While I was reading this in the coffee shop I am sure people thought I was crazy to see a girl sitting over a book saying, "cop, keep" or with her hand up to her mouth saying "pet, pen".
To conclude, although these 2 chapters were painful I am glad they gave me such insight on how the English language works and what that means for my students in the future.
Anyway, Chapter 3 in Finnegan concentrated on Phonetics. After realizing that my career as a linguist was over before it started I read some really interesting information. It was so interesting that I drew a smiley face next to the things that really got me excited. The first smiley face worthy information was about voicing. The difference between s and z is that z is voiced and s is not. In other words people use their glottis and larynx when speaking the z. The tongue is in the same spot for both the consonants but like the book said I put my hand near my Adam's apple(Wait, do girls have Adam's apples?) and felt the vibration and it was amazing! I never ever noticed that in my whole 24 years of speaking!
Another point in the book that was very interesting was about the nasal sound of m. The book said to say, mmmmmmmmmm and then try and plug our nose. I did it and I could not speak the mmmmmmmmmmm anymore which illustrated perfectly the way nasal sounds work.
After Chapter 3 I found that I am either going to create a word bank of all the important terms or possibly commit an educational faux pas and make flash cards. (Lately I have heard bad things about them).
Chapter 4 was much more painful and I found it to be rather wordy. I did learn that children need to differentiate between all the words that adults make. That is to say that a sentence can seem like a giant string of noises to a child. Over time children learn the words and where they belong in different contexts.
Now I bring up a question. I did NOT understand the concept of complementary distribution on page 108-109. Along with that I do not understand the exact concept of phonemes and allophones. If anyone can give the definitions to me in layman's terms that would be amazing.
To go back to topic, this chapter further dissected the English language and one thing I found interesting was that when speaking we anticipate the next letter in the word which formulates how we say the previous letter. The book used the example of cop and keep. Our tongues go to different places when anticipated the upcoming vowel. While I was reading this in the coffee shop I am sure people thought I was crazy to see a girl sitting over a book saying, "cop, keep" or with her hand up to her mouth saying "pet, pen".
To conclude, although these 2 chapters were painful I am glad they gave me such insight on how the English language works and what that means for my students in the future.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Week 2 Class Reflection
The class session for Week 2 (actually week 1 for me but lets not get into technicalities) was a good session because I think I overcame my fear of online classes and I learned a lot about Krashen's theories and hypotheses.
My group had the "Natural Order Hypothesis" and I am happy about that because to me it seemed to be the most interesting. Krashen claims in this hypothesis that there is a natural order when learning a language. This is especially important when thinking of second or foreign language acquisition.
With respects to L1 learning it is clear that this hypothesis can be proven time and time again when an English speaking baby says "mama" over "sister". Although, most parents like to think that the baby says their name first because they love them the most there is only a kernel of truth within that belief. The consonant of "m" is far easier to say for a young child than for example, "s".
I am disappointed to a certain degree as this is very interesting reading there are not implications for teaching. In an ideal world there would be a handbook of what aspect of the English language to teach first and then second and so on and so forth.
It seems that this is not the last I will see of Krashen and his beliefs but so far so good. I think he contains some valid points within his research and scholarly suggestions.
It seems that we have a very smart class and I like that everyone has different backgrounds with respect to education, language, culture, etc. I view this as an advantage because for most of my life I have been living under a rock that I like to call, Minnesota and I find the experiences of others in my class something that a text book could never teach.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Week 2-Readings
Chapter 1: First Language Acquisition
This chapter covered many interesting facts and studies about how children learn their first language. I enjoyed hearing about the research findings and the implications for ESL/EFL instruction.
Some facts I found most surprising and interesting were:
Children do not simply imitate adults
This is proven with the fact that adults do not ever say sentences such as, "I gaved Sally a book". This proves that children are scientists of language and they are simply testing what works and what does not.
Telegraphic speech
In the early months of a child's life they often speak using only necessary words such as nouns and verbs. A child may say something like "More milk". Over time these short sentences become fleshed out with adjectives and adverbs.
Children are aware of and able to practice Communicative Competence
This idea shows that a child's culture and background can illustrate and define the type of language that child uses and where he/she uses it.
Norm Chomsky's idea of ambiguous sentences
English seems to be a very complicated language when looking at it through Chomsky's eyes. He claims that many sentences are ambiguous in nature and on their surface structure and can contain two deep structure meanings. For example, "I feel frustrated with you right now". One could mean on a deeper level that he/she is frustrated because of the other person or they could imply that they are frustrated at the same source with that other person.
Overall this chapter was very informative and I was excited to read more about how 1st language acquisition research offers insights into 2ND language acquisition.
Chapter 2: Written and Second Language Acquisition
Although I am very aware that I am not an experienced teacher I have made a few decisions from this chapter about how I want to approach reading, writing and literacy in general in my future classroom. It is easy for me to make this decision as a student because I am not faced with students, however, I find it helpful to apply my teaching tool box to my imaginary classroom.
I found that I appreciate the sociopsycholinguistic approach to reading more than the word recognition approach. Background knowledge seems to be of the utmost importance when learning or acquiring something knew. It allows students to make connections to information they already know and therefore cementing the new information.
I also appreciate the idea of acquiring new vocabulary in a variety of contexts and not simply give a list of words to look up. To use my own background knowledge on the subject, when learning Spanish I would feel frustrated at times because I felt I was looking up the same words over and over again. This frustration was experienced even after using flashcards over and over again. I expressed this frustration with one of my Spanish professors and he told me something I will never forget. "It takes 10 times of looking up one vocabulary word to retain it. When finding it in context it takes only have that to retain it." Now I have never verified this statement through research but I can attest even to this day that I can never remember the meaning of "a traves".
With the approach to writing I find that I appreciate the Process classroom. I love the idea of using reading to enrich writing. Also, the activity and research surrounding "read and retell" is fascinating and undeniably effective. (I can never remember which to use affect vs. effect). Also, the idea of error correction in the process classroom appears to work well with students. It is hard to speak a foreign language in front of people and to be corrected out right can be damaging not only to a student's confidence but to their whole language process.
This chapter covered many interesting facts and studies about how children learn their first language. I enjoyed hearing about the research findings and the implications for ESL/EFL instruction.
Some facts I found most surprising and interesting were:
Children do not simply imitate adults
This is proven with the fact that adults do not ever say sentences such as, "I gaved Sally a book". This proves that children are scientists of language and they are simply testing what works and what does not.
Telegraphic speech
In the early months of a child's life they often speak using only necessary words such as nouns and verbs. A child may say something like "More milk". Over time these short sentences become fleshed out with adjectives and adverbs.
Children are aware of and able to practice Communicative Competence
This idea shows that a child's culture and background can illustrate and define the type of language that child uses and where he/she uses it.
Norm Chomsky's idea of ambiguous sentences
English seems to be a very complicated language when looking at it through Chomsky's eyes. He claims that many sentences are ambiguous in nature and on their surface structure and can contain two deep structure meanings. For example, "I feel frustrated with you right now". One could mean on a deeper level that he/she is frustrated because of the other person or they could imply that they are frustrated at the same source with that other person.
Overall this chapter was very informative and I was excited to read more about how 1st language acquisition research offers insights into 2ND language acquisition.
Chapter 2: Written and Second Language Acquisition
Although I am very aware that I am not an experienced teacher I have made a few decisions from this chapter about how I want to approach reading, writing and literacy in general in my future classroom. It is easy for me to make this decision as a student because I am not faced with students, however, I find it helpful to apply my teaching tool box to my imaginary classroom.
I found that I appreciate the sociopsycholinguistic approach to reading more than the word recognition approach. Background knowledge seems to be of the utmost importance when learning or acquiring something knew. It allows students to make connections to information they already know and therefore cementing the new information.
I also appreciate the idea of acquiring new vocabulary in a variety of contexts and not simply give a list of words to look up. To use my own background knowledge on the subject, when learning Spanish I would feel frustrated at times because I felt I was looking up the same words over and over again. This frustration was experienced even after using flashcards over and over again. I expressed this frustration with one of my Spanish professors and he told me something I will never forget. "It takes 10 times of looking up one vocabulary word to retain it. When finding it in context it takes only have that to retain it." Now I have never verified this statement through research but I can attest even to this day that I can never remember the meaning of "a traves".
With the approach to writing I find that I appreciate the Process classroom. I love the idea of using reading to enrich writing. Also, the activity and research surrounding "read and retell" is fascinating and undeniably effective. (I can never remember which to use affect vs. effect). Also, the idea of error correction in the process classroom appears to work well with students. It is hard to speak a foreign language in front of people and to be corrected out right can be damaging not only to a student's confidence but to their whole language process.
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