Thursday 30 October 2008

Background to the L2 User

Portraits of the L2 User, Multilingual Matters by Vivian Cook (2002)

New Words
-She passes for a scholar.
-The vice-president took power in the interim period before the election.
-Her hearing was found to be slightly defective.
-She’s neither rich nor famous. (=She isn’t either rich or famous.)
-The diet may leave you deficient in calcium.
-You may need to amplify this point.

Main Points
L2 Users and L2 Learners
-L2 users are using English for real-life purposes.
-L2 learners are studying English for later use.
-Many L2 learners are studying a second language as one of the academic subjects at school. They don’t have any purposes for immediate use and future careers.
-‘L2 user refers to a person who knows and uses a second language at any level’.
-‘L2 learner implies that the task of acquisition is never finished’.
Characteristics of L2 uses
-‘L2 users often code-switch from one language to another’.
-L2 users can paraphrase L1 to L2 or vice versa.
-L2 uses are influenced by another language in aspects of phonology, vocabulary, syntax and reading.
-Few L2 users can be regarded as native speakers.
-Bilingual children tend to think more flexibly, have increased language awareness, read more quickly in their L1 and have better communication skills in their L1 than monolingual children.

Interesting points
-Japan is not a monolingual country, to be precise, because there are 900,000 Okinawan speakers and 670,000 Korean speakers in Japan (Ethnologue, 1996).
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/.
-All Japanese children learn English in the senior secondary school.

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Impact on reading

Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading by Joanne F. Carlisle (2000)

New Words
-The jargon in his talk was opaque to me.
-Friday 31 July 1925 henceforth became known as ‘Red Friday’.

Main points

-Morphological awareness (structural knowledge and meaning) and processing (the ability to decompose morphologically complex words, or derived words) are useful for reading comprehension..
-High frequency words were read more accurately than low frequency ones.
-Production of shift words were less well than transparent words.

Critical Period Effects

The Robustness of Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisition by Robert M. DeKeyser (2000)

New Words
-His articles provided the main impetus for change.
-The town has a sizeable Sikh population.
-Virtually all students will be exempt from the tax.

Main points
Fundamental Difference Hypothesis
(Bley-Vroman, 1988)
Adults need to consider a structure of a second language and to use verbal-analytic problem-solving mechanisms for explicit learning because they have mostly lost the ability to learn it. On the other hand, children learn a language through language-specific mechanisms of implicit learning. The hypothesis suggests only adults who have a high level of verbal ability will succeed in getting a second language competence.
Critical Period Hypothesis (Lenneberg, 1967)
-Those who are older than a certain age (17) are worse at learning both pronunciation and grammar of a second language than younger people.
-The concept is controversial.

Conclusion
-Fundamental Difference Hypothesis is correct.
-Language-learning aptitude is important to succeed in acquiring a second language.
-Ideal age for language learning exists.

Reformulation and reconstruction

Reformulation and reconstruction: tasks that promote ‘noticing’ by Scott Thornbury (1997)

New words
-The play foregrounds the relationship between father and daughter.
-The rumor soon gained currency throughout the town.
-Research has been constrained by a lack of funds.
-The population of the United States is heterogeneous.
-Everyone is treated equally, irrespective of race.
-I found it hard to study at home because there are too many distractions.
-You need to marshall your arguments.
-Metalanguage is the words and phrases that people use to talk about or describe language or a particular language.
-She fully exploits the humour of her role in the play.
-Advertising like this is a cynical manipulation of the elderly.
-He attempted to harness the sun’s rays as a source of energy.
-The agency will make travel arrangements for you. Alternatively, you can organize your own transport.
-I met ex-wife by chance at the airport.

Main points
Two kinds of noticing
1 Learners must pay attention to input in order to become ‘intake’. Input improvement activities and procedures are effective.
2 Learners must notice the gap between the interlanguage and the target language. The term ‘matching’ is used by Klein (1986).
Reformulation
It is a technique for the teaching of writing and speaking skills. The order of instruction moves from fluency to accuracy.
e.g. Community Language Learning (CLL)-The content comes from learners and the form comes from teachers. The learner’s text is reformulated by the teacher.
Reconstruction
The teacher’s text is the starting point for the activities.
e.g. tried-and-true activities (copying; memorization and recitation of texts; dictation (dictogloss, dicto-comp(dictation/composition), grammar dictation); rhetorical transformation; translation and re-translation; storyboard-type computer games)

Monday 27 October 2008

Interlanguage, Language transfer, Fossilization

Second Language Learning Theories by Rosamond Mitchell & Florence Myles (2004)

New Words
-This theme recurs several times throughout the book.
-She pursued her dream of becoming a journalist.
-The plan, as yet, only exists in embryonic form.
-His mother nurtured his love of music.
-They embarked on a discussion.

Interlanguage (learner language)
The term was coined by Selinker in 1972 to describe the language production by learners as a second language. The interlanguage consists of two basic ideas: the language with a systematic system and with a dynamic system developing over time. Interlanguage studies focus on the learner system and are not limited to Error Analysis.

Language transfer (individual variability)
Language transfer takes place in their second language because of the influence of the native language or mother tongue. First language interferes with the second language learning and various errors are produced from the first language habit.

Fossilization
Fossilization is the phenomenon that the development of a second language seems to stop at some level.

Sunday 26 October 2008

Linguistic aspects of interlanguage

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
Poverty of the stimulus: The inability of input to provide the linguistic information needed for language acquisition
Positive evidence: Input that shows the learner what is grammatical but not what is ungrammatical.
Markedness: This refers to the general idea that some linguistic features may be more ‘basic’ or ‘natural’ than others. More technical definitions based on linguistic theory also exist.

Main points

Universal Grammar (UG) by Noam Chomsky’s theory
-Children learning their L1 must rely on innate knowledge of language.
-UG is not available to adult L2 learners.

Psycholinguistic aspects of interlanguage

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
L1 transfer: The process by which the learner’s L1 influences the acquisition and use of L2.
Contrastive analysis: A set of procedures for comparing and constructing the linguistic systems of two languages in order to identify their structural similarities and differences.
Restricting continuum: This refers to the idea that interlanguage development consists of
Learners gradually replacing L1 rules with target-language rules.
Operating principles: Slobin’s term for the strategies children use during L1 acquisition to segment and analyse input, and which account for regular properties of their output.
Multidimensional model: A theory of L2 acquisition proposed by Meisel, Clahsen, and Pienemann. It distinguishes developmental and variational features according to weather they are governed by processing constraints or socio-psychological factors
Processing constraints: Mechanisms that block learners’ ability to perform the permutations involved in different grammatical structures (e.g. produce wh- questions with inversion).
Parallel distributed processing: A model of language that views language use and acquisition as involving a complex network of interconnections between units rather than rules.

Main points
L1 transfer
-negative transfer, positive transfer, avoidance, overuse
The role of consciousness
Processing operations
-operating principles, processing constraints
Communication strategies

Discourse aspects of interlanguage

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
Comprehensible input: That part of the total input that the learner understands and which is hypothesized to be necessary for acquisition to take place.
Negative evidence/feedback: Information given directly or indirectly to learners that an interlanguage hypothesis is incorrect.
Scaffolding: The process by which learners utilize discourse to help them construct structures that lie outside their competence.
Zone of proximal development: Vygotsky uses this term to refer to the cognitive level that a child is not yet at but is capable of performing at with adult guidance.
Auto-input: This refers to the possibility that learners’ own out-put can serve as input to their language acquisition mechanisms

Main points
Foreigner talk

1 ungrammatical foreigner talk
-deletion of copula be, modal verbs and articles
-the use of special constructions such as ‘no+verb’
2 grammatical foreigner talk
-a slow pace
-simplifications such as the use of shorter sentences, avoidance of subordinate clauses and the omission of complex grammatical forms
-the use of basic form
-elaborates language use

Input hypothesis (Stephen Krashen)
L2 acquisition depends on comprehensible of meaning.
Interaction hypothesis (Micheal Long)
The Negotiation of meaning assists learners’ L2 acquisition.

Saturday 25 October 2008

Focus on form

Focus on form-a myth in the making? By Ron Sheen (2003)

New Words
-Some parents equate education with exam success.
-Exam results are not the only yardstick of a school’s performance.
-Researchers are trying to correlate the two sets of figures.

Main points
‘focus on form’
by Long (1988)
-the idea of that comprehensible input is best experienced through classroom interaction.
-All classroom activity needs to be based on communicative task.
-task structure
-no grammar syllabus
-by means of problem-solving tasks
-perceived as being compatible with currently-accepted theories of SLA
-implicit (inductive) teaching strategy such as the direct method, the natural method, audiolingualism, strong CLT and various aspects of focus on form strategies

‘focus on formS’
-This is equated with the traditional teaching of discrete points of grammar in separate lessons.
-Communicative activity is the underlying propriety of the classroom.
-by problem-solving activities
Step1: providing understanding of grammar
Step2: written and oral exercises
Step3: providing frequent opportunities for communicative use of the grammar
-perceived as being incompatible with these
-explicit (deductive teaching strategy) such as grammar translation, cognitive code-learning and focus on forms as in a skills-learning approach

Conclusion
A ‘focus on formS’ approach is more effective than a ‘focus on form’ approach.

Social aspects of interlanguage

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
Convergence
: The process by which speakers make their speech similar to their interlocutors’ speech. L2 acquisition can viewed as ‘long-term convergence’ towards native-speaker norms.
Divergence: The process by which speakers make their speech different from their interlocutors’ speech. Frequent divergence can be considered to impede L2 acqiosition.
Investment: Learners’ commitment to learning an L2, which is viewed as related to the social identities they construct for themselves as learners.

Three socio-cultural models of L2 acquisition

1 Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum
-stylistic continuum (Elaine Tarone)...Why learner language is variable, from a careful style to a vernacular style
-accomodation theory (Howard Gile)...How a learner’s social group influences the course of L2 acquisition
2 The acculturation model (John Schumann)
-Pidginization takes place when learners are unable or unwilling to adapt to a new culture because of the social distance and psychological distance from L2 group
3 Social identity and investment (Bonny Peirce)
-Learners have complex social identities. Investment is required in order to establish an identity

Interlanguage

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
Interlanguage continuum: The series of interim systems that a learner constructs in the process of acquiring an L2
Backsliding: This is said to occur when learners employ a rule that belongs to an earlier stage of development than the learner’s current stage.

The concept of interlanguage
-‘how L2 acquisition take place’
-Interlanguage means mental grammar of the L2 (unique linguistic rules)
-The grammar is easily influenced.
-The grammar is transitional.
-The grammar has variable rules.
-Various learning strategies are used.
-The grammar tends to fossilize.

Four stages of a computational model of L2 acquisition
1 The learner is exposed to input.
2 Some of the input is delivered to short-term memory (intake).
3 Some of the intake is stored in long-term memory as L2 knowledge.
4 The learner produce output as learner language.

The nature of learner language

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words

Overgeneralization: the oversuppliance of an interlanguage feature in contexts in which it does not occur in target-language use (e.g. ‘He ated ice-cream.’) Overgeneralization result in errors.
U-shaped course of development: The pattern of learning evident when learners use a correct target-language form at one stage, replace it with an ungrammatical interlanguage form, and then finally return to use of the correct target-language form.
Restricting: The process by which learners reorganize their interlanguage in the light of new evidence about the target language. It can occur as a result of a shift from item learning to system learning.
Form-function mappings: The identification by the learner of a particular function which can be performed by means of a particular form. The ensuing ‘mapping’ may or may not correspond to target-language norms.
Free variation: The random use of two or more variants of a structure.Fossilizatioln: the process responsible for the cessation of learning some way short of target-language competence. Most L2 learners’ interlanguages fossilize

Friday 24 October 2008

The Current Top Twenty

Empires of the Word: a Language History of the World by Nicholas Ostler

New Words
-The article gave a distorted picture of his childhood.
-Switzerland is a mountainous country; conversely Holland is flat.
-The growing town soon encroached on the surrounding countryside.
-A Mediterranean cruise was the perfect antidote to a long cold winter.
-Japanese people eat rice as a staple crop.
-Though a talented player, he was completely eclipsed by his brother.
-Romance languages such as French, Italian and Spanish are language that developed from Latin.
-These tasks were repetitive, lengthy and lacking any intrinsic interest.
-Our life has changed because of the advent of new technology
-The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city.
-The runners jocked for position at the start.
-She was the relegated to the role of assistant.
-We have a good reason for our contention over the idea of a new motorway.
-There was a crisis looming.

Summary
Languages have grown by organic growth through the increase of population as well as merger and acquisition through the colonial policy. The figures of the top twenty languages in the world are based on use as a first or second language. The top language is Mandarin Chinese with 1,052 million speakers which is more than twice as many as the next highest language, English, with 508 million speakers. Third highest language is Hindi with 487 million and fourth Spanish, with 417 million. Interestingly, just under half in the table are spoken in area where people eat rice as a staple crop. And the dialect used in the national capital is chosen as the standard language. When it comes to the global language in the future, the population will be important. Asian languages, especially languages in India Pakistan and Arabic countries, will maintain the position or will be higher in the top 20 because of the birth rate. In contrast, German and Italian will go to the bottom of the table unless the number of immigrants will increase. English, Spanish Portuguese and French established the status due to the colonial empires. Future growth of French and English are limited, but they are used as a lingua franca in the world and those countries have influenced the world economically, culturally and militarily. The languages will maintain the prestige as a tool for communication and access to the global system.

The European Union

The European Union: the more languages, the more English
Words of the World Policy by Abram De Swaan (2001)

New Words
-The city boasts a fine library.
-He hopes one day to surpass the world record.
-The wind dislodged one or two tiles from the roof.
-The stadium is adjacent to the school.
-This system perpetuated itself for several centuries.
-I intend to challenge the legitimacy of his claim.
-Ice dissolves into water.
-During the winter the seeds lie dormant in the soil.
-I’m in a terrible predicament.
-The letter was deliberately couched in very vague terms.

Main points and additional information about EU
-The EU had 15 members in 2001. 11 languages were recognized as official languages, which needed a great number of translators and interpreters.
-The EU has 27 member states and 23 official languages as of 2008.

-English is a dominant language in EU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_European_Union

Thursday 23 October 2008

Describing and explaining L2 acquisition

Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis (1997)

New Words
Language aptitude: the special ability that people have, in varying degrees, for leaning an L2
Formulas: chunks of language that are stored either as complete units (e.g. ‘I don’t know’) or as partially analysed units (e.g. ‘Can I have a _____?’)
Mentalist: a mentalist theory of language learning emphasizes the learner’s innate capacity for acquiring a language

Main points
-SLA is the study of a language other than a mother tongue.
-The goals of SLA are the description of L2 acquisition process and the explanation of the learners’ external factors (social condition, type of input) and internal factors (cognitive mechanisms, language aptitude).
-There are two methodological arguments. One is the range of learners’ description, from a specific aspect to the whole of it. The other is the relationship between language form and linguistic function as a feature of the target language.
-Can learners acquire the language systematically?

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Breaking Down Words to Build Meaning

Breaking Down Words to Build Meaning: Morphology, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension in the Urban Classroom by Michael J. Kieffer, Nonie K. Lesaux (2007)

New Words

-She writes under a pseudonym.
-The film resonates with a lot of kids.
-He overlooked an important detail.
-Parents play a crucial role in preparing their child for school.
-The two colleges have a reciprocal arrangement whereby students from one college can attend classes at the other.
-The book shows only a superficial understanding of the historical context.
-There is a direct correlation between exposure to sun and skin cancer.
-The school’s approach must be complementary to that of the parents.
-The word morphology can be broken down into two meaning parts known as morphemes.
-She has the daunting task of cooking for 20 people every day.
-Can anyone decipher his handwriting?
-The city is dissected into two areas by a network of old canals.
-It is impossible to say at what point along the continuum a dialect becomes a separate language.
-A cloze test is a type of test in which you have to put suitable words in spaces in a text where words have been left out.

Summary
There is a relationship between vocabulary and reading. Vague notion of a word could lead to misunderstanding of comprehension. It is useful for students to know the way of breaking the complex words down into morphems; bound, unbound (root word), inflection and derivational morphems. The degree of difficulty depends on whether the words are required spelling and sound changes or included less frequent root words. The correlation among roots and affixes may be useful as “a component of knowing a word well and a strategy for learning new words”.

My Idea
The knowledge of breaking down is difficult for the beginners, but it is useful for the advanced learners. It causes the improvement of vocabulary and reading/writing comprehension as well. And knowing the roots from Latin and Greek may be interesting for students. They can know English has been influenced by other languages.

Useful Links
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=253
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=880

Talking shop

Second language acquisition research: how does it help teachers? An interview with Rod Ellis (1993)

New words
-Subsequent experiments failed to replicate these findings.
-I can’t envisage working with him again.
-Measures to protect the environment could be compatible with economic growth.

Main point
These three approaches are compatible with the ways of learning grammar.
Focused communication activity
This activity improves learners’ grammar accuracy under real operating condition. When learners make errors grammatically, teachers request for clarification deliberately. In some cases, the learners can reformulate correctly.
Grammar conscious-raising activity
The activity encourages learners to try to construct their own explicit grammar. Learners are provided a list of sentences with two different structures and are asked to distinguish into two. And then they need to explain the differences.
Interpretation grammar activity
This is a listening comprehension activity which supply learners with input manipulated to include the target grammatical structure. After listening learners need to explain the meaning of the structure.

My Idea
The three activities seem to be a little old because the article was published in 1993, more than 10 years ago. I’d like to know more practical and useful activities for grammar.

Tuesday 21 October 2008

L1 differences and L2 similarities

L1 differences and L2 similarities: teaching verb tenses in English by Laura Collins (2007)

Main point and My Idea
-Verbs can be categorized into four semantic types; statives, activity, accomplishment and achievement. Teachers don’t have to tell the category to the students, but the knowledge may be useful to teaching.
-French has a component past which is similar to the English present perfect. That’s why Francaphone learners tend to overuse present perfect instead of simple past. Therefore, teachers should know students language background. It’ll be easier to understand where the errors come from.
-Japanese learners were successful only in achievement category compared to Francaphone learners. I think further research will be needed to clarify.
-Dictogloss and interpreting contexts seem to be useful as activities for verb tenses in a Japanese classroom. In Japanese language, we don’t have a concept of present perfect and past perfect. It’s difficult to distinguish between past simple and present perfect. So the activities could help students understanding of the differences of the contexts.

Monday 20 October 2008

Globalisation and national communities of communication

by Joseph Lo Bianco (2005)

New Words
-When the ambulance gone, the crowd dissolved.
-He returned to Britain in 1939, having resided abroad for many years.
-A vernacular is the language spoken in a particular area or by a particular group, especially one that is not the official or written language.
-He devoted his energies to the cause of peace.
-They reverted to the subject of finance.
-He is a highly esteemed scientist.
-He is my revered teacher.

Language planning in Japan
Generally, Japanese people cannot speak English fluently, though we have studied English for many years. For this reason, the government and educational board started to focus on speaking at school. As the article said, the national curriculum has been changed. As a result of this, English has been taught as a foreign language at Japanese junior high schools and elementary school students have started to learn English conversation without textbooks since 2001. Before 2001, there were a lot of arguments about starting English at elementary school. Some experts such as linguists and university professors argued that it was too early and they needed to Japanese more at this stage. Then, it was pointed out that students literacy was falling down and the way of speech style was not suitable. However, the national curriculum will be changed again in one or two years and English is going to be a subject at elementary school officially.

Dante Alighieri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
He was a Florentine poet of the Middle Ages. His central work was the Divine Comedy (Divina Commedia), which was written in Italian language. It was thought to be a new language because it was based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, with some elements of Latin and of the other regional dialects. One of his other works on linguistics was On the Eloquence of Vernacular (De vulgari eloquentia), which deals with the relationship between Latin and vernacular and analyses the origin of vernacular.

Sunday 19 October 2008

Methods and Materials

Methods and Materials: the importance of ‘difference’ in ELT-towards a critical pedagogy by Fiona English (2003)


New Words
-Their findings have been widely disseminated.
-He was eulogized as a hero.
-The two companies consolidated for greater efficiency.
-He could not reconcile himself to the prospect of losing her.
-You’ll have to go to the police station to reclaim your wallet.
-The job encompasses a wide range of responsibilities.
-Designs are available in a myriad of colours.
-In the exhibition, abstract paintings are juxtaposed with shocking photographs.

My Idea
The article is dealing with some teaching methods. I agree as well as disagree in parts. First, I think it is a good contextualizing activity to show pictures which match the reading text and give the narrative after introducing new or important vocabularies. This activity may be effective for guessing the content of the text. Next, I have to be careful of what ‘speaking’ is. ‘Speaking’ is an oral interaction, not repetition, imitation and drilling. Next, memorizing the text is useful at some extent, especially for beginners, though it is boring. It probably leads to the development of language awareness and monitoring because students learn sentence structures, phrases and pronunciation through memorizing.

Saturday 18 October 2008

Seven Hypotheses about Language Teaching and Learning

By David Nunan (2000)

New Words
-My instinctive reaction was to deny everything.
-Computers are very efficient at manipulating information.
-I’m greatly indebted to you for my escape.
-He tended to dramatize his success.
-Her behavior is consistent with her words.
-There is an inclination to treat geography as a less important subject.

My Idea
In order to have students acquired English proficiency, English teachers need to give various activities or materials from different approaches and teachers should focus on learning process because there are different routes to success. I learned English by rote teaching, but it is boring for students and it doesn’t help for communication competence. Students can enjoy English lessons if they learn in positive way, for example, expressing their own experiences and ideas in English. Students usually don’t have an opportunity to use English outside a classroom in Japan. So, teachers need to give information for using English outside of the classroom such as listening to songs, watching films, summarizing articles and so forth.

Language and social variation

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Postvocalic: used after a vowel
Overt prestige: status that is generally recognized as ‘better’ or more positively valued in the larger community
Covert prestige: status of a speech style or feature as having positive value, but which is ‘hidden’ or not valued similarly among the larger community

Study questions
1 An idiolect is a personal dialect of an individual speaker.
2 A speech community is a group of people who share a set of norms and expectations regarding the use of language.
3 He wanted to know the frequency of occurrence of postvocalic /r/ as a linguistic variable, which could mark the speech samples as upper middle class versus middle class versus working class.
4 The final pronunciation of –ing with [n] is a social marker associated with working-class speech.
5 A register is a conventional way of using language that is appropriate in a specific situation, occupation or topic.
6 Be is used as a way of expressing habitual action in AAVE. “He don’t be smoking now?” means that smoking in not a habitual action for him now or he has stopped smoking.

Language and culture

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Linguistic relatively: the idea that, some extent, we think about the world using categories provided by our language
Linguistic determinism: the idea that we can only think in the categories provided by our language
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: the general idea that differences in language structure cause people to view the world differently, from the names of two American linguists, Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf
T/V distinction: the difference between pronouns such as tu (socially close) and vous (socially distant) in French, used address terms
Back-channels: the use of words (yeah) and sound (hmm) by listeners while someone else is speaking

Study questions
1 Culture is socially acquired knowledge.
2 Determinism is the idea that language determines thought.
3 Non-lexicalized means not expressed as a single word.
4 Classifiers are grammatical markers that indicate the type or ‘class’ of a noun.
5 The word ‘advice’ is a non-countable noun, which is not used with a/an.
6 A sentence with a tag question is more likely to be spoken by a woman because it is expressing an opinion in a way of inviting agreement rather than asserting it.

Friday 17 October 2008

Language history and change

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Philology
: the study of language history and change
Diachronic variation: differences resulting from change over a period time, in contrast to synchronic variation
Synchronic variation: differences in language form found in different places at the same time, in contrast to diachronic variation

Study questions
1 Bengali, Hindi-Indic; English, Norwegian-Germanic; Farsi, Pashto-Iranian, Gaelic, Welsh-Celtic; Italian, Portuguese-Italic; Polish, Ukrainian-Slavic
2 Cognates are words in different languages that have similar form and meaning.
3 cosa, cabo, capra
4 bacon, beef, veal, venison-from French, calf, deer, ox, pig-from Old English
5 a) metathesis b) prosthesis c) epenthesis
6 narrowing of meaning

Gestures and sign languages

New words
Primary sign language: a sign language that is the first language of a group of people who are typically deaf and do not use a spoken language (e.g. ASL), in contrast to an alternate sign language
Oralism: a method designed to teach deaf students to speak and read lips rather than use sign language
Primes: the set of features that form contrasting elements within the articulatory parameters of ASL

Study questions
1 Emblems are signals such as “thumbs up” (=things are good) that function like fixed phrases and do not depend on speech.
2 Iconics are gestures that seem to be a reflection of the meaning of what is said. Deictics are gestures used to point at things or people while talking.
3 An alternate sign language is a system of hand signals developed by speakers for limited communication in a specific context where speech cannot be used.

Language and regional variation

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Dialect continuum
: the gradual merging of one regional variety of a language into another
Lexifier: the main source of words in a pidgin
Post-creole continuum: the range of varieties that evolves in communities where a creole is spoken, usually as a result of decreolization

Study questions
1 Hawai’I Creole English
2 Accent is restricted to pronunciation. Dialect is used to describe grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.
3 The dialect description tends to be more accurate of a period well before the time of investigation by using NORMS.
4 An isogloss represents a boundary between the areas with regard to that one particular linguistic item.
5 Selection and codification are the first two stages of language planning.
6 Creole is used as a first language by a population of native speaker, but pidgin has no native speakers.

Thursday 16 October 2008

Identity and Language Learning

by Bonny Norton & Kelleen Toohey

New Words
-Anthropology is the study of the human race, especially of its origin, development, customs and beliefs.
-His bad behavior alienated his friends.
-JALT stands for the Japan Association of Language Teachers.
-The project has demanded considerable investment of time and effort.
-I allowed myself to be persuaded into entering the competition.
-Her story sounded perfectly plausible.

Summary

The identities of language learners should be focused because they are learning a linguistic system as well as sociocultural practices. Interests of researchers are shifting to sociocultural conception such as the learners’ gender, race and class. It is necessary to understand current theories of language, learning and the relations of theories between learners and identities for understanding current conceptions of identity and language learning.

Plenary speeches

Teaching and assessing L2 pragmatics: What can we expert from learners? By Andrew D. Cowen (2008)

New Words
-The council has plenary powers to administer the agreement.
-My daughter is learning English through osmosis.
-The job entails a lot of hard work.
-Illocution is an action performed by speaking or writing, for example ordering, warning or promising.
-Perlocution is an act of speaking or writing which has an action as its aim, but which does not itself perform that action, for example persuading or convincing.
-The performance produced much mirth among the audience.
-Tests at the age of seven provide a benchmark against which the child’s progress at school can be measured.
-There has been a upsurge of interest in his movies recently.
-We pay a salary commensurate with your performance.
-I would like to express my gratitude to everyone for their hard work.
-Traditional stories make use of formulaic expressions like ‘Once upon a time…’.
-Keypal is a person that you regularly send emails to, often you have never met the person.
-These figures have been gleaned from a number of studies.
-Intensifier is a word, especially an adjective or an adverb, for example so or very, that makes the meaning of another word stronger
-They have introduced a new system whereby all employees must undergo regular training.
-An avatar is a picture of a person or an animal which represents a person, on a computer screen, especially in a computer game or chat room.

My Idea
It is difficult to assess speaking test because of the difficulty of setting criteria. As speaking has been focused at Japanese school recently, teachers have to manage to deal with it. I’m interested in the use of CALL (computer-assisted language learning). Computers play an important role in our society. I think they give studying motivation to students. I’d like to use computers as both studying tools and studying materials because computer networking systems are in the process of being introduced into Japanese classrooms.

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Cultural Variations in Conceptions of Pedagogy

Filling the Pot or Lighting the Fire? Cultural Variations in Conceptions of Pedagogy by Su Wu (2002)

New Words
-She has a broad spectrum of interests.
-His bad behavior baffles me.
-The data refute his hypothesis.
-She had to attend a two weeks of intensive English course.
-The police needs to keep a wary eye on this area of town.
-The new policy changes will have many complex ramifications.
-The former Japanese Prime Minister resigned his post to abdicate responsibility.
-He was at a rebellious age.
-‘It’ll be fine,’ she replied, with a nonchalant shrug.
-She felt as though she was on the threshold of a new life

School culture in Japan
My learning style in Japan was different from British one which I deal with now. I spent a lot of time in rote learning at school and I went to private tuition and music classes after school. Nobody asked for help at school because we didn’t have such a culture. As we had strict school rules and routines which controlled rebellious students, our freedom was restricted. I don’t feel paradox, which means that we are required “both more independence and less independence at the same time, more supervision and less of it, a culture of both less and more discipline”. I probably don’t notice yet.

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Why Keep Silent?

Why Keep Silent? The Classroom Participation Experiences of Non-native-English speaking Students by Sibel Tatar (2005)

New Words
-We should take a retrospective look into the past.
-She struggled to articulate her thoughts.
-Living conditions are different from those pertaining in their country origin.
-He learnt words by rote.
-This bridge needs some reinforcement.
-Triangulation is a method of finding out distance and position, usually on a map, by measuring the distance between two fixed points and then measuring the angle from each of these to the third point.
-All users must use all software in accordance with their licensing agreement.
-Clerks transcribe everything that is said in court.
-Developments on this issue will be dealt with in a subsequent report.
-Her behavior deviates from the rules.
-They deprived him of his freedom.
-She felt resentment against the dishonest lawyer.
-In his plays he takes simple traditional tales and elaborates them.

My Idea
According to the article, silence in the classroom means “lack of interest; an unwillingness to communicate; a sign of hostility, rejection, or interpersonal incompatibility; anxiety or shyness; or a lack of verbal skills (Giles et al, 1992).” When I attend seminars at university, I usually don’t talk very much. It means anxiety or shyness and a lack of verbal skills. I don’t talk at meetings even in Japan, so it is not easy for me to talk in seminars. But this is a good chance for me to practice expressing my opinion and develop my English speaking skills. I’d like to be well prepared in order to be confident.

Monday 13 October 2008

Second language acquisition/learning

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Affective factors: emotional reactions such as self-consciousness or negative feelings that may influence learning
Audiolingual method: a mid-twentieth-century approach to language teaching, with repetitive drills used to develop fluent spoken language as a set of habits
Transfer: using sounds, expressions and structures from the L1 while performing in an L2
Positive transfer: the use of a feature from the L1 that is similar to the L2 while performing in the L2, in contrast to negative transfer
Negative transfer: the use of a feature from the L1 (that is really different from the L2) while performing in the L2, in contrast to positive transfer
Interlanguage: the interim system of L2 learners, which has some features of the L1 and L2 plus some that are independent of the L1 and L2
Fossilization: the process whereby an interlanguage, containing many non-L2 features, stops developing toward more accurate forms of the L2
Instrumental motivation: the desire to learn an L2, not to join the community of L2-users, in contrast to instrumental motivation
Integrative motivation: the desire to learn an L2 in order to take part in the social life of the community of L2-users, in contrast to instrumental motivation
Foreigner talk: a way of using a language with non-native speakers that is simpler in structure and vocabulary
Negotiated input: L2 material that an acquirer/learner is exposed to when active attention us drawn to that material during interaction in the L2
Task-based learning: using activities involving information exchange and problem solving as a way of developing ability in language
Communication strategy: a way of overcoming a gap between communicative intent and a limited to express that intent, as part of strategic competence

Study questions
1 Vocabulary and grammar are easier to learn than pronunciation as an adult L2.
2 The term acquisition is used to refer to the gradual development of ability by the constant interaction, but the term learning applies to a more conscious process of accumulating knowledge, typically in an institutional setting. That’s why mathematics is learned, not acquired.
3 insufficient time, the critical period for language acquisition has passed, affective factors, insufficient incentive
4 Positive transfer is the use of a feature from the L1 that is similar to the L2 and negative transfer is one from the L1 that is really different from the L2 while performing in the L2.
5 When learners develop a fixed L2 expression containing many forms that do not match the target language, they seem not to be progressing any further.
6 grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence

First language acquisition

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Caregiver speech: speech addressed to young children by the adult or older children who are looking after them
Cooing: the earliest use of speech-like sounds by an infant in the first few months
Holophrastic (utterance): a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence in the early speech of young children
Telegraphic speech: strings of words (lexical morphemes without inflectional morphemes) in phrases (daddy go bye-bye) produced by two-year-old children
Overgeneralization: in L1 acquisition, using an inflectional morpheme on more words than is usual in the language (two foots)
Overextension: in L1 acquisition, using a word to refer to more objects than is usual in the language (ball used to refer to the moon)

Study questions
1 the frequent use of questions, often using exaggerated intonation, extra loudness and slower tempo with longer pauses
2 in the later babbling stage, 9-10 months
3 10-11 months
4 –ing, -s(plural), -‘s(possesive), -ed
5 a) because ‘not’ is used in front of the verb rather than at the beginning of the sentence
6 overextension

Language and the brain

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Neurolinguistics
: the study of the relationship between language and the brain
Broca’s area: a part of the brain in the left hemisphere involved in speech production
Wernicke’s area: a part of the brain in the left hemisphere involved in language comprehension
Motor cortex: a part of the brain that controls muscle movement
Localization view: the belief that specific aspects of linguistic ability have specific locations in the brain
Tip of the tongue phenomenon: the experience of knowing a word, but being unable to access it and bring it to the surface in order to say it
Malapropism: a speech error in which one word is used instead of syllables (e.g. medication used instead of ‘meditation’)
Slip of the tongue: a speech error in which a sound or word is produced in the wrong place, as in black bloxes (instead of ‘black boxes’)
Spoonerism: a slip of the tongue in which two parts of words or two words are switched, as in a dog of bag food (for ‘a bag of dog food’)
Slip of the ear: a processing error in which one word or phrase in heard as another, as in hearing great ape when the utterance was ‘gray tape’
Aphasia: an impairment of language function due to localizes brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing language
Broca’s aphasia: a language disorder in which speech production is typically reduced, distorted, slow and missing grammatical markers
Agrammatic speech: the type of speech without grammatical markers, often associated with Broca’s aphasia
Wernicke’s aphasia: a language disorder in which comprehension is typically slow while speech is fluent, but vague and missing content words
Anomia: a language disorder in which it is difficult to find words, often associated with Wernicke’s aphasia
Conduction aphasia: a language disorder associated with damage to the arcuate fasciculus in which repeating words or phrases is difficult
Arcuate fasciculus: a bundle of nerve fibers connecting Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area in the left hemisphere of the brain
Dichotic listening: an experiment in which a listener hears two different sounds simultaneously, each through a different earphone
Right-ear advantage: the fact that humans typically hear speech sounds more readily via the right ear
Lateralization (lateralized): divided into a left side and a right side, with control of functions on one side or the other (used in describing the human brain)
Critical period: the time from birth to puberty during which normal first language acquisition can take place

Study questions
1 Wernick’s area is a common name for the posterior speech cortex.
2 The use of ‘fire dintinguisher’ instead of ‘fire extinguisher’ is a malapropism.
3 Aphasia is an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing linguistic forms.
4 Broca’s aphasia
5 In a dichotic listening, a person sits with a set of earphones on and is given two different sound signals simultaneously, one through each earphone.
6 The critical period is when the human brain is most ready to receive input and learn a particular language. It lasts from birth until puberty.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Discourse analysis

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Discourse analysis
: he study of language beyond the sentence, in text and conversation
Cohesion: the ties and connections that exist within texts
Cohesive ties: the individual connections between words and phrases in a text
Coherence: the connections that create a meaningful interpretation of texts
Turn: in conversation, the unit of talk by one speaker, ended by the beginning of the next speaker’s unit of talk
Completion point: in conversation. The end of a turn, usually marked by a pause at the end of a phrase or sentence
Turn-taking: the way in which each speaker takes a turn in conversation

Filled pause: a break in the flow of speech, using sounds such as em and er
Co-operative principle: an underlying assumption of conversation that you will “make your conversational contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged” (Grice, 1975:45)
Quality maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack adequate evidence” (Grice, 1975:46)
Quantity maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “make you contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less, than is required” (Grice, 1975:46)
Relation maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “be relevant” (Grice, 1975:46)
Manner maxim: the assumption in conversation that you will “be clear, brief and orderly” (Grice, 1975:46)
Hedge: a word or phrase used to indicate that you are not really sure that at you are saying is sufficiently correct or complete
Implicature: an additional meaning conveyed by a speaker adhering to the co-operative principle
Schema: a conventional knowledge structure in memory for specific things, such as a supermarket (food is displayed on shelves, arranged in aisles, etc.)
Script: a conventional knowledge structure in memory for the series of actions involved in events such as ‘Going to the dentist’.

Study questions
1 Cohesion is the ties and connections that exist within texts. Coherence is the connections that exist in people and creates a meaningful interpretation of texts.
2 Speakers mark completion points by asking a question or by pausing at the end of a phrase or sentence.
3 Gricean maxims are the quantity, quality, relation and manner maxim.
4 Hedges are words or phrases used to indicate that you are not really sure that what you are saying is sufficiently correct or complete.
5 quality maxim
6 Script is essentially a dynamic schema and has a series of conventional actions that take place.

Pragmatics

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Pragmatics: the study of speaker meaning and how more is communicated than is said
Linguistic context: the set of other words used in the same phrase or sentence, also called co-text
Physical context: the situation, time or place in which words are used
Deixis (deictic expressions): using words such as this or here as a way of ‘pointing’ with language
Person deixis: using words such as him or them as a way of ‘pointing' to a person with language
Spatial deixis: using words such as here or there as a way of ‘pointing' to a location with language
Temporal deixis: using words such as now or tomorrow as a way of ‘pointing to a time with language
Reference: an act by which a speaker/writer uses language to enable a listener/reader to identify someone or something
Inference: additional information used by a listener/reader to create a connection between what is said and what must be meant
Anaphora (anaphoric expressions): use of pronouns (it) and noun phrases with the (the puppy) to refer back to something already mentioned
Antecedent: the first mention of someone or something later referred to via anaphora
Presupposition: an assumption by a speaker/writer about what is true or already known by the listener/reader
Speech act: an action such as ‘promising’ performed by a speaker with an utterance, either as a direct speech act or an indirect speech act
Direct speech act: an action in which the form used (e.g. interrogative) directly matches the function (e.g. question) performed by a speaker with an utterance, in contrast to an indirect speech act
Indirect speech act: an action in which the form used (e.g. interrogative) does not directly match the function (e.g. request) performed by a speaker with an utterance, in contrast to a direct speech act
Face: a person’s public self-image as described in the study of politeness
Face-threatening act: saying something that represents a threat to another person’s self-image
Face-saving act: saying something that reduces a possible threat to another person’s self-image
Negative face: the need to be independent and free from imposition, in contrast to positive face
Positive face: the need to be connected, to belong, to be a member of a group, in contrast to negative face

Study questions

1 perspn deixis,-I, you temporal deixis-now, later spatial deixis- here, come back
2 he, her, his, she, him, the pills, the pain
3 a) copy of a book b) a meal c) medical condition d) an appointment
4 a) You have a clock. b) He found the money. c) We bought the car. d) France has a king.
5 a) direct b) indirect c) indirect d) direct
6 a) negative face b) positive face

Saturday 11 October 2008

J A Fishman

http://www.joshuaafishman.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Fishman

Semantics

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Semantics: the study of the meaning of words, phrases and sentences
Conceptual meaning: the basic components of meaning conveyed by literal use of words
Associative meaning: the type of meaning that people might connect with the use of words (e.g. needle=’painful’) that is not part of conceptual meaning
Semantic features: basic elements such as ‘human’, included as plus (+human) or minus (-human), used in an analysis of the components of world meaning
Agent: the semantic role of the noun phrase identifying the one who performs the action of the verb in an event (e.g. The boy kicked the ball)
Theme: the semantic role of the noun phrase identify the entity involved in or affected by the action of the verb in an event (e.g. The boy kicked the ball)
Semantic role: the part played by a noun phrase, such as agent, in the event described by the sentence
Instrument: the semantic role of the noun phrase indentifying the entity that is used to perform the action of the verb (e.g. The boy cut the rope with a razor)
Experiencer: the semantic role of the noun phrase indentifying the entity that has the feeling, perception or state described by the verb (e.g. The boy feels sad)
Lexical relations: the relationships of meaning, such as synonymy, between words
Synonymy: the lexical relation in which two or more words have very closely related meanings (e.g. ‘Conceal’ is a synonym of ‘hide’)
Antonymy: the lexical relation in which words have opposite meanings (e.g. ‘Shallow’ is an antonym of ‘deep’)
Gradable antonyms: words with opposite meanings along a scale (e.g. bug-small)
Non-gradable antonyms: words which are direct opposites (e.g. alive-dead)
Reversives: antonyms in which the meaning of one is the reverse action of the other (e.g. dress-undress)
Huponymy: the lexical relation in which the meaning of one word is included in the meaning of another (e.g. ‘Daffodil’ is a hyponym of ‘flower’)
Superordinate: the higher-level term in hyponymy (e.g. flower-daffodil)
Co-hyponyms: words in hyponymy that share the same superordinate (‘Daffodil’ and ‘rose’ are co-hyponyms of ‘flower’)
Prototype: the most characteristic instance of a category (e.g. ‘Robin’ is the prototype of ‘bird’)
Homophones: two or more words with different forms and the same pronunciation (e.g. to-too-two)
Homonyms: two words with the same form from that are unrelated in meaning (e.g. more (on skin)-mole (small animal))
Polysemy: a word having two or more related meanings (e.g. foot, of person, of bed, of mountain)
Metonymy: a word used in place of another with which it is closely connected in everyday experience (e.g. He drank the whole bottle (the liquid))
Corpus linguistics: the study of language in use by analyzing the occurrence and frequency of forms in a large collection of texts typically stored in a computer

Study questions
1 Prototype is used to present the most characteristic example of a category.
2 a) The verb drink needs a subject with the feature (+animate) and the noun television has the feature (-animate).
b) The verb write needs a subject with the feature (+human) and the noun dog has the feature (-human).

Friday 10 October 2008

Syntax

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Syntax (syntactic structures)
: (the analysis of) the structure of phrases and sentences
Generative grammar: a set of rules defining the possible sentences in a language
Surface structure: the structure of individual sentences after the application of transformational rules to deep structure
Deep structure: the underlying structure of sentences as represented by phrase structure rules
Transformational rules: rules that are used to change or move constituents in structures derived from phrases structure rules
Phrase structure rules: rules stating that the structure of a phrase of a specific type consists of one or more constituents in a particular order
Structural ambiguity: a situation in which a single phrase or sentences has two ( or more) different underlying structures and interpretations
Recursion: the repeated application of a rule in generating structure
Tree diagram: a diagram with branches showing the hierarchical organization of structures
Lexical rules: rules stating which words can be used for constituents generated by phrase structure rules
Complementizer (C): a word such as that in introducing a complement phrase
Complement phrase (CP): a structure such as that Mary helped George used to complete a construction beginning with a structure such as Cathy knew
Auxiliary verb (Aux): a verb such as will used with another verb

Study questions
1 The ‘all and only’ criterion means that the grammar must generate sentences and only the grammatical sentences.
2 a) The parents of the bride and (the parents of the) groom or the parents of the bride and (the) groom (without his parents)
b) a teacher of English history or a person from England who teaches history
c) planes that are flying or being the person who flies a plane
d) the students complained that they couldn’t understand to everyone or the students complained to everyone whom they couldn’t
understand
3 Phrase structure rules represent deep structure.

Phrases and sentences: grammar

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Agreement: the grammatical connection between two parts of a sentence, as in the connection between subject (Cathy) and the form of a verb (loves chocolate)
Natural gender: a distinction based on the biological categories of male, female or neither.
Grammatical gender: a grammatical category designating the class of a noun as masculine or feminine (or neuter)
Prescriptive approach: an approach to grammar that has rules for the proper use of the language, traditionally based on Latin grammar
Descriptive approach: an approach to grammar that is based on description of the structures actually used in a language, not what should be used
Structural analysis: the investigation of the distribution of grammatical forms in a language
Immediate constituent analysis: a grammatical analysis of how small constituents go together to form larger constituents in sentences
Hierarchical organization: the analysis of constituents in a sentence showing which constituents are higher than and contain other constituents

Study questions
1 The (article) woman (noun) kept (verb) a (article) large (adjective) snake (noun) in (preposition) a (article) cage (noun), but (conjunction) it (pronoun) escaped (verb) recently (adverb).
2 Natural gender is based on sex as a biological distinction (male and female). Grammatical gender is based on the type of noun (masculine or feminine or neuter) and is not tied to sex.
3 a) The old theory consistently failed to fully explain all the data. → The old theory consistently failed to explain fully all the data. b) I can’t remember the name of the person I gave the book to. → I can’t remember the name of the person to whom I gave the book.
4 In the older definition, pronouns were described as ‘words used in place of nouns’. But it is more accurate to avoid ‘The it makes a lot of noise’.
5 a) The small boy hit the black dog. b) The dog saw the big man.

Morphology

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Morphology: the analysis of the structure of words
Free morpheme: a morpheme that can stand by itself as a single word
Bound morpheme: a morpheme such as un- or –ed that cannot stand alone and must be attached to another form (e.g. undressed)
Stem: the base form to which affixes are attached in the formation of words
Lexical morpheme: a free morpheme that is a content word such as a noun or verb
Functional morpheme: a free morpheme that is used as a function word, such as a conjunction (and) or a preposition (in)
Derivational morpheme: a bound morpheme such as –ish used to make new words or words of a different grammatical category (e.g. boysh), in contrast to an inflectional morpheme.
Inflectional morpheme: a bound morpheme used to indicate the grammatical function of a word, also called an ‘infection’ (e.g. dogs, walked)
Morph: an actual form used as part of a word, representing one version of a morpheme
Allomorph: one of a closely related set of morphs
Reduplication: the process of repeating all or part of a form

Study questions
1 when, he, the, an, and, a, of
2 a) –less, -ly, mis-, pre-, -er, -en, -ed, un-, -er b) atypical
3 –ing, -ed, -est, -s’, -s
4 –a, -s, -en, ø, -es, -i
5 abaloŋgo, tawa, kaĵi, bibili, kumain
6 Reduplication is the process of repeating all or part of a form

Thursday 9 October 2008

L2 pragmatic awareness

L2 pragmatic awareness: Evidence from the ESL classroom
By Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig & Robert Griffin (2005)

Summary
When you communicate with someone, you choose appropriate content, speech act, formula or form in various situations. Sociocultural aspects are needed for choosing form and content. And choosing form depends on linguistic development level.

Words and word-formation processes

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New Words
Neologism: a new word
Etymology: the study of the origin and history of words
Coinage: the invention of new words (e.g. xerox)
Eponym: a word derived from the name of a person or place (e.g. sandwich)
Loan translation: a type of borrowing in which each element of a word is translated into the borrowing language, also called calque
Borrowing: the process of taking words from other languages
Compounding: the process of combining two (or more) words to form a new word (e.g. waterbed)
Blending: the process of combining the beginning one word and the end of another word to form a new word (e.g. brunch from breakfast and lunch)
Clipping: the process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form (e.g. ad from advertisement)
Hypocorism: a word-formation process in which a longer word is reduced to a shorter form with-y or –ie at the end
Backformation: the process of reducing a word such as a noun to shorter version and using it as a new word such as a verb (e.g. babysit from babysitter)
Conversion: the process of changing the function of a word, such as a noun to a verb, as a way of forming new words, also known as ‘category change’ or ‘functional shift’ (e.g. vacation in They’re vacationing in Florida.)
Derivation: the process of forming new words by adding affixes
Infix: a morpheme that is inserted in the middle of a word (e.g. –rn- in the Kamhmu word srnal)
Porpheme: a minimal unit of meaning or grammatical function
Analogy: o process of forming a new word to be similar in some way to and existing word

Study questions
1 The origin of the word nitwit is the colloquial Dutch ‘Ik niet weet’, meaning ‘I don’t know’.
2 a)&b) borrowing with sound modification c) calque
3 a) Absobloominlutely! (infix) b) doc, vet (clipping) c) skateboards (compounding), kickass (compounding, conversion) d) AIDS (acronym) e) parties (conversion) f) Xerox (coinage) g) sofa (borrowing), comfy (hypocorism)
4 prefixes: dis-, in-, re-, un- suffixes: -less, -ness, -ment, -ive, -able, -ful
5 srnal
6 a) FedEx (blending+conversion) b) car-phone (clipping+compounding) c) carjackings (blending+compounding) d) karaokenight (borrowing+compounding) e) hoover (eponym+conversion)

Wednesday 8 October 2008

The sound patterns of language

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New Words
Phonology: the study of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in languages
Phoneme: the smallest meaning-distinguishing sound unit in the abstract representation of the sounds of a language
Phone: a physically produced speech sound, representing one version of a phoneme
Allophone: one of a closely related set of speech sounds or phones
Aspiration: a puff of air that sometimes accompanies the pronunciation of a stop
Nasalization: pronunciation of a sound with air flowing through the nose, typically before a nasal consonant
Minimal pair (set): two (or more) words that are identical in form except for a contrast in one phoneme in the same position in each word (e.g. bad, mad)
Phonotactics: constraints on the permissible combination of sounds in a language
Syllable: a unit of sound consisting of a vowel and optional consonants before or after the vowel
Onset: the part of the syllable before the vowel
Rhyme: the part of the syllable containing the vowel plus any following consonant, also called ‘rime’
Nucleus: the vowel in a syllable
Coda: the part of a syllable after the vowel
Consonant cluster: two or more consonants in sequence
Co-articulation: the process of making one sound virtually at the same time as the next sound
Assimilation: the process whereby a feature of one sound becomes part of another during speech production
Elision: the process of leaving out a sound segment in the pronunciation of a word

Study questions
1 Substituting one phoneme for another will result in a word with a different meaning and different pronunciation. Substituting allophones will result in a different pronunciation of the same word.
2 An aspirated sound is one pronounced with a stronger puff of air.
3 ban-bun, fat-pat, pit-pat, tape-tale, heat-heal, chain-sane, vote-goat, heal-meal, fat-far, bell-bet
4 The phonotactics of a language are the permitted arrangements of sounds which obey constraints on the sequence or position of English phonemes.
5 An open syllable ends with a vowel (as nucleus) and a closed syllable ends with a consonant (as coda).
6 a) /n/ b) /t/ c) /m/ d) /d/

The sounds of language

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New Words
Phonetic alphabet: a set of symbols, each one representing a distinct sound segment
Phonetics: the study of the characteristics of speech sounds
Articulatory phonetics: the study of how speech sounds are produced

Auditory phonetics: the study of the perception by speech sounds by ear, also called ‘perceptual phonetics’
Vocal cords: this stripes of muscle in the larynx which can be open, in voiceless sounds, or close together, creating vibration in voiced sounds
Bilabial: a consonant produced by using both lips (e.g. the first and last sounds in pub)
Labiodental: a consonant produced with the upper teeth and the lower lip (e.g. the first sounds in very funny)
Dental: a consonant produced with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth (e.g. the first sound in that)
Alveolar: a consonant produced with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge (e.g. the first and last sounds in dot)
Alveolar ridge: the rough bony ridge immediately behind the upper front teeth
Palatal: a consonant produced by raising the tongue to the palate, also called ‘alveo-palatal’ (e.g. the first sounds in ship and yacht)
Palate: the hard part of the roof of the mouth
Velar: a consonant produced by raising the back of the tongue to the velum (e.g. the first and last sound in geek)
Velum: the soft area at the back of the roof of the mouth, also called the ‘soft palate’
Glottal: a sound produced in the space between the vocal cords (e.g. the first sound in hat)
Glottis: the space between the vocal cords
Stop: a consonant produced by stopping the air flow, then letting it go, also called ‘plosive’ (e.g. the first and last sounds in cat)
Fricative: a consonant produced by almost blocking the air blow (e.g. the first and last sounds in five)
Affricate: a consonant produced by stopping then releasing the air flow through a narrow opening (e.g. the first and last sounds in church)
Nasal: a sound produced through the nose (e.g. the first sounds in my name)
Liquids: a sound produced by letting air flow around the slides of the tongue (e.g. the first sound in lip)
Glides: sounds produced with the tongue in motion to or from a vowel sound, also called ‘semi-vowels’ or ‘approximants’ (e.g. the first sounds in wet, yes)
Glottal stop: a sound produced when the air passing through the glottis is stopped completely then released
Flap: a sound produced with the tongue tip briefly touching the alveolar ridge

Study questions
1 Acoustic phonetics is the study of the physical properties of speech as sound waves in the air. Auditory phonetics is the study of the perception, via the ear, of speech sound.
2 a) bang (+V) b) crash (-V) c) smack (-V) d) splat (-V) e) thud (+V) f) wham (+V)
3 a) belly (bilabial) b) calf (velar) c) chin (palatal) d) calf (velar) e) foot (labiodental) f) knee (alveolar) g) mouth (bilabial) h) thigh (dental) i) toe (alveolar)
4 a) cherry (affricate) b) crazy (stop) c) dizzy (stop) d) funny (fricative) e) happy (glide) f) jolly (affricate) g) loony (liquid) h) merry (nasal) i) silly (fricative)
5 a) back b) bought c) face d) how e) hoping f) who g) cloak h) cheap i) the

Tuesday 7 October 2008

The development of writing

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New Words
Pictogram (pictographic writing)
: a way of writing in which a picture/drawing of an object is used to represent the object
Ideogram (ideographic writing): a way of writing in which each symbol represents a concept
Cuneiform: a way of writing created by pressing a wedge-shaped implement into soft clay
Logogram (logographic writing): a way of writing in which each symbol represents a word
Characters: forms used in Chinese writing
Rebus writing: a way of writing in which a pictorial representation of an object is used to indicate the sound of word for that object
Syllabic writing (syllabary): a way of writing in which each symbol represents a syllable
Alphabet (alphabetic writing): a way of writing in which one symbol represents one sound segment
Consonantal alphabet: a way of writing in which each symbol represents a consonant sound

Study questions
1 The difference between pictograms and ideograms is a difference in the relationship between the symbol and the entity it represents. The more ‘picture-like’ forms are pictograms and the more abstract forms are ideograms.
2 In a ideographic system, the symbols represent words. In a phonographic system, the symbols represent sounds.
3 In the process of rebus writing, the symbol for one entity is taken over as the symbol for the sound of spoken word used to refer to the entity.
4 Modern Japanese language has a partially syllabic writing system.
5 The Cyrillic alphabet is used for Russian.

Animals and human language

The study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New words
Communicative signals
: behavior used intentionally to provide information
Informative signals: behavior that provides information, usually unintentionally
Displacement: a property of language that allows users to talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment
Arbitrariness: a property of language describing the fact that there is no natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning
Productivity: a property of language that allows users to create new expressopns, also called ‘creativity’ or ‘open-endedness’
Fixed reference: property of communication system whereby each signal is fixed as relating to one particular object or occasion
Cultural transmission: the process whereby knowledge of a language is passed from one generation to the next
Duality: a property of language whereby linguistic forms have two simultaneous levels of sound production and meaning, also called ‘double articulation’

Study questions
1 An infant born to Korean parents in Korea but adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers will have physical characteristics inherited from its natural parents, but will inevitably speak English. This can be used to support idea that language is culturally transmitted.
2 Only humans have a communication system with productivity which can create new expressions flexibly. On the other hand, the system with fixed reference is an animal communication system. Each signal in the system is fixed as relating to a particular object or occasion.
3 The property of displacement enables people to talk about ‘the future'.
4 The Gardeners tried to show that a female chimpanzee called Washoe was not simply repeating signs made by interacting humans. Washoe could produce correct signs to identify objects in pictures.
5 Sarah seems to have arbitrariness if she could use a gray plastic shapes to convey the meaning of the word red.
6 Early exposure to language in use was considered to be the key element in Kanji’s language learning.

Monday 6 October 2008

The origins of language

The Study of Language by George Yule (2006)

New Words
-Bang and Pop are onomatopoeic words.
-Pharynx is the part of the throat above the larynx.
-Larynx is the part of the trachea containing the vocal folds.
-Vocal folds are the two muscular folds in the larynx that vibrate as a source of sound and they are also called the vocal cords/lips/bands.
-Everyone has innate ability to learn.

Study Questions
1 I associate the quotation from MacNeilage at the beginning of the chapter with the physical adaptation source.
2 The concept of natural sound is the basic idea behind the ‘bow-wow’ theory of language origin. Primitive words could have been imitation of the natural sounds which early human heard around them.
3 Interjections such as Ouch! Are considered to be unlikely sources of human speech sounds because they are usually produced with sudden intakes of breath, which is the opposite of ordinary talk.
4 It makes them useful in the production of speech sounds that human teeth are upright, not slanting outwards like those of apes, and they are roughly even in height.
5 Pharynx is the part of the throat above the larynx and it became an important part of human sound production by acting as a resonator for increased range and clarity of the sounds produced via larynx.
6 Young deaf children become fluent sign language users because human offspring may be born with a special capacity for language.

Sunday 5 October 2008

Sameness and difference in classroom learning cultures

Sameness and difference in classroom learning cultures: interpretations of communicative pedagogy in the UK and Korea

by Rosamond Mitchell and Jenny Hye-Won Lee (2003)


New Words
-People of various party allegiances joined the campaign.
-The passage is excerpted from his latest drama.
-An ethnographer is a person who studies different races and cultures.
-The problem was twofold.
-She found his preoccupation with money irritating.
-The organisms can be divided into discrete categories.
-She was prominent in the fashion industry.
-The syllabus prescribes precisely which books should be studied.
-The book was interspersed with pictures.
-The author draws the different strands of the plot together in the final chapter.
-Her ability was exemplified in her handling of the whole situation.
-Most of the house remains intact even after two hundred years.
The meeting will be held on ad hoc basis.
-He makes unpredictable, arbitrary decisions.
-He made an impromptu speech.
-Her evidence suggests a different interpretation of the events.
-Metalanguage is a language used for talking about language.
-He watched her face intently to catch every nuance of expression.
-She described himself as ‘egalitarian’.

English teaching situation in Japan
It is similar to that in Korea. Students have their home base classrooms in Japan as well. Teachers have to move from one room to another for English lessons. The class size is also 40 students maximum and the students have to sit in allocated places. But recently, the number of English teachers has increased because of the local government policy and each class has been divided into two only in English and math lessons. We focused on groups like the case in Korea before, but we have focused on individual and made pairs or groups occasionally because the class size has been smaller recently.

Saturday 4 October 2008

Cultural identity as a social construct

by Anne Campbell (2000)

New Words
-He ate a substantial breakfast.
-He didn’t give an adequate answer to the question.
-These movies seem to epitomize the 1950s.
-The ostensible reason for his absence was illness.
-Steve’s father only saw him as a substitute for his dead brother.
-She made a wedding cake with five layers for her best friend.
-The poem encapsulates many of the central themes of her writing.
-He returned after 40 years of exile.
-I’d convinced myself that I was right.
-She has dual nationality.
-He was caught trying to flee the country.
-She sojourns in Paris for a month every summer.
-She was outspoken in her criticism of the plan.
-He has a flair for languages.
-Immigrants have been successfully assimilated into the community.
-The singer worked hard in the clear articulations of every note.
-He refused to conform to the local customs.
-A person’s wealth is often in inverse proportion to their happiness.
-His lack of education is a liability.

My Experience
The students in the case studies seemed to be successful. But I’m worrying about one of my students who is from Brazil. My school in Japan is located near a big Brazilian community. I was in charge of a Brazilian girl who came to Japan when she was 3 years old. She had a lot of friends and conformed to Japanese culture. She had no problem with speaking Japanese, so she communicated with her friends and teachers in Japanese. However, she couldn’t write in Portuguese which is her parents’ language and her Japanese writing was also poor. It was always difficult for her to get good marks in exams. I suppose that she couldn’t understand correctly because of her low language abilities.

Friday 3 October 2008

Inside-out

Inside-out: Student criticism of “foreign experts” in universities in the P.R.C.
By Ewan Dow and Hu Hua Ouyang (2006)


New Words
-The Bill of Rights was a milestone in the human rights.
-The condition makes it difficult for patients to see objects at the periphery of their vision.
-They regularly collide over policy decisions.
-He emanates power and confidence.
-There are subtle differences between the two versions.
-She lamented making a mistake in the interview.
-You can enjoy all the benefits and privileges of club membership.
-I reckon that I’m going to get that job.
-‘I don’t know,’ she replied, shrugging her shoulders.
-The massive undersea earthquake off Indonesia triggered the tsunami.
-They would take any action deemed necessary.
-She stormed into my office waving a newspaper.
-He craved honor and fame more than money.
-Don’t be so nasty to your brother.
-I was still reeling from the shock.
-She improvised on the melody.
-The rain dampened their spirits.
-She learned to accept criticism without rancor.
-She was totally bewildered by his sudden change of mood.
-Financial institutions act as intermediaries between lenders and borrowers.
-They have a vested interest in keeping the club as exclusive as possible.
-Make a note of it lest you may forget.
-He is obsessed with the idea of death.


My experience
I had a different problem about a foreign teacher at a Japanese school. There is at least one assistant language teacher (ALT), who is a native English speaker, at each school in Japan. The ALTs are employed by Japanese government or a local government. As they don’t have Japanese teaching licenses, they have to teach with a Japanese English teacher (JET). We usually discuss teaching plan and each role before a lesson. We need to cooperate and share ideas to offer good lessons to students. But sometimes we cannot build good relations. One reason may be lack of communication between ALTs and JETs. JET’s English is not enough to communicate in details with ALTs. In addition, JETs often cannot create time to discuss because we are too busy. Another reason is may be lack of information for Japanese educational situation such as education systems and student behaviors. ALTs need more information before they start working at school.

Language and the Capital

Language and the Capital: A Case Study of English ‘Language Shock’ among Chinese Students in London by Tim Marr (2005)

New Words
-RP is the abbreviation for ‘received pronunciation’, which is the standard form of British pronunciation, based on educated speech in southern England.
-EAP stands for English for Academic Purposes.
-London Eye is a major lure for visitors to London.
-Most religious posit the existence of life after death.
-His memory is hazy about the details of the accident.
-Her tears elicited great sympathy from her audience.
-Anglophile is a person who is not British but who likes Britain or British thing very much.
-The report states explicitly that the plan was to blame.
-She is strikingly beautiful.
-Putonghua is the standard spoken form of modern Chinese, based on the form spoken in Beijin.
-The puddles had coalesced into a small stream.
-It must be conceded that different judges have different approaches to these cases.
-He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours.
-We have extrapolated these results from research done other countries.
-I paid scant attention to what she was saying.
-The job entails a lot of hard work.
-Europe’s foreign policy is inextricably linked with that of the US.
-Let me just recap on what we’ve decided so far.
-They had to overcome formidable obstacles.
-The layperson cannot really understand mental illness.
-She averred that she had never seen the man before.
-It’s a great paradox that even in a rich country there is so much poverty.
-Diglossia is a situation in which two languages or two forms of a language are used under different conditions in a community.
-She traced the contours of his face with her finger.
-He reached an erroneous conclusion.
-Children are sociable from birth onwards.
-The company has announced that it will undertake a full investigation into the accident.
-Confucianism reached Japan in the early sixth century and had an influence on Japanese morals and the Japanese view of life.
-This is a documentary with some sobering observations about the cruelty of war.
-Anonymity is guaranteed when you go for an HIV test at a free clinic in Japan.

My Idea
I was also surprised at different kinds of pronunciation in London. I didn’t understand at a local post office and supermarket. They spoke English fluently, but their pronunciation was different from what I expected. Now I know there are a great number of people from various countries and they speak in their own accent. I am one of them. I think pronunciation is less important than fluency when I speak English. I need more practice and effort to speak English fluently.