Class today started out with a comparison/contrast of texts--one in Old English, one in Middle English and one in Modern English. I enjoyed the activity. It helped having some Biblical background knowledge (the texts dealt with the story of Noah) as did having a good working and speaking knowledge of German. I knew English was a Germanic language, and I had seen Old English and Middle English in high school and undergrad classes; but they both made much more sense to me in this class because my German is so much better now than it was back in high school or undergrad days.
Dr. Smidt also shared a final project with us. I found it helpful to see the finished product. It was also motivating to see it. I was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the whole thing, but I'm feeling somewhat better now. Unfortunately, I have to find a new subject to interview. I tried interviewing a Hispanic waiter at a local restaurant, but his knowledge of English ended up being too limited to conduct the interview or to get a good sample of writing. I'm trying interviewee #2 tomorrow. Hopefully, that one will go more smoothly.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Chapter 13 Read & Retell
Chapter 13 dealt with historical linguistics. History interests me a great deal, but I don't think I would be very patient in studying linguistics historically via the process the chapter described with the Polynesian languages. The case study was interesting. I enjoyed seeing how they used history, archeology and anthropology to surmise how the Polynesian languages developed and how they are related to one another as a language family.
The chapter also briefly described the language families of the world. English and many western European languages descended from the Indo-European family. The family language trees proved helpful in visualizing the evolution of each family. The chapter spent most of the time on the Indo-European because of the assumption that most readers of this text have a strong English background. The other language families of the world received less attention. Some language families are quite small and don't belong to a larger family; Japanese is such an isolate.
The last part of the chapter dealt with language changes brought on by contact between different languages. For example, bilingualism or multilingualism--both fairly self explanatory terms--can become nativization, when a community adopts a new language in addition to its native language such as English in India. Pidgin, a simplified version of a majority or dominant group's language adopted by a minority or subordinate group, can evolve into creole--a former pidgin that has acquired native speakers.
The key to the whole chapter again is the fact that language is always evolving and changing.
The chapter also briefly described the language families of the world. English and many western European languages descended from the Indo-European family. The family language trees proved helpful in visualizing the evolution of each family. The chapter spent most of the time on the Indo-European because of the assumption that most readers of this text have a strong English background. The other language families of the world received less attention. Some language families are quite small and don't belong to a larger family; Japanese is such an isolate.
The last part of the chapter dealt with language changes brought on by contact between different languages. For example, bilingualism or multilingualism--both fairly self explanatory terms--can become nativization, when a community adopts a new language in addition to its native language such as English in India. Pidgin, a simplified version of a majority or dominant group's language adopted by a minority or subordinate group, can evolve into creole--a former pidgin that has acquired native speakers.
The key to the whole chapter again is the fact that language is always evolving and changing.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Finegan 14 Read & Retell
History is a love of mine so reading about the history of English was fun, albeit a bit technical at times. The chapter fit well with the video we watched this week (good planning, Dr. Smidt). I had basic background knowledge of Old, Middle, King James and Modern English, but the video and chapter enhanced that.
English is basically a Germanic language, which also interests me a great deal because I know German quite well. Reading about the inflectional nature of Old English made much sense because German is still very inflectional today.
Reading and viewing information about Middle English took me back to my high school senior year Brit Lit class. We read and spent much time on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In fact, we had to memorize the Prologue in its original Middle English. I remember hating doing that and really not understanding the words much. Now that I speak German much better, when I read or hear Middle English, it is really quite understandable, especially listening to it.
English has changed a great deal in its form, look and sound over the centuries. It has retained certain aspects/words from all its forms, but it continues to evolve. I wonder how technology, especially texting, will affect our modern English. Will Chinese, as the country becomes a greater power and influence in the world, affect English like English has affected so many other languages. Will we resist the influx of foreign words like the French have with English? It's important to know history. It helps us as teachers to know where we came from and where we could be headed.
English is basically a Germanic language, which also interests me a great deal because I know German quite well. Reading about the inflectional nature of Old English made much sense because German is still very inflectional today.
Reading and viewing information about Middle English took me back to my high school senior year Brit Lit class. We read and spent much time on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In fact, we had to memorize the Prologue in its original Middle English. I remember hating doing that and really not understanding the words much. Now that I speak German much better, when I read or hear Middle English, it is really quite understandable, especially listening to it.
English has changed a great deal in its form, look and sound over the centuries. It has retained certain aspects/words from all its forms, but it continues to evolve. I wonder how technology, especially texting, will affect our modern English. Will Chinese, as the country becomes a greater power and influence in the world, affect English like English has affected so many other languages. Will we resist the influx of foreign words like the French have with English? It's important to know history. It helps us as teachers to know where we came from and where we could be headed.
April 9 class
Class this week was helpful. It really focused us on getting at our final projects. I needed that. The semester is really coming quickly to a close, and I needed that push to think about wrapping things up. The small group work we did was helpful, but it was also a bit laborious. No one seemed to want to talk or get going. I'm wondering how an asynchronous course works. I haven't taken one yet, but I'm not certain it would be as good as the synchronous meeting. I have enjoyed being exposed to this type of learning.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
02 April class reflection
Class this week went by quickly. We spent some time discussing our past quiz. There seemed to be a lull in the class during this time. I'm not certain if people were afraid to ask questions or if there really were no questions. We also spent some time in small groups doing some exercises in Finegan related to this week's readings on information structure. That seemed to go pretty well. I felt we didn't get much time to talk about the video, which was an interesting culmination to many previous thoughts and ideas in the books and course. It really helped draw many thoughts together as we close in on the end of the semester.
Finegan 9 Read & Retell
Having not really much enjoyed chapter 8 of Finegan, I was a bit hesitant to read chapter 9. I was presently surprised that I found it more interesting although still somewhat less captivating than readings earlier in the semester. The chapter focused on speech acts and conversation. It's interesting to think that something that comes quite easy to most people (speaking and conversing) really is quite complex. Linguists, as I should have surmised, have dissected our speech and conversation into explainable patterns and parts. So much of what we say can be understood in different ways depending on context. I liked how the chapter explained that the terms declarative, interrogative and imperative are really oversimplifications of what happens in spoken language...it depends on context.
The part of the chapter I found most interesting was the section on the cooperative principle. The four maxims are ideas we speakers are mostly aware of. Sometimes we are guilty of violating a maxim. We all know some chronic violators of certain maxims. For example, a recent manner of saying someone has violated the maxim of quantity is by saying to them "too much information." I also thought it interesting the thoughts behind lying and truth as explained in the maxim of quality. People by nature expect people to tell the truth.
The intricate dance that occurs in conversations was also amusing...opening sequences, turn taking, closing sequences, etc. I never thought that all of this would be explained as it is...and we're just scratching the surface in this class.
Finally, the cultural aspect of language is super important for L2 teachers and learners. I had already heard about many American Indians having large pauses between thoughts, but hadn't necessarily thought about how it might affect my teaching or communication with people from different cultural background. My favorite statement in the whole chapter was the Mandarin "Have you eaten rice yet?" equivalent to our "How are you?" I tend not to ask "How are you?" unless I really mean it. If a person is just really saying "hello," I feel he/she should just say "hello" or some equivalent to it.
The part of the chapter I found most interesting was the section on the cooperative principle. The four maxims are ideas we speakers are mostly aware of. Sometimes we are guilty of violating a maxim. We all know some chronic violators of certain maxims. For example, a recent manner of saying someone has violated the maxim of quantity is by saying to them "too much information." I also thought it interesting the thoughts behind lying and truth as explained in the maxim of quality. People by nature expect people to tell the truth.
The intricate dance that occurs in conversations was also amusing...opening sequences, turn taking, closing sequences, etc. I never thought that all of this would be explained as it is...and we're just scratching the surface in this class.
Finally, the cultural aspect of language is super important for L2 teachers and learners. I had already heard about many American Indians having large pauses between thoughts, but hadn't necessarily thought about how it might affect my teaching or communication with people from different cultural background. My favorite statement in the whole chapter was the Mandarin "Have you eaten rice yet?" equivalent to our "How are you?" I tend not to ask "How are you?" unless I really mean it. If a person is just really saying "hello," I feel he/she should just say "hello" or some equivalent to it.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Finegan 8 Read & Retell
Finegan 8 handled the topics of information structure and pragmatics. Of all the chapters we have read this semester, I would have to say this chapter interested me least. I would venture to guess that my interest level was somewhat dependent on the abstract nature of some of the concepts. The chapter was filled with many terms, some of which were familiar and some of which I had difficulty wrapping my head around. I actually felt somewhat enlightened at the end of the chapter with the summary statement--"Syntax is thus used to convey two kinds of imformation: semantic information and pragramatic information."
Information structure is highlighting and deemphasizing certain information in a language text. Discourse context plays a role in how this occurs. The study of information structure is pragmatics. Various topics that seemed somewhat easier to grasp were given vs. new information, contrast, topics, definite vs. indefinite information, passive vs. active, etc. It was interesting to read how different languages deal with these concepts in different ways...word order, pitch, etc. The concepts that I found a bit abstract were fronting, left dislocation and clefts. The example sentences were helpful, but I don't think I could take a sentence and dissect using these terms.
One item I especially enjoyed learning about was use of passive and active voice in sentence construction. I tend to attempt to use active voice because it was so drilled into me during writing classes. I appreciated reading about proper use of passive voice to help flow and understanding. I had never thought of it in that way.
Information structure is highlighting and deemphasizing certain information in a language text. Discourse context plays a role in how this occurs. The study of information structure is pragmatics. Various topics that seemed somewhat easier to grasp were given vs. new information, contrast, topics, definite vs. indefinite information, passive vs. active, etc. It was interesting to read how different languages deal with these concepts in different ways...word order, pitch, etc. The concepts that I found a bit abstract were fronting, left dislocation and clefts. The example sentences were helpful, but I don't think I could take a sentence and dissect using these terms.
One item I especially enjoyed learning about was use of passive and active voice in sentence construction. I tend to attempt to use active voice because it was so drilled into me during writing classes. I appreciated reading about proper use of passive voice to help flow and understanding. I had never thought of it in that way.
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