Week 3's (1/29/09) class

Today Aaron, Leping, Ling, Stephanie, and I were sitting in the front of computers taking this online class together on the basement of the library. Isn't it interesting that our small community is getting bigger and bigger?

I like the idea of using powerpoint as a visual aid to help us with some certain questions we have. It really bettered my understanding of it. Afterwards, we’re divided into small groups to discuss the given linguistic technical terms. I like the group idea because it makes me recall what I’ve learnt from the textbook immediately. I figured it out that I had a hard time explaining some technical words well despite the fact that I finished the reading before I came to the class. Is that meant I do not gain the meanings completely so that I cannot use my own words to describe that in detail well? I felt a little disheartened.

Week 2's Readings

I enjoy this week's reading a lot because it is related to my APP's topic: A Major-features Contrastive Study of Articulatory Phonetics between Standard American English and Mandarin Chinese. Besides, I’m also thankful to this reading for it helps me gain more understanding of phonetics and phonology on the need of my papers.

Chapter 3 is focused on phonetics while chapter 4 has major attention on phonology. At the beginning of chapter 3, it talks about the correspondence between writing and speaking. Some languages like English, for example, do not pronounce every sound straightforwardly according to its spelling. And then getting into the study of sounds, which is also called “phonetics.” To create differences among consonants language can exploit the features of voicing, aspiration, manner of articulation, and manner of articulation. Vowel sounds can be identified in terms of their articulatory properties: tongue height, tongue backness, tenseness, rounding, lengthening, nasalization, and tone. Each feature is addressed in text respectively. However, not every feature is applied to distinguish one sound from another in every language. For exmaples, English does not employ aspiration to its consonant system, and tenseness is not engaged in Chinese vowel phonetics.

While chapter 3 is centered on how human vocal apparatus work together in order to make sounds, Chapter 4 is a study of the sound systems of language. Firstly, it gives a focus on receiving part. How children decipher the code of distinctive sounds in their language, and what stages they might pass through. Then the distributions of phonemes and allophones are discussed. And then the author brings phonological rules and syllable structure to next step. Phonological process or rules can depend on stress and syllable structure. The interaction of morphology and phonology is addressed at the end.

Week 2's (1/22) class

Today’s class was very fun even though a couple of presenters were cutting in and out while presenting. I like the idea of group discussion and presentation to other group. We’re divided into small groups and each group was assigned a topic to discuss. We had to recall what we learnt from the weekly readings in short time and discussed it with our group members. In addition, we combined and condensed our reflections or thoughts, and posted it in 15 minutes. It was much fun despite the fact that it made me a little nervous.

It is a pity that this class is not taught face-to-face but I do enjoy listening to everyone’s English speech with colorful accents. I strain my ears to listen to the class. It is just something I haven't done much before.

Week 1: A Standard Variety & American Tongues

There are a number of certain reasons why some people want to learn the Standard English referred in the video "American Tongues”. (1) They don’t want people make fun of them because of their non-standard English. (2) They may have certain limitations in terms of job markets. (3) People may look down their ability to do things. (4) There is feeling that people speaking the Standard English sound smart. However, there is no such the Standard English in the world. English has many varieties of standard worldwide, such as British English, American English, Australian English, Canadian English, and so on. But none of them is being called the Standard.

Then the question "what is a standard variety?" arose on my head. According to Finegan, a standard variety is normally used in the media and taught in schools. In the video, it says that there is no such thing as one Standard English accent that is better than all others. But there is a type of English favored by actors and radio and TV announcements. It may lack something in personality, but everybody can understand it. Hence, I personally think that clear pronunciation lends accuracy to the message conveyed, and being understood is more important during conversation.

American Tongues Link

http://msustr0.campus.mnsu.edu:8080/cah/drescn/Linguistics/americantongues-1.wmv

Week 1: My reflections about the week's readings

The reading for this week covers the different theories of 1st and 2nd language development from different schools. Each school has its particular insights. Back to my language experience, my 1st language (Mandarin Chinese with a dialect called Min or Hokkien) is acquired more naturally, and my second language is learned through a conscious. As we learned English at school, the approach of English study is exactly same as the approach to other school subjects. First, teachers usually went through word bank listed on the side of books and identified or explained each word in Mandarin. And then after reading a paragraph to us, they broke a sentence into many component parts of grammar and taught each part. Afterwards, we several times did drills and exercises to practice English. In addition, we didn’t speak oftentimes, so teacher didn’t have chance to correct our oral speech. As I read the reading for this week, I feel my learning of English reading is more like the word recognition view mentioned in chapter two. Till coming to the states, I took ESL 202 classroom as I was enrolling at MSU. In fact, ESL 202 was a writing class. In class, we could choose a topic to write, and wrote drafts. After getting feedback from the instructor, we did a final editing. Sometimes we also had peers review. Then shared the finished piece with others by presentation. I tend to think that the instructor adopted the approach more from the acquisition view in process writing classroom.

Week 1: First & Second Language Acquisition

Chapter ONE pays attention to the first language acquisition with oral language skill while chapter TWO is more concerned about written and second language acquisition.

On the chapter ONE, for the most part, it gives views of how a first language is developed over three disciplines: developmental psychology, sociology & anthropology & education, and linguistics. Here I would like to summarize the key propositions of the three views about the first language development below.
- Development psychology has concentrated on the learning process of children’s early stages. Their research led a suggestion that humans have a special capacity for language, and children develop the physical capacity for speech during the first year.
- Sociology, anthropology, and education are more focused on the environment. Language always occurs in a social context, so they believe that children learn how to use language in social settings appropriately.
- Linguistics is more centered on the area of language. Two main concepts are brought up in the text. (1) generative grammar: is based in part on Chomsky’s observation that many sentences are structurally ambiguous: surface structure + deep structure (2) universal grammar=innate capacity for language =innate knowledge of language, that is, humans are born with built-in knowledge of language so that’s how children acquire language

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Chapter Two can be simply divided into two sections in discussion.
The first section debates whether a language, including writing and reading skills, can be learned or acquired. The opinions differ on this matter. With the learning view, reading is accomplished by recognizing words, and writing consists of producing words. So phonics rule, sight words, and structural analysis are practiced in reading class, and handwriting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and conventional organizational forms are more emphasized in writing classrooms. With the acquisition view, they hold that readers acquire literacy in the same way they acquire oral language, by focusing on meaning. So in reading classroom students use their background knowledge and the cures from graphphonic system, syntax, and semantics knowledge to make and confirm prediction; in writing classroom teachers read to students and teach them strategies they can use to comprehend text. Teachers also provide many opportunities for students to produce and share their writing, such as read and retell method.

On the second section part, debating how much of language is acquired and what has to be learned is still over a second language teaching. Two views of second language arose on this matter. With the learning view, students are aware of their second language. However, in the view of acquisition students are not aware they are acquiring. They believe that acquisition is subconscious. Two professionals refer to their theories of second language acquisition in the text, and they are Krashen and Schumannare. Five hypotheses are represented with Krashen’s ideas, and these five hypotheses account for the psychological process of language development. Schumann have considered the broader social context. His concepts of social and psychological distance is said to be a complement of Krashen's theory.

Week 1's class

Today was the beginning of this class. I don't know why but for some reason I feel I left behind my school for so long. Well, it wasn’t that long but I just have very complex feeling about the school, and it’s beyond words. I cannot really explain it at this moment.

It’s so nice to receive an email from Binki before the class started. In the email she was wondering how I’m doing, and where I’ll be for the class. So we decided to meet each other in person at the second floor of library. Aron was there with us, too. So three of us sat beside one another taking the same class. Due to this reason, it made me feel much comfortable and secure with talking this online class. I feel that I won't miss anything important in this class because of the two friends. I also feel that I had a good start with this class, and have more confidence to take online classes now…=D To be honest, I usually don't like online classes much because I always miss or misunderstand something important. After the class, we decide to go to the basement of the library from next time since we’re not allowed to speak loud in the public computer area. Aron doesn't gurantee to us that he will show up next time. But it's just all right. I feel much better with talking online class this time. I also had a good conversation with Binki afterwards. This is actually one of the benefits to face-to-face classes: we can see and talk to each other in person.

This is pretty much about my first day of this class.

Brick Walls !!!

Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.

The Bridge !!!

Just cross the bridge when coming to it !!!