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LANGUAGE
The word "language" has two meanings: language as a general concept, and
"a language" a specific linguistic system - e.g. "French". Languages other
than English often have two separate words for these distinct concepts;
French for example uses langue for language as a concept and langue as the
specific instance of language.
When speaking of language as a general concept several different definitions
can be used that stresses different aspects of the phenomenon.
Language is a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or
conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language
introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program
can be executed depends on the language in which it is written".
The word Language can be used as a general concept about the specifically
human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication,
or as a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The
study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics.
CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
Different people describe different characteristics of language.
According to one thinking language has the five characteristics of language
are that it is a system, it is dynamic, has dialects, is sociolect, and idiolect. A
language is systemic in that it has different linguistic levels, is syntactical,
conversational, and sociolinguistic. It is dynamic in that the words and
phrases may change meaning from one generation to the next. Dialects are
variations of the same language spoken amongst people of the same or
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different countries. Language may vary based on the speaker's social class,
and human individuality.
According to Hockett language has the following features.
a) Language involves the use of vocal organs of the speaker and the
hearing mechanism of the listener.
b) Language is Semantic. Semantic means “having leaning”. Thus
language uses verbal symbols, to refer to objects and actions.
c) The symbols we use for transmission of language are arbitrary. In this
case, arbitrary means not chosen for any special reason.
d) Language is culturally transmitted. Although children seem to be
born with the ability to acquire language, they are not equipped with
the ability to acquire one particular language more than any other. In
other words one child is not born with an inbuilt ability to speak
Punjabi rather than Sindhi.
e) Language is Spontaneous. We do not necessarily use it because we
are forced to by circumstances. We use language when we want to do
so and because we want to do so. Language is perhaps the greatest tol
of our wish to be sociable.
f) Interchangeability. This means that the speaker can both receive and
broadcast the same signal. This is distinctive from some animal
communications such as that of the sticklefish. The sticklefish make
auditory signals based on gender (basically, the males say "I'm a boy"
and the females say "I'm a girl"). However, male fish cannot say "I'm
a girl," although they can perceive it. Thus, sticklefish signals are not
interchangeable.
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g) Total feedback. This means that the speaker can hear themself speak
and can monitor their language performance as they go. This differs
from some other simple communication systems, such as traffic
signals. Traffic signs are not normally capable of monitor their own
functions (a red light can't tell when the bulb is burned out, i.e.).
h) Arbitrariness. This means that there is no necessary connection
between the form of the signal and the thing being referred to. For
example, something as large as a whale can be referred to by a very
short word. Similarly, there is no reason that a four-legged domestic
canine should be called a dog and not a chien or a perro or an anjing
(all words for 'dog' in other languages). Onomatopoeic words such as
"meow" or "bark" are often cited as counter-examples, based on the
argument that they are pronounced like the sound they refer to.
However, the similarity if very loose (a dog that actually said "bark"
would be very surprising) and does not always hold up across
languages (Spanish dogs, for example, say "guau"). So, even
onomatopoeic words are, to some extent, arbitrary.
i) Discreteness. This means that the basic units of speech (such as
sounds) can be categorized as belonging to distinct categories. There
is no gradual, continuous shading from one sound to another in the
linguistics system, although there may be a continuum in the real
physical world. Thus speakers will perceive a sound as either a [p] or
a [b], but not as blend, even if physically it falls somewhere between
the two sounds.
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j) Displacement. This means that the speaker can talk about things
which are not present, either spatially or temporally. For example,
human language allows speakers to talk about the past and the future,
as well as the present. Speakers can also talk about things that are
physically distant (such as other countries, the moon, etc.). They can
even refer to things and events that do not actually exist (they are not
present in reality) such as the Easter Bunny, the Earth having an
emperor, or the destruction of Tara in Gone with the Wind.
k) Productivity. This means that human languages allow speakers to
create novel, never-before-heard utterances that others can
understand. For example, the sentence "The little lavender men who
live in my socks drawer told me that Elvis will come back from Mars
on the 10th to do a benefit concert for unemployed Pekingese dogs" is
a novel and never-before-heard sentence (at least, I hope it is!), but
any fluent speaker of English would be able to understand it (and
realize that the speaker was not completely sane, in all probability).
l) Traditional Transmission. This means that human language is not
something inborn. Although humans are probably born with an ability
to do language, they must learn, or acquire, their native language from
other speakers. This is different from many animal communication
systems where the animal is born knowing their entire system, e.g.
bees are born knowing how to dance and some birds are born knowing
their species of bird-songs (this is not true of all birds).
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Q2. What language theory is offered by BF Skinner and how it is
different from the other theories offered by other linguistics?
B.F. SKINNER'S VIEW ON LANGUAGE
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become aware that the antecedents of the sociocultural approach to language
which underpin this subject, preceded the work of B. F. Skinner by several
decades. Nevertheless, this section begins with an introduction to B. F.
Skinner's theory of language as 'verbal behaviour' (1957). This is partly
because his learning theory was transposed into language teaching
methodologies prior to that transposition of the work of linguistic
anthropologists and linguists to language pedagogies; and partly because
Skinner's theory has had such definite, and enduring, influences on language
teaching. The residual echoes of his theory can be heard every time one of us
mentions 'positive reinforcement' (or 'negative reinforcement', for that
matter) and his theory is operational every time one of us includes a teaching
practice which begins with drills and grammar study decontextualised from
meaning. Skinner rejected the very idea of 'meaning'.
DIFFERENCE OF BF SKINNER BY OTHERS
As Jespersen [a significant linguist and grammarian whose major work,
Language, was published in 1922] said many years ago, "The only
unimpeachable definition of a word is that it is a human habit."
Unfortunately, he felt it necessary to add, "an habitual act on the part of one
human individual which has, or may have, the effect of evoking some idea in
the mind of another individual." Similarly, Betrand Russell asserts that "just
as jumping is one class of movement...so the word 'dog' is [another] class,"
but he adds that words differ from other classes of bodily movements
because they have "meaning". In both cases something has been added to an
objective description (Skinner 1957: 13).
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CHOMSKY & THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
During the 1950’s, Noam Chomsky wrote his first major work, The Logical
Structure of Linguistic Theory, which would not to be published for another
20 years. However, a European publisher, who was excited about
Chomsky’s ideas, published a set of his lecture notes under the title
Syntactic Structures in 1957. The book, after having received a positive
review by Robert Lees in Language, was read by several influential people,
including George A. Miller, whose work on information theory and short-
term memory of the 1950’s are legend, and also key to the Cognitive
Revolution.
In 1958, Bernard Bloch, editor of Language, asked Chomsky to write a
review of B.F. Skinner’s new book, Verbal Behavior, which had been
published in 1957. Chomsky’s review, published in 1959, was highly
critical. He argued that there is more to language learning than imitation and
reinforcement. Important observations he offered were:
1.) There are an infinite number of sentences in any language; all possible
sentences would be impossible to learn through imitation and reinforcement.
2.) Children acquire language quickly and effortlessly, and at identical
stages across cultures.
3.) Words like goed, thinked, and eated are not spoken by parents; instead,
children say these things because they over-generalize rules, such as this one
for past tense.
Chomsky asserted that children learn the rules of language, not just specific
responses, as Skinner had proposed. He asserted that human beings are born
biologically equipped to learn a language, and proposed his theory of a
Language Acquisition Device (LAD) – an inborn mechanism or process that
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facilitates the learning of a language. According to the theory, the LAD
consists of brain structures and neural wiring that are unique to human
beings. In this nativist theory, humans are born with the ability to
discriminate among phonemes, to fast-map morphemes, and to acquire the
rules of syntax, and more.
Chomsky’s assertion that important aspects of language learning can only be
explained adequately by innate mental processes forever shattered the
empirical stronghold of behaviorism, which had dominated psychology for
nearly 50 years. Chomsky’s critique of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, and
pivotal work by George Miller, Jerome Bruner, Ulric Neisser, and others
brought mind and thought back into the study of psychology.
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Q3. What are different languages learning methods and what you
think is the best method to use in language classroom? Deivce
three activities by using that method in classroom.
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2. The functional view sees language as a vehicle to express or
accomplish a certain function, such as requesting something.
3. The interactive view sees language as a vehicle for the creation and
maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts,
negotiation and interaction found in conversational exchanges. This
view has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.
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correctly express their opinion, to understand the remarks which are
addressed to them and to analyze the texts which they read. The objective is
that by the time they leave college, the pupil controls the tools of the
language which are the vocabulary, grammar and the orthography, to be able
to read, understand and write texts in various contexts. The teaching of
grammar examines texts, and develops awareness that language constitutes a
system which can be analyzed. This knowledge is acquired gradually, by
traversing the facts of language and the syntactic mechanisms, going from
simplest to the most complex. The exercises according to the program of the
course must untiringly be practiced to allow the assimilation of the rules
stated in the course.[citation needed] That supposes that the teacher corrects
the exercises. The pupil can follow his progress in practicing the language
by comparing his results. Thus can he adapt the grammatical rules and
control little by little the internal logic of the syntactic system. The
grammatical analysis of sentences constitutes the objective of the teaching of
grammar at the school. Its practice makes it possible to recognize a text as a
coherent whole and conditions the training of a foreign language.
Grammatical terminology serves this objective. Grammar makes it possible
for each one to understand how the mother tongue functions, in order to give
him the capacity to communicate its thought.
The direct method, sometimes also called natural method, is a method that
refrains from using the learners' native language and just uses the target
language. It was established in Germany and France around 1900 and are
best represented by the methods devised by Berlitz and de Sauzé although
neither claim originality and has been re-invented under other names.[2] The
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direct method operates on the idea that second language learning must be an
imitation of first language learning, as this is the natural way humans learn
any language - a child never relies on another language to learn its first
language, and thus the mother tongue is not necessary to learn a foreign
language. This method places great stress on correct pronunciation and the
target language from outset. It advocates teaching of oral skills at the
expense of every traditional aim of language teaching. Such methods rely on
directly representing an experience into a linguistic construct rather than
relying on abstractions like mimicry, translation and memorizing grammar
rules and vocabulary.
According to this method, printed language and text must be kept away from
second language learner for as long as possible, just as a first language
learner does not use printed word until he has good grasp of speech.
Learning of writing and spelling should be delayed until after the printed
word has been introduced, and grammar and translation should also be
avoided because this would involve the application of the learner's first
language. All above items must be avoided because they hinder the
acquisition of a good oral proficiency.
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THE SERIES METHOD
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THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD
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Q4. Write a pre-requisites for writing a good essay? Discuss them in
detail and then write an essay on any topic of your choice
following all pre- requisites.
a) Introduction
b) Body
c) Conclusion
It is essential for the student to find in the samples and other works provided
by the company, that the essay text is focused on the theme selected. The
issues related to the chosen topic should flow smoothly from one point to
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another, so that the reader is not confused at any stage, while reading the
whole essay.
The central theme of each paragraph should be relevant to the main essay
topic. While each sentence should support this central theme, within a
paragraph, the flow of points from one paragraph to another should be in
such a manner that is tempts the reader to go through the complete paper.
While checking the samples provided by the essay writing service company,
students should find about the writing style and format adopted by its
writers. The essays should be written in a clean and reader-friendly simple
language, while maintaining the required writing style like font size and line
spacing etc.. The writers should do the spell and grammar check, as well as
the punctuation and proofreading jobs, manually. It is essential for the
students to remember that merely depending on such auto checks provided
by the software tools available, is always dangerous.
Students can also go through personal essay for getting the knowledge of
writing different essays.
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ESSAY
The history of socialism finds its origins in the French Revolution of 1789
and the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, although it has
precedents in earlier movements and ideas. The term 'socialism' is variously
attributed to Pierre Leroux in 1834, who called socialism "the doctrine
which would not give up any of the principles of Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity" of the French Revolution of 1789 or to Marie Roch Louis
Reybaud in France, or in England to Robert Owen, who is considered the
father of the cooperative movement. The Australian Labor Party was the
world's first elected socialist party when the party won the 1899 Queensland
state election, with Anderson Dawson its Premier and first head of a socialist
government anywhere in the world.
The first modern socialists were early 19th century Western European social
critics. In this period, socialism emerged from a diverse array of doctrines
and social experiments associated primarily with British and French
thinkers—especially Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon, Louis Blanc, and Saint-Simon. These social critics criticised the
excesses of poverty and inequality of the Industrial Revolution, and
advocated reforms such as the egalitarian distribution of wealth and the
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transformation of society into small communities in which private property
was to be abolished. Outlining principles for the reorganization of society
along collectivist lines, Saint-Simon and Owen sought to build socialism on
the foundations of planned, utopian communities.
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countries, socialist parties and anarchists played a prominent role in forming
and building up trade unions, especially from the 1870s onwards. This stood
in contrast to the British experience, where moderate New Model Unions
dominated the union movement from the mid-nineteenth century, and where
trade unionism was stronger than the political labour movement until the
formation and growth of the Labour Party in the early twentieth century.
Just before his death in 1895, Engels argued that there was now a "single
generally recognised, crystal clear theory of Marx" and a "single great
international army of socialists". Despite its illegality due to the Anti-
Socialist Laws of 1878, the Social Democratic Party of Germany's use of the
limited universal male suffrage were "potent" new methods of struggle
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which demonstrated their growing strength and forced the dropping of the
Anti-Socialist legislation in 1890, Engels argued. In 1893, the German SPD
obtained 1,787,000 votes, a quarter of votes cast. However before the
leadership of the SPD published Engels' 1895 Introduction to Marx's Class
Struggles in France 1848-1850, they removed certain phrases they felt were
too revolutionary.
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Q5. Keeping in mind the four stages of teaching/learning, plan a
lesson of an hour to teach different between simple present and
simple past tense.
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Look at these examples with the main verb be. Notice that there is no
auxiliary:
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John drives a taxi.
past present future
It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.
Note that with the verb to be, we can also use the simple present tense for
situations that are not general. We can use the simple present tense to talk
about now. Look at these examples of the verb "to be" in the simple present
tense - some of them are general, some of them are now:
Am I right?
Tara is not at home.
You are happy.
past present future
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They are also shown the following table for examples.
The simple present tense is used to discuss permanent situations and the
frequency of events.
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SIMPLE PAST TENSE
The simple past tense is sometimes called the preterite tense. We can use
several tenses to talk about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we
use most often.
1. The simple past tense is expressed with the past form of the verb and
nothing else.
I ate lunch at noon today. She finally mailed the John was still
He drove to work letter. single in 1995.
yesterday. Jan finished her report on Jane was a
time. movie star.
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and she knew she had to do something quickly. She hurried to the grocery
store to buy some dog food, but unfortunately the store was out of her dog's
favorite brand, so she had to catch a bus downtown. After buying the food,
she waited for a half hour in the rain to get a taxi. When she finally got
home, her dog was sound asleep on the living room sofa.
Exercises
2. We drive around the parking lot for 20 minutes in order to find a parking
space.
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5. I say, "No, my secretary forgets to make them."
4. This morning before coming to class, Jack eats two bowls of cereal.
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