How History Affects English Language in Malaysia?

Oh My God! What a boring topic? Boring! It was my first impression when our group had to present about this topic. You know what? I hate history. History made me felt dizzy and sleepy. Oh no! 

Our group had to present on how history affects English Language in Malaysia? From our research, I noticed that English Language was introduced by British when they colonized Malay State. At that time, a lot of policies were implemented in Malay State regarding educational system. And, when we talked about education, the status of English Language in Malay State (currently, we called it Malaysia) was also affected. The very first English School, Penang Free School, was introduced and officiated by Sir Francis Light followed by other English medium schools such as Victoria Institution, the oldest school in Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore Free School. From that year onwards, a lot of incidents happened in Malay State. From our research, we could see how Barnes Report, Razak Report, Cheeseman Plan, PPSMI and also MBMMBI affect the status of English in Malaysia.

During presentation of our finding, I felt very nervous. Furthermore, we were running out of time. I had presented my points as fast as the lightning. I hoped that everyone could understand what I was saying. Honestly, I had a very bad stage fright since I was young. I did not have the confidence to speak in front of others. When I was presenting in the class, I had built self confident. Many feedbacks were given to me after I finishing my presentation. Most of the comments are positive but I felt that I did not deserve the positive comments. What made it was very difficult for me to speak English was I was very concern with my grammar. I had the ideas on my mind, but it was very difficult for me to speak it out using English. I was trying my best to speak in English with no grammatical error. Maybe I had very high expectation. Madam Ira said that the more we speak in English, the more we will improve our proficiency in English. Some people may good in writing essay in English but not too good in speaking using English and vice versa. It happened to me too. I was not trying to be proud, but it was the reality. So, from now onwards, I will start to speak and communicate frequently using English so that I could better my English. I realized that I had to improve my proficiency in English. I had to be more serious and improve my pronunciation before I graduate later because I will be English teacher in the future.

The Odd One

This session, we were required to create a language games. It was about word formation. So, my group had decided to create an conduct a language game named "The Odd One". This game was all about spotting the odd one from a group and state the reason why it was different from other. It was quite a challenging game because we had to spot which the odd one and then state why in just 15 seconds. What was coming first through our mind will be our answer.  This games tested on one's alertness to spot the odd one. Marks was given to the group with different answer with the other group. Before giving the answer, the group must place a bet with the given sweets.

Honestly speaking, I was very nervous when our group were conducting the game. My nervousness became more serious when Priscilla, Beremas and Edward asked me to explain the game to the class. They told me to do so because they said that I was the one who create the game. Are you kidding me? Oh my God! I was very afraid that others could not understand what I was going to deliver. At that time, I just kept silent for a while to find some strength to explain the game to the class. Fortunately, I could overcome my stage fright. My other three group members also helped me to during the explanation.

Thanks God! The game was well-conducted. I saw that everyone were enjoying the game. I was very happy because Madam Ira enjoyed the game too. And it became my motivation to keep continuing the game till the end. Lastly, I wanted to congratulate Hubert, Shah, Jes, Chris and Liza for being the winner!!

Tongue Twister

I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish,

but, if you wish the wish the witch wishes,

i won't wish the wish you wish to wish

The thirty three thieves, 

thought that they, 

thrilled the throne, 

throughout Thursdays

Chester Cheetah chews a chunk of cheep cheddar cheese.

The first thing that came into my mind when we were required to do tongue twister was "Oh No!". Why? I had problem with my pronunciation. Honestly speaking, I had problem with "s", "x", and "r"..My accent was too strong. It was really difficult for me to say words which involved these alphabets. I was very lucky and thankful to God because our group got tongue twister which did not involved these three alphabets. But, right now, I still practiced on how to better my pronunciation.

To make it easier to remember the tongue twisters, we decided to use rhyme. And of course, it became more interesting to recite tongue twisters using this method. It was because we loved to sing and four of us were very talented in singing. So, it was good thing to use our talent for this task. This method can be practiced during my practicum in the future. Rather than just reading texts and notes from text books, I think it is better to me to use other interesting method to teach my pupils. So that, the class will be more manageable since everyone is paying attention during my class and have the interest to follow my lesson. As a teacher, I believe that we should vary our techniques of teaching so that our students will not get bored.

Once again, our group was awarded as the best group for tongue twister. Thanks Madam Ira for your kindness giving us such a very inspiring appreciation. The appreciation motivated us and we used the appreciation as our driving force to better ourselves!!

Syntactic Tree Diagram

For this session, we were asked to create two tree diagram for syntax. Therefore I had created two sentences. My first sentence was "His younger brother, Micah, saw Bob with a beautiful lady recently" This sentences was composed by two parts which were noun phrase “His younger brother, Micah” and also verb phrase “saw Bob with a beautiful lady recently”. My second sentence was “The teacher at the school gave an exam with 50 questions”. After that, we were required to exchange the question of syntactic tree diagram with our friends.

For me, it was very good activity for us to improve our proficiency in English Language. Through the activity, I could learn on how to mark other’s work. It was because I had to mark and check my friend’s answer by my own without the interference of lecturer. When I was checking and correcting my friend’s work, at the same time I was learning too. I could indirectly improve my proficiency in English. Not only that, this activity gave the opportunity to learn from and to teach on another.

Through my observation, syntactic tree diagram gave a clear representation of the syntactic makeup of a sentence. We could see how the meaningful sentences were composed by combining many words from same or different word classes. The composition of words followed the rules. It meant that we could not arrange the word freely without considering the rules.

Personally, I had no problem with tree diagram. I had learned about tree diagram of syntax during my foundation year. But it was all about morphology of Malay Language. Besides, I had learned grammar, specifically on word classes, word phrases and so forth during my foundation too. Thank you very much, Madam Hairani ! Because of her, I managed to understand and identify the word classes of words, word phrases, word clause and so on. . It was very important to know about all of these things since it was very useful in syntactic analysis.  If I did not master all of these things, it will become difficult for me to understand and create the tree diagram.

Mime..

Wow! We had to film a new movie, I meant a short video..Until now, I thought I had acted in four movies. My very first movie was XY File followed by "The Boarding House" and "The Fantasy". All of the movies were a success! 

For this semester, we had to film a short movie too. The interesting part was we were not required to speak or use verbal communication in the movie. We had to use our body movement and our expression to convey message to audiences. And , my group filmed a movie entitled " X Factor Audition". This short movie, to be accurate I called it short clip, centred around the situation during audition.

For me, everyone should watch this short movie. Why? This short movie really taught one about life. We as human being never escape from failure. In this video, although the contestants failed in the audition, they should know that maybe singing was not their best. Maybe they were good in other fields. And we should know that, there was always light at the end of the tunnels. Maybe we were not so good in certain area, but it did not mean that we were suck in other area. So, always be positive!

Personally, I thought that this kind of activity ( making mime video) was very interesting. I could learn to use my expression and body movement in order to convey messages to other. It was  quite difficult at first since it was my first time acting without using my voice. But, I do believe that what makes thing difficult was the one that makes it more interesting. From this task, I also could gain my knowledge on the function of language. Every words and everything that came from our mouth whether verbal or non-verbal had their own meaning and function. For example, if we want to tell others that we feel sleepy, we will yawn. So, we as a human being should aware with our action and think before we act.
Among the five movies, I enjoyed to watch "The Teeth" by Christine's group. I could not help myself from not laughing when I watching their film. This movie was very interesting and at the same time taught people to be always taking care of their teeth. My second favorite movie was "The Bully" by Hubert's group. This movie was quite cute for me. I loved the background music and the way they acted in the movie. I screamed out loud when I saw Hubert acted as a innocent little boy. It was very unexpected and the spotlight was given to him. Could you imagine that 27 years old young gentleman acted as a primary school's kid?

So, why don,t you guys try making your own mime video and you will know how interesting it is? All the best!! Bon Chance!!

Role Play..(Language Function)

Morning!! Our class were required to do a role play using at least five language functions. Beremas, Edward, Priscilla and I decided to do a role play on hair loss issue. 

Our situation was two best friends, Nick and Pris, were going to Guardian, I played Nick's role, who wanted to buy a bottle of hair shampoo which was suitable for his hair. Meanwhile, Priscilla played Pris' s role who wanted to check for some facial product. At the guardian, two promoters, played by Edward and Beremas, approached them and start to promote and convince the best friends to buy their product. 
Below are our script for role -play:

Setting : Imperial Shopping Mall

Nickelson	: Hey, Priscilla. (to greet) Let us go to Guardian. (to suggest) I want to buy a bottle of hair shampoo there. (to explain)
Priscilla	: Sure I will go with you. (to agree) I would like to have a look at some facial products.
Priscilla & Nickelson are walking around Guardian.
Priscilla	: What type of hair shampoo do you want to buy? (to ask)
Nickelson	: I used PANTEEN before. But, I still have hair fall problems. My hair becomes thinner from day to day. (to complain)
Priscilla	: I suggest that you use another type of shampoo which is more suitable for your hair. (to suggest)
A few moments later, two promoters are approaching them.
Edward	: Welcome to Guardian. (to greet) May I help you, Sir? (to ask)
Nickelson	: I want to buy a bottle of shampoo which can help me to control my hair loss. I used PANTEEN hair fall control before, but I feel it is not effective. (to complain)
Edward	: I think that you should try CLEAR hair shampoo to strengthen the roots of your hair. A lot of customers prefer this product, Sir. (to recommend)
Beremas	: Excuse me. (to interrupt) I would like to introduce to you a new product from LOREAL brand. I’m sure that this hair shampoo will help you to restore your hair condition. It will make your hair look smooth and silky. (to explain)
Priscilla	: Can both of you let him think and choose by himself? Which one do you prefer, Nick? (to ask)
Nickelson	: Hmm… (Thinking) Do you have other types of hair shampoo which are more affordable since the product that you introduced to me just now is quite expensive? (to ask)
Edward	: You can use SUNSILK Hair Fall Control. If you buy this hair shampoo, you will get a free hair conditioner. The price is only RM 6.60. I am using this product too. Look at my hair. It looks spiky and easy to manage. (to support) What do you think, Berry? (to ask opinion)
Beremas	: I agree with you, Eduardo. (to agree) Anyway, why don”t you have a try ? (to recommend)
Nickelson	: Okay then. Thanks for your help. (to thank) Let us go, Pris. (to invite)
Edward & Beremas	: You’re welcome. Please come again. (to show pleasure)
Nickelson & Priscilla	: Okay, bye.

From the role play, I learned a lot about the function of language. Some of language function that we used during the role play were:

1.  Beremas : I agree with you, Eduardo ( to agree)
2. Eduardo : Welcome to Guardian ( to greet)
3. Nickelson : I used Pantene hair fall control before, but I fell it is not effective ( to complain) 
4. Priscilla : I suggest that you use another type of shampoo which is more suitable for your hair ( to suggest)

I was good in acting. So, it was not a very big problem for me to act. I enjoyed my acting and most of dialogues that came from my mouth were spontaneous. I did not follow the actual script that we had wrote before. Luckily, all of us managed to cover it up. Our acting became more natural and more alive. I was very happy and very surprised when our group was announced as the best group for role play. Our group received an appreciation from Madam Ira. And, we promised to better ourselves for the next presentations.

Phonology vs Phonetic

Phonology is a study of sound system of language. Through the study of phonology, we will know about certain sound are organized

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics. Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics: (http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsPhonology.htm) On the other hand, based on my reading on an article from internet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonology), phonetic  concerns the physical production, acoustic transmission and perception of the sounds of speech. Physical production or articulatory phonetic is the study of how speech sounds are produced by human vocal apparatus. It shows us on how every sounds are produced using our articulation organ. Our anatomy of articulation organ can be found from: http://www.sil.org/mexico/ling/glosario/e005bi-organsart.htm. From this link, you can see consonant Chart for English. Just click on this link and take a look!! http://www.pucpr.edu/facultad/omiranda/phonetics.pdf For Vowel Chart for English. http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/vowels.html People always confuse with phonology and phonetic. So, here are the comparison between both:   Phonetics … Phonology … Is the basis for phonological analysis. Is the basis for further work in morphology, syntax, discourse, and orthography design. Analyzes the production of all human speech sounds, regardless of language. Analyzes the sound patterns of a particular language by determining which phonetic sounds are significant, and explaining how these sounds are interpreted by the native speaker. For further reading about phonology and phonetic, click on this link and READ!! Clicking on this link only will not help you to gain knowlegde without reading what are inside. If possible, please do download them. http://www.panl10n.net/Presentations/Cambodia/Sarmad/Phonetics&Phonology.pdf http://books.google.com.my/books?id=SW2eEolEghUC&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=vokal+chart+for+english&source=bl&ots=JDrIxDtLmI&sig=qdcQ9ySeyeDZIljFj_fP8ND59yY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iIEvT7TnEYmzrAeO7OTADA&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=vokal%20chart%20for%20english&f=false Honestly speaking, I have problem in saying words especially the words involve the alphabets /s/, /r/ and /x/. But, I'm working on it right now and hope to better my pronunciation before I graduate. I found that learning about phonology and phonetic is quite interesting. Why? Although it was really difficult ti say and pronoun some alphabets such as /s/, /r/ and /x/, I found that it was quite enjoyable. At least I knew how to pronoun these alphabets almost correctly and others could understand what i was trying to say. Besides, it was unimaginable thing before that every single organs, I means articulation organ such as mouth and also our alveolar,  involved in producing sounds. For example, to say the alphabet / a/ , I had to open my mouth the widest. It was kind of funny to each other' s mouth when saying the alphabet /a/. So, right now, I promise that I will better myself and master all of this things before I can teach in the future. I do believe that what is happening now will affect what will happen in the future. I aware the importance of teaching the correct thing to our young generation because they are our future leader.

What is your definition of language?

For me, language is a tool of communication.  A tool that is used by human to convey messages from one to another. The language has its own rules. And of course different people have different language.
The interesting part is that I believe that  language is not be inherited but to be learned. It means that even though you were born in an Iban's family, it is not a surprise if you did not know how to speak and understand Iban Language but understand other languages. It depend on your environment. If you are in a surrounding with Iban Language as their major language, you will know and understand Iban Language. What I am trying to say here is the acquisition of language depends on your environment.
Reference:
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/language
http://www.bartleby.com/186/1.html

Morphology..

Morphology? What is it? Based on my reading on a source from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology, morphology is the study of the structure and content of word forms. It includes inflection, derivation, and the formation of compounds. 

Under morphology, we should know what "morpheme" is. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language.(http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAMorpheme.htm). I can say that morpheme is minimal parts of words. 

Morpheme can be classified into three type which are free morpheme, bound morpheme and also allomorph. Free morpheme is the morpheme that can stand by themselves and give us meaningful word. Unlike the bound morphemes that require free morphemes to construct a meaningful word. Bound morpheme cannot stand by their own. 
Bound morphemes can be classified into two types which are derivational and inflectional. Derivational morphemes are the morphemes that will create new word and maybe  the part of speech of the word when the derivational morphemes are added to its base word. For example, when derivational morpheme "un" is added to base word "like", the meaning of the new word will be totally changed. Another example is when the suffix "ness" is added to base word "happy"(adjective), it will become "happiness" ( noun). Both of them have different word classes. Examples of derivational morphemes are shown in the table below.

Affix	Attaches to	forming	example
Anti-	nouns	nouns	Anti-aircraft, anti-smoking
Un-	Adjectives, verbs	Adjectives, verbs	Unhappy, undo
Re-	verbs	verbs	Rearrange, recheck
Dis-	Verbs, adjectives	Verbs, adjectives	Disown, dishonest
-ment	verbs	nouns	engagement
-ize	Noun,adjective	verb	Memorize, sterilize
-ism	Nouns, adjectives	nouns	Capitalism, realism
-ful	nouns	adjectives	Careful
-y	nouns	adjectives	oily
-ly	adjectives	adverbs	Happily, sadly

Meanwhile inflectional morpheme is the morpheme that does not change the meaning of base word. According to Bauer, 1988: 12, there is no changes in meaning of the base word for inflectional morpheme or the word class of the base word. 

Inflectional morphemes are those which do not create new meaning. These morphemes never change the syntactic category of the words or morphemes to which they are attached

(Bauer, 1988: 12)

http://wordformation.blogspot.com/2008/04/derivational-morphemes.html

Example of 8 English Inflectional Morphemes can be read here:
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~raha/306a_web/EnglishInflectionalAffixes.pdf

Take a look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpheme#Classification_of_morphemes
 http://introling.ynada.com/session-6-types-of-morphemes

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/caneng/morpheme.htm
http://wordformation.blogspot.com/search/label/Derivational%20morphemes 

The more you learn, the more you will realize that there are many other things that you do not know. The more I learned about morphology, the more I think that I should work harder to be able to master morphology. There are a lot of things that I should learn. I believe that it is very important to master this morphology before I can teach in the future. And I find that learning the morphology of English language is quite challenging for me. Actually, I had learned about morphology before in 2008, but it was all about morphology of Malay Language. It was quite similar but it is more difficult to learn the morphology of English since I am not too good in English.

Wake up in the Morning..Tik Tok!!

I woke up exactly at 930am today. It is such a waste for me to woke up this early since it is holiday!! Right now, I should on my mattress!! Not sitting in front of my PC and writing on this blog. Right now, I'm still thinking what should I take for my breakfast. I have two choices which are fried rice or Maggi. Maggi is obviously not so good for my health. but, it is very simple and easy to be prepared compared to fried rice. Hurm..Ok la. I have to sign out now. My fans are waiting for me outside. Bye for now!!
P/s: Sorry for the grammatical errors. I'm not good in English. At least I try( Fadil' s trademark)

Evening!! It is my second blog.