Language

The poem closes with reminders of oppression, control and confinement. Possibility that was once limitless for the dolphins now has ‘limits’ imposed upon it that will become impossible to bear. The realisation will probably hasten the creatures’ death, signalling that there is as much at stake from a psychological perspective as there is from the physical circumstances. Stifling of natural impulse and behaviour can have fatal consequences. The ‘plastic toy’ is a further reminder of the indignity visited on this majestic creature of the ocean.

The phrase until the whistle blows is potentially ambiguous. In one level it simply refers to the controlling device used by the keeper but on another the poet might be reminding us that this sort of cruelty will continue until somebody exposes it for what it is. Duffy does effectively ‘blow the whistle’ on such practices. The final line, with its reference to ‘our mind’, neatly links the plural possessive pronoun with the singular noun ‘mind’ indicating a collective voice for a species.

The tense change to ‘we will’ draws attention to the contrast between what the dolphins had, what they have now and can expect in the future. As a result, the dolphins assume an almost mythic status in that they appeal to archetypal impulses in us and in nature; they are not just the creatures who form part of it. ‘The Dolphins’ may just as easily be read as a poem about human disillusion, betrayal and loss of direction as it is about animals. As an interpreter of experience it offers us a new language into which we would do well to translate ourselves.

Foreign Duffy’s preoccupation with language is dealt with here form the perspective of its cultural significance as much as its ability to say anything. To the immigrant, the country to which he or she has moved out of economic necessity will always be ‘foreign’ but the indigenous population will regard them as foreigners. The fact that living in a foreign culture is something that is not easy to get used to is emphasised in the opening line of the poem. Despite living in a city for ‘twenty years’ it remains ‘strange’.

The immigrant is aware of his or her own ‘foreign accent’ as it sounds to others. The strain of thinking in one language and having to translate into the speech of another cannot always be sustained and this is sensitively pointed out through the physical detail in the final stanza: ‘And in the delicatessen, from time to time, the coins / in your palm will not translate. ‘ The breakdown in communication in an everyday, exposed transactional situation is intensified through the words ‘Inarticulate’ and ‘point’.

Duffy’s empathic feeling for such people is further expressed in her presentation of other actions such as ‘writing home’, a way of maintaining contact with others of the same culture. The ‘local dialect’ in the immigrant’s ‘head’ is coupled with the memory of his or her mother singing. These are details with which any sympathetic person might identify and throw into sharp relief the actual experience of seeing racist graffiti ‘sprayed in red’ (line 12). Duffy’s use of the simile, ‘Red like blood’ to describe the paint is effective because of its monosyllabic directness of observation.

It also resonates with a famous and terrible speech given by the Conservative politician Enoch Powell who, on 20th April 1968 warned that increased immigration into Britain would result in a ‘river of blood’. There is, then, a stark contrast between the uses of language as a sign system of cultural inclusion (stanza 2) and its deliberate use as a weapon of racial exclusion (stanza 3). The ‘hate name’ of the racists is sprayed on a ‘brick wall’ the harshness and unyielding nature of which is symbolic of the mentality of those who do such things.

The unfamiliar, snowy weather and artificial ‘neon lights’ create the impression for the immigrant that the country moved to is ‘coming to bits’. This image of fragmentation is, though, not entirely imaginary as he or she has a life splintered from all that is familiar and constantly experiences a sense of alienation. The italicised words at the close of the poem give voice to the immigrant but this only gives away a difficulty with English. The unfinished verbs, ‘Me not know’ and ‘It like they only…’ are drawn attention to by Duffy in order that the reader may ponder what it would be like to face the same language problem.

The final words of the poem, ‘Imagine that’ remind us of the opening and there is quite a clear impression that Duffy is adopting an undisguised didactic stance. As a skilled and empowered user of the English language herself she is drawing attention to the lot of those who are marginalised because of their deficiency in its use. Head of English The poet is introduced to the class by the Head of English who has very fixed views about what poetry should be. As in ‘Comprehensive’, the school in question is a multi-ethnic institution.

It is significant that the teacher should be dismissing the live woman poet because she does not conform to the Keatsean ideal in the teacher’s mind. She is not dead and she is not male. How anyone with ‘English second language’ is expected to relate to dead white English men is clearly a challenge laid down in the poem. The five six line stanzas are indicative of a controlled, contained environment, the institution and the teacher are reflected in this. Duffy does not choose to use rhyme throughout (as the teacher predicted) but reserves some obvious rhymes for the teacher to use.

This is a very subtle use of a poetic technique to satirise someone who is complaining about its absence from modern poetry. So, simultaneously, Duffy is using a poetic technique to show that the teacher is wrong about it being absent from modern verse whilst showing that the rhyme, being obvious, is the sort needed by the teacher. The reference to Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is significant for a number of reasons. His poems do rhyme very regularly, and a number of them are redolent of British imperialism and nationalism in the Victorian period.

This is actually grossly offensive in a multicultural context. ‘Winds of change’ is a wittily ambiguous phrase since it refers to the words of Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister 1957-63 speaking of political events such as the civil war in the Congo following the granting of independence from Belgium. It also tells us that the teacher is referring to flatulence, as well as reinforcing her own entrenched views. Duffy is ironically drawing attention to the fact that Calliope, ‘the Muse’ and source of afflatus, breath of inspiration for poets is interrupted by an unwelcome allusion to noxious gases.

The control possible in adopting a persona in the dramatic monologue is clear. Single word sentences, a hallmark of Duffy’s verse, work very well in capturing the terse, rude attitude of the teacher. ‘Still. ‘ (stanza 2); ‘Right. ‘ (stanza 4); and ‘Well. Really. ‘ (stanza 5) show that she is singularly unimpressed by what she has heard. Here, it is what is implied by Duffy’s economical use of language that is so effective in building an impression of what this woman is like.

The idea of someone being in charge of an English Department who cannot see that it is she who actually has the ‘outside’ view is worrying. The fact that she devotes a whole lesson to assonance also indicates the deadly boring teaching methods she employs. She obviously teaches technique out of context in the same way that she cannot accept modern poetry as belonging to a literary tradition. Like any poor English teacher she views tradition as something strictly to do with an unreachable past.

It is striking that it is the silent space between the fifth and sixth stanzas that the poet has been allowed to read. Despite having encouraged pupils to ask questions ‘after all we’re paying forty pounds’, the teacher’s response to the poet’s reading is telling as she instructs the class to ‘run along’. The reader wonders just what ‘insight’ the teacher has actually gained. Also, her pupils are unlikely to derive much from her teaching. More worrying, though, are the entrenched attitudes of a person who should not be in charge of the most expansive of subjects studied at school.

Girls College wrote an opinion piece “It’s time for us to take a stand”, which was published In the Breadboard Leader on the 9th of December, 2013, she contends In a critical and negative tone that the young people of Australia must stand up against the cruel, vindictive and cowardly practice of bullying. Elise explains how bullying has been around since the start of time, but social media is making acts such as bullying too easy for these bullies to argue their victims and little is being done about it.

Stakeholders include friends, family, workers, schools, social media, victims, and the medical industry. The target audience for this text is the victims, to encourage them to stand up for themselves. Elise opens up the article in a serious and urgent tone, explaining how serious this really is, and how little Is being done about it, strongly suggesting something needs to be done now. Social Media sites such as Backbone and Twitter play a huge role In Weber bullying, they make millions of dollars In advertising and Elise explains how It Is only fair If they use some of the money to help stop the spellbinding that their platforms allow.

She draws In the audience with a persuasive technique appealing them to fear by stating “it seems that not a month goes by when we don’t hear another story of a teen somewhere overseas or in Australia that has taken their life due to the bullying that has occurred on line. ” Another effective technique she has used is the use of rhetorical questions for example “Can we as young people sit idly y while these companies become indirectly wealthy from the misery they help create? Can parents knowingly let their children use websites that allow such cruel behavior to be facilitated? Elise continues to explain the causes of bullying with reason and logic, stating that most bullies are highly sensitive so they bully to avoid getting bullied themselves, and making them feel the bigger person, or to compensate for some short coming In their lives. She then explains In a call and clear tone how Important It Is for the parents to educate their children that bullying s not acceptable, suggesting how can the children take a stand for themselves if they have no guidance by their parents?

Elise explains more in depth how the parents need to be educated themselves, so they can educate their children that the appalling behavior of bullying is wrong. The best way to stop bullying is to prevent it, and the parents and education department play a key role in that. She explains the effects of bullying in every aspect, not only the physical and emotional cost, but the financial cost too for example it costs the tax areas money every time they have to go to the doctor’s surgery.

She uses evidence and repetition as a persuasive technique that Is supporting her contention effectively. For example “Based on 2009 studies, 27 per cent of students In years four to nine are bullied regularly – let’s call It one In four students. Personally I am horrified by this statistic. One in four! ONE IN FOUR! ” Elise closes the article with an for themselves. She says “Remember that we the good people outnumber the bullies. Don’t let the unnecessary suffering continue. United we stand, divided they fall. In the visual piece of the text there is a photograph of a young child with innocent eyes looking right up at you, with his hands up showing the words written across them “stop bullying”. The camera is angled in front and above the boy, creating a dominating effect, making the boy look more vulnerable, innocent and weak. It is a simple but powerful photograph taken by James Luckier. The effects on the stakeholders such as the victims of bullies sends out a message to them to take a stand for themselves.

The effect on the bullies is that they would hopefully feel bad for what they do and actually consider thinking about stopping. In conclusion, Elise uses many different techniques and tones in this argument, with a lot of logic and evidence to support her main points, so overall this is an effective persuasive piece, leaving the audience convinced to take a stand. We outnumber the bullies, they are truly the weak ones. Target audience – young people themselves, taking a stand Stakeholders – friends, family, workers, schools, social media, victims, medical industry

This course explains both how and why it is good to SE goals or make bucketful’s not only when it comes to traveling but also when applying these skills to the real world. It seeks to broaden students perspective on the world outside of the o en they live in and shed light on the mannerisms and way of life of other cultures, with the help of unique the projects and Nicolas lessons. The course differs from other language courses because it has more of a variety rather than focusing on a single language or culture. Other language GE courses are similar to each other; this course emphasizes on other parts of the world the r than Europe.

Even if students decide to hold off on traveling for a little bit, at least they will have the life lessons they were taught in this course. There is a famous quote by Paul Cello, “If you u think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal”. Cello traveled the world at a young gag e and documented the entire thing via online blobbing. He did not want to fall into the same route en everyday so he decided that he wanted to travel the world and tell others about it. In order to inspire students the course includes a brief study of Cello’s blob during Nicolas lessons. 4

This flayer course will only be available for South students to take their seen or year. Ala Thus said, ” The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. ” (604 BC). The study is planning to educate children on the multitude of different cue Trees that expo and in the world around them. The first project the students will take on is figuring out how to create year round functions in order to raise funds and save up enough money for the final prop etc, a trip out of the country to a place of the students’ choosing. These fundraisers may include, b UT are not exclusive to, bake sales or car washes.

Not a penny out of pocket is going to be asked f or from the parents of the students solely because the fundraisers held must raise all the money needed. By the end of this course, the goal is that students would learn about not only how to safe Ely and successfully travel, but also how to work hard and manage money and time to get to where e they want to be. “It is better to travel well than to arrive. ” An intelligent quote from Buddha; is imply stating that the arrival of a destination is important, but not as important as the knowledge e it takes to get there.

In class, lessons Will be based on the cultures of different countries. Students will also learn about the variety of currency and their worth. They will need to know h transportation functions in different countries. Basically, the students will need to get a grasp of what is the best and most efficient way to get from one place to another. They would learn ABA out mannerisms and what is socially accepted as polite. Another course requirement is how to make e money while on the road.

They would need to know how to acquire seasonal jobs sufficient en ugh so that they 5 can save up to move on to the next location on their list. The course is plane d to educate dents to its best ability because the future of their world is in their hands. There are five major projects the students will have to complete before the co ruse is over. The goal is to have them accomplish something of their own rather than been g taught or lectured for 80 minutes a day. For the second project, students will have to create a BRB ochre for a place they want to go to.

After doing this, they will have to persuade the rest of the class with an oral report that the location they chose will be the best place for the class trip at t he end of the year also known as the final project. Throughout the year, the students will be taught about the location of major c Mounties within the continents. The third project will consist of students gathering up in six small groups. Each group will be assigned one of the six continents (Antarctica will not be in clued due to our lack of knowledge about its full landscape) in which they have to label the coo entries shown.

The students will not be able to do this project at home they may only work on it I n class and without technology, purely using the knowledge and memory to put together their ma The fourth project is to build an itinerary based on the country that we are us posed to go to. The students will be given the budget that they raised themselves in the fir SST project and will then plan how they want to spend their money, where they want to go, and h owe they will get there. Once they arrive at their destination, what would the students want to do? What do they want to see or eat?

What can they experience on their budget? The seniors will I need to find actual places to go and visit, eat, and call a temporary home. They cannot Simi ply list everything they want to do and expect it all to happen without any course of planning be fore hand. 6 The final project is the one the students will look most forward too. This is the project at the end of the year where they travel to a location that they picked in the begin inning of the year for five days. After all, Rudyard Kipling did say, “The first condition of understand ending a foreign country is to smell it. All the money put into the trip is raised completely byte he students themselves. Whether their parents want to give them spending money is com pellets up to them. The trip is not mandatory, it is up to the child and their parents/ guardians to give them permission to come. When the Middletown South students were asked if they would have any dies re to visit other countries 78 students had circled yes while only two circled no. Because of that number a backing/ traveling course would be an absolutely necessary course to teach in high SC wool.

Out of the 80 sophomore students that took the survey 32 were males and 48 were e females. The first question inquired the students to answer how many trips that they have been on anywhere outside Of the country in order to get a general idea Of the world that they we re exposed to so far. A staggering 90% had been to only one to three other countries. Approximate lye 8% of the students have been to four to six other countries. Only 2% of the students who o answered the survey have traveled to more than seven countries.

To be even more specific, the next question on the survey asked the students to take the time and list all of the states and countries they have been to outside of New Jersey. The answers varied from California, Paris, Floor dad, Tennessee, Colorado, Canada, the Caribbean Islands, New York, Pennsylvania, and Nevada a. The students were then asked to answer if they knew what countries certain currencies were e used in. 13% of dents knew euros can be used in Europe and unanimously 100% of student TTS knew that American dollars are used in the United States.

Roughly 38% of students knee w where rubles can 7 be used, 5% knew where francs may be used, and about 76% students know where pesos are used. Out of curiosity, the sophomore students were also asked to check off what types of transportation they have used before in the options they were given. Approve mutely 1% of the students had ridden a VESA while 100% of the students had ridden a bus and car. About 49% of students had flown on a plane, while 90% have taken a train. Close to 23% of t he students have been on a subway, 36% had ridden a monorail and surprisingly 1% of the stud .NET had ridden on a camels back.

Another question the students were prompted was if they are working a job currently or if they have had one in the past to get a feel for if the students ink ewe exactly how to work for their money. About 4% of students said yes and 96% said no. When asked how the students handle their money, 5% said that they put it away in a bank account, 90% said their parents handle it, and 5% said they keep their own money hidden in their ROR m, specifically their sock drawers. Out of the 80 students, 16% said they know how to book a hot l/motel room while 84% said they did not know.

Also, 28% of students know how to read a basic map; 72% do not. This was asked in order to get an understanding about how much geography would be a necessity to teach in class. By the end of the course 100% of students will be a blew to read a local or national map without a problem. Unanimously, 100% of the sophomore SST dents answered yes to the question as to whether or not they would be interested in taking a court SE on backpacking/ traveling if it were to be an option. The students feel this course would benefit them greatly in their futures if they had some knowledge on traveling.

Traveling has become very popular in newer generations and people are getting more inspired to see the rest of the world rather than live in the same place for the rest of their lives. However, it is imp orator that they are 8 also taught the dangers and difficulties of life in other countries. This course a aims to shed some light on what it really is like to live outside of the comfort of their own homes. Conclusion The goal is to provide Middletown South seniors with as much knowledge ABA UT traveling as possible.

Love is something that you give away and it comes right back to you. Good evening everyone! Old or young, rich or poor, we all have a God-given yearning to love and be loved. However, due to the fallen world we live in, a lot of people nowadays would have a hard time at expressing their love to others. As a result, poor relationships are developed. But thankfully, all Is not lost! Have you heard of the “Five Languages of Love”? They are the means through which we can express or receive love.

A proper understanding of these will greatly enhance our relationships. Today, allow me to share the top three love languages in my life. These are Gift-giving, Words of affirmation and Quality time. The first love language I learned, Gift-giving, was introduced by my parents while I was growing up. This, however, does not merely focus on the material value of the gift, but rather, on Its sentimental value to the giver. As much as I enjoy the tangible language of love, I also desire the intangible ones: Words of affirmation and Quality mime.

Some people may say that actions speak louder than words. But I for one believe that words do matter too. That Is the reason why Words of affirmation speaks to my heart as well. As I was brought up In a positive linguistic environment, It’s easy for me to speak kind and encouraging words to others. Lastly, my most cherished of all the love languages is Quality time. This involves giving each other an undivided attention while performing any activity, or by simply Ewing at each other’s side.

What I love most about it is that, it provides a vessel for the memories of love in the years to come. To sum It up, understanding what kind of love language one speaks, Is the key to developing meaningful relationships. Be it with your family, friends, or special someone. Take note that aside from these three, the other two are Acts of service and Physical touch. Now that I know what my primary love languages are, don’t you think it’s about time you discovered yours?

Conclusion Notes References Acknowledgement [Abstract] it is acknowledged that people have always been attaching much significance to the English study on account of the globalization trend of the world to the importance of language communication. Although many people are learning English, it does not mean that every person is certain to have good command of English. I’m no exception too. This paper is concerned about my English study in three stages?in middle school, in high school and at the university.

Meanwhile, this paper also gives detailed discussions about the factors: English pronunciation, Autonomous learning ability, English learning motivations and the influence of personal attitudes towards English study. Key Words] Pronunciation; Autonomous learning; Learning motivations; Personal attitudes Economical and technological advances have tremendous impact on our ways of communication. Moreover, the globalization trend of the world also indicates the importance of language communication.

Therefore, English, as a widely used foreign language, has been always meeting with great popularity. However, it is notable that not every person is doomed to have good command of English. I’m no exception too. I have gone through three stages in the process of English study, which are filled with airdrops and happiness actually. It is acknowledged that English pronunciation is essential for every English learner who expects to have a good command of English. However, it is by no means easy.

Pronunciation is closely related to the study of vocabulary, listening and so on. To correctly command English phonetic symbols, a learner must not only precisely grasp the articulation of a word and Judge its meanings, but also memorize new words flexibly. The former situation was that not only many students but the teachers themselves in middle school were not truly showing solicitude for the phonetic ours. When I was in middle school, I could remember being taught the phonetics only once. Later on, I had to learn by myself.

Therefore, it has been no easy Job for me to clearly make distinction between English and Chinese in the Phonemic and phonological pronunciation. Besides, I do not completely correct my English pronunciation until now. 1. 1. 1 Phonemic and phonological distinction between English and Chinese Wan Shining (2004) argues the Chinese belongs to the oriented phylum, whereas English is an occidental one, and that the two languages share many similarities as ell as large divergences both phonemically and phonologically; their Phonetic system are distinct from each other mainly following by three aspects: (1) absolutely.

The vowels and consonants in English differentiate from the tones (shunned) and the finals (yummy) in Chinese to a large extent even if they seem to be similar with their counterparts in pronunciation. (2) The ways of distinguishing meanings. Chinese distinguishes by tones, thus labeled as “tonal language”,@while English distinguishes meaning by the intonations of a sentence. Therefore, it named s “language with intonation” (3) Phonemic structure. The phonemes, which are restricted in the latter, are able t be combined freely in the former. Take spelling rules of the consonant for example.

In English, [f] and [h] can be spelled together with which is not allowed in Chinese. Besides, all the consonants in English can come at the end of a syllable, while in Chinese only [n] and [Eng] are permitted. These differences cause great difficulties for the Chinese students in their acquisition of English pronunciation. Another difficulty for them is that the two languages differ in rhythms as well. Each possesses its characteristics on applying on tone or place of stress to distinguish the word’s meaning, and on the conveying a speaker tone or attitudes by means of various intonations. 1] @ Besides, there exist any other difficulties. 1. 1. 2 The transfer of mother tongue Chin Ling holds that the influence of the mother tongue on the foreign language learning is mainly illustrated on the course of “transfer” between external and internal languages. External language refers too language which a person utters in his daily talks, while the internal language refers to a language which a person utilizes when thinking with his brain instead of speaking it out. Both languages serve as materials, basis as well as tools for thinking activity.

A person is used applying his mother tongue or native dialect as his internal language at the beginning of learning a foreign language. Nevertheless, he may be forced to use external language that is understandable for both interlocutors in real communications. As a result, a problem arises in that external language is different from internal language. Consequently, the differences will produce the “negative transfer”. @The greater the preference is, the greater the difficulty is. [2] Totally speaking, I was tired of English study in view of these difficulties during that time. 1. 2 Difficulties of inaccurate memory of English vocabulary.

As we all know, vocabulary is vital for Chinese English learner, especially for the middle school students. Because only in this stage can we have a specific idea of the English. When I was in middle school, my English teacher would teach students many vocabularies every single day that we could not memory in one night. Gradually, I ran into many difficulties in English study. Recently, I read a paper with respect to the study of vocabulary learning in middle school. The author said,” The appearance of such difficulties is because the burden of English learning, the compulsory learning mode and the lacking of vocabulary learning strategies. [3]Len order to verify his assumptions, the author did experiment among the students in are divided into two classes. They are comparative class and experimental class. During the experiment, they used the old and direct vocabulary teaching mode in the former and the associative vocabulary teaching in the latter. Finally, the date shows hat after 12-week training in vocabulary learning strategy, the students of the experimental class improved their vocabulary learning ability, which is higher than that in the comparative class.

The survey showed that if the students who are to meet the requirement of teacher and confine the vocabulary memory to the word lists, are proved to be less active. By comparing my English study in middle school, I thought those phenomena are also occurred on me. 2. The second acquaintance with English in high school?enthusiasm of English study Fortunately, these obstacles had not accompanied me into high school. I met excellent teachers, then grasped the method of English learning and finally set a goal for me. 2. 1 The improvement of English autonomous learning ability English teaching is not simply to teach students knowledge.

The most important thing is to develop their autonomous learning ability through teaching activities. My English teacher gave me a lot of help. Her guidance in the process of my English study aroused my great interest in English. My English teacher tried to progress from traditional teacher-centered teaching to the student-centered method. She liked to cultivate our independent learning ability. She inspired us to interact with her, proposed to audaciously ask questions and let us to do English presentations in open forms. Thanks to my dear English teacher, I regained the enthusiasm about English learning.

Admittedly, it is essential for the students to have teacher’s innovative guideline. The American psychologist Moscow believes that this is the best way to encourage students to express their opinion and foster their enthusiasm to learn the knowledge and build the formation of healthy personality by establishing the sincere mutual understanding teacher-student relationship. The reason for why I could become enthusiastic about English study was not only owing to my teacher’s help, but also the changing of my English learning method.

The reason for why I could improve my English is as follows: Firstly, grasp teacher’s lecture feature and the characteristics of the various disciplines. Secondly, review and prepare for new knowledge. Thirdly, interact with teacher in class. Gradually, I found that my English scored higher than the previous. Until now, I am deeply aware of the importance of independent learning. As a Chinese saying goes, “give man a sis, he will have a meal; teach him to fish, he will have the food all his life. ” focuses on students’ subjectivity and initiative in order to make students how to study and achieve life-long learning and development.

And it is not the one side of my story. It has already been studied by others. The concept of “autonomous learning” (Holes) ($) originated in the asses. He expresses, “English as a conceptual tool which further developed its definition. ” [4] Benson and Evolve believe, “autonomous learning is not only the freedom of learning, but a good opportunity to form independent thinking ability as adult. [5] Little believes that the essence of the “autonomous learning” is a kind of ability such as “independent, critical reflection and decision-making. [6] Learners need to arouse their awareness of what to learn and how to learn. Also American futurist Alvin-Toffee once said,” The illiteracy in the future is not the one who don’t know the word, but the one who do not know how to learn. ” In addition to the previous factors, learning motivation is proved to be the essential factor. Motivation is the prime power of all activities. In the process of learning, many psychological factors can convert into the inner motivation, including interest, values and so on. As Www Heping@said in his A Review of research on foreign language Learner’s motivation. Motivation@can Arouse appropriate learning deeds, it can make students go into learning state and learn English initiative. ” [7] I can not agree with his idea any more. When I was in high school, I still remembered that even a little achievement could take me great motivation. And this motivation accompanied me to go to university. 3. The third acquaintance with English at the university?passiveness of English After I come into university, I find that I become less positive towards English earning than ever before.

And the reasons are as follows: A study of engineering students in Yemen by Taft AY-Tamil Candy Minor Squib cited previous research that found two classes of motivation for learning English: instrumental and integrative orientation. A person, who learns the language in hopes of gaining some tangible benefit, such as success in a Job or fulfilling an academic requirement, is instrumentally motivated. A person with integrative motivation learns English because he or she wishes to learn more about the culture of the Western world or become more integrated into English-speaking society. ] And I belong to the former. I learn the English in order to regard it as a tool for my future occupation. 3. 1 Personal attitudes towards English study determined by his attitudes towards the other group in particular and by his orientation towards the learning task itself. And I totally agree with it. ” [9] A positive attitude toward learning the English language is one of the leading predictors of success in gaining fluency. However, as mentioned above, I am not truly love English, but regard it as a tool of getting a Job. During this stage, my English study doe not make much progress.

In the above paragraphs, I have made detailed explanation about my three stages of English study. From this paper, people can see that if one wants to get a good command of English, he must perfectly grasp these aspects: have a series of learning methods, take positive attitude toward English (namely the understanding of autonomous English learning) and pay particular attention to the pronunciation of English. Besides, the external factors are also of great importance such as the teacher’s teaching methods, the environment that people are situated in and so on. As for me, my English study does not do a good Job.

No matter what stage do you belong to, I believe that this paper can be beneficial to your English study. Serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect. @Tonal language: A tonal language is a language in which pitch is used as a part of speech, changing the meaning of a word. An example of how tone can change the meaning of a word can be found in English: the word “present” can be used as a verb or a noun, with a stress on the first or second syllable changing the meaning. In tonal languages, the way in which you say a word is very important, as it radically hinges the meaning.

Tonal languages are found primarily in Asia, Africa, and South America. @alienation: Intonation is a word used to refer to how a sentence sounds. How a sentence sounds if it’s a question sounds different from how a sentence sounds if it’s a statement @Negative transfer: Negative transfer is a situation where a person transfers old learning and knowledge to a new situation, and the old information interferes with new information acquisition and task performance. This can be inconvenient or dangerous, depending on the type of situation involved.

Advanced writing April 24, 2009 Contrastive analysis: Prosperity, Decline and new Hopes of revival It should be mentioned that the history of foreign language teaching is so complicated. The complexities are the outcome of the rise of the assumptions of so many theories, approaches, methods and hypotheses that dominated this field , especially beginning from1940s and up till now. Today there are innumerable assumptions for approaches and methods that relate to language learning and teaching.

All of them claim to be the right approach for learning and teaching a language. In the midst of these situations, foreign language teachers find it extremely difficult to decide upon an approach, a method or a hypothesis to adopt, so as the process of teaching becomes easier to them and this, of course, would make the process of learning easier to the students in turn. The purpose of this short paper is to explain the assumptions behind what is called ‘ Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis’ (CAH) to language teaching and learning.

Examples from English and Arabic; English and German will be cited, and then demonstrate why contrastive analysis was rejected after decades of prosperity in which it dominated the area of foreign language teaching for almost 20 years. In this effect, According to Larsen-Freeman & Long (1991) in (Yoon,2002): this was a time when structural linguistics and behavioral psychology were rather dominant in the study of language learning. CA proponents came to advocate that L2 instructional aterials could be prepared more efficiently by comparing two languages and, in the process, predict learners’ behaviors and difficulties(qtd. in Dina 2). Contrastive Analysis(CA) was developed by Charles Fries, and was more explained and clarified by Robert Lado. CA is based on the assumptions that the majority of the errors done by non-native learners, throughout their course of studying a language, are related to the interference of the students’ native language. That’s why there is difficulty in learning a language.

The learners native language’s habits do not easily allow for the development of any new habits for another different language to take place. Lado and Fries believe that: Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and culture- both productively when attempting to speak the language and act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and the culture as practiced by natives. (qtd. in Abbas 2)

The process of learning is more difficult when there are differences between the systems of these two languages and more easy when there are similarities. If it is true that most of the difficulties encountered by the students, in their path of learning a foreign language, result from the differences rather than the similarities between the L1 and L2, then the students errors could be predicted, and hence can be encountered by teaching materials that focuses mainly on the differences rather than the similarities between the L1 and L2. CA is classified into two forms. A strong form and A weak form.

The strong form predicts that most of L2 errors are due to negative transfer resulting from the differences between the L1 and L2. The weak form explains errors once they are made with out making prediction. To give an example about the possible difficulties that learners may encounter in learning a foreign language, lets consider some language features of two completely different languages such as English and Arabic. English belongs to the Indo-European family of languages, and Arabic belongs to the Semitic languages, therefore, they are almost quite different from one another in many ways.

If a comparison is drawn between English and Arabic in terms of phonology, contrastive analysis predicts that, because Arabic language lacks speech sounds such as / p /, /v / , / n / and / /, Arabic learners of English will encounter problems in the correct pronunciation of words containing the above mentioned speech sounds. For example, the voiceless / p / will be replaced by the voiced / b / , / v / by / f / , / n / by / g / and / / by / d /. Another difficulty Arab learners of English encounter lies in the area of prepositions.

There are more prepositions in English than in Arabic On top of that, they are used differently in the two languages, and therefore a lot of confusion occur when an Arab learner uses the prepositions inappropriately. For example, in an answer to the question, How long have you been living in Colorado, it is more likely that an Arab learner of English answers saying ‘ I have been living in Colorado since 10 years. Hence, Instead of using ‘for’, s/he uses ‘since’. It was argued that: English prepositions can be used with different parts of speech of the same root word.

We use one preposition with the verb form, another with the adjective and still another with the noun form of the word. For example, we are fond of something, but we have fondness for it. In English, prepositions are either simple, single words, or complex consisting of more than one word(Rami and Hanna 184). Similarly, English learners trying to learn Arabic find it extremely difficult to correctly pronounce some Arabic speech sounds such as / / , / /, / / and / /, simply because these speech sounds do not exist in English at all. On the other hand, the areas of similarities, between the two languages, lead to ease in learning.

Schuster argues that: English learners of German or German learners of English are destined to have a positive transfer because the two languages do have many similarities. On the other hand, theory stipulates that learning will be quite difficult, or even unsuccessful, when the two languages are different(qtd. in Dena 3) Decline of Contrastive analysis Contrastive analysis started losing interest and was gradually abandoned and replaced by other new assumptions and views about language learning and teaching. Many scholars started to direct sound criticisms to contrastive analysis, beginning from the mid of 1960s.

For example, it is argued that most of the language learners do not result from interference, but rather they could be developmental. In this effect, Dulay and Burt mention that: report on a number of studies of the errors made by children learning English as a second language and consider that they are similar to those made by children learning English natively . The greatest number(87 percent) they considered to be developmental, that is, like those that a native language learner makes(qtd. in Spolsky 253). Other researchers arrived to the same conclusion. For example, it was pointed out that:

Similarly, Baily, Madden, and Krashen(1974)report results similar to Dulay and Burt’s showing some similarity in order of acquisition between adults and children learning English as a second language that is still different from the order in first language acquisition(Spolsky 254). Contrastive analysis was also challenged by the views of the prominent linguist, Noam Chomsky believes of “the existence of language acquisition device(LAD) in order to construct a generative grammar of linguistic competence out of language samples one encounters”(Neda 3). Furthermore, Slinker believes that Corder contributions were very important.

He argues that, Corder points out that,”The errors of a learner, whether adult or child are (a) not ‘negative’ or ‘interfering’ in any way with learning a TL but are, on the contrary, a necessary positive factor, indicative of testing hypothesis”(qtd. in Abbas 2). Similarly, Dulay, Burt and Krashen argue that, “learners first language are no longer believed to interfere with their attempts to acquire a second language grammar, and language teachers no longer need to create special grammar lessons for students from each language background”(qtd. in Abbas 2). New hopes of revival

Many of proponents to contrastive analysis believe that the criticisms directed to it, are not reliable. For example, it was noted that: The Dulay et al postion is suspect for two reasons. First, it ignores other findings with appreciably higher estimates. Hocking(1973), Cornu(1973)… James(1981) … arrived at findings which estimate the magnitude of such errors(interfernce) in the 60% range…. Second, a substantial number of studies involved in the body of method comparison research of the 60% and 70’s had demonstrated the effectiveness of teaching methods using CA input(Abbas2 ).

Although contrastive analysis was gradually abandoned in favor of new views and assumptions, there are still many scholars who consider it of a great importance. For example, it was pointed out that: it(CA)will be useful to teachers, students, and linguists. Even though contrastive analysis has lived up to its promise of explaining the nature of the language learning process and of making it possible to develop error-free learning, it has played a useful role in encouraging the kind of language descriptions that are needed by language teachers and learners(Abbas 253).

It is also argued that contrastive analysis was disfavored not due to sound critisisms that relate to its validity only, but also for financial and economic factors. It is believed that: The text books for FSLT… are all solely in English, making no refrence to the L1 of the learners. This, of course, suits publishers for it enables them to sell the same text books all over the world thus increasing thier sales many fold. It also suits the many anglophone teachers of English as a second or foreign language for it enables them to teach anywhere in the world without knowing the L1’s of the students they teach(Abbas 2).

Consequently, many supporters to contrastive analysis still have hopes that one day contrastive analysis will be able to find its way back to the foreign language text books. Works Cited Abbas, Elbadri. “The Relevance of Error Analysis and Contrastive Analysis. ” Http://www. teaching. org. uk /blogs/badri/relevance-error-analsis. 28 Feb. 2009. Teachingenglish. org. 22 Apr. 2009 . Al-Sibia, Dina M. “The decline of contrastive analysis – Search. ” Google. 26 Oct. 2004. 03 May 2009 . Al-Sibai M, Dina. The Decline of Contrastive Analysis Pedagogy. English 523.

How does Duffy present the theme of time in ‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’? In the poem, ‘The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team’ by Carol Ann Duffy, many themes are frequently explored, time is a huge theme presented throughout, there are many relations and connections to time and how it changes people, affects our behaviour etc, this theme if explored by Duffy using a variety of techniques including structure, language, dramatic techniques and imagery used. Firstly time is explored in detail by the structure of the poem. The title of the poem gives us the insight that the poem is stuck in time, due to the date.

Shows it must be about past tense or reminiscing. This maybe makes the poem more meaningful and personal. The poem is written in the first person as it is the “Captain that is speaking to someone. The 4 stanzas in the poem all of various lengths show the structure of the poem is disjointed suggesting that this is his trail of thought and his mind all over the place, maybe trying to understand and relive the past. This is done using pauses and short sentences, the short sentences may also show that the narrator is becoming very excited and erratic, almost childlike that he remembers so much and is excited to tell his story.

There is no rhythm to the poem again showing that he hasn’t had time to collect his ideas together, almost in a rush trying to reveal all the information and just blabbing it all out without thinking, the use of no rhythm affects the poem as it makes it seem more playful, if a rhythm had been used it may seem more formal. Language is also important to show the theme of time. The poem is in an informal tone, showing a more chatty/conversation which seems more childlike and friendly. (“Oh pretty women were in the Top Ten that month”).

The use of the informal chat shows he feels bubbly and happy perhaps showing that this is a happier stage in his life, and he prefers talking about the past than the present. Duffy has used a lot of past tense verbs e. g. “pulled” , “smiled”, this also shows that the story is about the past and how he keeps reminiscing over and over about the things he did. The choice of persona distances the poem from Duffy and gives her the opportunity to view the issues from a more objective perspective. However the tone of the poem isn’t dull it is very jumpy, highlighting the narrator’s energy, optimism and pride in himself.

Duffy demonstrates this by using adjectives like ‘fizzing’, ‘whooped’ and ‘blew like Mick’, she also shows his confidence by using self-assured phases like ‘No snags’, ‘Come on’, ‘I smiled’. Dramatic techniques are also used frequently through Duffy’s poem to help exaggerate the theme of time. She uses music to set the scene in the first stanza,’ Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love, Oh Pretty Woman’ emphasizing on the widespread impact of pop music. There is a sense of a boy, cramming information, I can give you the B-side of the Supremes one. Hang on. Come See About Me? Overall the feeling is one of optimism. I think the use of the music and songs is to give the childhood and fun feeling, the use of the old pop music shows he is reminiscing on old times and not focusing on the present, the fact he is singing shows he isn’t afraid to express himself, seeming quite happy and chirpy, the poem would seem more controlled and restricted making us question whether he actually enjoyed his past. The use of these dramatic techniques make the narrator seems he has no care in the world also draws on his freedom. Imagery helps us even more see the theme of the time in the poem.

In the third stanza we are presented with the image of a proud mother “My mother kept my mascot Gonk on the TV set for a year. ” There is also an emphasis of British context through the use of road names up ‘Churchill Road’ and ‘up Nelson Drive’. In the second stanza the speaker describes going down a hill on his bike “I sped down Dyke Hill, no hands, famous, learning” the use of this gives the image of freedom and how children speed away on their bikes without any care in the world. This could also relate to time, like him speeding away on his bike, time seems to be going so fast, flashing before his eyes.