The Linguistic Barrier - Essay Example

Teaching Vocabulary Number Department Part Question A I observed that one of the problems may be linguistic barrier, especially if learners of the vocabulary or language being taught are not native speakers. Non-native language speakers may confuse words or forget newly acquired too easily or too fast. Another problem which I learnt accosts adult learners from acquiring knowledge of vocabulary is their atrophied language acquisition device [LAD]. Compared to children, adults experience greater difficulties in learning a foreign or another language. This is because, the LAD as a device which inheres man and helps him learn language, atrophies with age. The acquisition of language also goes hand in hand with the acquisition of vocabulary. Disinterest may also serve as a strong impediment to the acquisition of vocabulary since it is nearly impossible to educate someone on matters he is not interested in. Language-related illnesses and impairment such as Warnicke’s aphasia and global aphasia may be setbacks to the knowledge and acquisition of vocabulary. Those who have suffered global aphasia have great difficulty in understanding words and forming words. In the case of Warnicke’s aphasia, a student may: fail to realise that he is using wrong words; have great difficulty in understanding some words; and not appreciate how words are strung together to form a phrase, clause or a sentence. Again, those with Warnicke’s aphasia have a problem building vocabulary since Warnicke’s aphasia affects the region of the brain’s left hemisphere which is responsible for the understanding of words. Question B There are certain activities which a teacher can expend to solve some of the problems which have mentioned above. When dealing with linguistic barriers which non-native adult speakers use, it is important for me to use both incidental acquisition and direct study. This involves, having proficient and self-motivated students to read a lot of books which are suited for their age. The teacher can then follow incidental acquisition method with vocabulary logs and other techniques which shall also be divulged upon. It is also important to follow up the use of the incidental acquisition model with the provisions of direct study. The use of direct study models will help high-risk students struggling with vocabulary. The strength of direct study helps the student develop his vocabulary by: nurturing an independent reading culture; strengthening the learner’s ability to use context clues; and strengthening the learner’s context-clues vocabulary acquisition. This measure above will therefore require the teacher to foster a classroom reading programme whereby he can: have the students read in turn; correct the reader’s phonology in case of a wrong pronunciation; have students identify the meaning of a newly encountered vocabulary by using context-cues [so that the student does not rush to the dictionary]; give learners the exact meaning of the newly encountered lexicons with an example of a sentence; and have the students record the same down and use them in a sentence. Again, it will be extremely helpful [of me and to me] to develop a multifaceted approach to vocabulary acquisition. This will entail helping learners to develop the culture of independent reading. As the teacher, I can help develop a recommended reading list, or form a recommended reading list with the school administration. The books in the reading list are those that should challenge the gifted and the talented, and help slow learners. Thus, the books should be high-interest and low-level. Students will read some of these books independently. For the remaining books, the students can provide feedback by: making oral and written book reports; producing plot summaries; and [if time allows] making performances of key or important scenes. Similarly as an instructor, measures must be made to ensure that students are encouraged to use the different semantic significance of words. This involves, having the adult learners appreciate the fact that there is the connotative and denotative meaning behind the use of a word. This will help the learner appreciate the wideness of word use and how interesting semantics [the study of meaning] is, in relation to pragmatics [the study of speaker’s meaning]. Semantic features may also be used to help meanings stick in the learners’ memory. For instance, the word sheep may be marked with the semantic features such as: + hoofed+ herbivore + bleating + wool + quadruped + mammal. I can also help learners know the use mnemonic devices, so as to help students connect an unfamiliar word with a familiar key word with the same phonology, or is contained within the target word. It will be of great help to pre-teach unfamiliar words in reading assignments. The strength in this recommendation is that knowledge or fact that students always encounter an unfamiliar lexicon in print, several times and that this is necessary to recalling the meaning of the word. Nevertheless, the frequency of the encounters that are needed to learn the new lexicon is significantly reduced whenever learners are taught about the semantic qualities of the lexicon before the student encounters it in the reading assignment. For all the cases already mentioned [the disinterested non native language user and those with shorter memory span], it will be important for the teacher to make associations to the new words which have been encountered. Students are to be taught to relate new information to materials or concepts which they have already learnt. This may involve the use of word logs, in lieu of the rush to the dictionary. Whatever is acquired from the dictionary is almost always pushed to the short-term memory area by the brain’s processes. Instead, learners should be taught to connect a new word or phrase to long-term memory. This can be achieved by using tiny hooks known as associations. This can even be done through the use of semantic features. Students with global or Warnicke’s aphasia are best managed by being taken for specialised treatment. Once a learner has been established to be suffering from global or Warnicke’s aphasia, it will be important to have him seek medical attention. Part 2 The ten lexical items which have been chosen for pre-teaching are: Upper intermediate: efficiently, indistinguishable, promptly, befriended and endure pre intermediate: environment, fed up, argue, ripped (rip) and independent. These words are used because they are difficult to use besides being a key to understand the context of their usage. Upper intermediate Efficiently This word is commonly used in both written and spoken English but could be confused with other words such as sufficiently (Scrivener, 2005). The word efficiently is to help teach learners that a word’s orthography [spelling] may not always have a one-to-one relation with its phonology [pronunciation]. To elicit the meaning I would say: Every teacher wants you to tackle your assignments correctly by using your time______. Learners would respond: efficiently. This means that students need to utilize their time. Though the word efficiently may be written as , it is often pronounced as /IIfI? (?) ntlI /. Indistinguishable To many non-English speakers, the word may be difficult to pronounce. This is the case because of the use of morphology within the word. The word indistinguishable is to help teach learners concepts of morphology and how morphemes may be added to the free morpheme to form a different word. The free morpheme is the verb distinguish. Bound morphemes in and able are added to the free morpheme to make the adjective or adjectival phrase indistinguishable. The same will provide an occasion for illustrating how morphological rules change word classes of syntactic items (Scrivener, 2005). To elicit its meaning, I would construct a sentence: These twins are ________. Students would respond: …indistinguishable. This is the same as saying impossible to differentiate or impossible to tell apart or even identical. The word also serves as a strong aspect for teaching how stress moves with the addition of morphemes. In the word distinguish, stress is to occur in the second syllable as in /d??st??gw??/. However, with the addition of more morphemes, stress moves to /ind??st??gw???b?l/. This is because, with the addition of morphemes also comes the addition of syllables. Promptly The reason for choosing the word is to make learners understand its usage. Other than understanding its context, the learners will get a chance to learn the associated phonological rules. These rules are very critical in both written and spoken English language. To elicit the meaning, I would ask students to complete this: I like doing my work ________. So they would respond: promptly, which also means: swiftly or without delay. Particularly, I will use the word to teach about the truth of allophones, so that the phoneme /p/ in the word can be realised as [p] (the neutral form of the phoneme /p/), [ph] (the aspirated form of the phoneme /p/) or [p¬] (the unreleased form of the phoneme /p/). The word will be pronounced as [pr?mp¬tli]. The first /p/ is neutral because it does not precede a vowel, while the second /p/ is unreleased because it occurs in the word’s medial position. Befriended The reason for choosing the word befriended is to teach learners concepts of morphology and how morphemes may be added to the free morpheme to form a different word. To elicit its meaning, I would say: I know that some of you _______ your classmates to get advantage of their intelligence. Students would say: befriended. Befriended here means, made friends with. The free morpheme is the noun friend. Other bound morphemes be and ed are added to the free morpheme to the free morpheme to make the verb or verb phrase befriended. The same will provide an occasion for illustrating how morphological rules change word classes of syntactic items to establish various meanings and usage in various contexts. The word also serves as a strong candidate for teaching how stress moves with the addition of morphemes. In the word friend, stress is to occur in the second syllable as in /fr?nd/. However, with the addition of more morphemes, stress moves to the word’s initial-most syllable, /?bifr?nd?d/. This is because, with the addition of morphemes also comes the addition of syllables. Endure The reason for choosing the word endure is to teach learners that a word’s orthography may not always have a one-to-one relation with its phonology. To make it clear to the learners, I would use it in a sentence in an attempt to elicit its meaning. I would say: You need to ______ you hardship in should to achieve success. Students would respond: endure. The word means to tolerate or bear. Though the word endure may be written , pronounced as /??ndj??/. Pre intermediate Environment This is a key word to understand the first couple of sentences and also it is useful for students to use it in their lives. To elicit the meaning I would start with a question: the air, water, land in or on which us, animals and plants live… what do we call them all ? Students would then respond : environment. Students may have problem to pronounce this word. Write on the board, ?Environment /?n?va?r?nm?nt/, show where the stress is, model and drill till everyone gets the correct form of pronunciation. I would then ask students to look at the sentence in the text to elicit the form of this word: I do worry about the environment. Fed up The reason for choosing this word to pre-teach is mainly to provide an opportunity to learn about phrasal verbs and the way certain verbs may combine with adverbs or prepositions to form phrasal verbs, or even phrasal prepositional verbs. In this case, I would ask students to stage various examples of similar words include take off, turn on, and catch up among other words. To elicit and clarify the meaning I would say: I've been working here for 10 years, and I hate this place. I'm _____ with my job. Students respond: fed up. They may say,"tired" , in that case I mention ,"we say tired of , not tired with." The simple meaning will be given: tired and bored by something you have experienced for too long. For pronunciation, it would be written on the WB: Fed up ? /fed ?p/ Mention that when the last letter of 1st word is consonant, F, and the 1st letter of the second word is vowel, u, it sounds like one word. /fed?p/, model and drill the word. Argue This word is chosen because it is key to understand the text and also reasonably common and useful for students in their daily conversations. I would refer to the text and then ask one of the students to read the sentence again: For instance, Chris: But really it is everyday things that worry kids of our age, you know, how to get with your parents and so on. Interviewer: Do you argue with them? Chris: Well, we argue about clothes because they like me to wear smart clothes and I like ripped jeans. But I usually wear what I want in the end. It is important to me to look good and be in fashion. I will elicit the meaning from the text: to speak angrily to someone, telling them that I disagree with them. After giving the meaning, it is good to ask some concept checking question: 1. Is arguing with others a good behavior or bad behavior? Bad. 2. If I accept your idea and say that you are right, am I arguing with you? No. For pronunciation, I would write on the board: /???gju?/ , show the stress, model and drill it , and mention it that we don’t pronounce the r in Argue . Encourage This word is reasonably common and useful for students and their daily lives. To elicit the meaning of the word I would suggest: I buy little things for my little sister to _____ her to say please and thank you. Can you complete the sentence? Students would then respond: …encourage So what does it mean? Elicit the meaning: to make someone more likely to do something. Form: what kind of word is it? A noun, verb, adjective? It is a verb. Write on the board: /?n?k?r?d?/, shows that Encourage is pronounce /?/ and use hand to show the stress. I would then model and drill the word to ensure that every learner gets the meaning. Independent Independent is a word which is useful for students and their lives. To ensure that the students understand the words fully, the students will have to state its meaning. I will then confirm the meaning: not wanting or needing anyone else to help you or do things for you. Use the word in the sentence: She is so proud, and independent woman. Then, elicit the form of it, which is an adjective. Write the word on the board, and show the stress /??nd??pend?nt/, model and drill the word for clarification. Bibliography Byrne, D. 1988. Teaching Oral Skills. London; Pearson Education Ltd. Nolasco, R. 1987. Conversation. Oxford; OUP. Gairns, R & Redman, S. 1986. Working with Words. Cambridge; CUP. Harmer, J. 2007. How to Teach English. London; Pearson Education Ltd. Kelly, G. 2000. 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