A Brief Look at the False Idea of the English Language as Perfect and Unchanging - Essay Example

English is imperfect and constantly changing: Introduction: Necessity is the mother of invention. In the beginning of this world, people used to communicate with each other using signs, expressions and symbols since they did not know any language. Gradually, they started to develop words and assign them meanings. This process of word development and connection continued and resulted in the invention of a language. Man traveled across the world, and explored unvisited areas. Due to the lost connection with his ancestors, he invented a new language unknown to his ancestors to communicate with his partners. This way, different languages emerged in different areas all over the world. But every time a language was created in some area, the creators were influenced by the nature and culture prevailing in that area. Different areas in the world are blessed by nature with different natural resources, weathers and cultures. Other than fundamental human needs like air, water, food and shelter, human needs vary from place to place. They are influenced by the social norms and trends prevailing in a particular area. These social trends and cultures vary not only from place to place, but also from time to time. Every new era brings new inventions, trends and cultures along with it. Old things keep being modified and new things keep being developed with the spread of knowledge and literature. Likewise, languages vary not only in different parts of the world, but also different generations of a race. There are a lot of new-age inventions that young children are fully aware of and are completely unknown to their ancestors. Increase in development of industries and factories has opened employment opportunities for everybody which has led to urbanization. In the modern world, people need to be constantly inter-connected to keep up with the rapid changes in the dynamic mood of the modern world. Frequent communication among individuals is necessary in order to facilitate one another. That is why it is hard to imagine an individual not possessing a mobile in the today’s world. To facilitate frequent communication, new accents supporting quicker delivery of words have emerged. In addition to that, words have been modified / shortened in a way that would facilitate quick delivery and text writing. Various substitutes are universally known nowadays for words used in everyday language. Mobiles have made it very cheap and easy to communicate through text-messages. In order to save time, slangs are used for words to cut-short the writing time. English is a universal language and is spoken nearly everywhere. Majorly all communication, be it in the form of text or words takes place in English. Therefore, this is one of the languages, most affected by changing times. English is thus, like other languages , not perfect and is changing constantly. Review: English language today is quite different from the way it used to be some thousand years ago. The concept of perfect English should be disregarded in that like other languages, English has always been influenced by changing cultures and societies. So if a thing keeps being modified again and again, can we say it was perfect at one point in time? Today a variety of English exists varying from department to department. In mobile text messages and internet chatting, “you” is written as “u” and “are” is written as “r”, whereas one cannot imagine such a literature from the books that could give the author this much leverage. Text in books is written in proper English, and words are written fully and linked sensibly. People’s liking for fashion and innovation can be counted as the major reasons for their urge to see a change in language. With the latest discoveries and inventions, people’s liking and disliking have altered and this has affected their cultures and indirectly their language. “Both experience and research shows that learning grammatical terms and completing grammar exercises have little effect on the way students use language.” (Williams, 1999). There are many factors that have aided the modification and changing of English language. One such factor is wrong pronunciation of words, and people’s acceptance of the same. A lot of people are observed uttering “nothing” as “nuffin”. They think incorporation of these substitutes for proper words lends a sense of style to the speech. Pinker, 1994 notes in his book that declining educational standards and pop culture have played a great role in ruining our nation and converted us into functional illiterates. According to Pinker, we are using the language carelessly confusing lie and lay. In addition to this, word pronunciation and language are also affected by the mood and nature of people that generally are homogeneous within one culture but change abruptly in another culture. This is the reason why people get recognized as belonging to their respective societies when they are away from their hometowns, even when the language of people in both places is the same. “The meaning associated with a word can vary from language to language and culture to culture.” (Zsoldos, 2010). English spoken in UK is way different from the English spoken in USA. Analysis: Teachers should encourage their students to learn grammar correctly, and try to inculcate a sense of respect for grammatically correct sentence construction in the students’ approach toward learning language. The responsibility of teaching correct language so that it lives over generations, rests majorly on the shoulders of those who teach it. Therefore, teachers need to be very conscious about knowing correct grammar themselves before they decide to teach others. Cowan, 2008 expressed in his book that there are two types of English language-learning environments, EFL and ESL. EFL stands for English as Foreign Language and ESL stands for English as Second Language. He noted that in the ESL language-learning environment, there is a trend of speaking English outside the class along with within the class, where as in EFL language-learning process, since English is considered as a foreign language, therefore it is not spoken except in the class. The type of problems students face in learning to speak English is influenced by the type of learning environment prevailing in their system. A teacher should be capable of adapting himself to the learning culture of the organization and focus on perceiving and eliminating confusions arising as a result of that environment to facilitate learning of language correctly. There is a general perception that if one can speak the language correctly, one can teach the same correctly. This is a false perception. There are a number of ways, words can be linked to construct sentences. Some of them are difficult for a teacher to justify grammatically, if he is not equipped with a sound knowledge of the grammar. Literature is presented way formally in the books as compared to the style in which it appears on the internet. If the teacher wants his students to learn the language in the right way, students should be encouraged to read more of books to learn about something than browse the internet for the same. Recently, I came across an essay written by one of my students. The child wrote,” Mummy, I’m gonna start reading today, won’t ya help me with it.” This is a very severe blow on the integrity of literature, and it is the responsibility of the teachers to stop the children from indulging in such practices. That sentence should have been like, ”Mummy, I am going to start reading today, will you not help me with it?” such mistakes if left uncorrected, can prove a hurdle in the way of constant maintenance of universally accepted writing standards in the writing industry. Conclusion: English like other languages is imperfect and constantly changing. It is influenced by people’s mindset and how important it is to them to speak the language correctly. Although, the writing industry has been maintaining a standard which compels the writer to use the language properly, yet a lot needs to be done to inculcate a respect for correct language in the speech. References: Cowan, R., (2008). “The Teacher's Grammar of English: A Course Book and Reference Guide”. USA: Cambridge University Press. Page-1. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://books.google.com/books?id=WCCk829jmzUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=teacher's+grammar+books&hl=En&cd=2#v=onepage&q=teacher's%20grammar%20books&f=false. Pinker, S., (1994). “The language instinct: how the mind creates language”. New York: Harper Collins. Chapter-12, ( The Language Mavens), Page-382. Williams, J., (1999). “The teachers' grammar book.” Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate. Chapter-1. Page-6.  Zsoldos, L., (2010). “How language and culture affect the meanings of words”. Retrieved March 9, 2010, from http://www.helium.com/items/629100-how-language-and-culture-affect-the-meanings-of-words. Read More