...1998(2), 18-23 APPROACHES TO DIGLOSSIA IN THE CLASSROOM: THE MIDDLE WAY David Deterding INTRODUCTION The concept of diglossia was developed by Ferguson (1959). It describes a situation where two languages or language varieties occur side by side in a community, and each has a clear range of functions. One of these varieties, the Hvariety (standing for 'High'), is adopted as the standard variety and is used in official situations, such as government broadcasts, religious services, and teaching; and the other, the L-variety (for 'Low'), is used in informal situations, such as local markets and conversations between friends. The focus of this article is to discuss how the concept of diglossia might be appropriate to describe the Singapore English-speaking community, and to consider what approaches can be adopted by teachers towards the use of the L-variety in schools. Examples of diglossia that have been widely quoted are: the Arabic community, where each region has its own colloquial variety, but classical Arabic is still taught in schools and is regarded by many as “more beautiful” and therefore more appropriate for written texts; the Swiss-German community, where all children learn Standard German in schools, and most books and newspapers are in Standard German, but the people continue to use the local Swiss-German dialect on an everyday basis; the Tamil community, where the language taught in classrooms and used in literature is sharply different from the colloquial variety...
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...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE DURING THE DARK AGES ABSTRACT This period extends from about 450 to 1066 A.D. The sources of Old English literature, as we know it, are rooted in their Teutonic origins and were evolved by the spirit that drove the times. In addition to reflecting the violence of the age, however, Old English literature also provides insight into the hearts and souls of a culture that had a strong attachment to nature; where loyalty and honor were more important than life. And for a culture that did not believe in the immortality of the human soul. Beowulf is the oldest and longest known poem of the Old English period. The passionate struggle between Beowulf and the sea monster Grendel is a reflection of the struggle between man and the forces of nature. INTRODUCTION The Medieval Times encompass one of the most turbulent periods in the History of England and scatter the Medieval History books and other historical documents. Middle Ages embraced two quite different periods of literary history, the Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) and the Middle English, sharply divided from each other by the Norman duke William´s conquest of the island in 1066. Both English culture and the English language changed radically in the years following this event, and English literature was given a new spirit. (The Norton Anthology of English Literature) Old English was the West Germanic language spoken in the area now known as England between the 5th and 11th centuries. Anglo-Saxon...
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...Aljazeera and the logo of the network is at the left side of the word, it's noticeable because it's written in a big font size and a special font style. A big network like Aljazeera need for sure to be updated frequently add on the argent news happening must be included in the website, the website has allot of parts and each part talks about a special kind of news for example the wither, sports, and watch live, those areas are a sensitive information's and must be updated as soon as an information is received to the network responsible employees, looking at the website Aljazeera didn’t miss that point at all, the information's are being updated frequently. At first the audience of Aljazeera was just Arab world, but at November 2006 Aljazeera English has been lunched the target audience after that is all the world with its deferent Taste and backgrounds Aljazeera nowadays gives almost all the news that each one around the world would need, it's almost nothing there you are not interested in. Aljazeera has no any obvious bias or slant to the information it has been always with the truth and human rights and it's taking it as a lead to its perfection, actually Aljazeera has an awards proofing that, and it's giving both sides Opinions which is fair enough. There are allot of information's are available in the websites and it could satisfy almost all the videos of the website, actually the website is sectioned in to the type of the news are provided there, and they are news(internationally...
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...English 1020-L22 November 3, 2013 Cultural Analysis-“From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle” “From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle” is an essay written by Min-Zhan Lu, in which she describes the effects, both positive and negative, she experienced while trying to obtain somewhat of a balance, between the learning techniques and language forced on to her and her sisters by their parents, and the education and language taught and enforced by their country, China. Lu describes the emotional strain, confusion, and the political persecution she experienced, beginning at the young, tender age of four years old, the year after the Communist Revolution of 1949. For many years, the only memories Lu had were of the many hardships she faced during the years of getting her education, which made it difficult to recall the benefits of her education. While writing this essay, Lu was forced to reflect over these particular years of her life and the effects it had on her, both good and bad. She finally realized that as hard as it was to endure these hardships, personal benefits resulted from these difficult times as well. Lu explains her revelation by stating, “My understanding of my education was so dominated by memories of confusion and frustration that I was unable to reflect on what I could have gained from it” (148). One of the benefits Lu gained was growth, in both her reading and writing skills, by persevering through the confusion and frustration during that time. ...
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...NEGATIVE LANGUAGE TRANSFER W H E N L E A R N I N G SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE NURIA CALVO CORTÉS Universidad Complutense de Madrid RESUMEN. Este trabajo se centra en la influencia negativa de la transferencia lingüística en el aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua. Está dividido en dos partes: una teórica y un análisis práctico. La primera incluye los distintos aspectos que se tienen que tener en cuanta a la hora de considerar la transferencia lingüística. La segunda analiza distintos ejemplos de transferencia negativa que se han extraído de textos escritos por varios estudiantes británicos que están aprendiendo español. La conclusión mostrará que el análisis de estos errores puede ayudar a predecir algunos de estos errores. PALABRAS CLAVE. Influencia negativa, transferencia lingüística, español como segunda lengua, dos partes: una teórica y un análisis práctico, transferencia negativa, predecir errores. ABSTRACT. This paper focuses on the negative influence of Language Transfer on the learning process Spanish as an L2. It is divided into two main parts; a theoretical one and a practical analysis. The former includes the different aspects considering language transfer, whereas the latter analyses different mistakes due to negative transfer, which have been taken form texts written by several British students when learning Spanish. The conclusion will show that the analysis of these mistakes may help predict some of these mistakes. KEY WORDS. negative influence,...
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...ADVANTAGES OF THE TRIBUNAL SPEED-tribunal cases are highly regarded and most times initially attended to in court, and are frequently arranged on, within a day or two. They are constantly defined on how long can a person wait before their case can be heard and decided upon so that the person do not have to be going back and forth. COST-in the tribunal system cost are quite reasonable as fined can be divided into halves so that the defendant do not have to pay the whole sum of money. and sometimes one can always represent themselves without the aid of authorised officials. INFORMALITY-it is a bit different from law courts as in law courts wigs and gowns are worn but in this system judiciary dresses as normal everyday worker so it does not create an intimidating atmosphere for people without legal advisors. flexibility SPECIALISATION-tribunal members have all got a speciality in a specific subject area, and through sitting on tribunals are able to build up depth of knowledge of that area that judges in ordinary court could not hope to match. RELIEF WORK OVERLOAD FROM COURT-it reduces the number of cases sent to the main court as they deal with also important cases and the courts are not overloaded. AWARENESS OF POLICY-the tribunal members because of their expertise are likely to understand the policy behind legislation in their area, and often have large discretionary power in their to use. PRIVACY-members of the tribunal most times meets in privacy so that they do not...
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...these assessments so that they can pursue their child’s strengths and help them with the weaknesses. The data that these assessments provide is also used by the school administrators. It shows them the improvement of not only the students but also the teachers that is needed for state and federal levels, which determine if more funding is needed to aide students with their learning and achievements. The majority of students born and raised in the United States can easily understand the English language. However, there are the select few that do not speak English because it is not their dominate language that they use at home, so these students require assessments that will enable them to pick up the English language. Getting these students to pick up the language can be an extremely hard task for teachers. In 2001 the No Child Left Behind Act states that students should be tested in many different subject areas no matter what their level of ability to speak or understand English. The state and school districts are held responsible for the information the students are learning and ensuring that they being taught the correct standards. There have since been assessments set to evaluate student achievements and how they are doing when it comes to comprehending...
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...Why do we teach English? On his article “What is the second most useful language?” of May 29, 2013, Michael Skapinker, an Assistant Editor and Columnist at the Financial Times tells about this anecdote that he had: “The day before I was due to interview a leading French industrialist some years ago, I got a call from his press officer to discuss the arrangements. At the end of the conversation, she said: ‘By the way, the interview will be in French.’ I spent the afternoon in London anxiously preparing and rehearsing my questions. Switching on my recorder in the great man’s office in Paris the next day, I asked what language he wanted to use. ‘English,’ he said.” He refers to the fact that French used to be the language studied by international people, but that changed many years ago. About the French scientists’ language preferences at work he says: “In (an)… essay, the…Institut national d’études démographiques says the younger generation of French researchers and scientists regards the language question as solved: English is the language in which they work…English is unquestionably the world’s research language, almost 90 per cent of those born between 1985 and 1989 feel this way.” Elsewhere in the same article, Skapinker, as a writer for a financial magazine, also talks about the importance of the Chinese economy and the usefulness that their language (Mandarin) may have in the future. However, he also tells about the hard experiences that underwent the few...
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...American Ethnic Literature ENG/301 April M Lee October 15, 2012 Dr .Greg Beatty Literature came about many decays ago we use Literature to define the genre: humor, poetry, drama, plays, science- fiction and more. You also can use literature for was the ethnicity reason such as; French literature, and English literature and many more other ethnicity. In this paper I am going to talk about the American ethnic literature, American literature American, literary canon and many more different topics. American ethnic literature is a difficult subject to define because there is no single ethnic type of American when it comes to talking about the American ethic literature in this world. Americans are all made up from the people, who came to the United States. We as American makes the ethnicity part of literature by combine the different culture from all over the states. During the found of the nations there were a lot of groups of immigrants that had come to add their talent to our country. (Ethnic American Literature, 2000) The Irish was the largest group that had came in the early part of the 1800s. The Asia brought the culture over around the 1960s to share their talent and beliefs. All of them came together by bring their different skills, way they be thinking and beliefs to show everyone how they was different from the mainstream of the Americans, and by challenging different...
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...English Language Forrest Partlow Unemployment HUMA215 Unit 2 Individual Project October 20, 2013 English Language I am choosing to use the English language of Britain for this paper mainly because I can speak it, read it, and understand it. Well modern English I can speak, read, and understand. I was in the Navy for 12 years. My job in the navy was a Hospital Corpsman. In the medical field we still use a lot of words that have Latin origins. This is the same generally speaking of the early English language. English broke into three categories when we are speaking about the history of the English language. There is Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. I think it funny how in the 1990’s everyone wanted tattoos of their own name on them in Old English. It is funny because if they actually tried to read some Old English they would have a hard time making any words out. So the beginning of the English language is Old English and it was developed by people of the Germanic tribes migrated to Britain. This happened before the 12th century. It had a lot of Latin, French, and Old Norse influence. While if you read it you may figure out a few words it is very different from today’s spoken language. You would know such words as he, him, for and some others. You could figure out such words as name, was, were, and come, these are just some examples. From the 12th century on into the 15th...
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...Puritans Aspirations of a Model Society Chelsea J. Austin Ms. K. L Gooden, instructor APUSH Fall- 113 Sumter Central High School November 1, 2013 Brainstorm Puritans: Puritans were a religious group Separated from the Church of England Thought that the Church of England in their eyes was corrupt Wanted to purify the Church of England were single-minded visionaries convinced of the rightness of their beliefs were practical and businesslike persecuted for their beliefs and fled England for Holland and, ultimately, for North America Many historians feel that the Puritan ethics of thrift, hard work, and self – sufficiency contributed to the success of the New World. Aspirations of a Puritan Model Society: Peaceful environment Entirely focus on God and do his will Strong community Outline Introductory Sentence: Puritans came from New England in the seventeenth century with hopes of creating a model society. Thesis Statement: Their aspirations for a model society consisted of making a strong community, peaceful environment, and a society focused solely on glorifying God and doing his will. Introduction: Puritans came from New England in the seventeenth century with hopes of creating a model society. They came trying to escape the religious persecution of New England and the corruption of the Church of England. Puritans attempted to establish a utopian society that would thrive from honoring God's laws...
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...ANXIETY AND SPEAKING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE AMONG MALE AND FEMALE BUSINESS STUDENTS IN UNIVERSITI INDUSTRI SELANGOR Ayu Rita Bt Mohamad and Nadhia Dalila Bt Ab Wahid Industrial University of Selangor Jln Timur Tambahan, 456000 Bestari Jaya E-mail: ayurita@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study explores the nature and anxiety of speaking English as a second language among male and female Business Degree students in Industrial University of Selangor (Unisel), Berjuntai Bestari, Selangor. This study attempts to identify potential sources of anxiety relevant to the students’ affective needs or concerns in an institution of higher learning through the use of an in-depth qualitative questionnaire. As the pre-administered questionnaire findings indicate, the differences in the level of language anxiety exhibited by the participants seem to vary by gender. Using various studies by previous researchers of language anxiety as a theoretical guideline for data collection and analysis, this study also discusses some of the influences or impact of anxiety-provoking factors on second language learning, along with some implications for further research on language anxiety. 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Anxiety is a negative way to present human feelings. When we are anxious, we feel nervous, worried, and fearful. We struggle, tremble, perspire, and our hearts beat quickly. In general, anxiety can be defined as a complex concept dependent upon not only on one’s feelings of selfefficacy...
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...RUNNING HEAD: Language-Acquisition Theories Language-Acquisition Theories Kayla Whitacre ESL 433N 10/10/2013 Language-Acquisition Theories Language acquisition is crucial for all students- especially for students whose native language is not English. The English language contains words that have many different and unrelated definitions, and many phrases that, when taken literally, are confusing and frustrating. In order for those students to be able to flourish in their academic careers, they must be able to collectively achieve reading comprehension as well as an understanding of figurative language. "Bridging Two Worlds: Reading Comprehension, Figurative Language Instruction, and the English-Language Learner" is an article about bringing reading comprehension and figurative language instruction together in the minds of English Language Learners (ELLs). However, that is not all that this article is about. It is also about bridging the ELL’s understanding of their native language with the English language in order for the ELL student to succeed in their language acquisition both socially and academically. The best way for this to happen is for the teacher to teach explicit instruction to the ELL student. In explicit or direct instruction, the instruction is teacher centered and highly structured (Palmer & Brooks, 2004). The teacher must first model the thinking process that is required in order to comprehend the words and phrases and also the procedures involved...
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...Should English Be the Official Language of the United States? Timothy Robinson Week 8 Assignment English 215 Official English benefits every resident of this wonderful place called America. The country works-because we have a common language. English is the key to opportunity in this country. It empowers immigrants and could make us truly united as a people. Common sense says that the government should teach people English rather than provide services in multiple languages. What would happen if our government had to provide services for about 311 languages spoken in the U.S. (Rhein, 2007)? Without a common language, how long would we remain the United States? Here is a solution to that, have the immigrants to learn the language so they can get all of the services they need. But from a social standpoint, English should not be and official language. Millions of people speak a language other than English. The United States is the most diverse country in the world. So why would we want to create a linguistically uniform nation? For starters, it would not be fair to people who has moved this country for hope of a better life. Yes eventually they would have to learn English; however it would great if others learn how to speak other languages to make it convenient for everyone, it would show that people are really for diversity, and it would limit the frustration of not understanding what a person is saying. People who cannot or do not speak English well often are look over...
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...Persuasive letter University of Phoenix Healthy Communities: Theory and Practice John Marshall NUR 405 February 13, 2012 To the Editor, For the last 10 years I have practiced as a Registered Nurse and have also been a resident or our community. I feel that there is a significant amount of language barriers in our community and the language barriers between Hispanic and Caucasian populations have continued to delay needed healthcare services. There has also been an undue burden placed on the community due to an increase in tax payer dollars because of a lack of insurance. I believe that in our community we could use wasted tax dollars in other areas, decrease hospitalizations, and increase tax dollars. The frustration of being misunderstood when trying to communicate is something that everyone has experienced. It is a very helpless and frustrating feeling and when on vacation we have all experienced this communication breakdown. Imagine this same frustration and helplessness when you are unable to receive the correct healthcare or because of a language barrier you were unable to understand the medical professionals and could not follow through with your own treatment. Many of the hospitals in our area feel that by providing an interpreter there will always be clear communication between the staff and patients. This is not so. We deal with many different cultures on a daily basis and are hard to communicate effectively. The words we use can...
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