Thursday, 11 September 2014
ESSAY - ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
English is an
international language, spoken in many countries both as a native and as a
second or foreign language. It is taught in the schools in almost every country
on this earth. It is a living and vibrant language spoken by over 300 million
people as their native language. Millions more speak it as an additional
language. English is spoken habitually in the United
States, the British Isles, Ireland,
Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, the Republic
of South Africa, Liberia, and many territories under the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
It is estimated that 300 million people speak English as a second language, and
an additional 100 million people use it fluently as a foreign language. As a
rough estimate, 1000 million or one billion people around the world have some
knowledge of English, either as a native language, as a second language, or as
a foreign language. English is the associate official language of India which has
over 1000 million (over billion) people. Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and many other
nations which were ruled by Britain
continue to use English both as an optional medium of instruction in their
schools and as one of their official languages. The islands of the Philippines
continue to use English as an important tool for education, administration, and
for mass media purposes. English is the chief foreign language taught in the
schools of Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
Even though some nations which were ruled by the French continue to teach
French as their most preferred second language, English is gaining ground even
in these countries. In the former Soviet Union,
Russian was the dominant language. Since the break of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian Republics
have been rapidly introducing English in their school system as a second or
foreign language. In Russia
itself, English is gaining ground as the most popular second language. In Japan too,
English is the most favored second or foreign language. Outside Europe, English is the predominant language of
international commerce. Although the United Nations and its various agencies
have more than one language for transaction, more often than not, English comes
to be chosen as the preferred language of communication between the participating
member-nations. All this has happened within the last one hundred years. The
ascendancy of English as the most preferred language began two hundred years
ago with the colonization of North America, Asia, and Africa by Britain. The
Industrial Revolution in Britain, its ever-expanding maritime power,
development of material wealth, progress in scientific research and consequent
power, all helped the spread of English, even as Britain marched as a great
empire. In the Sixteenth Century, English was spoken mostly in England, southern Scotland,
and small areas of Wales and
Ireland.
There were only about two to three million people speaking it as their native
language. At present one in seven in this world speaks English either as a
native language or as a second language. English was well established as the
dominant language in North America in the 17th
Century. But its rapid growth was in the 19th Century. Latin was the main
medium of education in Western Europe
throughout the middle Ages. French was the language of diplomacy for four
centuries, from the 17th to 20th. And yet, at present there is not a single
language which can be compared to the position occupied by English as the
international language. This is so, even though more people in the world speak
Chinese than English as their native language. Spanish may claim a large number
of native speakers, but neither Spanish, nor French, nor Russian, nor Chinese
can even come close to the level and variety of uses to which English is put in
the world. English is learned everywhere because people have found out that
knowledge of English is a passport for better career, better pay, advanced
knowledge, and for communication with the entire world. English is also learned
for the literature it possesses, and for the variety and rich experience it
provides. English has replaced French as the language of diplomacy. In this
computer age, English is bound to expand its domains of use everywhere.
Everyone wants to appropriate English as their own. In the Indian subcontinent,
English became the dominant language of communication among the educated
classes after the famous Minute of Lord Macaulay in 1833. For an insightful
discussion on the progress of English as the dominant language of communication
among the educated classes in India.
English belongs
to the Indo-European family of languages. Within this family, English is a
member of the Germanic branch. The Germanic branch may be divided into three
groups or subdivisions: East Germanic which consisted of Gothic, now an extinct
language; North Germanic under which we include the Scandinavian languages; and
West Germanic which consists of High German, Low German, Frisian and English.
Three tribes settled in England.
These were the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons. The Angles came from Denmark, the Saxons were from Holstein
in the south, and the Jutes were from the north. These and the Frisian were worshipers of Linguistic and religious associations between these tribes
resulted in a bundle of related dialects, which we presently call English
English as an additional language (EAL) is usually based on the standards
of either American English or British English as well as incorporating foreign
terms. English as an international language (EIL) is EAL with emphasis on learning
different major dialect forms; in particular, it aims to equip students with
the linguistic tools to communicate internationally
Basic Global English, or BGE, is a concept of global English initiated by
German linguist Joachim Grzega. It evolved from the idea of creating a type of
English that can be learned more easily than regular British or American
English and that serves as a tool for successful global communication. BGE is
guided by creating "empathy and tolerance" between speakers in a
global context. This applies to the context of global communication, where
different speakers with different mother tongues come together. BGE aims to
develop this competence as quickly as possible.
Thursday, 4 September 2014
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Cartoons and comics as instructional materials in English Teaching
Assignment
Topic:-
Cartoons and comics as instructional materials
in English Teaching
Name: Karthika M K
Reg No: 13379010
Introduction
Cartoon
is defined as a comic or satirical drawing commenting on current events. In modern
print media, a cartoon is a piece of art, usually humours in intent. The person
who draws cartons is called cartoonist.
A good cartoon
can convey information more clearly and sharply than words can do. It
successfully discloses the weaknesses, hidden agendas of politicians, rulers,
other persons at the helm. Cartoons exercise far reaching impact on the people.
It has crucial roles in forming public opinion.
Both drawing and interpreting
cartoons need good comprehension of the situation. Cartoon drawing improves one’s
knowledge comprehension, imagination, creative power, wit and sense of humour. As a form of art and a mode of communication,
cartoon is indeed powerful and sharply pointed. It injures cures and heals. It
is a pleasurable disturbance or disturbing pleasure.
The use of comics
in education is based on the concept of creating engagement and motivation for students.
The effectiveness of comics as medium for effective learning and development
has been the subject of debate since the origin modern comic book in the 1930s.Sones
in 1944 notes that comics “evoked more than a hundred critical articles in
educational and non professional periodicals”.
The use of
comics in education would later attract the attention of Fredric Werthan who
noted that the use of comics in education represented “an all-time low in
American Science”.
It has been
noted that the use of a narrative form such as a comic “can foster pupils interest”
and help students to remember what they have learnt and providing a means of
fostering discussion. However, it has also been noted that many educators
remain “ambivalent” about the use of comic books as an educational tool.
Content
Cartoons
and comics can be used from beginner level to advanced level of variety of
language and discussion activities. Cartoons are powerful teaching tools and
can:-
- Tell a complex story in a few images
- Provide comment and provoke thoughts on events and issues in the news
- Give can example of vocabulary related to current trends and facts.
- Provide easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches.
- Show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected to behave.
- Comment on and illustrate whole range of issues like racism, teenage, relationships, sexism, ageism, family relationship
Cartoons
For
most of us, children and adults alike cartoons are appealing. We feel we are entering
a dream, a fantasy world, and that we are escaping from everyday reality.
Cartoons are colourful and amusing. They are pure pleasure. Although older folks
may prefer Mickey Mouse or Cinderella over the more modern space war type
younger people seems to like, they are still entertainment that we enjoy.
Therefore, if teachers want to use a cartoon as part of one as a stimulus for
some language activity in the class room we already have the student’s willing attention.
Even with students with whose native language is English using animated
versions of well known stories can give the more unwilling students their first
exposure to literacy classics and perhaps even stimulate them to pick up the book
Telling Stories
Cartoons
usually tell a simple story that is easy to follow. Often the good character is
pitted against bad character of the forces of evil and the good always conquers
bad. Because of the length of the typical cartoon, about 5 minutes, the story cannot
get too complicated. Even the 20 – 25 minute cartoon story usually has a simple
plot that can be exploited for the classroom use, particularly if it is broken
down into scenes. The full length is too long to show at one sitting. Our job
is not to entertain students but to give them opportunities to use and improve
their English. If we have a cartoon film we especially like, we can use our
favorite scene or two to spark some language activities in class, and then let
the students watch the rest on their own time in the lab if they are interested
we could really get their interest if we ended on a diff- hanger, a point of suspense.
Language
Although
some animated programs, such as full length film and some TV Programs like the Simpson’s
are aimed also at an adult audience, most shorter cartoons the kind down on
Saturday mornings and weekday afternoon, are aimed at children. The child or
creature characters take in a language the children understand. They use
contractions, elisions, children’s vocabulary, and slang terms. These features,
in addition to the strange voices, add to the language learner’s burden but
they also provide an excellent opportunity for exposure to stang, ordinary street
terms and children’s languages.
Culture
Many
cartoons are particularly rich in cultural content. For example we may see
children considering whether to do something that their parents or teachers
would not approve of ; the children already know what is and is not permitted
in their culture. Or we may see children interacting in school and compare
whether they behave the same way as in our student’s native culture. Better
quality cartoons have a moral and can teach a lesson.
Choosing a cartoon to use in class
Theme: The most obvious reason for using a cartoon in class is
our desire to utilize its Content to teach about a topic. Good cartoon tell a
story and have a moral or lesson to teach. Longer cartoons often present typical
issues such as TV, Violence versus censorship or the legal reception of cable
TV, so, like other genres, the video can be part of a set of materials on a topic.
A pointless cartoon or the usual mouse – outsmarts- cat variety probably does
not have enough intelligence to come to school.
Language: Despite silent viewing for prediction or dialogue activities,
we usually use a video for its language to provide students with listening
input. Some cartoons contain mostly action and have very little dialogue voices
combined with sound effects that further obscure clarity.
Comics
The use of comic
for educational purpose in printed form, began in the USA in the middle of the 20th
century and this trend expanded world wide in the forth coming years. As experts
argue comics could be a powerful educational media school community is the
exploration of the educational use of digital comics in authentic school
environments.
The scope of
this deliverable is to make a literature review of studies that discuss the potential
added value of comics printed and digital form as an educational medium. This
deliverable is the outcome of an in- depth research study which aims at
investigating whether comic can be used in classrooms.
Use of comics in teaching punctuation, paragraphing and outlining
Comics
can be used to teach punctuation for dialogues and use term as an extremely
visual way of getting across the concept of using quotation marks around
narrative texts inside was spoken and needed to be placed in quotation marks.
Comic and
cartoons are an effective way to teach outlining skills, “Using a comic the
students were able to understand that each panel represented a paragraph. The
narrative text at the top became the topic sentence of sorts, communicating the
main idea of the paragraph. The details were found in the visuals and in the
dialogue”.
Teaching literary terms
When
we use comics for teaching literary terms it will be more effective many of today’s
comic rely heavily on allusion, satire, irony and parody to make a point. Making
this connection has strengthened their understanding of terms.
Conclusion
Comics and cartoons
act as motivational tools. They inspire and excite the learner. Comic and
cartoons have universal appeal and most children are familiar with many of
them. Using cartoon helps the teacher develop positive attitude towards
learning what fun is. They could develop basic skills promote creativity and imagination
clarify bias prejudice and exaggeration in the media promote integration of
subject areas and promote group work and discussion.
Reference
Dhand
Harry: Techniques of Teaching, New
Delhi , Ashish Publishing House, 2004
Pahuja
N D: Teaching of English, New Delhi ,
Anmol Publishers, 2001
www. Wikepedia.com
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