Morphology

ELE3103: ENGLISH FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Topic 3   : Morphology  

Reflection          

            In this topic, we have learnt about morphemes, allomorphs, word structure and word formation processes. From this topic, I understand about morphemes and word structure but I still confuse about allomorphs and word formation processes.

            Morpheme is the minimal unit of grammatical analysis or function. The example of morphemes are un+happy and un+believe+able. There are two types of morphemes which are bound morphemes and free morphemes. Morphemes can be produce by adding the prefix, suffix or affix at the root word. Free morpheme is a word that can stand on its own and has a grammatical function. While, bound morpheme is unable to function as a free standing word. For example,

Free morpheme	Bound morpheme
Angle Infra	Un Ation

            I also understand about the inflectional morpheme and derivational morpheme. Inflectional morpheme is an affix used to change form and function only from the grammatical point with no change in part of speech of the word while derivational morpheme is used to make further new words. For example,

Inflectional morpheme	Derivational morpheme
Walk-walks	Adjective            Noun - able            ability
Walk-walking	Noun                  Verb – accept          acceptance

For the allomorphs I quite confuse. It refers to a variant of a morpheme. For example, the past tense morpheme “ed” with 3 allomorphs:

Walked

Doubled

Ended  

            Besides, words are classified according to their functional possibilities with other words in a sentence. There are 2 types of free morphemes in word structure which are major words and minor words.

major words(open class items)	minor words(closed class items)
Nouns	Conjunctions
Verbs	Prepositions
Adverbs	Articles
Adjectives	Pronouns
	Auxiliary verbs

            I also learn about 8 morphological processes to form or expand words. There are affixation, compounding, reduplication, clipping, acronymy, blending, onomatopoeia and antonomasia.  Reduplication and blending is hard to find the example. So, I search the example in the internet. Then I manage to understand the process. For this topic, we have conducted a language games on word formation in a group. There 4 members in a group. Our language game is “Make word fun”. It was a game to form a word by adding suffix, prefix and affix to the root word. But it was not so interesting because it does not challenge student’s thinking. We need to make the game more exciting and challenging by make it competition.

            From this topic, I realize that morpheme is the smallest unit to form a sentence. It is important for students to master the morpheme before they learn to make a sentence. I also realize that are many ways to form or expand words. We can use introduce the ways to students to form words.

Introduction to Phonology

ELE3103: ENGLISH FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Topic 2   : Introduction to Phonology

Reflection

            From this topic, I have studied about speech organs and the English sounds. I just realize that we have 15 organs speech. There are lips, teeth, alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvular, pharynx, and blade of the tongue, front of the tongue, back of the tongue, epiglottis, wind pipe, food passage, vocal cords and larynx. It is important to take care of our organs speech because without one or more organ speech, we cannot pronoun a word correctly.

            As we know, children learn pronunciation by imitation. A teacher should pronouns the words with correct pronunciation so that the children will pronoun the words correctly. The teacher must master the phonetic which is the study of sounds made by humans when they talk. They also need to know and studied about phonetic script and phonemes.  Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound in a language which carries distinctive meaning. For example,

/p/, /g/ and /s/.

There are 3 production processes that will produce speech which are initiation, phonation and articulation. To know more about these processes, I have read the Kuiper et. al. (1996), An Introduction to English Language: Sound, Word and Sentence, page 29-38.

            Then, we learnt about the English sounds which are vowel sounds and consonants. The consonants of English can be described according where they are produced and how they are produced. There are two types of consonants which are voiced consonants and voiceless consonants. Voiced consonants are produce when the vocal cords are held tightly so that the air stream vibrates them. The vibration of the vocal cords can be felt externally by lightly touching the voice box by finger-tip. While, the voiceless consonants are produce when there are no vibration at the vocal cords.

Meanwhile, vowel is a sound without detectable change in quality from beginning to end. The sounds are produced where there is no friction or stoppage of air and the sound are determine to the position of the tongue and the shape of the lips.

There are 2 types of vowels which are simple vowels and diphthongs. It also can be classified as short vowels, reduced or semi–lax vowels and long vowels.

Short vowels	EI, A, AE, UH, AH, OH	PIT, HEN, PAT, CUT, TUB, POT
Reduced or semi–lax vowels	ER	AGO
Long vowels	EE, AR, UU, OO, ER ,AR ,OR	FEE, MOO, TAUGHT

Diphthongs are referring to 2 vowels that merge into one. It means they are represents by two vowel symbols but counted as one unit. They have continually moving tongue shape and changing sound quality. I have problem in mastering the phonemes. I do not know the sound of the phonemes. Fortunately, Madam Ira Sandhu has given us the software of phonetic. From the software, I learn the phonemes better.

From this topic, we are required to perform a Tongue Twister competition. There are four members in a group. After discussing, we have chosen 3 tongue twisters which are short, medial and long. From the comment by Madam Ira Sandhu, we can pronoun the words correctly but the first tongue twister is not so good. We need to practice more to make it perfect.

 To conclude, teachers have to be good role models for pronunciation so that students will learn pronunciation correctly. It is important to pronoun the word correctly because when be pronoun it wrongly, it will make a new meaning or not meaningful at all.

Language and communication

ELE3103: ENGLISH FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Topic 1   : Language and communication

Reflection

For topic one which is language and communication, we have studied about language and communication. From this topic, I realize that without language there is no communication. Language is very important in our life. It refers to a code that allows us to represent ideas and thoughts by means of sounds or letters. The code has complex symbols with internal structure which is rule-governed.

            Each word of a language is a symbol which has a sequence of sounds or letters that has a particular meaning. For example,

LANGUAGE	WORD
ENGLISH	Watermelon
MALAY	Tembikai
IBAN	Semangka

“Watermelon”, “Tembikai” and “Semangka” have a same meaning but different in sounds or letters.

There are some words that cannot be translated into another language. For example,

LANGUAGE	WORD	MEANING
MALAY	Nasi lemak	Malay’s tradisional food.
IBAN	Pansuh	Food that are cook in bamboo.

           

“Nasi lemak” and “Pansuh” are untranslatable word because it cannot be translate into another language.

            The study of language is referring to linguistics. It is about phonology, morphology and syntax. From this topic, we know that linguistic symbols have function and form. When words are put together, they will form phrases and sentences which have a structure. For example,

Word	Word
Adin	sings.
Subject	Verb

In this sentence, Adin is noun and function as subject and sings is verb that is form in present.

Besides, linguistic units are constructed according to rules. This means words that are put together must put in suitable part in sentence to make it meaningful. For example,

My mother is cooking in the kitchen.

 

Subject          Verb             Object

Furthermore, language use is creative. As we know, the rules of language allow us to put words together in many different ways. Some words that we put together in a creative way will form a poem. During our class, our lecturer had asked us to form a short poem. I have created a short form in my mother tongue entitled “Mum”.

Besides that, language use is constrained by culture. When we hang out with our friends, we usually use mother tongue or our own language but when we have a meeting or a formal occasion, we normally used formal language. I also realize that language can be affect by culture. For example, English language in Malaysia is affected by Malaysian culture. Manglish is one the example.

I don’t know lah.                     Affected by Malay language, lah.

I don’t know lor.                      Affected by Chinese language, lor.

Then, we proceed to subtopic “communication”. Communication is a 2 way process between 2 parties which is sender and receiver of message. There are two types of communication which are non-vocal communication and vocal communication. Vocal communications also have 2 types which are non-speech communication and speech communication. Non-vocal communication refers to modes of communication which send messages to the recipient with no voice involved. For example,

Visual	Staring, winking, blinking
Tactile	Shaking hands
Olfactory	Twitching nose
Kinetic	Hugging

 On the other hand, non-speech communication refers to any kind of communication which uses the vocal cords but with no speech. For example,

Physiological reflexes	Yawns, coughs
Emotion markers	Sighs, sobs
Voice quality differences	Raised voice, whisper
Paralinguistic effects	Laughter, humming.

            To conclude, language and communication are related closely. We communicate with other people with language and sometimes we also can communicate with special way such as purposeful coughs. As a future teacher, I need to master language before teach our students.