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.