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English Detective #29, Two Aspects of Language: Dec.31,2013 December 30, 2013 |
#29, Two Aspects of Language
What is language used for? Think of the many aspects of language: an expression of culture and identity, a set of sounds and symbols, a way to communicate meaning, a way to connect with people. Consider this short, eloquent plea from Dubai English teacher Patricia Ryan to appreciate other languages and not create unnecessary barriers to sharing ideas just because someone hasn’t mastered English. She asks how much the world might have lost if Einstein had to pass the TOEFL exam to enter the U.S. (!) She talks about the value of children being able to understand the language of their grandparents, so they can learn from them. She also mentions the tragedy of languages disappearing, along with the cultural knowledge they express. Then listen to a Voice of America English pronunciation lesson on the stresses and rhythms that help make thoughts clear. It describes the way English speakers divide sentences into thought groups and stress (emphasize) certain syllables. Pauses, stress, and tone help make speech easier to understand. They also express feelings and attitudes. English teacher Lida Baker suggests using ‘tracking’ to recognize and practice thought groups and sentence stress. Tracking is repeating what you hear one or two syllables or beats behind the speaker. (Links to both talks are just below the vocabulary section.) To practice, try tracking Patricia Ryan’s short TED talk after listening to it once. (I tried it. It’s not too hard…) You could also track a VOA Learning English or news recording. If you like to sing, find a song in English and sing along. At the end of the newsletter are links to two more pages that you might enjoy. First is a page from BBC’s Learning English about Nelson Mandela. (I found it while trying to verify the quote below—so fitting for the topic of this newsletter!) There is also a page with some ideas for starting the new year right (if you weren’t getting English Detective last January.) Happy New Year!
Your First Clue: Vocabulary Emphasized in this Issue
Review vocabulary: clause, guidelines, prohibited, sole, stress. A Few Notes about the Vocabulary:
A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. Independent clauses can be complete sentences, but dependent clauses cannot. Examples of dependent clauses: “Although the cat ran fast,” “Even if she wins,” “Students who read a lot,” or “When your family leaves.” All of these thoughts are incomplete, and leave the reader wondering. (What? or what happened, or might happen?) They need an independent clause to finish the thought: “Although the cat ran fast, the dog caught it.” “Even if she wins, she will not be happy.” “Students who read a lot learn more vocabulary.” “When your family leaves, we are going to bed!” Clauses are thought groups, so we naturally pause at the end of each of them. To ‘stress’ means to put emphasis or pressure on something. (“That test really stressed me out!” “Maybe it would have been less stressful if you had started to study earlier!”) Stress can also be a noun meaning tension or pressure. (“Stress can cause or aggravate many health problems. Health providers need to teach patients how to handle pressure and limit the stresses in their lives.”) “In English sentences, we stress the more important words— usually nouns and verbs, but also adjectives if they are important to the meaning.” In the preceding sentence, we would probably stress (emphasize) ‘stress,’ ‘important,’ ‘nouns,’ ‘verbs,’ ‘adjectives,’ ‘important,’ and ‘meaning.’ However, if we were comparing English with other languages, ‘English’ would get the heaviest stress.) ‘The,’ ‘a’ or ‘an,’ are usually unstressed. Follow the Clues (More on Language—and Language Resolutions
for the New Year):
Click here for some background on Nelson Mandela. Start the new year off right! A note if you get gmail: Have you missed any issues of English Detective? If you find English Detective in your Promotions box, you can move it to your Primary box (if you want) by clicking on it and dragging it there. Then click Yes when asked if you want to always get it in the Primary box. Coming in the next issue: How computers understand language (or don’t!) P.S. If youare not already getting English Detective, you can subscribe by completing the form here. (It's free!) |
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