THE EFFECT OF USING TABOO GAME TO IMPROVE SPEAKING ABILITY OF TENTH GRADERS IN SMKN 2 MAGETAN
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1. Background of the Study
English Lesson in Vocational High School is put in adaptive Lesson which has a purpose on giving knowledge to the students to be able to communicate in English based on their skill program orally or written. Besides, English Lesson in Vocational High School should provide the students to be able to communicate in daily life and to develop communication in higher level (Standar Isi, 2006). Communication in daily life is related to the speaking ability. Therefore, students are expected to communicate orally in certain kinds of discourse. Speaking as the oral performance allows vocational school students to communicate in English fluently, accurately and confidently in many useful situations in work places as well as in society. Moreover, mastering oral skill is required by students to be proffesional employees or entrepreneurs.
In fact, acquiring speaking ability in the first year of Vocational High School is quite difficult. For example, in SMKN 2 Magetan, the speaking ability of tenth graders is below the average as shown by their English scores. There are some factors that influence students in learning English, especially spaeking ability. The first year in Vocational High School is a transition period from Junior High School. The materials are quite different because since those are customized to be suitable with any vocational context. Another factor is the way of teaching. Since teachers use conventional way of teaching, the activity may not vary so that students are less motivated and getting bored. The speaking activity is dominated by doing the exercises in the textbook, for instance, complete the blank dialogues, rearrange jumbled dialogues, and limited time to perform dialogues. Those kinds of activity do not give chances for students to actively use English in the class.
There are some internal factors that cause students do not practice English and be passive in the classroom. Thoe are lack of vocabulary, difficult in pronouncing words correctly, low ability in grammar, low motivation and self-confidence. Tenth graders in SMKN 2 Magetan still have limited amount of vocabulary since they will get new English vocabularies related to the vocation. They rarely practice to use any English words in the class since they have difficulty in pronouncing words correctly. The ability in grammar influences students’spoken ability since they can not produce sentences which are grammatically correct. Consequently, they are not confident and afraid of making mistakes in speaking. The other factor is students’ low motivation and self-confidence in speaking. The physical barriers could not be overcomed while they practice speaking. Therefore, they are not fully participated in the classroom.
Based on those problems, games can be used in teaching speaking. A language game can be an alternative way which is low anxiety so that student can be relax when learning English. Taboo game can be used to overcome the problems in speaking. Apart from being an enjoyable game, Taboo gives chance to practice speaking (Cervantes, 2009). This game helps students to speak and engages students in the activities. Since Taboo provides fun and excitement to the learning process, students can be relax when practice English. It can be used to low the anxiety. It can liven up the classroom so that students can be more active. This game is flexible since it can be modified to suit with the materials and students’ needs.
2. Research Question
Is there any difference between students who are taught by using Taboo game and those who are taught without using Taboo game?
3. Objective of the Study
To find out whether there is significant difference between students who are taught by using Taboo game and those who are not taught by using Taboo game.
4. Directional Hypothesis
Students who are taught by using Taboo Game will score higher than those who are taught without using Taboo Game.
5. Scope and Limitation
The scope of this study is applying Taboo game to improve tenth graders’ speaking ability in SMK Negeri 2 Magetan. This study is limited to tenth graders of Multimedia and focuses on speaking ability of describing things in the classroom.
6. Definition of Key Terms
Taboo Games : A word guessing game made by the teacher where the partners guess the keyword on the card without using the keyword itself or additional words (taboo words) listed on the card.
Improve : to make a progress from one condition into better condition
Speaking : an ability to use a language actively to express meanings in a form of dialogue about describing things in the classroom.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED STUDY
1. The nature of Speaking
Speaking is the oral mode of communication where the speaker gives information to the listener so that the listener gets the meaning. As stated by Cameron (2001:40), speaking is the active use of language to express meanings so that other people can make sense of them. Speaking skill is more difficult than it seems at first. It involves more than just pronouncing words. According to SIL International (1999), there are three kinds of speaking situations, they are interactive, partially interactive, and non-interactive (SIL International, 1999).
Interactive
The interactive speaking includes face-to-face conversation and telephone calls where people are listening and speaking. The listener has chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower the speech from the speaker.
Partially interactive
Some situations are partially interactive such as giving a speech directly to the audience. The audience will not interupt the speaker. The speaker can see and judge from the expressions and body language whether the audience understood or not.
Non-interactive
Few speaking situations which may be totally non-interactive such as recording a speech for radio broadcast.
2. Teaching Speaking
The oral performance are strongly applied to conversation. Brown (2001) stated that there are six categories of oral production that students are expected to carry out in the classroom, they are imitative, intensive, responsive, transactional dialogue,interpersonal dialogue, and monologue (Brown, 2001).
Imitative
Only a very limited time in speaking class may be spent by students to practice an intonation or a certain vowel sound. This imitation focuses on some particular element of language form, not for the purpose of meaningful interaction.
Intensive
It includes any speaking performance that is designed to practice phonological or grammatical aspect of language. Intensive speaking can be self-initiated or pair work activity.
Responsive
Responsive is a good students’ speech in the classroom. Replies are given to teacher or student-initiated questions or comments. However, the replies do not extend into dialogues.
Transactional (Dialogue)
The goal of transactional language is to convey or exchange specific information. It is an extended form of responsive language, such as conversations.
Interpersonal (dialogue)
Interpersonal language has a purpose of maintaining social relationships rather than for the transmission of facts and information. These conversations can involve some factors such as a casual register, colloquial language, emotionally charged language, slang, and so on.
Extensive (Monologue)
Students at intermediate or advanced levels are expected to give extended monologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or short speeches.
3. Language Games for Speaking
a. The definition of language games
Games not only function as time filling activities, but also bring some educational values that enable students to learn the language. Mc Cabe (1992) defined a language game as a spoken routine for two or more players, meant to be repeated many times and that such repetition will enable the children to communicate effectively since playing language games will help the children to develop language and thought (as cited in Chandra, 2008). In the other words, students who learn English through language games will develop their speaking ability to communicate with others. From the definition above, language games do not only provide supportive activities that can motivate the students to interact and communicate, but games can also create opportunities for students to acquire the language in a meaningful way.
b. The benefits of language games for speaking
Teaching speaking should be more interactive to keep students interested in the lesson. Games can be used to practice speaking in the classroom. Games are effective teaching tools which create opportunities for students to com¬municate in a relaxed, friendly, and coopera¬tive environment. According to Cross (1992) and Martin (2000), games reduce tension by adding fun and humor to lessons, and they add an element of competitiveness that moti¬vates students to participate (as cited in Cervantes, 2009). Cross (1992) argued that when students are absorbed by games, they acquire the essen¬tial vocabulary, grammar, and other aspects of English unconsciously because they are focused on the message and not the language itself (as cited in Cervantes, 2009). Importantly, games provide a perfect opportunity for the teacher to take the backseat and let the stu¬dents do the talking.
c. Suggestions to use language games
When games are used in the teaching and learning process, they should be the important parts of the activities. Games should not be a waste of time and must be essential for the learner’s development. Playing a game just for fun might have adverse effects on learning and discipline. According to Cervantes (2009), it is therefore wise for the English teacher to consider the following suggestions related to the use of games as a teaching tool:
1. Choose games that are suitable for the class need and the objective of the lesson.
2. Select games that will keep the inter¬est of the students and will allow many students to be active or working simultaneously.
3. Consider the size and location of the room when deciding whether a game should be a pair work game or a group game. Group games require more space and are likely to create more noise.
4. Determine the time alloment for the game, keeping in mind that the game shouldn’t be the only one activity for the class period.
5. Note students’ responses to each game played in the class, for example, whether they enjoyed it, found it challenging, found it appropriate, and would like to play it again.
6. Determine if language games can replace some routine activities, what the language games are expected to achieve, and how often language games can be effectively used (Cervantes, 2009, p.25).
4. Taboo Game
a. Playing Taboo Game
Taboo is such a kind of language game. The object of Taboo is for one person, the clue-giver, to give descrip¬tive clues to his or her or partner or group about a keyword printed on a card so that the partner or group can correctly guess the key¬word; however, the clue-giver must describe the keyword without using the word itself or any of the five taboo words listed on the card (Cervantes, 2009).
Materials:
Taboo Cards which contain six words on each side – one in large, colored print at the top as the keyword, the rest in smaller black print beneath as the taboo words.
A tray for holding the card.
A Taboo box which contains taboo cards.
A buzzer which is used as a censor when the clue giver uses the keyword or the taboo word.
One minute hourglass as a timer
A pencil and paper to write the score
Rules:
The members of two opposing teams sit alternating around in a circle. The teams can be composed of two pairs (4 students total) or two groups of 3, 4, or 5 (6, 8, or 10 students total).
The clue-giver of the first team tries to get teammates to guess as many keywords as possible in one minute without using the word itself or any of the five taboo words listed on the card. Words that rhyme with or are an abbreviation of a taboo word also are not allowed.
If the clue-giver uses the keyword, a taboo word, or a part of a taboo word, a “censor” from the other team hits the buzzer. The clue-giver must then move on to the next word.
Only speech is allowed to prompt one’s teammates; sounds, gestures, or draw-ings are prohibited.
Teammates may shout as many guesses as possible, and there is no penalty for wrong guesses.
Once a team member guesses the cor-rect word, the clue-giver goes to the next word. The object is to get as many keywords as possible within one min-ute. The playing team receives 1 point for every correct guess but loses 1 point for every taboo word that is spoken. The opposing team gets 1 point each time the clue-giver of the opposing team decides to skip a keyword and go on to the next keyword.
When one minute expires, it is the other team’s turn to play.
b. The characteristics of Taboo game
Any type of game has some characteristics so that it can be used for instructional purpose. The game that is used in the teaching and learning process should include six game characteristics as suggested by Garris et al (2002), they are fantasy, rules/goals, sensory stimuli, challenge, mystery, and control. Since Taboo game is used in teaching speaking, this game also has the six game characteristics.
Fantasy is one of game characteristics since the activity involves imaginary world that is separated from real life (Garris et al., 2002). Fantasy allows players to interact in situations that are not part of normal experience. When students play Taboo game, their roles in the class are not as students who are studying, but the have different roles as players of the game. The roles are being the clue giver who gives description of the keyword and being the members who guess a many keywords as possible. Consequently, students’ attention will be focused when they become immersed in game activity. They can self-absorb and be interested in the material presented in the game. In brief, the material may be learned more readily when presented in an imagined context (Garris et al., 2002).
Although game activity is separated from real life, it has fixed space and time period with rules that govern the game play (Garris et al., 2002). Since the rules of a game describe the goal structure of the game, the rules should be clearly specified. And the goal of the game must be related to the learning objective. The goal of Taboo game is giving description of the keywords listed on the card. The keywords are the name of things in the classroom. Therefore, it is appropriate with the goal of the learning objective, that is students able to describe things in the classroom.
The imaginary world in a game allows the player to experience a distortion of perception that is not experienced in the real world (Garris et al., 2002). Sense of perception can be provided by sights and sounds that stimulate students’ senses. The Taboo cards may stimulate students’ visual sense, while the sound of the buzzer stimulates their audio sense. The sensory stimuli such as visual and audio senses in Taboo game can enhance students’ motivation to be engaged in the activity.
Games should have progressive difficulty levels so that students are challenged by the activities that are neither too easy nor too difficult to perform. Challenge is the game characteristics that engages students’ competitive and cooperative motivations. In Taboo game, the keywords provide different difficulty levels to be described since the related description words are include in the taboo words (the forbidden words to be used). Therefore, students will challenge to find another word to describe the keyword or make a sentence which defines the keyword. This game will be more challenge because the possibility of two opposing teams to obtain the goal of the game is uncertain. It depends on their ability to give description and guess the correct word. Then, the progress of their performance is shown by the scores they get.
The external feature of a game which encourages students’ curiousity is mystery. As Malone and Lepper (1987) noted that curiousity is one of the primary factors that drives learning (as cited in Cervantes, 2009). It includes sensory curiousity (evoked by novel sensation) and cognitive curiousity (a desire for knowledge). Taboo game provides this kind of characteristics since the keyword may be a mysterious word that should be guessed by the group who plays the game. The visual and the sound in playing Taboo can increase the curiousity which entails students’ senses. Their curiousity about the keyword will lead students to learn about a certain knowledge, it is describing things in the classroom.
A game has program control (the game instruction) and learner control in which students have the ability to regulate, direct or command something (Garris et al., 2002). Providing learner control in a game can improve motivation for greater learning. Taboo game evokes a sense of personal control when players are allowed to select strategies, manage the direction of the activity, and make decisions that directly affect outcomes. The clue giver directs the teammates to guess the keyword by selecting the best strategy to describe the words. The players have their own authority to manage the direction of the game in one minute given.
c. The implementation of Taboo Game in Teaching speaking
Taboo game is a commercial game, but the teacher can make his or her own game in order to make it more efficient. Before class, the teacher prepares the materials and creates several taboo cards. The words which are used in the game should be suitable with a certain topic that will be discussed. In the other word, the cards consist of vocabularies which are related to the lesson.
At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher explains the topic that will be disscused, explains about Taboo game that will be used in teaching speaking and also gives the rules of taboo game before students start to play. Then, divide the class into groups and arrange the seats so that the class is comfortable for playing in groups. Start the game and the duration of the game based on the time allotment that has been decided. The first two groups play the game, and each group has one minute to guess as many keywords as possible from the clue giver. The game goes on until all groups have chance to play the game.
The next activity after playing the game is debriefing. It helps students to understand the learning objectives through playing Taboo game. From the game, students get some vocabularies about the topic, they also practice forming sentences and it forces them to use words and structures they might otherwise not use (Amato, 2004). The practice through the game will lead students to make sentences in a form of dialogue. Students are asked to work in pairs to make a dialogue about describing things in the classroom and perform the dialogue in front of the class.
Chapter III
Research Methodology
1. Research Design
This research is experimental research. It is conducted to find out the effect of using Taboo Game to improve speaking ability of tenth graders in SMKN 2 Magetan. The experiment is the event planned and carried out by researcher to gather evidence relevant to the hypothesis (Ary, 1985, p. 247). The data is presented in quantitative manner and the hypothesis is tested by using t-test technique.
Furthermore, pretest-posttest design is considered to be the most appropriate design in experimental research. It includes 3 activities; administering the pretest, applying the treatment to the group, administering the post-test (Mc. Millan, 1992, p. 174). The result of the design is the comparison between scores in the pretest or the scores get before the treatment is done to the group and the scores gains after the treatment is applied to the group.
Table 3.1 pretest-posttest design
Group Pretest Treatment Posttest
A
B Y1
Y1 X
- Y2
Y2
A: the group of subjects which is given the treatment
B: the group of subjects which is not given the treatment
X: the independent variable or treatment in which Taboo Game is implemented
Y1: the pretest scores gained before the treatment
Y2: the posttest scores gained after the treatment
This research uses simple random sampling to get the sample. As the design is pretest-posttest design, the pretest is conducted after getting the sample of the research to measure the students’ speaking ability before the treatment is given. The treatment is the implementation of Taboo Game. The last is posttest which is done to measure the progress of the students’ speaking ability. After conducting those steps, the effect of using Taboo Game can be examined.
2. Research Variables
In this research, the researcher uses two variables. This is a must when conducting the experimental research in attempting to answer the research question and fitting to the research method. The independent variable is Taboo Game. Meanwhile, the dependent variable is the tenth graders’ speaking ability.
3. Population and Sample
Population is the group to which the research would like the result of the study to be generalized; it includes all individuals with certain specified characteristics (Mc Millan, 1992, p. 159). Moreover, Mc Millan (1993) also stated that sample is the group of the subject on which information is obtained (Mc Millan, 1993, p. 160). The population is the tenth graders of SMKN 2 Magetan. The sample of the research is X Multimedia. Simple random sampling is used to get the sample. The sample was X MMA as the independent variable and X MMD as the dependent variable.
4. Research instrument
Instrument is a tool used to collect data. Thus, the instrument of the research should be made as appropriate as possible in order to get the correct data. The instrument of this research was pretest and posttest. The instrument is in the form of speaking test. The students are asked to perform a dialogue in pairs by describing things in the classroom. By using this test type, students can express their ideas and speak English through dialogue so that they can improve the speaking ability.
Try out test is used to know the validity and reliability of test whether or not that test could be used to acquire the data. It is administered to any class which is not experimental and control group. After try out test is administered and the test is valid and reliable, this test will be used as pre-test and post-test.
4.1. Try out
Try out is conducted to know the validity and reliability of the test. The try out is administered to the group which is not both the treatment and control group, but the try out is administered to another class in which the grade of this group is the same with the grade of treatment and control group. The form of try out is a speaking test. This try out is administered in pre-test and post-test
The aim of the try out is to know the validity and reliability of the test. From the try out, students’ scores can be calculated by using statistic formula. From the try out as well, it can be stated that the test are valid because the test represents the objective of the test and reliable because after the computation using statistic calculation.
4.2 Pretest and Posttest
The test is pretest and posttest. the pretest is given to both groups to know students’ ability before the treatment. The posttest is also given to both groups to meaure the significant difference after the treatment. The test is speaking test that the students have to perform a dialogue in pairs by describing things in the classroom. they have 15 minutes to prepare the dialogue and 3 minute to perform it. Before the test is administered, the validity and reliability of the test must be measured whether or not the test measure what is supposed to measure.
4.2.1 Validity of the test
Content validity is used to know the validity of the test. As the purpose of the test is to measure students’ speaking ability in decribing things in the classroom, content validity will be the appropriate technique to measure the validity of the test.
The content is considered the most important and suitable for measuring the validity because of two reasons. First, in content validity one should determine whether the item of the test represents the objectives as stated in curriculum guides (Ary et al., 1985, p. 215). In this study, the content validity of the instrument is measured by relating the content of the instrument to Standar Isi in Indonesian curriculum. The instrument is in the form of speaking test which is administered to meaure the speaking ability of tenth graders in describing things in the classroom. It matches the standard competence and basic competence of Standar Isi in Indonesian curriculum.
The second reason for using content validity is because the content validity is important in evaluating achievement tests, and any achievement test to be used in a study must always be evaluated through content validity (Ary et al., 1985, p. 215). The speaking test is a kind of achievement test administered to measure the speaking ability of tenth graders in describing things in the classroom. Based on those two reasons, it can be concluded that the instrument is valid in terms of its content validity.
4.2.2 Reliability of the test
Reliability is the same rank of students’ score on repeated measurement (Johnson and Johnson, 2002, p. 54). To find the reliability of the test, interrater reliability is used to measure consistency of the test, which means that it will be the same no matter who scores the test.the procedure is administering test once then having different people to score the test and the last is computing relations between the tests of scores. From this result, the level of reliability is determined. To measure the reliability, correlation pearson product-moment correlation. The formula is as follows:
5. Data Collection Technique
The data of the study is the score of students’ speaking test. This score is collected through pretest and posttest in order to know the differences between the two groups that are taught using different way of teaching. Thee are the steps of conducting the study:
1. Taking population and sample. The population in this study is the tenth graders of SMKN 2 Magetan. From this population, there are two classes taken as the sample of the study through simple random sampling: XMMA and XMMD.
2. Preparing the instrument of the study. The instrument is in the form of speaking test which is ued to administer pretest and posttest. Before the instrument is administered, the try out is administered to know whether the instrument is valid and reliable.
3. Administering the pre-test. This pretest is conducted by the researcher to know the scores of subjects before the treatment is given to them. The pretest is also administered to the control group.
4. Giving treatment to the experimental group. Taboo game is implemented to teach speaking of describing thing in the classroom to tenth graders.
5. Administering the post test. The posttest was administered after the treatment given to the experimental and control group as well. The aim of administering the posttest was to know the progress of students’ability after the treatment was given to them.
The next step to collect the data is scoring the students result of the test by using modified analytical marking scale from Weir (1993) . There are fluency and appropriateness as parts of micri-linguistics in negotiating meaning. They are defined as score from the lowest to the highest, those are from 1 to 4. This following table is the modified analytical marking scale.
Modified Analytical Marking Scale from Weir (1993)
Appropriateness
1 Unable to function in the spoken language in performing dialogue about describing things
2 Able to operate in very limited capacity; responses characterized by inappropriateness in expressing dialogue about describing things in the classroom
3 Signs of developing attempts to response in dialogue about describing things in the classroom, but misunderstanding may occasionalyy arise through inappropriateness in performing dialogue about describing things in the classroom
4 Almost no errors in performing dialogue about describing things in the classroom, errors not significant enough to be likely to cause misunderstanding the description given.
Fluency
1 Utterances halting, fragmentary, and incoherent in performing dialogue about decribing things in the classroom
2 Utterances hesitant and often incomplete except in a few stock remarks and responses in describing things in the classroom given
Sentences of small chunks of indicators of negotiation meaning are for the most part disjointed and restricted in length
3 Signs of developing attempts at using of small chunks of indicators of negotiation meaning
Utterances may still be hesitant but are gaining in coherence, speed, and length
4 Utterances whilst occasionally hesitant, are characterized by groping, rephrasing and circumlocutions
Small chunks of indicators of negotiation meaning are used effectively as fillers
The last step of data collection is calculating students’ scores. After the data are calculated, the next is comparing the scores in the pretest and posttest of experimental and control group by using statistical analysis.
6. Data Analysis Technique
After the scores are collected from the pre test and post test, the scores are analyzed statistically by using a procedure of T-test to know whether there is a significant difference in the students’ speaking ability when using Taboo Game. These are four formulas used in calculating the scores by using t-test:
1. The T-ratio formula, used for analyzing the significant difference between the result of pretest and pottest in both group (Arikunto, 2006, p. 261)
Where:
t: the t-ratio
Md: Mean from the different pretest and posttest score (posttest-pretest).
xd: Deviation of each subject (d-Md)
: The sum deviation square
N: Number of subject
2. The t-test formula for analyzing the posttest scores of both control and experimental group (Arikunto, 2006, p. 306).
Where:
: The difference between two means (experimental and control group)
: Standard deviation square of posttest score in experimental group.
: Standard deviation square of posttest score in control group.
: The number of students in the experimental group
: The number of students in the control group
3. The t-test formula for analyzing the significant difference between pretest and posttest to both groups, experimental and control group (Arikunto, 2006, p. 311).
Where:
: means score of the experimental group
: means score of thecontrol group
: The sums of deviation square of the experimental group
: The sums of deviation square of the experimental group
4. The formula to find Degree of Freedom
After all the scores have been calculated by using the formula above, the degree of freedom is calculated by using this formula:
Where:
df: Degree of Freedom
N1: Number of individual in the experimental group
N2: Number of individual in the control group
When the degree of freedom has been calculated, the last step is consulting to the level of significance table. If the t-table is higher than the t-data, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference. On the other hand, if the t-data is higher than t-table, it can be concluded that the difference is not significant.
REFERENCES
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Selasa, 01 Maret 2011
LOS VENDIDOS
The Themes Analysis of Los Vendidos
Introduction
Los Vendidos which means “the sell outs” is a drama made by Luis Valdes in 1967 and it was first performed at the Brown Beret junta in Elysian Park, East Lo Angeles. This play brings the prejudices faced by Mexican in America. There is misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexicans. The play is a form of resistance for Chicanos and it is a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. He adapts the motifs and character traits that conform to relevant aspects of Mexican folk culture. Valdez’s success in Los Vendidos is based on getting Americans to understand the ridiculousness of their views on the Mexican people. Moreover, this drama introduces the speech of chicanos, including code switching between Spanish and English.
Luis Valdez was born in Delano on 26th June 1940. He grew up in California as the son of farm workers. His interest in drama began early when he was six years old. He watched a teacher used part of a paper bag to make paper-mâché masks for a theater production. This experience led him to the theater. He received his Bachelor Arts in English from the San Jose State University, where he produced his first play. Later, his college awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Arts degree. He joined the United Farm workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) led by César Chávez in Delano, California and created Teatro Campesino under the UFWOC. However, when Valdez made Los Vendidos, the Teatro Campesino separated from the UFWOC and moved to a new location in Del Rey, California.
Luis Valdez wrote about Chicano issues in his drama, Los Vendidos. It showed the discrimination and exploitation of Chicanos in the United States and how they were treated by society. Valdez also examined the stereotypes of Mexican through all the characters and their characterization in that drama. Since the drama presented a sensitive theme such as racism between Mexican and American, Valdez used humour as the effective way in conveying his message, to avoid offending races mentioned in the play besides to entertain the audience with a comedy play.
The writer chooses Los Vendidos to be analyzed because it presents an interesting play to convey messages about race issues among Mexican in America through a comedy play. Therefore, the play which contains a heavy, broad and sensitive theme like racism can be lighten and entertain the audience. The writer attempts to analyze the themes in the drama so that we know how Luis Valdez described the misconceptions of Mexican race in American society by giving the description of Mexican stereotypes in Los Vendidos. Moreover, the writer will analyze the themes through all the characters and the characterizations in the play.
Analysis
Theme is one of the intrinsic elements in a drama. There are six themes that will be analyzed in this play, they are racism, stereotype, marxism, social injustice, hispanophobia, and social identity. Those themes are related to the race discrimination between Mexican and American and the misconception of the Chicano (Mexican-American) who live in America.
Racism
Luis Valdez attempted to highlight Mexican stereotypes in his drama, Los Vendidos. The play which sets in Honest Sancho’s Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop tells about a shopkeeper named Honest Sancho who sells various "models" (robots) of stereotypical Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that buyers can manipulate by simply snapping their fingers and calling out commands. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. It is proven in the play when a secretary named Miss Jimenez who comes from the Governor’s office to buy a “brown–skinned” robot for the administration because it will look good to have a “Mexican Type” on the staff. Then, Honest Sancho promotes all his models by explaining the characteristics of each model. However, the secretary refuses all the models since they are not fit with her need. Although the secretary is looking for “a Mexican type”, she wants a type that has characteristics of American, such as the ability to speak English.
The secretary's refusal of each model for the weaknesses she finds is the reflection of how unreasonable prejudice when people quickly judge something. The secretary gives Sancho a list of characteristics she wants in a "Mexican type for the administration," such as being "debonair," "hard-working," "sophisticated," and "American-made,". However, after looking at the models for only a short time, she easily decides that they are not suitable for the administration need. All the models that are introduced by Sancho are Mexican types. Therefore, Miss Jimenez easily refuses them because there is a popular issue about misconception of Mexican or Mexican-American in United States. The Mexican’s characteristics are known as stupid, lazy, and uneducated so that the secretary rejects them to be used in her company.
The race discrimination and the pressure of American’s culture cause some Mexican-Americans choose to ignore their race and they attempt to separate themselves from their ethnic group. In Los Vendidos, it is shown by the beginning of the story when the secretary introduces her name to Honest Sancho. She prefers to use Anglo pronunciation to pronounce her name, JIM-enez, although her name shows that it is a Mexican name. Miss Jimenez is a Mexican-American who has lived and worked in America so that she influenced by the American culture. When Sancho says her name with Spanish pronunciation, she rejects it. It proves that she wants to be more American, including for her name’s pronunciation. She has known that Mexican race has low and bad image in society. Moreover, after knowing the flaws, weaknesses and imperfections of Mexican, she tries to separate herself from her ethnic group because she will be proud of being American than Mexican.
Stereotype
All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos.
The first character in Los Vendidos is the farmworker who describes the stereotypes of Mexican farmworker. This type of Mexican seems to be the most common and representative of the Mexican culture and it is found more frequently in lower classes. This farmworker is shown to only speak Spanish due to the fact that farmworkers in Mexico don’t speak English. “Pennies a day is all it takes” describes that he is a cheap worker. Sancho says “Every year at the end end of the season, this model goes back to Mexico and doesn’t return, automatically, until next spring.” That is the traditional work ethic of farmworkers in Mexico. They are known as the migrant workers because they come to the United States once a year during the planting season. "One plate of beans and tortillas will keep him going all day" refers to the traditional foods of Chicanos. The farmworkers eat traditional foods such as beans, tortillas and chiles.
The second character is Johnny Pachuco. Pachuco is the stereotypical Mexican gangster. He is the type that uses weapons and steals from people. He has trouble with the law so that he gets arrested. He is also a drug user who smoke marijuana. In the play, most Pachuco’s attitudes described by Sancho are against the law so that Miss Jimenez rejects him. In fact, Americans become fear because of this stereotype. Since the Mexicans who live in America are discriminated and became the second-class citizens, most of them do crime. They think that Pachuco is the one that cause them harm. That is what causes the most prejudices of Mexican in American society.
The third is the stereotype of Revolucionario. He is the older Hollywood image of a Mexican. As Sancho describes “He ride horse, stays in the mountains, crosses deserts, plains, rivers, leads revolutions, follows revolutions, kills, can be killedserves as a martyr, hero, movie star.....”. Revolucionario is the guy in the western movies that is always seen with his big sombrero and drinking tequila. He is the one that is exploited by companies as a marketing tool such as the Frito bandito. He is suave with women since he is seen as a romanticized man that women lust over. He is one of the images that Chicanos want to remove from American popular culture because these are more often than not outdated and incorrect racial descriptions as well as unacceptable for unsolicited consumption (McFadden, 2006).
The last character is the Mexican-American, Eric Garcia. He is the ideal stereotype that Americans want him to be. He acts just like a white person but with darker skin. Valdez addresses the “vendido” or the sell-out of the Chicano culture and the Mexican-American has acculturated himself to American society (McFadden, 2006). In the play, when Mexican-American gives his speech, he tells the weaknesses of Mexican, ”The problem of the Mexican stem from one thing and one thing alone: He’s stupid, he’s uneducated. He needs to stay in school. He needs to be ambitious, forward looking, harder-working. He needs to think American!”. While facing the pressure from Americans, Mexican-Americans should decide whether they are going to be Mexicans or Americans. They speak both Spanish and English. It shows that they still have the Chicano identity, but they don’t have to disrespect their heritage or ignore the ethnicity. The Mexican-American is what Americans expect them to be, educated, well-mannered, and hard working. As what happens in the play when Eric Garcia has made himself chosen by Miss Jimenez because he can be as an American. The secretary doesn’t need to think twice to spend a lot of money for this model. It shows that these characteristics are expected in American society.
Marxism
Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist and the laborer. The capitalist represents the high level of social status. In Los Vendidos, the characters who included in the high level are the Honest Sancho and Miss Jimenez. While the laborer or the worker has low level of social status. The race workers of Mexican are used as commodities in United States. The characters which represent the laborers are farmworker, Johnny Pachuco, Revolucionario, and the Mexican-American. Mexicans like the Farmworker and the Pachuco are commonly sold for purposes on cultivating crops and training of rookie cops. As what is described by Sancho, “the farmworker can cut grapes and pick cotton” and “Pachuco models are bought by L.A.P.D to train their rookie cops”. The other descriptions of the Revolucionario as an “International Harvester of Mexicans” and the Mexican-American as a “political machine” show that the Chicano is a commodity in United States. Although the Mexican-American has different stereotype from others; he is intelligent, educated and well-mannered, he is included in the laborer since he will be used as employee in American office.
Social Injustice
The social injustice refers to the oppression of Chicanos in the late 20th Century in America. The play's setting is located in the East side of Los Angeles, California. The East Los Angeles setting fits historically, as many Chicanos inhabited that area in the late 20th Century. The oppression of Chicanos included racial prejudice and inequality they faced while making a life in America. As shown by the play, the social injustice happens when Miss Jimenez is looking for a Mexican type for the administration. She doesn’t choose the model through the ability, but decides through the race. Since the secretary uses racial prejudice, she refuses the three models that are promoted by Sancho to be used for administration in Reagan’s office. That refusal is because they can not be American. Therefore, Mexicans don’t have equal chance to get a job as what Americans have. The inequality in getting a job is influenced by the bad image such as lazy and unintelligent. The Mexican-Americans will not have a good job position, unless they try to be like Americans. In the drama, Eric Garcia is the only Mexican-American who has criterias to work for administration in Reagan’s office. Some considerations that makes Miss Jimenez accepts Eric Garcia are his ability to speak English and make political speeches. In his speech, he also tells the weaknesses of the Mexican so that Miss Jimenez believes that Eric Garcia has a mindset as what Americans have.
Hispanophobia
For many people there was a belief that the darkness of a person's skin had a direct correlation with their intelligence as well as their level of ability and intelligence. This special kind of racism is known as Hispanophobia. Mexicans are included in people who have darker skin so that they are assumed to be lazy and unintelligent. In the play, we can find the dialogues between Miss Jimenez and Sancho when the secretary wants to buy a Mexican type, the first thing that she is looking for is the skin color of the model. She says, “Dark. But of course not too dark. Perhaps, beige.” Her statements show that she is looking for a lighter shade of Mexican and it represents the process of Americanization.
However, until the three models which are promoted by Sancho, no model is chosen by the secretary because all models do not seem “American-made”. Miss Jimenez underestimates the three Mexican models because they are Hispanics. She thinks that they can not fulfill the requirement to work for administration in Governor Reagan’s office since they can not speak English. She chooses the Mexican-American due to the fact that he can be American and can speak English although he also belongs to Mexican race.
Social Identity
Miss Jimenez represents a Mexican-American who separates herself from the racial people, the Mexicans. She feels strange to her own culture since her culture is assimilated into the United States’ culture. While Sancho is still socially and culturally indistinguishable from other Chicanos. Both figures, however, demonstrate their complicity, Miss Jimenez as an agent of the out-group and Sancho as an in-group member that is Mexican race. Sancho and Miss Jimenez are deviant figures who may be considered as role models for Chicanos in the eyes of Anglo-American society. The sociocultural conflict that is faced by Mexicans who live in the United States is maintaining the loyalty toward their own group from the external pressures to turn against their own. Miss Jimenez is the one who can not maintain her own culture so that she loses her ethnical identity as Mexican since she decides to be American. It is shown in the play that Miss Jimenez tries to make a new social identity as an American.
Conclusion
Los Vendidos is a drama made by Luis Valdez which brings themes about racism and stereotypes of Mexican-American. The point of doing all this stereotyping in the play Los Vendidos is to explain the misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexican people. This drama shows how Mexicans are treated by society through the secretary's rejection of each model. Valdez lightens the heavy and sensitive theme such as racism by using humour in this play. The images of different races are important because it can lead to a misinterpretation of people that can be harmful in our relationships with each other. Therefore, comedy is used in order not to offend the races. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos. The other theme is marxism where Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist as the high level of social status and the laborer as the low level. In conclusion, the themes about racism, stereotype and marxism are describe through the characters and the characterization in the play. Luis Valdez tries to reveal the misconceptions of Mexican in American society. They are known as lazy and unintelligent. Therefore, Chicanos are looked at as second-class citizens and they are discriminated by the American society. Los Vendidos give a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. The other themes such as social injustice, Hispanophobia and social identity are arose in Los Vendidos.
REFFERENCES
1. McFadden, Ryan. 2006. Stealthily Satirizing Americans. Retrieved from.................... at 17/12/2010
2. www.chicano.ucla.edu, Retrieved at 17/12/2010
3. Latinadramaturg.blogspot.com Retrieved at 17/12/2010
Introduction
Los Vendidos which means “the sell outs” is a drama made by Luis Valdes in 1967 and it was first performed at the Brown Beret junta in Elysian Park, East Lo Angeles. This play brings the prejudices faced by Mexican in America. There is misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexicans. The play is a form of resistance for Chicanos and it is a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. He adapts the motifs and character traits that conform to relevant aspects of Mexican folk culture. Valdez’s success in Los Vendidos is based on getting Americans to understand the ridiculousness of their views on the Mexican people. Moreover, this drama introduces the speech of chicanos, including code switching between Spanish and English.
Luis Valdez was born in Delano on 26th June 1940. He grew up in California as the son of farm workers. His interest in drama began early when he was six years old. He watched a teacher used part of a paper bag to make paper-mâché masks for a theater production. This experience led him to the theater. He received his Bachelor Arts in English from the San Jose State University, where he produced his first play. Later, his college awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Arts degree. He joined the United Farm workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) led by César Chávez in Delano, California and created Teatro Campesino under the UFWOC. However, when Valdez made Los Vendidos, the Teatro Campesino separated from the UFWOC and moved to a new location in Del Rey, California.
Luis Valdez wrote about Chicano issues in his drama, Los Vendidos. It showed the discrimination and exploitation of Chicanos in the United States and how they were treated by society. Valdez also examined the stereotypes of Mexican through all the characters and their characterization in that drama. Since the drama presented a sensitive theme such as racism between Mexican and American, Valdez used humour as the effective way in conveying his message, to avoid offending races mentioned in the play besides to entertain the audience with a comedy play.
The writer chooses Los Vendidos to be analyzed because it presents an interesting play to convey messages about race issues among Mexican in America through a comedy play. Therefore, the play which contains a heavy, broad and sensitive theme like racism can be lighten and entertain the audience. The writer attempts to analyze the themes in the drama so that we know how Luis Valdez described the misconceptions of Mexican race in American society by giving the description of Mexican stereotypes in Los Vendidos. Moreover, the writer will analyze the themes through all the characters and the characterizations in the play.
Analysis
Theme is one of the intrinsic elements in a drama. There are six themes that will be analyzed in this play, they are racism, stereotype, marxism, social injustice, hispanophobia, and social identity. Those themes are related to the race discrimination between Mexican and American and the misconception of the Chicano (Mexican-American) who live in America.
Racism
Luis Valdez attempted to highlight Mexican stereotypes in his drama, Los Vendidos. The play which sets in Honest Sancho’s Used Mexican Lot and Mexican Curio Shop tells about a shopkeeper named Honest Sancho who sells various "models" (robots) of stereotypical Mexicans and Mexican-Americans that buyers can manipulate by simply snapping their fingers and calling out commands. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. It is proven in the play when a secretary named Miss Jimenez who comes from the Governor’s office to buy a “brown–skinned” robot for the administration because it will look good to have a “Mexican Type” on the staff. Then, Honest Sancho promotes all his models by explaining the characteristics of each model. However, the secretary refuses all the models since they are not fit with her need. Although the secretary is looking for “a Mexican type”, she wants a type that has characteristics of American, such as the ability to speak English.
The secretary's refusal of each model for the weaknesses she finds is the reflection of how unreasonable prejudice when people quickly judge something. The secretary gives Sancho a list of characteristics she wants in a "Mexican type for the administration," such as being "debonair," "hard-working," "sophisticated," and "American-made,". However, after looking at the models for only a short time, she easily decides that they are not suitable for the administration need. All the models that are introduced by Sancho are Mexican types. Therefore, Miss Jimenez easily refuses them because there is a popular issue about misconception of Mexican or Mexican-American in United States. The Mexican’s characteristics are known as stupid, lazy, and uneducated so that the secretary rejects them to be used in her company.
The race discrimination and the pressure of American’s culture cause some Mexican-Americans choose to ignore their race and they attempt to separate themselves from their ethnic group. In Los Vendidos, it is shown by the beginning of the story when the secretary introduces her name to Honest Sancho. She prefers to use Anglo pronunciation to pronounce her name, JIM-enez, although her name shows that it is a Mexican name. Miss Jimenez is a Mexican-American who has lived and worked in America so that she influenced by the American culture. When Sancho says her name with Spanish pronunciation, she rejects it. It proves that she wants to be more American, including for her name’s pronunciation. She has known that Mexican race has low and bad image in society. Moreover, after knowing the flaws, weaknesses and imperfections of Mexican, she tries to separate herself from her ethnic group because she will be proud of being American than Mexican.
Stereotype
All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos.
The first character in Los Vendidos is the farmworker who describes the stereotypes of Mexican farmworker. This type of Mexican seems to be the most common and representative of the Mexican culture and it is found more frequently in lower classes. This farmworker is shown to only speak Spanish due to the fact that farmworkers in Mexico don’t speak English. “Pennies a day is all it takes” describes that he is a cheap worker. Sancho says “Every year at the end end of the season, this model goes back to Mexico and doesn’t return, automatically, until next spring.” That is the traditional work ethic of farmworkers in Mexico. They are known as the migrant workers because they come to the United States once a year during the planting season. "One plate of beans and tortillas will keep him going all day" refers to the traditional foods of Chicanos. The farmworkers eat traditional foods such as beans, tortillas and chiles.
The second character is Johnny Pachuco. Pachuco is the stereotypical Mexican gangster. He is the type that uses weapons and steals from people. He has trouble with the law so that he gets arrested. He is also a drug user who smoke marijuana. In the play, most Pachuco’s attitudes described by Sancho are against the law so that Miss Jimenez rejects him. In fact, Americans become fear because of this stereotype. Since the Mexicans who live in America are discriminated and became the second-class citizens, most of them do crime. They think that Pachuco is the one that cause them harm. That is what causes the most prejudices of Mexican in American society.
The third is the stereotype of Revolucionario. He is the older Hollywood image of a Mexican. As Sancho describes “He ride horse, stays in the mountains, crosses deserts, plains, rivers, leads revolutions, follows revolutions, kills, can be killedserves as a martyr, hero, movie star.....”. Revolucionario is the guy in the western movies that is always seen with his big sombrero and drinking tequila. He is the one that is exploited by companies as a marketing tool such as the Frito bandito. He is suave with women since he is seen as a romanticized man that women lust over. He is one of the images that Chicanos want to remove from American popular culture because these are more often than not outdated and incorrect racial descriptions as well as unacceptable for unsolicited consumption (McFadden, 2006).
The last character is the Mexican-American, Eric Garcia. He is the ideal stereotype that Americans want him to be. He acts just like a white person but with darker skin. Valdez addresses the “vendido” or the sell-out of the Chicano culture and the Mexican-American has acculturated himself to American society (McFadden, 2006). In the play, when Mexican-American gives his speech, he tells the weaknesses of Mexican, ”The problem of the Mexican stem from one thing and one thing alone: He’s stupid, he’s uneducated. He needs to stay in school. He needs to be ambitious, forward looking, harder-working. He needs to think American!”. While facing the pressure from Americans, Mexican-Americans should decide whether they are going to be Mexicans or Americans. They speak both Spanish and English. It shows that they still have the Chicano identity, but they don’t have to disrespect their heritage or ignore the ethnicity. The Mexican-American is what Americans expect them to be, educated, well-mannered, and hard working. As what happens in the play when Eric Garcia has made himself chosen by Miss Jimenez because he can be as an American. The secretary doesn’t need to think twice to spend a lot of money for this model. It shows that these characteristics are expected in American society.
Marxism
Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist and the laborer. The capitalist represents the high level of social status. In Los Vendidos, the characters who included in the high level are the Honest Sancho and Miss Jimenez. While the laborer or the worker has low level of social status. The race workers of Mexican are used as commodities in United States. The characters which represent the laborers are farmworker, Johnny Pachuco, Revolucionario, and the Mexican-American. Mexicans like the Farmworker and the Pachuco are commonly sold for purposes on cultivating crops and training of rookie cops. As what is described by Sancho, “the farmworker can cut grapes and pick cotton” and “Pachuco models are bought by L.A.P.D to train their rookie cops”. The other descriptions of the Revolucionario as an “International Harvester of Mexicans” and the Mexican-American as a “political machine” show that the Chicano is a commodity in United States. Although the Mexican-American has different stereotype from others; he is intelligent, educated and well-mannered, he is included in the laborer since he will be used as employee in American office.
Social Injustice
The social injustice refers to the oppression of Chicanos in the late 20th Century in America. The play's setting is located in the East side of Los Angeles, California. The East Los Angeles setting fits historically, as many Chicanos inhabited that area in the late 20th Century. The oppression of Chicanos included racial prejudice and inequality they faced while making a life in America. As shown by the play, the social injustice happens when Miss Jimenez is looking for a Mexican type for the administration. She doesn’t choose the model through the ability, but decides through the race. Since the secretary uses racial prejudice, she refuses the three models that are promoted by Sancho to be used for administration in Reagan’s office. That refusal is because they can not be American. Therefore, Mexicans don’t have equal chance to get a job as what Americans have. The inequality in getting a job is influenced by the bad image such as lazy and unintelligent. The Mexican-Americans will not have a good job position, unless they try to be like Americans. In the drama, Eric Garcia is the only Mexican-American who has criterias to work for administration in Reagan’s office. Some considerations that makes Miss Jimenez accepts Eric Garcia are his ability to speak English and make political speeches. In his speech, he also tells the weaknesses of the Mexican so that Miss Jimenez believes that Eric Garcia has a mindset as what Americans have.
Hispanophobia
For many people there was a belief that the darkness of a person's skin had a direct correlation with their intelligence as well as their level of ability and intelligence. This special kind of racism is known as Hispanophobia. Mexicans are included in people who have darker skin so that they are assumed to be lazy and unintelligent. In the play, we can find the dialogues between Miss Jimenez and Sancho when the secretary wants to buy a Mexican type, the first thing that she is looking for is the skin color of the model. She says, “Dark. But of course not too dark. Perhaps, beige.” Her statements show that she is looking for a lighter shade of Mexican and it represents the process of Americanization.
However, until the three models which are promoted by Sancho, no model is chosen by the secretary because all models do not seem “American-made”. Miss Jimenez underestimates the three Mexican models because they are Hispanics. She thinks that they can not fulfill the requirement to work for administration in Governor Reagan’s office since they can not speak English. She chooses the Mexican-American due to the fact that he can be American and can speak English although he also belongs to Mexican race.
Social Identity
Miss Jimenez represents a Mexican-American who separates herself from the racial people, the Mexicans. She feels strange to her own culture since her culture is assimilated into the United States’ culture. While Sancho is still socially and culturally indistinguishable from other Chicanos. Both figures, however, demonstrate their complicity, Miss Jimenez as an agent of the out-group and Sancho as an in-group member that is Mexican race. Sancho and Miss Jimenez are deviant figures who may be considered as role models for Chicanos in the eyes of Anglo-American society. The sociocultural conflict that is faced by Mexicans who live in the United States is maintaining the loyalty toward their own group from the external pressures to turn against their own. Miss Jimenez is the one who can not maintain her own culture so that she loses her ethnical identity as Mexican since she decides to be American. It is shown in the play that Miss Jimenez tries to make a new social identity as an American.
Conclusion
Los Vendidos is a drama made by Luis Valdez which brings themes about racism and stereotypes of Mexican-American. The point of doing all this stereotyping in the play Los Vendidos is to explain the misconceptions that Americans have towards the Mexican people. This drama shows how Mexicans are treated by society through the secretary's rejection of each model. Valdez lightens the heavy and sensitive theme such as racism by using humour in this play. The images of different races are important because it can lead to a misinterpretation of people that can be harmful in our relationships with each other. Therefore, comedy is used in order not to offend the races. The racism is shown by distinguishing the Mexican and American stereotype. In this play, the Mexican stereotypes tend to be refused by society. All characters and the characteristics that are described by Luis Valdez represent the Mexican stereotypes. Honest Sancho, the owner of the Mexican curio shop, Miss Jimenez, the Mexican American secretary, the Farmworker, the Pachuco, and the Revolutionary are stereotypical chicanos. The other theme is marxism where Karl Marx identifies two social classes in capitalism, those are the capitalist as the high level of social status and the laborer as the low level. In conclusion, the themes about racism, stereotype and marxism are describe through the characters and the characterization in the play. Luis Valdez tries to reveal the misconceptions of Mexican in American society. They are known as lazy and unintelligent. Therefore, Chicanos are looked at as second-class citizens and they are discriminated by the American society. Los Vendidos give a way for Americans to think for themselves about the misconstrued views and stereotypes they have about Mexican-Americans. The other themes such as social injustice, Hispanophobia and social identity are arose in Los Vendidos.
REFFERENCES
1. McFadden, Ryan. 2006. Stealthily Satirizing Americans. Retrieved from.................... at 17/12/2010
2. www.chicano.ucla.edu, Retrieved at 17/12/2010
3. Latinadramaturg.blogspot.com Retrieved at 17/12/2010
language behaviour
DISCUSSION
A. Description of Language Behavior
Sociolinguistics concerns with the relationship between language and society. It explains why every person speaks differently in different social contexts and identifies the social functions of language and the ways language is used to convey social meaning. We can know the way how a language works by examining the way people use language in different social contexts. In this essay, the writer is going to analyze the language behavior of each member who lives in her boarding house. There are four people who stay in one room. They are Aulia, Tya, Clorinda, and Eka. Each member speaks differently although some of them come from the same region. Therefore, we know what factors that influence their attitudes toward each language they use to communicate and the connections between their language behavior and their attitudes to the language.
The members who come from the same region, Madiun, are Aulia, Eka and Tya. Both Aulia and Tya speak Javanese language most of the time. They speak Bahasa when they talk to their friends who can’t speak Javanese or when they speak to their lecturers. Sometimes they speak by using Surabaya dialect when they communicate with their friends who come from Surabaya. Although Eka also comes from Madiun, but she can’t speak Javanese well since she was born and grew up in Balikpapan, East Borneo. In Balikpapan, Bahasa is used to communicate most of the time. She knows and speaks Javenese very little. She can understand when someone speaks Javanese, but she can’t reply it by using Javaness language. Therefore, she always speaks Indonesian although her parents are Javanese and always speak Javanese at home. In this case, she experiences language loss since she had moved to other place where Indonesian is used to communicate. The last member is Clorinda, she comes from Bangil. She also experiences language loss because since she was a child she spoke Bahasa at home. Although her parents are Javanese and stay in Bangil, they do not teach Clorinda to speak Javanese. Sometimes, she mixes the language with Bangil dialect, but she knows javanese very little. The language loss that is experienced by Clorinda is not due to moving to other place but due to the habitual in her house. The description of language behavior of each member is different, it means that the way they communicate is also different. Therefore, the writer will analyze the different language behavior of different members in the boarding house.
B. Analysis of Language Behavior
All the members in the boarding house have different languages to communicate each other and with other people around them. In the boarding house, they use both informal javanese and Bahasa each other. Aulia and Tya use formal javanese when they speak with the landlord and landlady, but Eka and Clorinda use Bahasa to communicate with them since they can’t speak formal javanese. Outside the boarding house,in the campus for example, Aulia and Tya use Surabaya dialect and Bahasa, Clorinda uses Bahasa and German since she learns German, and Eka uses Bahasa and sometimes English in the campus. Here are some conversations between the four members themselves in different places and situations with different participants.
CONVERSATION 1
Clorinda: aduh... Ya’ di kamar mandi ada siapa? Aku mau mandi nih, udah telat mau ke kampus.
Tya : wah gak tau clor. Tapi udah 15 menit gak keluar-keluar dari kamar mandi.
Clorinda: Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi.
Tya : Hush.. jangan keras-keras kalo ngomong, ada ibuk kos tu.
Clorinda: Babahno... aku udah telat nih.
A language serves a range of functions, such as to ask for, give information, or express feelings. From the conversation 1, we know that language is used to express feelings. Clorinda’s way of speaking expresses anger feeling. Her utterance, ‘Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi’ not only means her prediction about who is in the bathroom, but her choice of words shows that she is angry to the landlord. Her use of Babe reflects her anger feeling towards him. Compare her way of speaking with the conversation 2 below:
CONVERSATION 2
Clorinda: Ibu, saya mau pamit pulang dulu.
Bu kos : sudah libur ya mbak Clor?
Clorinda: Iya Bu. Oiya, Kunci kamar saya titipkan ke bapak tadi.
Bu kos : Iya mbak. Hati-hati di jalan ya..
Clorinda: Iya, Bu...
Her use of bapak refers to the same person, her landlord. She doesn’t use the word Babe when she talks to her landlady. In this case, Clorinda uses different words in calling her landlord depends on whom she speaks with. Her choice of bapak reflects her respect feeling to her landlady.
CONVERSATION 3
(Clorinda has just arrived in her boarding house and she calls her mother.)
Clorinda : assalamu’alaikum.... Bund, aku udah nyampek kost.
Bunda : Wa’alaikumsalam... Iya, trus di kost sama siapa?
Clorinda : Arek-arek bund.
Bunda : iya. Rindu cepat istirahat.
Clorinda : Iya bund. Udah ya bund. Assalamu’alaikum..
Bunda : Ya wes. Wa’alaikumsalam.
(Aulia datang menghampiri Clorinda)
Aulia : hei Clor, mana jajannya yang baru pulang kampung?hehe..
Clorinda : Jajannya Capek Ul, mau ta?
Aulia : Whoo... Dasar!
(tiba-tiba teman kuliahnya Clorinda lewat di depan kos)
Lia : Hai.. Orin... sudah datang ya?
Clorinda : Iya Li’. Mau kemana?
Lia : Mau beli maem. Duluan ya Orin... Daaa....
Language provides a variety of ways of saying the same thing such as a person who has more than one names which are called by people. In the conversation 3, Clorinda is called by different names. Parents often call their children by a variety of names depending on how they feel. Clorinda is called Rindu by her mother in most circumstances. The word Rindu reflects the mother’s affectionate feeling towards her. Her roommates call her Clor most of the time. However, outside the boarding house, especially in the campus, her friends call her Orin. Those explain why people say the same thing in different ways.
CONVERSATION 4
Clorinda : Maaf, Frau Prita.. saya mengganggu sebentar.
Frau Prita : Ja, sitzen sie bitte (Iya, silahkan duduk.)
Clorinda : Frau Prita, tugas semantik dikumpulkan sebelum UAS atau sesudahnya?
Frau Prita : Iya saya hampir lupa. Silahkan anda kumpulkan sebelum UAS Semantik. Tolong beritahu teman-teman yang lain.
Clorinda : Danke für deine Informationen. (Terima kasih untuk informasinya.)
Frau Prita : Das macht nicht. Ich vergesse mich. (Tidak apa-apa. Karena saya yang lupa)
In this example, social dimensions influence the linguistic choice. The status scale points to the relevance of relative status in some linguistic choice. The choice of Frau which means Mrs in English signals that the lecturer has a higher status and entitles to a respect term. Some parts of the conversation between Clorinda and Frau Prita uses German. There is code mixing in the conversation because Clorinda wants to accustomize herself to speak German language with the lecturers in the campus.
CONVERSATION 3
( Aulia’s mother is calling her. This conversation happens in the phone.)
Aulia : Assalamu’alaikum... Bu, mbenjeng ajeng ujian.
Ibu : wa’alaikumsalam.. iyo nduk, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk... Niki kalian bayar SPP.
Ibu : piro SPP ne?
Aulia : 506.500 buk
Ibu : Iyo nduk, sesuk isuk karo ibuk neng pasar tak kirimi
Aulia : Inggih buk, matur suwun.
Ibu : Iyo nduk. Engki nek wes tekan, ibu dikabari. Lan sing ati-ati, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk, Assalamu’alaikum
Ibu : Wa’alaikumsalam...
CONVERSATION 4
Pritha : Au, ntar ngerjain tugas ya?
Aulia : Gak bisa mbak!
Pritha : Lha kenapa loh?
Aulia : Ntar mau diajakin Tya keluar
Pritha : Oh gitu. Yaudah deh, besok aja ya!
Aulia : Ok, sorry ya!
CONVERSATION 5
(this conversation happens in the phone between Aulia and her friend, Pipik)
Pipik : Halo Li’, koen lapo kok gak mlebu kuliah?
Aulia : Aku tangi kawanen Pik, lha wong jam 7 ket tangi. Trus arek-arek sms wes onok dosene. Yowes, males aku.
Pipik : aku yo ora mlebu kok Li’.
Aulia : Lha lapo lho?
Pipik : Kenek macet.
Aulia : Oalah podo ae yo gak mlebu. Hahahahaha
Pipik : hahahaha... Eh wes Li’, ayo diterusne tugase.
Aulia : oh iyo Pik, jange lali...
The components which influence people’s language choice are the participants, the setting, the topic and the function. Those explain why people don’t all speak the same way and don’t speak in the same way all the time. Aulia is a javanese girl who speaks informal javanese language most of the time. Sometimes, she uses formal javanese when she talks to older people, especially her parents. Like in conversation 3 above, Aulia speaks javenese to communicate with her mother by phone, not only when she is at home. Besides, she speaks Bahasa with her friends in the campus because most of her friends can’t speak Javanese. However, conversation 5 shows that Aulia also speak Surabaya dialect to her friends who come from Surabaya. From conversation 3,4 and 5, we know that Aulia is called by different names. Her mother calls Aulia as nduk,her friends in the campus calls her Au, some of them call her Lia and she is called Aul in the boarding house.
CONVERSATION 8
Tya : Ka’... kamu punya plester luka gak? Lututku berdarah waktu sepak bola tadi, piye iki?
Eka : Ada Ya’, ku ambilin di kamar, sek yo?
People sometimes switch code within a domain or social situation. A code switch may be related to a particular participant or addressee. A speaker may similarly switch to another language as a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity with an addressee. For example, both Tya and Eka switch the language from Indonesian to Javanese. Tya uses ‘piye iki’ and Eka also says ‘sek yo’ because they want to share ethnicity as a signal of the same Javanese people. The switches are very short so that it is called emblematic switching or tag switching.
CONVERSATION 9
Tya: Ka, tolong koreksiin tugas Bahasa Inggrisku donk!
Eka: Mana ku liatnya dulu, eh... kalimatnya yang ini gak salah ta? Kata sweep harusnya ada ‘s’nya. Jadi inget pesannya dosenku Ya’. Kata beliau, ‘Don’t corrupt S!’
Tya: oiya to? Aku kan gak terlalu ngerti Bahasa Inggris, hehehe...
Another example of code swiching is when a speaker switches code to quote a person. In the conversation above, Eka switches the language from Indonesian to English since she wants to quote her lecturer’s statement, it is ‘Don’t corrupt S!’.
CONVERSATION 10
Penjual: Monggo-monggo mbak, sampean mlebet.
Eka : Iya ibu, terima kasih.
Penjual: ada yang bisa saya bantu mbak?
Eka : Saya mau beli sepatu pantovel hitam ukuran 4o, ada Bu?
Penjual: Ada mbak. Ini sepatunya. Harganya 100 ribu.
Eka : Iya Bu, saya ambil yang ini.
Eka who speaks Bahasa most of the time, can not use javanese although she understand what the seller means. When the seller knows that the customer can’t speak Javanese, the seller switches between Javanese and Indonesian to make a transaction between seller and customer. The topic of this code switch is ‘shoes trade’. The seller switches code so that the customer understand what she said and the trade process can be successful. Discussing a particular topic can be one of the factors why people switch code.
From all of the conversations, we can conclude that Languages provide a variety of ways so that people can say the same thing in different ways. People usually switch or mix code for certain purpose when they communicate with others. Therefore, all members who live in the same boarding house will speak differently depending on the social factors such as participants, settings, topic, and function.
A. Description of Language Behavior
Sociolinguistics concerns with the relationship between language and society. It explains why every person speaks differently in different social contexts and identifies the social functions of language and the ways language is used to convey social meaning. We can know the way how a language works by examining the way people use language in different social contexts. In this essay, the writer is going to analyze the language behavior of each member who lives in her boarding house. There are four people who stay in one room. They are Aulia, Tya, Clorinda, and Eka. Each member speaks differently although some of them come from the same region. Therefore, we know what factors that influence their attitudes toward each language they use to communicate and the connections between their language behavior and their attitudes to the language.
The members who come from the same region, Madiun, are Aulia, Eka and Tya. Both Aulia and Tya speak Javanese language most of the time. They speak Bahasa when they talk to their friends who can’t speak Javanese or when they speak to their lecturers. Sometimes they speak by using Surabaya dialect when they communicate with their friends who come from Surabaya. Although Eka also comes from Madiun, but she can’t speak Javanese well since she was born and grew up in Balikpapan, East Borneo. In Balikpapan, Bahasa is used to communicate most of the time. She knows and speaks Javenese very little. She can understand when someone speaks Javanese, but she can’t reply it by using Javaness language. Therefore, she always speaks Indonesian although her parents are Javanese and always speak Javanese at home. In this case, she experiences language loss since she had moved to other place where Indonesian is used to communicate. The last member is Clorinda, she comes from Bangil. She also experiences language loss because since she was a child she spoke Bahasa at home. Although her parents are Javanese and stay in Bangil, they do not teach Clorinda to speak Javanese. Sometimes, she mixes the language with Bangil dialect, but she knows javanese very little. The language loss that is experienced by Clorinda is not due to moving to other place but due to the habitual in her house. The description of language behavior of each member is different, it means that the way they communicate is also different. Therefore, the writer will analyze the different language behavior of different members in the boarding house.
B. Analysis of Language Behavior
All the members in the boarding house have different languages to communicate each other and with other people around them. In the boarding house, they use both informal javanese and Bahasa each other. Aulia and Tya use formal javanese when they speak with the landlord and landlady, but Eka and Clorinda use Bahasa to communicate with them since they can’t speak formal javanese. Outside the boarding house,in the campus for example, Aulia and Tya use Surabaya dialect and Bahasa, Clorinda uses Bahasa and German since she learns German, and Eka uses Bahasa and sometimes English in the campus. Here are some conversations between the four members themselves in different places and situations with different participants.
CONVERSATION 1
Clorinda: aduh... Ya’ di kamar mandi ada siapa? Aku mau mandi nih, udah telat mau ke kampus.
Tya : wah gak tau clor. Tapi udah 15 menit gak keluar-keluar dari kamar mandi.
Clorinda: Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi.
Tya : Hush.. jangan keras-keras kalo ngomong, ada ibuk kos tu.
Clorinda: Babahno... aku udah telat nih.
A language serves a range of functions, such as to ask for, give information, or express feelings. From the conversation 1, we know that language is used to express feelings. Clorinda’s way of speaking expresses anger feeling. Her utterance, ‘Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi’ not only means her prediction about who is in the bathroom, but her choice of words shows that she is angry to the landlord. Her use of Babe reflects her anger feeling towards him. Compare her way of speaking with the conversation 2 below:
CONVERSATION 2
Clorinda: Ibu, saya mau pamit pulang dulu.
Bu kos : sudah libur ya mbak Clor?
Clorinda: Iya Bu. Oiya, Kunci kamar saya titipkan ke bapak tadi.
Bu kos : Iya mbak. Hati-hati di jalan ya..
Clorinda: Iya, Bu...
Her use of bapak refers to the same person, her landlord. She doesn’t use the word Babe when she talks to her landlady. In this case, Clorinda uses different words in calling her landlord depends on whom she speaks with. Her choice of bapak reflects her respect feeling to her landlady.
CONVERSATION 3
(Clorinda has just arrived in her boarding house and she calls her mother.)
Clorinda : assalamu’alaikum.... Bund, aku udah nyampek kost.
Bunda : Wa’alaikumsalam... Iya, trus di kost sama siapa?
Clorinda : Arek-arek bund.
Bunda : iya. Rindu cepat istirahat.
Clorinda : Iya bund. Udah ya bund. Assalamu’alaikum..
Bunda : Ya wes. Wa’alaikumsalam.
(Aulia datang menghampiri Clorinda)
Aulia : hei Clor, mana jajannya yang baru pulang kampung?hehe..
Clorinda : Jajannya Capek Ul, mau ta?
Aulia : Whoo... Dasar!
(tiba-tiba teman kuliahnya Clorinda lewat di depan kos)
Lia : Hai.. Orin... sudah datang ya?
Clorinda : Iya Li’. Mau kemana?
Lia : Mau beli maem. Duluan ya Orin... Daaa....
Language provides a variety of ways of saying the same thing such as a person who has more than one names which are called by people. In the conversation 3, Clorinda is called by different names. Parents often call their children by a variety of names depending on how they feel. Clorinda is called Rindu by her mother in most circumstances. The word Rindu reflects the mother’s affectionate feeling towards her. Her roommates call her Clor most of the time. However, outside the boarding house, especially in the campus, her friends call her Orin. Those explain why people say the same thing in different ways.
CONVERSATION 4
Clorinda : Maaf, Frau Prita.. saya mengganggu sebentar.
Frau Prita : Ja, sitzen sie bitte (Iya, silahkan duduk.)
Clorinda : Frau Prita, tugas semantik dikumpulkan sebelum UAS atau sesudahnya?
Frau Prita : Iya saya hampir lupa. Silahkan anda kumpulkan sebelum UAS Semantik. Tolong beritahu teman-teman yang lain.
Clorinda : Danke für deine Informationen. (Terima kasih untuk informasinya.)
Frau Prita : Das macht nicht. Ich vergesse mich. (Tidak apa-apa. Karena saya yang lupa)
In this example, social dimensions influence the linguistic choice. The status scale points to the relevance of relative status in some linguistic choice. The choice of Frau which means Mrs in English signals that the lecturer has a higher status and entitles to a respect term. Some parts of the conversation between Clorinda and Frau Prita uses German. There is code mixing in the conversation because Clorinda wants to accustomize herself to speak German language with the lecturers in the campus.
CONVERSATION 3
( Aulia’s mother is calling her. This conversation happens in the phone.)
Aulia : Assalamu’alaikum... Bu, mbenjeng ajeng ujian.
Ibu : wa’alaikumsalam.. iyo nduk, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk... Niki kalian bayar SPP.
Ibu : piro SPP ne?
Aulia : 506.500 buk
Ibu : Iyo nduk, sesuk isuk karo ibuk neng pasar tak kirimi
Aulia : Inggih buk, matur suwun.
Ibu : Iyo nduk. Engki nek wes tekan, ibu dikabari. Lan sing ati-ati, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk, Assalamu’alaikum
Ibu : Wa’alaikumsalam...
CONVERSATION 4
Pritha : Au, ntar ngerjain tugas ya?
Aulia : Gak bisa mbak!
Pritha : Lha kenapa loh?
Aulia : Ntar mau diajakin Tya keluar
Pritha : Oh gitu. Yaudah deh, besok aja ya!
Aulia : Ok, sorry ya!
CONVERSATION 5
(this conversation happens in the phone between Aulia and her friend, Pipik)
Pipik : Halo Li’, koen lapo kok gak mlebu kuliah?
Aulia : Aku tangi kawanen Pik, lha wong jam 7 ket tangi. Trus arek-arek sms wes onok dosene. Yowes, males aku.
Pipik : aku yo ora mlebu kok Li’.
Aulia : Lha lapo lho?
Pipik : Kenek macet.
Aulia : Oalah podo ae yo gak mlebu. Hahahahaha
Pipik : hahahaha... Eh wes Li’, ayo diterusne tugase.
Aulia : oh iyo Pik, jange lali...
The components which influence people’s language choice are the participants, the setting, the topic and the function. Those explain why people don’t all speak the same way and don’t speak in the same way all the time. Aulia is a javanese girl who speaks informal javanese language most of the time. Sometimes, she uses formal javanese when she talks to older people, especially her parents. Like in conversation 3 above, Aulia speaks javenese to communicate with her mother by phone, not only when she is at home. Besides, she speaks Bahasa with her friends in the campus because most of her friends can’t speak Javanese. However, conversation 5 shows that Aulia also speak Surabaya dialect to her friends who come from Surabaya. From conversation 3,4 and 5, we know that Aulia is called by different names. Her mother calls Aulia as nduk,her friends in the campus calls her Au, some of them call her Lia and she is called Aul in the boarding house.
CONVERSATION 8
Tya : Ka’... kamu punya plester luka gak? Lututku berdarah waktu sepak bola tadi, piye iki?
Eka : Ada Ya’, ku ambilin di kamar, sek yo?
People sometimes switch code within a domain or social situation. A code switch may be related to a particular participant or addressee. A speaker may similarly switch to another language as a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity with an addressee. For example, both Tya and Eka switch the language from Indonesian to Javanese. Tya uses ‘piye iki’ and Eka also says ‘sek yo’ because they want to share ethnicity as a signal of the same Javanese people. The switches are very short so that it is called emblematic switching or tag switching.
CONVERSATION 9
Tya: Ka, tolong koreksiin tugas Bahasa Inggrisku donk!
Eka: Mana ku liatnya dulu, eh... kalimatnya yang ini gak salah ta? Kata sweep harusnya ada ‘s’nya. Jadi inget pesannya dosenku Ya’. Kata beliau, ‘Don’t corrupt S!’
Tya: oiya to? Aku kan gak terlalu ngerti Bahasa Inggris, hehehe...
Another example of code swiching is when a speaker switches code to quote a person. In the conversation above, Eka switches the language from Indonesian to English since she wants to quote her lecturer’s statement, it is ‘Don’t corrupt S!’.
CONVERSATION 10
Penjual: Monggo-monggo mbak, sampean mlebet.
Eka : Iya ibu, terima kasih.
Penjual: ada yang bisa saya bantu mbak?
Eka : Saya mau beli sepatu pantovel hitam ukuran 4o, ada Bu?
Penjual: Ada mbak. Ini sepatunya. Harganya 100 ribu.
Eka : Iya Bu, saya ambil yang ini.
Eka who speaks Bahasa most of the time, can not use javanese although she understand what the seller means. When the seller knows that the customer can’t speak Javanese, the seller switches between Javanese and Indonesian to make a transaction between seller and customer. The topic of this code switch is ‘shoes trade’. The seller switches code so that the customer understand what she said and the trade process can be successful. Discussing a particular topic can be one of the factors why people switch code.
From all of the conversations, we can conclude that Languages provide a variety of ways so that people can say the same thing in different ways. People usually switch or mix code for certain purpose when they communicate with others. Therefore, all members who live in the same boarding house will speak differently depending on the social factors such as participants, settings, topic, and function.
part of the brain
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
A. First Language Acquisition
It is the process whereby children acquire their first languages. All humans (without exceptional physical or mental disabilities) have an innate capability to acquire language. Acquisition occurs passively and unconsciously through implicit learning. In other words, children do not need explicit instruction to learn their first languages but rather seem to just "pick up" language in the same way they learn to roll over, crawl, and walk. Language acquisition in children just seems to happen.
Acquisition (as opposed to learning) depends on children receiving linguistic input during the critical period. The critical period is defined as the window of time, up to about the age of twelve or puberty, in which humans can acquire first languages. Children must receive adequate linguistic input including phonology (speech sounds), semantics (vocabulary and meaning), grammar (syntax or word order and morphology or grammatical markers), and pragmatics (use and context) and prosody (intonation, rhythm, stress) before the end of the critical period in order to acquire their first languages. If linguistic input is not adequate, children will never fully acquire language (as is the case of the Genie, an abused and neglected girl who was discovered by authorities in 1970). Language acquisition cannot normally occur after the critical period because the brain becomes "hardwired" to the first language.
In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a predictable sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a given milestone. Furthermore, each child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition of particular abilities: thus "correct" use of English verbal inflection will emerge over a period of a year or more, starting from a stage where verbal inflections are always left out, and ending in a stage where they are nearly always used correctly.
There are also many different ways to characterize the developmental sequence. On the production side, one way to name the stages is as follows, focusing primarily on the unfolding of lexical and syntactic knowledge:
Stage Typical age Description
Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive correct vocalization patterns
One-word stage
(better one-morpheme or one-unit)
or holophrastic stage 9-18 months Single open-class words or word stems
Two-word stage 18-24 months "mini-sentences" with simple semantic relations
Telegraphic stage
or early multiword stage
(better multi-morpheme) 24-30 months "Telegraphic" sentence structures of lexical rather than functional or grammatical morphemes
Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional structures emerge
Vocalizations in the first year of life
At birth, the infant vocal tract is in some ways more like that of an ape than that of an adult human. Compare the diagram of the infant vocal tract shown on the left to diagrams of adult human and ape.
In particular, the tip of the velum reaches or overlaps with the tip of the epiglottis. As the infant grows, the tract gradually reshapes itself in the adult pattern.
There are three main theoretical approaches to child language acquisition; all of them have merit but none can fully explain the phenomenon of child language acquisition.
1. Cognitive theory-- Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
A child first becomes aware of a concept, such as relative size, and only afterward do they acquire the words and patterns to convey that concept. Simple ideas are expressed earlier than more complex ones even if they are grammatically more complicated-- Conditional mood is one of the last. (cf. Spanish vs. Russian.)
There is a consistent order of mastery of the most common function morphemes in a language Example from English: first-- -ing, then in and on, then the plural -s, last are the forms of the verb to be. Seems to be conditioned by logical complexity: plural is simple, while forms of the verb to be require sensitivity to both number and tense. Pros and cons-- clearly there is some link between cognitive development and language acquisition; Piaget's theory helps explain the order in which certain a spects of language are acquired. But his theory does not explain why language emerges in the first place. Apes also develop cognitively in much the same way as young children in the first few years of life, but language acquisition doesn't follow naturally from their development. Bees develop the cognitive ability to respond to many shades of color, but bees never develop any communication signals based on shades of color.
2. Imitation and positive reinforcement
Children learn by imitating and repeating what they hear. Positive reinforcement and corrections also play a major role in Language acquisition. Children do imitate adults. Repetition of new words and phrases is a basic feature of children's speech. This is the behaviorist view popular in the 40's and 50's, but challenged, since imitation alone cannot possibly account for all language acquisition.
1) Children often make grammatical mistakes that they couldn't possibly have heard: Cookies are gooder than bread. Bill taked the toy. We goed to the store, Don't giggle me.
2) This hypothesis would not account for the many instances when adults do not coach their children in language skills. Positive reinforcement doesn't seem to speed up the language acquisition process. Children do not respond to or produce metalanguage until 3 or 4, after the main portion of the grammar has been mastered. (Children don't comprehend discussions about language structure.) Story about Tyler, Kornei Chukovsky: yabloka, tibloka)
3. The final theory we will discuss involves the belief in the innateness of certain linguistic features. This theory is connected with the writings of Noam Chomsky, although the theory has been around for hundreds of years. Children are born with an innate capacity for learning human language. Humans are destined to speak. Children discover the grammar of their language based on their own inborn grammar. Certain aspects of language structure seem to be preordained by the cognitive structure of the human mind. This accounts for certain very basic universal features of language structure: every language has nouns/verbs, consonants and vowels. It is assumed that children are pre-programmed, hard-wired, to acquire such things. (The "gavagai" experiment.)
Yet no one has been able to explain how quickly and perfectly all children acquire their native language. Every language is extremely complex, full of subtle distinctions that speakers are not even aware of. Nevertheless, children master their native language in 5 or 6 years regardless of their other talents and general intellectual ability. Acquisition must certainly be more than mere imitation; it also doesn't seem to depend on levels of general intelligence, since even a severely retarded child will acquire a native language without special training. Some innate feature of the mind must be responsible for the universally rapid and natural acquisition of language by any young child exposed to speech.
Chomsky originally believes that the Language Acquisition Devise is a series of syntactic universals, structural properties universally found in all languages. These syntactic structures are inborn. Only the words are learned. Allows us infinite creativity based on a limited number of patterns. Children thus generate sentences based on learned words and innate syntactic patterns. This is why children make grammatical mistakes that they could not be repeating. And yet, so far, no properties have been discovered that are truly universal in all languages. It seems that the syntactic structures differ from language to language and couldn't be innate. All attempts to construct a universal grammar that would underlie all structures in all languages have come to failure, Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar being a case in point.
The problem with the theory of innateness, then, is not in deciding whether the theory is correct, since the ability to learn language is certainly innate, but rather in identifying just what the mysterious language acquisition device actually is, what constraints or structural features are hard-wired in the mind. The LAD must be something more than general intelligence. And yet there doesn't seem to be any structural property or set of properties found in all languages that would allow us to identify any purely linguistic skill that is separate from human intelligence.
B. Second Language Acquisition
a. The nature of second language acquisition
Second language acquisition or second language learning is the process by which people learn a second language in addition to their native language(s). Many times this happens when a child who speaks a language other than English goes to school for the first time. Children have an easier time learning a second language, but anyone can do it at any age. Second language acquisition studies the psychology and sociology of the learning process. Sometimes the terms "acquisition" and "learning" are not treated as synonyms and are instead used to refer to the subconscious and conscious aspects of this process respectively. "Second language" or "target language" or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language". Second language acquisition also includes third language acquisition/multilingualism and heritage language acquisition.
There are many different things that factor into the decision about how to teach a person a second language, including the following:
language spoken in the home
amount of opportunity to practice the second language
internal motivation of the learner
reason that the second language is needed (e.g., to learn at school, to talk to a friend, or for work)
There are different ways that to introduce the second language:
by setting (e.g., English is spoken only in the school, and Urdu is spoken only in the home)
by topic (e.g., French is spoken only during meal time, and Spanish is spoken during school/work activities)
by speaker (e.g., Mom will speak only in German, and Dad speaks Russian only)
The ability of a person to use a second language will depend on his or her family's ability to speak more than one language. It is important for parents/caregivers to provide a strong language model. If you cannot use the language well, you should not be teaching it.
b. Second Language Acquisition and its premises
Second language acquisition encompasses the acquisition of any language after the acquisition of the first language by a learner. Therefore, it incorporates learning the third or fourth languages which is closely related to bilingualism and multilingualism, and heritage language learning. Cenoz and Genesee (1998) terms multilingual acquisition and multilingualism as complex phenomena and add that they implicate all the factors and processes associated with second language acquisition and bilingualism as well as unique and potentially more complex factors and effects associated with the interactions that are possible among the multiple languages being learned and the processes of learning them. Valdés (2000) defines heritage language as the language someone learns at home as a child which is a minority language in society, but because of growing up in a dominant language, the speaker seems to be more competent in the latter and feels more comfortable to communicate in that language. However, since heritage speakers are commonly alienated from their heritage language for a long time, and get limited or no exposure to that language, they seem to be in a state of language acquisition that is greatly different from monolinguals or second language speakers of that language.
c. Five Components of Second Language Acquisition Theory
Second language acquisition theory seeks to quantify how and by what processes individuals acquire a second language. The predominant theory of second language acquisition was developed by the University of Southern California’s Steven Krashen. Krashen is a specialist in language development and acquisition, and his influential theory is widely accepted in the language learning community.
There are five main components of Krashen’s theory. Each of the components relates to a different aspect of the language learning process. The five components are as follows:
• The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
This hypothesis actually fuses two fundamental theories of how individuals learn languages. Krashen has concluded that there are two systems of language acquisition that are independent but related: the acquired system and the learned system.
The acquired system relates to the unconscious aspect of language acquisition. When people learn their first language by speaking the language naturally in daily interaction with others who speak their native language, this acquired system is at work. In this system, speakers are less concerned with the structure of their utterances than with the act of communicating meaning. Krashen privileges the acquired system over the learned system.
The learned system relates to formal instruction where students engage in formal study to acquire knowledge about the target language. For example, studying the rules of syntax is part of the learned system.
• The Monitor Hypothesis
The monitor hypothesis seeks to elucidate how the acquired system is affected by the learned system. When second language learners monitor their speech, they are applying their understanding of learned grammar to edit, plan, and initiate their communication. This action can only occur when speakers have ample time to think about the form and structure of their sentences.
The amount of monitoring occurs on a continuum. Some language learners over-monitor and some use very little of their learned knowledge and are said to under-monitor. Ideally, speakers strike a balance and monitor at a level where they use their knowledge but are not overly inhibited by it.
• The Natural Order Hypothesis
This hypothesis argues that there is a natural order to the way second language learners acquire their target language. Research suggests that this natural order seems to transcend age, the learner's native language, the target language, and the conditions under which the second language is being learned. The order that the learners follow has four steps:
1. They produce single words.
2. They string words together based on meaning and not syntax.
3. They begin to identify elements that begin and end sentences.
4. They begin to identify different elements within sentences and can rearrange them to produce questions.
• The Input Hypothesis
This hypothesis seeks to explain how second languages are acquired. In its most basic form, the input hypothesis argues that learners progress along the natural order only when they encounter second language input that is one step beyond where they are in the natural order. Therefore, if a learner is at step one from the above list, they will only proceed along the natural order when they encounter input that is at the second step.
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis
This hypothesis describes external factors that can act as a filter that impedes acquisition. These factors include motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety. For example, if a learner has very low motivation, very low self-confidence, and a high level of anxiety, the affective filter comes into place and inhibits the learner from acquiring the new language. Students who are motivated, confident, and relaxed about learning the target language have much more success acquiring a second language than those who are trying to learn with the affective filter in place.
C. The difference of First and Second Language Acquisition
One of the major differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition relates to the level of ultimate attainment. Children acquiring their native language manage within a relatively short period of time to acquire fully the language they are exposed to, whereas this is not the case for adults acquiring an L2. Adult L2 learners typically do not manage to achieve the full acquisition of the L2 grammar irrespective of the amount of exposure they have in the L2.
LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN THE BRAIN AND PARTS OF THE BRAIN WHICH ARE RESPONSIBLE IN PRODUCING LANGUAGE
A. Language Processing
Many psycholinguists conceive of the mental lexicon as a collective of individual units as in figure 1. In this figure, the lexicon is shown as a space in which entries of different types are stored and linked together. The main questions that are asked about the mental lexicon are: (1) How are entries linked? (2) How are entries assessed? (3) What information is contained in an entry?
Figure 1
Language processing involves the interplay of information that develops simultaneously as many different levels of analysis. When someone hear a sentence, for example ‘the dog bit the cat’ phonetic analysis will be performed to isolate the phonemes and word boundaries, and to relate these to representations in the mental lexicon. This inductive analysis is referred to as bottom-up processing. But people do not wait until they have analyzed all the phonemes in a sentence before beginning to try to understand it. Rather, people begin interpretation of a sentence spontaneously and automatically on he basis of whatever information is available. For this reason, by the time people get to the word in the sentence, they are not only recognizing it using bottom-up processing but they are also employing a set of expectations to guide phonetic processing and word recognition. This is called top-down processing. Normally, people use both bottom-up and to-down processing.
Figure 2
This figure shows how the language is processed. People first perform phonological processing. In this stage the input is processed into representation. At the lexical access stage, units of the mental lexicon is corresponding the phonological recognitions. Information from lexical access feeds the syntactic parsing which produces a representation. Then information from both lexical access and the syntactic parsing are fed to the representation pruning. Finally, the interpretation only becomes conscious in the final stage.
Figure 3 Levelt’s model of speech production
Figure 3 is currently the most influential model of speech production and is based on a wide array of psycholinguistics result. It states that speech production begins in Conceptualizer (in which a message is formed). The message is then given linguistics form in the Formulator. The Formulator contains grammatical and phonological processes and draws upon the lexicon (represented in the centre of the model). From the Formulator, information is passed to the Articulator which actually produces the utterance.
In this model, information does not flow in one direction only. Rather there is feedback so that while producing a language, a speaker monitors through the comprehension system whether the utterance makes sense. This is represented as an arrow that feeds back to the Conceptualize.
B. Language and the Brain (Speech and language)
Language is a function of the peculiar structure of the human brain. Several areas of the brain have been identified with linguistic skills, such as producing and understanding speech. Furthermore, people with brain damage in specific areas have difficulties with very specific aspects of language, implying that it is a highly compartmentalized process. Furthermore, human brains are functionally asymmetrical, concentrating many areas essential for speech production in one hemisphere.
C. The Structure of the Brain
The first language area within the left hemisphere to be discovered is called Broca's Area, after Paul Broca. Broca was a French neurologist who had a patient with severe language problems: Although he could understand the speech of others with little difficulty, the only word he could produce was "tan." Because of this, Broca gave the patient the pseudonym "Tan." After the patient died, Broca performed an autopsy, and discovered that an area of the frontal lobe, just ahead of the motor cortex controlling the mouth, had been seriously damaged. He correctly hypothesized that this area was responsible for speech production.
Physicians called the inability to speak aphasia, and the inability to produce speech was therefore called Broca's aphasia, or expressive aphasia. Someone with this kind of aphasia has little problem understanding speech. But when trying to speak themselves are capable only of slow, laborious, often slurred sequences of words. They don't produce complete sentences, seldom use regular grammatical endings such as -ed for the past tense, and tend to leave out small grammatical words.
It turns out that Broca's area is not just a matter of getting language out in a motor sense, though. It seems to be more generally involved in the ability to deal with grammar itself, at least the more complex aspects of grammar. For example, when they hear sentences that are put into a passive form, they often misunderstand: If you say "the boy was slapped by the girl," they may understand you as communicating that the boy slapped the girl instead.
One of the first indications of brain function lateralization resulted from the research of French physician Pierre Paul Broca, in 1861. His research involved the male patient nicknamed "Tan", who suffered a speech deficit (aphasia); "tan" was one of the few words he could articulate, hence his nickname. In Tan's autopsy, Broca determined he had a syphilitic lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere. This left frontal lobe brain area (Broca's Area) is an important speech production region. The motor aspects of speech production deficits caused by damage to Broca’s Area are known as Broca's aphasia. In clinical assessment of this aphasia, it is noted that the patient cannot clearly articulate the language being employed.
In many animals that use sound for communication, the brain is lateralized, placing the control of sound production in one hemisphere of the brain (usually the left); this takes place quite strongly in songbirds and somewhat in monkeys, dolphins, and mice. The phenomenon of lateralization is extremely strong in humans, and in the vast majority language areas are concentrated in the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere controls language in only about 3% of right-handers and 19% of left-handers, and another 68% of left-handers have language circuitry in both hemispheres.
There are two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for language: Broca's area, which is though to be partially responsible for language production (putting together sentences, using proper syntax, etc.) and Wernicke's area, which is thought to be partially responsible for language processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing them for syntax, inflection, etc.). Other areas involved in language are those surrounding the Sylvian fissure, a cleavage line separating the portions of the brain that are exclusively human from those we share with other animals. In general, the areas that control language would be adjacent to one another if the human brain was laid out as a flat sheet.
C.1. Broca's Aphasia
When people experience damage to Broca's area or its surroundings, their disorder is called Broca's aphasia. As predicted by the central role of Broca's area in language production, Broca's aphasics produce slow, halting speech that is rarely grammatical. Typical Broca's aphasics eliminate inflections such as -ed and words not central to the meaning of the sentence, such as the and and. They generally retain their vocabularies and have no difficulty naming objects or performing other meaning-related tasks. In general, they can deduce the meanings of sentences from general knowledge, but cannot understand sentences whose syntax is essential to their meaning. They are fully aware of their difficulties and the rest of their faculties are unimpaired.
The difficulties experienced by Broca's aphasics reveal that Broca's area is central to correct processing and production of grammatical information. However, some Broca's aphasics retain certain grammatical abilities, including the ability to process certain types of syntax. Moreover, the difficulty that Broca's aphasics experience in actual production of speech is also enigmatic; a problem that affected exclusively grammar would not necessarily create difficulty in speaking - only in speaking grammatically. As a result, Broca's area is clearly involved in grammar and language, but there may be other areas in the brain with overlapping functions, and it may not be the seat of all grammatical processing power.
C.2. Wernickle's Aphasia
This kind of aphasia is known as Wernicke's Aphasia, or receptive aphasia. When you ask a person with this problem a question, they will respond with a sentence that is more or less grammatical, but which contains words that have little to do with the question or, for that matter, with each other. Strange, meaningless, but grammatical sentences come forth, a phenomenon called "word salad."
Like Broca's area is not just about speech production, Wernicke's is not just about speech comprehension. People with Wernicke's Aphasia also have difficulty naming things, often responding with words that sound similar, or the names of related things, as if they are having a very hard time with their mental "dictionaries."
When people experience damage to Wernicke's area, the result is a disorder called Wernicke's aphasia, which is in some ways the opposite of Broca's aphasia. Wernicke's aphasics are able to produce generally grammatical sentences, but they are often nonsensical and include invented words. Wernicke's aphasics show few signs of understanding others' speech, and have difficulty naming objects; they commonly produce the names of related objects or words that sound similar to the object's name.
The symptoms experienced by Wernicke's aphasics seem to support the idea that Wernicke's are is related to the correct processing of others' communication. It also implies that Wernicke's area could be involved in the retrieval of words from the mental dictionary.
The second language area to be discovered is called Wernicke's Area, after Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist. Wernicke had a patient who could speak quite well, but was unable to understand the speech of others. After the patient's death, Wernicke performed an autopsy and found damage to an area at the upper portion of the temporal lobe, just behind the auditory cortex. He correctly hypothesized that this area was responsible for speech comprehension.
C.3. Other Areas
Despite the fact that Broca's and Wernicke's Areas are in different lobes, they are actually quite near each other and intimately connected by a tract of nerves called the arcuate fascilicus. There are also people who have damage to the arcuate fascilicus, which results in an aphasia known as conduction aphasia. These people have it a bit better than other aphasias: They can understand speech, and they can (although with difficulty) produce coherent speech, they cannot repeat words or sentences that they hear.
Reading and writing are a part of language as well, of course. But since these skills have only been around a few thousand years, they are not as clearly marked in terms of brain functioning as the basic comprehension and production areas. But there is an area of the brain called the angular gyrus that lies about halfway between Wernicke's area and the visual cortex of the occipital lobe. It was discovered, after a young patient with reading problems died and his brain was examined during autopsy. The angular gyrus showed significant abnormalities.
The angular gyrus has been implicated in problems such as alexia (the inability to read), dyslexia (difficulties with reading), and agraphia (the inability to write). In research involving the use of PET scans on people with these problems, the angular gyrus is not as active as it is in other people while engaged in reading or writing. However, problems such as dyslexia also can involve other areas of the brain, or not involve brain disorders at all.
REFERENCES
Baum, W. M.2005. Understanding behaviorism: Behavior, Culture and Evolution. Blackwell.
Chomsky, Noam. 2000. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, D. G. 1999. From language to communication. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hierro S. Pescador, J. 1986. Principios de filosofía del lenguaje [Principles of philosophy of language]. Madrid: Alianza.
Goddard, Cliff and Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.). 1994. Semantic and Lexical Universals - Theory and Empirical Findings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Goddard, Cliff .2002. 'The search for the shared semantic core of all languages'. In Goddard & Wierzbicka (eds.) Meaning and Universal Grammar - Theory and Empirical Findings volume 1, pp. 5-40, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1963) Universals of Languages. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1978a) Universals of Human Language Vol. 4: Syntax. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1978b) Universals of Human Language Vol. 3: Word Structure. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Heine, Bernd (1997) Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
http://www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/genetics/behavior/learning/behaviorism.html
http://locke.citizendium.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics"
http://www.wikipedia.com/Theory_of_cognitive_development.htm
http://www.wikipedia.com/Psycholinguistics.htm
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http://www.jstor.org/pss/2088084 (JSTOR)
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Tappe, Heike. (2007). Introduction to Language Study: Psycholinguistics. Room MTB/G108
Rosch, E. & Mervis, C.B. & Gray, W.D. & Johnson, D.M. & Boyes-Braem, P. (1976) 'Basic Objects In Natural Categories', Cognitive Psychology 8-3, 382-439.
Wilkins, David P. (1993) ‘From part to person: natural tendencies of semantic change and the search for cognates’, Working paper No. 23, Cognitive
A. First Language Acquisition
It is the process whereby children acquire their first languages. All humans (without exceptional physical or mental disabilities) have an innate capability to acquire language. Acquisition occurs passively and unconsciously through implicit learning. In other words, children do not need explicit instruction to learn their first languages but rather seem to just "pick up" language in the same way they learn to roll over, crawl, and walk. Language acquisition in children just seems to happen.
Acquisition (as opposed to learning) depends on children receiving linguistic input during the critical period. The critical period is defined as the window of time, up to about the age of twelve or puberty, in which humans can acquire first languages. Children must receive adequate linguistic input including phonology (speech sounds), semantics (vocabulary and meaning), grammar (syntax or word order and morphology or grammatical markers), and pragmatics (use and context) and prosody (intonation, rhythm, stress) before the end of the critical period in order to acquire their first languages. If linguistic input is not adequate, children will never fully acquire language (as is the case of the Genie, an abused and neglected girl who was discovered by authorities in 1970). Language acquisition cannot normally occur after the critical period because the brain becomes "hardwired" to the first language.
In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a predictable sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a given milestone. Furthermore, each child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition of particular abilities: thus "correct" use of English verbal inflection will emerge over a period of a year or more, starting from a stage where verbal inflections are always left out, and ending in a stage where they are nearly always used correctly.
There are also many different ways to characterize the developmental sequence. On the production side, one way to name the stages is as follows, focusing primarily on the unfolding of lexical and syntactic knowledge:
Stage Typical age Description
Babbling 6-8 months Repetitive correct vocalization patterns
One-word stage
(better one-morpheme or one-unit)
or holophrastic stage 9-18 months Single open-class words or word stems
Two-word stage 18-24 months "mini-sentences" with simple semantic relations
Telegraphic stage
or early multiword stage
(better multi-morpheme) 24-30 months "Telegraphic" sentence structures of lexical rather than functional or grammatical morphemes
Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional structures emerge
Vocalizations in the first year of life
At birth, the infant vocal tract is in some ways more like that of an ape than that of an adult human. Compare the diagram of the infant vocal tract shown on the left to diagrams of adult human and ape.
In particular, the tip of the velum reaches or overlaps with the tip of the epiglottis. As the infant grows, the tract gradually reshapes itself in the adult pattern.
There are three main theoretical approaches to child language acquisition; all of them have merit but none can fully explain the phenomenon of child language acquisition.
1. Cognitive theory-- Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
A child first becomes aware of a concept, such as relative size, and only afterward do they acquire the words and patterns to convey that concept. Simple ideas are expressed earlier than more complex ones even if they are grammatically more complicated-- Conditional mood is one of the last. (cf. Spanish vs. Russian.)
There is a consistent order of mastery of the most common function morphemes in a language Example from English: first-- -ing, then in and on, then the plural -s, last are the forms of the verb to be. Seems to be conditioned by logical complexity: plural is simple, while forms of the verb to be require sensitivity to both number and tense. Pros and cons-- clearly there is some link between cognitive development and language acquisition; Piaget's theory helps explain the order in which certain a spects of language are acquired. But his theory does not explain why language emerges in the first place. Apes also develop cognitively in much the same way as young children in the first few years of life, but language acquisition doesn't follow naturally from their development. Bees develop the cognitive ability to respond to many shades of color, but bees never develop any communication signals based on shades of color.
2. Imitation and positive reinforcement
Children learn by imitating and repeating what they hear. Positive reinforcement and corrections also play a major role in Language acquisition. Children do imitate adults. Repetition of new words and phrases is a basic feature of children's speech. This is the behaviorist view popular in the 40's and 50's, but challenged, since imitation alone cannot possibly account for all language acquisition.
1) Children often make grammatical mistakes that they couldn't possibly have heard: Cookies are gooder than bread. Bill taked the toy. We goed to the store, Don't giggle me.
2) This hypothesis would not account for the many instances when adults do not coach their children in language skills. Positive reinforcement doesn't seem to speed up the language acquisition process. Children do not respond to or produce metalanguage until 3 or 4, after the main portion of the grammar has been mastered. (Children don't comprehend discussions about language structure.) Story about Tyler, Kornei Chukovsky: yabloka, tibloka)
3. The final theory we will discuss involves the belief in the innateness of certain linguistic features. This theory is connected with the writings of Noam Chomsky, although the theory has been around for hundreds of years. Children are born with an innate capacity for learning human language. Humans are destined to speak. Children discover the grammar of their language based on their own inborn grammar. Certain aspects of language structure seem to be preordained by the cognitive structure of the human mind. This accounts for certain very basic universal features of language structure: every language has nouns/verbs, consonants and vowels. It is assumed that children are pre-programmed, hard-wired, to acquire such things. (The "gavagai" experiment.)
Yet no one has been able to explain how quickly and perfectly all children acquire their native language. Every language is extremely complex, full of subtle distinctions that speakers are not even aware of. Nevertheless, children master their native language in 5 or 6 years regardless of their other talents and general intellectual ability. Acquisition must certainly be more than mere imitation; it also doesn't seem to depend on levels of general intelligence, since even a severely retarded child will acquire a native language without special training. Some innate feature of the mind must be responsible for the universally rapid and natural acquisition of language by any young child exposed to speech.
Chomsky originally believes that the Language Acquisition Devise is a series of syntactic universals, structural properties universally found in all languages. These syntactic structures are inborn. Only the words are learned. Allows us infinite creativity based on a limited number of patterns. Children thus generate sentences based on learned words and innate syntactic patterns. This is why children make grammatical mistakes that they could not be repeating. And yet, so far, no properties have been discovered that are truly universal in all languages. It seems that the syntactic structures differ from language to language and couldn't be innate. All attempts to construct a universal grammar that would underlie all structures in all languages have come to failure, Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar being a case in point.
The problem with the theory of innateness, then, is not in deciding whether the theory is correct, since the ability to learn language is certainly innate, but rather in identifying just what the mysterious language acquisition device actually is, what constraints or structural features are hard-wired in the mind. The LAD must be something more than general intelligence. And yet there doesn't seem to be any structural property or set of properties found in all languages that would allow us to identify any purely linguistic skill that is separate from human intelligence.
B. Second Language Acquisition
a. The nature of second language acquisition
Second language acquisition or second language learning is the process by which people learn a second language in addition to their native language(s). Many times this happens when a child who speaks a language other than English goes to school for the first time. Children have an easier time learning a second language, but anyone can do it at any age. Second language acquisition studies the psychology and sociology of the learning process. Sometimes the terms "acquisition" and "learning" are not treated as synonyms and are instead used to refer to the subconscious and conscious aspects of this process respectively. "Second language" or "target language" or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language". Second language acquisition also includes third language acquisition/multilingualism and heritage language acquisition.
There are many different things that factor into the decision about how to teach a person a second language, including the following:
language spoken in the home
amount of opportunity to practice the second language
internal motivation of the learner
reason that the second language is needed (e.g., to learn at school, to talk to a friend, or for work)
There are different ways that to introduce the second language:
by setting (e.g., English is spoken only in the school, and Urdu is spoken only in the home)
by topic (e.g., French is spoken only during meal time, and Spanish is spoken during school/work activities)
by speaker (e.g., Mom will speak only in German, and Dad speaks Russian only)
The ability of a person to use a second language will depend on his or her family's ability to speak more than one language. It is important for parents/caregivers to provide a strong language model. If you cannot use the language well, you should not be teaching it.
b. Second Language Acquisition and its premises
Second language acquisition encompasses the acquisition of any language after the acquisition of the first language by a learner. Therefore, it incorporates learning the third or fourth languages which is closely related to bilingualism and multilingualism, and heritage language learning. Cenoz and Genesee (1998) terms multilingual acquisition and multilingualism as complex phenomena and add that they implicate all the factors and processes associated with second language acquisition and bilingualism as well as unique and potentially more complex factors and effects associated with the interactions that are possible among the multiple languages being learned and the processes of learning them. Valdés (2000) defines heritage language as the language someone learns at home as a child which is a minority language in society, but because of growing up in a dominant language, the speaker seems to be more competent in the latter and feels more comfortable to communicate in that language. However, since heritage speakers are commonly alienated from their heritage language for a long time, and get limited or no exposure to that language, they seem to be in a state of language acquisition that is greatly different from monolinguals or second language speakers of that language.
c. Five Components of Second Language Acquisition Theory
Second language acquisition theory seeks to quantify how and by what processes individuals acquire a second language. The predominant theory of second language acquisition was developed by the University of Southern California’s Steven Krashen. Krashen is a specialist in language development and acquisition, and his influential theory is widely accepted in the language learning community.
There are five main components of Krashen’s theory. Each of the components relates to a different aspect of the language learning process. The five components are as follows:
• The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
This hypothesis actually fuses two fundamental theories of how individuals learn languages. Krashen has concluded that there are two systems of language acquisition that are independent but related: the acquired system and the learned system.
The acquired system relates to the unconscious aspect of language acquisition. When people learn their first language by speaking the language naturally in daily interaction with others who speak their native language, this acquired system is at work. In this system, speakers are less concerned with the structure of their utterances than with the act of communicating meaning. Krashen privileges the acquired system over the learned system.
The learned system relates to formal instruction where students engage in formal study to acquire knowledge about the target language. For example, studying the rules of syntax is part of the learned system.
• The Monitor Hypothesis
The monitor hypothesis seeks to elucidate how the acquired system is affected by the learned system. When second language learners monitor their speech, they are applying their understanding of learned grammar to edit, plan, and initiate their communication. This action can only occur when speakers have ample time to think about the form and structure of their sentences.
The amount of monitoring occurs on a continuum. Some language learners over-monitor and some use very little of their learned knowledge and are said to under-monitor. Ideally, speakers strike a balance and monitor at a level where they use their knowledge but are not overly inhibited by it.
• The Natural Order Hypothesis
This hypothesis argues that there is a natural order to the way second language learners acquire their target language. Research suggests that this natural order seems to transcend age, the learner's native language, the target language, and the conditions under which the second language is being learned. The order that the learners follow has four steps:
1. They produce single words.
2. They string words together based on meaning and not syntax.
3. They begin to identify elements that begin and end sentences.
4. They begin to identify different elements within sentences and can rearrange them to produce questions.
• The Input Hypothesis
This hypothesis seeks to explain how second languages are acquired. In its most basic form, the input hypothesis argues that learners progress along the natural order only when they encounter second language input that is one step beyond where they are in the natural order. Therefore, if a learner is at step one from the above list, they will only proceed along the natural order when they encounter input that is at the second step.
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis
This hypothesis describes external factors that can act as a filter that impedes acquisition. These factors include motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety. For example, if a learner has very low motivation, very low self-confidence, and a high level of anxiety, the affective filter comes into place and inhibits the learner from acquiring the new language. Students who are motivated, confident, and relaxed about learning the target language have much more success acquiring a second language than those who are trying to learn with the affective filter in place.
C. The difference of First and Second Language Acquisition
One of the major differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition relates to the level of ultimate attainment. Children acquiring their native language manage within a relatively short period of time to acquire fully the language they are exposed to, whereas this is not the case for adults acquiring an L2. Adult L2 learners typically do not manage to achieve the full acquisition of the L2 grammar irrespective of the amount of exposure they have in the L2.
LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN THE BRAIN AND PARTS OF THE BRAIN WHICH ARE RESPONSIBLE IN PRODUCING LANGUAGE
A. Language Processing
Many psycholinguists conceive of the mental lexicon as a collective of individual units as in figure 1. In this figure, the lexicon is shown as a space in which entries of different types are stored and linked together. The main questions that are asked about the mental lexicon are: (1) How are entries linked? (2) How are entries assessed? (3) What information is contained in an entry?
Figure 1
Language processing involves the interplay of information that develops simultaneously as many different levels of analysis. When someone hear a sentence, for example ‘the dog bit the cat’ phonetic analysis will be performed to isolate the phonemes and word boundaries, and to relate these to representations in the mental lexicon. This inductive analysis is referred to as bottom-up processing. But people do not wait until they have analyzed all the phonemes in a sentence before beginning to try to understand it. Rather, people begin interpretation of a sentence spontaneously and automatically on he basis of whatever information is available. For this reason, by the time people get to the word in the sentence, they are not only recognizing it using bottom-up processing but they are also employing a set of expectations to guide phonetic processing and word recognition. This is called top-down processing. Normally, people use both bottom-up and to-down processing.
Figure 2
This figure shows how the language is processed. People first perform phonological processing. In this stage the input is processed into representation. At the lexical access stage, units of the mental lexicon is corresponding the phonological recognitions. Information from lexical access feeds the syntactic parsing which produces a representation. Then information from both lexical access and the syntactic parsing are fed to the representation pruning. Finally, the interpretation only becomes conscious in the final stage.
Figure 3 Levelt’s model of speech production
Figure 3 is currently the most influential model of speech production and is based on a wide array of psycholinguistics result. It states that speech production begins in Conceptualizer (in which a message is formed). The message is then given linguistics form in the Formulator. The Formulator contains grammatical and phonological processes and draws upon the lexicon (represented in the centre of the model). From the Formulator, information is passed to the Articulator which actually produces the utterance.
In this model, information does not flow in one direction only. Rather there is feedback so that while producing a language, a speaker monitors through the comprehension system whether the utterance makes sense. This is represented as an arrow that feeds back to the Conceptualize.
B. Language and the Brain (Speech and language)
Language is a function of the peculiar structure of the human brain. Several areas of the brain have been identified with linguistic skills, such as producing and understanding speech. Furthermore, people with brain damage in specific areas have difficulties with very specific aspects of language, implying that it is a highly compartmentalized process. Furthermore, human brains are functionally asymmetrical, concentrating many areas essential for speech production in one hemisphere.
C. The Structure of the Brain
The first language area within the left hemisphere to be discovered is called Broca's Area, after Paul Broca. Broca was a French neurologist who had a patient with severe language problems: Although he could understand the speech of others with little difficulty, the only word he could produce was "tan." Because of this, Broca gave the patient the pseudonym "Tan." After the patient died, Broca performed an autopsy, and discovered that an area of the frontal lobe, just ahead of the motor cortex controlling the mouth, had been seriously damaged. He correctly hypothesized that this area was responsible for speech production.
Physicians called the inability to speak aphasia, and the inability to produce speech was therefore called Broca's aphasia, or expressive aphasia. Someone with this kind of aphasia has little problem understanding speech. But when trying to speak themselves are capable only of slow, laborious, often slurred sequences of words. They don't produce complete sentences, seldom use regular grammatical endings such as -ed for the past tense, and tend to leave out small grammatical words.
It turns out that Broca's area is not just a matter of getting language out in a motor sense, though. It seems to be more generally involved in the ability to deal with grammar itself, at least the more complex aspects of grammar. For example, when they hear sentences that are put into a passive form, they often misunderstand: If you say "the boy was slapped by the girl," they may understand you as communicating that the boy slapped the girl instead.
One of the first indications of brain function lateralization resulted from the research of French physician Pierre Paul Broca, in 1861. His research involved the male patient nicknamed "Tan", who suffered a speech deficit (aphasia); "tan" was one of the few words he could articulate, hence his nickname. In Tan's autopsy, Broca determined he had a syphilitic lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere. This left frontal lobe brain area (Broca's Area) is an important speech production region. The motor aspects of speech production deficits caused by damage to Broca’s Area are known as Broca's aphasia. In clinical assessment of this aphasia, it is noted that the patient cannot clearly articulate the language being employed.
In many animals that use sound for communication, the brain is lateralized, placing the control of sound production in one hemisphere of the brain (usually the left); this takes place quite strongly in songbirds and somewhat in monkeys, dolphins, and mice. The phenomenon of lateralization is extremely strong in humans, and in the vast majority language areas are concentrated in the left hemisphere. The right hemisphere controls language in only about 3% of right-handers and 19% of left-handers, and another 68% of left-handers have language circuitry in both hemispheres.
There are two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for language: Broca's area, which is though to be partially responsible for language production (putting together sentences, using proper syntax, etc.) and Wernicke's area, which is thought to be partially responsible for language processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing them for syntax, inflection, etc.). Other areas involved in language are those surrounding the Sylvian fissure, a cleavage line separating the portions of the brain that are exclusively human from those we share with other animals. In general, the areas that control language would be adjacent to one another if the human brain was laid out as a flat sheet.
C.1. Broca's Aphasia
When people experience damage to Broca's area or its surroundings, their disorder is called Broca's aphasia. As predicted by the central role of Broca's area in language production, Broca's aphasics produce slow, halting speech that is rarely grammatical. Typical Broca's aphasics eliminate inflections such as -ed and words not central to the meaning of the sentence, such as the and and. They generally retain their vocabularies and have no difficulty naming objects or performing other meaning-related tasks. In general, they can deduce the meanings of sentences from general knowledge, but cannot understand sentences whose syntax is essential to their meaning. They are fully aware of their difficulties and the rest of their faculties are unimpaired.
The difficulties experienced by Broca's aphasics reveal that Broca's area is central to correct processing and production of grammatical information. However, some Broca's aphasics retain certain grammatical abilities, including the ability to process certain types of syntax. Moreover, the difficulty that Broca's aphasics experience in actual production of speech is also enigmatic; a problem that affected exclusively grammar would not necessarily create difficulty in speaking - only in speaking grammatically. As a result, Broca's area is clearly involved in grammar and language, but there may be other areas in the brain with overlapping functions, and it may not be the seat of all grammatical processing power.
C.2. Wernickle's Aphasia
This kind of aphasia is known as Wernicke's Aphasia, or receptive aphasia. When you ask a person with this problem a question, they will respond with a sentence that is more or less grammatical, but which contains words that have little to do with the question or, for that matter, with each other. Strange, meaningless, but grammatical sentences come forth, a phenomenon called "word salad."
Like Broca's area is not just about speech production, Wernicke's is not just about speech comprehension. People with Wernicke's Aphasia also have difficulty naming things, often responding with words that sound similar, or the names of related things, as if they are having a very hard time with their mental "dictionaries."
When people experience damage to Wernicke's area, the result is a disorder called Wernicke's aphasia, which is in some ways the opposite of Broca's aphasia. Wernicke's aphasics are able to produce generally grammatical sentences, but they are often nonsensical and include invented words. Wernicke's aphasics show few signs of understanding others' speech, and have difficulty naming objects; they commonly produce the names of related objects or words that sound similar to the object's name.
The symptoms experienced by Wernicke's aphasics seem to support the idea that Wernicke's are is related to the correct processing of others' communication. It also implies that Wernicke's area could be involved in the retrieval of words from the mental dictionary.
The second language area to be discovered is called Wernicke's Area, after Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist. Wernicke had a patient who could speak quite well, but was unable to understand the speech of others. After the patient's death, Wernicke performed an autopsy and found damage to an area at the upper portion of the temporal lobe, just behind the auditory cortex. He correctly hypothesized that this area was responsible for speech comprehension.
C.3. Other Areas
Despite the fact that Broca's and Wernicke's Areas are in different lobes, they are actually quite near each other and intimately connected by a tract of nerves called the arcuate fascilicus. There are also people who have damage to the arcuate fascilicus, which results in an aphasia known as conduction aphasia. These people have it a bit better than other aphasias: They can understand speech, and they can (although with difficulty) produce coherent speech, they cannot repeat words or sentences that they hear.
Reading and writing are a part of language as well, of course. But since these skills have only been around a few thousand years, they are not as clearly marked in terms of brain functioning as the basic comprehension and production areas. But there is an area of the brain called the angular gyrus that lies about halfway between Wernicke's area and the visual cortex of the occipital lobe. It was discovered, after a young patient with reading problems died and his brain was examined during autopsy. The angular gyrus showed significant abnormalities.
The angular gyrus has been implicated in problems such as alexia (the inability to read), dyslexia (difficulties with reading), and agraphia (the inability to write). In research involving the use of PET scans on people with these problems, the angular gyrus is not as active as it is in other people while engaged in reading or writing. However, problems such as dyslexia also can involve other areas of the brain, or not involve brain disorders at all.
REFERENCES
Baum, W. M.2005. Understanding behaviorism: Behavior, Culture and Evolution. Blackwell.
Chomsky, Noam. 2000. New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, D. G. 1999. From language to communication. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hierro S. Pescador, J. 1986. Principios de filosofía del lenguaje [Principles of philosophy of language]. Madrid: Alianza.
Goddard, Cliff and Wierzbicka, Anna (eds.). 1994. Semantic and Lexical Universals - Theory and Empirical Findings. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Goddard, Cliff .2002. 'The search for the shared semantic core of all languages'. In Goddard & Wierzbicka (eds.) Meaning and Universal Grammar - Theory and Empirical Findings volume 1, pp. 5-40, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1963) Universals of Languages. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1978a) Universals of Human Language Vol. 4: Syntax. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Greenberg, Joseph H. (ed.) (1978b) Universals of Human Language Vol. 3: Word Structure. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Heine, Bernd (1997) Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
http://www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/genetics/behavior/learning/behaviorism.html
http://locke.citizendium.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics"
http://www.wikipedia.com/Theory_of_cognitive_development.htm
http://www.wikipedia.com/Psycholinguistics.htm
http://online.nph.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?10210&articleID
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2088084 (JSTOR)
http://web.media.mit.edu/~nitin/ethno/DomesticEthno.pdf
Tappe, Heike. (2007). Introduction to Language Study: Psycholinguistics. Room MTB/G108
Rosch, E. & Mervis, C.B. & Gray, W.D. & Johnson, D.M. & Boyes-Braem, P. (1976) 'Basic Objects In Natural Categories', Cognitive Psychology 8-3, 382-439.
Wilkins, David P. (1993) ‘From part to person: natural tendencies of semantic change and the search for cognates’, Working paper No. 23, Cognitive
Media
Lesson Plan
School : Junior High School
Subject : English
Grade/Semester : VII/1
Text Type : Expressing command and prohibition
Language Skill : Speaking
Time allotment : 2 x 45 minutes
1. Standard of Competence: 3. Mengungkapkan makna dalam percakapan trnasaksional dan interpersonal sangat sederhana untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan terdekat.
2. Basic Competence: 3.2 Melakukan interaksi dengan lingkungan terdekat yang melibatkan tindak tutur memerintah atau melarang.
3. Indicators:
1. Recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Complete dialogues about command and prohibition orally.
3. Create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given.
4. Instructional Objectives:
1. Students are able to recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Students are able to complete dialogues about command and prohibition orally.
3. Students are able to create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given orally.
5. Instructional materials:
1. Flash video. (see folder ‘brainstorming’ & appendix)
2. Presentation slides about the expression of command and prohibition. (see folder ‘presentation’ & appendix)
3. Power Point Game “Who Wants to be A Champion?” (see folder ‘game’ and appendix)
6. Teaching Methods: Pre, whilst, post Activities
7. Teaching and Learning Activities:
Pre-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher shows students some pictures of public signs from flash video as a brainstorming.
2. After showing the picture, the teacher asks “What are they?” and click the words “What are they?” in the flash movie to check whether students’ answer is right or wrong.
3. Then, the teacher gives another questions to maximize students’ prior knowledge about public signs which are related to command and prohibition expression. For example:
a. Where do you find those signs?
b. What do public signs/traffic signs function?
4. Teacher clicks “next” in the flash movie to give oral exercises related to the signs by mentioning the meaning of each picture given, for example:
What does it mean?
5. The teacher clicks the picture in the flash movie to check whether the students’ answer is true or not
6. After finishing the exercises, the teacher tells that public signs are related to the topic that they are going to discuss today, it is expressing command and prohibition. 1. Students pay attention to the pictures of public signs from flash video as a brainstorming.
2. Students guess what the pictures are by relating the pictures to the the symbols that they have ever found in their daily live. They know whether their answer is true or false after the teacher clicks the word “What are they?” in the flash movie.
3. Students answer the questions based on their own knowledge. For example:
a. We find those signs on the road.
b. They function as prohibition and command.
4. Students answer the questions orally by mentioning the meaning of each picture given in the flash movie, for example:
It means “No littering!”
5. Students know their answer is true if it is similar with the meaning that is shown in the flash movie.
6. Students prepare to learn about expressing command and prohibition.
While-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher show the slides of command and prohibition expression.
2. Teacher explains how to express prohibition based on the pictures. For example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
3. Teacher shows other pictures and tells how to give command based on the pictures. For example:
Mop the floor!
4. Teacher asks students to listen and repeat the expressions based on the pictures, for example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
Mop the floor!
5. Teacher explains the patterns of command expression.
V+Noun phrase+...
Be+Non-Verb
6. Then teacher shows the patterns of prohibition expression.
Don’t+V+...
No+ Ving/Noun
7. Teacher gives the examples of command and prohibition expression and tells how to give response to the expression. For example:
Command & prohibition expression:
Come here!
Be careful!
No cheating!
Response:
Sure
Alright
No problem
8. Teacher asks students to work in pairs to do exercise A and B from the slides.
9. In excercise A, the teacher asks students to rearrange the jumbled dialogues and practice the dialogues. For example, dialogue 1:
Going towards the classroom
Ruben: Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
10. Teacher asks students to do the next exercise from the slide. They are asked to complete the blank dialogues orally. For example:
11. Teacher shows the answer of the exercise and asks students to practice the complete dialogue.
12. Teacher gives applause and asks students to complete the second dialogue.
13. Teacher shows the answer of the exercise and asks students to practice the complete dialogue.
14. Teacher gives the last practice to students. They have to make dialogues based on certain situations.
15. Teacher choose each pair to act out one dialogue in front of the class.
16. After all pairs act out the dialogues, the teacher tells students about the next activity.
17. Teacher gives a power point game to students and tell the rules.
18. Teacher will operate the power point game.
19. Teacher chooses a student randomly from their presence numbers to play the game by clicking
20. The player must answer all the questions to get the medals so that he/she can complete the level.
21. Teacher allows the other students to help the player answering the questions.
22. At the end of the game, the teacher told that students who haven’t played the game still have chances to play it next meeting with different questions based on the topic that will be discussed. 1. Students pay attention to the slides of command and prohibition expression.
2. Students understand how to express prohibition based on the pictures. For example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
3. Students pay attention to the pictures and learn how to give command based on the picture. For example:
Mop the floor!
4. Students listen and repeat the expressions based on the pictures, for example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
Mop the floor!
5. Students understand the patterns of command expression, they are:
a. V+Noun phrase+...
b. Be+Non-Verb
6. They also know the patterns of prohibition expression, they are:
a. Don’t+V+...
b. No+ Ving/Noun
7. Students know the examples of command and prohibition expression and know how to give response to the expression. For example:
Command & prohibition expression:
Come here!
Be careful!
No cheating!
Response:
Sure
Alright
No problem
8. Students work in pairs to do exercise A and B from the slides.
9. Students rearrange the jumbled dialogues and practice the dialogues. Two students practice the first dialogue.
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben: Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
10. Students do the next exercise. They complete the blank dialogues orally. For example:
Tia : Mira, come here, please!
Mira: Okay, What’s up?
Tia : Help me carry this, please!
Mira: Sure
11. Students check their answers with the answer in the slides and they practice the complete dialogue.
12. Students complete the second dialogue.
13. Students check their answers with the answer in the slides and they practice the complete dialogue.
14. Students do the last practice. They work in pairs to make dialogues based on the situations.
15. Each pair acts out one dialogue in front of the class.
16. Students have done the practice and listen to the teacher to know the next activity that they will do.
17. Students pay attention to the teacher’s explanation about the rules.
18. Each student has equal chance to be the player.
19. The student whose presence number is chosen randomly will play the game.
20. There are four questions to be answered by the player so that he/she can complete the level.
21. The other students can help the player to answer the questions.
22. Students who haven’t played the game prepare theirself for the next game and prepare to study the lesson for the next meeting.
Post-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher reviews the lesson about command and prohibition expression.
2. Teacher asks students whether they have difficulties about the lesson. For example: “do you have any difficulties, class?”
3. Teacher gives homework for students to be done in a group of four.
“Students, work in a group of four and you have to make a role play which expresses command and prohibition. And the role play will be performed next week.” 1. Students remember the expression of command and prohibition.
2. Students share their difficulties to the teacher if they still do not understand. For example: “we are still confused about making the dialogue, ma’am”.
3. Students make groups that consist of four students to make a role play.
8. Learning resources:
1. Kumalarini, T, et al. (2008). Contextual Language and Teaching: Bahasa Inggris SMP kelas VII. Fourth edition. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas.
2. Priyana, J, et al.(2008). Scaffolding: English for junior High School Grade VII. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas
3. Wardiman, A, et al. (2008). English in Focus: for Grade VII Junior High School. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas
4. Teacher’s flash video.
5. Teacher’s PPT slides
6. Teacher’s PPT game
9. Assessment :
Indicators Techniques Types Examples
1. Recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Identify dialogues about command and prohibition.
3. Create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given. Oral
Oral
Oral Non-Test
Test
Test Mention the meaning of each picture given!
No littering!
• Rearrange the sentences into the correct order!
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben : Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben : Yes. Let’s go.
• Fill in the blank dialogue with the suitable words given!
Jane : Mira, …....… here, please.
• Choose one of these situations and make a dialogue based on the situations orally!
1. You prohibit your mother to enter garage because the door is under construction.
2. Your father prohibit you to go to Bidadari Island because the high tide.
Rubric:
Proficiency Description 1 2 3 4 5 6
Accent 0 1 2 2 3 4
Grammar 6 12 18 24 30 36
Vocabulary 4 8 12 16 20 24
Fluency 2 4 6 8 10 12
Comprehension 4 8 12 15 19 23
Total Score
Rating Scale:
a. Accent
1. Pronunciation frequently unintelligible.
2. Frequent gross errors and a very heavy accent make understanding difficult, require frequent repetition.
3. “Foreign accent” requires concentrated listening and mispronunciation lead to occasional misunderstanding and apparent errors in grammar or vocabulary.
4. Marked “foreign accent” and occasional mispronunciations which do not interfere with understanding.
5. No conspicuous mispronunciations, but would not be taken for a native speaker.
6. Native pronunciation, which no trace of “foreign accent”.
b. Grammar
1. Grammar almost entirely inaccurate except in stock phrases.
2. Constant errors showing control of very few major patterns and frequently preventing communication.
3. Frequent errors showing some major patterns uncontrolled and causing occasional irritation and misunderstanding.
4. Occasional errors showing imperfect control of some patterns but no weakness that causing misunderstanding.
5. Few errors, with no patterns of failure.
6. No more than two errors during the interview.
c. Vocabulary
1. Vocabulary inadequate for even the simplest conversation.
2. Vocabulary limited to basic personal and survival areas (time, food, transportation, family, etc.)
3. Choice of words sometimes inaccurate, limitation of vocabulary prevent discussion of some common professional and social topics
4. Professional vocabulary adequate to discuss special interest; general vocabulary permits discussion of any non-technical subject with some circumlocutions.
5. Professional vocabulary broad and precise; general vocabulary adequate to cope with complex practical problems and varied social situation.
6. Vocabulary apparently as accurate and extensive as that of an educated native speaker
d. Fluency
1. Speech is so halting and fragmentary that conversation is virtually impossible.
2. Speech is very slowly and uneven except for short or routine sentences.
3. Speech is frequently hesitant and jerky; sentences may be left uncompleted.
4. Speech is occasionally hesitant, with some unevenness caused by rephrasing and grouping for words.
5. Speech is effortless and smooth, but perceptibly non-native in speed and evenness.
6. Speech is on all professional and general topics as effortless and smooth as a native speaker’s.
e. Comprehension
1. Understand too little for the simplest type of conversation.
2. Understands only slow, very simple speech on common social and touristic topic; requires constant repetition and rephrasing.
3. Understand careful, somewhat simplified speech directed to him, with considerable repetition and rephrasing.
4. Understands quite well normal educated speech directed to him, but requires occasional repetition and rephrasing.
5. Understands everything in normal educated conversation except for every colloquial or low-frequency items, or exceptionally rapid or slurred speech.
6. Understands everything in both formal and colloquial speech to be expected of an educated native speaker.
10. Instrument : Exercises in the form of dialogues.
Appendix
A. Vocabulary work (Brainstorming)
Public Signs/Traffict Signs:
B. Vocabulary Exercises
Mention the meaning of each picture given!
Pictures:
Meanings:
C. Command and Prohibition Expression
Prohibition Expression:
Don’t pick up the flowers! Don’t turn off the computer! Don’t be noisy!
Don’t break the rules anymore! Don’t write on the wall! Do not enter the room!
Command Expression:
Wash the clothes, please! Tidy up your bed, please!
Mop the floor, please! Water the plants, please!
D. The patterns of command and prohibition expression
The patterns of command expression:
• V+Noun phrase+...
• Be+Non-Verb
The patterns of prohibition expression:
• Don’t+V+...
• No+ Ving/Noun
Example:
• Open the door, please!
• Come here!
• Be careful!
• Don’t make a noise!
• No cheating!
E. Exercises
I. Rearrange the sentences into the correct order and practice the dialogues with your partner!
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben : Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
2. Anto is leaving for school.
Anto : I won’t, Mum.
Anto : Bye, Mum.
Mother : Bye, Anto. Take care. Don’t receive anything—candies or chocolates—from anybody.
3. In front of a food store
Randy : OK, Mum. Buy me some chocolate, please.
Mother : Randy, I’ll go in to get some food stuff. Please stay and keep an eye
on the motorcycle.
Randy : Sure, Mum.
Mother : I will. Don’t talk to strangers.
4. Mrs. Green is leaving for work.
Clay : yeB, uMm.
Mrs. Green : Get up, please, Clay!
Clay : No worries, Mum.
Mrs. Green : Come on. Have shower.
Clay : In a minute, Mum.
Mrs. Green : Then have breakfast, okay?
Clay : Just a second, Mum.
Mrs. Green : I am leaving. Bye.
II. Fill in the blanks and practice the dialogues!
1. Jane : Mira, …....… here, please.
Mira : Okay. What’s ...……?
Jane : …..… me carry this, please!
Mira : ….......
2. Clay : Okay! now, let’s …..… the exercise.
Mawar : Okay. Let’s do it.
Clay : ……... down here, please.
Mawar : Thank you.
Clay : Let’s ….................… the words.
Mawar : Sure. And then?
Clay : Then we ….…........ them with the pictures.
Mawar : Okay. I … ......… it.
III. Make a dialogue based on the situations orally!
1. You prohibit your mother to enter garage because the door is under construction.
2. Your mother wants to leave the house earlier, she tells what you have to do at home.
3. Your best friend prohibits you to ride your bicycle because the road is slippery.
4. You prohibit your deskmate to cheat in the exam because it's a bad action.
F. Games “ Who Wants to be a Champion?”
How to play:
• Choose the player by clicking
• Start the game from level 1 by clicking .
• Answer four questions in each level to get the medals.
• You can’t continue the game if you can’t answer the question.
• Choose another player to play the game again.
School : Junior High School
Subject : English
Grade/Semester : VII/1
Text Type : Expressing command and prohibition
Language Skill : Speaking
Time allotment : 2 x 45 minutes
1. Standard of Competence: 3. Mengungkapkan makna dalam percakapan trnasaksional dan interpersonal sangat sederhana untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan terdekat.
2. Basic Competence: 3.2 Melakukan interaksi dengan lingkungan terdekat yang melibatkan tindak tutur memerintah atau melarang.
3. Indicators:
1. Recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Complete dialogues about command and prohibition orally.
3. Create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given.
4. Instructional Objectives:
1. Students are able to recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Students are able to complete dialogues about command and prohibition orally.
3. Students are able to create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given orally.
5. Instructional materials:
1. Flash video. (see folder ‘brainstorming’ & appendix)
2. Presentation slides about the expression of command and prohibition. (see folder ‘presentation’ & appendix)
3. Power Point Game “Who Wants to be A Champion?” (see folder ‘game’ and appendix)
6. Teaching Methods: Pre, whilst, post Activities
7. Teaching and Learning Activities:
Pre-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher shows students some pictures of public signs from flash video as a brainstorming.
2. After showing the picture, the teacher asks “What are they?” and click the words “What are they?” in the flash movie to check whether students’ answer is right or wrong.
3. Then, the teacher gives another questions to maximize students’ prior knowledge about public signs which are related to command and prohibition expression. For example:
a. Where do you find those signs?
b. What do public signs/traffic signs function?
4. Teacher clicks “next” in the flash movie to give oral exercises related to the signs by mentioning the meaning of each picture given, for example:
What does it mean?
5. The teacher clicks the picture in the flash movie to check whether the students’ answer is true or not
6. After finishing the exercises, the teacher tells that public signs are related to the topic that they are going to discuss today, it is expressing command and prohibition. 1. Students pay attention to the pictures of public signs from flash video as a brainstorming.
2. Students guess what the pictures are by relating the pictures to the the symbols that they have ever found in their daily live. They know whether their answer is true or false after the teacher clicks the word “What are they?” in the flash movie.
3. Students answer the questions based on their own knowledge. For example:
a. We find those signs on the road.
b. They function as prohibition and command.
4. Students answer the questions orally by mentioning the meaning of each picture given in the flash movie, for example:
It means “No littering!”
5. Students know their answer is true if it is similar with the meaning that is shown in the flash movie.
6. Students prepare to learn about expressing command and prohibition.
While-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher show the slides of command and prohibition expression.
2. Teacher explains how to express prohibition based on the pictures. For example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
3. Teacher shows other pictures and tells how to give command based on the pictures. For example:
Mop the floor!
4. Teacher asks students to listen and repeat the expressions based on the pictures, for example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
Mop the floor!
5. Teacher explains the patterns of command expression.
V+Noun phrase+...
Be+Non-Verb
6. Then teacher shows the patterns of prohibition expression.
Don’t+V+...
No+ Ving/Noun
7. Teacher gives the examples of command and prohibition expression and tells how to give response to the expression. For example:
Command & prohibition expression:
Come here!
Be careful!
No cheating!
Response:
Sure
Alright
No problem
8. Teacher asks students to work in pairs to do exercise A and B from the slides.
9. In excercise A, the teacher asks students to rearrange the jumbled dialogues and practice the dialogues. For example, dialogue 1:
Going towards the classroom
Ruben: Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
10. Teacher asks students to do the next exercise from the slide. They are asked to complete the blank dialogues orally. For example:
11. Teacher shows the answer of the exercise and asks students to practice the complete dialogue.
12. Teacher gives applause and asks students to complete the second dialogue.
13. Teacher shows the answer of the exercise and asks students to practice the complete dialogue.
14. Teacher gives the last practice to students. They have to make dialogues based on certain situations.
15. Teacher choose each pair to act out one dialogue in front of the class.
16. After all pairs act out the dialogues, the teacher tells students about the next activity.
17. Teacher gives a power point game to students and tell the rules.
18. Teacher will operate the power point game.
19. Teacher chooses a student randomly from their presence numbers to play the game by clicking
20. The player must answer all the questions to get the medals so that he/she can complete the level.
21. Teacher allows the other students to help the player answering the questions.
22. At the end of the game, the teacher told that students who haven’t played the game still have chances to play it next meeting with different questions based on the topic that will be discussed. 1. Students pay attention to the slides of command and prohibition expression.
2. Students understand how to express prohibition based on the pictures. For example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
3. Students pay attention to the pictures and learn how to give command based on the picture. For example:
Mop the floor!
4. Students listen and repeat the expressions based on the pictures, for example:
Don’t pick the flower up!
Mop the floor!
5. Students understand the patterns of command expression, they are:
a. V+Noun phrase+...
b. Be+Non-Verb
6. They also know the patterns of prohibition expression, they are:
a. Don’t+V+...
b. No+ Ving/Noun
7. Students know the examples of command and prohibition expression and know how to give response to the expression. For example:
Command & prohibition expression:
Come here!
Be careful!
No cheating!
Response:
Sure
Alright
No problem
8. Students work in pairs to do exercise A and B from the slides.
9. Students rearrange the jumbled dialogues and practice the dialogues. Two students practice the first dialogue.
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben: Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
10. Students do the next exercise. They complete the blank dialogues orally. For example:
Tia : Mira, come here, please!
Mira: Okay, What’s up?
Tia : Help me carry this, please!
Mira: Sure
11. Students check their answers with the answer in the slides and they practice the complete dialogue.
12. Students complete the second dialogue.
13. Students check their answers with the answer in the slides and they practice the complete dialogue.
14. Students do the last practice. They work in pairs to make dialogues based on the situations.
15. Each pair acts out one dialogue in front of the class.
16. Students have done the practice and listen to the teacher to know the next activity that they will do.
17. Students pay attention to the teacher’s explanation about the rules.
18. Each student has equal chance to be the player.
19. The student whose presence number is chosen randomly will play the game.
20. There are four questions to be answered by the player so that he/she can complete the level.
21. The other students can help the player to answer the questions.
22. Students who haven’t played the game prepare theirself for the next game and prepare to study the lesson for the next meeting.
Post-Activities
Teacher Students
1. Teacher reviews the lesson about command and prohibition expression.
2. Teacher asks students whether they have difficulties about the lesson. For example: “do you have any difficulties, class?”
3. Teacher gives homework for students to be done in a group of four.
“Students, work in a group of four and you have to make a role play which expresses command and prohibition. And the role play will be performed next week.” 1. Students remember the expression of command and prohibition.
2. Students share their difficulties to the teacher if they still do not understand. For example: “we are still confused about making the dialogue, ma’am”.
3. Students make groups that consist of four students to make a role play.
8. Learning resources:
1. Kumalarini, T, et al. (2008). Contextual Language and Teaching: Bahasa Inggris SMP kelas VII. Fourth edition. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas.
2. Priyana, J, et al.(2008). Scaffolding: English for junior High School Grade VII. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas
3. Wardiman, A, et al. (2008). English in Focus: for Grade VII Junior High School. Jakarta: Pusbuk Depdiknas
4. Teacher’s flash video.
5. Teacher’s PPT slides
6. Teacher’s PPT game
9. Assessment :
Indicators Techniques Types Examples
1. Recite vocabularies related to command and prohibition expressions.
2. Identify dialogues about command and prohibition.
3. Create dialogues which express command and prohibition based on situations given. Oral
Oral
Oral Non-Test
Test
Test Mention the meaning of each picture given!
No littering!
• Rearrange the sentences into the correct order!
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben : Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben : Yes. Let’s go.
• Fill in the blank dialogue with the suitable words given!
Jane : Mira, …....… here, please.
• Choose one of these situations and make a dialogue based on the situations orally!
1. You prohibit your mother to enter garage because the door is under construction.
2. Your father prohibit you to go to Bidadari Island because the high tide.
Rubric:
Proficiency Description 1 2 3 4 5 6
Accent 0 1 2 2 3 4
Grammar 6 12 18 24 30 36
Vocabulary 4 8 12 16 20 24
Fluency 2 4 6 8 10 12
Comprehension 4 8 12 15 19 23
Total Score
Rating Scale:
a. Accent
1. Pronunciation frequently unintelligible.
2. Frequent gross errors and a very heavy accent make understanding difficult, require frequent repetition.
3. “Foreign accent” requires concentrated listening and mispronunciation lead to occasional misunderstanding and apparent errors in grammar or vocabulary.
4. Marked “foreign accent” and occasional mispronunciations which do not interfere with understanding.
5. No conspicuous mispronunciations, but would not be taken for a native speaker.
6. Native pronunciation, which no trace of “foreign accent”.
b. Grammar
1. Grammar almost entirely inaccurate except in stock phrases.
2. Constant errors showing control of very few major patterns and frequently preventing communication.
3. Frequent errors showing some major patterns uncontrolled and causing occasional irritation and misunderstanding.
4. Occasional errors showing imperfect control of some patterns but no weakness that causing misunderstanding.
5. Few errors, with no patterns of failure.
6. No more than two errors during the interview.
c. Vocabulary
1. Vocabulary inadequate for even the simplest conversation.
2. Vocabulary limited to basic personal and survival areas (time, food, transportation, family, etc.)
3. Choice of words sometimes inaccurate, limitation of vocabulary prevent discussion of some common professional and social topics
4. Professional vocabulary adequate to discuss special interest; general vocabulary permits discussion of any non-technical subject with some circumlocutions.
5. Professional vocabulary broad and precise; general vocabulary adequate to cope with complex practical problems and varied social situation.
6. Vocabulary apparently as accurate and extensive as that of an educated native speaker
d. Fluency
1. Speech is so halting and fragmentary that conversation is virtually impossible.
2. Speech is very slowly and uneven except for short or routine sentences.
3. Speech is frequently hesitant and jerky; sentences may be left uncompleted.
4. Speech is occasionally hesitant, with some unevenness caused by rephrasing and grouping for words.
5. Speech is effortless and smooth, but perceptibly non-native in speed and evenness.
6. Speech is on all professional and general topics as effortless and smooth as a native speaker’s.
e. Comprehension
1. Understand too little for the simplest type of conversation.
2. Understands only slow, very simple speech on common social and touristic topic; requires constant repetition and rephrasing.
3. Understand careful, somewhat simplified speech directed to him, with considerable repetition and rephrasing.
4. Understands quite well normal educated speech directed to him, but requires occasional repetition and rephrasing.
5. Understands everything in normal educated conversation except for every colloquial or low-frequency items, or exceptionally rapid or slurred speech.
6. Understands everything in both formal and colloquial speech to be expected of an educated native speaker.
10. Instrument : Exercises in the form of dialogues.
Appendix
A. Vocabulary work (Brainstorming)
Public Signs/Traffict Signs:
B. Vocabulary Exercises
Mention the meaning of each picture given!
Pictures:
Meanings:
C. Command and Prohibition Expression
Prohibition Expression:
Don’t pick up the flowers! Don’t turn off the computer! Don’t be noisy!
Don’t break the rules anymore! Don’t write on the wall! Do not enter the room!
Command Expression:
Wash the clothes, please! Tidy up your bed, please!
Mop the floor, please! Water the plants, please!
D. The patterns of command and prohibition expression
The patterns of command expression:
• V+Noun phrase+...
• Be+Non-Verb
The patterns of prohibition expression:
• Don’t+V+...
• No+ Ving/Noun
Example:
• Open the door, please!
• Come here!
• Be careful!
• Don’t make a noise!
• No cheating!
E. Exercises
I. Rearrange the sentences into the correct order and practice the dialogues with your partner!
1. Going towards the classroom
Ruben : Let’s not talk.
Adit : Hear the bell?
Rubben: Yes. Let’s go.
Adit : Right. Let’s just go in.
Teacher: Line up, please!
2. Anto is leaving for school.
Anto : I won’t, Mum.
Anto : Bye, Mum.
Mother : Bye, Anto. Take care. Don’t receive anything—candies or chocolates—from anybody.
3. In front of a food store
Randy : OK, Mum. Buy me some chocolate, please.
Mother : Randy, I’ll go in to get some food stuff. Please stay and keep an eye
on the motorcycle.
Randy : Sure, Mum.
Mother : I will. Don’t talk to strangers.
4. Mrs. Green is leaving for work.
Clay : yeB, uMm.
Mrs. Green : Get up, please, Clay!
Clay : No worries, Mum.
Mrs. Green : Come on. Have shower.
Clay : In a minute, Mum.
Mrs. Green : Then have breakfast, okay?
Clay : Just a second, Mum.
Mrs. Green : I am leaving. Bye.
II. Fill in the blanks and practice the dialogues!
1. Jane : Mira, …....… here, please.
Mira : Okay. What’s ...……?
Jane : …..… me carry this, please!
Mira : ….......
2. Clay : Okay! now, let’s …..… the exercise.
Mawar : Okay. Let’s do it.
Clay : ……... down here, please.
Mawar : Thank you.
Clay : Let’s ….................… the words.
Mawar : Sure. And then?
Clay : Then we ….…........ them with the pictures.
Mawar : Okay. I … ......… it.
III. Make a dialogue based on the situations orally!
1. You prohibit your mother to enter garage because the door is under construction.
2. Your mother wants to leave the house earlier, she tells what you have to do at home.
3. Your best friend prohibits you to ride your bicycle because the road is slippery.
4. You prohibit your deskmate to cheat in the exam because it's a bad action.
F. Games “ Who Wants to be a Champion?”
How to play:
• Choose the player by clicking
• Start the game from level 1 by clicking .
• Answer four questions in each level to get the medals.
• You can’t continue the game if you can’t answer the question.
• Choose another player to play the game again.
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