Reflective 10

Reflective 10

This week my lecturer had taught a new topic on syntax. From the lesson, I learnt to identify the determinant, the verb, the adverb, the noun, and the adjective by using the tree diagram. My lecturer also asked us to make a sentence with the guidance of tree diagram. We had also learnt something on phrase structure rules to analyze a sentence. Hhmmm..This part was the tough part in sometime I want to give up when the sentence was too long and very hard to analyze. But, I tried my best and asked friends and lecturer if facing any difficulty. Thanks for the guidance.
Actually, I do not like grammar very much because it has too many rules many things need to remember. It is too complicated especially it comes to more detailed ones. For example, the basic structure of verb phrase is (Aux) + Head + (Object/ Complement) + (Modifier). It had been quite hard for me to analyze it already. Yet, there is something else similar to it which is verbal phrase. Sometime, I felt blur.
Besides, we had also learnt some transformational rules. For me, I know and learnt some of the rules before but I had never known their name. From the lessons, I had learnt their name and recognized them more deeply and systematically. The rules actually make me confuse because I cannot remember the rules. Please help me! For the presentation of the transformational rules, I learnt through our mistakes because almost every group had made a few mistakes in their presentation. For me, this indicates that grammar is really hard to learn. I must struggle on it.

Thank you.

Reflective 9

Reflective 9

The language games on word formation were very interesting and everybody involved actively in the activity. We make it in group and every group came out with their original interesting activity. I learn many things especially on how to conduct the activity in the class with the classmate. It gave me good experiences and it can be apply in the class in the future because the activities are very suitable for the primary students.
Today we are going to learn deeper about the morphemes. We had learnt about word structure and as we know morphemes build up into words, which then form the phrase. There are lots of phrases such as noun phrase, verb phrase etc. The phrase combines with other phrases to form the clause. For this part, I am able to catch it up. Hehehehe….
Besides, we had also learnt more on tree diagrams this week. The tree diagrams show hierarchical organization of words. It is becoming more and more complex with the appearance of new phrases like complementizer phrase. We were given opportunities to make our own sentences and draw tree diagrams based on it. It helps me a lot to build and sharpen understanding on the word structure. I make more so I learnt more and better.

Thank you…

L.O.V.E is wonderful

L.O.V.E

Love is patient and kind,
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude,
It does not demand its own way,
It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice about injustice but whenever the truth wins out.
Love never gives up,
Never loses faith,
It always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

@@

-love-

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

-Morphology-

Reflective 8
Morphology
There are too many things to memorize especially the definition of the morphemes. If we remember the definition or the key words, it is easy for us to understand and get the points and able to give the examples on the spot.
Now, we learnt about allomorphs and it was my fist lime heard of the word. It refers to a variant of a morpheme. It occurs due to the phonological and lexical conditioning. Phonological conditioning is of the surrounding sounds in the voiced and voiceless feature of the phoneme before the morpheme. Voiceless morpheme will produce voiceless allomorph and vice versa.
e.g. cats /kaets/ – voiceless (s)
dogs /dogz/ – voiced (z)
There are many examples of allomorphs such as /s/, /t/ and /d/. As for the lexical conditioning, it includes all the past tense. For examples:
“take” – “took”
“see” – “saw”
The other allomorph is the zero allomorphs which is without any addition or subtraction of its part although the meaning has change. For example “fish” (singular), “fish” (plural). Besides, zero allomorph also indicating masculine or feminine gender. For examples doctor, clerk etc.
Actually, it was very difficult for me because my knowledge of English vocabulary is quite limited. I must make more reading to improve myself. At the same time, I still blur about allomorph and I hope there is some time for us to discuss it again during the lecture.

Thank you.

…—>>morphology

Reflective 7
Morphology
Today we learnt about inflectional morphemes and derivational morphemes. These three things are quite tough compared to the free and bound morphemes. However, I able to master the topic but it took time. I can remember it better if there are some examples are given.
Inflectional morpheme: An inflection is therefore an affix used to change form and function only from the grammatical point with no change in part of speech of the word.
E.g. walk -> walk(s) e.g. girl -> girl(s)
walk -> walk(ed) girl -> girl(’s)
walk -> walk(ing)
All morphemes in brackets ( ) are bound morphemes which have separate grammatical functions but which do not change the meaning of the original morpheme (the root). Likewise, the part of speech remains the same. English has only seven inflectional morphemes: -s (plural) and -s (possessive) are noun inflections; -s ( 3rd-person singular), -ed ( past tense), -en (past participle), and -ing ( present participle) are verb inflections; -er (comparative) and -est (superlative) are adjective and adverb inflections.
A derivational morpheme is an affix used to change form and meaning from a lexical point with a change in part of speech. Morpheme can be used to make further new words and change in meaning.
E.g. universe (noun)
universal (adj.)
universality (noun)
university (noun)
Well, I hope that I will able to understand and remember these morphemes. I’ll try my best to learn more and read the notes again.
Thank you.

—>>morphology

Reflective 6
Morphology

I think this topic is easier than the previous topic because for me, I’ve gone through it before but in non-formal way. We learnt morphology indirectly if we are study about words, sentences, and so on that related. As we know, morphology is the study of the internal structure of words and the rules by which words are form. It is a part of the grammatical knowledge of language.
We have learnt about morphemes (free, bound, derivative and inflection), allomorphs, word structure and word formation processes. For morphemes, it is the minimal unit of grammatical analysis/function. Therefore, all words are morphemes of combination of words. The examples of morphemes are:
happy (adj.)
un + happy (adj.)
happi + ness (noun)

For me, I able to catch it up and study the topic quite well because I able to understand it. My beloved lecturer gave us plenty of examples to build our understanding. For the first day, we learnt two types of morphemes. Firstly is the free morpheme. It is a word or morpheme that can stand on its own and has grammatical function. For examples are happy, car, dog, country etc. Secondly is the bound morpheme. It is the morpheme which is unable to function as a free standing word. For examples are ‘dis-’, ‘-ly’, ‘-ness’ etc.
Make sure that you are not confused with these two morphemes. Learning about morphology was really fun for me. It gets more and more interesting.

Thank you..

——–Introduction to Phonology

Reflective 5

Introduction to Phonology

Hahahahah….
We laughed at each other. It was very funny because I think that my tongue was twisted 180 degree when we carried out the tongue twister activity. It was very challenging to pronounce every single word in the sentence accurately with the tempo. The words are almost the same and repeat the same word over again. The other group also faced the same problem like us.
I have learnt English since kindergarten but nobody teach me seriously on how to pronounce the words accurately. Thanks God because now I have the opportunity to learn it. I must do lots of practices so that I can improve myself in pronouncing words. So, I will be more confidence to communicate with the others in English.
For minimal pair, it was quite tough because we cannot see the pair between the two words just by looking the spelling but need to compare the sound. So, we refer to the dictionary to see the phonetics. We did initial, medial and final phoneme differences and choose vowels, consonants or diphthongs to see the differences. We have done our job very well. I’m very proud of myself and my group members.
Thank you!

Reflective 4
Introduction to Phonology

We are going to learn something more complicated. Although the topic is Introduction to Phonology and it looks very easy because of the word ‘introduction’, but actually it is very tough for me. We were learning about speech organs, on how different English sounds were produced.
Actually, we have learnt about the sound of the English language when we were in pre-PISMP. But, we just go through on the surface only. Now, we learn deeper and it quite difficult to say the words correctly. It was very fun to learn this lesson with my friends as we rarely learn about things like this. I had learned that English sounds are totally different from other languages. The sound produced depends on the speech organs used.
I love to learn this topic because it really teaches me the correct way of saying some words. After I know the correct pronunciation of some of the words, I realized that I made many mistakes in pronouncing some words before. Madam Ira knows how to pronoun almost all the words in English correctly. Actually there are computer software produce the sound and it helps us to learn better in pronouncing words.
In pronouncing the word in English accurately, the speech organs must in the good condition. If there are any problems, so the words that produce will be not perfect. Every organs either outside or inside our body is very important in producing sound. There are many organs involved in producing words and I just able to remember a few of them. I hope our lecturer will give me some hints on how to memorise the name of the organs.
Thank you.

Reflection 3

For language and communication, we also learnt about non-verbal communication. This type of communication is very unique because we can convey massages without make any sound. We just use our body language, eyes contact and so on to communicate with others. Actually, if a person master the skills of non-verbal communication, it is easy for them to each other by using their signal. But the people who receive the massages also need to understand the signal. If not, it will be misunderstanding.
Today we successfully did a very good job for non-verbal communication activity in the class. We make in a group of four and we did miming activity. Four of us work together as a team. I think we are the best group among the entire group that performed that morning. Madam Ira gave a very good comments and she enjoyed our performance very much. I saw her laughing face when we were performed. For me, in this activity the most important thing is humorous.
Thank you.

Reflective 2

Reflective 2

 

            This is the fist week of this semester course. For English, our course is English for Language Teacher. According to Madam Ira, it is a very tough and difficult subject. Therefore, she advised us to work hard and concentrate to her lesson. The most important thing is try to understand what it is all about.

            We learnt about language and communication and I enjoy the lesson very much. We run through the topic quite fast because the first topic is quite easy and we already have some knowledge regarding to the topic. I gain some new knowledge on how culture affects English language. For example, English language was affected by multicultural society, political, urban and rural setting and other factors.

            It was very fun during the lesson especially during the ‘amali’ or practical work. Learning through practical is better rather then just listening to the lesson all the time. For example, we had make role play to strengthen our knowledge about language function and the second role play is mime. It was interesting because we need to convey the message to the audience without a single word. I really enjoy it.

            It helps us in developing our confidence level to stand in front of people and the best way to connect to the audiences. Besides, we learnt how to work as a group.

Thank you.