Topic 3: Morphology

When I search about morphology I had found that In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of morphemes and other units of meaning in a language like words, affixes, and parts of speech and intonation/stress, implied context (words in a lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology). After go through with this topic, I should know to analyse the different types of morphemes and word formation processes.

            There are two types of morphemes which are bound and free morphemes. A free morpheme is a word which stands on its own and has a grammatical function. For example word “happy” is a basic morpheme and has a grammatical function as an adjective.  Bound morpheme is unable to function as a free standing word. For example “un+happy” is a combination of a bound morpheme “un” to a free morpheme “happy”. It is one of example free and bound morpheme that I learned in my English for Language Teachers class. Before this I don’t realize about it because to me it is a word. After learned it, I more interested in morpheme and look for more words that can be free and bound morphemes.

            For tutorial task 3, we had prepared language games on word formation (e.g. compound words, stems and affixes). My group come out with one game that name as “Make word fun”. The rule game a state below.

1.   1. First, form a pair

2.    Second, every pair form a big circle

3.    The teacher will give a box of question to one of student

4.    Every pair have to pass the box to the next pairs when the music start

5.    They have to stop passing the box when the music stop

6.    The pair that get the box will pick one of the question from the box

7.    The pair have to discuss and answer the question

8.   Repeat step four until the game finish

There are many factors we have to consider when a game is conducted. We should use music that more interesting and suitable. We also can add more question and they can answer it individually. It will make the game more exciting and challenging.

Topic 2: Introduction to Phonology

Phonology is a familiar word to me. I had learned it before in first semester of foundation. Based on Wikipedia, phonology is broadly speaking, the sub discipline of linguistics concerned with "the sounds of language". In short, it explains how sounds are produced in the English sound system. Learning outcome of this topic is produce accurate English sounds in discourse.

            Introduction of phonology includes speech organ and English sounds. As I had learned before, there are few speech organs that show below. 

It helps me a lot to understand how to pronoun the word correctly. Though I learn English from primary but there are certain words that I found hard to pronoun in right way. Sometimes, we not realize that we use wrong pronunciation because we prefer to use Manglish in our daily life. It actually affects our pronunciation very much.

            In this period we also do some activity to practice our speech organ in a group. It is a group of four and we had to get three tongue twister which are easy, middle and hard level. Our lecturer will give the present to the group which can say it fluently. My group had chosen our tongue twisters which are shown below. 

1.    Lesser weather never weathered lesser wetter weather.

/lɛsə wɛðə nɛvə wɛðərd lɛsə wɛtə wɛðər/

2.    Big black bugs bleed blue black blood but baby bugs bleed blue blood.

/bɪg blæk bəgz bli:d blu: blæk bləd bət beɪbi bəgz bli:d blu: bləd/

3.    King thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb. A thousand thistles king thistle stuck in the thistle of his thumb. If king thistle stuck a thousand thistles in the thistle of his thumb, how many thistles did king thistle stick in the thistle of his thumb?

/kɪŋ θɪsəl stək ə θawzənd θɪsəlz ɪn ðə θɪsəl əv hɪz θəm. ə θawzənd θɪsəlz kɪŋ θɪsəl stək ɪn ðə θɪsəl əv hɪz θəm. ɪf kɪŋ θɪsəl stək ə θawzənd θɪsəlz ɪn ðə θɪsəl əv hɪz θəm, haw mɛni θɪsəlz dɪd kɪŋ θɪsəl stɪk ɪn ðə θɪsəl əv hɪz θəm?/

For me, it is difficult to say the tongue twister fluently in a group. We have to practice more and say it with correct pronunciation.

            Next, we also had done a minimal pairs in the same group of tongue twister. We had to get 5v minimal pairs with initial, medial and final phoneme differences. I admit that is not easy to find the word. We use dictionary to help us to find the word. This activity makes me realize how poor my vocabulary and I need to do something about it.  

	INITIAL	MEDIAL	FINAL
1.	Ball, tall	Babble, battle	Cab, cat
	/Bɒl, tɒl /	/bæbəl, bætəl/	/kæb, kæt/
2.	Bow, pow	Stable, staple	lab, lap
	/bau, pau/	/stebəl stepəl/	/læb læp/
3.	Deed, need	Tidy, tiny	Bad, ban
	/did, nid/	/taɪdi, taɪni/	/bæd, bæn/
4.	Die, lie	Tiding, tiling	Pad, Pal
	/daɪ, laɪ/	/taɪdɪŋ, taɪlɪŋ/	/Pæd, Pæl/
5.	Pie, tie	Topper, totter	Hip, hit
	/paɪ, taɪ/	/tɑpər, tɑtər/	/hɪp, hɪt/

Topic 1: Language and Communication

             English for Language Teachers is a course that I had to study for this semester. It is all about language and how it can affects our daily life. This course helps us to compare features of language and communication. For topic one, there are few subtopic which I learned during first week. I learned about definition of language, language and culture, functions of language, non-verbal communication, speech and writing and English language in Malaysia.

            My English lecturer, Madam Ira had asked few students to get a sentence in other language such Tamil, Japanese and Chinese. We used those sentences to compare with English. From that we can see the similarities and differences among them. This method makes me more interest in this topic. Honestly, I don’t like English language but after go through the topics, I realize that English is interesting subject and benefits us in daily life.

            In this topic, it’s emphasizing on definition, linguistic symbols, rules, function and form. It is introduction on English language and to flashback the previous knowledge that we had before. There are some activities that we had gone through and very interesting part to participate. Madam Ira had asked us to create simple poem in any language we want. I had created a poem in my mother tongue to express my feeling. It is quite interesting and next time I want to try to create a poem in English.

            English language not only use in verbal communication but also in non-verbal communication. We also had to discuss the importance of English Language in Malaysia. English affects our education system very much and that a point why we should love English and try to make improvement. English is a first language in the world and we can’t just ignore it if we want our nation improve more in any section of economy.

            Nowadays, English is very important and I can’t just sit and do nothing to improve my level in English. I know I’m not too good in English but I had to improve it not just because English is my minor subject but it makes me feel confidence.