TOPIC 3 - MORPHOLOGY

For the third topic for English for Language Teachers, I learned about morphology. During the lecture, we had learned about free and bound morphemes, derivational morpheme, inflectional morpheme, allomorphs, word structure and word formation processes.

The first subtopic that we had learnt is morpheme. The morpheme is the minimal unit of grammatical analysis. There are two types of morphemes which are free and bound morpheme.

Types of Morpheme	Meaning	Examples
Free Morpheme	A word or morpheme that can stand on its own and has grammatical function.	walk, sit, happy, kind, write
Bound Morpheme	The word or a morpheme which is unable to function as a free standing word.	pre, un, ness, ation, ible

The next subtopic is about derivational and inflectional morphemes and allomorphs. Inflectional morphemes can either give further information about the grammatical information to the other morphemes they combine with. Derivational morpheme is an affix used to change form and meaning from a lexical point with a change in part of speech. Examples of derivational and inflectional morphemes are:

Inflectional Morphemes
Morphemes	Example
They are only found in suffixes in English.	walked, Stefi's, girls
No change of meaning	toy vs toys
Never change the syntactic category of the words or morpheme to they which they are attached. They are always attached to completed words	boy vs boys                 (N --> N)

Derivational  Morphemes
Morphemes	Example
They can be both suffixes and prefixes in English.	beautiful,exactly, recover
Change of Meaning	un + do                         (the opposite meaning of ‘do’) sing + er             (deriving a new word with the meaning of a person who sings).
Change of the syntactic category  (optionally)	Noun to Adjective boy + ish > boyish         Verb to Noun sing + er > singer   Adjective to Adverb    quiet + ly > quietly  Noun to Verb              moral + ize >moralize  Adjective to Noun   specific+ ity >specificity

Next, is the subtopic on allomorphs. Allomorphs refer to a variant of a morpheme. The next subtopic that we learnt is word structure and word formation processes. Words can be formed or expanded by various morphological processes such as affixation, compounding, reduplication, clipping, acronym and other minor processes such as blending, onomatopoeias and antonomasia.

 As for the tutorial task for this topic, we were required to prepare language games on word formation. The language game that we prepared can include compound words, stems and affixes. Our group had prepared a game named “Word Chain”.  This game required the students to form a word based on the last letter of the word formed before in a group of eight people. From the games that we carried out, we find that all the students can participate in the games actively. Everyone will get the chance to think and form word and work cooperate in group to make sure that they can win the game. Although the allocation of time given to each group is quite limited can make them to think more critically, at the same time also make them do not have idea in forming word.

To conclude, I find this topic very interesting and meaningful to me. From the detailed explanation and notes given by our lecturer, I really understand this topic well. The activity conducted during this topic also gives me an opportunity to create another creative way to make teaching and learning process more interesting and enjoyable. I hope that I can use this experience to help me in my future teaching.

Topic 2: Introduction to Phonology

            For the second topic for English for Language Teachers, I learned about Introduction to Phonology. During the lecture, we had learned about the speech organs, English Sounds which consist of vowel and diphthong sounds and consonant sounds.

            I find that this topic is very important for English teachers to be good role models for pronunciation. As we are aware of, children learn pronunciation by imitation. Hence, as a English teacher to be, I must master this topic well and produce accurate English sounds so that I will be able to teach this topic well.

            In the process of learning this topic, I faced some difficulties in producing the vowel, diphthong, and consonant sounds. Although I had studied this topic before, I still get confused with the used of the phonemes. With the help from our lecturer and the software given which is Pronunciation Chart, I can slowly learn this topic well.

            For the tutorial task, we are required to do the Tongue Twister Competition. Each group has to present three types of tongue twister. Our group had chosen tongue twister which is easy to pronoun and yet interesting. We had referred to the dictionary to help us to pronoun accurate and correctly. From this task, we can train and improve our pronunciation accuracy. I also realized the important of referring dictionary in learning English language to minimize the errors made in pronunciation.

            Another presentation task that we had done is the minimal pairs with initial, medial, and final phoneme differences and transcribes the words in phonetics. This task is not easy because it takes time for use to find the correct minimal pairs. In the process in completing the table of minimal pairs, we had made several mistakes in choosing the correct words. From this presentation, we learn to identify the different words with same sounds at the initial, medial and final phoneme.

   In short, I must master this topic well before I move on to the next topic as this topic is the most basic knowledge that we need to master.

           

Topic 1 : Language and Communication

            In this semester, we are studying the subject English for Language Teachers.  For the first topic, I learned about Language and Communication. During the lecture, we had learned about the definition of language, language and culture, functions of language, non-verbal communication, speech and writing and English Language in Malaysia.

            Language is a code that allows us to represent thoughts and ideas by means of sounds. It plays an important role in our daily life. All humans used language for communication. In my point of view, ones need to learn a language in order to improve their basic skills which are reading, writing, speaking, and listening. For example, people from all around the world learn English Language for communication although they have their own language and dialects. As we all are aware of, English is the language used most widely in all over the world. Therefore, these basic skills are needed to allow us to share or represent information with others as intellectual one.

            For our tutorial, we had discussed on how culture and politics affects English Language by considering the factors such as multicultural society, urban and rural setting, politic and historical influence, and educational policies. From the presentation of every group, I can get the different ideas and information shared by different groups which is very useful for us.

Besides doing tutorial task, we also did lots of activities in the class. From the activity that carried out which is writing a sentences using our own language such as Arab, Chinese, Tamil, and Japanese; I can see that people from different races used different symbol to represent their language. All the different languages have their own rules and functions. Without learning the language, for sure we will not be able to understand the language.

Besides, we also prepared a dialogue with language functions for role play. Our group had prepared a dialogue about moving into a new house. From this activity, we can understand better about functions of language from the preparing of our group dialogue. Although our dialogue is not so long, functions used in the dialogue can be easily identified by the others group.

To understand better about the topic non-verbal communication, each group is required to prepare a mime of a situation. Our group chooses to mime a situation of a drunken taxi driver and passengers. Actually our group got the last minutes idea before presenting our mime. Although it is short and simple, the situation of our mime can be easily understood. I also feel proud because our group members were able to done the mime very well.

To conclude, this topic is very important for us as a future English teacher to understand this topic well. From what I had learnt in this topic and the activities that had been carried out, I hope that I can apply all the knowledge to teach my future students and to make the teaching and learning more effective so that the students can gain better understanding in learning language.