Dear Students,
One of the students in the 3 + 2 class has expressed unhappiness at the class being cancelled on Friday and emailed their objections to everyone. Making angry and incorrect accusations in such a public way is unprofessional and unacceptable in a university setting and will not be tolerated. We will address this issue here now.
Sabrina and Sue were both on campus all day Friday. We traveled from Skopje to Tetovo on Friday, in the morning, in the snow. We have many other classes and duties at SEE University besides teaching on the Master’s program.
There was a lot of snow accumulating in Tetovo, and the roads seemed to be getting worse as time went by, so we decided, for safety’s sake, to tell students not to come to class. We felt this was necessary to do as soon as possible so that students wouldn’t travel all the way to Tetovo for nothing. Perhaps some students did not get the message before they left home and that is regrettable, but we did the best we could under the circumstances. We sent emails at about 12 p.m.
Personally, I (Sue) now have more work to do as a result of the cancellation, as I find it more difficult and time consuming to do marking online. It would have been much easier, for me, to have had the class on Friday and have students submit their work and do the test in class. However, because of our deep care of and concern for students’ safety, we decided that student safety was much more important than our own personal convenience.
In future, if anyone wishes to discuss any issue relating to the courses, classes or marks, this needs to be done in a respectful way, privately, between the teacher and student involved first. If this does not result in a satisfactory result for the student, they are then welcome to pursue their problem with the head of the department and the university administration.
This student has been advised to apologize for their actions before they continue in the program. If this is not acceptable to them, we will have to investigate a way to resolve this issue that is acceptable to everyone.
Sincerely,
Susan Boles
Sabrina Resa
Monday, March 23, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Presentation Notes
As requested, here are my presentation notes; sorry it took so long!
Group 1
-Good way to start out the presentation-with a question.
-I liked how you asked discussion questions.
-Great job making eye contact and not just reading the whole time!
-Thank you for defining the terms for us!
-Leave more wait time after you ask a question-give students time to answer.
-Great effort, even though you weren't feeling well!
Group 2
-Good way to start out the presentation-with a question.
-Good job of making your presentation interactive!
-Good job of eliciting examples.
-Try asking more leading questions-to elecit information the students already know.
-Try not to read too much, because it feels like you get lost in your textbook.
-What makes a language superior? Is it because of complexity? Who decides?
-Good job with giving lots of relavent examples!
-I like the fact that you did a group discussion activity. Good facilitation of that!
Group 3 (sorry we had to start rushing!!!)
-Good point about taking the time to explain culture!
-Good points-vocabulary says a lot about your culture, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
-Make sure that you interact more with your audience, so that you're not just reading the entire time.
Group 4
-Make sure you make eye contact with everyone, not just me.
-Good questions.
-Stop going over the examples in the book; it's taking too much time! One is enough! :)
-Good job with trying to get audience participation going!
-Go into more depth about sociolinguistics...
Group 1
-Good way to start out the presentation-with a question.
-I liked how you asked discussion questions.
-Great job making eye contact and not just reading the whole time!
-Thank you for defining the terms for us!
-Leave more wait time after you ask a question-give students time to answer.
-Great effort, even though you weren't feeling well!
Group 2
-Good way to start out the presentation-with a question.
-Good job of making your presentation interactive!
-Good job of eliciting examples.
-Try asking more leading questions-to elecit information the students already know.
-Try not to read too much, because it feels like you get lost in your textbook.
-What makes a language superior? Is it because of complexity? Who decides?
-Good job with giving lots of relavent examples!
-I like the fact that you did a group discussion activity. Good facilitation of that!
Group 3 (sorry we had to start rushing!!!)
-Good point about taking the time to explain culture!
-Good points-vocabulary says a lot about your culture, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
-Make sure that you interact more with your audience, so that you're not just reading the entire time.
Group 4
-Make sure you make eye contact with everyone, not just me.
-Good questions.
-Stop going over the examples in the book; it's taking too much time! One is enough! :)
-Good job with trying to get audience participation going!
-Go into more depth about sociolinguistics...
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Review of the first half of the course
First Half of the Term Review
Here is a review of the material we’ve covered in class thus far:
Part 1: What is Culture? (Parts 1 & 2)
1) We defined culture. We talked about many different definitions of culture. The textbook’s definition of culture is: “everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society” (pg. 24).
2) We learned that symbols are: “something that stands for (represents) something else” (pg. 25). Symbols are what we gravitate toward when we go to a new culture. We gravitate toward symbols that are familiar to us. That’s why it’s such a relief to meet someone from your culture when you’re abroad. There’s a feeling of, “They get me!”
3) We learned that culture is shared. We learned that there are often subcultures that make up a whole culture.
4) We learned that culture is learned, and the process by which it is learned is called enculturation. Everything we do as members of a culture is learned.
5) We learned that we are not born with culture, but we learn culture. It is not instinctual.
6) We learned that we can take culture for granted when we assume that people will act a certain way, according to our own cultural norms.
7) We learned that our culture affects how our bodies respond to some things. For example, our bodies may respond negatively if we eat things that we are unfamiliar.
8) We learned that cultures change, and two of the ways they change are by innovations and cultural diffusion.
9) We learned that there are 3 main causes of cultural change:
-technology
-ideas & values
-physical & social environment
10) We learned that there are certain universal problems that need to be dealt with in every culture, such as the following basic needs:
-economic system
-systems of marriage and family
-educational systems
-social control system
-systems of supernatural beliefs
-systems of communication
-security systems
11) We learned that cultures are interconnected, and that not every aspect of a culture works perfectly with every other aspect, or else we would have utopias.
12) We learned that not everyone in a culture acts according to cultural norms.
Part 2: Language and Culture
1) We learned that culture can’t exist without language, that language plays a big part in teaching culture to the next generation, and that language is part of everything we do.
2) We learned that the meanings that are attached to language are completely arbitrary. Language is a system of sounds that conveys meanings. Every culture has their own system of sounds and the meanings that go with them. We also learned that:
-Sounds are symbolic. “The word cow does not look like a cow, sound like a cow, or have any particular physical connection to a cow.”
-There are approximately 6,000 languages in existence.
-A language is considered a language based on mutual unintelligibility.
-There’s a big difference in the size of the populations speaking each of the 6,000 languages. There’s a chart on pg. 114.
-5% of the earth’s languages are in danger of disappearing. Reasons for this are: repression of peoples, globalization of English, transportation, communication-like the TV and internet.
-The horrible thing about languages becoming extinct is, as the text said, “an entire way of thinking is lost each time a language becomes extinct” (pg. 113).
3) We learned that communication systems that make us stand out from animals. There are open and closed systems. We have open systems, meaning we can create new meanings. Animals have closed systems, meaning they are unable to create new meanings-to put sounds together to make new meanings. The exception: gorillas have been taught ASL, but they still can’t communicate at the same level as humans.
Another thing that makes us stand out is: displacement. We have the ability to speak in hypotheticals-things that might happen, or things that have happened, or things that will happen. We can think abstractly. Also, we can transmit language through tradition, not just experience.
4) We learned that babies start out primarily listening and getting input. They start making sounds, and noises, then gradually that turns into words or parts of words, which turns into whole words and phrases, which turns into sentences. As they go, they have to learn the grammatical structure of the language. This process is the same in all languages, and it happens at about the same age in all cultures. They learn by immersion, and by repeating while in the environment where they can attach meaning to the sounds. We modify our speech when talking with children. We talk simple about what’s here and now. According to Chomsky, every child is born with a universal grammar-“an outline of a limited set of grammatical rules” (pg. 117).
5) We learned that there are 2 aspects to the structure of language: phonology & grammar. Phonology is the study of phonemes and how phonemes are combined. Phonemes are “the minimal units of sound that signal a difference in meaning” (pg. 117). English has 46 phonemes. Some languages have just 15 phonemes, others have 100. Morphemes are combinations of phonemes that make up meaning. “The majority of words in any language are made up of two or more morphemes” (pg. 118). Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone with their own meaning. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot stand alone-they have no meaning in and of themselves. Grammar is: the rules that make the words go together. Morphology is the rules governing how morphemes are formed into words. Syntax is the rules guiding how words are arranged into phrases and sentences.
6) We learned that language changes, just like cultures change. Languages change from internal sources, like values. Languages change from external sources, like need and prestige.
7) We answered the question: are some languages superior to others? NO!
8) We learned that you can’t fully understand a culture without understanding its language. That goes both ways.
9) We learned that culture affects vocabulary. The vocabulary within a language shows cultural values. This is called cultural emphasis.
10) We learned that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is the most popular description of how language affects culture. It is still a hypothesis, and is unproven. The hypothesis is that “language is more than a vehicle for communication; it actually establishes mental categories that predispose people to see things in a certain way” (pg. 125). The idea is that “the language influences or channels perceptions as well as the content of verbal utterances” (pg. 126). The question is: does language determine culture or affect culture? Also, language shows what a particular culture values.
11) We learned that different language groups have different linguistic styles.
12) We defined sociolinguistics. We learned that language use is dependent upon social context. It is an important thing to teach. There are high and low forms of language use. There are is also the issue of Standard vs. Nonstandard English dialects.
13) We learned that language, ethnicity, and nationality are connected.
14) We learned that part of learning a language and culture is learning the non-verbal communication within that culture.
Here is a review of the material we’ve covered in class thus far:
Part 1: What is Culture? (Parts 1 & 2)
1) We defined culture. We talked about many different definitions of culture. The textbook’s definition of culture is: “everything that people have, think, and do as members of a society” (pg. 24).
2) We learned that symbols are: “something that stands for (represents) something else” (pg. 25). Symbols are what we gravitate toward when we go to a new culture. We gravitate toward symbols that are familiar to us. That’s why it’s such a relief to meet someone from your culture when you’re abroad. There’s a feeling of, “They get me!”
3) We learned that culture is shared. We learned that there are often subcultures that make up a whole culture.
4) We learned that culture is learned, and the process by which it is learned is called enculturation. Everything we do as members of a culture is learned.
5) We learned that we are not born with culture, but we learn culture. It is not instinctual.
6) We learned that we can take culture for granted when we assume that people will act a certain way, according to our own cultural norms.
7) We learned that our culture affects how our bodies respond to some things. For example, our bodies may respond negatively if we eat things that we are unfamiliar.
8) We learned that cultures change, and two of the ways they change are by innovations and cultural diffusion.
9) We learned that there are 3 main causes of cultural change:
-technology
-ideas & values
-physical & social environment
10) We learned that there are certain universal problems that need to be dealt with in every culture, such as the following basic needs:
-economic system
-systems of marriage and family
-educational systems
-social control system
-systems of supernatural beliefs
-systems of communication
-security systems
11) We learned that cultures are interconnected, and that not every aspect of a culture works perfectly with every other aspect, or else we would have utopias.
12) We learned that not everyone in a culture acts according to cultural norms.
Part 2: Language and Culture
1) We learned that culture can’t exist without language, that language plays a big part in teaching culture to the next generation, and that language is part of everything we do.
2) We learned that the meanings that are attached to language are completely arbitrary. Language is a system of sounds that conveys meanings. Every culture has their own system of sounds and the meanings that go with them. We also learned that:
-Sounds are symbolic. “The word cow does not look like a cow, sound like a cow, or have any particular physical connection to a cow.”
-There are approximately 6,000 languages in existence.
-A language is considered a language based on mutual unintelligibility.
-There’s a big difference in the size of the populations speaking each of the 6,000 languages. There’s a chart on pg. 114.
-5% of the earth’s languages are in danger of disappearing. Reasons for this are: repression of peoples, globalization of English, transportation, communication-like the TV and internet.
-The horrible thing about languages becoming extinct is, as the text said, “an entire way of thinking is lost each time a language becomes extinct” (pg. 113).
3) We learned that communication systems that make us stand out from animals. There are open and closed systems. We have open systems, meaning we can create new meanings. Animals have closed systems, meaning they are unable to create new meanings-to put sounds together to make new meanings. The exception: gorillas have been taught ASL, but they still can’t communicate at the same level as humans.
Another thing that makes us stand out is: displacement. We have the ability to speak in hypotheticals-things that might happen, or things that have happened, or things that will happen. We can think abstractly. Also, we can transmit language through tradition, not just experience.
4) We learned that babies start out primarily listening and getting input. They start making sounds, and noises, then gradually that turns into words or parts of words, which turns into whole words and phrases, which turns into sentences. As they go, they have to learn the grammatical structure of the language. This process is the same in all languages, and it happens at about the same age in all cultures. They learn by immersion, and by repeating while in the environment where they can attach meaning to the sounds. We modify our speech when talking with children. We talk simple about what’s here and now. According to Chomsky, every child is born with a universal grammar-“an outline of a limited set of grammatical rules” (pg. 117).
5) We learned that there are 2 aspects to the structure of language: phonology & grammar. Phonology is the study of phonemes and how phonemes are combined. Phonemes are “the minimal units of sound that signal a difference in meaning” (pg. 117). English has 46 phonemes. Some languages have just 15 phonemes, others have 100. Morphemes are combinations of phonemes that make up meaning. “The majority of words in any language are made up of two or more morphemes” (pg. 118). Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand alone with their own meaning. Bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot stand alone-they have no meaning in and of themselves. Grammar is: the rules that make the words go together. Morphology is the rules governing how morphemes are formed into words. Syntax is the rules guiding how words are arranged into phrases and sentences.
6) We learned that language changes, just like cultures change. Languages change from internal sources, like values. Languages change from external sources, like need and prestige.
7) We answered the question: are some languages superior to others? NO!
8) We learned that you can’t fully understand a culture without understanding its language. That goes both ways.
9) We learned that culture affects vocabulary. The vocabulary within a language shows cultural values. This is called cultural emphasis.
10) We learned that the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is the most popular description of how language affects culture. It is still a hypothesis, and is unproven. The hypothesis is that “language is more than a vehicle for communication; it actually establishes mental categories that predispose people to see things in a certain way” (pg. 125). The idea is that “the language influences or channels perceptions as well as the content of verbal utterances” (pg. 126). The question is: does language determine culture or affect culture? Also, language shows what a particular culture values.
11) We learned that different language groups have different linguistic styles.
12) We defined sociolinguistics. We learned that language use is dependent upon social context. It is an important thing to teach. There are high and low forms of language use. There are is also the issue of Standard vs. Nonstandard English dialects.
13) We learned that language, ethnicity, and nationality are connected.
14) We learned that part of learning a language and culture is learning the non-verbal communication within that culture.
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