Overall Reflections

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

Alhamdulillah, praise to Allah the Almighty for giving us a chance to learn and complete this course. Throughout the semester we have learnt a lot from the given tasks. Thanks to our lecturer, Dr. Rozina who has helped us in comprehending the lessons.

Through this subject, we realized that technology does influence us in so many things, including in education. Computer, especially is a very great tool invented by the previous inventors in accommodating us towards greater knowledge which by the information can be received just at the tip of our fingers. There are many softwares and applications in the computer that we can use in order to improve and increase our knowledge. Blog is one of the online applications that is utilized by us to share information with people all over the world regarding the advantages of computer applications in language studies as well as propagating Islamic knowledge to others.

Honestly, all these while, we admit that we usually use computers as a medium for us to socialize and also for entertainment. Everyday we login to our social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter just to update things that we did and posted photos on Instagram that we think people would like to see. On weekend, we often download movies and some new songs to be put into our MP3 player and phones. However, after attending this class, we realized that we use the technology given by Allah SWT for something which cannot contribute to our hereafter. We regretted it. Hence, we pray to Allah that we will be given a strong faith and determination to use every single things that He grant to us as the tools in propagating Islam, our true religion.

Other than that, even though the tasks given by our lecturer are quite tough, we managed to learn a lot of things that we do not know before and we find it very useful to us in the present as well as in our future undertakings. By doing the assignments together in a group, we have learnt that cooperation and teamwork are actually the most important basic things that we need to have. Without them, all the work given could not be accomplished and the group will be in chaos. Hence, as our group has done our best in cooperating with each other, the tasks given are said to be a success. InshaAllah.

Islamization of Error and Contrastive Analysis

Error and Contrastive Analysis is one of the prominent subjects in Linguistics that we should be highly concerned of. We have chosen the subject to be integrated with Islamization because to learn something without relating it to our religion and Creator seems to be deficient and incomplete. Unlike the westerns, we should never secularize our knowledge from our religion and Creator.

In general, Error and Contrastive Analysis teaches us about how we can analyze the types and causes of language errors. By looking at the errors that people constantly make, we can try to improve our language better and find solutions in order to overcome the problems faced in the contemporary usage. As language is the medium where messages are delivered to others as a way of communication, it is important for us to preserve our language and protect it from any harm that can diminish its aesthetical values. Plus, in this subject too, we have learned about how to compare between cultures that use different languages. By learning this, it helps us to understand how vast this world is to hold different varieties of cultures and languages and how we should embrace the differences and accept others without being prejudice and bias to our own culture. We have to respect other people’s different ways of life and try to understand them. 

This subject as we mainly know is taught in English and the researchers are mostly western scholars. Most of them hence, do not include the religion perspectives in their studies. In Islam however, we practice that everything in this world must be related to religion and Allah. Worldly matters cannot be secularized and should be integrated with religion especially education. Therefore, we should learn and practice the Islamization of knowledge as by doing so we are more grounded to our belief system and closer to Allah. By practicing this also, we can be more humble in our judgments and perceptions as Islam is a religion of moderation and humility.

#WEEK 11: FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

WHAT IS FORENSIC LINGUISTICS?

o   A branch of applied linguistics which is taking linguistic knowledge and methods and applying these to the forensic context of law, investigation, trial, and punishment.

o   The discipline of forensic linguistics is not standardized; it involves a range of experts and researchers in different areas of the field. Some of the areas are:

REFLECTION

From an Islamic point of view, forensic linguistics is one of the ways in applying justice towards the wrongly accused person. We as Muslims have been instructed to do justice and be truthful witnesses towards other people. 

#WEEK 11: COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS

WHAT IS COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS?

·         A sub-discipline of computational linguistics.

·         It is the study of patterns formed in particular texts, authors, genres, periods via computational methods.

Relevance or application to Language Learning or Language Research

·         To determine the style of literary works; grammar, lexis, semantics, phonological properties.

·         To identify linguistic features; Arbitrariness, creativity' or 'open-endedness‘, Cultural transmission.

Through computational stylistics we learnt that there are so many ways to interpret or analyse a text especially literary text. By using computer as one of the medium to interpret the text, many negative things can be detected by the analysts and also avoided by the writer such as plagiarism. 

#WEEK 10: LEXICOGRAPHY

REFLECTION

What is LEXICOGRAPHY?

Lexicography means the study of words. Technically, it means the study that deals with everything concerning with words. Lexicographers are people who study lexicography. Lexicographers deal primarily with the creation and editing of dictionaries.

Based on the dictionaries created by lexicographers, language learners can read interpretations and meanings of the target language. An example of a dictionary used by most UIA students is called Kamus Al-Farid that provide meanings of Arabic words in both English and Malay. It also provide the way to use Arabic together with the explanations syntactically and grammatically.

Through lexicography, Muslims are able to create dictionaries to learn Arabic for different language speakers around the world. Nowadays, we have Arabic-English dictionaries, Arabic-Malay dictionaries, Arabic-Chinese dictionaries and et cetera. By having these dictionaries, it is easier for Muslims to learn the words of the Qur'an better and spread da'wah to others.

Ibn Al-Khaldn (d. 1406) defines lexicography as,

"The science of instituted elements of language. That primarily concerned with semiotic relations and contrasts between the elements of vocabulary." 

#WEEK 9: CONCORDANCER

REFLECTION:

Concordance as what has been illustrated above is a piece of software, either installed on a computer or accessed through websites can be utilized to search, access, and analyze language from a corpus. It is very helpful and practical especially for us, students of English language and Literature. In order for us to increase our understanding and fluency in English, the use of concordance helps us a lot in learning the language faster and easier. There are many advantages that we can get from the learning of concordance and one of them is that it helps us to check and reconfirm our assumptions about the way words are used in different contexts. Plus, concordance also helps the teacher or lecturer to use authentic samples as examples to demonstrate the language they are teaching to the students. This somehow is very advantageous to us who want to become the future educators.

#WEEK 9: CORPUS LINGUISTICS

REFLECTION

Corpus linguistics involves the use of large corpora which consists of thousands or millions of words in a database. To make life easier, the computer is the best tool to use for corpus linguists. The roles of computer in corpus linguistics are very important as computers are used to store huge amount of texts or to retrieve a huge amount of texts. Other than that, the computer is also used as a tool to provide accurate reliability of occurrence of specific linguistic terms.

Corpus linguistics also cover various types of languages which include English, French, Arabic and so on. Corpus linguistics is very important for language learners as it provide learners a huge database to learn language. An example of a useful corpus for Muslims is the Quranic Arabic Corpus which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology of each word in the Holy Qur'an.

In an Islamic point of view, we feel that corpus linguistics can help Muslims understand Islam deeply in a short period of time. Like the example shown above, by using corpora, it is easier for Muslims to understand the true meaning of the Qur'an and also believe the authenticity of the Qur'an. We believe that corpus linguistics is not just important for the English language but also other languages including Arabic which is the language of the Qur'an, our Holy Book.

LESSON PLAN (IMPROVISED)

Lesson Plan for Speaking Skill using Computer Applications

Class/Level: Centre for Foundation Studies students (KIRKHS)

Date: 13/3/2013

Time: During the speaking class (80 minutes)

Proficiency level of students: Level 6 students                     

Theme: EPT / TOEFL

Topic: TOEFL’s questions are similarly same as EPT’s.

Language skill: Speaking

General objective: To enhance student’s vocabulary, pronunciation and speaking skills.

Specific objectives: At the end of this lesson, students should be able:

To pronounce words correctly.

 To improve student’s speaking and communication skills.

 To acquire new vocabularies.

Materials required for lesson:         

TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror

Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary Third Ed. (e-dictionary)

PowerPoint slides for instructions
Webcam

SPEAKING LESSON PLAN

Procedure/Steps	Activities	Time	Teaching Aids	Role of Teacher	Rationale/ Remarks
1) Induction	- Teacher gives brief instructions on the lesson for the day through PowerPoint slides.	10 minutes	PowerPoint slideshow	-To give an introduction of the topic of the day.	-To introduce the students what the lesson is about.
2) Step 1 (Preparation)	-Teacher will distribute handouts containing information regarding the lesson. -Teacher will use PowerPoint slideshow to teach the students how to use the software. -Teacher will explain the tasks that need to be done by the students.	10 minutes	PowerPoint Slideshow TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror Software Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Third Edition (e-dictionary) Microphones	-Teacher will explain how to use the TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror Software and Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. -Teacher will explain the task given and assist the students throughout the preparation.	-For this particular step, students will be doing things individually. -To give the students a chance to use the TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror Software and Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
3)Step 2 (Speaking Activities)	-Students will start their speaking activities based on questions provided in the TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror Software individually. -Each student will be given six questions. -Students will have two types of activities: i. Text reading ii. Question and answer (speaking) -Students will also have to use Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary to check out new words and their correct pronunciations. -All speaking activities of the students will be recorded by using Webcam for evaluation.	20 minutes	TOEFL iBT Speaking Conqueror Software Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (e-dictionary) Webcam Microphones	-Teacher will assist the students during the activity.	-To test students’ level of proficiency in English -To test students’ vocabularies and pronunciations. -To ensure students are aware of EPT/ TOEFL format. -To build the confidence level of a student.
4)Step 3 (Pronunciation Quiz in Group)	-After the individual speaking activity, the students are grouped into a group of five people and share their experiences and knowledge based on the lesson for the day. -The students have to choose one member of their groups as a representative to answer the pronunciation quiz asked by the teacher. -The students of the same group can help their representatives to answer the quiz.	20 minutes		-To give each of the representatives a phonetic sound and asked them to give the list of the words that have the respective sound.	-To encourage the students to speak and interact with their group mates. -To bond the students and build confidence in them. -To evaluate the students’ pronunciation.
5)Step 4 (Question and Answer Session)	-After the quiz, the students will be asked whether there is anything that they do not understand. -They will be also asked on what are the new information and knowledge that they gain from the activities.	15 minutes		-To ask questions to the students and listen to their opinions. -To explain to the students anything that they do not understand.	-To ensure the students understand the lesson that they have learned.
6)Closure	-Teacher will summarize the lesson of the day to the students. -Teacher will provide extra information and suggested softwares that can assist students in improving their speaking skills. *Speak N Spell  (http://speak-n-spell.en.softonic.com/) *Vocaboly (http://speak-n-spell.en.softonic.com/)	5 minutes	PowerPoint Presentation		-To ensure students can practice the exercises at home. -To give students other alternatives in refining their speaking skills.

Evaluation:

Students’ skill to speak up their answers to the questions provided.

Students’ capability to provide words with the correct phonetic sound in the given time.

Students’ skill to speak texts with no major mistakes or errors.