More on English for Non-native speakers


My apologies if there are formatting issues.  At least on my system, the current Blogspot system
makes it utterly impossible to preview and edit entries.  So I have to go ahead and publish and
hope for the best.  I tried to reload the "Preview" a half dozen times, and it refused to show me
the preview.

In this entry, I'm going to talk about issues involving the history of English.
I'm hoping, circumstances allowing, that this will be the first entry of a series of posts on
this topic, although the series itself may require as few as two blog posts.

While learning any additional language as an adult has challenges in comparison to learning a
language as a child, some have argued that English is the most difficult to learn:  although some
submit Russian and Asian tonal languages for the honor of "most difficult to learn in adulthood."

There are reasons for this, in that English is not "a" language.

In this post, we are going to talk about the, so to speak, geneology of English.
We start in the years preceding 55 B.C.  At that time, what today is known as Great Britain was
occupied by citizens who spoke a combination of Celtic and Brythonic languages.

About 55 B.C., this area experienced the first of what over several centuries would be the first
of many invasions.  This was the Roman conquest.  As a result of this invasion, Latin would
become the primary language used in such places as schools and the homes of noblemen.  However,
there was also cross-fertilization so that Latin didn't fully supplant the earlier Celtic
languages but absorbed some of their properties of both grammar and vocabulary.

The next conquest came in the 5th century A.D.  At this time, three Germanic tribes who spoke
similar languages invaded the area.  These were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes:  tribes who spoke
similar but not identical languages.  This brought about the rise of the language we now refer to
as "Old English."  This conquest again resulted in some grafting of the original Celtic language,
along with overlays of Latin, into the Germanic languages of the invading tribes.  However, for
the most part, this conquest forced the original Celtic languages out of modern day Britain
although they survived in associated areas such as what are modern day Wales and Scotland.

Old English is unreadable and incomprehensible when spoken to speakers of modern day English.
Old English bears much more relationship to old High German or to old Norse than it does to
modern day English.

However, about half the words in current day English language have their roots in Old English.

The next influence on the language was not a conquest or invasion, but the influx of the
Christian religion.  This occurred in the 6th century.  The result of this was the reassertion of
the influence of Latin.  Latin now became the language used in schools.  However, most of the
population did not school their children.  Few people in this historical epoch could read and
write [something true throughout most of Europe.]  Again, there was a layering of some vocabulary
as well as some elements of grammar onto the language now spoken throughout the area:  this time
overlayered on a language that had already come about as the result of influences of at least
four different languages.

During the 11th century A.D. we find additional influences by way of conquests of the time.  One
was the Norman conquest under William the Conqueror, which brought about a French influence on
the language.  The other involved Norse invasion.  My research on this topic has not confirmed
that, but I seem to recall from my undergraduate days that this was not one, but a series, of
invasions.  This circumstance brought in the influence of the North Germanic language of Old
Norse.

At this time, the language evolved from what we now regard as Old English to what we now regard
as several separate dialects of what we now regard as Middle English.  Most Middle English
dialects are unintelligible to speakers of Modern English.  One of the keystone English language
circumstances arose at this time:  Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.  This is the dialect which
developed into Modern English eventually.  While it is quite difficult and the odds are some loss
of meaning, it is possible for modern English speakers to read that work in the original Middle
English.  Indeed, I had an Honors Program seminar as an undergraduate in which we did precisely
that little thing.

At this juncture, there was a linguistic separation for a few centuries.  Working or "lower"
class folk spoke some dialect of 'English,' while the upper classes and some business class
citizens spoke French.

Again, there was an intermingling or grafting, and the English language grafted on many French
words during this time in the evolution of modern English.

Up until this stage in the development of the language, there was little standardization of any
of the elements of the language except for a certain degree of standardization in grammar not
throughout the various influences, but during the epochs between them.  Pronunciation, vocabulary.
and spelling all varied greatly during these centuries:  even across the region at the same
specific historical interval.

Starting around 1500, and bolstered by the invention of the printing press, standardization began
to occur.  At this time, materials that assisted in the learning of reading and writing the
language became more accessible to all but the poorest classes of citizenry.

The language became standardized based on the dialect used in London, which is where most of the
publishing houses were located.

This evolution epoch resulted in the development of what we now regard as early Modern English,
which for the most part has remained fairly stable in Great Britain from then until now.

However, for a post at another time, there did continue to be evolution in such instances as
settlement of other English-speaking locations such as what became the United States, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand -- as well as some other locations.

So, the so-called "bottom line" of this post, is that part of the difficulty for non-native,
adult learners of English is that they are not learning "a" language.  They are learning a
language with layers on layers of influence that results in as many exceptions as there are
rules.  This is difficult EVEN on native speakers who have any kind of cognitive dissonance.
But for adult learners as a second [or third, or fourth] language this geneology of English makes
it a very difficult language to learn.  And perhaps their best response is to recognize HOW
difficult, and the reasons, that this language is to learn.

Such a perspective minimizes frustration.



References:   [Inadvertently admitted at first]



http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language

Ah.  Well, back to a writing topic.  But it fits nicely with my streak of nostalgia in the past few entries, in my rather limited posting history of the last several months -- due to situations that may eventually become known on this blog but that I don't want to get into now.

What I want to begin with in the next set of writing-related entries involves that the creative writer, be s(he) a writer of fiction or of creative nonfiction, requires certain things from the world around him or her to function.

One of those things is sources of inspiration.  Which is what I want to write about in this particular blog entry.

How does that tie in to my musings on childhood beach outings and antique or classic cars in my last few entries?

Well, it can.  If such things serve as the background setting upon which we find written upon the slate of memory those events as remind of us of the "everyday heroes" we may cross paths with at any time during our day to day activities.

And there are many such inspirations out there in the world:  many of whom truly do not recognize themselves.

Writers, by nature, look to books [both fiction and nonfiction] for significant portions of their inspiration.

But, it is also the case that the best among the creative writers learn to, as more than one writer before me has put it, "pay attention in the moment."

I happen to be doing a great deal of inspirational reading lately, but that is [I hope, as events unfold] for another entry.

In this entry, I want to talk about some real folks who . . . in many cases unwittingly . . . have become inspirations to me.  They come from different walks of life.

One is a fellow Blogspot blogger, who makes some very cogent cases on many different topics.  His own perspective is atheistic, but he is well informed on Biblical Scripture.  He is respectful of commenters, expressing wilingness [as he has to me elsewhere in the context of a shared client environment] to be open to being convinced, yet maintains an genuineness in his perceptions as they exist 'at this time.'  A kind of courage of his convictions.

Another group of people I find inspiring [even though I know my life circumstances would prohibit my doing what they are doing] is the team that is setting up our next parish faith-sharing group, hosting the sessions, and the session leaders.

Particularly, I was delighted to learn that the group I requested as best suited to my schedule would again be held at the home of the woman who hosted one of the groups I attended in a previous program.

When I signed up, I was delighted to find that the session best suited to my schedule would be hosted by the same woman who had hosted a previous session I attended, along with her husband at that time.

Why should that even be such a surprise?  Well, during the prior session, her husband died fairly suddenly [although he had has some disbilities nearly all his life], and she had during her year of mourning not taken on such hosting duties.  A year during which she decided she was no longer capable of driving safely and had to give up her driving, so hosting the program cannot be easy because it usually involves some kind of snacks and coffee or tea.  Which now means planning to get to the grocery store.

Then, there's my friend [whose name I cannot reveal without her permission, which I do not at this moment have] who is a "medical miracle" survivor.

And another individual on my mind lately is a young man in a foreign land [which one I will not reveal without permission] who has strong ethics and big dreams . . . in a national environment that makes that a challenge for anyone.

I agreed, some months back, to work with this young man somewhat, to help with some learning including but not limited to writing skills.

In the most recent about two weeks, on several occasions interspersed through several different e-mails to me, this young man has made individual statements to which my perceptive response can best be described as "startled."

He has become exceedingly insightful in his evaluations of persons, situations, and written material.

Indeed, in my most recent e-mail this young man made a statement that had a far more powerful impact that he probably imagines.  And at least until some time has passed, it would be inappropriate for me to point out the specifics.

"Shocked" and "startled" do indeed apply to my response.  But it was more than that.  In a way, I was exceedingly upset.  Not in a bad way, mind you, but because I was proud.  And because of what that particular response, which had a two-level meaningfulness:  and one of those levels spoke to the potential of the kind of courageous person this young man is almost certain, to become.

To lighten the mood a bit, I thought I'd end with a bit of a word count.  The young gentlemen would probably be incredulous, but also find my evaluation of the meaning-to-word ratio humourous.

"Startled"

Twenty words.

"Shocked"

Seven words.

"Upset, but also proud"

Eighteen words [plus the last two words of the seven words in the previously noted statement.]

Total:  Forty five words, but clear and cogent that conveyed exactly [I'm reasonably confident] what the young man wanted to say to the reader.

I know only a few writers who could convey that level of meaning in that few words [something that my perception of would probably shock this young gentlemen.]

Three things are clear in this last case I'm putting forward in this entry:  1) none of my time or effort has been wasted, 2) this young man more and more each day demonstrates inspirational characteristics on a variety of levels, and 3) almost inevitably, this young gentlemen will one day enjoy regard as an "everyday hero."




Krista


www.kristawriter.com

Well.  This is no way to run a blog.

Unfortunately, a series of personal crises has kept me away from the blog for this interval.  To
be fair, I must warn that this is still an ongoing situation that I am dealing with.

To pick up on my last post, though:  as summer now winds down, one set of childhood memories
involves regular summer trips to a freshwater beach.  We would travel, in that 1950 Buick, from
Lynn, Massachusetts to Windham, New Hampshire to a beach called Bella Vista on Cobbetts Pond.

There's much to recall about that beach and spending the day there.  But, consistent with the
antique car theme of the last post, one of those memories involves the nature of travel nearby
that beach.

There was a series of hills on the road leading in that my Dad would drive so as to accelerate in
just a certain way such as to cause the car to ride up on an air cushion.  Almost a miniature,
do-it-yourself roller coaster.

As the car rode the air bump, the delighted children would shout "wee" from the back seat.
Thus, this series of hills became known to our family as "wee ride" hills.

This little family entertainment was as much looked forward to as the beach activity itself.

Eventually, of course, the responsible local authorities widened and changed the nature of the
road and this tactic no longer worked.  I suspect it wouldn't have worked, either, on the
suspensions of more modern vehicles even if the road  had not been redesigned.

But for some years in my childhood, this aspect of the road trip to our favorite beach afforded
the family youngsters a great deal of entertainment.

Spring/Summer and Nostalgia

Ahh, Spring.

Two weeks ago, I was wearing a winter coat.  Two weeks from now, I’ll , in all probability be wearing short sleeves.

Any season can make a bid for a nostalgic sentiment, but Spring and Summer have their own demands in this way.

On the return commute a few days ago, I encountered . . . separately . . . two antique cars coming the other way on the local surface road I take.  They seem to come out around this time of year.

One was about a 1950 vintage.  The other one was even older:  almost into the Model A/Model T vintage.

They both set me to thinking about childhood experiences.

I think the 1950 era antique car was not of the same make as my Mom’s car, but it had [as do all cars of that era] that same “look.”  The car that came across my path a few days ago was aqua and white, which must have cost a pretty penny back then since “custom” colors like aqua were for the rich.

During my childhood years, we had a 1950 Buick Special [dark green] that looked much like this vehicle.

The other car didn’t set off as much nostalgia, since that was even before MY time for anyone to have one.  My strongest association with that one is enjoying “The Waltons” for some years:  mostly in syndication.  During “The Waltons” first-run I was in college;  too busy in a sense being John-Boy to watch it on TV except during summer vacations.

But, this happenstance encounter with two antique cars in the same commute got me in the nostalgia mindset:  which relates to some of my writing niches.

So, anticipate some upcoming posts on Sunday afternoon pizza for supper, beach expeditions, and the like for upcoming entries.

Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies

It struck me when I began this series that one of the puzzle pieces in vocabulary development for the non-native speaker/writer is the infancy and childhood experience of nursery rhymes and lullabies.

The nature of such material is phonetic, and the objectives multiple.

However, primary objectives include either soothing or entertaining the child [depending on if is it sleep time or play time, which translates to learning time for language skills], along with language exposure.

As a consequence, the composers of these ditties typically use a rhyming structure.  With lullabies, and later childhood games like jump rope songs, this may be combined with a musical foundation as well, which makes it a multi-sensory experience that further supports development of language skills.

As anyone who has experimented with writing verse can attest, creating a rhyming structure can pose its challenges to the writer/composer.

Because of that, we find words in some nursery rhymes that are peculiar or unusual.

Let’s look at a few traditional such rhymes.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

My son John

Went to bed

With his breeches on

One stocking off,

And one stocking on.

Diddle, diddle dumpling,

My son John.

This verse has only one occurrence, “breeches.”

The Wikopedia entry on this nursery rhyme actually uses the word “trousers” rather than “breeches.”

Well, the language is always evolving, and I don’t know too many men who any longer regard themselves as wearing “trousers” let alone “breeches.”

But, what happens, here?  The baby, and on well into childhood, hears this nursery rhyme over and over, and the word “breeches” or “trousers” as an article of men’s clothing [typically today known as “slacks”] naturally over time becomes a part of that infant’s working vocabulary.

Thus, “breeches” would be part of my working vocabulary, but I would not use it in writing to refer to a garment worn by a man unless I was writing historical fiction.

Cross Patch, Draw the Latch

Cross Patch, Draw the Latch

Sit by the fire and spin,

Take a cup and drink it up,

Then call your neighbors in.

This nursery rhyme is old enough for the first two lines to be quoted in “Little Women,” published in the 1860s or so.

Again, we have usages that are not often called for in modern English. 

We no longer “latch” our doors, we lock them.  And while we use “spin” in modern English, more likely we refer to the spin cycle on a washing machine than we do to spinning fibers on a spinning wheel as this verse refers to.

Yet, native English speakers exposed to this nursery rhyme will have working vocabularies that include those uses of the words “latch” and “spin.”

Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet

Eating her curds and whey.

Along came a spider

And sat down beside her

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

A child who heard this rhyme over and over would include the today rarely used words of “curds,” “whey,” and “tuffet” in his/her working vocabulary. 

Curds and whey are words that coming back a bit, thanks to the popularity of cottage cheese and similar foods.  But, for the most part, those kinds of words are rarely used in ordinary English usage today.

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn.

The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.

Where is the boy who looks after the sheep?

He’s under the haystack, fast asleep.

Here we find two words rather advanced for infancy, and not much needed in most English-speaking parts of the world today because most of the population no longer has an agrarian lifestyle.

But, a child who heard this verse from infancy would have the words “meadow” and “haystack” incorporated in his/her adult working vocabulary.

As someone who rides horses when possible, I can think of occasions I would use “meadow” in writing or communicating in speech to someone.  But I can’t think of circumstances when I would want to use “haystack” in such a way.

A Dillar, a Dollar

A dillar, a dollar

A ten o’clock scholar.

What made you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o’clock,

But now you come at noon.

Here again, “scholar” is a word not so much called for today.  More often, we will refer to those in a formal education program as pupils or students today.

Yet, a child who hears this rhyme from babyhood will easily call upon the word “scholar” during adulthood when circumstances call for it.  In this particular instance, the influence may well become derivative:  as a child gets into the education years geared towards entry into post-high-school academic institutions, the awareness of the word “scholar” will assist the young person in understanding words such as “scholastics” through the process of association.

Along with those exposure deficit challenges the adult learner has to overcome, there are also some cultural associations conveyed through the early language learning experiences that may increase the difficulty of learning proper usage of the vocabulary once the adult learner captures the actual word as a part of that individual’s working vocabulary.

But the cultural challenges are matters for other entries.

The point, for this entry is that the early exposure in the entertainment context of nursery rhymes to words that would ordinarily fall outside the “age appropriateness” quotient of a pre-school child acts towards building a foundation of both a strong actual and a strong working vocabulary in a way that the non-native speaker of English cannot duplicate.

The best such a learner can do is understand the factors, and try to find the most efficient way to create an exposure environment that provides the best learning potential for each individual student in that situation.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diddle,_Diddle,_Dumpling,_My_Son_John

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy_Blue

Note:  All quoted nursery rhymes are old enough to be in public domain, so I have only referenced the most pertinent references I looked at; although I did review several others.

On inner tubes, party line telephones, and black-and-white television shows

I pass that park any time I take that route to work [almost everyday I’m on this particular on-site job] or home from work [less of the time, but still often.]

Granted, the playground is more visible on the return home trip than the morning commute in to work. I usually only take that route home in certain weather conditions or if I need to run an errand on the side of the town the park is in.

On one such occasion, within the last few weeks, I noticed that among the play equipment is some sort of activity made out of a series of hanging tires.

Which got me thinking to my childhood days, and summer days of swimming at a freshwater beach that was a family favorite:  including what today we would call “pool toys” like inflatable rafts.

And inner tubes.

Real, honest-to-goodness inner tubes, from real honest-to-goodness automobile tires no longer suitable for over-the-road use.

And that got me thinking about the amazing, but taken-for-granted technology of things like cell phones.

I worked for an interval for Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, which pioneered the global positioning system on which all satellite technology of today [and thus much cell phone technology of today] is based.

But . . . I actually remember my family having an actual, real-life party-line telephone.

For you folks too young to know about those things:  a party line telephone was a situation in which two [or more] households in close living proximity who could not afford a dedicated telephone line individually shared a telephone account.

Those people who still have landline phones in their homes today have what is called a “private line” in contrast to the old “party line.”  [Although party lines are still available, per my phone book:  but I know of no one who still has one.]  Because my parents income in relation to expenses improved, and also because the family we shared the line with were .  . . difficult . . . to deal with in such a circumstances, my parents finally got a private line when I was about ten years old.

Today, youth take for granted not just a regular landline phone in their house, but calling anyone from anywhere on a cell phone.

Those ruminations got me thinking on something a friend who worked as an adjunct college instructor in Media Arts once told me.

That when she showed an old western movie in class, the class asked “what’s wrong with it?”

Well, ah, that’s the way it was made, because that was the technology of the time.  Black-and-white filming.

And when color filming became POSSIBLE, it was at first too expensive:  at least for a full-scale production.

One of the first partially color films was “The Wizard of Oz.”  This storyline lent itself to using color for most of the story, with black-and-white prologue and epilogue sequences.

Just those few black-and-white sequences saved a great deal in terms of cost.

Though it may not be the first, the first television show I remember that had a black-and-white to color switcheroo in midstream was “Bewitched.”  The first few years were black-and-white, then it switched to “technicolor” when the technology became affordable.

Again, as I recall, they tied the switch into the storyline:  I think, if memory serves, Samantha’s announcement of her pregnancy with Tabitha.

I grew up on black-and-white television shows, and although I’ve not watched much television lately, overall, my impression is that much of that earlier material was better quality than what we see today:  because we had to “make do” with imagination rather than relying on technology.

Today, people under the age of 50 or so, take these advances for granted.

Which is a shame.  Just look at the history of humanity:  we have made, technologically, more advances in the past about 200 years than we did in millennia before that.

Two hundred years ago, families had no central heating nor interior plumbing, let alone electricity or internal combustion engines.

A thousand years ago, anything you MIGHT read would have been laboriously hand-copied.  Typewriters and the Gutenberg press were well in the future.

And, I’m sure, many of my readers in the age of all-season-radial tires have no clue what an “inner tube” tire is.

Ah, it was a shell much like the modern tire; but lesser evolved in technology and more subject to problems like punctures.

Inside the shell we had an “inner tube.”

In the technology of the time, that was a double layer of protection from damage.

That we have advanced from that to where we are today, in less than one hundred years, is not a technological achievement anyone should “take for granted.”

And . . . the rapidity of technological advancement poses moral and ethical issues, also; which [society wide] haven’t kept pace.

But THAT is a post for another time.

What makes me rather sad, in terms of this particular post, is that “we” as a society fail to recognize that amazing fact:   in the past two hundred to three hundred years, we have made more technological progress that we had in more than three thousand years prior to the year 1800 [just as a nice round number choice of date.]

I believe that that puts us at risk as a society.  As I have heard said:  “History repeats herself because no one listened the first time.”

And I think we are going to find that we are on a self-destruct pattern by not recognizing “history” in terms of ethical considerations of our rapid technological advancement.

And . . . I have also heard that a lack of concern is a far greater enemy than active opposition to a position.

So, we need to cultivate a historical perspective among our youth.

What's a Working Vocabulary

Next up on my coverage of the issues for adult learners of English, is the nature of a “working” vocabulary.  You may sometimes see a term with an equivalent meaning of “functional vocabulary.”

The problem for adult learners involves:  how does an individual get a strong working vocabulary?

As with most situations, it certainly helps, and may even be mandatory, to define the nature of the issue before seeking a resolution.

So . . . what language skills experts appear to have settled on is that a “working vocabulary” involves that percentage of vocabulary words an individual knows that she or he is likely to use his/herself in speaking and writing.

Since I spend much of my communication time with people who are either readers, writers in some form, or both that definition brought me up short.

Taking myself [and pretty much every other writer I know] as examples:  there are a substantial quantity of words in MY vocabulary that I COULD in the appropriate situation call upon for use in communicating to someone in spoken or written form, and yet I probably would not.

So, I would say that a working vocabulary includes those words an individual knows with enough familiarity not to need to look them up in a dictionary when encountering that word during the reading of a fiction or reference piece of reading.  Even then, I’d give the exception of needing to look up the word if it occurs in a radically different way than the reader has encountered before for that word, given that many English words have ten or more different meanings.

So, for non-native speaker/writers, there are potentially two issues here, at least:  1) realistic assessment of the current state of the individual’s working vocabulary, and 2) how does an individual acquire a strong one?

The estimates I saw suggested that the actual vocabulary, on which working vocabulary is based, of literate native English speakers at about high school graduation encompasses approximately forty to forty five thousand words.  But, as to a working vocabulary, the figures seem to vary to somewhere between six thousand to ten thousand words.

Broken down, the studies that indicated these statistics noted that for a child to acquire a vocabulary containing forty five thousand words by high school graduation, the word acquisition rate is three thousand to three thousand five hundred words per year.   My own mathematical cross check indicates that, assuming high school graduation at the typical age within the United States of seventeen, the actual average annual acquisition rate for a child brought up speaking and writing the language is approximately two thousand six hundred forty seven unknown words annually.  Of course, the rate of acquisition is going to vary with the age of the child.

For those who really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, that translates to an acquisition of an average of seven and a quarter new words daily, on average, for seventeen years.

Of course, a working vocabulary includes the most common words in the language that we use daily:  such as “is/are,” various prepositions, and even the word “word.”

What a native speaker needs to do is find the most efficient replication, within his or her own personal circumstances, of the level of exposure that native speakers experienced from infancy up through high school graduation.

There are some aspects of this that cannot be replicated.  Even if an adult English language learner could capitalize on a version of learning through the phonetic characteristics of nursery rhymes and lullabies, the experience would still lack the parent-child bonding that a native speaker/writer experiences along with the early language exposure:  and which can have an impact, in that it conveys attitude, on the infant’s language skills development. 

Nor can an adult learner with existing language skills in another language reproduce the “clean slate” experience of infancy.  The infant has little or nothing filed in memory banks as yet.  This provides an absorbancy quotient for new data, including language skills, that an adult learner cannot duplicate.

What is the goal, in effect?

This is the crux of the problem facing adult language learners:  how do they most efficiently, being adults with responsibilities, provide the exposure that allows them to encounter that almost three thousand words per year?  Or, in some instances when “make up” time is taken into account, well over three thousand new English vocabulary words per year. 

A sense of realism about it, also, should allow those learning English as a second language to cut themselves some slack in the process.

It’s a monumental task they have undertaken, and any show of progress deserves recognition.

In order for an adult learner to define the most effective means of replicating vocabulary acquisition, which starts with exposure, within the individual’s own circumstances, the adult learner needs to have an awareness of the factors involved in adult learning in general, specific factors that pose challenges in learning English, and the nature of challenges in generating that exposure that may arise simply from the fact of living the life style of the average adult.

Additional posts on this area will explore each of these aspects of English vocabulary acquisition for adult learners.