MLC 105 Learning Journal #2 How the Brain Handles Language Reflection

[Sheetal Babu]

The readings offered an interesting perspective about the concept of language. I found the reading about how 'language is used to convey meaning' to be helpful to my language learning activities.It is very interesting that most people don't really think about all this information when starting to learn a language. It's true that many languages are familiar to the 'diversity of usage' phrase that is used on page 187. Although, I feel using an English example wasn't the best idea. English is a complicated language and just trying to explain the meaning of "mean" was complicated. I see what the author is trying to explain there, but I felt he/she should have included other language examples as well to tighten up his/her argument. He/she gives the reader a variety of things to think about such as the importance of vocabulary, sentence structure and sense vs. reference, but then ends that last reading by saying that meaning is where we must begin. I think that was odd. He/she explains the difficulties of meaning and suggests ways to get started, but then says that meaning is where one should begin. I think meaning is achieved through study of all those components he talks about, but I don't think that it is exactly a solid starting point because it becomes overwhelming.