Learning Journal #6

[Felicia Taylor]

Knowing a language's history can directly help you understand how to learn the language because it can help explain why certain things are the way they are. As we read in the article in class, history can explain things like how the languages are related to other languages, what kinds of peoples spoke it, at what time, and in what setting. All of these aspects can help a learner more fully understand the background of the language, which will inevitably create a better foundation for getting context behind developing that language. In other words, knowing all of these things will put an individual in a better place for getting the hang of creating sentence structure, understanding words and vocabulary, as well as knowing what phrases to use and for what reason. In my case, learning the history behind Urdu really filled in many gaps on how Pakistan as a whole came together as a country. It helped me understand why Urdu is so close to Hindi in speech, but how it is so different in writing and script. These are very powerful tools that I used to help me with my understanding of Urdu.