Blogs

           I found this article interesting because of its connection to what I have previously learned in my psychology class. In high school, I took AP Psychology and learned a lot about cognitive development and the mental impact of learning languages. Those who learn two or more languages have a larger and more developed Broca's and Wernicke's area - the two areas that deal with speech and language development. The article emphasizes the importance of linguistics in cognitive development. It mentions the connection of being able to switch languages and monitor the environment, making bilinguals more advanced in that area. Also, it emphasizes the age factor in language development. Infants have a keen sense of communication and can pick up languages easier than those who are older.

            For the past decade, it seems as though globalization and the importance of being bilingual has been linked and emphasized. There are many cognitive, economic, and political reasons why being bilingual (or, multilingual) is beneficial. The world we live in in constantly developing; not to mention that we are in constant communication with people across the world. We live in a technological era where communication is vital and it is becoming easier to contact someone who may be thousands of miles away. Schools in America are increasing emphasis on learning a second or even third language. It seemed as though Americans didn't have a well-rounded knowledge of other cultures and languages. American schools are even starting to include language requirements as early as sixth or seventh grade. 

The art of diagramming sentences is something taught in many schools across America. I remember learning about the different parts of sentences and how to make the sentence tree diagram. Although I have always been good with languages and some aspects of writing, sentence structure is one area that I found to be difficult because I felt like it required logic similar to science. It is true that the ability to speak English does not mean that one can read or write well in the language - and, vice versa. The parsing method sounds very similar to the way I was learning about sentence structure in elementary school. It is a very confusing and difficult method of dissecting phrases. For someone who is learning English as a second language, I can see how it can be extremely difficult to learn.

In many other languages, sentence structure is not as important as it is in the English language, or it is just very different. In the French language, adjectives are placed after nouns and when certain adjectives are placed before nouns, it gives a sentence a completely different meaning. In other languages, aspects, such as pronouns, are not used or used differently. Someone who speaks a differently language may not be able to easily grasp the concept of diagramming english sentences. I found this article interesting because I was unaware of the widespread use of parsing in teaching grammar and sentence structure in institutions across the country. I also did not know that this practice has been used for years and it is a traditional method of teaching children grammar. The article recognizes this method while alluding to the idea of developing a less difficult and advanced method of learning about sentence structure.

In the last journal post about Communicative Competence, I talked about how communication involves behavioral factors and interpretation. The sociocultural article discusses the cultural factors in language. Culture is a major factor in determining how people behave and interpret certain things; therefore, culture is a crucial factor in language learning. Culture and language are what we use to identify ourselves. The way we interpret events can be attributed to our cultural backgrounds. In the article, Matsumoto defines culture as a dynamic system of rules established by groups in order to insure their survival. I find that language has the same purpose - to provide a means of communication to insure certain groups of safety, etc. I found it interesting that the article pointed out that no society exists without culture. This means that no culture exists with a way of communicating.

Perceptions also play a role in our communication and interpretation. Our cultural perceptions of others determine how interpret the nature of their language. The article mentions how sometimes we perceive other cultures to be "loud", "quiet", or "conservative", etc. For example, when I performed in UR's student production Things Fall Apart, I studied and practiced Nigerian culture. It was necessary for me to understand how to speak like someone from the country. I noticed when even speaking English, how different the nature of communication is. Nigerians are very expressive in their communication, unlike in American culture and many English-speaking cultures.