Jumat, 27 Mei 2011

Let's learn vocabulary


Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person".Unfortunately, this definition does not take into account a range of issues involved in knowing a word.

Types of vocabulary
Listed in order of most ample to most limited:

[edit] Reading vocabulary

A literate person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is generally the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three, though in some cases, notably Chinese characters, as in Chinese and Japanese, where the pronunciation is not transparent, some words may be part of the oral vocabulary but not the written. For example, a Japanese speaker may not recognize that  is pronounced kirin.

[edit] Listening vocabulary

A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice.

[edit] Writing vocabulary

A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user.

[edit] Speaking vocabulary

A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures

The importance of a vocabulary
  • An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication.
  • Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.
  • Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary.
  • A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary.

 

Fruit






Pets






Let's speak English

 


Salah satu cara terbaik meningkatkan kemampuan berbahasa Inggris kita adalah dengan mendengarkan ke percakapan bahasa Inggris sesering mungkin. Setiap malam kita bisa menonton film barat di berbagai channel TV. Walaupun kita tidak bisa mengerti semuanya setidaknya itu akan sangat membantu kita untuk semakin terbiasa dengan komunikasi bahasa Inggris.
Saya pribadi sangat suka mendengarkan kotbah bahasa Inggris  yang sudah saya copy ke HP saya dalam format MP3. Itu sangat membantu saya untuk semakin mudah menguasai perbincangan berbahasa Inggris.
Agar lebih menarik dan lebih ringan  kita bisa mulai mendengarkan lagu-lagu bahasa Inggris favorit kita. Sebaiknya kita nyanyikan sambil mempelajari liriknya. Kita bisa copy liriknya dari www.lyrics.com. Kita akan semakin menikmati menyanyikan lagu jika menguasai arti liriknya. Maka sangat saya sarankan agar kita mulai mengartikan setiao kata sulit dengan mengeceknya di kamus. Atau ketika on line agar lebih cepat kita bisa translate di www.translate.google.com .
Supaya kita semakin mahir berbahasa Inggris kita bisa hapalkan dan praktekkan kalimat-kalimat romantis dari lirik lagu bahasa Inggris. Misalnya:
·         Please forgive me I can’t stop loving you…  (lyrics nya Brian Adam)
·         You’re still the one I love..  (lyrics nya Shania Twain)
·         Everything I do, I do it for you… (lyrics nya Brian Adam)
·         The  sweetest surprise… when I was kissing you… (lyrics nya MLTR)
·         Beautiful girl… wherever you are…. (lyrics nya Christian Bautista)

Setelah kita menguasai kalimat-kalimat seperti diatas kita bisa latih secara monolog (ngomong sendiri di rumah yang penting jangan di pinggir jalanan.. he heh hehe). Kita bisa tambahkan kata-kata kita sendiri.
Misalnya:
Please forgive me I can’t stop loving you…. You know how much I love you… I always think about you…..
Please stay with me and share with me….. (so sweet…)


Kemudian akan sangat membantu jika kita mempunyai teman atau club yang dengan nya atau mereka kita bisa latih berbahasa Inggris. Mulai dari dialog sederhana semakin sering bercakap-cakap dengan mereka akan sangat membantu kita untuk semakin mahir berbahasa Inggris. Jangan pernah takut salah. Dan jangan malu berlatih. Sering sekali rasa takut dan malu lah yang memicu kegagalan seseorang dalam berbahasa Inggris.

Alright guys…
Selamat belajar… semoga tips ini bermanfaat!

  NO Bullshit to NO English

So the government is now making a study shall Sciences and Maths be taught in both English and Malay. Why waste time? Having revoked the previous implementation of teaching Maths and Sciences in English, now making the subjects bi-lingual?

Here's the situation these days:
  1. Educational resources are mostly in English
  2. Story books from all genres are in English
  3. Many great songs are in English
  4. We study English from primary 1 to form 5 (at least 11 years of formal English education)
  5. Labels, advertisements, tags are all in English
After the few elements that are delivered in English as above, why are there still many people having poor fluency in the usage of the language? I would just maintain it with teaching entirely in English.

My parents came from the typical Malay kampung of the olden days; poor, less exposure to the English language. How would their situation justify for their great grasp on the language?
  1. They have passion for reading. My mum for example, is an avid reader of everything and she raised me to be a book-worm as well. From young I was inculcated to read in my free time and I thank her for that. This truly helped in enriching my vocabulary and construction of sentences.
  2. Vocalise the language. I've many friends who, like my parents, comes from the deepest and most remote of kampung yet they have the initiative to read English, listen to English and ultimately speak English. Kudos!
Some might say that I'm blessed to be raised in an English-speaking family which allows me to have a better, but not the best grasp on this universal language. But our parents are not as fortunate to have their parents speaking English.

So if people still give the excuses of not being able to speak the language fluently because of whatever reason in the world, seriously, stop bullshitting because the person themselves chose to bullshit themselves on not being able to speak English.





Rabu, 25 Mei 2011

PROPOSAL THESIS OF BACKGROUND




IMPROVING  SENTENCE CONTRUCTION THROUGH”SERIES ARRANGEMENT WORDS TECHNIQUE”OF THE SEVENTH GRADE SCHOOL OF SMP NEGERI 3 ABIANSEMAL IN ACADEMIC 2011
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study
Language learning is important for human’s social development. As a language which is used by more than a half of population in the world, English holds the key as international language. English is a tool of communication among peoples of the world to get trade, social-cultural, science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is important in career development, therefore students need to understand and use English to improve their confidence to face global competition.
 According,Jakobson's (1960, pp. 350-377),  model of the functions of language distinguishes six elements, or factors of communication, that are necessary for communication to occur. The functions are the following, in order:  referential ("The Earth is round"),  emotive ("Yuck!"),  conative ("Come here"),  phatic ("Hello?"),  metalingual ("What do you mean by 'krill'?"), and  poetic ("Smurf"). When we analyze the functions of language for a given unit (such as a word, a text or an image), we specify to which class or type it belongs. which functions are present/absent, and the characteristics of these functions, including the hierarchical relations and any other relations that may operate between them.
  English the international language helps you learn English for free with our collection of online lessons, resources and advice for learners worldwide. With around a billion learners of English worldwide (British Council estimate for 2000) and growing, teaching English as a second language is one of the 21st century's major career opportunities, offering unrivalled job security and opportunities to travel to every corner of the globe.
According ,Albert and Thomas (2002:336) English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Modern English, In the post-colonial period, some of the newly created nations which had multiple indigenous languages opted to continue using English as the lingua franca to avoid the political difficulties inherent in promoting any one indigenous language above the others.
English as a formal subject is given to junior high school (SMP) level, which the goals are translated as follows: “The goals of teaching and learning English for this level are improving the four English skills. They are the mastery of the receptive skills (reading and listening) and the mastery of the productive skills (speaking and writing), within a specified word level and relevant grammatical structures and notions, in the context of the specified themes which are enclosed for junior high school (SMP) students” (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:42).
Writing is the expression of language in the form of letters, symbols, or words. The primary purpose of writing is communication. People have used many tools for writing including paint, pencils, pens, typewriters, and computers. The writing process includes prewriting, composing, revising, editing, and publishing. There are many kinds of writing such as expository, narrative, descriptive, imaginative, and persuasive. Literature is a type of writing that includes poetry, novels, plays, and short stories. Regardless of the language, writing has many rules including grammar, spelling, and punctuation. People use many tools to assist in their writing such as dictionaries and thesaurus.
 The fact shows that the result of teaching learning English is still low. In the teaching Junior High School Level still have problems in Writing. The problems in the make sentence ”Present Continous Tense”  with formula :  s + tobe + verb.ing  + o,  Example:  He is watching television.  In the make sentence,students have problems to” Grammar and  To be”.
In the Grammar,students can’t understand about the formula in the make Present Continous Tense  and “to be” (is,am,are) still confuse and how to use with subject,Example: He are watching television. For making students can write sentence correctely about Present Continous Tense,can be make media learner with Exersise arrangement words,such as: We/watch /television,  He/ sweep/ the floor,  I/cook/fried rice/in the kitchen. For these,we can use the metode”Series Arrangement Words Technique” (SAWT). Teacher teach the materials that will be tested. The goal is that the students get good score in the learning English.
These failures are influenced by many factors. According to Zamroni in Somantri (2003), it happens because of the education system at school just transfer the dead knowledge where the knowledge is separated from the application. Teachers teach materials that will be tested. The goal is that the students get good score in the final test. While Ali in Ant-O2 (2005) argues that the low of the students quality in teaching and learning English happens because the students are used to memorizing and doing arrangement words assignment. Both of arguments above show that the process of teaching and learning English is  so support the improvement of life skills. Students can get good score in the final test and they can memorize the theory well and they can use English in real communication.

 

Students Learning Achievement With Traditional Assessment And Portfolio Assessment
Bab Pendahuluan Skripsi Bahasa Inggris dengan judul: Students Learning Achievement With Traditional Assessment And Portfolio Assessment
Language learning is important for human’s social development. As a language which is used by more than a half of population in the world, English holds the key as international language. English is a tool of communication among peoples of the world to get trade, social-cultural, science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is important in career development, therefore students need to understand and use English to improve their confidence to face global competition.
English as a formal subject is given to junior high school (SMP) level, which the goals are translated as follows: “The goals of teaching and learning English for this level are improving the four English skills. They are the mastery of the receptive skills (reading and listening) and the mastery of the productive skills (speaking and writing), within a specified word level and relevant grammatical structures and notions, in the context of the specified themes which are enclosed for junior high school (SMP) students” (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:42).
The fact shows that the result of teaching learning English is still low. Somantri said (2003) that there can be a wonder about the condition of the student’s English ability. The students have learned English from the first-grade of junior high school until senior high school, but most of them still cannot use English as tool of communication. Zamroni in Somantri (2003) found that it not only happened to the students who have score below five, but the students who have score over eight in junior high school can not use English in real communication in their level. Besides, their receptive skills are also below the expectation. For example, the students who have graduated from senior high school, they still find difficulty in reading English literatures (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:1).
These failures are influenced by many factors. According to Zamroni in Somantri (2003), it happens because of the education system at school just transfer the dead knowledge where the knowledge is separated from the application. Teachers teach materials that will be tested. The goal is that the students get good score in the final test. While Ali in Ant-O2 (2005) argues that the low of the students quality in teaching and learning English happens because the students are used to memorizing and doing multiple choice assignment. Both of arguments above show that the process of teaching and learning English is not so support the improvement of life skills. Students can get good score in the final test and they can memorize the theory well but they cannot use English in real communication.

Bab Pendahuluan Skripsi Bahasa Inggris dengan judul: Effects Of Pre-Questioning On The Reading Comprehension Achievement Of The Second Grade Students
Language is one of the most important things in communication and it is used as a toll of communication among the nations in all over the world. As an international language, English is very important and has many interrelationships with various aspects of life owned by human being. In Indonesia, English considered as the first foreign language and taught formally from elementary school up to the university level.
In English, there are four skills that should be mastered, they are: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The reading skill became very important in the education field, students need to be exercised and trained in order to have a good reading skill.
Reading is also something crucial and indispensable for the students because the success of their study depends on the greater part of their ability to read. If their reading skill is poor they are very likely to fail in their study or at least they will have difficulty in making progress. On the other hand, if they have a good ability in reading, they will have a better chance to succeed in their study.
In reading, to comprehend the text the readers should be able to manage every part of the text, because it is easy to gain the comprehension in reading when the readers are able to organize the text. Sometimes, they may find form of pre-questioning and it is important for them to comprehend a reading text with having knowledge in general view of the text. Theoretically, pre-questioning itself can build the students’ interest and motivation before students read the whole text. Moreover, the students can predict what will be discussed on the text. In line with this study, students may improve their reading comprehension if they know about pre-questioning and it is very important to understand about pre-questioning in order to get good comprehension in reading.
Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested in finding out the effects of treatment with pre-questioning and without pre-questioning on students’ reading comprehension achievement and concluded that the pre-questioning consist of some questions provided before the students read the whole text. It tends to build the students’ interest and motivation to read the text.
 

Senin, 23 Mei 2011

GRAMMAR

The term "grammar" is often used by non-linguists with a very broad meaning indeed; as Jeremy Butterfield puts it: "grammar is often a generic way of referring to any aspect of English that people object to".[1] However, linguists use it in a much more specific sense. Every speaker of a language has, in his or her head, a set of rules[2] for using that language. This is a grammar, and—at least in the case of one's native language—the vast majority of the information in it is acquired not by conscious study or instruction, but by observing other speakers; much of this work is done during infancy. Language learning later in life, of course, may involve a greater degree of explicit instruction.[3]
The term "grammar" can also be used to describe the rules that govern the linguistic behaviour of a group of speakers. The term "English grammar", therefore, may have several meanings. It may refer to the whole of English grammar—that is, to the grammars of all the speakers of the language—in which case, the term encompasses a great deal of variation.[4] Alternatively, it may refer only to what is common to the grammars of all, or of the vast majority of, English speakers (such as subject-verb-object word order in simple declarative sentences). Or it may refer to the rules of a particular, relatively well-defined variety of English (such as Standard English).
"An English grammar" is a specific description, study or analysis of such rules. A reference book describing the grammar of a language is called a "reference grammar" or simply "a grammar". A fully explicit grammar that exhaustively describes the grammatical constructions of a language is called a descriptive grammar. Linguistic description contrasts with linguistic prescription, which tries to enforce rules of how a language is to be used.
Grammatical frameworks are approaches to constructing grammars. The most known among the approaches is the traditional grammar which is traditionally taught in schools.
The standard framework of generative grammar is the transformational grammar model developed in various ways by Noam Chomsky and his associates from the 1950s onwards.
History
The first systematic grammars originated in Iron Age India, with Yaska (6th c. BC), Pāṇini (4th c. BC) and his commentators Pingala (ca. 200 BC), Katyayana, and Patanjali (2nd c. BC). In the West, grammar emerged as a discipline in Hellenism from the 3rd c. BC forward with authors like Rhyanus and Aristarchus of Samothrace, the oldest extant work being the Art of Grammar (Τέχνη Γραμματική), attributed to Dionysius Thrax (ca. 100 BC). Latin grammar developed by following Greek models from the 1st century BC, due to the work of authors such as Orbilius Pupillus, Remmius Palaemon, Marcus Valerius Probus, Verrius Flaccus, and Aemilius Asper.
Tamil grammatical tradition also began around the 1st century BC with the Tolkāppiyam.
A grammar of Irish originated in the 7th century with the Auraicept na n-Éces.
Arabic grammar emerged from the 8th century with the work of Ibn Abi Ishaq and his students.
The first treatises on Hebrew grammar appeared in the High Middle Ages, in the context of Mishnah (exegesis of the Hebrew Bible). The Karaite tradition originated in Abbasid Baghdad. The Diqduq (10th century) is one of the earliest grammatical commentaries on the Hebrew Bible.[6] Ibn Barun in the 12th century compares the Hebrew language with Arabic in the Islamic grammatical tradition.[7]
Belonging to the trivium of the seven liberal arts, grammar was taught as a core discipline throughout the Middle Ages, following the influence of authors from Late Antiquity, such as Priscian. Treatment of vernaculars began gradually during the High Middle Ages, with isolated works such as the First Grammatical Treatise, but became influential only in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In 1486, Antonio de Nebrija published Las introduciones Latinas contrapuesto el romance al Latin, and the first Spanish grammar, Gramática de la lengua castellana, in 1492. During the 16th century Italian Renaissance, the Questione della lingua was the discussion on the status and ideal form of the Italian language, initiated by Dante's de vulgari eloquentia (Pietro Bembo, Prose della volgar lingua Venice 1525). The first grammar of Slovene language was written in 1584 by Adam Bohorič.
Grammars of non-European languages began to be compiled for the purposes of evangelization and Bible translation from the 16th century onward, such as Grammatica o Arte de la Lengua General de los Indios de los Reynos del Perú (1560), and a Quechua grammar by Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás.
In 1643 there appeared Ivan Uzhevych's Grammatica sclavonica and, in 1762, the Short Introduction to English Grammar of Robert Lowth was also published. The Grammatisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch der hochdeutschen Mundart, a High German grammar in five volumes by Johann Christoph Adelung, appeared as early as 1774.
From the latter part of the 18th century, grammar came to be understood as a subfield of the emerging discipline of modern linguistics. The Serbian grammar by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić arrived in 1814, while the Deutsche Grammatik of the Brothers Grimm was first published in 1818. The Comparative Grammar of Franz Bopp, the starting point of modern comparative linguistics, came out in 1833.

[edit] Development of grammars

Grammars evolve through usage and also due to separations of the human population. With the advent of written representations, formal rules about language usage tend to appear also. Formal grammars are codifications of usage that are developed by repeated documentation over time, and by observation as well. As the rules become established and developed, the prescriptive concept of grammatical correctness can arise. This often creates a discrepancy between contemporary usage and that which has been accepted, over time, as being correct. Linguists tend to view prescriptive grammars as having little justification beyond their authors' aesthetic tastes, although style guides may give useful advice about Standard English based on descriptions of usage in contemporary writing. Linguistic prescriptions also form part of the explanation for variation in speech, particularly variation in the speech of an individual speaker (an explanation, for example, for why some people say, "I didn't do nothing"; some say, "I didn't do anything"; and some say one or the other depending on social context).
The formal study of grammar is an important part of education for children from a young age through advanced learning, though the rules taught in schools are not a "grammar" in the sense most linguists use the term, particularly as they are often prescriptive rather than descriptive.
Constructed languages (also called planned languages or conlangs) are more common in the modern day. Many have been designed to aid human communication (for example, naturalistic Interlingua, schematic Esperanto, and the highly logic-compatible artificial language Lojban). Each of these languages has its own grammar.
Syntax refers to linguistic structure above the word level (e.g. how sentences are formed)—though without taking into account intonation, which is the domain of phonology. Morphology, by contrast, refers to structure at and below the word level (e.g. how compound words are formed), but above the level of individual sounds, which, like intonation, are in the domain of phonology.[8] No clear line can be drawn, however, between syntax and morphology. Analytic languages use syntax to convey information that is encoded via inflection in synthetic languages. In other words, word order is not significant and morphology is highly significant in a purely synthetic language, whereas morphology is not significant and syntax is highly significant in an analytic language. Chinese and Afrikaans, for example, are highly analytic, and meaning is therefore very context-dependent. (Both do have some inflections, and have had more in the past; thus, they are becoming even less synthetic and more "purely" analytic over time.) Latin, which is highly synthetic, uses affixes and inflections to convey the same information that Chinese does with syntax. Because Latin words are quite (though not completely) self-contained, an intelligible Latin sentence can be made from elements that are placed in a largely arbitrary order. Latin has a complex affixation and simple syntax, while Chinese has the opposite.

Education
Prescriptive grammar is taught in primary school (elementary school). The term "grammar school" historically refers to a school teaching Latin grammar to future Roman citizens, orators, and, later, Catholic priests. In its earliest form, "grammar school" referred to a school that taught students to read, scan, interpret, and declaim Greek and Latin poets (including Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Ennius, and others). These should not be confused with the related, albeit distinct, modern British grammar schools.
A standard language is a particular dialect of a language that is promoted above other dialects in writing, education, and broadly speaking in the public sphere; it contrasts with vernacular dialects, which may be the objects of study in descriptive grammar but which are rarely taught prescriptively. The standardized "first language" taught in primary education may be subject to political controversy, since it establishes a standard defining nationality or ethnicity.
Recently, efforts have begun to update grammar instruction in primary and secondary education. The primary focus has been to prevent the use outdated prescriptive rules in favor of more accurate descriptive ones and to change perceptions about relative "correctness" of standard forms in comparison to non standard dialects.
The pre-eminence of Parisian French has reigned largely unchallenged throughout the history of modern French literature. Standard Italian is not based on the speech of the capital, Rome, but on the speech of Florence because of the influence Florentines had on early Italian literature. Similarly, standard Spanish is not based on the speech of Madrid, but on the one of educated speakers from more northerly areas like Castile and León. In Argentina and Uruguay the Spanish standard is based on the local dialects of Buenos Aires and Montevideo (Rioplatense Spanish). Portuguese has for now two official written standards, respectively Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, but in a short term it will have a unified orthography[9]
Norwegian has two standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk, the choice between which is subject to controversy: Each Norwegian municipality can declare one of the two its official language, or it can remain "language neutral". Nynorsk is endorsed by a minority of 27 percent of the municipalities. The main language used in primary schools normally follows the official language of its municipality, and is decided by referendum within the local school district. Standard German emerged out of the standardized chancellery use of High German in the 16th and 17th centuries. Until about 1800, it was almost entirely a written language, but now it is so widely spoken that most of the former German dialects are nearly extinct.
Standard Chinese has official status as the standard spoken form of the Chinese language in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC) and the Republic of Singapore. Pronunciation of Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, while grammar and syntax are based on modern vernacular written Chinese. Modern Standard Arabic is directly based on Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an. The Hindustani language has two standards, Hindi and Urdu.
In the United States, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar designated March 4 as National Grammar Day in 2008.[10]