Category: Language

Executive Summary

The present report studies and fundamentally looks at the paper GA Based Parameter Optimization for Word Segmentation. We start with a short presentation of the point and how research in Word Segmentation has come to fruition as of late. At that point, we will talk about the system proposed in the cited paper and fundamentally dissect it. Toward the finish of the paper, we will combine our discoveries in the end. Every one of the papers and articles alluded to build up this report have been added to the Reference list toward the finish of the report.

Presentation

Word division is the procedure by which we decide the most ideal arrangement of words, for the most part from a grouping of linked characters without spaces. Word Segmentations is applied to morphemes (littler root portions of a word) assurance likewise, with the goal that the machines can figure out how to get language, explicitly common language as a muscle memory. While people perceive most words, morpheme them and comprehend them because of taking advantage of the aggregate human learning of language and etymological complexities. If there should be an occurrence of machines, it is somewhat extreme for a misleadingly wise operator to perceive different parts of our regular language. Normal language doesn’t generally adjust to punctuation standards and furthermore has components like mockery, incongruity, talk, etc. To help an AI specialist comprehend these segments, we have to prepare them on as broad as potential informational index. Word division is a capacity in a similar exercise. This causes us in refining an informational index and to help an AI specialist perceive words and related implications.

Issue Statement

In a past work, the specialists proposed a calculation for word division which depended on physically tuned parameters. For further improvement of the word division calculation, the analysts have now proposed a hereditary calculation streamlined parameters. In this group of work, they have enhanced two parameters, number of words per up-and-comer arrangement and the exchange off weight between the impact of the length and likelihood on the wellness work. These parameters should be advanced before starting the word division process.

Displayed Solutions

In the proposed arrangement, as a matter of first importance the hereditary calculation utilizes informational indexes to streamline the two parameters: number of words per up-and-comer arrangement and the exchange off weight between the impact of the length and likelihood on the wellness work. When it has determined the streamlined worth, it is sustained to the word division calculation. Figure 1 demonstrates the essential rationale stream in the proposed upgrade:

The advancement starts by parting the information into three sets, the primary set is utilized as the preparation set to condense the language model. The subsequent set is utilized to process the parameters worth and consequently called the advancement set. This set is the preparation set which structure the foundation of the language model. The third set, is the test set. After parameter advancement is finished, the hereditary calculation driven division routine gets this third set as a contribution to record the calculations precision and productivity.

When the main set whenever nourished, the GA starts the improvement procedure. It produced the original of chromosomes with arbitrary qualities and the reproducing starts. Utilizing determination, assessment, and substitution works, the calculation at that point streamlines these chromosomes. To start with, it assesses each and every chromosome of the whole age. The genotype estimation of a genome is changed over to a phenotype. This phenotype is utilized as a parameter for the division calculation later. Subsequent to assessing the wellness of every chromosome utilizing the F-measure, irregular determination with likelihood of choice relying upon the wellness of a chromosome takes places. Utilizing these as guardians, another age of chromosomes is made utilizing hybrid and change capacities. The last advance in reproducing, substitution murders more established chromosomes and replaces them with the more up to date age.

With the end goal of this work, uniform hybrid is applied and to perform transformation, irregular qualities are included or subtracted. The procedure rehashes until all ages of chromosomes have been handled. At long last, the figured improvement esteems are encouraged into the word division calculation to test its exhibition on a given informational collection.

The principle capacities that develop a division calculation are fragment (content), firstofBestCandidateSolitions (inputString), Match (inputString), candidateSolution (inputString), and Pw (PreviousWord, word). The capacity section (deSegmented) decides the limits of words from the info arrangement of characters without space. It targets finding the best reasonable word arrangement and isolates the primary word. In an iterative design, this capacity isolates every one of the words from with in the info string.

An applicant arrangement is a string of n back to back words which can be coordinated with the start of the info string. Further it accept that the quantity of words per competitor arrangement is a preset even before the calculation starts. Hereditary calculation applies in improvement streamlines this parameter. The capacity firstofBestCandidateSolutions(inputString) restores the main expression of competitor arrangement which accomplishes the most elevated wellness.

The capacity CandidateSolution discovers N of the back to back words which match the start of the information string with their wellness. Match(inputString) is a capacity that matches a solitary word to the informational collection, that is, the yield of this capacity is a solitary word that must match the start go the information string. When a reasonable word, which is known as a competitor arrangement, is discovered, the calculation registers the wellness estimation of this up-and-comer arrangement and the yield is created. Yield is as a lot of ListofWords, Score esteems. The Score worth is determined dependent on the likelihood and length of the word gave as information. The capacity Pw (previousWord, word) is utilized to discover the likelihood of a word.

The analysts tried this GA controlled division calculation on Google N-Gram Language model a few times and with different GA parameter settings, utilizing an improvement set containing 200,000 words. The scientists saw a F-proportion of 97.3% by utilizing the GA fueled word division calculation on this model, indicating critical ascent in F-measure over all corpus. The calculation was tried in the Al-Watan informational index for Arabic language, which contains ten million words, a few times and utilizing diverse GA parameter settings. Indeed, even on such a broad informational index, the calculation indicated significant improvement crosswise over networks, for example, exactness, review, and F-measure.

On the BNC language model, when the scientists tried the GA advanced word division calculation utilizing changing streamlining parameters and an improvement set with 200,000 words, the best F-measure recorded was 97.1%. The outcomes acquired over this informational collection and language model, exceed execution of other division calculation by an edge as large as roughly 20%. This is a serious critical improvement and holds guarantee for further advancement hereon.

A Critical Analysis

While the proposed calculation indicates generous improvement with the Google N-Gram Language Model, BNC Language model, and Al-Watan language model, it is to be seen that this calculation can not be applied on inconspicuous words. This basically implies inconspicuous words would be portioned as words the model as of now perceives. Concealed words and images are basically arranged into words seen or as an individual piece of the sentence. For instance, if the model doesn’t perceive the word ‘mistletoe’, it will portion it as, ‘Fog, L, E, Toe’. This requires an exhaustive, comprehensive informational index which should be difficult to make and additionally to process. Further, a few dialects have various implications for similar words, which implies that in an incorporated situation, it would not be anything but difficult to consistently fragment words effectively. This will be the situation except if we make sense of an approach to enable our machines to comprehend the idea and setting of a sentence simultaneously. This would comprise a noteworthy piece of the degree for research in future.

Be that as it may, similar issues exists with different techniques for word division like measurable methodology and the lexicon approach. Fundamentally, a language model while draws productivity from its division calculation too, it is likewise still as solid as the informational index it prepares on.

Conclusion

We have a few word division calculations with the principle objective of each being finding an answer with extreme precision. When in doubt, the vast majority of these strategies pursue a heuristic model to abstain from looking through immaterial state space. The examined paper indicated how one could improve effectiveness of a word division method by incorporating it with GA based advancement calculation to get upgraded parameters. The displayed methodology has been tried utilizing the main three word division systems in two unique dialects, English and Arabic. The proposed work, considered as opposed to already fruitful works, demonstrates noteworthy upgrades. This demonstrates hereditary calculations are a transformative methodology when applied to word division systems.

References

1. Anthony Cheung, Mohammed Bennamoun, and Neil W Bergmann. An arabic optical character recognition system using recognition-based segmentation. Pattern recognition, 34(2):215–233, 2001.
2. Chunyu Kityz and Yorick Wilksz. Unsupervised learning of word boundary with description length gain. In Proceedings of the CoNLL99 ACL Workshop. Bergen, Norway: Association for Computational Linguistics, pages 1–6. Citeseer, 1999
3. David E Goldberg and John H Holland. Genetic algorithms and machine learning. Machine learning, 3(2):95–99, 1988
4. David E Goldberg and H John. Holland. genetic algorithms and machine learning. Machine learning, 3(2-3):95–99, 1988
5. Dimitar Kazakov and Suresh Manandhar. A hybrid approach to word segmentation. In International Conference on Inductive Logic Programming, pages 125–134. Springer, 1998
6. Mohammad A, Karam M, GA Based Parameter Optimisation for Word Segmentation, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Journal, ISSN: 1687-4846, Vo. 17, No 1, Pg No 23-32, October 2017.
7. Tobias Scheidat, Andreas Engel, and Claus Vielhauer. Parameter optimization for biometric fingerprint recognition using genetic algorithms. In Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Multimedia and Security, pages 130–134. ACM, 2006
8. Xiaofei Lu. Towards a hybrid model for chinese word segmentation. In Proceedings of Fourth SIGHAN Workshop on Chinese Language Processing, pages 189–192, 2005

The 21st century technology has increased their visibility and the use among the ordinary people in the society. This widely spread usage of internet can be seen among Bruneians as well. By 31 December 2017, 94.6% of Brunei’s total population had access to internet and it is expected that it will further grow in 2018 (Internet world stats, 2018). The emergence of internet and modern means of communication facilitates computer mediated communication (CMC) where a new type of language has emerged (Herring, 2012). According to Crystal (2006) this new type of language contains features of daily speech and writing as well as some electronically mediated properties. Androutsopoulos (2011) mentions that compared to other traditional media, more instances of code switching and code mixing are found on internet.

Since it can be seen that so many interaction occur online, it would be interesting to learn about the online language use among Bruneians. Coates (2013) states that, “when speakers are bi- or multilingual, then language choice can have a key role in the construction of gendered identities” As Brunei is a multilingual country, where most of its population is bilingual at least in English and Malay, code-switch can be identified commonly in face to face interaction among the young educated Bruneians and same behavior can be observed in the online language usage as well (Wood, 2016). Since code-switching offline is a widely studied area, the purpose of this study is to investigate code-switching among native Brunei university students on internet.

Literature review

Language status in Brunei education system

Jones (2012 cited in Wood, 2016 ) states that national System of Education for the 21st century, SPN21, which was introduced in 2009 has promoted to teach mathematics and science in English from the primary school. Before the introduction of SPN21, the education system was such that for the first three years of primary school it was Malay-medium and then from the fourth year of primary onwards it was shifted to English-medium (Ministry of Education 2009, p. 26). This being the case, it is expected that the majority of Bruneians to be bilingual. Further, the tertiary education in the country is also recognized to be bilingual Ishamina (2017) mentions that, “UBD (University Brunei Darussalam) was set up in 1985 as a bilingual university that offered both Malay-and English medium programmes”.

Code-switching

Code-switching is commonly found throughout East and Southeast Asia. In Brunei it has been observed that code-switching between Brunei Malay and English is very common (McLellan, 2010). As code-switching is commonly recognized in the country, UBD students tend to code-switch even in the classroom. Noor Azam, Zurinah, Liyana, Suciyati and Saidai (2014, as cited in Ishamina & Deterding, 2017) report that, “students often code-switch when talking among themselves and also when they are speaking with their local tutors.” However they are likely to use English to interact with the foreign lectures and academic staff and code-switching has been hardly observed (Deterding and Salbrina ,2013, p. 107, as cited in in Ishamina & Deterding, 2017).

As mentioned early code-switching is a common linguistic feature in Brunei and it is found in both offline and online interactions. Wood (2016) mentions that on internet Bruneians tend to code-switch not only between Malay and English but also use other languages such as Arabic. Moreover it is seen that women tend to code-switch more often than men (Nurdiyana Daud 2012, p. 86, as cited in Wood, 2016). Therefore this study will try to find out , whether gender influence choice of code-switching, whether language choice for code-switching is influenced by the gender and finally whether frequency of code-switching depend on gender.

Data

An online questionnaire (Appendix 1) was used to collect data for this study. The questionnaire was designed to get an overview about the online language use among UBD students and consisted 7 multiple choice questions. The link to the questionnaire was distributed via Whatsapp, a highly used social media platform among the UBD students. Access for the questionnaire was limited to one week. Table 1 shows information about the respondents and their first language (L1) and their second language (L2).

Results and discussion

Does gender influence choice of code-switching?

Table 2 shows the respondents language choice in their day-to-day online interactions. As shown in table 2, 62.5% of female respondents stated that they do code-switch in their online conversations, whereas only 56.3% male respondents acknowledged that they code-switch in online conversations. It seems that female like to code-switch on internet. As somebody stated female tend to code-switch more than male as it is seen as a norm of the society. However the difference drawn from this study is not that significant (X2 = 0.12955, df = 1, p-value = 0.7189), so no conclusion can be drawn.

Conclusion

The results supports the initial hypothesis of this study, that female prefer to code switch more than male. However there have been few limitations in this study such as, limited number of respondents, respondents were not fully aware about certain lexical items that were used. Therefor a complete and a general conclusion cannot be drawn based on this study. Further studies to trangulise this study may help to arrive at a solid conclusion about the influence of gender on online language preference.

Abstract

To write an abstract, finish your paper first, then type a summary that identifies the purpose, problem, methods, results, and conclusion of your work. After you get the details down, all that’s left is to format it correctly. Since an abstract is only a summary of the work you’ve already done, it’s easy to accomplish! 2.Introduction

Background History

Welsh language is one of the oldest languages in Europe as it approximately derived from 4000 years ago. [3] According to some previous studies of Wales and the Welsh, they reflected that Wales is a country which cultivated unique tradition and culture. [1] Therefore, Welsh plays an important role in cultural diversity in the UK. However, in the past, Welsh speakers were not welcomed by some people, which resulted in a decline of its usage. The situation of declining did not level off until late 1990s when a series of laws were passed to benefit the expansion of the usage of Welsh.

Introduction

The history and the economic benefits of the Welsh implies the necessity to prevent the decline of the usage of this language, so the analyse of the census for the Welsh speakers is really important. Some previous studies showed that over the last decade, more than a half of people in Wales could speak (the) Welsh. [2][1]One survey illustrated that this indicated a slight increase of the usage of the language. [1] Nevertheless, some website claims that (the) Welsh is facing the danger of dying out, because the average age of (its) speakers is getting elder than those in the past. 【？？？】And the native speaker has been decreasing. [1]

Purpose: To make a few contributions for the analysis of the data about the Welsh usage in Aberystwyth, the report will illustrate some data about the Welsh speakers in this place and try to analyse whether the language usage is decreasing in the place.

Methods

Where did I get the sample? How?

The methodology in the survey of the report relied on the questionnaires distributed to 35 people who live in Aberystwyth (not including international students and tourists). One map, which illustrated the proportions of average proportion of those Welsh speakers in the different locations in Anerstwyth in 2011, showed that the spots where we got samples were all with a range between 20% – 40% of Welsh speakers. The sample group of the people were collected from many different place, (such as a theatre, coffee shop, the place along the seaside, supermarket and hospital) to diversify the sources of people so that mostly likely to decrease the possible sample deviation.

When comparing the data collected by our group with the similar data from a previous census made in Aberystwyth in 2011, it can be noticed that the data of the percentages of people who never used Welsh in those places or with those people has mainly decreased.

It is fair to say that this comparison is too weak to claim the possibility that the Welsh usage has declined, because some data that may not truly reflect the real situation at the moment (as the reason which has been discussed above), and because some options in the questionnaires between our group’s and the previous one in 2011 are not entirely the same. However, at least, there are three options in these questionnaires are entirely the same. The comparison of these questionnaires indicates that the figures about the options of “Family” and “Friends” has increased by nearly a quarter (23%) and one sixth (15.8%) respectively, which are much more than the slight increase for figure about the option of “Shops” (5%).

Therefore, if the random sample chosen by our group can effectively represent the whole population in Aberystwyth , the comparison of these figures probably could reflect the following information:

Conclusion

This survey demonstrates that the proportion of the Welsh speakers in Aberystwyth has slightly increased. However, the situation of the Welsh language is not optimistic , because though some of these speakers with comparatively low abilities to use the Welsh language. Secondly, the average proportion of the time for three fourths of the people who can speak welsh generally used half of their time in Other languages rather than Welsh. Thirdly, Comparing with the data of the census of the Welsh language use in Aberystwyth in 2011, there are some clues appears that people in Aberystwyth nowadays are less likely to use Welsh to speak in some specific places or to speak with some specific kinds of people.

There are 6 stages of language development. Firstly, the Prelinguistic stage occurs early in a child’s life when they are exploring speech and sound. They will often cry, babble and try to mimic others. Approximately, around 10-13 months is when the child reaches the holophrase or one-word sentence phase. They are not yet able to speak full sentences so they communicate by using single words to express a complex idea in order for their needs to be met. An example would be “up” when the baby wants to be picked up. By around 18 months the child reaches the two-word sentence stage. These sentences are not usually grammatically correct however they are still able to communicate what they are trying to say. Such as if the child said “Where is ball?” we would understand that they are asking where is the ball. Multiple word sentences (also known as the telegraphic stage) are used when the child is around 2-2 and a half years. During this stage their vocabulary will expand and more words will be introduced. The child may ask “Where is ball?” as opposed to “Where ball?”. Moreover, the complex grammatical structures stage is reached between the age of 2-3 years. Sentences will include more complex grammar and the child begins to make more sense of what they are saying. By the age of 5-6 years, children reach adult-like language structures. At this stage children are able to ask questions or express their needs using full sentences.

Literacy Development includes the ability to read and write. This can only be done after the child is able to speak, listen, understand, watch and draw. There are 5 stages of literacy development. The awareness and exploration stage is when a toddler understands the difference between the spoken and written word. At the experimental reading and writing stage children start to grasp letters, and start to recognise letters in their name. They often point out environmental print such as the McDonald’s logo. Furthermore, the early learning reading and writing stage is when children start to write phonetically. The way the word is pronounced is the way they will write it (often misspelled). The emergent reading and writing stage is when children become more independent by recognising the meaning of words. The competent reading and writing stage is when the child becomes totally independent whilst reading books and can make sense of it. The stages of written development is when children master fine motor skills in order to write properly. They start with a palmar grasp, by holding an object in their palm and grasping onto it with their fingers and thumb. They then start to use the dagger grasp when holding an object, children will often hold a pencil or a crayon like this whilst scribbling. They then use a tripod grasp to support a pen, pencil, crayon and it sits between the thumb and the first two fingers.

Numeracy development includes skills such as spatial awareness and pairing matching objects together. Spatial awareness is the ability to be aware of the space around us and the objects within it. This cognitive skill is one which must be developed from a young age. Matching is being able to identify that one thing is like/the same as another and can group them together to form a pair. The stages of numeracy development are: emergent, perceptual, figurative, counting on and facile.

Burrhus Frederick Skinner (1904-1990) was a behaviourist theorist who argued the nurture side of the nature verses nurture debate. Skinners’ reinforcement theory advocates that language is learned as a result of rewarding children. He believed that by praising a child’s behaviour they are then encouraging to repeat their actions and therefore are most likely to develop language. On the other hand, negative responses to behaviour are likely to decrease the changes of language development. An advantage of Skinners’ theory is that children notice adult’s reactions and this will probably determine if they will repeat language or not. However, a disadvantage is that this may not work with every child and therefore is not a totally accurate or reliable theory. In support of this theory the Scottish Government (2014) states that “there should be rich opportunities for children to acquire language and encourage communities.” This is at the heart of Building the Ambition.

Furthermore, Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a cognitive theorist who considered numeracy to be part of cognitive changes of child development. His theory includes four stages that describe how children develop mentally. These include: The Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, Concrete Operational stage and Formal Operational stage. Overall, his theory states that children use language to construct a clear understanding of their world. One advantage of Piaget’s theory is that he influenced how adults looked at a child’s methods of numeracy. However, on the other hand, a disadvantage would be that due to Piaget focusing on nationwide stages of development, he was not able to take into consideration other factors such as the social and cultural settings of specific countries and how the impact may differ whilst explaining cognitive development. In practice, Piaget influenced staff in Early learning and development child care settings to promote active learning using real life materials to make sense of numbers in their world.

Another theorist is Albert Bandura who introduced the social learning theory. In 1961 Bandura set up the Bobo doll experiment in order to study children’s behaviour of imitating an adult’s aggression towards a toy doll. This theory puts forward the idea that children are heavily influenced by those surrounding them and as a result of observing them they will often mimic their actions which then impacts their own behaviour and actions. The theory also states that if the child can relate to a model in some way, they are more likely to mimic them. For example, if an adult enjoys reading and writing, children will learn to love this too. Bandura’s experiment has a few advantages, one is that the results are reliable and not forced as those involved were not fully aware of the aim of the experiment and were not aware of being watched (this would be considered to be unethical in today’s research ethics). However, a disadvantage is that as the doll was located in the centre of the room the participants possibly believed their intensions were to copy the adult’s actions.

However, Bandura’s implications for literacy learning are clear. Adults need to be positive role models for children in terms of reading and writing. This is supported by ‘Every Day is a learning Day’ (Education Scotland 2012) which states: “Reading stories, rhymes and action songs are great fun and can support young children’s literacy learning”. (ES 2012; pg. 26). Bandura’s theory is also reflected in Building the Ambition (Education Scotland 2014) which states that: Adults should provide experiences to toddlers which “share writing for everyday purposes, explaining why and pointing out signs and symbols and what they mean…

In the early years of a child’s life their social skills are developed through their parents/carers guidance and this is known as Primary Socialisation. This process is important as it moulds a child’s personality and views towards society. The family of the child and the home environment in which they are brought up in plays a unique role in the development of their language, literacy and numeracy skills as children often mimic what they see and this influences their behaviour. Parents and carers who provide a nurturing, home learning environment and encourage their children to read, write, talk and count from a young age are giving them a great advantage in that they are a lot more likely to develop their language literacy and numeracy skills opposed to a disadvantaged home learning environment. Some homes with disadvantaged backgrounds that may have family issues such as stressed parents which will often have a negative impact on the child’s learning. If a child is brought up in a non-academic household where language, literacy and numeracy is not being promoted then the child’s development can be affected as they probably will not be switched onto learning themselves.

Colwyn Trevarthen, a child psychologist put forward the idea that children’s brains grow through interactions. He studied language development and proposed the idea that babies adapt to the sounds and tones of a reader and show their awareness of voices and faces through movement, sounds and facial expressions. Trevarthen states that children need a rich environment where they will be given the attention in order to grow a bond to communicate. When talking about the early brain development, Suzanne Zeedyk suggests that babies come into the world already connected and the early years of a child’s brain development is crucial and interactions play a huge role in doing this. Furthermore, Robin Balbernie explains that when babies are born, their brains are hard-wired and this can be shown through mimicking, such as if you were to stick your tongue out to a baby the are likely to copy you. Also, Balbernie states that physical contact will impact a baby’s brain development, therefore the feeding experiences are important and the mental state of the mother plays a huge role in this.

Introduction

A world language can be defined as a language that is spoken around the world and learnt by many people as a second language (Baker & Jones, 1998). However, what exactly makes a world language, a world language? There are five common assumptions typically associated with world languages and in this essay, they will be discussed and evaluated along with other relevant factors.

Assumptions of world languages

The five assumptions are:

1. World powers make world languages

The concept of power is multifaceted as it comprises many aspects, which include religion, military conquests and education. It is believed that with these aspects, languages are able to spread due to the power and influence that these aspects possess. In his book, Firth (1964 [1937]) also mentions that Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, Sanskrit and English are examples of world languages that achieved their status due to world powers. However, the spread of languages is not always successful despite the aforementioned aspects of power. For instance, despite the Romans conquering much territory in the past, Latin did not manage to spread much throughout the conquered regions (Ostler, 2005). In addition, in spite of invasions from the Turks, Mongolians, Jurchen and Manchu, Chinese was never phased out in China (Lockard, 2007). The shared written language also made reunification of Chinese communities much simpler after being separated and conquered by invasions. Thus, Ostler (2005) concluded that there was little to none linguistic influence on the invaded countries by the invading countries and hence, it can be said that world powers play an insubstantial role in making world languages.

2. Trade makes world languages

Through trade, many opportunities for the spread of languages arise due to contact made between people of different countries (Cooper, 1979). Lingua francas are used for communicative purposes by speakers who do not speak each other’s native languages (Knapp & Meierkord, 2002), which is why they are largely utilised by people of different nations who trade. Hence, when lingua francas are used with increasing frequency around the world due to trade, it facilitates the spread of these lingua francas, which can elevate their statuses to world languages. Nevertheless, this is not always the case. Centuries ago, the Phoenicians spread the alphabet to the Greeks and taught them how to read and write as well. In addition to trading influence, the Phoenicians had cultural influence over the Greeks too. However, in terms of linguistic influence, the fact that Phoenician remains unknown outside its territories shows that it may not be able to qualify for classification as a world language (Ostler, 2005). Another example would be in the case of Sogdian, a language spoken in Samarkand. Merchants in Sogdia were very wealthy due to the trade that they engaged in on the Silk Road (Rose, 2010) and Sogdian could be heard in countries far away from their own, evidence that the language had spread due to the trade that the Sogdians partook in. However, when trade along the Silk Road ceased, the Sogdian language also stopped spreading to other countries. Hence, trade can be helpful in spreading languages in the short run but it is not exceptionally useful in the long run in terms of making the language of trade a world language.

3. Literacy makes world languages

Literacy has also been thought to play a vital role in making languages world languages. With high literacy rates, there are more people capable of spreading the language and making it known around the world. Despite so, history once again proves this assumption wrong. The Gauls became literate a few generations after the Roman conquests, but this was not sufficient to sustain their language. According to Ostler (2015), although there were high Gaulish literacy rates, Gaulish died out after the first century AD and Latin, the language of their Roman invaders, took over as the main language used by the Gauls. Therefore, it is evident that high literacy rates alone are greatly inadequate in sustaining a language, let alone moulding said languages into world languages.

4. Classical languages become world languages

In the words of UC Berkeley linguist George L. Hart (2000), a classical language “should be ancient… should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature”. The rich history that classical languages have could incentivise more people to use these languages, possibly turning these languages into world languages. In order to ascertain this possibility, we can look into the case of Aramaic. Aramaic was initially just spoken by nomads (Macdonald, 1993) and it has a written history of about 3000 years. It was also designated as the general clerical language of the Assyrian empire, replacing the Akkadian language. In addition, Jesus of Nazareth spoke Aramaic, but specifically, he spoke a substandard variety used by people of Jerusalem and Judea (Ostler, 2005). His disciples also travelled eastward and spread Aramaic during their travels as well. Aramaic inscriptions were found in many countries, including India and China and there were even Egyptian administrations run in Aramaic (Millard, 1972). With that being said, it is beneficial for a language to be considered as a classical language in order to make it as a world language and on top of that, it is also useful to be linked to a religion.

5. Prestige makes world languages

Prestige is the degree of esteem and social value associated by members of a speech community toward certain languages or dialects (Nordquist, 2018) and it is also one of the features that many successful languages have in common. An example of a language which thrived due to prestige would be Sumerian, which achieved its esteemed status through farming wealth (Millar, 2010). French is also another language which had prestige due to the fact that it was the most affluent country in Europe at the point in time when usage of Latin was diminishing (Grenoble & Whaley, 1998). In addition, Portuguese in Brazil also spread due to the gold rush in the 17th century, which shows that the prestige of Portuguese is not due to colonial administration by the Portuguese, but the economic development as a result of the gold rush (Lipski, 1975). The aforementioned examples demonstrate how significant prestige is as a factor which contributes to making languages world languages.

To sum this section up, although there might be some truth to these assumptions, not all of them play significant roles in making languages world languages. After evaluating all five assumptions, we can conclude that prestige is the only definite factor which contributes to making a language a world language.

Factors

In addition to prestige, there are other factors which definitely help in making a language a world language. They are as follows:

1. An increase in population/a large population

An increase in population, or an already large population by nature, would definitely be able to make a language a world language. With more speakers, it becomes easier for a language to spread to other regions. A notable example would be in the case of the spread of English with the British settlers in North America. When the British colonised the Americas, they introduced English to the people there and by the end of the 17th century, English became a predominant language amongst the people of the various colonies (Longmore, 2007). Part of the reason why English was able to rise in usage so drastically was also due to the fact that when the British pilgrims settled down, they started their own families, which added on to the English-speaking population. Furthermore, due to the sheer number of British settlers who immigrated to the Americas, there was already a large population of English-speaking people to begin with. Therefore, it can be said that a large population and an increase in population contribute directly to making a world language out of a language.

2. Substantial number of non-native speakers

Another way in which a language becomes a world language is through being a lingua franca to a large number of non-native speakers. As mentioned in the definition in the introduction, world languages are typically learnt by many as a second language (Baker & Jones, 1998). Arguably one of the most widely used lingua francas, English has approximately 378 million L1 speakers and 735 million L2 speakers (Ethnologue, 2019). Evidently, the number of non-native English speakers (L2 speakers) greatly outweighs the number of native English speakers (L1 speakers). English has become widely accepted as ‘the world’s lingua franca’ (Portelli, 2012) due to it having the highest number of L2 speakers compared to any other language (Ethnologue, 2019), thus solidifying its status as a world language. Hence, it is with a great number of non-native speakers using it as a lingua franca that a language can be considered as a world language.

3. Official status in countries

Being accredited with an official status in multiple countries could also be a factor in making a language a world language. Some consider Mandarin as a world language due to its sheer number of speakers – 908 million L1 speakers and 198 million L2 speakers (Ethnologue, 2019). However, we do have to consider that Mandarin is largely spoken in China and its neighbouring countries only, hence it does not have an official status in non-Asian countries outside of the greater China region despite it being spoken by millions of people (Ostler, 2005). Therefore, Mandarin cannot be considered as a world language for that very reason. Recognition as an official language by multiple countries (not just in countries where a language is native to the people there) is crucial in terms of differentiating between a language and a world language as world languages need to be recognised as official languages across multiple countries in order to be considered as world languages.

4. Used across several regions

What’s a world language if it is only recognised in name as an official language but not actually spoken by many people? Being used across several regions is an important factor in making a language a world language. This point is also reflected in Baker and Jones’ (1998) definition of ‘world languages’ mentioned in the introduction as they stated that world languages are languages spoken around the world. Using the same example as the previous point, Mandarin also cannot be considered as a world language since it is not spoken across several regions, but mostly confined to Asian countries only as there are relatively few Mandarin speakers outside of China. Ostler (2005) also mentions an interesting point – although Mandarin speakers comprise one sixth of the entire world population, over 99 percent of these speakers stay in China. Hence, Mandarin cannot be considered as a world language unless one’s entire world only consists of China. Therefore, a language must be used in several different regions before it can be deemed as a world language.

Other influential factors

Besides the aforementioned factors which definitely contribute to a language becoming a world language, there are other significant factors which can also help to make a language a world language.

1. War and territorial expansion

When an invading country manages to successful conquer another country, they are able to impose their own rules and policies onto the invaded country. For instance, an invading or expanding country may choose to implement would be language policies in order to introduce or impose their own language on the people of the country being targeted.

This can be observed in the case of Russian in the aftermath of the World War II as after the war, the status of Russian started to elevate as people began seeing it as a scientific and political language as well (Aronova, 2017). The impact of war on language is very significant as it could greatly change the people’s perceptions of the language and hence, possibly turn a language into a world language.

Another example would be in the case of English in India. The British were able to expand their territory into India as the Indians were very willing to accept the British rule due to the economic benefits that they brought about (Daily History, 2019). The British then introduced English to the Indians and even after India gained independence in 1947, English still remains as one of its official language (Tropf, 2004), demonstrating the lasting effects of territorial expansion. English is now spoken across many countries in the world, including those that use English as a native language and those that have been colonised by the British. Hence, from the two examples mentioned above, we can conclude that war and territorial expansion could likely make a language a world language.

2. Being in charge of areas where agriculture is cultivated

When countries are suppliers for staple foods, their languages can also end up being spread to other countries. The farming/language dispersal hypothesis states that the adoption of agriculture plays a vital role in the distribution of language families around the world (Bellwood, 2005), or in other words, making a language a world language. An example cited by Kemp et al. (2010) is Uto-Aztecan, a language family in the Americas that was possibly spread across Mesoamerica and the American Southwest by farmers in the past. Hence, this shows that farming agriculture could be beneficial in making a language a world language due to the way that language can be spread through farmers.

Conclusion

Therefore, considering all the aforementioned factors, a ‘checklist’ can be formulated to help ascertain if a language a world language.

Nevertheless, this ‘checklist’ is not fully comprehensive of all the different factors which contribute to making a language a world language and other factors have to be taken into consideration as well. However, the ‘checklist’ does contain the definite and highly influential factors that make a language a world language and hence, can be used as a rough gauge in determining a world language due to the evaluation (based on history and the present world) done in this essay.

References

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ABSTRACT

The formation of creativity of future entrepreneurs still remains one of the important issues of modern training at university. Future graduates should be able to think, analyze and be imaginative in finding solutions in situations that follow the procedures of professional training and personal development. It is extracurricular activities in a foreign language that enable us to engage a student in active, imaginative, research and cognitive activity and provide the building of a professional foreign language competence of future specialists. Extracurricular activities promote increasing of motivation to acquire a foreign language, contributes to the building of personality, its creative outbreak, broadening horizons, erudition and emotional attitude to the entire world and to oneself. This study explores the use of information and communication technologies, namely massive open online courses for the building of creative skills among students majoring in entrepreneurship, as well as for the development of their professional foreign language competence. Criteria for choosing an online course for integration into the educational process of teaching a foreign language are presented. The content of the massive open online course on creativity and entrepreneurship is reviewing. As a result of the study, a survey of entrepreneurship students is conducted after completing the massive open online course on an American online platform in order to consider the positive features of the use of massive open online courses for extracurricular activities on the ‘Foreign Language’ discipline as a part of blended learning environment. It is concluded that the use of foreign-language massive open online course on creativity and entrepreneurship in extracurricular work at tertiary level as a part of blended approach can be an effective way to jointly form the creativity and professional foreign language competence of future entrepreneurship graduates.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, in society the idea that education from a way of enlightening a person should turn into a mechanism for the development of a creative personality, its individual abilities, a personality capable of building itself, determining and changing its life strategy is becoming more and more asserted. The development of creativity of future specialists is one of the urgent problems of modern education.

The most successful creative skills are formed in the joint activities of a teacher and a student as a result of solving problems and problem tasks through the use of various forms of creative activity. Future specialists should be able to think, analyze and be creative in solving problem situations that accompany the processes of professional formation and personal development. At the same time, a teacher must educate his students to master the methods, strategies, and technologies of successful self-realization in educational and future professional activities (Pigaleva, 2018, p. 85).

BUILDING A RESEARCH PROBLEM

It is known that a student’s creative abilities are manifested in the extent to which he unconventionally approaches the solution of certain issues. The development of creative abilities in students does not occur by itself. A favorable stimulating environment, a cultural and creative atmosphere and fruitful conditions are required. These conditions are connected with the real educational system (environmental conditions) in which the learning process is carried out (Pigaleva, 2018, p. 86). These are the availability of adequate teaching aids, the scientific validity of methodological recommendations and attitudes, the material and technical equipment of the learning process.

In this study we propose to appeal to information and communication technologies, exactly to foreign language massive open online courses on creativity and entrepreneurship for extracurricular work on the subject “Foreign Language” at the higher education level as a part of blended learning environment.

Literature Review

As for researchers, certain aspects of this issue are covered in the works of the following researchers who studied creativity in early childhood education (Chu-ying, 2010, p. 50), creativity training in problem solving (Kandemir, 2007, p. 120), creativity in entrepreneurship education (Hamidi, 2008, p. 310), limits to creativity in education (Craft, 2009, p. 116), realising creativity in management education (Sunley, 2019, p. 180), importance of entrepreneurial creativity and education (Shahab, 2019, p. 278), application of creativity methods in education and industry (Nutzmann, 2019, p. 145), creativity measurement in undergraduate students (Snyder, 2019, p. 136), relationship of creativity with computer anxiety of the higher secondary students (Gupta, 2017, p. 100), creativity and morality in business education (Marues, 2019, p. 20), sociocultural perspectives on creativity, learning, and technology (Glăveanu, 2018, p. 81), university education and creativity (Ehtiyar, 2019, p. 131),using ICT for development of creativity (Angarita, 2019, p. 121), fostering learner creativity in English classroom (Wang, 2019, p. 68), creativity in language learning and teaching (Jones, 2019, p. 156) and language learning via massive open online courses (Jones, 2018, p. 185).

Basic Assumptions

In the era of the Bologna process a conscious and competent design of foreign language education, individual educational paths and the use of modern teaching aids including information and communication resources are necessary.

In a constantly changing world, where the amount of information accumulated by mankind is constantly increasing, we place a special emphasis on the competitiveness of the future graduate, which is impossible without involving the student in independent and creative activity. It is this function that the university performs in attracting students to actively participate in events in a foreign language.

It is extracurricular activities in a foreign language that allow us to include a student in active, creative, research and cognitive activity and ensure the formation of a professional foreign language competence of a student. Extracurricular activities contribute to increasing motivation to learn a foreign language, contributes to the formation of personality, its creative beginning, broadening horizons, erudition and emotional-value attitude to the world and to oneself. It is this form of work that contributes to the effective assimilation of the content of foreign language education. Foreign culture which has absorbed the enriched experience of centuries of collective creativity, the wisdom and talent of many generations allows you to open a wide scope for the creativity and development of students, to make their life spiritually richer and more comprehensive.

Extracurricular work at the level of higher education should be considered as an important link in the self-education of the student’s personality and act as a means of organizing the intellectual activity of students. Creative extracurricular activity forms the interest of students in learning a foreign language making sure of the obvious advantages of a future career with knowledge of a foreign language and strengthening their capabilities for creativity and self-education.

It is important to note that a new social mandate is already has formed in society: instead of an obedient employee working according to an established tradition a person who is able to quickly navigate the situation and creatively solve emerging problems became in demand. An important condition for increasing the competitiveness of a university graduate is the development of a creative approach to various areas of professional activity [].

In our study we suggest that the use of a foreign-language massive open online course on creativity and entrepreneurship in extracurricular work on the subject “Foreign Language” at the higher education level as a part of blended learning environment is an effective way to jointly develop the creativity and professional foreign language competence of future entrepreneurs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

While conducting this research observation and questionnaire were implemented. The author has examined MOOCs in the following categories: personal development, entrepreneurship, leadership and management. These MOOCs are developed to meet the educational needs of entrepreneurship students and must deal with the domains of knowledge of fundamental and professional training of future graduates in different engineering areas.

The following decision criteria were implemented during the research:

• MOOC chosen should be developed to form competencies in creativity at tertiary level;
• the title of an online course should neatly maintain the direction of students` studying or correlate to the titles of professional disciplines for entrepreneurship undergraduate curricula (Logic and Critical Thinking, Leadership and Team Development, Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Thinking etc.);
• course duration does not exceed 8 months,
• online course is available for free,
• MOOC is delivered in English with the ability to enable subtitles,
• presence of such creative tasks as an essay among the elements of the pedagogical design of the MOOC,
• ability to get a course certificate after MOOC completion.

RESEARCH DATA

The experiment involved 52 students of the Faculty of Corporate Economics and Entrepreneurship majoring in Business Economics at Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management. Undergraduate students were offered six massive open online courses for the development of creativity in the field of entrepreneurship on the Coursera online platform that are corresponding to predefined criteria for this study. After watching the welcome videos and reading the annotation of each MOOC offered students chose the ‘Creativity & Entrepreneurship’ by Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship at Berklee College of Music without a dissentient voice.

The MOOC is designed to help its participants reveal their inward creativity and know how to apply it for future career development or business. Created by Panos Panay the MOOC includes interviews with world famous entrepreneurs, creative directors, chefs, innovators, producers and as they consider resemblance of the creative and entrepreneurial peregrinations.

This MOOC examines business as a creative process, a basic human trait that we all possess and able to improve. ‘Creativity & Entrepreneurship’ uses ideas from the musical creation procedures, such as iterating and embracing failure, as a resources of leading you through the idea of intellection as a startup. Course participants can boost the fundamental mindset, competences and insights required to continue an business career, whether as the founder of their personal career or as the organizer of a not yet existing business in any domain.

This online course has been selected for blended learning. The teacher of the discipline ‘Foreign Language’ completed this course in advance. Tasks for language support for students to complete the online course were developed in the Moodle e-learning environment. For five weeks students were performing the following activities in distance mode: they watched video lectures, studied articles for reading, participated in the discussion of the course material at the forum and completed written assignments in essay format where they were expected to discuss the following topics:

• Entrepreneurial Mindset,
• Product Development,
• Building a Team and Culture,
• Coping with Failure and Learning to Replenish.

Also while completing the online course students and the teacher discussed the course materials in the classroom. As a result, all students who participated in the experiment completed the MOOC and received a certificate of completion of the course. The certificate indicates the providing platform, the university that developed this MOOC and the authors who were the teachers of the ‘Creativity & Entrepreneurship’.

After completing the MOOC a survey of the course participants was also conducted. The survey was aimed at identifying positive features of using ICT resources to develop creativity and entrepreneurial skills. As a result of the questionnaire it was found that 92% of respondents consider this course useful for developing their personal qualities, 94% of course participants believe that they have developed innovative thinking skills, 89% of students now better understand how to better use the concepts of creativity for their business, 95% of respondents consider that creativity skills are formed in the best way while mastering a course in a foreign language, absolutely all participants noted an increase in motivation for self-learning, 96% of students will use the acquired methods in their future careers, 92% of respondents consider ICT to be an effective means of forming creative skills and interest in learning, 92% of students believe that mastering this online course in English allows them to develop their professional foreign language competence, and as a result, develop their creativity skills (Fig. 1). It should also be noted that some students expressed a desire to enroll other courses of specialization ‘Music Business’ on the online MOOC platform Coursera and receive a certificate of a more serious rank.

CONCLUSION

Information and communication technologies play an important role in our lives. Modern ICTs can be used in education for creativity. The integration of such Internet resources can contribute to the effective formation of students` leadership skills, creativity and interest in cognition. The findings of this study reckon that the use of foreign-language massive open online course on creativity and entrepreneurship in extracurricular work on the subject “Foreign Language” at the higher education level as a part of blended learning environment can be an effective way to jointly develop the creativity and professional foreign language competence of future entrepreneurs.

The findings of this research may be interested for teachers of foreign languages at tertiary level, as well as teachers of professional disciplines for students majoring in entrepreneurship, specialists in distance and blended learning, managers of educational organizations, scientists involved in education for creativity studies, as well as current entrepreneurs.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Angarita L. (2019). Are ICT good partners for the development of creativity? A systematic review of literature. International Journal of Arts and Technology (pp. 112-123).
2. Chu-ying C. (2010). Creativity in early childhood education: Teachers’ perceptions in three Chinese societies. Thinking Skills and Creativity (pp. 49-60).
3. Craft A.. (2010). The Limits To Creativity In Education: Dilemmas For The Educator. British Journal of Educational Studies (pp. 113-127).
4. Ehtiyar R. (2019). University Education and Creativity: An Assessment From Students’ Perspective. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research (pp. 113-132).
5. Glăveanu V. (2018). Sociocultural Perspectives on Creativity, Learning, and Technology. Creativity Under Duress in Education? (pp. 63-82).
6. Gupta D. (2017). A study of the relationship of Creativity with Computer anxiety of the higher secondary students. International Journal of Computational Research and Development (pp. 97-100).
7. Hamidi D.. (2008). Creativity in entrepreneurship education. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development (pp. 304-320).
8. Jones R. (2019). Creativity in language learning and teaching: Translingual practices and transcultural identities. Applied Linguistics Review (pp. 145-159).
9. Kandemir M. (2007). Creativity Training in Problem Solving: A Model of Creativity in Mathematics Teacher Education. New Horizons in Education (pp.107-122).
10. Marues J. (2019). Creativity and morality in business education: Toward a trans-disciplinary approach. The International Journal of Management Education (pp. 15-25).
11. Nutzmann M. (2019). Study on learning concepts applying creativity methods in education and industry. In Bohemia E. (ed.), DS 95: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education. (pp. 140-150). University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.
12. Pigaleva I. (2018). Uslovija Razvitija Tvorcheskih Sposobnostej Budushhih Specialistov v Sisteme Vysshego Professional”nogo Obrazovanija. International Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences (pp. 83-89).
13. Shahab Y. (2019). Entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intention: do entrepreneurial creativity and education matter? International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research (pp. 259-280).
14. Snyder H. (2019). Creativity measurement in undergraduate students from 1984–2013: A systematic review. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (pp. 133-143).
15. Sunley R. (2019). Realising creativity in management education: Putting student energy into action. The International Journal of Management Education (pp. 172-181).
16. Ustinina G. (2014). Tvorchestvo na zanjatijah inostrannogo jazyka kak faktor povyshenija konkurentosposobnosti budushhih specialistov. Retrieved 10.10.2019 from http://pedagogika.snauka.ru/2014/10/2721
17. Wang H. (2019). Fostering learner creativity in the English L2 classroom: Application of the creative problem-solving model. Thinking Skills and Creativity (pp. 58-69).
18. Zubkov A., Morozova M. (2018). Language Learners Communication in Moocs. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 175-186).

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the development of human languages around the world and the distinct environmental phenomena the speakers of a particular language are encountered with. By examining six journal articles and one media interview with a prominent researcher in the area of study, I have determined that there is a significant amount of evidence that supports the idea that language is adaptive to the world around it and that this research is only scratching the surface on the adaptability of the human brain to distinct environmental circumstances.

Of the more than 7,000 human languages found throughout the globe, each one is spoken by people who encounter distinct external and interactive phenomenal input. I argue that, in conflict with established theories on the inception of distinct languages, environment, both stagnant and dynamic in its nature, has an appreciable influence on the genesis and development of language, and that language is adaptive to shifting ecological variables, stressing the need for further research into the connections between language, cognition, and our natural world.

The geographic position of a population of language speakers correlates to the distinct environment they encounter. As Everett, Blasi, and Roberts (2016) point out, like with other animal species, the phenotypic and genotypic intra-species variation in humans is a result in large part because of the climate and other environmental factors. “Cross-population variations in size, surface area-to-volume ratio, pigmentation, and the like, present advantages associated with particular ecological constraints” (Everett et al. 2016). It is also observed that hemoglobin levels are found to be at greater levels at higher altitudes, such as the peoples of the Himalayan mountains (Everett et al. 2016). So then it is reasonable to ask the question; do these factors, population density as a result of inhabitable land size, hemoglobin levels and the other traits and genotypic variations found across humanity inform how we communicate through our distinct languages? Thanks to the hard work and research of linguists, anthropologists, sociologists and biologists, we can take encouragement in the fact that that question is a worthwhile pursuit.

Linguistic Evolutionary Gap

As Greenhill (2016) declares, despite the great efforts of those in the linguistics community to identify the catalysts for evolution of language, from sociology, to expedition purposes, little attention has been paid to the role that environment plays in the shaping of language.

“This omission is surprising as there do appear to be strong effects of environment on the distribution of languages themselves, with more languages in more ecologically rich regions and toward the equator, and a tendency for languages to ‘fill’ an environmental niche like an island. This omission is probably due to a number of reasons—discussed in our commentaries—ranging from an (understandable) hang-up from early racist theories of language, to fears of environmental determinism, to concerns that this locus of action is too far removed from the language speakers themselves.” (Greenhill 2016)

Language, in the eyes of the standard theoretical view, is not a property which adapts to the environment it encounters (Greenhill 2016). Indeed, Everett et al. (2016) reiterate the common view that “in fact, language is presumed to be ecologically autonomous by most language researchers…”, a holding that is backed up by presumptions rather than well mined research data, meaning that the proscription of an “eco-linguistic” connection does not have a bearing in actual evidence, so there is room for plenty of continued research in the field.

Evidence of Influence

A significant piece of materializing this research is determining the factors which should be examined when related to the development and evolution of language. In an interview with Voices of America (2013), Caleb Everett, a linguistic anthropologist who teaches at the University of Miami, expresses his initial encounters with the idea that language is shaped by environment.

“’I was sitting here at my desk,’ said Everett, ‘and I looked at the data, and I thought, ‘Okay, it sort of works for North America, it works for South America – wow, it really works in Africa, and it works in Eurasia … There’s really nowhere that it doesn’t work!”” (Voices of America 2013)

According to Everett (2013), of the geographic variables that could potentially have determinism over language development, elevation is the one that research should be focusing in significant part on. The basis behind this is that “that atmospheric pressure might impact the production of non-pulmonic sounds, which do not rely on air egressed from below the larynx.” (Everett 2013). The result, Everett (2013) believes, is that people encountering such atmospheric pressures might also utilize ejective consonants at a higher rate, which are sounds created by the the non-aspiration or aspiration of typical consonantal phonemes. An on the fly example of this, simply put, would be to have the reader hold their breath, then make the “K” sound, without expelling any breath. Anatomically speaking, these noises are made because of a “compression of air in the pharyngeal cavity”, which Everett (2013) posits as being a more achievable action for human language speakers at high elevations due to the low atmospheric pressure. In the study, languages using ejectives in their verbal communication across the globe were studied, found at longitudes and latitudes indiscriminate.

There is a distinct clustering of ejective laden languages found at or within the vicinity of a major point or points of elevation. Everett (2013) found that “Remarkably, 57 of 92 (62%) languages with ejectives are located in high elevation ‘zones’” and additionally “…80 of 92 (87%) languages with ejectives are located within 500 km of a region exceeding 1500 m.”. This data, while not conclusive, leads one to believe that there is a potential surface connection between the atmospheric pressure found at areas of high elevation and the method of utterance of ejective consonants, meaning that the probability of other environmental factors having an impact on human language is more likely than previously believed.

Recognizing that evolutionary biological study often links species variation and diversification to the properties of “neutral drift” meaning that evolved traits and genes are the result of somewhat aimless movement, a random internal process. Bentz, Dediu, Verkerk and Jäger (2018) propose, in the Nature: Human Behavior journal, that other factors, “beyond neutral drift”, promote variable language diversification. Chief among these factors “…include latitude, altitude and rugosity, temperature and rainfall, political complexity, and subsistence strategy, as well as island size in the Pacific” (Bentz et al. 2018) In order to do this, the researchers tested three hypotheses; One, that linguistic “internal” processes and what they call “external environmental factors” evolve separate from each other, another, that these two phenomena are linked and thus adaptive to each other, and lastly, that neutral drift in linguistic evolution much like biological evolution is shaping the diversification of language. To do this, the researchers examined the “phylogenetic signals” of language families across the globe. Phylogenetic signals are traits of variation which according to a paper in the British Ecological Society, can be observed by ecologists and evolutionary biologists, especially in order to compare and contrast among species, and have gained in methodological popularity in recent years. (Münkemüller, Lavergne, Bzeznik, Dray, Schiffers and Thuiller 2012)

By examining the phylogenetic trees of human language, the researchers from the Nature: Human Behavior Journal came to the conclusion that one can reasonably assume a that language “…generally reflects environmental factors associated with particular language communities.” According to them the evidence they mined “…supports recent claims that pure drift falls short of explaining a considerable proportion of language diversity.” In addition to various other external factors that might elicit adaptive responses from language, a proper understanding of language and its diversification cannot be reached unless we account for the physical properties language speakers encounter, again acknowledging the necessity for more work in this area of study.

Non-verbal and non-human language

Though we often think of language and as only a verbal and auditory action, there have been studies in recent years on the differences between verbal and non-verbal communication. According to Christensen, Fusaroli and Tylen (2016), who conducted such research, “Recent gesture elicitation studies have indicated that constituent order…may be heavily influenced by human cognitive biases constraining gesture production and transmission.” Constituent order is the manner in which subject, verb and object are presented within a sentence, which these researchers recognized as a key into human cognition. Positing an “alternative hypothesis”, that the constituent order within syntax is also “motivated by multiple environmental and social–interactional constraints” (Christensen et al. 2016). While not explicitly examining ecological factors, this research provides evidence to the makeshift theory that linguistic structure hinges at least in part on external factors.

Resulting from 3 experiments, the researchers believed that the discovered a significant basis for the idea that language and its structure is significantly dependent on the environment it is accustomed to. As reported by Christensen et al. (2016), their study yielded “experimental evidence suggesting that various environmental and communicative factors are effective sources of motivation for linguistic structure.”

Beyond human language there are other animal forms of communications that can give us a look into how we converse and express ourselves according to the environment we find ourselves within. There are many examples that animal signals are, according to Everett et al. (2016), highly adaptive to be recognized and observed by others. For instance, expressive creatures inhabiting dense rainforests are confronted with physical obstacles, such as reverberation, to promoting a message, trees, foliage, a high concentration of verbally emitting beings:

“Several animal species, including birds, anurans (frogs and toads), spiders, and some mammals, adapt their signals by adjusting their frequencies and their duration in order to overcome these obstacles.” (Everett et al. 2016)

In another example, it is known that the messages created by insects which are chemically manufactured fade over time. (Everett et al. 2016) However, some insects that inhabit warm humid climates exhibit signaling that can last through the heat and won’t evaporate as quickly (Everett et al. 2016). These particular findings express that “Given the ubiquity of ecological adaptation in animal communication alone, its potential existence in human communication merits serious inquiry.” (Everett et al. 2016).

The work of Everett et al. (2016) also examines impacts that were previously observed to have an impact on language, albeit indirectly. The researchers observed that climate naturally impacts the rate of production within an environment, as well as disease, which therefore impacts rates of mortality and life expectancy. They posit that as a result of changes in climate over time, humans have undergone physiological evolutions, such as the “higher and narrower cavities that increase the contact between inspired air and nasal walls, helping to humidify inhaled air” found in populations inhabiting colder and drier climates (Everett et al. 2016). This, I believe is the crux of the study of the environmental impact on language, that our planet is changing in this moment, and so language therefore might be too.

Importance of Research

Language is one of the primary qualities that distinguishes human beings from other sentient creatures. Our modes of communication bridge cultural, political, conceptual gaps between humans. The endeavor to examine language and its response and adaptation to its external pressures is crucial to understanding who we are as humans. As we witness entire populations of people encountering the effects of climate change on their habitats, the fluidity and adaptive nature of language is and will continue to be on full display. This type of research matters because language and culture are intertwined within each other, and in my mind, it is impossible to understand one without the other. We are environmentally adaptive beings, from variation in pigmentation, to heightened levels of hemoglobin dependent on elevation, our biology evolves to acclimate to the environment we are encountered with, and it is natural to assume that our cognition, also shaped by biology is similarly tied to environmental phenomena and with it, language.

Despite the general proscription within the linguistics field of a recognition of language’s ability to adapt to its surroundings, the research supporting such out right denial is few and far between. As Everett et al. (2016) put it, “In fact, it is arguably an empirically impoverished position…” because it has not even engaged the query with any legitimate vigor.

Conclusion

We all know that the environments we live in impact our day; we don’t live in bubbles, and even if we did, the proverbial bubble is still an environment. As humans, we have an acute awareness and knowledge of the word around us that is only transmissible through the languages we speak. The research as laid out in the above sections provides us with suggestive evidence that we are even more in tune with the natural world than we think. Because of the source materials that have been accumulated by researchers in recent years, we now have a better understanding on the influence of environmental factors such as longitude, latitude, island size, humidity or aridity, and altitude to name a few, and the possibilities for further research within the field are practically endless. We should continue to examine the methods of human communication and how they are informed by the environment those humans inhabit, just as we pay close attention to the evolution of communication among non-human animals.

References

1. Bentz, C., Dediu, D., Verkerk, A., & Jäger, G. (2018). The evolution of language families is shaped by the environment beyond neutral drift. Nature human behaviour,2(11), 816-821. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0457-6
2. Christensen, P., Fusaroli, R., & Tylén, K. (2016). Environmental constraints shaping constituent order in emerging communication systems: structural iconicity, interactive alignment and conventionalization. Cognition, 146, 67-80. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.004
3. Environment may affect development of language. (2013, July 18). Retrieved from https://www.voanews.com/silicon-valley-technology/environment-may-affect-development-language
4. Everett, C., Blasí, D. E., & Roberts, S. G. (2016). Language evolution and climate: the case of desiccation and tone. Journal of Language Evolution, 1(1), 33-46. doi:10.1093/jole/lzv004
5. Everett, C. (2013). Evidence for Direct geographic influences on linguistic sounds: the case of ejectives. PLoS ONE,8(6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065275
6. Greenhill, S. J. (2016). Overview: Debating the effect of environment on language. Journal of Language Evolution, 1(1), 30-32. doi:10.1093/jole/lzv007
7. Münkemüller, T., Lavergne, S., Bzeznik, B., Dray, S., Jombart, T., Schiffers, K., & Thuiller, W. (2012). How to measure and test phylogenetic signal. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 3(4), 743-756. doi:10.1111/j.2041-210x.2012.00196.x

In this essay I will be explaining the terms of language, literacy and numeracy. I will be identifying and describing the developmental stages of each and finally, I will evaluate theories I have implemented on placement and describe the effectiveness of this.

Language is the human form of communication and it can be expressed in various ways. Language can be communicated through speech, written word, symbols, signs etc. Language is always developing and becoming broader as we discover new words, this means that our language is always evolving and is fundamental for us to be able to communicate our thoughts, ideas and feelings to other people. As we grow our capacity of language expands and we can communicate more effectively.

Literacy is our ability to be able to read, write and understand language in different forms and structures. Our ability to understand language aids us in our literacy development as they both go hand in hand. We are taught from a young age to learn to recognise written words and be able to understand that the written word corresponds to the spoken word. Literacy plays a massive part in our lives and is so important for us to be able to read and write so that we can communicate through written word and not just through speech.

Numeracy is the understanding of numbers and sequences. This involves being able to count, tell time, categorise etc. Numeracy also plays a vital part in our lives as we grow it becomes something that we need to understand for actual life skills like telling the time, working out wages, prices of things etc. We need to have a good understanding of numbers and how they work to be able to problem solve. Maths is taught to us in schools and we continue to use these teachings throughout our lives.

Developmental Stages of Language

Language development is split up into six different stages. The first being the prelinguistic stage. This stage takes place during the first year of a child’s life. This is where language is more sound making like cooing, babbling and crying. (www.edubloxtutor.com, 2019) Babies hear our voices and listen to the tones of our voices and start to try and mimic them by using these expressions.

The second stage is the holophrase stage this means that the child will use one-word sentences and this stage is usually between 10-18 months. All children develop their language and communication skills at different stages and therefor some may be more advanced at this stage than others. The next stage is the two-word sentence this is when the child begins to objectify and describe things to a basic but more understandable standard such as ‘Doggy big’. Multiple word sentences usually begin to appear between the ages of two and three. They can begin to form sentences with some meaning for example ‘where is ball’ we as adults begin to understand more clearly what the child is trying to communicate and can conversate back with the child to try and continue the conversation. The next stage is more complex grammatical structures this is where a child begins to understand how to construct more intricate sentences and can begin to have a longer conversation with adults. They begin using conjunctions. Finally, they begin to have adult-like language structures. They begin formulating much more sophisticated sentences and can understand a broader use of language. (www.edubloxtutor.com, 2019)

Developmental stages of Literacy

The first developmental stage of literacy is emergent readers and spellers. This is the stage where children have little or no education and are only just beginning to understand the concept of written words. This is their first exposure to letters and sounds. They will usually lack understanding as to why words are spelled that way as they would try to spell it as they hear it. Children at this stage seem to have a real interest in books and will often bring a book to and adult to read to them. The next stage is the alphabetic stage. At this stage a child will usually be able to recognise words by sight and guess some unknown words. They will also ‘silent read’ (whisper reading to vocalise the sound of the word) and use their finger to point to the words as they go. As they move on they begin to use their finger less and start being able to recognise words more quickly and with better understanding. They will also begin to self-correct when they realise, they have maybe pronounced a word wrong or the word doesn’t look like what they are trying to say. (www.theliteracybug.com, 2019) (www.study.com, 2019)(Video clip)

Developmental stages of Numeracy

Children in the emergent stage of numeracy development will often know some numbers but not a wide range. This is the very basic stage of understanding of numbers for children and do not yet comprehend how to count one to ten for example and will often say the incorrect number next in the sequence. Children who are in the perceptual stage are beginning to develop the ability to recognise number patterns and can more than likely count a little higher than one to ten. They are able to count visual objects by touching. Children in the figurative stage can begin to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of numbers through categorising, separating and combining. The counting on stage of numeracy is where the child has a wider 0understanding of how numbers work and can be added or subtracted together to make another number. They can understand sequencing better and therefor know exactly what number comes after the previous. (www.theclassroomkit.com, 2019)

Lev Vygotsky’s theory was that of a social interactionist. He believed that children benefitted more from social interaction between the developing child and a linguistically knowledgeable adult. His theory talks about three different forms of speech commonly found in children. Social Speech is when a child uses speech to express simple thoughts and emotions such as crying, laughter, shouting etc. Private speech, Vygotsky sees private speech as a means for children to plan activities and strategies and therefore their development. Finally, Inner speech was used by Vygotsky to describe a stage in language acquisition and the process of thought. Working in an environment with four to five-year olds this is seen frequently for example if they are drawing a picture they would say what colour the are going to use and what that colour is for and why that object must be that colour. Vygotsky also talks about the more knowledgeable other (MKO) this means that it is not always the teacher or older person who is more knowledgeable and that they can learn from the child also. This theory is effective in school environments where the younger pupils have a buddy usually from primary seven and they take time to read with them, help them with their work or even just someone to talk to about their interests or hobbies. So in regard to Vygotsky’s theory anyone can be the more knowledgeable other depending on the subject.

One of Jean Piaget’s theories talks about the preoperational stage. Piaget believes that children need concrete objects in front of them to be able to count or comprehend how many objects there are. This is commonly seen in children in the early stages of education. Where children need to be able to touch to count the objects in front of them as they cannot visually count objects yet. I have seen this theory in play on placement and a lot of the children in the class can only count all the objects if they touch each one individually. This seems to help the children progress with their counting much faster and they end up with a better understanding of numbers by doing this. (www.origoeducation.com, 2019)

Jerome Bruner’s literacy theory of iconic representation is about how children correlate pictures with word and therefor this is often why children’s books have a lot of pictures, not just to make it more fun or colourful but to allow the child to associate the words with the pictures and therefor construct their own understanding and knowledge. When reading a book with a child often they will point to images that they are familiar with and say the word. This helps them to begin to look at the spelling of the word and remember how it is spelled so that when the child comes across the same word again, they may recognise it quicker. This theory is very effective especially in young children as they are only just beginning to understand words and the pictures help to prompt the word out of the child. For example, if the child is being read a story about a dog the child will most likely point to the image and say ‘dog’. As they develop their skills, they will soon be confident enough to recognise the written word on its own. (www.simplypsychology.org, 2019)

Learning a foreign language provides learners with the opportunity to gain knowledge concerning linguistic contents and socio-cultural aspects. On the other hand, it allows learners to reach the high levels of proficiency required by educational institutions to access any career. Thus, learners who want to reach those levels need to go through a language teaching process. Moeller and Catalano (2015) acknowledged that “Foreign language learning and teaching refer to the teaching or learning of a nonnative language outside of the environment where it is commonly spoken.” (p. 327) According to this, people who can communicate in another language can forge relationships with others and learn about cultures using the English structures. Also, it allows them to express creatively while participating in real-life situations using language.

For years, the school has used various teaching strategies and methods to keep students engaged with language. In the beginning, the actions were few and very traditional. They were based on what a teacher said, while students listened and wrote on their notebooks. After this, teaching began to change. Institutions and teachers started by exploring a lot of innovative ways to improve attitudes and achievements in EFL learners. Equally, materials and classrooms have become a key point to enhance the foreign language learning and teaching process. All of this goes to a relevant point; the social context where the language is taught. If the social context provides the opportunities to learn, the learners will achieve high probabilities to develop their English skills. But, if the context does not fulfill the expectations, the teaching and learning process will be harder for learners, teachers, and schools.

English has become relevant for education, business, and international organizations widely. Therefore, Colombia has taken part in this event, since the national government chooses this language to have a competitive country internationally. For that, this country has designed various projects through the Ministry of National Education. Most of them were failed attempts because they were not able to reach the proposed goals. Currently, there is a new program. According to the Suggested English Curriculum (2016), the Colombia Bilingual Program 2014-2018, seeks to firm up the foreign language teaching and learning process in all the school generating actions from different perspectives of education. (p.15) With a naked eye, the program seemed to be appropriate to learn and teach English.

In contrast to the stated before, the Colombia Bilingual Program lied down very high standards. It seems to me that it was designed for a first world country instead of being created for a third world one. It did not consider the social differences in the regions of the country. Then, in Colombia, just a few people have the privilege to study and count with all the resources to learn a language different from their mother tongue. On the contrary, there is another portion of students who do cannot attend a decent English class due to the lack of physics structures to teach. Apart from this, teachers have to teach in bad conditions, taking advantage of the resources around to create the materials that learners need to learn English.

Regarding everything stated before, this writing sample will be focused on three aspects of foreign language teaching and learning process in a regional context of Colombia. The first point will discuss the methods or approaches proposed to employ in the country. The second one will explore various strategies to enhance learning and teaching. Finally, it will describe a personal experience of teaching and learning in a region of Colombia.

Language Learning and Teaching methods proposed in Colombia

Language learning and teaching methods are a group of specifications of how teachers should teach, and how learners should learn. For teachers, methods describe what materials and activities should be used. For learners, methods describe what role the learner should adopt in a classroom. Liu and Shi (2007) stated that language teaching methods represent a mix of language beliefs characterized by empathizing on central issues of language. (p. 69) although there is a variety of methodologies, it is hard for teachers to know which one is more effective since social contexts are different. For instance, methods that have been derived from social, political, economic, and educational circumstances cannot be exported to countries with different philosophies, values, and beliefs.

Any method can assure effective results in language learning and teaching process. Teachers should opt for one or various of them to supply students’ needs. In Colombia, the Suggested Curriculum of the Colombia Bilingual Program proposes three methods or approaches that pep up learners to lead their learning process through a project and problem-solving in high schools. The first focus is task-based learning for 6th – 7th students, and it oversees the development of tasks using the English structure. Under Sekehan, (1996), there are three stages: before the task, during the task, and after the task. The first one is about the introduction to topic and task. The second one is related to the students’ work, planning, and report what they have done. And the third one refers to the analysis and practice with the teacher.

As well as that, the following focus is project-based learning for 8th and 9th. This method encourages learners to work in a period working in real-life projects, whereas using English as an important tool to gain meaningful knowledge. And the teachers’ role is to provide support to the learners and motivate them to learn the language. Finally, the last method is problem-based learning from 10th and 11th graders. Here, the students use the language and the knowledge he has acquired to research a problem proposed and his ability to solve it. Keeping this in mind, the Colombia Bilingual Program suggests that these methodologies been applied sequentially; from 6th to 11th grade following their development. Alternatively, schools can use these methods per their pedagogical models and approaches.

Language Learning and Teaching Strategies

Language learning strategies can be defined as the decisions made by learners to make learning easier. Willing (1988) as cited in Palacios (1996) reported that “language learning strategies are characterized as any means learners use to transform the external input into internal and personal resources and skills.” (p.104) Otherwise, language teaching strategies are related to teachers’ actions to teach the four English skills. Indeed, these strategies are used by them to raise awareness among students to practice and develop their communicative competence. Then, these strategies can result in ineffective if there is a compromise by both teachers and students. The last should become acquainted with the learners’ background and know-how to proceed in the learning and teaching process. And others should be responsible for their tasks.

Nowadays, foreign language has been evolving, and with that, how teachers should teach. Thereupon, there are diverse strategies that can contribute to getting better the language learning and teaching process. Here, some of them will be discussed. For instance, cooperative learning is a strategy that inspires students to work among groups and express their ideas verbally. As well, it helps to develop communication and critical thinking. Some examples of this strategy are puzzles, experiments, dramas, and role-plays. Another example is problem-based learning, which is a student-centered, where he learns about a topic by understanding and solving problems.

Another option is the Flipped classroom model about encouraging students to prepare a topic at home for the lesson before the class. After that, students answer questions and go beyond their boundaries and explore their curiosity. Furthermore, blended learning can be a way in which the teacher combines a traditional teaching class with online learning. Hence, teachers can access to massive open online courses (MOOCs) and create interactive exercises like online quizzes to test student’s knowledge. Moreover, students can use their devices to work and share what they learn through social media. Equally, gamification can be effective to keep the learners motivated. Thus, students can enjoy the competition with peers while having fun and learning English.

Besides, audiovisual aids help along with the students with practical learning experiences. They can increase their self-confidence and interaction in and outside of the classroom. The audiovisual aids include photos, recordings around a theme, listening to radio stations, and TED talks. Unlike, reading and writing are useful to improve vocabulary, grammar, critical thinking, and others. Example of that is the newspapers’ articles, magazines blogs, poems, and all that concerns literature. All of them provide learning scenarios and encourage students to discuss ideas to foster grammar, listening, speaking, and writing. However, these programs look beyond the classroom setting to engage students with the world itself. All in all, it reminds us that English language learning is a 24/7 practice and is not restricted to nuts and bolts.

After all, these examples of learning and teaching strategies are effective in places where both teachers and students have space and the resources to practice the language. To point out, the Ministry of Education of Colombia has spied out the importance of foreign language in the country’s schools, but it has not set guidelines to assist teachers or even, support them to do their job properly. Cadavid et al (2004) affirmed that “educational policies should not be implemented blindly without a careful analysis of our contexts, and without knowing the real needs of our teachers and students.” (p.44.) As an illustration, just a small percentage of high schools count on specialized rooms with computers and multimedia. But, in the rest of the schools, it is almost impossible for teachers to apply most of the strategies mentioned before. Despite that, they create their materials and adapt plans to teach English in a classroom of 35 or 45 students.

As an English bachelor’s, I have gained experience in public schools carrying out teaching practices in elementary and secondary public schools. Even though the experience has been short, but it can be assured that is very difficult to teach in a difficult social context. The learning and teaching process becomes harder since it takes a longer time than stipulated to accomplish the goals proposed by the Ministry of Education. Even so, teachers work to allow those learners to acquire a foreign language, even when the Ministry of Education and other institutions have forgotten to support most public schools in Colombia. The most compelling evidence of that is a teaching practice executed in a secondary high school in Florencia, Caquetá last year. It provides specific information on high school and students. Also, it will discuss the goals concerning language learning and teaching process, strategies, materials, and results.

This teaching practice was carried out in a public school called Institución Educativa Antonio Ricaurte. This institution is settled in Florencia Caquetá Colombia; more exactly, in Porvenir neighborhood, in front of the main Bienestar Familiar headquarter. Likewise, the school is for boys and girls with an academic, and technical character with two types of specialization; a commercial and an academic one. Additionally, the institution has currently an agreement with other institutions and both Schools joined. This school admits students from different places, different social status, with personal and academic difficulties. Otherwise, it allows teaching practices in subjects like English. In this case, the school offers three hours of English classes per week from 6th to 9th grade. In this opportunity, the practice exercise was developed with 9th-grade students; 13 women and 25 men, where there were one pregnant girl and a boy with disabilities.

The cooperative teacher and students had a small classroom to do the teaching-learning process. This room did not have better conditions to have people on it. For example, on rainy days, the floor was wet, there was a broken door, and there was a thin wall where noise passed through it and produced interference. In terms of the teaching practice, some facts could be evidenced. First, the students’ English level of students was not the best, since they were working in topics for 7th grade. In that way, the practicing teacher had to adapt the lesson plans based on themes from the suggested curriculum of 7th grade, and the requirements made by the school. As a second aspect, the students refused to be taught in English in the first week. They feel uncomfortable because of did not understand. For that, the practicing teacher started to speak in English, and then in Spanish. Later, she started speaking in English using body language to make them understand.

On the other hand, the practice teacher used strategies and methods like realia and TPR to provide meaningful learning to the students. They were exposed to different tools and materials like readings, audios, pictures, and videos to enhance English skills and promote critical thinking about real-life situations. Some activities accomplished by students were role plays, short presentations, posters, and the creation of a book. The students were working individually, by couples, and in groups. Similarly, the practitioner established rules to behave and for participation. In that way, she could control the learners and give instructions to them during the class.

Consequently, after a hard process, it was evidenced that there was an improvement in learning and teaching. Students’ attitudes changed and felt motivated to learn. They were able to express themselves using words and short sentences in English. As well as that, they were committed to learn and participate in and out of the classroom. In the same way, the practice teacher could take a procedure that helped students to overcome some of the difficulties they had in the foreign language. She used not only the language structure, methods, and strategies; but also, taking into consideration the students’ needs and the context. Moreover, all the materials and tools were designed by her and with her own money. There was no support from the school or parents. Thereby, this exercise showed that foreign language learning and teaching are complex in places where there are not resources, but it is not impossible. However, it should be different.

To recapitulate, learning a foreign language imparts learners the opportunities to acquire linguistic content and sociocultural knowledge. Likewise, it has been important internationally to access any career or a job. , Colombia has not been left behind. The Ministry of Education has designed the Colombia Bilingual program that seeks to strengthen learning and teaching a foreign language. To learn a foreign language, schools employ methods and strategies to reach their expectations related to English. Although there are several methods, most of them are not suitable in all parts of the world because they were created based on social, political and economic aspects in specific countries with different beliefs. For example, In Colombia, the bilingual program proposes 3 methods to encourage communicative competence. They are task-based learning, project-based learning, and problem-based learning. They are available for schools and teachers to be adapted according to pedagogical models and approaches. Apart from this, there are various strategies for learning and teaching, but that cannot be applied in most schools in Colombia. Especially, because there are not physical and economical resources to fulfill the expectations in the language. An example of that is a teaching practice experience in a public high in Florencia Caquetá Colombia. It describes the arduous journey of a practice teacher in a difficult context. Though she did great progress in learning a teaching process, it was evidenced that it took a long time to enhance the language. Finally, it can be acknowledged that foreign language learning and teaching process is important for everyone nowadays. But it should be developed in better conditions, and supported by the government entities since there are different contexts in the country and worldwide.

Language is described as a central feature of human development; it is the way of human communication; Language allows a child to be able to express emotions. The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) explains the value of language. It’s important to encourage your child’s language development by constantly exposing them to it, this could just be by repeating simple words to them. From birth, babies are using language by vocalising through noises, sounds and mumbling they do this to get attention, so the mother knows they want their needs met. At the age of one, the child is beginning to say their first words e.g.: “Mama” “Dada” “No” (miller, 2019) They also may try to imitate words they hear often. By the age of just 4 years old children can say up to 2,000 words and will start to put these familiar words into sentences. By 4-5 years children will know you can use sentences in different ways but that mean the same thing for example “the dog was chasing the cat” and “the cat was being chased by the dog”.

Noam Chomsky a theorist of language development believed that all children developed their language skills through the same sequences of language acquisition (Scott et al., 2008) He also believed that language is innate to children from birth. Chomsky supported the nature side of the debate; he has been criticized as he made no mention to social interaction, his theory questions that children don’t all follow the same sequence of language development. In my setting I see that children all develop language skills differently and not all children are at the same level of understanding. (BC, 2014)

Literacy

Literacy is the foundation of a child’s learning being literate means you can read, speak and write. There are four stages of literacy: beginning literacy, early intermediate literacy, intermediate literacy and early advanced literacy. Most children will learn to read by the time they are seven years old, the language skills children learn from birth onwards builds a foundation for their literacy skills. By 12-36 months children will start to recognise the covers of their favourite books, name animals in their story books, and help turn pages of books. By 3-4 years children will be able to write questions related to a story they have read, understanding that we read from the left side of the page to the right and recognise and identify rhyming words. (deBruin-parecki, 2000) (conca, 2014).

Jean piaget theory of literacy development helps explain the literacy development of children in early years. He believed depending on the child’s intellectual development the work given to the individual child should be tailored accordingly to the appropriate level. Piaget believed children learn through stages the four stages he constructed were

• sensorimotor (birth- 2 years of age)
• preoperational stage (2-7 years)
• concrete operational (7-11 years)
• formal operational (11 years to adult)

the children in my setting are under the preoperational stage at this stage children are reading books having discussions about books they are reading and wanting to share opinions I see the children in my classroom reaching these milestones within their literacy tasks this would suggest they are at the correct stage of piaget theory. (S.B, 2015)

Numeracy

Numeracy is defined as the ability to understand and work with numbers. Basic numeracy skills consist of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It also involves the understanding of money, weight, measurements and time. (scotland, 2012) Numeracy skills help us also to problem solve; we use it every day of our lives, it’s a key skill. From birth children are being surrounded by numeracy from seeing numbers on their toys to the television. By the age of 4-5 years children should be able to count to 30, understand the value of money (notes and coins) and count backwards from 10. Children can explore numeracy through activities such as baking as children can get involved in the weighing and measuring. In my setting Role play is a good way to get children interacting with numeracy, for example using money to help counting adding and taking away skills, this connects with Bruner’s putting theory into practise. Jerome Bruner theory is used in classrooms everyday he believed that the best way to learn is trying it yourself after being given the right structure to start on by the teacher, he believes its all about letting the children explore and discover themselves , and also using classroom resources such as blocks so children can visually see the sum. (currell, 2018)

The CPA Approach

Here is a diagram of the approach Bruner believed helped childrens numeracy (CPA) Understanding it enables children to expand on their numeracy knowledge and skills needed, break it down into sections add in resources at first then take them away and leave them with the sum. (currell, 2018)

Conclusion

In conclusin I think its important we are bathing or children in lanuage literacy and numeracy in order to promote their development and reach their milestones, its important to consider that all children learn and develop at different stages so if a child is slightly behind it dosent mean that they arent learning.

Bibliography

1. BC, H., 2014. healthy famailes. [Online] Available at: https://www.healthyfamiliesbc.ca/home/articles/language-development-4-5-years-preschool[Accessed 18.11.19 november 2019].
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