A Blessing In Disguise: The failure in the past...

      Something good that isn't recognized at first. Yeah! That is what a blessing in disguise is. Early this year, I had failed my major paper in the final exam. Hit the books! The minute I knew that I am going to repeat for the  exam, that idea comes to my mind. Repeatedly I told myself to never give in. There must be something that Allah had planned for me.

       I took some time to reflect on my life. How I had lived in it for two decades now? I realised that there are many things I have to change. The way I think, the way I work and most of all, the way I present myself as the servant of Allah. I had been neglecting my responsibility and living a carefree life last year. Idle hands are the devil's tools. I have nothing to do this year instead of attending lectures and tutorials. It differs from the previous years when I was active in many activities on campus. The years I was involving with Student's Representative Council, my academic achievement shines more that it was in 2010. 

      As I came to realise this matter, I pray to Allah to forgive me for I had taking for granted the potential that He give as a gift to me. I will do my best to do better from now on.

ALLAH knows what is best for us
So why should we complain?
We always want the sunshine
But He knows there must be rain.

We always want laughter
and the merriment of cheer

but our heart will lose
their tenderness
If we never shed a tear.

ALLAH tests us often
with suffering and sorrow
He tests us not to punish us
but to help us meet tomorrow.

For growing trees are strenghtened
if they can withstand the storm

and the sharpness of the chisel
gave the marble its grace and form.

ALLAH tests us often
and for every pain
He gives us

provided we are patient
 
Is followed by rich gain
So whenever we feel that
everything is going wrong

It is just ALLAH'S way to make our   spirit strong.

Introduction to Phonology: Say it right!

International Phonetic Alphabet chart

      Phonology is a study of phonemes (sounds) used in the English language. The chart above was used to learn the correct way to produce each sound. It is easier to learn it now since I had learned the basis of phonology earlier with Mr. Camillus Ong somewhere in 2007. 

      When learning about language, especially in emphasizing on phonology, the most vital thing to have is a good British dictionary. I am glad that I have Oxford Advanced Learner's 7th edition for companion in studying English language. It comes with helpful features and the most essential part is, OAL provide the transcript for all English word. 

       What do I know now after learning phonology? hihi..

I know that...

 in the English sound system,

the phonemes are consists of;

24 consonants and 20 vowels sounds.

Anymore that I know?

Nonetheless, I had learned that there are short vowels, consonants, long monophthongs, and diphtongs. In a twit, as a language teacher I realised that phonics in phonology is an approach to teaching reading to the students. It aims at building foundational skills in beginning readers. However, the use of phonics depends on the practitioners’ beliefs about reading. In Malaysian culture, people tend to belief that Manglish is acceptable and there are only little awareness in English speaker to use the right phonics. We have to fix this situation very soon in order for Malaysia to achieve the vision "Wawasan 2020".


      The 6th challenge under Wawasan 2020 is;

"Mewujudkan masyarakat saintifik dan progresif, mempunyai daya perubahan tinggi dan memandang ke depan, yang bukan sahaja pengguna teknologi tinggi tetapi juga menyumbangkan kepada tamadun saintifik dan teknologi masa depan."


Therefore, I came to a point of understanding that there is an urge need for English language teachers to understand the good phonics instruction. Good phonics instruction should be able to develop the alphabetic principle. Students must know that the notion of letters in words stand for specific sounds. It is not a dime a dozen yet good phonics instruction helps to develop phonological awareness  where students obtained the recognition of sounds in spoken words (phoneme awareness).

      Implicitly, I learned from this topic that the benefit of good phonics instruction in our teaching is it provide a sound grounding in the letters throughout learning the shapes and names of letters. Nevertheless, it may provide sufficient practice in reading words either in isolation or in context. 

      Cut to the chase, good phonics instruction should lead automatic word recognition. Phonics instruction is not the end but the means to help children read words automatically. 

Before I end here, let me share a good link that may help us to understand further about the world of Phonology; http://www.readingrockets.org/article/254

Remember! Say it right! 

A political and spiritual leader of the Indian Independence Movement

just to remind myself, if Mahatma Ghandi ever wish to know the most beloved man in my life (Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.) I should wish more and work more to learn his sirah (history) and be a good Muslimah.

The belly rules the mind.

I'm still working on to type in reflection on topic two: Introduction to Phonology to my web-log. Still trying hard to do the posting since I had left the blogging world for few months and my skill is now rusty..huhu :(

Can I share something with you? Just click on the link below..let's improve our English while watching the documentary :)

Do We Know What Are We Eating Everyday? Frankensteer: The Passionate Eyes

Doing house chores, cooking, cleaning and now typing...it makes me hungry.

And a Spanish proverb said it rightly,

The belly rules the mind.

It sure does!

Language and Communication (Part 1)

 Assalamualaikum..Peace be upon you. 

Another reflection to be posted. For the first topic that I had learned: "Language and Communication" in the English for Language Teacher course, I want to put up these song lyrics. It's a song from Maher Zain which has been translated in many version including Malay, English, and French.

By: Maher Zain

Everytime you feel like you cannot go on
You feel so lost
That your so alone
All you is see is night
And darkness all around
You feel so helpless
You can’t see which way to go
Don’t despair and never loose hope
Cause Allah is always by your side

Insha Allah x3
Insya Allah you’ll find your way

Everytime you commit one more mistake
You feel you can’t repent
And that its way too late
Your’re so confused, wrong decisions you have made
Haunt your mind and your heart is full of shame

Don’t despair and never loose hope
Cause Allah is always by your side
Insha Allah x3
Insya Allah you’ll find your way
Insha Allah x3
Insya Allah you’ll find your way

Turn to Allah
He’s never far away
Put your trust in Him
Raise your hands and pray

OOO Ya Allah
Guide my steps don’t let me go astray
You’re the only one that showed me the way,
Showed me the way x2
Insyaallah x3
Insya Allah we’ll find the way

and..here is the Malay version

Andainya..
Kau rasa tak berupaya
Hidup sendirian tiada pembela
Segalanya suram, bagai malam yang gelap
Tiada bantuan, tiada tujuan

Janganlah berputus asa..
Kerana Allah bersamamu..

Chorus

InshaAllah… InshaAllah…
InshaAllah… Ada Jalannya…

InshaAllah… InshaAllah…
InshaAllah… Ada Jalannya…

Andainya..
Kesalmu berulang lagi
Bagai tiada ruang untuk kembali
Tika keliru atas kesilapan lalu
Membelenggu hati dan fikiranmu

Janganlah berputus asa…
Kerana Allah bersamamu…

(Ulang Chorus)

Kembalilah
Kepada yang esa
Yakin padanya,panjatkanlah doa
OOoo Ya Allah
Pimpinlah daku dari tersasar
Tunjukkan daku ke jalan yang benar
Jalan yang benar
Jalan yang benar
Jalan yang benar

Why do I posted these lyrics?... to be continued in Part Two 

Language and Communication: Part Two

~ Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. ~ William Butler Yeats

Extracted from Wikimedia Commons: Language groups

     Language and Communication. By age four, most humans have developed an ability to communicate through oral language.  By age six or seven, most humans can comprehend, as well as express, written thoughts. This ability fascinates me.As I learned about language and communication in Madam Ira's lecture, I am eager to share what I found through this reflection.

      What is communication? Imagine  "Communication" as a book. What does a book have? The outside part and inside part. The outside part is the cover. Can you see it now? The cover of "Communication" can be called "Body Language". Nevertheless, the inside part of a book are the pages. These pages can represent "Language" where on each page we can find "transmission", "grammar", "meaning" and "social use". Thus, the whole cover plus pages is what book is as body language and language is deriving communication to existence.

      Why there are transmission in language? It is the method we use to communicate. Either writing or speaking. Speaking means using our voice and speech to talk fluently. Humans have vocal cords. When it vibrates, it produce sounds. The sounds we make with our speech organ when we are talking must have meaning for it to be accepted as a language. 

      A proper definition of language is taught to us in the lecture. Language is a code that allows us to represents thoughts and ideas by means of sounds/letters. This code has complex symbols with internal structure which is rule-governed.

      For instance, let us examine this sentence. " I love you".  The red coloured word is the Subject of the sentence, whilst the purple coloured word is the Verb. lastly, the blue coloured word is the Object of sentence. Upon realising the existence of this particular internal structure, I went through to compare it with Malay and Korean language sentence structure. 

 I love you. (English)

Saya sayang awak. (Malay)

당신을 사랑합니다 (Korean)

(dangshin uhl saranghabnida) (I love you) 

In Korean, '당신을' can be omitted, since Koreans usually do not use the word 'you.' The following all mean "I love you" (without the 'you' pronoun) and are listed in order of decreasing formality. You can say any of them to someone you know well. The last one would be used most often to boyfriends, girlfriends and such. The second one would be said to parents, grandparents, or perhaps acquaintances one is in love with. :)

사랑합니다--saranghabnida
사랑해요-- saranghaeyo
사랑해--saranghae

      Noticed that Malay sentence structure is similar to English. Yet, when compared with Korean, it differs. Korean placed the Object in front. Other than the structure, the letters is also different.
      
       Chinese writing has very much influenced the Korean language.It was used widely during the Chinese occupation of northern Korea from 108 BC to 313 AD. By the 5th century AD, the Koreans were starting to write in Classical Chinese - the earliest known example of this dates from 414 AD. They later devised three different systems for writing Korean with Chinese characters: Hyangchal (향찰/鄕札), Gukyeol (구결/口訣) and Idu (이두/吏讀). These systems were similar to those developed in Japan and were probably used as models by the Japanese. Interesting right? :)

       

      I am very much aspire to learn more about language and become an excellent language teacher soon. Remember the Maher Zain's song that is written both English and Malay  version. That is for us to examine.. :) 

       I have friends that loves language very much and I am glad to learn more with them. Part Two ends here. Till the then, chalga! ( Chalga in Korean means Take care.)

Thanks to the people who never give up with me in this 'long run' to succes :)

Highest gratitude to Allah s.w.t,

Mak and Ayah,

Kak Dilah & Kak Rabiah: the multi-lingual sisters that I am proud to call mine..

English Class: Our another sweet story

It has been 7 week now for  our interaction with dearest Madam Ira. hihi..so funny that she had been our mentor  for years but only this semester we get the chance to be in her lecture. Last time she taught us was when we were in 3rd semester preparation program.

As for this semester, we are having an interesting project in her class. That is to write for our reflection and posted in weblog. dadada...Now, I've to type my reflection back, edit here and there first before I can present it to you (the readers).