Push for English

Two states—Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland—have made English the main medium of instruction in all public and private schools. More and more states, such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Delhi, are offering English-medium as an option in existing state schools. Private English-medium schools are a growth industry—offering a range of services to suit almost all budgets, from around Rs200 a month to Rs2 lakh a month.  This simple-minded link between job opportunities, economic success and the English language has an increasing number of urban working class and lower middle-class parents investing their hard-earned money in private English-medium schooling— often of uncertain quality.

Today, almost a quarter of all Indian children attend private schools. A significant proportion of these schools is officially English-medium. This shift, in fact, has made states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra offer an English-medium option in existing government schools in the hope of stemming the flow of children out of state schools to private schools.

Primacy of the mother tongue

Yet, across the world, and in India, there is a consensus among educators, educationists and linguists that children learn most effectively in their mother tongues. Research collated by the UNESCO shows that “children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start, and continue to perform better, than those for whom school starts with a new language.”

It’s a no-brainer. Using a language that children are familiar with eases their transition from home to school. They are more easily engaged in the classroom because they understand what is going on, and are able to link it to their everyday lives. This helps them easily develop literacy skills and general cognitive abilities.

A mass of research shows that children’s ability to learn a second or even a third language improves greatly if their first language skills are well developed. And, far from being a burden, children who know one language well are very fast and receptive in learning new languages. The three-language formula for schools, which emphasised learning in the mother tongue, seemed to acknowledge this.

The transition from home language to a school language is complicated enough in a country like India where large proportions of the population do not speak the standardised regional language but a dialect or, as with many tribal communities, an entirely different language.

States with large adivasi (tribal) populations, for example, do not even have sufficient teachers who understand, never mind teach in, their languages. Starting to learn to read and write in a language that they never hear at home or in the community makes learning difficult and reduces its appeal.

THE LAST LESSON

THE LAST LESSON – by Alphonse Daudet

INTRODUCTION
The prose ‘The last lesson’, written by Alphonse Daudet narrates about the year 1870 when the Prussian forces under Bismarck attacked and captured France. The French districts of Alsace and Lorraine went into Prussian hands. The new Prussian rulers discontinued the teaching of French in the schools of these two districts. The French teachers were asked to leave. The story describes the last day of one such French teacher, M.Hamel. M.Hamel had been transferred and could no longer remain in his old school. Still he gave last lesson to his students with utmost devotion and sincerity as ever. The story depicts the pathos of the whole situation about how people feel when they don’t learn their own language and then losing an asset in M.Hamel’s.

One of his student Franz who dreaded French class and M.Hamel’s iron rod, came to the school that day thinking he would be punished as he had not learnt his lesson. But on reaching school he found Hamel dressed in Sunday clothes and all the old people of the village sitting there. It was due to an order on the bulletin board. That was the first day when he realized for the first time that how important French was for him, but it was his “Last Lesson” in French.

FULL SUMMARY

The prose ‘The Last Lesson’, written by Alphonse Daudet narrates about the year 1870 when the Prussian forces under Bismarck attacked and captured France. The French districts of Alsace and Lorraine went into Prussian hands. The new Prussian rulers discontinued the teaching of French in the schools of these two districts. The French teachers were asked to leave. The story describes the last day of one such French, M.Hamel. Mr. M.Hamel had been transferred and could no longer remain in his old school. Still he gave last lesson to his students with utmost devotion and sincerity as ever.
One of his student Franz who feared French class and M.Hamel’s iron rod, came to the school that day thinking he would be punished as he had not learnt his lesson. But on reaching school he found Hamel dressed in Sunday clothes and all the old people of the village sitting there. It was due to an order on the bulletin board. That was the first day when he realized for the first time that how important French was for him, but it was his LAST LESSON in French.

The story ‘The Last Lesson’ highlights the human tendency that there is plenty of time to do things; hence, man keeps postponing the lessons of life, oblivious to the fact that life is subject to change. The people of Alsace always thought they had plenty of time to learn the lessons; therefore, they did not give much importance to school. They preferred their children to work on the farms and mills instead of having them learn the lessons. Even Franz, the narrator, always looked for opportunities to skip the school and collect birds’ eggs. However, the unexpected happens and an order is received from Berlin regarding compulsory teaching of German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. It is then that they realize that they would be deprived of what they had been evading all this while.

The last French lesson taught by M. Hamel symbolizes the loss of language and the loss of freedom for France. It becomes an emotional lesson rendered by M. Hamel to the villagers, signifying the changing order of life and its impact on the sensibilities and emotions of people. The marching soldiers under the windows represent the dawn of Prussia in France, defeat of the French people and the resultant threat to their language and culture.

The story is aptly titled as it evokes the consciousness in the reader not to put off things and do what one can do that day. M. Hamel’s bold ‘Long live France’ on the blackboard becomes substantial evidence of his sadness, patriotism and finality that is reflected in his motionless posture, his fixed gaze on things in the classroom and his eventual words- ‘School is dismissed – You may go’.

1. The people in this story suddenly realize how precious their language is to them. What shows you this? Why does this happen?

Answer

M. Hamel told the students and villagers that henceforth only German would be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. Those who called themselves Frenchmen would neither be able to speak nor write it. He praised French as the most beautiful, the clearest and most logical language in the world. He  said that for the enslaved people, their language was the key to their prison. Then the people realised how precious their language was to them. This shows people's love for their own culture, traditions and country. Pride in one's language reflects pride in motherland.

2. Franz thinks, “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons ?” What could this means?

Answer

Alphonse Daudet’s ‘The Last Lesson’ very prominently raises the question of linguistic and cultural hegemony of the colonial and imperial powers and their lust for controlling the world and influencing their cultures and identities. Prussians acquired the districts of Alsace and Lorraine in Franco-Prussian War , but they were not satisfied with simple political domination ,they desired to impose their own language on the people of the defeated nation. They released the order that from now German would be taught in schools rather than French. Franz wondered whether they would make even pigeons sing in German. It means that they had grown up using French as their language and now snatching away their language from them would be unfair and unkind. The language was as natural to them as cooing is to the pigeon. So, compulsion to speak another language is like dominating the force of nature and enslaving it. As it is next to impossible to alter the way pigeons sing, in the same way it is difficult for people to accept a language which is forcibly imposed on them. Adopting a new language causes pain and discomfort.

Or

This sentence could possibly mean that however hard the authorities try to embed German language in the culture of Alsace and Lorraine, the natural status of French, for them, will remain unchanged. French flows in the air and the entire place is imbued with its effect. Even though they train students in German, the basic mode of communication would remain unchanged like the cooing of the pigeons.

Talking about the Text

1. “When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.”
Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?

Answer

Some examples of the native language taken away from its people and/or imposition of the language of the conqueror are:
(a) Portuguese becoming the lingua franca of Angola.
(b) English imposed on the various Celtic peoples.
(c) Spanish imposed on the Basques and the Catalans.
(d) Turkish imposed on the Kurds.

2. What happens to a linguistic minority in a state? How do you think they can keep their language alive? For example:
Punjabis in Bangalore
Tamilians in Mumbai
Kannadigas in Delhi
Gujaratis in Kolkata

Answer

A linguistic minority in a state does not have as much liberty to exercise linguistic skills as the natives of the state. They initially try to learn the jargons in order to cope with the day-to-day life activities and finally begin to understand the native language with regular interaction. At the workplace and educational organisations, English or the linking language helps a lot to cope up with the work and learning process. But, when it comes to understanding the basic norms of the society, in order to socialize, one does face a sort of linguistic barrier during communication.
To keep their language alive, the linguistic minorities can form small communities where they can celebrate their festivals as per their traditions. Moreover, they can continue to speak their native language at their homes in order to make their children learn the language. People must, even, try to visit their native places at regular intervals in order to stay close to their roots.

3. Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far?
Do you know what ‘linguistic chauvinism’ means?

Answer

Yes, it is possible to carry pride in one's language too far if one is fond of one’s own language at the cost of others. Indifference towards other languages is not healthy for any democracy like India.
When the sense of belonging to one's own language crosses the thin line between ‘pride’ and ‘proud’, it becomes linguistic chauvinism. If people feel good about their languages and traditions, they must have tolerance for other languages too. Everybody has the right to follow the religion as well as speak the language as per his/her desire. In fact, it is disparaging to distort the names of communities, for example, Bongs for Bengalis, Gujju for Gujratis, etc

Qualities of a good student

Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders of a country and the qualities of a student clearly determine the student’s bright future and carrier path. Historically the term student referred anyone who learns something; however the recent definition of a student is anyone who attends school, college, or university. Again what are the good qualities of a student? Based on my personal experience, I list down the qualities of a good student. Attitude: basically good student posses the ability and willingness to learn new subjects even the subjects are not interesting. Academic skills: curing academic skills is more important quality of a student. Ability to read comprehensively, to write effectively, to speak fluently and to communicate clearly is the key areas in which a good student must be proficient. Having a good handle in all these areas will make a student to shine in class. Ability: a good student has the ability to apply the result of his/ her learning in to creative way and achieve the goal. Perceptiveness: how well a student can interpret and perceive meanings from a conversation greatly determines quality of a good student. He or she always perceives right meaning from conversation. Self discipline: discipline is managing the time in an important factor that every student must possess. Often times, delaying the task, such as writing assignments, reading text books, etc. may negatively impact the ability of a student to achieve the goals. Understanding rather than memorizing concepts: students must understand the concepts rather than just memorizing them. The memorized facts and theories will stay in student’s memory until they leave school, college, or university. Once out of school the students will totally forget the core concept that they learned. Therefore it is essential a good student understand the concepts.

Eat well , Score well

*A recent study found that teens who got 8 hours of sleep before taking a maths test where nearly 3 times more likely to figure out the problem than those who stayed awake all night. Understand & follow the given tips to achieve your desired performance in your exams. Egg yolks, peanuts, wheat germ, liver meat, fish, milk, cheese & vegetables(especially broccoli, cabbage & cauliflower) for good memory. Meat, milk products, fish beans, nuts, soy products- for learning & concentration. 3-4 ounces of protein a day will help you to feel energized, more alert & more assertive. Starchy vegetables, potatoes, cereals, breads, chapattis, rice- for pleasure & anti-depressant. A lunch rich in protein keeps your brain alert throughout the day. Carbohydrates like fruit juices in the evening keep moods high & concentration good & also help in good sleep. 60% of the brain is fat. Good fats like Omega 3 & 6 fatty acids help to keep the brain energized. Flaxseed & cod & shark liver oils, olive oil & walnuts & almonds are rich in Omega fatty acids. Blueberries are a very good source of antioxidants which are best for brain function. Eggs for breakfast is like a brain tonic to keep concentration & brain power high. Junk foods damage brain cells. Small frequent meals of dry fruits, fruits, juices, milk, nuts, sandwiches, poha, upma, idli, etc. at an interval of every three hours keeps the blood glucose high & makes the brain more efficient under excessive activity also. Besides this, an hour of walking & some breathing exercises like pranayam keeps you relaxed. Some simple stretches at home will also prevent you from getting cramps aches & pains.

Swami Vivekhanand

1. Man comes from God in the beginning, in the middle he becomes man, and in the end he goes back to God.

2. He is an Acharya through whom the Divine Power acts.

3. According to Karma Yoga, the action one has done cannot be destroyed, until it has borne its fruit; no power in nature can stop it from yielding its results.

4. Know it for certain that there is no greater Tirtha (holy spot) than the body of man. Nowhere else is the Atman so manifest as here.

5. This world is just a gymnasium in which we play; our life is an eternal holiday.

6. Strength is the one thing needful. Strength is the medicine for the world’s disease. And nothing gives such strength as the idea of Monism.

7. Despondency is not religion, whatever else it may be. By being pleasant always and smiling, it takes you nearer to God, nearer than any prayer.

8. Any new discovery of truth does not contradict the past truth but fits into it.

9. Our King Janaka tilled the soil with his own hands, and he was also the greatest of the knowers of Truth, of his time.

10. Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism.

11. You are the makers of your own fortunes. You make yourselves suffer, you make good and evil, and it is you who put your hands before your eyes and say it is dark. Take your hands away and see the light.

12. The senses cheat you day and night. Vedanta found that out ages ago, modern science is just discovering the same fact.

13. It will not do merely to listen to great principles. You must apply them in the practical field, turn them into constant practice.

14. Of Gyan and Bhakti, he who advocates one and denounces the other cannot be either a Jnanin or a Bhakta, but he is a thief and a cheat.

15. While real perfection is only one, relative perfections must be many.

16. The wind of grace of the Lord is blowing on, for ever and ever. Do you spread your sail.

17. Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practice, you will not get one step further.

18. So long as the ‘skin sky’ surrounds man, that is, so long as he identifies himself with his body, he cannot see God.

19. Men worship Incarnations such as Christ or Buddha. They are the most perfect manifestations of the eternal Self. They are much higher than all the conceptions of God that you or I can make.

20. The happiest moments we ever know are when we entirely forget ourselves.

21. Books cannot teach God, but they can destroy ignorance; their action is negative.

22. The monk is the religious expert, having made religion his one métier of life. He is the soldier of God.

23. I do not believe in a God who cannot give me bread here, giving me eternal bliss in heaven !

24. The first thing to be got rid of by him who would be a Gyanani, is fear.

25. Brahman, this Reality, is unknown and unknowable, not in the sense of the agnostic, but because to know Him would be a blasphemy, because you are He already.

26. Where do you find the Indian Society standing still ? It is always on the move. Sometimes, as in the times of foreign invasions, the movement has been slow, at other times quicker. This is what I say to my countrymen, I do not condemn them. I look into their past. I find that under the circumstances no nation could do more glorious work. I tell them that they have done well. I only ask them to do better.

27. Our ideal is the Brahmin of spiritual culture and renunciation. By the Brahmin ideal Brahminness in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. That is the ideal of the Hindu race.

28. Buddha was a working Gynani, Christ was a Bhakta, but the same goal was reached by them.

29. Maya is eternal both-ways, taken universally, as genus; but it is not-eternal individually.

30. Renunciation is the real beginning of religion. Nowadays it is very hard even to talk of renunciation. It was said of me in America that I was a man who came out of a land that had been dead and buried for five thousand years, and talked of renunciation. So says perhaps the English philosopher. Yet it is true that is the only path to religion. Renounce and give up.

31. It is impossible to find God outside of ourselves. We are the greatest temple.

32. Worship of God, worship of the holy ones, concentration and meditation, and unselfish work, these are the ways of breaking away from Maya’s net; but we must first have the strong desire to get free.

33. Wisdom can be practiced even on a battlefield. The Gita was preached so.

34. To think there is any imperfection creates it. Thoughts of strength and perfection alone can cure it.

35. Where is fate, and who is fate? We reap what we sow. We are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise. We make our own destiny.

36. Those that want to help mankind must take their own pleasure and pain, name and fame, and all sorts of interests, and make a bundle of them and throw them into the sea, and then come to the Lord. That is what all the masters said and did.

37. The finer the organism, the higher the culture – greater is the power to enjoy pleasure, and the sharper are the pangs of pain.

38. With us, the prominent idea is Mukti; with the Westerners it is Dharma. What we desire is – Mukti; what they want is – Dharma. Dharma is that which makes man seek for happiness in this world or the next.

39. They had hundreds of Rishis in ancient India. We will have millions – we are going to have, and the sooner everyone of you believes in this, the better for India and the better for the world. Whatever you believe, that you will be.

40. The greatest men in the world have passed away unknown. Silently they live and silently they pass away; and in time their thoughts find expression in Buddhas or Christs, and it is these latter that become known to us.

41. Better be ready to live in rags with Christ than to live in palaces without him.

42. Vedanta says, ‘We are free and not free at the same time.’ That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side.

43. In our country, the imparting of knowledge has always been through men of renunciation. India had all good prospects so long as tyagis (men of renunciation) used to impart knowledge.

44. Creation is infinite, without beginning and without end, the ever moving ripple in an infinite lake.

45. Monism and Dualism are essentially the same. The difference consists in the expression. Dualism is in nature, in manifestation and Monism is pure spirituality in the essence.

46. The reconciliation of the different paths of Dharma and work without desire or attachment – these are the two special characteristics of the Gita.

47. The personal God is the highest reading that can be attained to, of the impersonal, by the human intellect.

48. The teachings of Krishna as taught by the Gita are the grandest the world has ever known. He who wrote that wonderful poem was one of those rare souls whose lives send a wave of regeneration through the world.

49. The living secrets must be handed down from Guru to disciple, in every science, much more so in religion.

50. Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Shakya Muni was a Hindu. The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, nay crucified him, and the Hindus have accepted Shakya Muni as God and worship him.

Computer System

Hardware and Software

A computer system consists of hardware ,the electronic devices that are capable of computing and manipulating information and software(set of instructions)that carries out predefined tasks to complete a given job. As we know a, computer cannot perform on its own .It performs operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division only when the user instructs it to do so. Theuser issues instruction which controls the sequence of operation are know as programs , and collectively programs are called software. It is an intangible commodity ,that is ,the part of a computer system that users cannot touch.

Relationship Between software and Hardware.

Software refers to the computer programs that are loaded into the computer system ,and hardware refers to all the visible devices, which are assembled together to build a computer system. Both software and hardware go hand in hand ;you cannot have one without the other .Even though hardware is the physical part of the computer . It is nothing unless it has software to control it .In a way, hard ware is like a car without a driver ;one needs both to make something happen .software is a set of instruction that tells the hardware what to do and how to perform the requested actions. Thus ,hardware and software share a special relationship. If hardware is the “heart “of the computer system, software is its “soul”. Both are complimentary to each other.

Software Definition:

Software is the generic term for organized collection of computer data and instruction .It is responsible for controlling ,integrating and managing the hardware components of a computer and to accomplish specific tasks. In other words software tells the computer what to do and how to do it. for example software instructs the hardware what to display on the users screen, what kind of input to take from the user ,and what kind of output to generate. Thus, software communicates with the hard ware by organizing the control sequences, and the hardware carries out the instructions defined by the software.

A computer needs to be instructed to perform any task .These instructions are given in the form of computer program, which are written in computer programming language. program controls the activity of the processor. The movement the hardware (processor, memory etc.) acts as per the instructions of a program, the is said to be in running or executing state.

Categories Of software

Software can be categorized as system software and application software. System software is a generic term for referring to any computer program whose purpose is to help the user to run the computer system , whereas application software employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform.

E.g. Take an electric bulb to an application and the electric power generation plant with system . the power plant merely generates electricity .

System Software

System software consists of several programs , Which are directly responsible for controlling ,integrating ,and managing the individual hardware components of a computer system. You must have noticed that a new computer system is always accompanied by some software ,either stored in a floppy or CD, which is supplied by the manufacturer. This software manages and supports the computer system and its information processing activity.

System software is more transparent and less noticed by the user s, they usually interact with the hardware or the application. This software provides a programming environment in which programmers can create application to accommodate their needs .Hence ,system software acts as an interface between the hardware of the computer and the software application.

In simple terms, system software makes the computer functional. They provide basic functionality like file management , visual display , and keyboard input, and are used by application software to accomplish these functions .some examples of system software are operating system , device drivers, language translators and system utilities.

Operating system :

It is the first layer of software loaded into computer memory when it starts up. As the first software layer, all other software that’s gets loaded after it depends on it for various common core services. These common core services include disk access, memory management, task scheduling, and user interfacing. In adding the operating system ensures that different programs executing at the same time do not interfere with each other. In simple words, the operating system organizes and controls the hardware. Examples of operating systems are windows XP,UNIX, and linux .The basic function of an operating system are :

1. Process Management: It handles the creation, deletion, suspension, resumption, and synchronization of processes.

2. Memory Management: It handles allocation and de-allocation of memory space as required by various programs.

3. File Management: It is responsible for creation and deletion of files and directories. It also organizes, stores, retrieves, names, and protects all the files.

4. Device Management: It manages all the devices of the computer system such as printers and modems. If any device fails, it detects the device failure and notifies the same to the user.

5. Security Management: Protects system resources and information against destruction and unauthorized use.

6. User Interface: Provides the interface between the user and the hardware.

Application Software

The most often seen software by the user is the application software. It is used accomplished specific tasks rather than just managing a computer system .For a user ,the computer system has no specific use without application software. Application software may consists of a single program , such as Microsoft Notepad (for writing and editing simple text0. It may also consists of a collection of programs, often called a software package, which work together to accomplish a task , such as database management software. Application software may also include a larger collection of related but independent programs and packages(a software suite) , which have a common. User interface or shared data format such as Microsoft office suite.

Application software are dependent on system soft ware’s. A system software (like operating system )acts as an interface between the user and the computer hardware. While application software performs specific tasks . Application are pieces of software that perform tasks for the users besides helping the computer operate. Which is the task of the system software. Application software are controlled by system software , which manages hardware devices and performs background task for them. Without system software, the computer will not run , and without application software , the computer , no matter how powerful , will not be helpful in meeting users requirements . Think of it this way------application apply the computer thinking power to business tasks such as tracking the general ledger or billing your customers.

Application software ranges from games , calculators and word processors (document creating programs), To programs that “paint “ images on screen (image color). Application represents real world tasks .

SMS & ITS NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Origins of Text Messaging Slang

At the root of most, if not all, differences between normal English and text messaging slang -- affectionately or mockingly known as "txt spk" -- lies a desire to use as few characters as possible. SMS originally allowed a maximum of 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation: shortening words was often the only way to fit everything you wanted to say into the message.

Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Pictogram

A great part of the vocabulary of text messaging is made up of abbreviations, acronyms, and pictograms. Abbreviations are words that are shortened one way or another, such as "l8r" for "later," "u" for "you," and "sec" for "second"; acronyms are letter sequences that stand for a longer phrase, such as "IDK" for "I don't know," "OMG" for "oh my God," and "AFAIR" for "as far as I remember"; pictograms are strings of characters that represent a feeling or concept, such as ":)" for a smile and "<3" for "love."

Vocabulary

People who send a lot of text messages may end up using abbreviations, acronyms, and pictograms in other contexts by sheer habit, even though it may be inappropriate. This can happen both in writing and in speech: in his book "Txtng: The Gr8 Db8," the linguist David Crystal notes that he has heard teenagers and adults alike use abbreviations rather than the corresponding sentence when speaking out loud.

Phonetic Spelling and Deteriorating Grammar

In order to shorten words, people writing text messages may resort to phonetic spelling, such as "skool" for "school" and "thru" for "through." Similarly, in order to save characters, writers may skip punctuation or spaces, or omit non-essential parts of sentences, such as articles. Finally, any and all capitalization may be skipped in order to increase the speed of typing. These habits may persist even outside of texting, leading to a slow deterioration of spelling and grammar skills.

Sentence Length

Because text messages focus so much on short sentences, people who frequently write text messages may adopt the same style in any kind of written communication. This can lead to written works full of sentence fragments with only a thin thread of logic flow linking them.

Learning the Language

For people who are just beginning to learn a language, encountering text messaging slang can be extremely confusing. Native speakers are usually aware that the way they are writing goes against the established rules of the language; learners who encounter this kind of slang regularly, however, may end up genuinely believing it to be the correct way of spelling and writing.

Talking vs texting

One conflict that has been produced by the surge in mobile phone use is a rift between people who like to talk and people who prefer to text. Sending text messages has become a medium of choice for mobile phone users.

Young people are increasingly prone to texting and shy away from making calls, which are more direct – but also less permanent forms of communication. Ironically, the speed at which instant messaging or texting takes place means that mistakes and shorthands are common: but we often let each other get away with them because we know what they mean.

Many teachers in primary and secondary schools have expressed concern at the number of children whose literacy levels are dropping; and who are not even able to write by hand, so accustomed are they to computers, tablets and mobiles.

Some texting terms have even made it into common parlance: ‘lol’ (laugh out loud), ‘omg’ (oh my god), pls (please). The craze for shortening words, absorbed from texting, is also changing how we speak – ‘amaze’ for ‘amazing’, ‘totes’ for totally, ‘blates’ for blatantly: these are all largely teenage usages that are becoming mainstream.

But does this mean it’s turning us all into inarticulate blobs?

Mini-debate:

This house proposes that text messaging is ruining the English language

FOR

You only need to look at recent education statistics to see that text messaging is completely devastating the English language. Recent findings have suggested that schoolchildren in the 1960s and 1970s were far more literate than children of today. In 2013, the average schoolchild struggles more with spelling, grammar and essay-writing: essential skills which before now were considered key to a good grasp of the English language. Text messaging is alienating English speakers from their native tongue and confusing non-natives who wish to learn the language. It promotes mis-spelling. English is a beautiful tongue with a rich literary history which does not deserve to be overshadowed by phrases like ‘c u l8r’ and ‘megalolz’.

AGAINST

As any linguist knows, language is not a static thing. Change and development is the one constant in life, and the changing sounds and phrases of a language are merely reflections of the changes in a particular society. You cannot expect the English language to remain the same while the world around us – and particularly the way we communicate – is subject to so much variation. Text messaging can be a fun and playful way to communicate – the important thing to remember for education is teaching children how to employ different ways of communication. Writing an essay and writing a text are different things; children can learn both. What is more, texting is being used to actually help literacy in developing countries: a UN SMS-based literacy program in Pakistan aims to help women in Islamabad to read. Now what’s so bad about that?

What do you think? Does text messaging make it harder to learn and speak a language? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Language

English textbooks should have correct, natural, recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. For lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.

Information on Culture

The cultural information included in English textbooks should be correct and recent. It should not be biased and should reflect background cultures of English. It should include visual aids etc., to help students understand cultural information.

From Learners' Viewpoints

Content English textbooks should be useful, meaningful and interesting for students. While no single subject will be of interest to all students, materials should be chosen based, in part, on what students, in general, are likely to find interesting and motivating.

Difficulty. As a general rule, materials should be slightly higher in their level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency. (Exceptions are usually made for extensive reading and extensive listening materials, which should be easy enough for students to process without much difficulty.) Materials at a slightly higher level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency allow them to learn new grammatical structures and vocabulary.

Instructional issues. English textbooks should have clear instructional procedure and methods, that is, the teacher and students should be able to understand what is expected in each lesson and for each activity.

Textbooks should have support for learning. This can take the form of vocabulary lists, exercises which cover or expand on the content, visual aids, etc. Traditionally, language teaching materials in Japan are made up mostly of text, with few, if any, visual aids. However, with the development of technology, photos, visual materials and audio materials have become very important components of language teaching materials, and they are becoming easier to obtain. Teachers need to learn how to find them, and how to best exploit these characteristics.

Materials are getting more complicated, and instructional philosophy, approach, methods, and techniques are getting more important. Teachers need to be able to evaluate materials involving photos, videos, and computers now. 

10 steps to Lesson Planning

This is a general overview that highlights the key points of creating a lesson plan. Below is a list of the steps involved in developing a lesson plan as well as a description of what each component should be.

1. The first thing to consider, obviously, is what you want to teach. This should be developed based upon your state (or school) standards. You also need to be aware of what grade level you are developing the lesson plan for (and keep that in mind of course), and also record a time estimate for your lesson plan to help in time budgeting. Once you have your topic, you can begin determining how you want to teach the topic. If you didn't use the state standards to help in developing your topic, refer to them now to see what specific standards your lesson plan can fulfill. Having your lesson plan correctly aligned with state standards helps to prove its worthiness and necessity. It also helps in assuring that your students are being taught what your state requires. If you are able to correlate your lesson plan with standards, record links to those standards in your lesson plan. If writing this lesson plan for a website (The Lesson Plans Page) be sure to include a title that properly reflects your topic.

2. To make sure your lesson plan will teach exactly what you want it to; you need to develop clear and specific objectives. Please note that objectives should not be activities that will be used in the lesson plan. They should instead be the learning outcomes of those activities.

Objectives should also be directly measurable (we'll get to this in assessment / evaluation). In other words, make sure you will be able to tell whether these objectives were met or not. You can certainly have more than one objective for a lesson plan.
To make objectives more meaningful, you may want to include both broad and narrow objectives. The broad objectives would be more like goals and include the overall goal of the lesson plan, i.e. to gain familiarity with adding two numbers together.

3. You would probably find out exactly what materials you are going to use later, but they should be shown early in your lesson plan. This way if someone else were going to use your lesson plan, they would know in advance what materials are required. Be specific here to make sure the teacher will have everything they need.

4. You may also want to write an Anticipatory Set, which would be a way to lead into the lesson plan and develop the students' interest in learning what is about to be taught.

5. Now you need to write the step-by-step procedures that will be performed to reach the objectives. These don't have to involve every little thing the teacher will say and do, but they should list the relevant actions the teacher needs to perform.

6. After the procedures have been completed, you may want to provide time for independent practice.

7. Just before moving on to the assessment phase you should have some sort of closure for the lesson plan.

8. Now you want to write your assessment / evaluation. Many lesson plans don't necessarily need an assessment, but most should have some sort of evaluation of whether or not the objectives were reached. The key in developing your assessment is to make sure that the assessment specifically measures whether the objectives were reached or not. Thus, there should be a direct correlation between the objectives and the assessments.

9. Adaptations should also be made for students with learning disabilities and extensions for others

10. It's also a good idea to include a "Connections" section, which shows how the lesson plan could be integrated with other subjects. Putting a lot of work into this can develop complete thematic units that would integrate related topics into many different subjects. This repetition of topics in different subjects can be extremely helpful in ensuring retention of the material.

Jacobean literature

After Shakespeare's death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics hark back to the Middle Ages rather than to the Tudor Era: his characters embody the theory of humours. According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioural differences result from a prevalence of one of the body's four "humours" (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) over the other three; these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire, and earth. This leads Jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types, or clichés.
Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. His Volpone shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con artist, vice being punished by vice, virtue meting out its reward.
Others who followed Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliant comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, a mockery of the rising middle class and especially of those nouveaux riches who pretend to dictate literary taste without knowing much literature at all. In the story, a couple of grocers wrangle with professional actors to have their illiterate son play a leading role in a drama. He becomes a knight-errant wearing, appropriately, a burning pestle on his shield. Seeking to win a princess' heart, the young man is ridiculed much in the way Don Quixote was. One of Beaumont and Fletcher's chief merits was that of realising how feudalism and chivalry had turned into snobbery and make-believe and those new social classes were on the rise.
Another popular style of theatre during Jacobean times was the revenge play, popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman wrote a couple of subtle revenge tragedies, but must be remembered chiefly on account of his famous translation of Homer, one that had a profound influence on all future English literature, even inspiring John Keats to write one of his best sonnets.
The King James Bible, one of the most massive translation projects in the history of English up to this time, was started in 1604 and completed in 1611. It represents the culmination of a tradition of Bible translation into English that began with the work of William Tyndale. It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some consider it one of the greatest literary works of all time. James I headed this project himself, who supervised the work of forty-seven scholars. Although many other translations into English have been made, some of which are widely considered more accurate, many aesthetically prefer the King James Bible, whose meter is made to mimic the original Hebrew verse.

Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 1600s, the major poets of the early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to reach surprise effects. For example, in "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", one of Donne's Songs and Sonnets, the points of a compass represent two lovers, the woman who is home, waiting, being the centre, the farther point being her lover sailing away from her. But the larger the distance, the more the hands of the compass lean to each other: separation makes love grow fonder. The paradox or the oxymoron is a constant in this poetry whose fears and anxieties also speak of a world of spiritual certainties shaken by the modern discoveries of geography and science, one that is no longer the centre of the universe. Apart from the metaphysical poetry of Donne, the 17th century is also celebrated for its Baroque poetry. Baroque poetry served the same ends as the art of the period; the Baroque style is lofty, sweeping, epic, and religious. Many of these poets have an overtly Catholic sensibility (namely Richard Crashaw) and wrote poetry for the Catholic counter-Reformation in order to establish a feeling of supremacy and mysticism that would ideally persuade newly emerging Protestant groups back toward Catholicism.

CONSTRUCTIVISM: A SHORT SUMMARY

“Constructivism is a theory of learning, and it is also a theory of knowing.  It is an epistemological concept that draws from a variety of fields, including philosophy, psychology, and science” (Walker & Lambert, 1995 p. 1).  Constructivism "has become de rigueur in educational circles and ... stems from a long and respected tradition in cognitive psychology, especially the writings of Dewey, Vygotsky, and Piaget" (Danielson, 1996, p. 23).  Ernst von Glasersfeld's basic principles of radical constructivism are the following:

1.  Knowledge is not passively received either through the senses or by way of communication, but it is actively built up by the cognising subject.

2.  The function of cognition is adaptive and serves the subject's organization of the experiential world, not the discovery of an objective ontological reality.  (von Glasersfeld, 1988, p. 83)

His principles are built on the ideas of Jean Piaget, who applied the biological concept of adaptation to epistemology (von Glasersfeld, 1996).  Von Glasersfeld (1993, p. 24) refers to his ideas as "postepistemological" because his radical constructivism posits a different relationship between knowledge and the external world than does traditional epistemology.

Theories about conceptual change have been built on constructivist principles.  Conceptual change can be subdivided into differentiation in which new concepts emerge from more general concepts, class extension in which existing concepts become cases of another subsuming concept, and re-conceptualization in which nature of and relationship between concepts changes significantly (Dykstra, Boyle and Monarch, 1992).  After dissatisfaction with existing conceptions, requirements for conceptual change are that the new conception be intelligible, plausible, and fruitful (Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982).  The status of a conception is increased as more of these three conditions are met (Hewson, 1996).

A constructivist view does not lead to a simple, uncontested set of rules for pedagogical practice.  General agreement is that students need interaction with the physical world and with their peers to stimulate meaning-making.  The teacher elicits students’ initial beliefs about the subject to be studied and about the nature of learning.  The teacher sets up situations that will cause dissatisfaction with existing ideas.  Realizing that students' expectations affect their observations and that multiple approaches to problem solving are acceptable, the teacher monitors students' understandings, requests from them evidence and justification, provides constraints for their thinking, and gives them opportunities to represent their knowledge in a variety of ways.  The teacher's role also includes introducing, when necessary, new ways of thinking about phenomena and working with symbols.  Then the teacher guides and supports students as they make sense of these ideas and tools for themselves in cooperation with their classmates (Driver, 1995; Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer, & Scott, 1994; Duit, 1995; Fosnot, 1996; Lewin, 1995; Rubin, 1995; Tobin & Tippins, 1993; von Glasersfeld, 1995).

Constructivist approaches to teaching and cooperative learning techniques can be thought of as having both personal and interpersonal components.  Each person constructs his or her own mental frameworks and conceptions using preferred learning styles.  However, this is seldom done in isolation.  The cognitive developmental perspective emphasizes that participants should engage in discussion in which cognitive conflict is resolved and inadequate reasoning is modified.  Language passing back and forth between individuals in written and oral forms is viewed as indispensable for the development of understanding (Belenky et al, 1986; Driver, 1995; von Glasersfeld, 1995).  The social interdependence perspective has the assumption that the way social interdependence is structured determines how individuals interact.  This, in turn, determines what is accomplished by the group (Johnson & Johnson, 1994).  Intrinsic motivation is generated by interpersonal factors and joint aspirations.  At the same time that students become more aware of and take more responsibility for their own thinking, they increase their understanding and appreciation of other people’s thinking.

REFERENCES

Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M, Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M.  (1986).  Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind.  New York, NY: Basic Books.

Danielson, C.  (1996).  Enhancing professional practice:  A framework for teaching.  Alexandria, VA:  Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Driver, R.  (1995).  Constructivist approaches in science teaching.  In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 385-400).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Driver, R., Asoko, H., Leach, J., Mortimer, E., & Scott, P.  (1994).  Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom.  Educational Researcher, 23(7), 5-12.

Duit, R.  (1995).  The constructivist view: A Fashionable and fruitful paradigm for science education research and practice.  In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 271-285).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dykstra, D. I., Boyle, C. F., & Monarch, I. A.  (1992).  Studying conceptual change in learning physics.  Science Education, 76(6), 615-652.

Fosnot, C. T.  (1996).  Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning.  In C. T. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (pp. 8-33).  New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Hewson, P. W.  (1996).  Teaching for conceptual change.  In D. F. Treagust, R. Duit, & B. J. Fraser (Eds.), Improving teaching and learning in science and mathematics (pp. 131-140).  New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T.  (1994).  Learning together and alone: Cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning (4th ed.).  Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Lewin, P.  (1995).  The social already inhabits the epistemic: A discussion of Driver; Wood, Cobb, & Yackel; and von Glasersfeld.  In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 423-432).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 271-285.

Posner, G. J., Strike, K. A., Hewson, P. W., & Gertzog, W. A.  (1982).  Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change.  Science Education, 66(2), 211-227.

Rubin, D.  (1995).  Constructivism, sexual harassment, and presupposition:  A (very) loose response to Duit, Saxe, and Spivey.  In L. P. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education (pp. 355-366).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Tobin, K., & Tippins. D.  (1993).  Constructivism as a referent for teaching and learning.  In K. Tobin (Ed.), The practice of constructivism in science education (pp. 3-21).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

von Glasersfeld, E.  (1996).  Introduction: Aspects of constructivism.  In C. T. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives, and practice (pp. 3-7).  New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

von Glasersfeld, E.  (1995).  Radical constructivism: A way of knowing and learning.  London: Falmer Press.

von Glasersfeld, E.  (1993).  Questions and answers about radical constructivism.  In K. Tobin (Ed.), The practice of constructivism in science education (pp. 23-38).  Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

von Glasersfeld, E.  (1988).  The reluctance to change a way of thinking.  The Irish Journal of Psychology, 9(1), 83-90

Walker, D., & Lambert, L.  (1995).  Learning and leading theory: A century in the making.  In L Lambert, D. Walker, D. P. Zimmerman, J. E. Cooper, M. D. Lambert, M. E. Gardner, & P. J. Ford Slack, The constructivist leader (pp. 1-27).  New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.