Interpretative Reading in Thailand Essay Example for Free

Interpretative Reading in Thailand Essay Introduction Interpretative reading can be defined as the analysis of literary texts and subsequent enunciation of those texts. It is also sometimes called dramatic reading and relies on the reader’s voice to convey the emotion, drama and imagery of a narrative without actually acting it out. A good interpretative reader must possess a number of vocal skills such as the ability to control vocal tone, volume, pace and inflection to accurately communicate meaning and build drama. In addition to clear articulation and correct pronunciation, which are paramount to the audience’s understanding, the reader must have an in depth understanding of the text in order to produce a meaningful interpretation of it. In other words the narrator needs to be able to know the characters, imagine their backgrounds and feel their emotions to be believable. Good interpretive reading is a difficult skill even for native speakers to master and takes preparation and plenty of practice; however, for a student in the Thai education system faces a number of distinct disadvantages in becoming a proficient interpretative reader. To begin with the languages of Thai and English are very different. We have different stress patterns on words and there are sounds in English which don’t exist in Thai, both of which make clear pronunciation challenging for students and although many Thai schools now employ native speaking English teachers who are able to model correct pronunciation and natural rhythm, lots of Thai students lack confidence and have little opportunity to practice English outside of their classroom. In addition, English uses intonation to convey different meanings and emotions whereas Thai uses a fixed tone for each word so it is often hard for a Thai student to express emotions like sarcasm or disbelief through inflection even when they recognize the need to do so. Another barrier for many Thai students, aside from the enunciation, is actually understanding the text well enough to interpret it. This depends upon, not only the student’s knowledge of English language and ability to follow the plot but also on previous personal, educational and cultural experience that influence the way the narrative is interpreted. A student lacking exposure to western culture and a deeper understanding of the social norms, stereotypes and cultural issues surrounding a text might struggle with a credible portrayal of characters and personation. These factors coupled with a general lack of focus on key reading skills leave Thai students at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to dramatic reading abilities. So, how do we assess the state of Thai interpretive reading? Do we take into account the many disadvantages that Thai students face in learning to read expressively and if so what criteria is it fair to judge them on? After some research into the rubric schools overseas use to evaluate students’ interpretive reading skills we decided to base our assessment on the following criteria:- Pace. The speed at which a reader speaks, increasing speed creates drama and intensity. Pause. The lingering of the voice on, before or after a word for dramatic effect. Volume. Adds emphasis or fullness of tone. It can be used with other forms of emphasis to exaggerate emphasis. Melody. The wave-like change in voice pitch depends on the reader recognizing the relative importance of words in the text. Inflection. The bending of the voice from the main pitch up or down. Personation. The reader’s interpretation of the character. Pitch. The degree of highness or lowness to a tone adds more subtle emphasis. Confidence. How comfortable is the speaker with reading aloud the text. The readers pace, volume and use of pause are techniques that can be used to emphasize mood or add drama but in the case of a non native speaker an overly loud or quiet reading could be due to nervousness and a pause or change in pace could be due to not understanding a word or not knowing how to pronounce it. These things, in turn, can affect the other factors we will be evaluating. With this in mind we will be focusing on the deviations from normal patterns in each of these categories and trying to find any correlations. Conducting the research and investigation To better understand how well a Thai may use the techniques associated with interpretative reading we needed to hear some examples. We selected a number of Thai students to read a set part of a chapter from a book and recorded them to analyse their interpretative reading skills. The material chosen was chapter one from ‘The Monkey King’ a stage one young reader by Rosie Dickins. The chapter was broken into 5 separate parts for the students to read. The level one reader was chosen to accommodate all students and focus on their reading skills rather than their comprehension of the text. The students’ ages and levels of English ranged from, six to eighteen years old, and Beginner to Advanced. By having such a wide range of readers we will be able to see if there are any reoccurring problems across all levels and ages or if there are any surprising results. Before the students were recorded they were each given different parts of the chapter to familiarise themselves with what they were going to read. This is to again focus on their interpretation of the text and to let them question any pronunciation of any unfamiliar words. In addition to that when the text was handed to the students, it was explained to them that they have to read it as if they were telling a story to someone, and they do not want this person to fall asleep. Also, an example of interpretative reading of a text, other than their own, was then given to the students to make sure that they fully understood what they had to do. To do good interpretative reading, the text has to be fully understood, it is the key for good reading, so all the parts that they did not understand was read to them and explained again before they did the task. Some of the younger students did not really understand how to read the text like they were telling a story, so some parts of the text was read to them showing the change in voice pitch and intonation, as one would do for interpretive reading. They then caught on to what was needed. The most difficult part was that many of the younger ones were nervous and shy, which is normal for some children who have to read text which is not in their native language. They were mostly nervous because of being placed in front of a laptop computer, and about their pronunciation. It was made clear to them that pronunciation was not the point of the research and that it was not a big deal if they did make some mistakes, but that the most important thing was the way they interpret the text, and that it has to be understood. It was noticed that they did understand it since they all wrote some Thai notes on the text which seemed to be translations. Then, finally it was for them to forget their nerves and read the text. The students were then recorded reading their parts which were later analysed, considering the younger students reading level, they did quite well. Analysing the results Once we had the recordings of the brave students that took part in our research, the analysis could be carried out. We went through the recordings with a fine toothcomb, and complied the results into a chart. In this chart, as can be seen in fig. 1. 2, the students were rated on their performance. They were judged on numerous criteria which include melody, speed, volume, pauses, inflection, personation, pitch and confidence. These eight criteria were marked as poor, fair, good, very good or excellent. We took into account their age group and reading skill level when judging them. Once the chart was completed, the graphs were made to clearly show which of the students’ skills were strong and which skills were weak (fig. 2. 1 – 2. 8). On the whole they performed better than expected, although there were obvious inflections, changes of pitch in odd places that Thais often make mistakes with when interpretive reading. We had spoken about this before the experiment had even begun, so it was to be expected. The results of the experiment showed that most of the students had a very good grasp of the pace that the text should be read at (see fig. 2. 2). In addition, most of them read the text at a decent volume; and all of the students were audible (see fig. 2. 3). It was obvious which students have had a lot of practice reading because of their melody, and the way it flowed throughout their reading (see fig. 2. 1). These students are also the ones that were given good marks in inflection; pitch and confidence (see fig. 2. 5, 2. 7, and 2. 8). One of the areas in which most of the students did not do very well was the pauses, as it seemed as if they were in the wrong places and there did not seem to be enough of them (see fig. 2. 4). Finally, the worst area by far was the personation or interpretation of the characters in the story. Most of the students did not even change the pitch or melody of their voice when reading the direct speech and those that did change the pitch of their voice did not put on any kind of exciting voice (see fig. 2. 6). From the results, we have seen that generally the standard of interpretative reading is at a fair level, usually respective of the student’s level of English. However, there were certain issues and certain elements of their reading which are necessary to try and eliminate to help improve their interpretative reading. The highest level of reading was from a student who could be considered the student with the highest level of general English. This was mainly due to his immediate in-depth understanding of the text. He was able to employ pauses in appropriate places such as full stops, commas, but also using them for dramatic effect as in adjective lists or after adverbs. He also had a strong use of melody in how he read. The best skill he used which set his reading above the rest was his use of personation on the characters voices. Some other students were able to produce a similarly high standard of reading and once again these students can be identified as the ones with the best overall English language skills. Some of these good examples were from the M3 level. Despite them being at a high level of general English some of the elements they employed in their reading was something that could be said was found in all readings at this level but not as frequent. One of these is the students’ use of force on unstressed syllables. This was more common at the end of words which contained specific sounds. This was seen in words such as monKEY and heavenLY, adding extra force to the /i? / sound, and gardeNER, giving force to the /? /. There is also another issue that was common at the end of words. This was the dropping of sounds or in some case whole syllables. This was most evident in plural nouns and ed sounds at the end of verbs. For example, peachES, leavES, soldierS, pronounced as /? z/, /z/, and /s/ which were generally dropped from the words all together especially the /? z/ sound. Further to this the /? d/, /d/, and /t/ sounds in words such as, boastED, stormED, and snappED, were particularly a problem. As we looked down the levels of general English skills we saw problems more identified with that level rather than an overall picture of Thai speakers and these problems ultimately determined how well of a reader we believed them to be. One such problem was melody. English being a very musical language requires the reader to know the importance of stressed and unstressed words within the sentence. The result was mainly a flat sentence giving equal stress to prepositions and articles, to nouns and verbs. This disrupted the usual flow of the English language. The pause was another problem but was a more obvious one. There are certain positions within a reading where a pause must be used, such as full stops and commas and without these pauses the reading can sounds unnatural. This wasn’t throughout the text but only in some places is enough to give a breathless effect. The above mentioned issues were the most common throughout all the readers but there were some individual mistakes present as well. For example, the rising inflection or falling inflection mid-sentence, giving a different meaning to the sentence as a whole. We believe that vocabulary knowledge is of great importance in the way we set up the experiment. Although the material used for the reading is said to be a level one reader this does not mean that all the students are able to fully understand all the words in the text and their subsequent effect on the way the text should be read. From the six steps of analysis it is stated that a reader should be able to read the text line by line fully understanding the text, to understand the theme, and importantly take the text away and practice. With the limited time available with the students it was not possible to allow them to take the text home, study it, and perhaps translate the words to understand their meaning. Therefore, the students with the greatest range of vocabulary were the students with the better examples of interpretative reading. In regards to the common use of what we considered to be their wrongful employment of interpretative reading skills, we tried to identify a possible reason for each case. Firstly, the use of force at the end of words containing /i? / and /? / we believe to be a problem that is associated with the Thai language. Generally, these sounds at the end of words are stressed in the Thai language while unstressed in English, and so they are mixing up the two languages. In contrast to this is the students’ lack of plural and ed sounds at the end of words. Due to the fact that they are not pronounced at the end of words in the Thai language, the students’ would transfer this over to the English language and drop them from the English words. The students’ lack of melody could be also to do with being Thai language native speakers. The musical rhythm of the English language requires the use of melody by stressing words in certain ways within a sentence. The Thai language, however, does not have melody in a sentence as a whole and so the reading was flat as oppose to rising and falling, strong and weak. The lack of pauses in some instances has more to do with the individual reader and with practice could easily be eliminated. Conclusion In conclusion, Thai teachers need to provide more speaking time for the students so that they can learn the rhythm of the English language. This can be achieved by giving the students more access to a native speaker’s spoken word. Some suggestions for this would be to have the students do more role-play exercises in the classroom impersonating different characters from a book. Also trying to imitate character’s voices from a movie or from television programmes would be a great way to master their personation technique. A game could be made out of this where the students have to guess who another student is trying to imitate. Another way to help Thai students might be to get them to listen to other well known interpretive readers while they are reading along to the story themselves to get an understanding of how it is done well. Interpretive Reading for Thai Students By Drew Eaglesham Timothy Parker Sarah Pratley Victor Deville-Blumberg EN202 Interpretative Reading.

The Cosquer Cave Discovery :: Antrhopology

The Cosquer Cave Discovery A long, long time ago, 27,000 years ago to be exact, during the glacial period, glaciers over a kilometer deep spanned the country of France from the Alps to the Haute Provence. These glaciers held so much water that they caused the sea level in the Mediterranean Sea to drop well over 100 meters. Prehistoric humans found the entrance to Cosquer cave not far from the seashore and some entered to paint inside it. During this time, men created wonderful pictures on the walls of the cave. But, as the earth warmed up, the sea level began to rise and 17,000 years later the entry to Cosquer cave was completely underwater. The water continued to rise and at present time the cave’s entrance is 37 meters below the level of the sea. This is the incredible story of Cosquer Cave and its discovery. It was a discovery so unexpected that it was believed to be a deception. Read on as I share with you my own discoveries as I, have explored Cosquer Cave. In 1991, a diver by the name of Henri Cosquer from Cassis discovered the cave that is now named for him. His discovery was so extraordinary and unexpected that some scientists believed it to be a deception or very probably a farce. But soon after his discovery scientists using modern procedures performed datings that confirmed Cosquer’s discovery. Henri Cosquer had discovered and important archeological site! The cave is located at Cape Morgiou in the Calanques, near Marseilles. Underwater access to the cave is extremely treacherous, taking explorers through a tunnel 175 meters in length and 37 meters under sea level. As a safety precaution and in order to preserve the site, the entry passage to the cave has now been blocked. However, a three-dimensional reproduction of the cave was created by Electricite de France, allowing a â€Å"virtual visit.† Past dives organized by the French Ministry of Culture have revealed the cave walls to be decorated with a variety of land animals including horses, ibex, shamois, bison, wild ox, megaloceros, and red deer.

Code Switching Essay

Abstract: Though codeswitching research may vary from context to context and situation to situation, the common factors for code switching will be threefold. That is, code switching deals with languages in contact. In interactive social situations code switching will be the use of more than one language For example the interaction during various social events involving interlocutors who know more than one language. With these common factors of code switching this paper looks into the Malaysian context with special thrust to the various reasons involved for code switching during the social interactions. Data for the present paper were collected from the Tamil speaking undergraduate students of the University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. Their interaction in different identified domains involving three languages viz. Tamil, Malay and English were looked into. Gumperz (1982) while discussing the communicative function of code switching, claims that the speaker plays upon the connection of the we-code to create conversational effect. Thus code switching is seen as fulfilling the relational and referential functions of language that amounts to effective communication and interlingual unity. Apart from this function of code switching ,this paper could identifies several other reasons for code switching in the situations under study. Communicative functions and Reasons for Codeswitching : Malaysian Perspective . Code switching is an everyday reality in every place where more than one language is spoken in everyday communications. Many scholars have studied  extensively about the patterns of code switching and the reasons for code switching. The present paper discusses the communicative functions of code switching and also the sociolinguistic, cultural and pedagogic reasons for code switching in the Malaysian context. Data for the present study were collected from Tamil speaking University students who have enrolled as undergraduate students in the University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. The data were collected from these students while they were interacting in different domains viz. classroom, university campus, family, market, neighborhood etc. In all these domains they have to interact with Malay and Chinese speakers apart from as well as with other Tamil speakers. It is observed that all the students from whom the data were collected are competent to a certain extent in Tamil, Malay and English. Communicative Functions of Codeswitching Gumperz (1982) when discussing communicative functions, mentions the discourse function of codeswitching, also called the personalization function of language. A speaker plays upon the connotation of the we-code to create a conversational effect. Thus, code switching is seen as fulfilling the relational and referential function of language that amounts to effective communication and interlingual unity. Halliday (1975) on the other hand, views code switching as fulfilling the interpersonal function of communication. Here the mixed language spoken plays the role of a mediator. In other words, it is the use of language to act as a mediator between self and participants in the communicative event. In fulfilling the relational and referential functions, code switching is seen as the medium to convey both social and linguistic meanings. Gumperz (pg. 144, 1982) lists examples of situations created to convey meaning as given below: to appeal to the literate to appeal to the illiterate to convey precise meaning to ease communication, i.e., utilizing the shortest and the easiest route to negotiate with greater authority to capture attention, i.e. stylistic, emphatic, emotional to emphasize a point to communicate more effectively to identify with a particular group to close the status gap to establish goodwill and support Karen Kow (2003) listed in her article a few possible conditions for code switching. Some of the conditions given are, lack of one word in either language Some activities have only been experienced in one of the languages Some concepts are easier to express in one of the languages A misunderstanding has to be clarified One wishes to create a certain communication effect One continues to speak the language latest used because of the trigger effect One wants to make a point One wishes to express group solidarity One wishes to exclude another person from the dialogue. Kow suggests that from the list above, it may be possible to predict which conditions act on a particular sociolinguistic context for codeswitching, for example, when a person who lacks a word in English due to limited vocabulary code switches by using the lexical component from his/her first language instead of English. Therefore, the function here is to overcome the language barrier to meaning-making. Another example is a condition where the speaker, intending to express group solidarity, employs code switching. The function for the switch in this case is to establish goodwill and rapport. Similarly series of conditions can be established for the phenomenon of code switching depending on the social context. Such communicative functions of codeswitching can also be listed according to the functions that they try to accomplish. Among these, the following ten functions have been described in the professional literature (Malik, 1994): Lack of Facility Lack of Register Mood of the Speaker To emphasize a point Habitual Experience Semantic significance To show identity with a group To address a different audience Pragmatic reasons To attract attention. 1. Lack of facility : According to Malik (1994), bilinguals or multilinguals often explain that they code switch when they cannot find an appropriate expression or vocabulary item or when the language of conversation does not have the particular word needed to carry on the conversation smoothly. He offers the example of â€Å"Charan Sparsh† (touching feet) that does not convey the same meaning in the speaker’s code as it does in Hindi. The reason for switching may however be culturally conditioned and David (2003) notes that an alien concept often has a speaker switch to the language from which the concept is borrowed. For example, like the lexical item social drinker in English that is unacceptable in a Malay situation because of the simple fact that drinking alcohol is prohibited in Islam and the Malay-Muslim world does not have a word for it that is equivalent to its meaning in English. Hence, the phrase social drinker is directly borrowed and used as an instance of phrase level mixing as in the following example: Saya difahamkan bahawa OKS jarang minum, hanya seorang social drinker [I understand that OKS seldom drinks, he is only a social drinker] 2. Lack of register: When speakers are not equally competent in two languages and when the speakers do not know the terms in two languages, then codeswitching occurs. For example, college students often code switch by moving from Hindi to English. In certain occupations code switching takes place in the speech of doctors, lawyers, engineers while they interact among  themselves owing to the fact that proper terms in Hindi or in any other language other than English may not be available to them. As a result, they utilize the English terminology that they are familiar with. Thus, one can identify a great deal of lexical code mixing. As David (2003) notes, it is vital for a courtroom setting in Malaysia that a specific terminology be used to refer correctly to an object or a character. The use of the exact terminology or vocabulary is important in this setting when the terminology plays an important role and has the potentiality to make a major impact on life and death, freedom or imprisonment. Therefore, whichever the code is that enables the speaker to get his/her exact meaning across will be the one that is acceptable to the interactants including one where language mixing occurs. The following example cited by David is to the point: Ujian alcohol telah dijalankan iaitu breath analyzer test. [The alcohol test was conducted, i.e., a breath analyzer test] The term breath analyzer is in English rather than in the matrix language, Bahasa Malaysia, simply because of its context-bound significance. 3. Mood of the speaker: Malik (1994) claims that usually when bilinguals are tired or angry, code switching takes place with a new dimension. This means, when the speaker is in the right state of mind, he/she can find the appropriate word or expression in the base language. Very often he/she knows exactly the word in both the languages (X and Y) but the language Y may be more available at the point of time when the speaker has a disturbed mind. Such circumstances may create a hurdle in getting the appropriate word or phrase in the language in which the speaker may be more proficient if he is not mentally agitated. 4. To emphasize a point: Switching is also used to emphasize a point. Gal (1979) reports several instances in which a switch at the end of an argument not only helps to end the interaction but may serve to emphasize a point.  She has taken an example from English/German code switching and stressed that switching from English to German is a means of adding more force to the statement. Meanwhile, David (2003) uses the courtroom environment to show how a defending lawyer uses dominant Bahasa Malaysia to start with and shifts to English to emphasize an important point to the judge that the accused had not committed any crime for 10 years. Sebelum ini OKT pernah ditangkap pada tahun 1975 dan 1986. There has been a 10 years gap since the last offence Semenjak itu OKT telah berumahtangga, mempunyai kerja tetap dan insaf†. [Before this, OKT was caught in 1975 and 1986†¦..since then OKT has married and has held a steady job] 5. Habitual experience: Malik.(1994) stresses the fact that code switching often occurs in fixed phrases of greeting and parting, commands and request, invitation, expressions of gratitude and discourse markers such as Oyes (listen), you know or pero (but), whereas Hoffman (1971) reports that in Puerto Rican homes, the mother gives short commands to their children in English, such as Don’t do that†¦. and the rest of the mother’s warning will be in Spanish. David (2003), in turn, cites an example of habitual mixed discourse in a Malaysian courtroom where the dominant or matrix language is Bahasa Malaysia: Kes merupakan arrest case atau kes saman? [Is this an arrest case or a summons case?] 6. Semantic significance: Malik (1994), Gumperz (1970, 1976, 1982), and Gumperz and Hernandez (1972) all stresses that switching at a particular moment conveys semantically significant information. It is a communicative resource that builds on participant’s perception of two languages. Lexical choice conveys meaning during codeswitching. Gal (1979) reinforced this view by stating that listeners interpret codeswitching as an indicator of the speaker’s attitude, or communicative intents and emotions as code switching is a tool for conveying appropriate linguistic and social information. By the same token, David (2003) describes a range of speech acts like reprimands, directives, requests, and warnings that are conveyed by using different intricate strategies to show the semantic significance in certain specific situations. It is not only the lawyer who code switches, but also the judge. The example below shows how a judge shifts from Bahasa Malaysia, the national language and the official language at Malaysian courts, to English as a face saving gesture: Kenapa kamu tak setuju, panggilan pertama telah dijawab oleh BG Boy dan dah tentu Das mesti menanya di manakah BG Boy berada? Kamu tak faham soalan, saya maksudkan†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ [Why don’t you agree – Bg Boy responded to the first call and surely Dos asked where he was ? You do not understand the question, I mean†¦.] 7. To show identity with a group: Di Pietro (1977) reports that Italian immigrants would tell a joke in English and give the punch line in Italian, not only because it was better said in Italian but also to stress the fact that they all belong to the same minority group, with shared values and experiences (cited in Malik, 1994). 8. To address a different audience: Malik (1994) states that code switching is also used when the speaker intends to address people coming from various linguistic backgrounds. For example, in India the television announcer often uses Hindi as it is the national language but also switches to English. Also, he often repeats the same in English for South Indians or Indian people who do not know Hindi. Similar types of situations have also been reported in some other settings. Linguistic reinforcement often takes place even in courts, according to David (2003) where counsels tend to speak to a number of different interlocutors at the same time. During such occasions obviously they mix codes or switch codes accordint to the ethnicity of the addressee. One reason for such use of mixed languages is to address simultaneously persons from different linguistic backgrounds. Also, the speaker clearly distinguishes whom he/she addresses and what should be communicated. Hence,  the speaker uses part of the sentence in one language and the other part in another language. In the example below the lawyer used a mixed discourse of English/Malay, and the part of his utterance in English is directed to the judge and the other in Malay is meant for the witness. Objection, ada dua fakta di sini.The facts of the chart sheet are clear; it is a clear indication of misinformation. mana satu nak jawab? [Objection, there are two facts here. The facts of the chart sheet are clear; it’s a clear indication of misinformation. Which one do you want to answer?] The code switch is important as the judgment is dependent on the argument of the lawyer

Things Fall Apart By Chinua Achebe - 1515 Words

Change is a natural process that triggers the evolution of human societies; it is the continuous eradication of traditions that are replaced by the new. Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’ (TFA), a novel written in 1958, explores the gradual transformation of the Ibo culture as a result of colonialism and also the attitudes the people of Umoufia developed when exposed to foreign ideologies; the change was either accepted or resisted. Peter Skrzynecki’s ‘Crossing The Red Sea’ (CRS) and ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’ (FS) from the Immigrant Chronicle, a poetry collection published in 1975 depicts the evolution of the Australian society due to factors including migration, assimilation and different perceptions. These forces of change contributed to the†¦show more content†¦The representative ‘And at last the locusts did descend†¦Mighty tree braches broke away under them, and the whole country became the brown earth, colour of a cast, hungry swarm’ (Chapter 7, pages 39-40), highlighting to the audience how the influx of colonists is a natural occurrence, just like the appearance of locusts. The fracturing of the Ibo society along with their traditions by the new customs of the Europeans is also typified in this allegory. Similarly, the emphatic â€Å"The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion†¦ He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.† (Chapter 20, pages 124-125), conveys how the traditions of the Ibo people have been replaced by the values of the settlers; the society has been altered. The forces of change, especially colonization, disrupt and change the culture of the Ibo community through the introduction of religion, government and the ideals of colonialism. This is portrayed in the gradual decrease in proverbs as the novel progresses as well as the change in writing style; events occur chronologically in Pa rt 3 of the novel whereas the first two sections skip back and forth between events of different timeframes. Hence, change is a natural process that signals the end of conventions in society that are replaced by new values. Moreover, CRS investigates the natural process of change initiated the end of conventions