University of California Irvine What Does It Mean to Know a Language Essay I attached my first draft, which include the requirements for the whole essay an
University of California Irvine What Does It Mean to Know a Language Essay I attached my first draft, which include the requirements for the whole essay and the first draft itself. This work need to be build on for more 300 words. Please follow the instructions below for the second draft.
*Need a refresher on multi-modal composition? Scan through this article (Links to an external site.) for an excellent example of multi-modal evidence in use*
Since Week 1 you have been composing multi-modal posts that use visual artifacts (images, videos, hyperlinks, etc.) to engage your readers in various topics. Ideally multi-modal writing does more than decorate your writing, offering instead additional types of evidence, introduces new arguments, or paths to original sources and background context.
Instructions
This week’s activity needs to build on your rough draft (+300 words) by integrating a multi-modal artifact into your argument. This activity constitutes your second draft of Essay 1. To complete the Peer Review portion, find your partners by scrolling to the bottom of this page. Since your peers and I have already read your discussion posts, this paper needs to be original work. As you add to your rough draft, do not (copy/paste) content you have already created for other assignments for this course. Your post is due Thursday, July 16 by 11:59 pm.
Requirements
The second draft of your essay needs to be at least 800 words. Works Cited is required (your multi-modal piece needs to be included). Cite using the Owl Purdue APA guide (Links to an external site.). Write as a discussion post – DO NOT upload a Word Doc. All draft work is required for the final paper to be graded. Qiu
Over the past week you have started gathering your thoughts to respond to the prompt question: What does it mean to know a language?
For Paper 1, your experiences (learning, listening, speaking, reading, writing, coding, etc.) serve as one source of evidence for the claims
you make in this paper, but you also need to include secondary sources found through your own independent research. For this writing
assignment, integrate one secondary source into a 500 word draft of Essay 1.
The purpose of this source is to stimulate your thinking about the question: What does it mean to know a language? Its
purpose cannot merely be fact checking.
Here is an example of secondary sources used to fact check:
*Over 6,000 languages are spoken around the world (The Encyclopedia Brittanica).
*Fluency is defined as “the quality or state of being fluent” (merriam-webster.com).
*If your secondary sources are used like this, you will not receive credit on this assignment*
Here is an example of using a quote to engage in a discussion about the question:
Philosopher Michael Dummett (1993) argues “to know a language is to be able to employ a language” (p. 10). In this way, I understand
’employ’ to mean that they can speak it, but by this definition I don’t think this claim can account for children who might have grown up
around Spanish, Khmer, or Russian and understand it, but do not speak it. With a broader meaning, ’employ’ might mean…….
You can see how working from someone else’s argument about our essay question would lead you to think about your own response
from different angles. Part of your essay may also need to be devoted to clarifying definitions you took for granted in your claims (like
Dummett). The Week 2 Activity revealed how readers can benefit from clarification of even commonly used terms.
Possible disciplines that consider this question might surprise you – for instance, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Child Development,
Economics, Sociology, Education, Critical Theory, Computer Science, Political Science, Linguistics, and as the example above shows,
Philosophy.
Instructions
For this writing assignment, find an argument responding to ‘What does it mean to know a language?’ and write 500 words in
response to it. Your response can also integrate your personal experiences, but it must originate with another scholar’s thoughts about
the topic. You cannot use the scholar from my example above. Trust me, this has been a question posed and written about by humans for
hundreds of years.
Requirements
Include a Works Cited. Cite your source(s) in APA. Use the Owl Purdue APA guide (Links to an external site.) to do so.
All draft work is required for the final paper to be graded. The rough draft needs to be at least 500 words, copy/pasted into the text box
below. Since your peers and I have already read your discussion posts, this paper needs to be original work. Do not reuse (copy/paste)
content you have already created for this course.
First Draft.
Introduction
Language has been existence for centuries and has helped humans in communicating with
each other. Therefore, the aspects of learning and knowing a language have been of significance
for quite a long time. In his conference paper of 1968, Bernard Spolsky stated that “knowing a
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language is not only knowing a certain number of words. It involves, rather, knowing a set of
items –sound segments, sentence patterns, lexical items – which must be made a matter of
automatic habit.” I get that the automatic habit means that one does not have to think about how
the language is used as it has been learnt fully that is part of the normal. Through this meaning,
we get to comprehend what it means to know a language fully. One can know a certain number
of words but cannot fully understand what the words say when used in particular ways, for
example, with varying intonations.
However, Amir Hossain (2015) presents a different notion that “knowing a language
basically means being able to use it even though the semantics are not an automatic habit to an
individual.” This definition brings about a broader understanding of what it means to know a
language. More so, it is inclusive of those people who learn a second language. From my
personal experience in learning a second language, I agree with Hossain since, in most instances,
the individual perceives things in his or her first language then translate to the second language.
Thus the person can use the second language to communicate, but it is an automatic habit for
them compared to their grasp of the first language.
Knowing a language is also dependent on the ability of an individual to use passive and
active skills to show competence. Spolsky (1968), who was a linguist, argues “one approach to
test ability in a second language may be to add noise, or mask portions of text.” What I get from
him is that if individuals know a language, they will be able to interpret what is said even when
some parts are masked. However, it might pose a challenge for people who have learnt a new
language to fully comprehend some of the colloquial expressions’ deeper meanings.
In the digital age, language development has been made easier through the use of
technology. In her study, Mila Vulchanova (2017) states, “the digital age is changing the
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meaning of certain aspects of languge.” This shifts my perception of what knowing a language
truly means. Language is fluid and changes with time. New words get created, and some phrases
become extinct while newer ones become incorporated into daily use. In the modern age, the use
of slang has been a significant contributor to changing what language means.
Vulchanova (2017) says, “Language is being used in a ‘modern’ way.” By ‘modern’, I
understand her to refer to the unique way in which the young people nowadays use ordinary
language in a stylish manner to mean different things than what was initially intended. Knowing
a language is an integral aspect of communicating; hence we must be aware of any changes that
take place so that we can say that we truly know the language. Moreover, knowing the language
entails being able to use if effectively and with long term use it becomes an automatic habit.
Works Cited
Hossain, M. A. (2015). Age and Second Language Development: A Critical Study. Journal of
English Language and Literature, 3(3), 319. https://doi.org/10.17722/jell.v3i3.115
Spolsky, B. (1968). What Does it Mean to Know a Language, or How Do You Get Someone to
Perform His Competence? Conference Paper on Problems in Foreign Language Testing,
University of Southern California, November 7-9, 1968.
Vulchanova, M., Baggio, G., Cangelosi, A., & Smith, L. (2017). Editorial: Language
development in the digital age. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 11(September), 1–7.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00447
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