Unit 5 Language

Contents

Preparation: aspects of language

Reading -ICR: How I Discovered Words -ACR: -Passage I: Foreign Accents -Passage II: Not Just Parrot-talk

Part IIIPart IV: Translation

A minute for you to think

aspects of language

Languages across the world (major languages / minor languages)English Dialects and Accents

Body / non-verbal language (see part one-2, P200)Animal language (see ACR: Passage 2, P223)

Language acquisition (input-output): a special case: ICR-How I Discovered Words

Major languages

World map

Minor languages• Japanese?• Korean?…• Mongolian? (video)• Maori language? (video 1, video 2)... How “minor” or ancient a language could be:

Movie excerpt (The Gods Must Be Crazy) ---an anthropological / ethnological

perspective

English Dialects and Accents

http://web.ku.edu/~idea/index.htm

• Asia India China (Zhejiang,

Beijing)AfghanistanTaiwan

• AfricaTanzaniaSouth Africa

• South AmericaPeru

In-Class Reading

How I Discovered Words

Pre-reading task1. To read Three Days to See (by Helen

Keller)

Think about the following 3 questions after reading the text on P201:

2. What is the world like to one who’s both blind and deaf?

3. How can one who’s both blind and deaf learn words?

4. How can a healthy one find a way to teach a blind and deaf person words?

What’s unique of Helen’s teacher?

Hints:

• two major elements for language acquisition: input (see, hear, touch) output (speak, write, sign language) ---what can Helen do of all the above?

• When you know a word: signifier (word) & signified (object)

• Was Helen born blind and deaf?

• Keys to miracle: curiosity / passion / interests / destiny (motivation) -----L33-36; L16-23

The difficult journey to WORDS

the signified and signifier thing: words as names of things

The difficult journey to W-O-R-D-s

The dark: Para 3

The teacher’s first attempt: Para 5 D-O-L-L the problem / barrier: Helen did not know

that ______________, that __________________, or that __________________.

So the spelling game is only a _______________ (which doesn’t make any sense)

monkey-like imitation

everything had a name

she was spelling a word

words exist

“light” / “wordless cry”

The difficult journey to W-O-R-D-s

More failed attempts: para 6, L43-47

Helen was still in the dark world: para 6, L 48-57 Wordless emotions

and thoughts

The difficult journey to W-O-R-D-s

A monumental moment: Words / language reached Helen: para 7

“Helen discovered the words”: W-A-T-E-R (spelling)--- water (thing) --- water (name) How?

New life with words: para 8 with the knowledge that __________________ with “right” emotions and thoughts

thing-name-thoughts

Touch / feel / repeated spelling

Reading Helen’s Journey

Reading Helen’s journey to word

• “Light! Give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul.

• I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words exist, I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation.

• My teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.

• Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll.

• This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.

Reading Helen’s journey to word

• I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers.

• Suddenly, I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me.

• I knew that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was moving over my hand.

• That living thing awaken my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free!

Reading Helen’s journey to word

• Everything had a name, and each name gave girth to a new thought.

• As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life.

• Then my eyes filled with tears: for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.

The expectant moments

as a “great ship” shut in “white

darkness”

The expectant moments

Para 1: to understand two long sentences

Para 2: the afternoon of “the eventful day”

Para 3: white darkness

Language study

the new language phenomena in the textPurposeful repetitions:

wordless: L26, L56 reveal: L 30, L 64, everything has/had a name: L 42, L68 sorrow & regret / repentance: L51, L74 sentiment / sensation: L 53, L 56 thought: L56, L63, L69

New words listPhrases and expression listExercises

After-Class Reading

-Passage I: Foreign Accents-Passage II: Not Just Parrot-talk

① Student’s questions: 会计；国贸

② Vocabulary & exercises

Part III:

E1: enrich your language power

E2: Br. English vs. Am. English: spelling Br. English vs. Am. English:

expression

E3.4.5: discussion on English learning: after-class

Part IV: translation定语从句的翻译 2— 非限定性定语从句

认识非限定性定语从句： what, how, why

非限定性定语从句的翻译方法（英译中）

与限定性定于从句一样 why: 英语思维和中文思维对逻辑的理解

不一样

A minute for you to think

New words New phrases New concepts about language and

language acquisition More profound understanding about

accent and variations in English spellings / expressions…