Computer Application in Language Studies

Ahlan wa sahlan Dr. Rozina and friends! :)

We are glad to invite all of you to visit our blog. This blog is a requirement for Computer Application in Language Studies subject and we have been instructed by our respected lecturer, Dr. Rozina bt Abdul Ghani, to work on and complete this blog.

First and foremost, Computer Application in Language Studies is one of the major subjects for Bachelor of English Language and Literature’s students. It is the highest level major subject with course code ENGL 4740.

In this subject, so far we have learned about Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) and soon we will learn about Corpus Linguistics. What makes this subject unique is Dr. Rozina emphasises on the Integration and Islamisation of Knowledge.   

We find this subject interesting because computer is used as a tool in language learning. All our assignments are computer-based where they all have to be posted on the blog. There are two types of assignments which we have to do; graded and non-graded. Among the graded one are 3 good sites for English Language Teaching and Learning with lesson plan, mode of computer mediated communication and corpus linguistics. While for the non-graded assignments we had to search for journals related to Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).

We think that this subject is very important and useful for our future as we’ll be graduating soon as English Language and Literature Graduates. So this subject will be helpful and beneficial for us as we’ll be dealing with languages across the world through computer.

Done with a little introduction on Computer Application in Language Studies, now let’s move on to our theme which we have chosen for our blog which is Sociolinguistics.

    

reflection on our journey of making this wonderful blog

Assalamualaikum wbt. how are you? hopefully, you are in a good condition. Alhamdulillah, we managed to pull it through all the hardships in completing our little, tiny blog. Firstly, the formation of the group was easy as we  already knew each other. there is no such thing as contradiction in exchanging ideas and also, we worked so well together. Alhamdulillah. with all the blessings that Allah has granted upon us,  our journey in finishing this blog  became easier than ever. Thus, with all of our sweats and tears, this blog became a reality.


Designing the blog

To be frank, not all of us are computer and internet savvy. Thus, we depended on each other a lot and seek help from third party in enhancing the design of the blog in more creative ways. Sometimes, there were some disagreements  on  how the design of the blog should be since we have to make sure that it is well-suited with our theme. Furthermore, it is our job to meet the expectations from our beloved Madam (hopefully Madam will like our blog as much as we like this blog).  Along the way, throughout the process of designing this blog, we have changed the blog skin for several times. Honestly, that was the most challenging and tiring process in which we have to get consensus from our group mates. we have spent more times on selecting the most suitable and appropriate skin for our lovely blog. Having said that, we did enjoy the whole designing process.

Re-branding the blog

Re-branding the blog was a not trouble free task. We have changed our blog's name for few times. At first, we gave names like whisperers, gender-ism, gender-sexist, we are not gender-sexist, muslimah sisters and finally, we decided to name our tiny, little blog as 'Gender-Neutral', as it is more suitable with the theme that we carry. The new name gave the readers a preview on what our blog is all about. 

Assignments and Tasks

All of the tasks that given by Madam, are divided into two parts: graded and non-graded tasks. A total of 3 graded assignments and 2 non-graded assignments. We have learnt a lot through out the journey of making this blog. We have been exposed on how to make a lesson plan, to analyze texts and documents that are related to our topic. All and all, even though it is a new experience for us, we did enjoy the learning process. Alhamdulillah, we managed to complete the tasks successfully. 

Alhamdulillah, with all the hardships and difficulties, our precious blog became a reality. We are really grateful for the opportunity to experience this wonderful journey. Millions of thanks to our Madam, for giving us guidelines and useful informations. We would not been able to complete this blog without her support. Finally, thanks to the readers! 

Reflection on Graded Assignment 3

Salam everyone!:)
We are grateful and praise be to Allah that we managed to complete our final assignment successfully. For this last assignment, we chose to work on Corpus Linguistics in Language Learning because we find it interesting to be talked about. We deal with language everyday in our daily life and it is the heart of BENL students.
After gone through the process of searching the articles, we finally chose 8 articles which are relevant to be used in the task. The process of doing the assignment was smooth which we could say that there was no big  problem we faced except when we were not sure about the scope of language learning. So, in class we showed our work for Madam to look at. We asked Madam about the scope in order for us to have a clear understanding of it. Overall Madam was satisfied with our work and she said "good job!". Thanks Madam!:)
The presentation will begin tomorrow 26th April and we are excited to see other groups' hard work. Let's wait for our group's blog presentation guys!:)

Corpus linguistics in Language Learning

Assalamualaikum wbt...


This post is for our 3rd Graded Assignment, which is the last assignment for this semester. The topic for this assignment is Corpus Linguistics in Language Learning.


Please click on the following link to go to our power point presentation: Corpus Linguistics


We have used various data for this assignment. Please click to the following links to view these data.
1. ELISA - a pedagogically enriched corpus for language learning purposes.
2. Integrating corpus consultation in language studies.
3. Written Language Corpora
4. The international corpus of learner English
5. Corpus linguistics and second/foreign language learning
6. The role of corpus linguistics in developing innovation in data-driven language learning. 
7. Synopsis


Thank you. :)

Reflection on Graded Assignment 2

Assalamualaikum wbt. We hope everyone has been doing well in this hectic week. Yes, we all have been busy this entire week with presentations and assignments on the way.  But we must always take good care of ourselves despite all the stresses going on.

Division of Task

So, this post is on the reflection of our second graded assignment. Alhamdulillah, we have managed to finish it on time. We divided the task evenly. Two of us were working on the first and second parts of the assignment, while the other two were working on the blog updating the introduction of Computer Application in Language Studies, background of Sociolinguistics (the theme of our blog), the Islamisation of Sociolinguistics and the introduction of sexist language with the Islamisation of it. 
For the first part of the assignment, we chose Twitter as our choice of mode of CMC and we had to find an article about it. The topic of the article which we found is “Beyond Microblogging: Conversation and Collaboration via Twitter” and the summary of the article was done by Sister Nur Hanisah.
While for the second part, we decided to do an analysis on Mr. Khairy Jamaludin's Twitter. We wanted to analyze his language use and the extent of occurrences of speech acts. Sister Noraziah was in charge of this analysis and she did a good job. The analysis was done with reference to purpose of discourse in Discourse Analysis.

Background of the Subject

Our subject of the study is a Malay politician, Mr. Khairy Jamaludin. Based on our observation on his Twitter there are two languages used by him. He posted his tweets in English and re-tweeted in Malay. Besides that, his tweets concern about current political scenes in Malaysia.

Shortcomings

Two of our group members who were working on the assignments faced several difficulties in searching for the appropriate tweets. First, they found it a bit hard when they had to include some Manglish tweets when analyzing the tweets. This is because the analysis must consist of only English tweets. Therefore, with the mixture of Malay words caused it to be difficult to analyze. The other shortcoming was due to internet disconnection resulted from the great thunder last night. So, we could not get in touch with each other until midnight to settle the rest of the task. 


It is such a relief once we completed the tasks. We learned that co-operation and hard work are very vital as we experienced them while accomplishing this assignment.
     
Thank you & have a good day! :)