Student Teacher 36 | - ✏ Freelance Writer
Mar 24, 2018 | #1
Having implications far beyond speech and writing, language refers to both entire systems of communication as well as the human ability for using those systems. Languages can be rooted in visual stimuli, such as sign language or written language, as well as auditory stimuli, such as spoken language. Within the classroom context, language is inextricably bound to learning, and, by extension, teachers should have a comprehensive understanding of how meaning is constructed through language. The following inquiry explores the language experiences of this writer and relates language to learning, affording particular respect to the implications of language for the modern learner.
Overview of Language
Language, as a system, is a mechanism for encoding and decoding information in order to communicate. Alternatively, language is a cognitive capacity enabling human beings to engage in communication. Language is complex, processed in several brain locations, and is an integral aspect of human society.
The process of semiotics, or the relationship between a given sign and a particular meaning, is critical in supporting language. Spoken sounds, for example, are signs that form sequences and construct meaning. Similarly, bodily movements, such as a wave or nod of acknowledgment, are signs that create meaning.
Language is essentially a cultural system, with meanings of an object of communication, such as a word or movement, wholly dependent upon cultural context. For example, a handshake is an accepted acknowledgment in Western cultures but is less common in Eastern cultures; hence, the gesture would be perceived differently depending on the culture context in which it exists. While human beings are not born with the capacity to learn one language easier than another, all human beings are generally born with a language capacity.
Regardless of how language manifests, be it as written, spoken, gestured, or otherwise, it does not exist independent of context. Similarly, the efficacy of teaching is tightly linked to the learning context. In their text entitled Language and Learning, Emmitt et al. contend that "the purpose, content, and context for each genre must be authentic; otherwise understanding the use of the genre will be very limited." In this writer's experience, the link between language and the context in which it exists is particularly critical when language manifests in channels other than speech or writing.
When this writer was in elementary school, she had an especially creative and routinely engaged teacher. Outside of verbal and written communication, the students could sense that the teacher was invested in the class by the way she moved around the room, emphasising pertinent information with gestures and facial expressions, and keeping the eye contact of students. Teacher-student communication and language in this classroom meant far more than speech and writing, and, consequently, the teacher was very much in touch with how students were receiving and interpreting the information.
Slightly later in this writer's academic career, she had a teacher that exhibited a comparatively more narrow view of language. Ironically, the teacher was a foreign language teacher with a lengthy teaching career; and yet, he routinely stood at the front of the room and rarely varied from his lecture-and-drill methods of teaching. Language in this classroom did not exist very far beyond speech and writing, and, for this reason, students were not engaged with the course material.
Learning is boosted when language manifests through a wide range of channels. Teachers with narrow perceptions of language, as naught more than speech and writing, consequently do not reach students as meaningfully as they could. In the article entitled "Language as We Know It," Smith writes that "the academic and symbolic demands of constructing meaning from material creates issues of language as we know it, literacy as we know it, and access for teachers to infuse the core curriculum, particularly for teaching and learning." Teachers that embrace language for the multidimensional mechanism that it is during instruction also charge their students to do the same, cultivating a general reverence toward language in the learning community and fostering learners who are skilled in the broad realm of communication.
In perceiving language as having implications far beyond speech and writing, the relevance of culture to communication becomes more extreme. Multicultural, culturally sensitive, and culturally competent teaching strategies have become fortunately popular during recent years. Within the context of globalisation, increasingly complex migration patterns, and the hyper-speed of communications, the relationship between culture, language, and learning has become at once compromised and emphasised. By highlighting a child's home-culture, for example, as a significant informant of his or her communication style, a teacher can cater to the student community as extremely diverse and having a broad range of needs.
The age of globalisation has redefined the link between culture and learning, as evidenced by the widespread opening of global universities and online learning. In short, technology has begun to reframe language in society in several ways. Most detrimentally, digital communications such as e-mail, chat rooms, and social networking sites have made language more narrow, existing largely in writing. More positively, technology has boosted the frequency of communications, connecting people who would not otherwise be engaged in communication due to geographical or sociocultural barriers.
For the learning community, the influence of culture and technology is considerable, with students increasingly being asked to experience the world as accessible. By extension, the implications of language beyond writing and speaking are markedly significant, as students become sensitised to the global community's linguistic norms. For example, this writer recently had an experience in a foreign country, in which verbal and written manifestations of language were rendered completely useless.
As a native English speaker who was not very familiar with the Norwegian language, this writer went on holiday in Oslo hoping to get by with the little Swedish she had learned as a teenager. In a busy shop, however, she dropped a jar of tomato sauce and, in wanting to express gratitude toward everyone rushing to help her, realized she had no word for 'thank you.' Without thinking too intensely about it, this writer's brows were raised and her hand was on her heart, head bowing again and again to the helpful bystanders. In retrospect, the bodily gestures were easily interpreted as expressions of gratitude.
More specific to the learning community, students are more and more in touch with international students having the same interests and hobbies, linked via the World Wide Web. Though this link exists largely in writing, it is a critical channel for promoting cross-cultural sensitivity. Teachers in the twenty-first century are able to cultivate a student population that is truly comprised of global citizens. By extension, language in its written and spoken form is not as valuable as language that manifests through alternative, more culturally universal channels.
Alfred North Whitehead, in 1929, distinguished between the mere acquisition of knowledge as conceptual blocks and the development of useful knowledge by making connections between those blocks. While inert language can be recalled when asked for in precisely the same way as that in which it was learned, meaningful knowledge can be used during problem-solving and critical thinking scenarios. In short, meaningful knowledge is the most useful and, therefore, the most valuable to students.
The link between language and meaningful knowledge is fortified through the use of relevant teaching contexts. When teachers situate instruction within meaningful contexts, emphasizing language as far broader than speech and writing, they are charging students to relate their learning to past experiences. Practically, teachers can enhance both meaningful knowledge acquisition and a broader interpretation of language through the employment of two strategies; those being anchored instruction and cognitive apprenticeship.
Cognitive apprenticeship emphasises instruction within the social context, highlighting how learning takes place through activity and social communication. Proponents of cognitive apprenticeship contend that knowledge is merely a product of the context, culture, and activity in which it is learned. In this sense, language becomes a medium through learning takes place, as it facilitates social interaction. Language is then both a tool for learning as well as a way in which meaning is constructed and contextualised.
In the classroom, anchored instruction complements cognitive apprenticeship by enabling students to understand the specific conditions under which knowledge is used. In structuring learning experiences for students, anchored instruction emphasises experiences of the students in conjunction with the collaboration between student and teacher. Empirical evidence suggests that anchored instruction aids students in becoming independent thinkers by highlighting the importance of learner feedback and problem-solving. Language facilitates the common experiences of students and teachers that form the basis for anchored instruction, allowing students to share perspectives and frame new knowledge as related to existing knowledge.
Conclusion
Language refers to the myriad of ways in which communication manifests in human society. With the advent of digital communication, language is being reframed but remains inordinately critical in fostering global relationships. Teachers who perceive language broadly, as existing well beyond the realm of speaking and writing, encourage their students to embrace and manifest a similarly broad view of language. In short, language contextualises experiences and provides an avenue for knowledge to be acquired and related to existing knowledge. In this way, language is the very channel through which all learning takes place.
Bibliography
Cumming-Potvin, Wendy, Peter Renshaw, and Christina E. Van Kraayenoord. "Scaffolding and Bilingual Shared Reading Experiences: Promoting Primary School Students' Learning and Development." Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 26, no. 2 (2003): 54-76.
Emmitt, Maria, Matthew Zbaracki, Linda Komesaroff, John Pollock. Language and Learning. Oxford University Press (2010).
"Language." In The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed., edited by Lagass, Paul. New York: Columbia University Press.
Love, Mary Susan. "Multimodality of Learning through Anchored Instruction: The Project Described Incorporates the Concept of Design in How Students Construct Meaning. Meaning Making Is Becoming More Multimodal Because Language Is Continually Being Reshaped by New Forms of Communication Media." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 48, no. 4 (2004): 300-321.
Nikolova, Ofelia, and Gregory Taylor. "The Impact of a Language Learning Task on Instructional Outcomes in Two Student Populations: High-Ability and Average-Ability Students." Journal of Secondary Gifted Education 14, no. 4 (2003): 205-213.
Smith, Kweku M. "Language as We Know It, Literacy as We Know It, and Content Area Instructions: Conscious Strategies for Teachers." Multicultural Education, Summer 2004, 46-66.
Spencer, Robin, and Ian Hay. "Initial Reading Schemes and Their High Frequency Words." Australian Journal of Language and Literacy (1998): 222.
Stepp-Greany, Jonita. "Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium." Language, Learning & Technology 6, no. 1 (2002): 165.
Overview of Language
Language, as a system, is a mechanism for encoding and decoding information in order to communicate. Alternatively, language is a cognitive capacity enabling human beings to engage in communication. Language is complex, processed in several brain locations, and is an integral aspect of human society.
Culture and Semiotics
The process of semiotics, or the relationship between a given sign and a particular meaning, is critical in supporting language. Spoken sounds, for example, are signs that form sequences and construct meaning. Similarly, bodily movements, such as a wave or nod of acknowledgment, are signs that create meaning.
Language is essentially a cultural system, with meanings of an object of communication, such as a word or movement, wholly dependent upon cultural context. For example, a handshake is an accepted acknowledgment in Western cultures but is less common in Eastern cultures; hence, the gesture would be perceived differently depending on the culture context in which it exists. While human beings are not born with the capacity to learn one language easier than another, all human beings are generally born with a language capacity.Synthesis: The Experience of Language in a Tale of Two Teachers
Regardless of how language manifests, be it as written, spoken, gestured, or otherwise, it does not exist independent of context. Similarly, the efficacy of teaching is tightly linked to the learning context. In their text entitled Language and Learning, Emmitt et al. contend that "the purpose, content, and context for each genre must be authentic; otherwise understanding the use of the genre will be very limited." In this writer's experience, the link between language and the context in which it exists is particularly critical when language manifests in channels other than speech or writing.
When this writer was in elementary school, she had an especially creative and routinely engaged teacher. Outside of verbal and written communication, the students could sense that the teacher was invested in the class by the way she moved around the room, emphasising pertinent information with gestures and facial expressions, and keeping the eye contact of students. Teacher-student communication and language in this classroom meant far more than speech and writing, and, consequently, the teacher was very much in touch with how students were receiving and interpreting the information.
Slightly later in this writer's academic career, she had a teacher that exhibited a comparatively more narrow view of language. Ironically, the teacher was a foreign language teacher with a lengthy teaching career; and yet, he routinely stood at the front of the room and rarely varied from his lecture-and-drill methods of teaching. Language in this classroom did not exist very far beyond speech and writing, and, for this reason, students were not engaged with the course material.
Learning is boosted when language manifests through a wide range of channels. Teachers with narrow perceptions of language, as naught more than speech and writing, consequently do not reach students as meaningfully as they could. In the article entitled "Language as We Know It," Smith writes that "the academic and symbolic demands of constructing meaning from material creates issues of language as we know it, literacy as we know it, and access for teachers to infuse the core curriculum, particularly for teaching and learning." Teachers that embrace language for the multidimensional mechanism that it is during instruction also charge their students to do the same, cultivating a general reverence toward language in the learning community and fostering learners who are skilled in the broad realm of communication.
Culture and the Learning Community
In perceiving language as having implications far beyond speech and writing, the relevance of culture to communication becomes more extreme. Multicultural, culturally sensitive, and culturally competent teaching strategies have become fortunately popular during recent years. Within the context of globalisation, increasingly complex migration patterns, and the hyper-speed of communications, the relationship between culture, language, and learning has become at once compromised and emphasised. By highlighting a child's home-culture, for example, as a significant informant of his or her communication style, a teacher can cater to the student community as extremely diverse and having a broad range of needs.
The age of globalisation has redefined the link between culture and learning, as evidenced by the widespread opening of global universities and online learning. In short, technology has begun to reframe language in society in several ways. Most detrimentally, digital communications such as e-mail, chat rooms, and social networking sites have made language more narrow, existing largely in writing. More positively, technology has boosted the frequency of communications, connecting people who would not otherwise be engaged in communication due to geographical or sociocultural barriers.
For the learning community, the influence of culture and technology is considerable, with students increasingly being asked to experience the world as accessible. By extension, the implications of language beyond writing and speaking are markedly significant, as students become sensitised to the global community's linguistic norms. For example, this writer recently had an experience in a foreign country, in which verbal and written manifestations of language were rendered completely useless.
As a native English speaker who was not very familiar with the Norwegian language, this writer went on holiday in Oslo hoping to get by with the little Swedish she had learned as a teenager. In a busy shop, however, she dropped a jar of tomato sauce and, in wanting to express gratitude toward everyone rushing to help her, realized she had no word for 'thank you.' Without thinking too intensely about it, this writer's brows were raised and her hand was on her heart, head bowing again and again to the helpful bystanders. In retrospect, the bodily gestures were easily interpreted as expressions of gratitude.
More specific to the learning community, students are more and more in touch with international students having the same interests and hobbies, linked via the World Wide Web. Though this link exists largely in writing, it is a critical channel for promoting cross-cultural sensitivity. Teachers in the twenty-first century are able to cultivate a student population that is truly comprised of global citizens. By extension, language in its written and spoken form is not as valuable as language that manifests through alternative, more culturally universal channels.
Learning, Language, and Teaching in the Twenty-First Century
Alfred North Whitehead, in 1929, distinguished between the mere acquisition of knowledge as conceptual blocks and the development of useful knowledge by making connections between those blocks. While inert language can be recalled when asked for in precisely the same way as that in which it was learned, meaningful knowledge can be used during problem-solving and critical thinking scenarios. In short, meaningful knowledge is the most useful and, therefore, the most valuable to students.
The link between language and meaningful knowledge is fortified through the use of relevant teaching contexts. When teachers situate instruction within meaningful contexts, emphasizing language as far broader than speech and writing, they are charging students to relate their learning to past experiences. Practically, teachers can enhance both meaningful knowledge acquisition and a broader interpretation of language through the employment of two strategies; those being anchored instruction and cognitive apprenticeship.
Cognitive apprenticeship emphasises instruction within the social context, highlighting how learning takes place through activity and social communication. Proponents of cognitive apprenticeship contend that knowledge is merely a product of the context, culture, and activity in which it is learned. In this sense, language becomes a medium through learning takes place, as it facilitates social interaction. Language is then both a tool for learning as well as a way in which meaning is constructed and contextualised.
In the classroom, anchored instruction complements cognitive apprenticeship by enabling students to understand the specific conditions under which knowledge is used. In structuring learning experiences for students, anchored instruction emphasises experiences of the students in conjunction with the collaboration between student and teacher. Empirical evidence suggests that anchored instruction aids students in becoming independent thinkers by highlighting the importance of learner feedback and problem-solving. Language facilitates the common experiences of students and teachers that form the basis for anchored instruction, allowing students to share perspectives and frame new knowledge as related to existing knowledge.
Conclusion
Language refers to the myriad of ways in which communication manifests in human society. With the advent of digital communication, language is being reframed but remains inordinately critical in fostering global relationships. Teachers who perceive language broadly, as existing well beyond the realm of speaking and writing, encourage their students to embrace and manifest a similarly broad view of language. In short, language contextualises experiences and provides an avenue for knowledge to be acquired and related to existing knowledge. In this way, language is the very channel through which all learning takes place.
Bibliography
Cumming-Potvin, Wendy, Peter Renshaw, and Christina E. Van Kraayenoord. "Scaffolding and Bilingual Shared Reading Experiences: Promoting Primary School Students' Learning and Development." Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 26, no. 2 (2003): 54-76.
Emmitt, Maria, Matthew Zbaracki, Linda Komesaroff, John Pollock. Language and Learning. Oxford University Press (2010).
"Language." In The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed., edited by Lagass, Paul. New York: Columbia University Press.
Love, Mary Susan. "Multimodality of Learning through Anchored Instruction: The Project Described Incorporates the Concept of Design in How Students Construct Meaning. Meaning Making Is Becoming More Multimodal Because Language Is Continually Being Reshaped by New Forms of Communication Media." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 48, no. 4 (2004): 300-321.
Nikolova, Ofelia, and Gregory Taylor. "The Impact of a Language Learning Task on Instructional Outcomes in Two Student Populations: High-Ability and Average-Ability Students." Journal of Secondary Gifted Education 14, no. 4 (2003): 205-213.
Smith, Kweku M. "Language as We Know It, Literacy as We Know It, and Content Area Instructions: Conscious Strategies for Teachers." Multicultural Education, Summer 2004, 46-66.
Spencer, Robin, and Ian Hay. "Initial Reading Schemes and Their High Frequency Words." Australian Journal of Language and Literacy (1998): 222.
Stepp-Greany, Jonita. "Student Perceptions on Language Learning in a Technological Environment: Implications for the New Millennium." Language, Learning & Technology 6, no. 1 (2002): 165.