Achievement Test- QUESTION PAPER

MARTHOMA GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL, KOTTARAKKARA

Achievement Test Oct 2015

ENGLISH

      CLASS: IX                                                                                                        TIME: 1 HR   

                                                                                                                               MARKS: 25

I. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

                In pursuit of his ambition Private Quelch worked hard. We had to give him credit for that. He borrowed training manuals and stayed up late at night reading them. He badgered the instructions with questions. He drilled with enthusiasm. On route marches he was not only miraculously tireless but infuriated us all with his horrible heartiness ‘what about a song chaps is not greeted politely at the end of thirty miles. His salute at the pay table was a model to behold when officers were in sight he would sing his shinny arms and march to the canteen like a guardsman.

            And day in and day out he lectured to us on every aspect of human knowledge. At first we had a certain respect for him, but soon we lived in terror of his approach. We tried to hit back at him with clumsy sarcasm. The professor scarcely noticed he was too busy for him for his stripe. 

1.  What was the professor’s ambition in the army?                                          (1)

2.  When somebody makes a mistake, how did the professor correct him?   (1)

3.  Why did Private Quelch do in order to fulfill his dream?                                (2)

4.  Clumsy means_____                                                                                          (1/2)

5.  What was Private Quelch nickname?                                                             (1/2)

II. Read the lines from the poem “follower” and answer the questions that follow:

 An expert . He would set the wing

And fit the bright-steel-pointed sock.

The sod rolled over without breaking.

At the head rig, with a single pluck.

Of reins, the sweating team turned around.

And back into the land. His eye

Narrowed and angled at the ground

Mapping the furrow exactly.

6.  Who are referred to as the sweating team? Why are they described so?   (2)

7.  What’s the setting of the poem?                                                                     (1/2)

8.  Find out another expression like ‘clicking Tongue’?                                        (1)

9.  Pick out the words in the poem which refers to work and the effort involved?(1)                                                                                                             

10.       Write the rhyming scheme of the poem?                                                     (1/2)

III. Attempt any one of the following.

11.      Describe the character sketch of Private Quelch?

                         Or

12.       The hollowness of the froth

Rising above the stream of her life….. Comment on the lines.                        (4x 1=4)

IV. Fill in the blanks using appropriate Phrasal Verbs.

       [Put on, put out, put across, put off, put down]

13.       Please ____ the television and do your homework.

14.      They ___ a new newsletter every Friday. Its work reading.

15.       I ____ a beautiful dress and my high heels.

16.        I was trying to ___my point of view but no one was listening.       (1/2x4=2)

V. Look at the following word pyramid.

                                    Sea

                                   A sea

                                A deep sea

                           A deep blue sea

                       A rough deep blue sea

Now construct a similar word pyramid with the word “Traveler”.                  (1x4=4)

VI. The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. Analyses the poem ‘I am the people, the mob’ based on the above statement and attempt an appreciation.                                                              (5x1=5)

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women (poem) ppt from kamilaanees

                                                                                                                             

Seminar-Syntax

Syntax

          Every language has a system of principles and rules which govern the structure of the elements of that language. These principles and rules underlying a language constitute its grammatical system which is automatically internalized during the process of language acquisition.

          Words are organized in principle of ways into higher units like phrases and sentences. The rules and principles governing the arrangements of words into such higher units is technically called syntax. I.e. , the structure of phrases and sentences in terms of words. The syntactic analysis of a language is a description of the structure of its sequence of the principles of sentence construction in that language. Syntactic analysis can be done in different ways and each method is called a syntactic model. A syntactic model or theory is the stamen of a method of description of the syntactic structure of a language.

TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR

          The term traditional grammar is rather vague and it is difficult to pin points its definite features. As David Crystal has pointed out, there are no such things as a single homogeneous traditional approach to grammar.  A spectrum of methods and principles appear in various combination and emphasis associated with many schools of thoughts. There never was anyone traditional grammar which enshrined all the fallacies which structuralists condemn.  The history of traditional grammar will explain its inadequacy to an extent. They conceived of the classical language as superior to the vernaculars. Consequently they took Latin grammar as the norm and analyzed English in terms of Latin. They forgot Latin is Latin and English is English. And  tried to fit English grammar in the frame work of Latin grammar.

          The traditional approaches to the study of grammar underwent a radical change as a result of the rapid advances in the scientific discipline of linguistics in early 20^th century. The new scientific approaches especially the emergence of structural or descriptive grammar raised objections against the old concepts of traditional grammar and exposed its inadequacies and fallacies. And its associated chiefly with the name of the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield and his followers. The Immediate Constituent analysis was the method employed by the structuralist for synthetic analysis.

IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT ANALYSIS

          Immediate Constituent(I C) Analysis essentially a structuralist tool for syntactic analysis was first introduced by Bloomfield and systematized with theoretical formulation by Roulon Wells and Zelling Harris. This kind of analysis aims at analyzing each utterance into the smallest meaningful units possible. The process of binary segmentation is continued; until we reach the smallest meaningful units. This unit at the last level is called the ultimate constituents. I C analysis helps us to discover how units are hierarchically layered into sentences, each lower-level units or constituent being part of a higher level construction

PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR

          I C analysis analyses each utterance into its basic linguistic units. In order to discover its constituents and how they are organized, a more sophisticated model of grammar called phrase structure Grammar has been evolved out of this. This method is introduced by Noam Chomsky in his book Syntactic Structure. P.S Grammar contains a set of rules called Phrase Structure Rules or Re-write Rules. P.S Rules are capable not only of generating strings of linguistic elements, but also of providing a constituent analysis of the string. They provide a set of directions, which is followed mechanically, will generate the abstract framework of Basic English sentences. It also represent how morphemes are organized into words, words into phrases and phrases into sentences in a way slightly different from the of I C analysis.

          PS  Grammars have an advantage over the I C model in that the labels are in built in the re-write rules, and the rules themselves can be arranged in a sequence so that each rule can be used to rewrite the output of the previous one.

          Thus there are certain facts about language which cannot be described adequately by a P.S Grammar. A really radically departure came with the model called T.G Grammar which made use of transformational rules to explain facts of language inadequately so far.

TRANSFORMATIONAL GERNERATIVE GRAMMAR

          T G Grammar is one of the most influential of modern linguistics theories introduced by Noam Chomsky. The term Transformational Generative obviously suggests that there are two aspects of this theory viz, transformational and generative. It shows how different types of sentences are derived from basic types of simple sentences through the application of certain rules called Transformational Rules (T-Rules). In the 1957 model, T G Grammar is organized in three components: the base component, the transformational component and the morpho phonemic component.

          T G Grammar is generative since it must be able to generate all the grammatical sentences of a language. By following its rules and conventions we could produce all or any of the possible sentences of that language. It attempts to describe a speaker’s competence and the competence of a native speaker.

          Thus, there are many theories and theories myriads of them, analyzing and describing language in different ways and many more to come. Still the mystery of language may never be fully unraveled. Hence its charm perhaps, this is because it is essentially a human phenomenon and shares the complex and mysterious nature of everything human..

ONLINE ASSIGNMENT- KRASHEN'S CONTRIBUTION OF ELT

KRASHEN’S  CONTRIBUTION OF ELT.

INTRODUCTION

Over the last 20 plus year Krashen has been recognized as one of the foremost experts in the field of linguistics specializing in theories of language teaching and development. Krashen is also a champion of foreign language education in the United States.  Stephen krashen has contributed to the fields of second language acquisition, bilingual education and reading. He is credited with introducing various influential concepts and terms in the study of second language acquisition and learning the input hypothesis, monitor theory, the Affective filter and the natural order hypothesis. His research also concerns literacy and linguistics. He has published over 350 books and articles and is an activist to inform policy on bilingual education.

 Krashen is also noted supporter of whole language reading philosophy and methods. His five hypothesis about language acquisition remain influential in both theoretical linguistics and language teaching and he also developed the comprehension based natural approach to second language learning with Tracy D. Terral ( Krashen S.D,1983)

Although there is frequently criticism of his theories and beliefs when the term language acquisition is used it is most likely the result of his use of the term and the clear distinction he made from language. The acquisition learning distinction is the most fundamental of the entire hypothesis in Krashen’s theory and the most widely known among linguists and language practitioners.

 The most ambitious as well as the most controversial theory which attempts to provide an overall account for language teaching is Krashen’s Monitor Theory.  These theories have had a large impact on all areas of second language research and teaching thus, received extensive attention in the professional literature.

Krashen’s Monitor Model:

 One of the remarkable contributions of krashen along with Terral’s is the Monitor hypothesis. It explains that there is a relationship between language acquisition and language learning. The monitoring function is the practical result of the learned grammar. According to krashen, the acquisition system is what begins the process of speaking a  new language and the learning system is the editor or monitor that plans, edits and correct the language in addition Krashen indicates that there are three kinds of individuals who use the monitor to some extend to another. First, there are the over-users who constantly use the monitor to correct their speech. Then there are the under-users who never learned grammar or choose not to use grammar to monitor their speech. Finally, what we want to have are the optimal users who use the Monitor correctly in the monitoring of their speech. The Monitor Theory is based on five main hypotheses. These comprise;

The Acquisition- Learning hypothesis: Krashen claimed that formal instruction or learning and studying about a language,, is a different process from the natural acquisition that takes place as a subconscious act similar to the way children  begin to understand their native language we use learning to produce correct form or grammar, while acquisition is used  to understand and produce meaning.

The Natural Order hypothesis: in this hypothesis krashen acclaimed that there is a natural, predictable order in which people acquire language. It is the same for each person and independent of the instruction program

The Monitor hypothesis: the learned system should have the purpose of self-monitor production. It is somehow related to the goal that the learner may be unable to identify and correct mistakes or ask for help and reflect on the process of acquisition. ‘Conscious learning… can only be used as a monitor or the editor’ (Krashen & Terrell 1983)

The Input hypothesis: people acquire a language by understanding messages or by receiving comprehensible input. This input should be slightly ahead of a learner’s current state of. The input hypothesis states that only comprehensible input will result in acquisition of the target language. Krashen says that learners must be exposed to input that is just beyond their current level in order to make progress.

The Affective Filter hypothesis: The Affective filter hypothesis asserts that a learner’s emotional states act as adjustable filters that freely permit or hinder input necessary to acquisition. ‘a mental block, caused by affective factors… that prevents learning.            

 These five hypotheses of second language acquisition can be summarized as:

1. Acquisition is inevitable and more important than learning.

2. In order to acquire, two conditions are necessary. The first is comprehensible input containing i+1—i.e., structures a bit beyond the acquirer’s current level, and second, a low or weak Affective filter to allow the input in (Wilson, 2000).

The teacher in the classroom is enticed by this hypothesis because of the obvious effects of self-confidence and motivation.  However, Krashen seems to imply that teaching children, who don’t have this filter, is somehow easier, since “given sufficient exposure, most children reach native-like levels of competence in second languages” (p.47).  This obviously completely ignores the demanding situations that face language minority children in the U.S. every day.  A simplification into a one page “hypothesis” gives teachers the idea that these problems are easily solved and fluency is just a matter of following this path.  As Gregg and McLaughlin point out, however, trying to put these ideas into practice, one quickly runs into problems.

 Krashen’s Monitor Theory is an example of a macro theory attempting to cover most of the factors involved in second language acquisition: age, personality traits, classroom instruction, innate mechanisms of language acquisition, environmental influences, input, etc. Despite its popularity, the Monitor Theory has been criticized by theorists and researchers mainly on the grounds of its definitional adequacy. Yet despite these criticisms, Krashen’s Monitor Theory has had significant impact on SL/ FL teaching.

Conclusion.

Krashen’s Monitor Model has attracted enormous attention on linguists and educators. The major pedagogical implications of Krashen’s Hypothesis are the teaching should be seen as preparation for acquisition in the wider world. It focused that teaching should be restricted to simple form and its goal is to enable the learner to monitor.  Although theories are primarily concerned with providing explanations about how languages are acquired, no single theory can offer a comprehensive explanation about the whole process of second language acquisition. Each theory offers a different insight in the complex process of second language acquisition. The field of SLA is still young. Krashen’s Monitor Model Theory and hypothesis made a great contribution in the field of language learning and teaching.

REFERENCE

Binnema, J. (n.d.). A closer look at the Monitor Model and  some of its criticism. Retrieved November 16,

Wilson, R. (2000). A summary of Stephen Krashen's “Principles  and  Practice in Second   Language Acquisition”. Retrieved November 16, 2011,

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