Evolutionary linguistics

In a small group of three, my friends and I gathered at Kirkhof Learning Center at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) Allendale campus. We met on multiple occasions to discussed and practiced different lessons that were taught in class. The times we met usually on Friday morning Approximately around 9-10 am and occasionally Wednesday 3-4pm, depend of who would be available at that moment. The dates my group of friends and I met are 11/03/2017, 10/27/2017, 09/13/2017, and a few more dates that…

Don't Forget Cursive Why do we even bother to learn cursive? Now that's a question many people have been arguing about for the past few years. Cursive is an important part of learning. Both students and teachers alike should learn and use cursive. Cursive has been used for centries in the United States, and parts of Britain. Our Declaration of Independants is written in cursive, as well as our Constitusion. If the younger generations don't get a chance to learn to write or read…

Symbolism represents much more than just the literal meaning of an object, action, or character in a piece of writing. Symbolism creates a deeper outlook on the perspective that was once thought to be precise. It provides the readers with more to dwell upon, making the piece of writing extra fascinating. Many different writers use symbolism to clearly recount the main purpose of the writing, much like Elizabeth Bishop does in the poem, “One Art.” In the poem, “One Art,” the author uses symbolism…

“The Concept of A Discourse Community” by John Swales is to tell the reader the true definition of a discourse community and it characteristics and goes over the six requirements for it to be considered a true discourse community. He also goes over speech community versus discourse community and argues that they are truly different. In his argument he goes over many definitions of what a discourse community is, such as when Swales says it is “a union of people that have similar motives that…

educators have a responsibility to understand how best to meet children's needs and how to provide effective early childhood education for all children. National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) position statement, responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity some recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education, offers principles of good early childhood practice which hold true regardless of the language spoken by children or their families. “Among these, the…

In The Day the Crayons Came Home, Drew Daywalt writes, “[Duncan] built a place where each crayon would always feel at home.” These words are meant to appeal to children and adults with eyes towards a message of belonging, of knowing that they have a place where one is accepted no matter how different. The first book in this series by Daywalt entitled, The Day the Crayons Quit, is filled with crayons that share no difference other than color as seen in Appendix A and B. Each page is filled with…

The internet, is it changing the way we think? An article written by John Naughton strives to challenge the reader to think on the social, political and cultural effect the internet has on humans. The target audience of his piece is the mature reader, familiar with psychology, or philosophy or technology. The piece would appeal to a person interested in just one of those fields, as the article touches on each subject. John Naughton provides his answer to is the internet changing the way we think…

Language is how we communicate today. But there are several ways to communicate with others besides talking. There are people that are blind, deaf, or people who have speech impediments. All of these types of people have their own way of expressing and receiving a message. There are ways to learn these skills on language, and the body has reacts in certain ways when you are trying to receive the message and give the message. These skills can affect learning abilities. But we all have a…

The article Teaching a Deaf Child Her Mother’s Tongue by Jennifer Rosner was eye-opening and touching to read. I have never, until now, read an article quite like this. I do not know much about being deaf so this was an interesting read. I do wish it was longer because I found myself wanting to know more after reading it. This article made me want to know more about being born deaf and the concepts that surround it. Rosner begins the article with a few true statements that although are…

Statement of the Problem Many English teachers in China use a traditional language teaching approach and provide few opportunities for students to practice English speaking. Chinese EFL students’ oral speaking tends to be ignored. Thus, many Chinese EFL learners are not able to speak fluent English. The national education system in China has implemented an official policy, which mandates that English is a required course from Grade three till post-graduate level (He, 2015). This indicates that…