Reading at three in a multilingual society

Jia Yi Chee is a three year-old girl born in January, 2010. She is the youngest growing up with three elder brothers. Literally speaking, she comes from a working class as both her parents are working full time, although her mother drives Jia Yi to school before work every morning. After the domestic helper left the family, Sheena, Jia Yi’s mother chose to put her daughter on a full day child care system. Currently, Jia Yi attends a multilingual childcare facility six days per week in the multilingual Pekan Nenas, a town in the state of Johor, south of the Peninsular Malaysia.

                                                                 Jia Yi (posing for iPhone)

Among other things, Jia Yi has received books and a few sets of mono-word card after six months attending the childcare facility. In between dinner and breakfast, Jia Yi watches a lot of English and Mandarin cartoons on television. Television, once-called the idiot-box, is a surrogate baby-sitter.  Despite her ritual television viewing, Jia Yi enjoys reading. Her reading stimulations are the word cards, which display words in English, Malay and Mandarin that are arranged in random order. The following are her progressive reading outcomes based on selected word cards as her mental stimulants:

Reading stimulants	Jia Yi’s reading output
Bantal	bantal (pillow in Malay)
学 Xué	*tóng > xué (learn in Mandarin)
Scissors	scissor [sic]
love	love
女Nǚ	nǚ (female in Mandarin)
Skirt	skirt
Luka	luka (scar in Malay)
You	you
eye	eyes [sic]
Play	play
Towel	*mouth > I don’t know (in Mandarin) > towel (upon correction)
I	saya, wo, I (upon correction)
Pagi	pagi
Seluar (pants)	*selamat > *beautiful (with a smile) > seluar (upon correction)
Kasut	kasut (shoes in Malay)
Morning	morning
Kawan (friend)	*friend, *pen yu > kawan (upon correction)
Baju	baju (shirt in Malay)
Toothbrush	toothbrush
Girl	girl
Milk	milk
爸bà    (father)	ba ba (wrong tone in Standard Mandarin; correct colloquially)
Feel	*Fail > *fail (with a smile) > feel (upon correction)
开kāi	kai (open in Mandarin)
心Xīn	xin (heart in Mandarin)
Perempuan	Perempuan (women in Malay)
Mouth	mouth
Saya	saya (I in Malay)

Table 1: A three year-old’s reading output in a multilingual society

                                                Jia Yi's favourite reading area (in front of the TV)

Initially, prior to the outcomes in Table 1, Jia Yi used to read in phrases: “I love you” for the word love, “good morning” for the word morning, má má for the mono-syllable word mother 妈 in Mandarin. Jia Yi has eventually corrected her reading output by tailoring it to a word-by-word reading pattern. This seems more like a reading detour if we believe that language development is not a word-based transformation.  Depending on one’s preference, one may look at formulaic language as part of psycholinguistic development (Alison Wray), emergentism (William O'Grady), nonlineal parallel processing as a state of mind (cf. Naomi Goldblum, among others), form-function construction as the cognitive process for language (Adele Goldberg), or core syntactic properties shared by human languages (Noam Chomsky) as our reference point(s).

The reading outputs contained in Table 1 were observed and recorded by the blogger who held the word card to Jia Yi’s face. The blogger said yes/good if Jia Yi has read correctly, nope if she has read wrongly, and offered the ‘accurate’ pronunciation if she has read the word on the card wrong for twice.

                                               Jia Yi before watching a movie on a Friday evening

What is interesting is that Jia Yi has recurrent difficulties with verb-to-be such as /are/ in a different observation and personal pronoun /I/ compared to nouns such as /scissors/. She uses any of the three languages as a basis of her reading knowledge and attempts to correct herself in two other languages. Jia Yi mimics the pronunciation of a word in a third language when she receives a correction in a third language.

Based on the simple reading interaction with Jia Yi, there are four questions that this blog post would like to raise as its concluding remarks. Firstly, is word-for-word the right way to adopt in teaching reading to preschools? Secondly, do the children growing up reading in a multilingual setting require different sets of learning materials compared to the children growing up reading and learning in monolingual setting? Thirdly, should language learning begin with one language per each contact time in a multilingual setting, if not across all the learning settings? Lastly, do the language educators and policy planners understand the difference between children coordinating multilingual stimulations and children receiving monolingual stimulations well enough when they manage language acquisition in general and plan reading practice in particular?

 

Jyh Wee Sew

Centre for Language Studies

Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences

National University of Singapore

I used to be so passive

The passive voice is one that causes many problems for speakers of English as an Additional Language (EAL). This may be because it does not exist in their language, or because it is used differently. The passive voice, however, is frequently used in academic writing, especially in reports or in other situations where the action or outcome of an action are more important than the person who performed the action.

For example, it might be important to highlight people’s names in some cases, because you want the reader to focus on that information:

            Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium and polonium.

In other cases, however, you might not want to highlight the names, but you still want to include them:

            Radium and polonium were discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie.

Alternatively, you could omit the names completely and concentrate on an action and the outcome of that action:

            Radium and polonium were discovered in a shed.

(That’s true – you can read about it on the Nobel Prize website.)

Here are two more sentences:

            The shed was falling down, so we had it repaired.

            The shed leaked, so we got the roof replaced.

You might have noticed something unusual about these last two sentences. Most passive voice constructions use the verb “to be” followed by a past participle. However, it is possible to have a passive-type construction using “get” or “have”, as in the examples above (had it repaired and got the roof replaced). In these cases, “have” and “get” are followed by a past participle. They are called “causative verbs” and often mean that someone does something for you at your request.

            We asked someone to repair the shed.          – active

            The shed was repaired.                                – passive

            We had the shed repaired.                            – causative “have”

There is also another construction which many learners of English are not aware of. It comes midway between the active and the passive, and is sometimes called the “middle voice”. This occurs with verbs such as “break” and “open”:

            Tim broke the window.                                  – active

            The window was broken (by Tim).                  – passive

            The window broke.                                       – middle

            Kate opened the window.                              – active

            The window was opened (by Kate).                – passive

            The window opened.                                     – middle

With the active voice, we know who did the action. With the passive, we know that someone did an action, but we do not need to include their name if we don’t want to. With the middle voice, it seems as though the action happened spontaneously; there is no need to include a person at all.

There are several hundred of these “ergative verbs” which can be used in the middle voice in English, and using them in this way makes a writer’s English sound more like that of a native speaker.

You can find a list of ergative verbs at the English for Uni website, together with exercises and a new video story. This story is called “Stolen on the Ghan”, and is set on the train from Adelaide, in South Australia, to Darwin, in Australia’s north. In addition to grammar detective Ms Parrot, the video features the singer Bobby Dylan and the film star Dizzy Delite, both of whom suspect that their necklaces have been stolen.

It is Bobby Dylan who sings the video’s opening song, with a mixture of active, passive and middle voice:

I used to be so passive;

Every door was closed to me.

I used to be so passive;

No door was opened to me.

Then the door opened;

It opened ergatively. 

   [I made up that adverb to remind you that "open" is an ergative verb!]

So I pushed it open;

I opened it actively.

Now I’m no longer passive;

I open every door that I see.

No, I’m no longer passive –

The doors open wide for me!

I encourage you to explore the passive voice and the middle voice, and learn more about ergative verbs. You might find the doors opening wide for you too!

 

On the fat road

Like many Malay words, the word fat in English is bi-categorical in terms of grammar. This means that fat may be considered as an adjective as well as a noun. The examples to illustrate the adjectival and nominal status of fat are as follows:

Her second husband is a very fat man vs. There is plenty of fat in this piece of fried chicken.

http://www.rahsiaslimdiet.com/2012/11/alpha-lipid-sd2-cara-kuruskan-badan.html

Interestingly, the word fat may become metaphorical in the following phrases:

Fat-phrases	Metaphorical Meaning
Fat cheque	A draft worth plenty of money issuable by the bank
Fat chance	Unlikely
Fat hope	Wishful thinking
A fat lot of good use	Neither good nor useful at all
It’s not over until the fat lady sings	The outcome of a situation is not yet final

In comparison, the word jalan in Malay may refer to the verb walk as well as the noun road. Here is a contrastive comparison of jalan as verb and noun in separate syntactic contexts:

Rumah itu di tepi jalan besar         vs.   Jangan jalan ke hadapan lagi

(That house is by the main road)           (Don’t walk forward any more)

http://www.johor-properties.com/2011/11/johor-bahru-development-land-for-sale-at-rm260/






Along the vein of non-literal expression, /jalan/ may be metaphorical in these Malay constructions:

Jalan-phrases	Meaning
Jalan (road) buntu (deadlocked)	Dead end (mental block) vs. jalan mati [die] (dead end )
Jalan (road) pendek (short)	Shortcut / cutting corner
Jalan (road) cerita (story)	Plot
Jalan (road) belakang (back)	Unorthodox way
Jalan (road) damai (peace)	Solution for peace
Jalan (road) serong (slanted)	Unscrupulous approach

It is obvious why many people would want a fat bank account but a fat-free diet, indicating that we are constantly in a love-hate relationship with fat. Similarly, in the Malay world, everybody would like to find their path to attaining success although sometimes one may be tempted to select the shorter route as there is certainly more than one road to Rome, as the Chinese saying would have it. By comparison, the English expression is that all roads lead to Rome, putting a different slant on the meaning.

This article suggests that words are always inbuilt with a potential to generate many types of references offering a variety of meanings for the speakers to select and combine in verbal communication. It is because of the versatility of each word in producing different types of reference that we are spared the trouble of creating a new word for every single denotation, keeping the linguistic stock within a manageable mental portfolio for expression and interaction.

Jyh Wee Sew
Centre for Language Studies
Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
National University of Singapore

Symbolic colours in idiomatic references

Have you ever wondered about the relevance of colours in metaphorical expressions? Colours seem to be an important component in the connotation of certain idiomatic references by means of collocation or compounding. Take for instance red herring, referring to facts that have become more of a distraction from the main issue. We cannot change the colour of the idiomatic reference to black, for example, as a black herring will not have the same connotations.

We also have the term black sheep which refers to a member of a group who is undesirable or has become a source of embarrassment. The opposite in terms of colour, i.e. a white sheep could not complete the pragmatic task if the original connotation is intended as part of one’s communication. In terms of financial stability, a film studio or modeling agency certainly would want to keep the golden goose (but not a brown goose) in the organisation to ensure a steady income flow.

http://my.opera.com/Words/blog/2009/05/07/black-and-white-picture-feature

When it comes to selecting a representative from the talent pool the manager might want to avoid the green horn in place of an old bird. At this juncture, I point out that there is an interesting comparison between English and Malay when the metaphorical horn is invoked in the reference. In Malay, we have the saying ‘sudah dapat gading bertuah, tanduk lama tidak berguna lagi’ which may be literally translated as ‘when one gets a lucky tusk, the old horn becomes useless’. The Malay idiom is used to refer to a person losing interest in the old flame or staff when s/he gets a new beau, or worker, who may well be the blue-eyed boy.

Red seems to be a popular choice in idiomatic expressions. Red tape refers to the official rules that cause a slowdown in the progress of any project. A more undesirable phrasing with red may sound like this: ‘a person certainly would not want be caught red-handed in a red light district after a couple glasses of red wine’.

Black is comparable in being a robust colour choice for metaphor expressions:  Businessmen are not supposed to import goods from the black market or they could end up on the blacklist of the business dealers.  Possibly, unscrupulous business may be categorised as the black shop literally among Chinese speakers. Like in English, the word black in Mandarin also connotes negative meanings, for a black shop or 黑 店 refers to a shop that sells low grade cut-price goods. Like the Chinese speakers, the Malays use black to refer to a triad or a secret society, which is 黑社会[hei she hui] in Mandarin and /kongsi gelap/ in Malay.  黑 [hei] is the Mandarin character for “black” and /gelap/ is Malay word for “dark”. And whenever the stock market crashes in Wall Street the news makers would describe the particular day with the colour black, be it a black Monday or a black Friday.

I hope to have convinced the readers that there is more to colours especially when they are compounded as a symbolic category in metaphorical expressions in many languages, for if I have succeeded in driving home the point I might be considered as a person with a silver tongue, although unfortunately I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth.

Jyh Wee Sew
Centre for Language Studies,
National University of Singapore

A review of the Cambridge learner's dictionary

Macmillan Publishers Ltd announced in 2012 that they would no longer be producing printed versions of their learner’s dictionary. This announcement was greeted in various ways by the lexicographical community, with some applauding the decision and others criticising it. Given the present climate of increasing online use, is it still worth publishing paper dictionaries? I was recently given a new learner’s dictionary to review, so I’ll put some thoughts here and leave you to decide what you think.


Cambridge learner’s dictionary (fourth edition) 2012, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
ISBN: 978-1-107-66015-1

The Cambridge learner’s dictionary is designed for intermediate learners of English as an addition language (EAL), for levels A2-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. I am not familiar with the CEFR, but the website http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/about-us/what-we-do/international-language-standards/ informs me that A1 is a beginners’ level while C2 indicates mastery of a language. The dictionary also indicates the CEFR levels for many entries, so that inexpensive, for example, is labelled as B1, while meeting and melon are labelled as A2. It would be really helpful if future editions could also relate the CEFR levels to other exams such as IELTS and TOEFL. There seems to be no direct equivalence between these tests, but https://www.ielts.org/researchers/common_european_framework.aspx shows roughly how the scores equate.

This dictionary has many excellent features. For example, it highlights “Word partners” (collocations) and provides boxes for “Other ways of saying”, so that learners can use language idiomatically and in context, while expanding their vocabulary. It also indicates “Common learner errors”. For instance, on p. xii we read, “I need some advice. I need an advice. To make advice singular say a piece of advice.” Extra help pages at the end of the dictionary provide further exercises (with answers).

Alternative British and American English spellings are frequently given, with many words (e.g. centre/center) listed at both these variants. Other words (e.g. harbour) appear only with the British spelling, however, making the dictionary occasionally less user-friendly for American English speakers. Only British English spelling is used for definitions and examples, and Australian variants are not included at all. For instance, lolly is defined as "a large, hard sweet on a stick". In Australia, lolly is the term for what is called a sweet in the UK, and it is usually not on a stick.

The example sentences used at many entries are generally helpful, showing how words are used in context and how they can be varied grammatically. For example, at the verb fan we read, "The spectators sat in the bright sun, fanning themselves with newspapers". Phrasal verbs are also included, so that under the entry for fan we find fan out: "If a group of people fan out, they move out in different directions from a single point". There is also a picture of an electric fan and a hand held paper fan.

Labels such as "informal" help the reader to know when to use a word. Synonyms are explained, not merely listed, so that the reader can distinguish between them. This is a helpful feature that is not included in most thesauri.

The colour pictures are attractive and helpful, with up-to-date examples. For example, alongside dress and jacket we find salwar kameez. Some pictures are not to scale, however, or include no point of comparison. Thus we have a good black and white picture of a koala on p. 409, but no indication of how big this animal is. The colour pictures of various sports are also not always easy to follow. Do pitcher and batter, for example, refer to people or equipment?

Some entries are not entirely clear, as in lone, defined as "alone: lone parents". It would be hard for a learner to work out the meaning or use of this word. Similarly, the word partners for love include "brotherly/unconditional love", implying that brotherly and unconditional are synonyms. At other times, more information would be helpful. Mayonnaise is defined as "a thick, cold, white sauce that is made from eggs and oil". It would be useful to add that mayonnaise is often put on salads.


The centre material is generally very good, with "Pieces and quantities" pointing out important collocations such as "a drop of oil" and "a hunk of bread". It is also useful to have UK and US variants for parts of a car, and to point out elsewhere that the UK and US use imperial units. However, some explanations might be confusing: "In the UK, people usually say their weight in stones and pounds. e.g. I weigh nine stone three." Here, the singular use of the word stone should be explained. The "Speaking naturally" section is helpful.


The CD-ROM gives spoken pronunciation and allows the user to record their voice for pronunciation practice. There is also a thesaurus, so you can really expand your vocabulary.

If you want to get the most out of this dictionary, you really should read the section on “How to use this dictionary”. Most users don’t refer to this material, but we sell ourselves short when we fail to use it; it really is invaluable.

I can recommend the Cambridge learner’s dictionary for intermediate learners of English, and the Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary for those who want a wider range of vocabulary and don’t mind using a larger book. Both are also available online at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/.

Is there still a place for paper dictionaries? I think there is. Not everyone has access to the internet, or to a computer. In those circumstances, a paper dictionary is invaluable.

Let us know what you think by voting in the poll to the right of this post!

Welcome to our first Singaporean Grammar Gang member

It is with delight that we welcome Mr Jyh Wee Sew as the latest addition to the Grammar Gang.  Jyh will be our first Singaporean contributor and we welcome his insights into all things Singlish!   (This is not, of course, to undermine Jyh's extensive credentials as a linguist.)

Jyh has been an editor in a Malay publishing house; a teacher of Malay; has worked for the Ministry of Education and is member of the Centre for Language Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore.

Jyh has been a recipient of many awards including an 'Outstanding Contribution Award' (2004) from the Ministry of Education in Singapore, & 'Hadiah Karya Kencana' (2011) in the category of Social Sciences and Humanities from Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka (Malaysian Language and Literary Board) in Kuala Lumpur. He is currently an editorial member of
Theory and Practice in Language Studies.  

Jyh's publications include three books with University Malaya Press; a selection of refereed articles and many Malay articles in internally refereed publications.

Our warmest Grammar Gang welcome, Jyh.

Helen Johnston - University of South Australia
Linda Bergmann - Purdue University US
Lisa Emerson - Massey University New Zealand
Julia Miller - Adelaide University
Andrea Duff - University of South Australia