LANGUAGE AWARENESS ON GRAMMAR DIFFERENCES ACCORDING TO MEDIUM: CONCEPT, ANALYSIS AND REFLECTION Susiati Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta Sus249@ums.ac.id Abstract Despite the debate on language awareness definitions, this research adopts Arndt et. al. s (2000) idea that flexibility in language use is possible, not merely language systems mastery. The research focuses on grammar use in media, the daily communication basis. It emphasizes on how the language is used (pragmatically based) rather than on error analysis. Aiming to raise the teacher s and students language awareness, samples of English texts were taken in three different media: email, social media and newspaper. The concept, analysis and reflection are provided. The results show that the grammar used in these three media varies. Each type has different grammar conventions in use. The grammar used in emails follows standard grammar. Whereas that used in social media and newspapers headlines does not. This reflects that the main stake of language awareness on grammar in media seem not to be in the errors, but in the understanding of the language context used. Keywords: language awareness, grammar awareness, language in media 1. INTRODUCTION Bailey (2008) divides types of communication medium into Physical media and Mechanical media. Physical media consist of Large meetings, town hall meetings, Department meetings (weekly meetings), Up close and personal (exclusive meetings), Video conferences, Viral communication or word of mouth. Meanwhile, mechanical media comprises E- mail, Weekly letters or newsletters, Personal letters, Billboards, Intranet, Magazines or papers, Sms and Social media. From Bailey s classification, it could probably be concluded that physical media are spoken forms, and mechanical media are written ones. In this research, I will discuss the latter. This research will specifically discuss written grammar differences according to medium. The reason of deciding this topic is simply by observing that the increasing number of social media plays important role in English learners development. As far as I am concerned, at least in Indonesian context, many students like updating statuses in English on Facebook and Twitter. The way they express English on social media, sometimes commenting on my statuses, seems different from the way they write email to me in some occasions, for example. In email, they construct their messages in formal, not too many contractions, and no slang languages. Contrarily, contractions and slang languages fulfill their most chats on social media. I would emphasize that of course this does not happen all the time, but generally they apply those typical languages. Furthermore, how the grammatical rule used in the headlines and rubric titles of a newspaper will also be explored. This text was my Master s degree poster task of Language Awareness. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW Language Awareness (LA) has long been focused on how learners ability to use language accurately and effectively (Andrews, 2007). In the context of a group sharing a Mother Tongue, Silvester (in James & Garrett, 1991) would agree that LA 1319
should concern the student s consciousness to explore their language knowledge. In English as a Foreign Language (EFL) tradition, James and Garrett (1991) contrarily argued that it is teachers who should have LA more to help improve the students awareness. In line with James and Garrett, Hawkins (19 84) described LA as programs which facilitate students to improve their linguistic ability although the focus was Primary and Secondary Schools. Implicitly, teachers appear to play more important role in the programs. However, today, this debate still seems to be in a grey area whether LA is the teachers duty or inversely intended to focus on the students awareness about language. I personally take a position that LA would better facilitate both teachers and students to raise their awareness since successful learning can presumably not be achieved without the mutual awareness. As Donmall (1985:7) argues that Language Awareness is a person s sensitivity to and conscious awareness of the nature of language and its role in human life. This definition sounds more neutral which offers possibility that LA can be focused on both teacher and student. The next concern is whether the core of LA is about language systems (Andrews, p.1) or any aspects other than language systems. Thornbury (1997) suggests that, in terms of Teacher Language Awareness, systems of the language should be mastered by teachers in order that they are able to teach effectively. Hawkins proposes more specific area that linguistic diversity and language skills notably vocabulary, listening, reading and writing skills are put on top priority in LA. Arndt, Harvey and Nuttall (2000) gives broader LA features in language-in-use framework which comprises knowledge of the world, context of language use, variety, medium, attitude, effectiveness, structure and flexibility. This comprehensive view is framed in the socio-cultural perspective of language-in-use which sees that language is dynamic and open to change (p.18). Compared to Thornbury s and Hawkins ideas, I would prefer to use Arndt s, Harvey s and Nuttall s concepts of LA in this research which pinpoints the possibility of flexibility in language. The flexibility of language can be seen from the LA aspects according to the following issues: changes in language over time, differences according to users or context, differences according to learners, differences according to medium, variation according to status and role of English and how it is used in a context, differences in perspectives of teacher and materials, and attitudes to correctness and acceptability in different contexts. In context of international business, for example, where English is truly used by businessmen and businesswomen from many different countries which the statuses of English are variously as a Mother Tongue (MT), En glish as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) can at the same time change to be English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as the people in this context communicate with local nativized varieties (Cogo, 2011). Hence, the role of English is then as a language for communication which unites the people in the worldwide in particular activity. This is called internalization of English. Another example is that how the structure of Grammar changes in English language over time. In the past, the use of shall was quiet popular and massively used by British people as the Modal Verb of pronouns I, You, We and They and used in old literature. However, since American English influenced the world, will has uniformly been used for all personal pronouns: I, You, We, They, He, She, and It until today (Leech, Hundt, Mair, & Smith, 2009). Languagemodification also happens in the development of medium. With the increasing number of medium, language may change based on what type of medium the language is conveyed in. Before social media appeared, people wrote messages on a letter with rather or formal language. Today, people might freely express their minds on 1320
social media mostly in less formal language, and abbreviations dominate the structure. The form of language is written but using spoken language style. In this research, I will more specifically elaborate how language can change according to medium particularly in written form in chapter 2. Thus, the question arisen is why can a language change? There might be at least three factors influencing language change: time, context and users. Regarding time, Baker (2012) divides English language into three phases namely Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Among these phases, English gradually changed. For example, the three vowels that appeared in the inflectional endings of Old English words were reduced to one in Middle English, and then most inflectional endings disappeared entirely (p.9). Here are some examples of Modern English which come from Old English: about, by, from, great, now, such, these, which (p.10). The second factor of why language changes is context which Arndt, Harvey and Nuttall (2000) categorize it into three areas as the following: 1) Who, why, when, where, to whom, in what way, and about what, 2) People (their personalities, relationships, socio-economic status), and 3) Situations (the purpose(s) and the importance of the communication, social and cultural expectations about it, what came before it and what is like to come after). Regarding the time factor, in the past, for example, when a classroom was set as teacher-centered, students would choose more careful and very polite words to speak with their teacher. Unless classroom activity was framed in student-centered learning, the communication between students and teacher look more casual which affects the language choice used. Another contextual factor is what kind of people are using the language. The relationships of two or more persons, for example. A couple of close friends may use slang words since they know well each other and not feel worried to hurt his/her close friend. However, a student normally speak to another student with hesitant words and voice in the first meeting in a new class. Personalities can be another factor. A high temperamental person would usually pick out sarcastic words to mock others when they are angry, although not always, compared to those with lower temperament. The third area dealing with contextual factor is situations. This is the most complex factor as it links situational and personal circumstances (Arndt, Harvey a nd Nuttall, 2000). They suggest that different conventions govern use of language in different cultural context (p.27). What happened before in a community of practice, for instance, or may shape conventions among the members, and it may gradually change because of new comers membership. What matters is the new comers may come from different cultural contexts which then may form new conventions. What is likely to happen after is presumably the repetition of the cycle. The third factor leading to differences of language is the users. How differences of age, background of education, socioeconomic status, job, and background of culture, for examples, may affect to alteration of language. The way of a grandmother speaks is typically different from youngsters. The different generation gap is argued to result in the different dictions of vocabulary used. Youngsters usually tend to use slang words or idiomatic expressions, while aged generation generally uses less slang words or idiomatic expressions as the changes of language may not so various as those of younger generation. Another case is that users who have different background of education. It seems to be broadly known that the higher education a person has, the more proper and elegant the person speaks. Proper and elegant speech may deal with the selection of vocabulary used, intonation and manner. 1321
3. RESEARCH METHOD This research uses secondary data. I picked out some samples of diverse texts of three different media: E-mail, Facebook and headlines/rubrics in a newspaper. The grammar used in these three different media was analyzed based on the context of each text type and how it is written. This analysis is aimed to describe how teachers and students achieve their language awareness on grammar according to medium. 4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Example 1. Conversation on email Atik Nissa <atiknissa@gmail.com> 11/3/14 to me Dear Miss Susi, How are you? It's been a while. Anyway, how does it feel to be living and studying in England, the UK? Must be sooo good, right, making lots of friends there :) Oh yea about the NEED we intan and I couldn't make it yesterday, all the components were all so great, however we did our best. But we weren't yet successful. We're sorry! Good luck, Miss Susi. All the best for you! Example 2. Conversation on Facebook Example 1 and example 2 are both selected for the same student to fairly know the differences. Conversation 1 is an email coming from my student, and example 2 is comments on my Facebook account by the same student. The interesting questions are then why and how they write differently in one medium to another especially in Grammar case? The answers may relate to the explanation in chapter 1 that differences happen due to time, context and users and the aspects of language use. Based on the examples above, it can be analyzed that social media appeared only a decade ago and email predates the social media. Email was created as a tool of electronic communication which is time saving between students and teachers, among businessmen, inter governments, etc. (Gregg, 2010). That is why, the language used is more formal and it seems remain the same until now. However, for last ten years, social media have dominated the internet users which most users are from high school to college students (Pew Research Center, 2014). From these facts, first, time tells that the older medium may have more typical formal language, the message is longer, and absence of slang language is obvious. In the example above, lemme on conversation 2 (on Facebook) is the slang form of let me. Second, the first analysis may not be separated from users differences. The segments of both media are different that email is broadly used by teachers, scholars, businessmen. Therefore the language used is more formal. Meanwhile, social media are used by particular age group, and thence the language tends to be more informal. Third, the context is clearly mentioned that the setting is between formal and informal situations. In email, communication constructed may contain addressing words such as Dear Sir/Madame, Dear Shirley, lip service like I hope this finds you well, It is long time not hearing you, and closing statements for example Best regards, Good 1322
luck, Stay keep in touch. In the email example, my student addressed me with the words Dear Miss Susi, gave lip service How are you?, and gave closing words All the best for you. However, social media may use direction of content, no addressing words, lip service and rare closing words no one person dictates the current topic and freeform/unstructured) (http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/ch aracteristics_of_social_networks). The example on Facebook shows that the student directly called Miss Susi and writing her comments after. Ahaha (laughing) is a free form which no one, including me, can dictate her not to express laugh that way. Although in the classroom, I might mind the laughing expression, but not on Facebook. The incomplete sentence still studying? is typically spoken form which is free and unstructured. In the classroom, I would correct the or at least clarify the complete sentence to be used. Yet, it seems impossible for me to do so on Facebook. From this, it can be drawn a line that different situations might affect the production of language. when we encounter any instance of language-in-use. These interpretations will be both linguistic (such that we understand the language) and socio-cultural (such that we recognize the significance of the language behaviors which are part of the society and culture we inhibit). This interrelation is inevitable, and as language teachers, we are constantly aware of it (p.21) Moreover, the effectiveness of language use could be applied in the example 2. Since the emotional content characteristics of social media is allowing people to communicate with others which needs immediate response (http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/), social media users are likely to use short and effective language to deliver their messages. This effectiveness of language is apparently quiet the same as the language used in the headlines and the titles of rubrics in Newspapers. Example 3. The Headlines of Jakarta Post Newspaper Seen from Arndt s, Harvey s and Nuttall s (2000) aspects of language use, I would indicate that knowledge of the world aspect may play a role to my students ability to discrepant in what medium should a language is used. I also did not mind the free forms my student expressed since I should be able to know the context of a conversation made. Fortunately, my student and I come from the same cultural background which might lessen the gap of misunderstanding and misinterpretation between us. The way each of us views of the world is dictated by our sociocultural background(s) and our learning experiences. The more similar our backgrounds and experience, the more likely it is that we will have similar interpretations of what is going on These are examples of a popular English Newspaper in Indonesia namely Jakarta Post which raised the topics: Prison drug ring busted, again, KPK stands ground on Budi s status, Jokowi a media darling no more, and Key bills in pipeline to jump-start economy. 1323
Those are journalistic language which in terms of Grammar, those are not correct except KPK stands ground on Budi s status. Grammarly, the correct ones are Prison drug ring is busted again, Jokowi is a media darling no more, and Key bills in pipelines will jump-start economy. However, I cannot correct them as the structure should be as I usually do in my Grammar teaching in the classroom because the characteristics of journalistic language are accurate, clear, precise and efficient (Stovall, 2006). Efficiency is the top priority in writing the headlines of a Newspaper. It may not be a matter of correct or incorrect, but that is the journalistic language convention. Therefore, the absences of be in the three headlines may be considered effective, not consuming spaces on the Newspaper as a commercial media. This is apparently what English teachers do when they are teaching Grammar in the classroom that in out of English language learning context, there is an English writing form which is not always precise as taught in the classroom, not to against it, but understand it as the news writing convention and/or the reduction form of Grammar. Still, correct Grammar should be strictly taught in the classroom because if students have known the basic correct forms, they may know the reduced and developed ones (Susiati, 2015). It could be then recommended that schools should not always introduce the correct Grammar forms for test preparation, but occasionally the teacher could introduce different forms such as English in medium in order that students are aware the English in their environment especially for upperintermediate and advanced students such as college students. 5. CONCLUSION AND REFLECTIONS In this part, I would describe how this research helps students and me as a teacher on Language Awareness. a. Impacts on Students Before the poster task, I might just understand the definitions and concepts of Language Awareness. However, when I was doing the poster task, it was not as simple as my mindset of Language Awareness. My lecturer commented on the genre I pick out was not apple-to-apple to be compared. Academic journal and X-Factor are two quiet different genres. That is why she suggested to choose more scientific TV show as academic journal is scientific. The lesson I could take from the poster presentation is that to be aware of Grammar differences according to medium, I should not simply compare Grammar differences on an academic journal and TV show like X- Factor. Therefore, the context is clear that both are scientific. Choices dictated by medium are, of course, further constrained by the specific type of text and context (Arndt, Harvey & Nuttall, 2000:37). Not only do I understand what LA actually is, but after further research I also know the debates of the LA definitions and in what context the definitions are debated. The implication is LA has broad sense and context which direct to the same goal, conscious to language. Schmidt (1990) distinguishes sense into three types: consciousness as awareness, consciousness as intention, and consciousness as knowledge. While Mitchell, Hooper and Brumfit (1994) prefers to use Knowledge about Language. Another aspect debated is whether LA is for teachers or students. Andrews diametrically argues that LA is better for teachers which opposes Silvester s idea. Some scholars are in neutral site that their definition sound more general such as Donmall and Arndt, Harvey and Nuttall. This neutrality opens possibility that LA could be for both teachers and students, and I take a position of this. The third point of my LA improvement after the poster task is that consciously or unconsciously, I was practicing the LA process itself, on this case LA on written and 1324
spoken Grammar differences according to medium. However, it took rather much time to scrutiny the opinions about LA, and then correlated it to my teaching context, and few authors seems write LA in EFL context. This fact could hopefully stimulate LA writers to raise EFL issue on LA. b. Impacts on My Work as a Teacher This task inspires me to give the similar task to my students to present their linguistic findings in front of the classroom and have it discussed with other students. The discussion may share their different findings, and therefore the students LA improves. In the 21 st century, English language learning should apply studentcentered learning, not inversely teachercentered learning, and presentation and discussion are parts of student-centered learning (Harmer, 2007). As I mentioned in point a that the poster task is suitable for upper-intermediate and advanced level students which may suit my teaching context, a tertiary level. Taking the lesson from the discussion in Chapter 2 that sometimes what is taught in the classroom is different from the English used in the real life or in other places, I will then not strictly force my students to always implement what is learnt in textbooks as in the real life, they sometimes find other forms than those in textbooks. In addition, I should continuously remind my students to always open their horizon that language, including English, is dynamic and open to change (op. cit.), and language itself is more and more becoming a target for change with the achievement of change in language practices being perceived as a significant element in the imposition of change (Fairclough, 1992). Furthermore, as language is flexible and often changing, I will always recommend my students to every time keep updated with language changes whenever and wherever they find them. It aims not to ask them to be less formal or less paying attention to classroom s materials, but in my opinion, the more students find more varieties of language, the more aware they are in language, and thence the wiser they see and use the language. For example, written media they every day may find and use such as email, social media, newspaper, SMS (Short Message Service) may have each typical language characteristics. Moreover, if they are compared with spoken ones, the language differences used would be larger and more various. Other language issues may also provide more complex and huge variations of language. 6. REFERENCES Andrews, S. (2007) Teacher Language Awareness. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Arndt, V., Harvey, P. and Nuttall, J. (2000) Alive to Language. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Bailey, M.M. (2008) Types of Communication Medium. Sweden: the Communication Toolbox. Available from: http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.c om/ Characteristics_of_Social_Networks Baker, P.S. (2012) Introduction to Old English. United Kingdom: Wiley- Blackwell. Cogo, A. (2012) English as a Lingua Franca: Concepts, Use, and Implications, ELT Journal, 66(1), 97-105. Crystal, D. (2004) Making Sense of Grammar. Harlow: Pearson Education. Fairclough, N. (1992). Critical Language Awareness. USA: Longman. 1325
Frank, C. and M. Rinvolucri (1983) Grammar in Action. Great Britain: A. Wheatson & Co. Ltd. Harmer, J. (2007) The Practice of English Language Teaching. England: Pearson Education Limited. Hawkins, E. ((1984) Awareness of Language: an Introduction. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Hogg, R.M. and R.D. Fulk (2011) A Grammar of old English. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. Jakarta Post (2015) Edition: 10 February 2015. Available from: http://www.thejakartapost.com/chann el/headlines James, C. and P. Garrett (1991) Language Awareness in the Classroom. England: Longman Group UK Ltd. Langlois, G. (2014) Meaning in the Age of Social Media. United States: Palgrave Macmillan. Leech, G.N., Hundt, M., Mair, C., and Smith, N. (2009) Change in Contemporary English: a Grammatical Study. USA: Cambridge University Press. Mitchell, B. and Robinson, F.C. (2012) A Guide to Old English. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell. Mitchell, R., Hooper, J., and Brumfit, C.J. (1994) Final Report: Knowledge about Language, Language Learning and the National Curriculum. Occasional Papers, 19. University of Southampton. Nunan, D. and J. Choi (2010) Language and Culture. United Kingdom: Routledge. PRC (2014) Social Media Users Demographic. Washington: PewResearchCenter. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/datatrend/social-media/social-mediauser-demographics/ Schmidt, R. (1990) The Role of Consciousness in Second Language Learning, Applied Linguistics, 11, 129-58. Seidlholfer, B. (2011) Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stovall, J.G. (2006) Journalism. Available from: http://www.ablongman.com/stovall1e /chap10 /chap10.html Susiati, (2015) Grammar Analysis. Unpublished Med. Task, University of Exeter, UK. Thornbury, S. (1997) About Language: Tasks for Teachers of English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Thornbury, S. (2001) Uncovering Grammar. Great Britain: Scotprint. 1326
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