CALL in Language Skills

Speaking & Communication Skills 
In this section we learnt about 3 degrees of speaking skills known as Mechanics, Functions, and Social and cultural rules and norms. Mechanics infers to a speaker's ability to produce a correct and well-meaning sentence based on our cognitive apprehension through pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

On another basis, the question of how we utilize our mechanics takes place in the functions which occur in our everyday lives through interacting with people around us. These skills would then help in developing many examples of social and cultural rules and norms between speakers. Individual speaking skills appear its drilling through language tools of turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses, and relative roles of participants.

It is safe to say that in attempting to integrate CALL with the nature of human language production such as understanding how to take into an account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason, the development of the technology for oral language development to both hardware and software was taken as a challenge. Particularly, the main challenge is to create speech recognition software that is sensitive and accurate for language learning (Hincks, 2003). As stated earlier, this type of skill dribbles along the techniques of drill-type activities. The invention of language in technology and audio broadcast through portable devices hence let it to be known as 'podcast'.

Language Teaching and Language Skills

CALL in Language Skills

1.      Listening

2.      Speaking

3.      Reading

4.      Writing

5.      Grammar

The incorporation of computer in the process of learning the language skills involve listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill, writing skill and grammar skill. There are many technologies or computer language learning and language teaching which are TELL (technology Enhance English Learning), CALI, CBLT, IT, ICT, NBLT, DLL, MALL etc. Each of the acronyms is talking about the learning of language. It gears with computer or technology language teaching and learning.

Benefits of CALL

The findings as conducted through a research proven that student are motivated to learn more with CALL. It is because by using computer and technology to assist the student with their drills, exercises, assignment a lot easier, they started to feel a self-fulfillment because they believe that they have accomplish something. As student started to feel interested in the use of computer and searching through internets for more input, eventually it creates a sense of pleasure of learning. Thus, motivates them to learn more and more.

Listening Skill

Learners today exist in an increasingly multimodal environment. Audio devices provide extra levels of flexibility for such learners, providing them with auditory input allowing them to learn anytime, anywhere and while doing anything. As Eisenwine and Hadley (2011, 5) state, ‘the digital generation prefers parallel processing and multitasking as a way of digesting information. In addition, that generation prefers pictures, sounds and video over text’.

The pedagogical value of providing audio-based resources, especially podcasts, has been well documented (Hew, 2009; Kervin, et al. 2006; McGarr, 2009; Tempelhof, et al. 2009). Generally, such podcasts have been based on lecture materials or supplementary materials designed to support specific units. Other examples include the provision of conference or workshop presentations. Little has been written evaluating the use of audio forms of published and/or scholarly literature.

Healing by Listening to Quran


Speaking

With the development of technology, many studies have been conducted to investigate the effectof the use of computers in language learning, and many findings and evidence provide positive evaluation in this field (see Warschauer and Healey, 1998, Chapelle 2001, 2003 and Hegelheimer and Tower, 2004).Speaking is at the heart of second language learning. It is arguably the most important skill for business and government personnel working in the field, yet it appears particularly vulnerable to attrition.The current situation is different. An increased emphasis on the acquisition of communicative language skills calls for language learning software that is speech-enabled and engages learners in interactive speaking activities. Developing this software is now feasible with the deployment of automated speech recognition (ASR) on PC platforms.At the same time as the profession shifted towards communication in foreign languages, CALL technology began to flourish. However, the technology available to CALL developers limited their ability to promote speaking proficiency.

                Computers have a role to play in learningto speak; however, interaction with the computer remains mainly via keyboard and mouse. Most commercial software provides learners with practice in filling blanks or choosing the correct answer. A small proportion of available software offers learners practice in reading and listening to authentic written and spoken language. An even smaller proportion lets learners produce language by repeating words or sentences, recording their responses, and comparing them to native models (see Wachowicz& Scott, this issue).

However, getting learners to produce spoken language cannot be limitedto recording one’s voice and comparing it to native models. Speech needs to be an integral part of the instructional design, and production possibilities need to be expanded. We share the view of Chapelle (1998) that multimedia CALL must have learners produce in meaningful ways in the target language. “Like input, which can be either uncomprehendnoise or valuable for acquisition, output can be produced mindlessly or it can be created by the learner under conditions that facilitate acquisition.”

CALL systems that include ASR can help develop proficiency. Learners exposed to large quantities of speech from different native speakers will have a trained ear to better discriminate sounds and constructs. Learners who also get to produce speech will improve their speaking skills. While onedoes not know whether this improvement affects fluency, confidence, or fully functional communicative skills, but it is important to note that CALL does not keep learners mute. Creativity and multidisciplinary partnership is the key to making CALL fully communicative.

Reading

The essential skill of reading, including decoding and comprehension, has not been learned by all. The number of children identified with learning disabilities continues to increase in all parts of the world. The ability to read provides access to written information and is necessary for understanding and learning from text-based resources in all media formats. Consequently, teaching students to read is one of the primary objectives of an education system. Poor reading skills adversely affect a student’s other learning endeavors, often causing serious learning difficulties and resulting in low academic achievement overall (Bloom 1997). Consequently, it is imperative to find instructional methods and media to help poor readers develop and improve their reading skills and achieve reading proficiency.

                In determining how to teach reading, we need to first consider how individuals learn to read. Learning is a complex mental process by which the learner gains knowledge, information, understanding or skill through inquiry, study, investigation, or instruction. Although some learning may occur without intention, learning and mastering tasks, skills and knowledge generally requires concerted cognitive effort by the learner (Driscoll 1994; Woolfolk 1998). In addition, learning is a unique process for each learner (DeCorte 1995, p. 40), affected by many instructional and learning factors. Understanding the learning process is important because the instructional method, techniques, technologies, and medium implemented impact the quality and quantity of learning(Newby et al. 2000).

                Choosing an instructional method is an instrumental decision in teaching reading because the instruction method directly affects a learner’s educational progress by making it easier (or harder) to learn (Berliner &Rosenshine 1977; Cronbach& Snow 1977; Newby et al. 2000; Schunk 2000). The organization of the material and modality of presentation affect the learner’s ability to understand and assimilate what is being taught. An instructional method should focus on helping the learner develop a mental schema (Rumelhart 1980; Sweller 1999). Since low ability learners have difficulty adapting to the learning environment, the learning environment needs to conform to their specific learning needs (Calfee& Drum 1986; Kleiman 1982).

                Individual computer-based reading and spelling offers good prospects for delivering literacy instruction adapted to the specific needs of both precocious readers and reading-disabled children. If appropriately programmed, the computer will auto- maticallyadjust its responses to the actions of the learner. A range of computer- mediated or computer-assisted activities for reading and spelling has been developed over the last few years and shows promising results (e.g. Leong, 1992; Olson and Wise, 1992). Olofsson (1992) created a computer program using a Scandinaviantext-to-speech unit, which allowed children to read a text on the monitor and to use a mouse to request the immediate pronunciation of a word. This relatively simple way of partially compensating for word decoding problems was much appreciated by Grade 2 children and their understanding of texts was found to be higher when using computer-aided reading. Older children with reading problems also benefited from using this program. Elbro, Rasmussen and Spelling (1996) developed and refined a similar system and evaluated the effect of different types of feedback.

                There is clearly a great need for a solution to improve the reading ability of the nation’s students. Technology, particularly Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) has been a trend in the literature for the improvement of achievement in varied subject areas. More researchers conclude that a positive motivation toward learning is a result of the use of CAI than imply a neutral or negative result.

Writing

Computer-Assisted Language Learning’s deep interest in determining improvement in language efficiency also involves within the scope of writing skills. One would first wonder what are the elements in writing skills; bound from each linguistics sub-topics such as discourse, pragmatics, and psycholinguistics should be the wider views pertain to the writing skills such as vocabulary, spelling, sentence structure, organization, cohesion, register, and genre. Each elements of usage are dependant to how a person writes technically how he/she create and produce sentence and structure from the innate language acquainted mind to his styles of writing.

Basically, a language learner can improve or attain writing skills through the use of a computer through modern worldwide websites; e-mails, blogs, and website chatting-tools or software programs such as text-analysis programs and synchronous chat programs. The brinks of the 21^st century in promulgating the usage of email and discussion boards for individual fluency development are nowadays accepted in every layers of age and genders. Online writing resources such as from Purdue and Monash Education offer universities and college students around the world to have a shared medium of various sources of language writing skills which everyone can benefit from. Even out of education necessities, people tend to write by themselves to express and communicate. Nowadays, we have also seen many online word-processors available mainly one which is offered free downloads by Google. This collaborative writing tasks and writing-practice support provide various web publishing projects globally.

Bauvois(1998) and Warschauer(1996) claimed that larger and better quality of networked computers have helped improved writing skills. Alongside that of mentioned improvements also based from their close analysis on self-disclosure and complex sentences. Day by day, a person attempts to improve his/her writing skills by direct or indirectly challenging his/her self to produce various meaningful sentences in various ways. Hence, to have the inputs and ideas to write, they’re embed with data-driven learning which somehow guides an individual’s writing.

In describing writing skills improvement through CALL class sessions, a particular helpful software/program suits as a “Word-Processor” is most applicable in nowadays class activities. For example, a student’s writing skills can be tested as well as improved by altering or reorganizing any given text by his teacher through a given context. The significant alterations to an entire text made by the student are called a ‘Transformation’. The use of a word-processor also implies to changing any alternative dialogue as the speed and ease of reorganizing or altering a text are increased.

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

Computer technology is all around us. Almost all human being living in this earth use some sort of computerized device every day, whether it is a laptop, a phone, or a GPS device. Such technology is becoming more accessible to most of the world, and as a result, communication is changing. Although Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is not a novelty, its currentspread is casting a blaze of light on the new environments created by electroniccommunications.The people who are likely most in tune with these changes are children and youth. Most of today’s adults did not have access to touch-screen phones, online social networks, or even the internet when they were younger. But now in our communities, schools, homes, and pockets, technology is ever-present and so is the internet, a vast global interaction between people and computers.It is time to teach students how to use this technology successfully. They’ve grown up with Facebook, cell phones, and Google, but are they using these technologies to their fullest potential? Are they using them safely and responsibly?

Many students may not use computer-mediated communication in their everyday lives. Some students may not even have access to the Internet outside of school, or have parental restrictions that prevent them from participating in online activities. These students can still benefit from this unit. With the growing popularity of technology in our culture, it is likely that they will participate in these things in the future, when they get a job or go to college and they need to be ready.

Computer Mediated Communication or also known as (CMC) is any form of communication between two or more individual people who interact and/or influence each other via separate computers through the Internet or a network connection - using social software. CMC does not include the methods by which two computers communicate, but rather how people communicate via computers.CMC promotes self-discipline and requires students to take more responsibility for their own learning. Using CMC, instructors can vary a course's instructional design to include everything from structured projects to open projects in which students are free to work on "messy" but authentic problem solving.Moreover, CMC promotes an equalization of users. Because CMC is, at present, primarily text-only, the consequent reduction in social cues leads to a protective ignorance surrounding a person's social roles, rank, and status. Further, it is impossible to know if another person took several hours to draft a one screen response, or several minutes.

Computer mediated technology provides tools that are useful in promoting collaborative learning activities that can mediate communication between learners.Asynchronous activities are independent of real-time and are comprised of activities, such as, viewing a web page, composing an Electronic Mail (e-mail), watching a video clip, or downloading a file.CMC can include anything that is text -based, uses ICT as a technological base and can be used for two way transmissions of ideas. Examples of CMC can include emails, mailbases, shared network group folders, discussion boards (forums), and frequently updated hyperlinked webpages.Benefits of asynchronous discussions include opportunities to think about course content and to address a diverse set of topics in more depth than can be done in class or in asynchronous environment, thus allowing students to conceptualize a topic from multiple viewpoints and to contribute to each other’s understanding (Weasenforth et all, 2002).Synchronous activities occur concurrently between two or more users including such real-time applications as chat rooms or instant messaging which allow users to interact simultaneously through text, audio, and video with other users located anywhere in the world. Synchronous CMC includes chat and instant messaging.

Informatics (repositories or maintainers of organized information) include library online public access catalogs (OPACs), interactive access to remote databases, program/data archive sites (e.g., archives of files for pictures, sound, text, movies), campus-wide information systems, wide-area information systems, and information managers.Computer assisted instruction (CAI) refers to instruction or remediation presented on a computer.

Computer-assisted instruction improves instruction for students with disabilities because students receive immediate feedback and do not continue to practice the wrong skills.Computers capture the students’ attention because the programs are interactive and engage the students’ spirit of competitiveness to increase their scores. Also, computer assisted instruction moves at the students’ pace and usually does not move ahead until they have mastered the skill.Harasim (1990) suggests several key differences between computer-mediated and face-to-face discussions such as time dependence, place dependence, the structure of communication and richness of communication.Also, Larkin-Hein (2001) said, “The use of online discussion groups offers a relatively new avenue through which the learner can take an active role in the learning process.”Althaus (1997) stated that, “In theory, online discussions help more students learn better by placing them in an intellectual environment that encourages active, thoughtful, and equal participation from all comers”.He also examines whether supplementing face-to-face discussion with computer-mediated discussion (CMD) enhances the academic performance of undergraduate students in large lecture classes. 142 undergraduates were involved in this study which found that a combination of face-to-face and computer-mediated discussion provides a superior learning environment compared to the traditional classroom alone.However, the virtual learning space of an online forum does not promote the coherent and interactive dialogue necessary for conversational modes of learning. To overcome the incoherence, the role of moderator and facilitator of discussion is important in the online discussion forum.

Reflections on Designing an Effective Powerpoint Presentation

Basically designing an effective power point presentation also requires a skill. Therefore Victor Chen has come up with some useful tips to guide people in making slides for their presentation by using power point. He generally provides the 5 main ideas of how an effective presentation design should be. This include the size of the text and picture must be big enough for audience to look at.

He also emphasized on the clarity of the colour choice meaning, the contrast of colour of the text and the background colour and so on. He claimed that being progressive in making slides is also one of the criteria of good power point design because a person should only include some amount of text in each slides not too many that it will distract the audience to see what's important or major point to be highlight.

He also mentioned about being simple is important because if a person put so many things such as unnecessary picture or music, it will only distract the audience's focus on the actual point of the presentation. To ensure important point is being highlighted in the slides, he proposed that we should maintain consistency so that differences of using colour for the text will emphasize importance on that particular word or sentence.

All and all, we must strive to provide an effective power point presentation so that our goal to deliver messages and points will be well-received by the audience especially if we are presenting an idea which we believe is so important for them think of such as Dakwah etc. If we can make a good slides presentation, InsyaAllah it may assist us to achieve muslim's mission for an effective Dakwah. After all, the whole idea of Semantic knowledge is to study meaning, if we were to explain the meaning of Quran to our audience we must try to prepare and perform the presentation (dakwah) at our best.

As mentioned in Quran, Surah Al-Nahl 16: 125 "Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good instruction, and argue with them in a way that is best. Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of who is [rightly] guided."

Article Summary: E-learning in lifelong education: A computational approach to determining listening comprehension ability by Cem Işık & Sümeyra Yılmaz

The study was conducted by Cem Işık & Sümeyra Yılmaz from Springer Science under Education Info Business Media Publication in 2011. The research was motivated by some research questions related to CALL listening instruction. It was intended to show whether or not computer assisted listening instruction had an effect on the listening comprehension proficiency of learners. The goal was to investigate how beneficial CALL could be for a second language learner and whether or not a learner would show any improvement in performance. In addition, another aim of this study was to evaluate the students’ attitudes towards computer-assisted learning.

Participants in the study were placed in two groups an experimental and a control group. None of the groups received any listening instruction outside of the study during the experimental period. After the pre-test, the experimental group studied in a language laboratory with computers and the control group took classes in a traditional classroom with tape recorder. The experiment lasted 4 weeks in which ten units of listening activities were given to both groups, using the same content materials in the two different formats.

At the beginning of the study, there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of their performance in the first unit scores. However, a significant difference emerged between the experimental and control group in the rest of the units. The experimental group showed significantly greater progress during the treatment after the first unit. Statistical analysis of the post-test showed that the 24 hours of computer assisted study had a positive effect on the experimental group’s achievement in the post-test. Cem Işık & Sümeyra Yılmaz are both agree that computer assisted instruction did create an effect on listening skills of students when compared with the control group which received traditional classroom listening instruction. When computers are used in language instruction, the learning pace is faster.  They concluded that the computer assisted listening instruction affected the experimental group’s learning pace greatly in a positive manner compared with traditional listening instruction.

The research also looked at the comparative results between genders and there was no significant difference between females and males in the pre-test. However, when the researchers compared females in control group with males in experimental group in terms of their post-test results, they saw that there was no significant difference between both genders but females in the control group were more successful. On the other hand, females in the experimental group were more successful than males in control group and a significant difference was seen between them.

The conclusion that the researchers had found is that computer assisted instruction did create a quantifiable important effect on listening skills of students when compared with the control group which received traditional classroom listening instruction. When computers are used in language instruction, the learning pace is faster. In this study, Cem Işık & Sümeyra Yılmaz concluded that the computer assisted listening instruction affected the experimental group’s learning pace greatly in a positive manner.

Introduction to Semantics Web

INTRO TO SEMANTIC WEB, perhaps this will make you understand what is semantic and how it links to CALL

Reflections on Concordancer

Concordance is “An alphabetical list of the words in a book or a set of books which also says where each word can be found and often how it is used.”- Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary(1987)

The usage of a concordancer in the vast field of academic learning and research studies has proven the possibility of a future orientation on concordancer to become one of the medium of language learning through computer applications. 

Generally, the application of concordancer allows an English language learner or teacher to understand and identify particular patterns of language used according to subjects focused. Knowing that concordance is being used in vast areas of language and data analysis, it helps language learners to search for similar usage of words in an index of word-form in understanding the concepts of the words used.

According Tim Jones(1986), "offers both language learners and language teachers a research tool for investigating "the company that words keep" that has hitherto usually been available only on mainframe computers to academic researchers in such fields as computational linguistics, lexicography, and stylistics."

Three Questions on CMC's Transformation

1. How has CMC transform the dynamics of interaction?
-According to Bielaczyc and Collins (1997), people need to construct learning environments that foster students’ diverse abilities and learn with others. In CMC settings, the learning community must synthesize diverse views, and each participant’s contributions must be respected. CMC has been effective in areas such as turn taking, duration of speech and control of direction of conversations between participants/speakers. It tells us something of the power dynamics of learning groups. On the other hand, in experiential mode of CMC, conversations between speakers can be terminated abruptly. Speakers in the mode of CMC have free accesses of going offline if he/she doesn't wish to chat or join a conversation. One can also personally avoid unwanted conversation. In FTF communication however, speakers won't be able to do so. Interaction via CMC has allowed chatting with strangers become more intense as you can see/feel connected and comfortable. A speaker who's chatting with another will not be expected to dress or be formal in appearance as it involves only text-based chatting instrument rather than FTF communication where speakers are expected to converse directly with each other in physical appearance. Thus, speakers' level of confidence can be developed due to the differing dynamics of CMC than FTF communication.

2. How has this transformation shapes society?
-From a socio-cognitive perspective based on Vygosky’s theory, learning is a socially mediated process. (Vygotsky, 1978).  In CMC settings, interaction means the participation of all participants in the social construction of meaning (Kaye, 1992). Kaye(1992) asserted that in constructing a socio-cognitive learning in a particular society, everyone needs to participate with everyone else through CMC worldwide. The transformation of the dynamics of interaction through CMC has undoubtedly shift various aspects of a speaker's abilities in communication. The advancement of technological usage in communicating through the worldwide web, e-mail, sms, voice-mail, and chat has produced technology savvies among every layers of speakers in society. Moreover, CMC has transformed our society to be a more information oriented. Nowadays informations can be shared in their fastest connection among people in various places. However, ackward society because speakers' language politeness may decrease because of the possibilities that speakers can easily end a conversation.

3. Is this mode of communication in sync with Islam?
-In Islam's ethics of communication, a person must not be rude or impolite. We must adhere to Islam's ethic of communication so that other speakers will not be offended. Allah S.W.T states in Surah al-Ahzaab, verse 70: "يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَقُولُوا قَوْلًا سَدِيدًا" 
"O you who have attained to faith! Remain conscious of God, and [always] speak with a will to bring out [only] what is just and true". The question concerns with to what degree does a speaker uses CMC to be in sync with Islamic values of politeness. Our religion teaches us to talk straight to the point, without ambiguity and deception. In Surah al-Israa', verse 53, Allah S.W.T commands us to choose the best words to speak and to say them in the best possible manner: "وَقُل لِّعِبَادِي يَقُولُوا الَّتِي هِيَ "أَحْسَنُ إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ يَنزَغُ بَيْنَهُمْ إِنَّ الشَّيْطَانَ كَانَ لِلْإِنسَانِ عَدُوًّا مُّبِينًا
"And Tell My servants that they should speak in the most kindly manner [unto those who do not share their beliefs]: verily, Satan is always ready to stir up discord between men - for, verily, Satan is man's open foe!"

What is a Concordancer?

A concordancer is like a search engine that can be used for studying language (corpus linguistics). You simply enter a word or phrase that you want to know about and search in the normal way. Concordancers are a tools for corpus linguistics. Since most corpora (bodies of text) are incredibly large, it is a fruitless enterprise to search a corpus without the help of a computer.

 

What does a Concordancer do?

Concordance programs turn the electronic texts into databases which can be searched. Usually word queries are always possible, but most programs also offer the possibility of searching for word combinations within a specified range of words and of looking up parts of words (substrings, in particular affixes, for example). If the program is a bit more sophisticated, it might also provide its user with lists of collocates or frequency lists.

 

The Concordance or Results

The results are presented in a different way: instead of giving you a list of files or websites containing the search word or phrase, you'll get a list of phrases or sentences with the search word or phrase centred. This allows you to look for patterns, such as whether the word usually or frequently comes at the beginning of sentence or whether it is followed by certain words, like prepositions.

As an example, a search for 'involved' would quickly show that is often used with 'in' and 'with'. A closer examination of the examples would help you to find the reason why.

 

What do Concordancers search?

A Concordancer searches what is called a corpus (the plural is corpora), which is basically a database of language. There are many in existence, both general and specialised, although no corpus can be regarded as complete.

Do remember that concordancers are only as good as the database they are searching.

Summary

A concordancer is a computer program that automatically constructs a concordance. The output of a concordancer may serve as input to a translation memory system for computer-assisted translation, or as an early step in machine translation.
Concordancers are also used in corpus linguistics to retrieve alphabetically or otherwise sorted lists of linguistic data from the corpus in question, which the corpus linguist then analyzes. Some concordancers used in corpus linguistics are AntConc (freeware), ApSIC Xbench, MonoConc, PowerConc (freeware), WordSmith, GlossaNet/Unitex (open-source free software), AdTAT(free software developed by The University of Adelaide), CorpusEye, KH Coder (open-source free software), and Linguistic Toolbox (freeware). The latter has an integrated part-of-speech tagger that allows the user creating his/her own pos-annotated corpora to conduct various type of searches adopted in corpus linguistics.

Lecture 10 on Lexicography

Lexicography is the science or practice of compiling dictionaries. That is to say, lexicography is the applied study of the meaning, evolution, and function of the vocabulary units of a language for the purpose of compilation in book form. In short, it is the process of dictionary making. Lexicographers have long used computers as an aid in dictionary production, but the recent rise of statistical language processing now lets us do far more: instead of using computers to simply expedite our largely manual labor, we can now use them to uncover knowledge that would otherwise lie hidden in expanses of text.

            In the days before computers, writing a dictionary was a laborious job. Lexicographers worked from boxes of handwritten paper slips on which were written suggestions for revising existing definitions, adding new entries or senses, or making corrections. If you needed to consult another dictionary entry in order to check something, you had to get the book off the shelf and look it up, or rifle through piles of paper proofs.Computers changed all this. Dictionaries are now stored in complex, highly structured databases which enable lexicographers to work much more quickly and efficiently, with access not only to the text on which they are working, but to multiple other dictionaries at the same time.Our software also allows editors to work remotely: an editor in the USA, for example, can make changes to a definition which are instantly accessible to colleagues in the UK. And as well as the actual words and definitions, modern dictionaries contain other electronic data which a reader doesn't see, data which enables the dictionary content to be developed in many different ways, for example as a download for a handheld application or as a basis for the word suggestions in predictive texting on mobile phones.

Computers have also changed the way we conduct our language research. We now have access to vast electronic databases of real English, known as corpora, which enable us to see how the language is actually being used by people in all parts of the English-speaking world. Our analysis of these databases forms the basis of all our dictionary writing today, it allows us to track the emergence of new words, it shows us how patterns of use are changing and developing, and it provides us with evidence about the currency of words - whether they becoming more or less popular, for example, or whether they are used predominantly in one particular variety of English.            More and more dictionaries are being offered in electronic form, either online or as downloads for handheld devices. This will remove one of the great constraints on dictionary writing in the past: that of size. We will be able to include more words, phrases, and senses and we will be able to add them more frequently.

Reflections on Computational Stylistics

Computational Stylistics deals with the study of patterns formed in particular texts, authors, genres, periods via computational methods. The main notions which drive the functions of this field of study consist of "What it(the text) says" and "how it says it".

In analyzing idiosyncratic uses of language, an author's styles are studied and distinguished from another. Thus, the mode of the context can also be explained after the patterns have been detected whether the text suggest positive or negative sentiment.

The field of this study has become more influential since the production of various genres and kinds of writings are published day to day. Furthermore, the styles of writing from various widely influenced authors have produced further research on literary works through the study of grammar, semantics, and phonological properties.

A website with full interpretations of Qur'anic studies from http://corpus.quran.com/. The website is an annotated linguistic resource which shows the Arabic grammar, syntax and morphology for each word in the Holy Quran. The corpus provides three levels of analysis: morphological annotation, a syntactic treebank and a semantic ontology.

Stylistics

WHAT IS STYLISTICS?

Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts from a linguistic perspective. As a discipline it links literary criticism and linguistics, but has no autonomous domain of its own. The preferred object of stylistic studies is literature, but not exclusively "high literature" but also other forms of written texts such as text from the domains of advertising, pop culture, politics or religion. Stylistics also attempts to establish principles capable of explaining the particular choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language, such as socialisation, the production and reception of meaning, critical discourse analysis and literary criticism.

Other features of stylistics include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and people’s dialects, descriptive language, the use of grammar, such as the active voice or passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of particular language registers, etc. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language. Therefore, stylistics looks at what is ‘going on’ within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals.

WHAT IS COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS?

Stylistic analysis, the study of patterns formed in the process of the linguistic encoding of information, is of importance to any major research focused upon or dependent upon the production or analysis of language. Through the use of computers, it should be possible to achieve more accurate detection and delineation of such linguistic patterns than has hitherto been the case; a quantitatively rigorous and intense study of pattern or style in natural language called computational stylistics. Computational stylistics has immediate, practical implications for work in areas ranging from machine translation and automatic abstracting to the social sciences and humanities. For adequate machine translations and automatic abstracts, algorithms of normative style for the textual genre being translated or abstracted must be available; the use of the computer for stylistic analysis will help make possible the recognition and specification of such algorithms. Stylistic analysis is also integral to the detection of idiosyncratic uses of language which distinguish one author from another. An author's style is his signature. Through analysis of individual style, researchers can find clues to unique characteristics in linguistic pattern.

 

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

 

Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of applied linguistics. There are principally three areas of application for linguists working in forensic contexts - understanding language of the written law, understanding language use in forensic and judicial processes and the provision of linguistic evidence. The discipline of forensic linguistics is not homogenous; it involves a range of experts and researchers in different areas of the field. Among the text types include emergency call, ransom demands orother threat communication, suicide letters, death row statements etc.

Forensic linguists are involved in many areas that relate to crime, both solving crime and absolving people wrongly accused of committing crimes.  Some of these areas of research and expertise include:

• voice identification (for instance, determining whether the voice on a threatening tape recording was that of the defendant; sometimes also called forensic phonetics)

• author identification (determining who wrote a particular text by comparing it to known writing samples of a suspect; sometimes also called forensic stylistics)

• discourse analysis (analyzing the structure of a writing or spoken utterance, often coverly recorded, to help determine issues such as who is introducing topics or whether a suspect is agreeing to engage in a criminal conspiracy)

• linguistic proficiency (did a suspect understand the Miranda warning or police caution?)

• dialectology (determining which dialect of a language a person speaks, usually to show that a defendant has a different dialect from that on an incriminating tape recording.  As opposed to voice identification, which analyzes the acoustic qualities of the voice, dialectology uses linguistic features to accomplish similar goals)

• "linguistic origin analysis" (this is my term for the process of trying to determine what a person's native language is, often for purposes of granting or denying applications for political asylum.  A more common term is "language analysis," but that term is overly broad, it seems to me.  Note that linguistic origin analysis is very similar to what we might call forensic dialectology)

• "linguistic veracity analysis" (again, I think I may have invented this term, but it refers to various linguistically-inspired methods for determining whether a speaker or writer was being truthful)

Islamization of Knowledge: Syed Muhammad al Naquib al-Attas

ISLAMIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE SCHOLAR

 Syed Muhammad al Naquib bin Ali al-Attas

Syed Muhammad al Naquib bin Ali al-Attas (Arabic: السيد محمد نقيب العطاس‎ Saiyid Muḥammad Naqīb al-ʿAṭṭās; born September 5, 1931) is a prominent contemporary Muslim philosopher and thinker from Malaysia. He claims to be one of the few contemporary scholars who is thoroughly rooted in the traditional Islamic sciences and who is equally competent in theology, philosophy, metaphysics, history, and literature. He considers himself to be the pioneer in proposing the idea of Islamization of knowledge. Al-Attas' philosophy and methodology of education have one goal: Islamization of the mind, body and soul and its effects on the personal and collective life on Muslims as well as others, including the spiritual and physical non-human environment. He is the author of twenty-seven authoritative works on various aspects of Islamic thought and civilization, particularly on Sufism, cosmology, metaphysics, philosophy and Malay language and literature.

Al-Attas advocates that the categories of knowledge which were fundamental to the Islamic tradition are fundamental to any real modern education. In the traditional Islamic worldview, knowledge was of two kinds, the open-ended fard kifayah knowledge, which includes the natural, physical and applied sciences, and the fard `ayn, the absolute nature of the knowledge pertaining to God and the spiritual realities and moral truths. Fard `ayn knowledge is not static, but dynamic, and it increases according to the spiritual and intellectual abilities as well as social and professional responsibilities of a person. Contemporary modern knowledge needs to be delivered from its interpretations based on secular ideology. This requires:

"...a critical examination of the methods of modern science; its concepts, presuppositions, and symbols; its empirical and rational aspects, and those impinging upon values and ethics; its interpretations of origins; its theory of knowledge; its presuppositions on the existence of an external world, of the uniformity of nature and of the rationality of natural processes; its theory of the universe; its classification of the sciences; its limitations and inter-relations with one another of the sciences, and its social relations" [Prolegomena, p. 114].

Science, according to Al-Attas, is a kind of ta’wil or allegorical interpretation of the empirical things that constitute the world of nature [Islam and the Philosophy of Science, p. 116]. The natural world is a book with knowledge; but that knowledge is not evident merely from the physical phenomena; they are nothing but signs, the meaning of which can be understood by those who are equipped with proper knowledge, wisdom and spiritual discernment. Some natural phenomena are obvious as to their meaning, while other natural things are ambiguous; similarly there are clear verses (muhkamat) of the Qur'an, while other verses are ambiguous (mutashabihat). The scientifically relevant verses in the Qur'an necessarily open themselves for further interpretation, based on the cumulative knowledge of future generations. He says that the fact that the early Muslims were not cognizant of the many scientific truths embedded in the Qur'an proves that the discoveries of these truths will not contradict its universal spiritual and religious-moral teachings.

Al-Attas says that the constituent parts of the fundamental bases of Islamic metaphysics are: the primacy of the reality of existence; the dynamic nature of this reality that is continually unfolding itself in systematic gradation from the degrees of absoluteness to those of manifestation; determination, and individuation; the perpetual process of the new creation; the absence of a necessary relation between cause and effect and its explanation in the Divine causality; the third metaphysical category between existence and non-existence (the realm of the permanent entities); and the metaphysics of change and permanence pertaining to the realities. It is within the framework of this metaphysics that the philosophy of science must be formulated.