1.0 : DEFINITION OF LITERATURE DEVICE
1.1 : SIMILE
Simile is a Literature Device that says that one thing is like another different thing. We use similes to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid.
We often use the words as...as and like with similes.
Example of Common patterns for similes, are:
• something [is*(stative verb)*] AS adjective AS something
His skin was as cold as ice.
It felt as hard as rock.
She looked as gentle as a lamb.
• something [is*(stative verb)*] LIKE something
My love is like a red, red rose.
These cookies taste like garbage.
He had a temper (that was) like a volcano.
• something [does* (action verb)*] LIKE something
He eats like a pig.
He smokes like a chimney.
They fought like cats and dogs.
Here are some more examples of well known similes:
[is] AS adjective AS something meaning
as blind as a bat completely blind
as cold as ice very cold
as flat as a pancake completely flat
as gentle as a lamb very gentle
as light as a feather very light
as old as the hills very old
as sharp as a knife very sharp
as strong as a bull very strong
as white as snow pure white
as wise as an owl very wise
[is] LIKE something possible meaning (depending on context)
like a rose beautiful
like a volcano explosive
like garbage disgusting
like an animal inhuman
like spaghetti entangled
like dewdrops sweet and pure
like golddust precious
like a tip very untidy (tip = garbage dump)
like a dream wonderful, incredible
like stars bright and beautiful
[does] LIKE something meaning
to drink like a fish to drink a lot
to eat like a bird to eat very little
to eat like a horse to eat a lot
to eat like a pig to eat impolitely
to fight like cats and dogs to fight fiercely
to sing like an angel to sing beautifully
to sleep like a log to sleep well and soundly
to smoke like a chimney to smoke heavily, all the time
to soar like an eagle to fly high and free
to work like a dog to work very hard
Note that with the AS...AS pattern, the first AS is sometimes suppressed, for example:
• His skin was cold as ice.
The above patterns of simile are the most common, but there are others made with adverbs or words such as than and as if, for example:
• He ran as fast as the wind.
• He is larger than life.
• They ran as if for their lives.
Similes can include other literary devices. For example, "He ran like greased lightning" is a simile that includes hyperbole (greased lightning).
Similes often make use of irony or sarcasm. In such cases they may even mean the opposite of the adjective used. Look at these examples:
• His explanation was as clear as mud. (not clear at all since mud is opaque)
• The film was about as interesting as watching a copy of Windows download. (long and boring)
• Watching the show was like watching paint dry. (very boring)
Similes also are often found (and they sometimes originate) in poetry and other literature. Here are a few examples:
• A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle - Irina Dunn
• Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh - Wilfred Owen
• Death has many times invited me: it was like the salt invisible in the waves - Pablo Neruda
• Guiltless forever, like a tree - Robert Browning
• Happy as pigs in mud - David Eddings
• How like the winter hath my absence been - William Shakespeare
• As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Jubilant as a flag unfurled - Dorothy Parker
• So are you to my thoughts as food to life - William Shakespeare
• Yellow butterflies flickered along the shade like flecks of sun - William Faulkner
Popular songs, too, make use of simile:
• A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle - U2
• Cheaper than a hot dog with no mustard - Beastie Boys
• I must do what's right, as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti - Toto
• It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog - The Beatles
• Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
• Like a bat outta [out of] hell - Meat Loaf
• My heart is like an open highway - Jon Bon Jovi
• These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall - Led Zeppelin
• Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull
• You are as subtle as a brick to the small of my back - Taking Back Sunday
1.2 : METAPHOR
Metaphor comes from the Greek word metapherin (meaning "transfer"). It is a literature device that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities.
The simplest form of metaphor is: "The [first thing] is a [second thing]."
Look at this example:
• Her home was a prison.
In the above sentence, we understand immediately that her home had some of the characteristics of a prison. Mainly, we imagine, she could not leave her home. She was trapped inside. Why it was a prison we do not know, but that would be clear from the context--perhaps her husband forced her to stay at home, perhaps she was afraid of the outside. We don't know, but the rest of the story would tell us. What is important here is that in five simple words we understand a lot about her environment, how she felt and how she behaved. In this sentence, "prison" is a metaphor.
Look at another example:
• George is a sheep.
What is one characteristic of sheep? They follow each other. So we can imagine that George is a follower, not a leader. In this sentence "sheep" is a metaphor.
Metaphors are very common in everyday language. But poets also like to use metaphors. In the following famous verse (from The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes), can you spot three metaphors in the first three lines?
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Look at these examples of metaphors with sample sentences and meanings:
Metaphor example Metaphorical sense Original sense
I'm not an angel, but I wouldn't behave like that. exemplary person a spiritual being believed to be a messenger of God
America is a melting pot. place where different peoples, styles and cultures are mixed together a container in which metals or other materials are melted and mixed
John is a real pig when he eats. greedy person a four-legged animal kept for meat (pork)
My father is a rock. very strong or reliable person a hard, mineral material made of stone
How could she marry a snake like that! traitor a long, limbless reptile (eg: cobra, python, viper)
The policeman let him off with a yellow card. warning (in soccer) a yellow card that the referee shows to players when cautioning them
All the above metaphors (the simplest form) are nouns. But there are other ways of making metaphors, for example with verbs or adjectives. Here are some examples:
Metaphor example Original sense of the word (example)
The committee shot her ideas down one by one. Anti-aircraft guns shoot down planes.
The private detective dug up enough evidence to convince the police to act. Dogs like to bury bones and dig them up later.
He broke into her conversation. Burglars break into buildings.
The new movie was very popular. People flocked to see it. Birds flock together before they migrate.
His head was spinning with ideas. Some computer hard drives spin at over 10,000 revolutions per minute.
Reading that book kindled my interest in politics. You need to start with twigs and small branches when you kindle a camp fire.
Tim lost his job after a heated argument with his boss. We have a heated swimming pool.
The new car's sexy design increased sales for the company. Some women think that lipstick makes them look sexy.
He was dressed rather vulgarly in a loud checked suit. I can't hear you because the radio is too loud.
It wasn't long before their relationship turned sour. Sour food has an acid taste like lemon or vinegar.
Difference Between Metaphor and Simile
Both similes and metaphors link one thing to another. A simile usually uses "as" or "like". A metaphor is a condensed simile, a shortcut to meaning, which omits "as" or "like." A metaphor creates a relationship directly and leaves more to the imagination. With simile A is like B. With metaphor A is B.
SIMILE METAPHOR
Your eyes are like the sun. You are my sunshine.
He eats like a pig.
He lives like a pig. He is a pig.
Dead Metaphors
In the phrase "to grasp the concept" the physical action "to grasp" is used as a metaphor for "to understand" (which is non-physical). But this phrase has been used so often that most English speakers do not have an image of the physical action in their mind. This metaphor has died; it is a "dead metaphor".
Mixed Metaphors
The awkward use of two or more different metaphors at the same time is normally best avoided. It creates conflicting images in the reader or listener's mind, reduces each metaphor's impact, and generally causes confusion. Look at this example:
• America is a melting pot where new ideas are kindled.
1.3 : PERSONAFICATION
Personification is a literature device that gives the qualities of a
person to an animal, an object, or an idea.
It is a comparison used to show something in an entirely new light, to communicate a certain feeling or attitude towards it and to control the way a reader perceives it.
Example of Personification in a simple sentence is:
• "Wind yells while blowing", example of personification because wind cannot yell. Only a living thing can yell.
• “Necklace is a friend”, example of personification because Necklace is a thing, and necklaces cannot be friends. Only living things can have friends.
Example of Personification in poem is:
SNOW - By Jake
Snow speaks to the people its
falling above in the glooming
sunlight.
Its white sparkling voice
echoes
as it falls through
the air.
STARS - By Alex
Stars, bring me up with you
Bring me to the place
you sleep.
How do you do it?
Bring me to your home.
Bring your thoughts
to me.
Share them
with me.
The Train - By Emily Dickinson
I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare
To fit its sides, and crawl between, Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill
And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a start its own,
Stop-docile and omnipotent-
A stable door.
The Cat & The Fiddle - By Mother Goose
Hey diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
2.0 : POEM “DULCE ET DECORUM EST” BY WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest3 began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots4
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.
Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes10 and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,11 choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.15
8 October 1917 - March, 1918
3.0 : ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
The major theme of "Dulce et Decorum Est" is associated with its Latin title, which is taken from a work by the poet Horace in 65 B.C.. The full phrase is "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," which can be loosely translated, "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. Owen consciously works to undermine this noble statement of patriotism by showing the ignominy of death in modern war.
The reader who has some knowledge of classical literature, especially epic poetry and the heroic odes which celebrate great warriors who fall in battle while serving their nation, will immediately see Owen's strategy. The men he describes in this war are anything but noble. Instead of confronting their foes in single combat, the soldiers in Owen's poem are retreating from the front lines. They are tired, both physically and psychologically. They are almost deaf to the sounds of the falling gas bombs that could take their lives at any moment.
Unlike the heroes of earlier wars, these soldiers do not face death at the hands of a recognizable enemy who bests them with sword or spear. Instead, death comes from afar; worse still, it comes impersonally in the form of an insidious poison that snuffs out life in a brief instant of agony, which Owen contrast subtly with the "ecstasy of fumbling" that occurs when the men try to put on their masks. These soldiers utter no death-bed speeches, as did their classical counterparts whom Horace and earlier poets celebrated. Instead, the only sounds emitted by those under gas attack are incoherent yells and after death, a "gargling" from "froth-corrupted lungs" that occurs as the corpse of the soldier too slow to put on his mask in time is carted off to burial.
Owen served as a lieutenant in the British Army during World War I; ironically, he was killed shortly before the armistice was signed. Having grown up in England at the end of the nineteenth century, Owen would have come to the war imbued with a sense of patriotism, as the British had gone to great lengths to convince themselves that they were engaging in a noble conflict to save humankind. The graphic realities of the battlefield did not match the glorious descriptions of war prevalent in the literature Owen and his educated officer comrades had read. There was no glory in dying from gas poisoning. What Owen seems to have realized is that death by gassing was a metaphor for all death in modern warfare; the notion of a glorious death was simply a lie. "Dulce et Decorum Est" graphically depicts a central irony of death on the modern battlefield: No matter how noble the cause may be, the individual soldier can expect nothing but misery in combat and an ignominious end should he be unfortunate enough to become a casualty.
4.0 : LITERATURE DEVICES IN THE POEM
SIMILE:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12
PERSONIFICATION :
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
IMAGERY :
we cursed through sludge
We limped on, blood-shod
the white eyes withering in his face
the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.
like old beggars under sacks
Thursday, August 19, 2010
BI P.3: 70 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH
1. Start your own English language blog. Even for people who don't have to write in English, writing can be a great way of properly learning the kind of vocabulary you need to describe your own life and interests, and of thinking about how to stop making grammar mistakes. The problem most people have is that they don't know what to write about. One traditional way to make sure you write every day in English is to write an English diary (journal), and a more up to date way of doing this is to write a blog. Popular topics include your language learning experience, your experience studying abroad, your local area, your language, or translations of your local news into English.
2. Write a news diary. Another daily writing task that can work for people who would be bored by writing about their own routines in a diary is to write about the news that you read and listen to everyday. If you include your predictions for how you think the story will develop (e.g. "I think Hillary will become president"), this can give you a good reason to read old entries another time, at which time you can also correct and mistakes you have made and generally improve what you have written.
3. Sign up for a regular English tip. Some websites offer a weekly or even daily short English lesson sent to your email account. If your mobile phone has an e-mail address, it is also possible to have the tips sent to your phone to read on the way to work or school. Please note, however, that such services are not usually graded very well to the levels of different students, and they should be used as a little added extra or revision in your English studies rather than as a replacement for something you or your teacher have chosen more carefully as what you need to learn.
4. Listen to MP3s. Although buying music on the internet is becoming more popular in many countries, not so many people know that you can download speech radio such as audio books (an actor reading out a novel) and speech radio. Not only is this better practice for your English than listening to English music, from sources like Scientific American, BBC and Australia's ABC Radio it is also free.
5. Listen to English music. Even listening to music while doing something else can help a little for things like getting used to the natural rhythm and tone of English speech, although the more time and attention you give to a song the more you will learn from listening to it again in the future.
6. Read the lyrics to a song. Although just listening to a song in English can be a good way of really learning the words of the chorus in an easily memorable way, if you want to really get something out of listening to English music you will need to take some time to read the lyrics of the song with a dictionary. If the lyrics are not given in the CD booklet, you may be able to find them on the internet, but please note that some lyrics sites deliberately put a few errors into their lyrics for copyright reasons. Once you have read and understood the lyrics, if you then listen and read at the same time, this can be a good way of understanding how sounds change in fast, natural, informal speech.
7. Sing karaoke in English. The next stage after understanding and memorising a song is obviously to sing it. Although some words have their pronunciation changed completely to fit in with a song, most of the words have the same sounds and stressed syllables as in normal speech. Remembering which words rhyme at the end of each line can also be a good way of starting to learn English pronunciation.
8. Write a film, music, hotel or book review. Another motivating and easy way to make yourself write in English is to write a review for a site such as Amazon or Internet Movie Database. Many non-native speakers write reviews on sites like this, and if you have some special understanding of the book, music or film due to your first language or knowing the artist personally, that would be very interesting for the English speakers who read and write reviews on the site.
9. Only search in English. Switching your search engine to the English language version of msn, yahoo, Google etc. can not only be a good way of practising fast reading for specific information in English, but could also give you a wider choice of sites to choose from and give you an idea of what foreigners are writing about your country and area.
10. Read a book you've already read or seen the movie of in your own language. Although most language learners under Advanced level would probably learn more from reading a graded reader or something from the internet than they would from reading an original book written for English speakers, for some people reading something like Harry Potter in the original can be a great motivator to improve their English. To make this easier for you and make sure that it motivates you rather than just making your tired, try reading a book that you already know the story of. This not only makes it easier to understand and guess vocabulary, but you are also more likely to remember the language in it. If you have not read the book before, reading a plot summary from the internet can also help in the same way.
11. Read a translation into English. Another way of making sure books are easier to understand is to choose a book that was originally translated into English, preferably from your own language. Even if you haven't read the book in your own language, you will find the English is written in a slightly simplified way that is more similar to how your own language is written than a book originally written in English would be.
12. Skip the first ten pages. If you have given up with a book in English or are reading it very slowly, try skimming through the first ten pages or skipping them completely. The start of most books tend to be mainly description and are therefore full of difficult vocabulary and don't have a clear story line yet to help you understand what is happening and to motivate you to turn the next page. If the book is still too difficult even after the introductionary part is finished, it is probably time to give that book up for now and try it again after you have read some easier things.
13. Read a book with lots of dialogue. Opening up books before you buy one and flicking through them to find one with lots of direct dialogue in it has several advantages. If there is less text on the page due to all the speech marks etc, this can make it easier to read and easier to write translations on. Dialogue is also much easier to understand than descriptive parts of a book, and is much more like the language you will want to learn in order to be able to speak English.
14. Read English language comics. Even more than books with lots of dialogue, comics can be easy to understand and full of idiomatic language as it is actually spoken. There can be difficulties with slang, difficult to understand jokes and/ or dialogue written how people speak rather than with normal spellings, so try to choose which comic carefully. Usually, serious or adventure comics are easier to understand than funny ones.
15. Read English language entertainment guides. Nowadays most big cities in the world have an English language magazine and/ or online guide to the movies, plays, exhibitions that are on in the city that week. Reading this in English is not only good value, but it could also guide you to places that English speakers are interested in and where you might hear some English spoken around you.
16. Read English language magazines. Like books, if you can read two versions of the same magazine (Newsweek in your language and in English, for example), that could make understanding it much easier.
17. Take a one week intensive course. Although you cannot expect to come out of a very short course speaking much better English than when you started it, if you continue studying a little over the following weeks and months, the knowledge you gained then will gradually come out and mean that your level of speaking, listening etc. are better than they would have been if you hadn't taken that course. This positive effect can still be true up to a year later.
18. Follow your intensive course up with an extensive course. The more time you can spend studying English the better, but studying periodic intensive courses with a few hours of study a week in between is probably better value for money than any other system as it gives your brain time to subconsciously learn and start using the new language you have learnt before you introduce the next new "chunk" of language.
19. Supplement your group class with a one to one class. Another good way to combine two different kinds of classes is to study both in a group class and one to one. Having a one to one teacher, even if just a couple of times a month, will mean that you can be taught exactly the language that you need, that you will have more time to speak, and that you can have as much error correction as you like.
20. Supplement your one to one class with a group class. The benefits of having a group class are often less clear to students, but they include the fact that you will learn to deal with several people speaking at once, have a chance to practice skills such as interrupting people, and will hear a range of different viewpoints and topics.
21. Teach your children or friends some English. Recent research has shown that elder children tend to be a couple of IQ points above their younger siblings, and the most likely reason is that explaining things to their little brothers and sisters gives them an intellectual boost. In the same way, teaching someone lower level than you the English you already know is a great way of permanently fixing that knowledge in your own brain.
22. Ask your company to start English lessons. Even if you don't need to speak English at work, English lessons can be a fun and reasonably priced way for your company to spend their training budget in a popular way.
23. Have English radio on in the background while you are doing your housework. Even if you are not listening carefully, it will help you get a feel for natural English rhythm and intonation.
24. Play English language learning games on your Nintendo DS. Although such games can have quite random language and are unlikely to improve your ability to speak English on their own, the next time you hear or read the same language elsewhere it will be really fixed in your brain by the fact you have played a game with it in already. It is also a nice way of taking a break from your other English studies while also doing some English. To make sure it really is a break and to avoid wasting time learning language from the game that is not much used in daily life, don't bother writing down any new language you see in the game, but just try to learn it from playing the game again.
25. Say or think what you are doing in English as you do your daily tasks. As you are doing your chores, try creating sentences describing what you are doing, e.g. ‘I am unscrewing the ketchup bottle cap'. This gets you used to thinking in English without translating, and can be a good way of seeing what simple vocabulary that is around you everyday you don't know. yet
26. Watch English language films with English subtitles. For people who can't understand a film without subtitles but find themselves not listening at all when reading subtitles in their own language, this should be the way of watching a film that you should aim for. If it is too difficult to watch the whole film this way, try watching the (usually important) first 10 or 15 minutes of the film with subtitles in your own language, switch to English subtitles after that, and only switch back to subtitles in your own language if you get totally lost following the story of the film.
27. Watch films in your language with English subtitles. If you are finding English films with English subtitles too difficult or you can't find English films with English subtitles in your local video shop, this is a good second best option. Looking for local films with English subtitles can also sometimes be a good sign of quality, as it means the producers of the film are expecting it to be popular internationally as well.
28. Watch English films with subtitles in your language. Again, this is not as good practice as English language films with English subtitles, but is more relaxing, can be easier to find suitable DVDs for, and is also possible with VHS.
29. Watch the same film or TV episode over and over again. This can not only save you money on DVDs, but will mean that you can really learn the language without having to study it. Some comedies can also get funnier the more you watch them, especially if you watch them with no subtitles and so understand a little more each time you watch it.
30. Be realistic about your level. One thing that holds many language learners back is actually trying too hard and tackling something that their brain is not ready for yet. Checking your level with a level check test on the internet, by taking an English language test (FCE, CAE, IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL etc.), or by taking a free trial level check and/ or lesson in a language school will help you find out what your level is and so choose suitable self-study materials.
31. Be realistic about your reading level. Most researchers agree that people learn most when reading something they understand almost all of. If there are one or two words per page that you have never seen before, that is about the right level. If there are three or more on every page, you should switch to something easier and come back later.
32. Read graded readers (= easy readers). These are books that are especially written for language learners like you, e.g. Penguin Readers. Although it can be difficult to find something as interesting as things written in newspapers or on the internet, in terms of learning the language only people who need to read for their work or an exam usually gain more from reading things written for graded readers. Graded readers of classic books like Charles Dickens also have the benefit of giving you a lot of knowledge about the literature, and culture more generally, of English speaking countries in a short time.
33. Read the whole thing with no help. Although using a dictionary has been shown to help with both short term and long term learning of vocabulary, the fact that using it slows reading down can stop some people reading in English at all. Reading a whole book quickly through just for pleasure from time to time will help you remember how fun reading in another language can be.
34. Read and learn everything. At the opposite extreme, it can be hard work but very satisfying to get to the end of a book knowing that you have learnt every word in it. See other tips on this page to make sure it is a book that is easy enough to do this with and to ensure that the vocabulary you learn is useful.
35. Watching English children's films or TV programmes. Although some of the vocabulary you can learn from things made for children can be a bit strange (lots of animal names and maybe animal noises, including baby names for things), the fact that not only the language but the structure of the story is simplified can make it an easy and motivating thing to watch. Like good language learning materials, the same language is also often repeated to make it memorable, and the use of catchy songs etc. can increase this positive effect on your memory.
36. Read English children's books. This is very similar to watching English children's movies, but with the added advantage of there being more illustrations than adult books, which both helps you to understand the story and makes the page brighter and more motivating to read.
37. Keep a list of language to learn, e.g. a vocab list. Even if you don't often find time to go though your vocab list and it keeps on building up, just the act of choosing which words you need to learn and writing them down on a special list can help you learn them.
38. Go through your vocab list several times every day. If ticking off words on a vocabulary list on the train to work is inconvenient or embarrassing for you, you can keep your list of words to learn as an entry in your electronic dictionary, as a mobile phone to do list or as a text file in your MP3 player (e.g. iPod). Although the time spent transferring the information between different formats like these may seem wasted, in fact any time you spend using the vocabulary like this will help you learn it.
39. Convert your vocab list to English only. One way to stop yourself translating and therefore increase your speed of comprehension and production is to learn all your vocabulary without the use of your own first language. Ways you can write a vocab list in only English include with synonyms (words with the same meaning, e.g. "tall" and "high"); with opposites ("high" and "low"); with pronunciation factors such as number of syllables (the number of beats, e.g. three for "de- ci- sion") and the word stress (the syllable that is pronounced louder and longer, e.g. the second syllable in "baNAna"); and gapped sentences (e.g. "I am not _________________ in science fiction" for the word "interested").
40. Cross out and delete. Crossing out or deleting words, sentences or whole pages that you have learnt can be a great motivator, and save your list of things to learn becoming too big to handle.
41. Throw everything away and start again. One of the things that can put most people off learning is a stack of half finished books or a huge list vocabulary waiting to be learnt. Simply getting rid of all that and starting again with something new from zero can be a great motivator and get your studies underway again.
42. Label things in your house or office with post-its. The easiest vocabulary to learn is the vocabulary of things you see and use everyday. If you can write the names of things around you on slips of paper and stick them on the real thing, this is a great way of learning useful vocabulary. If you can leave them there over the following days and weeks, this is a very easy way of revising the vocabulary until it is properly learnt.
43. Label a drawing. For people who can't put labels on real things, the next best option is to take a photo of a real place in your life like your office, print it out, and then draw lines to all of the things you can see in the picture and label them in English with the help of a dictionary. You can do the same thing with places you pass through everyday like the station. Because you will see the same thing again and again, it should be easy to really learn the words for those things.
44. Keep a diary in English. This is a popular method of making sure you use English everyday for people who don't often speak English and can't think of things to write about. The fact that you are writing about real things that have happened to you means that any words you look up in the dictionary will be vocabulary that is useful for you and easy to learn.
45. Online chat. The closest thing to speaking for people who don't have the chance to speak English is online chat, as you have to think and respond quickly, and the language is short and informal just like speech.
46. Listen to the radio news in English. You can make this easier by reading the news in English first, or even just by reading or listening to the news in your own language.
47. Read an English language newspaper. Freebie newspapers like "Metro" in London are usually the easiest to understand, followed by mid-brow titles like "The Daily Express" or "The Daily Mail" in English. Popular newspapers like "The Sun" are more difficult because of the idiomatic, slangy use of language and the number of jokes in the headlines and articles.
48. Write fiction in English, e.g. short stories. For people who find writing a diary about things that happen to them everyday boring, the best thing is to let your imagination go and write about whatever comes into your head. The advantage of this is that if you can't think of how to say something in English, you can just change the story to something that is easier to explain. Perhaps the easiest way to start writing fiction in English is with a diary, changing any details you like to make it more interesting and adding more and more fantasy as the weeks go on.
49. English language exercise videos. This is quite similar to how babies learn, by listening, watching and copying. It is also good for your health!
50. Learn a famous speech or poem in English by heart. Although you may never hear or get the chance to say exactly that line, having one memorable example of an English grammatical form in your head can make it much easier to learn other examples of the same grammar as you hear them. It is also something you can practice over and over without being as boring as grammatical drills.
51. Get tipsy (= a little drunk) before speaking English. This can not only improve your fluency while you are drinking, but can also improve your confidence in future days and weeks by showing you that you can communicate what you want to say.
52. Use a dictionary while you are watching a movie. Films often have the same words many times, so if you look up important words the first or second time you hear them, you should have learnt them by the end of the film. It is easier to use a dictionary if you watch with English subtitles.
53. Learn and use the phonemic script. Although there are many sounds in English, there are even more spellings. By learning the phonemic script and writing vocabulary down with it, you can both add another stage to your vocabulary learning that should help you learn it more thoroughly, and improve your pronunciation. It can also make things easier for you by stopping you trying to pronounce different spellings of the same pronunciation different ways.
54. Learn some spelling rules. Many people think that English spelling is random, but in fact most words follow some kind of rule, e.g. the "magic E" that changes the pronunciation of "mad" and "made".
55. Record your own voice. For people who don't have much or any correction of pronunciation from a teacher, recording yourself and listening back makes it easier to hear whether you are really making the English sounds that you are trying to or not.
56. Use computer pronunciation analysis. Although most programmes that claim to tell you when you are pronouncing correctly or not don't actually do that, listening many times and seeing how your voice changes as you try to match the sounds and waveform given by a pronunciation CD ROM can be good practice and more motivating than just recording your own voice.
57. Learn as many words as you can of one category, e.g. animal words. Learning similar words together can both expand your overall vocabulary and make them easier to learn by forming links between the words in your brain.
58. Take holidays abroad. This is not only a good opportunity to speak English in situations where you really have to make yourself understood in order to live, but it is also a good motivator to study English seriously in the weeks and months before your trip. If possible, also try to use English even when you could use your own language, e.g. when you pick a guided tour of a museum or historic place or when you book a flight on the internet, and try to avoid package tours.
59. Draw pictures of the words you want to learn. Especially if you are artistic, this can be a better way of learning vocabulary than writing translations or example sentences.
60. Find a foreign friends. No tips on how to do this here, but everyone agrees that getting foreign frienda can be a great motivator to improve your language skills.
61. Arrange a conversation exchange. Swapping lessons and conversation with someone who wants to learn your language can be a good alternative for those who aren't looking for romance, or can sometimes lead onto dating for those who are!
62. Sign up for an English language exam. Even if you don't need to take an exam and don't want to or can't take a special course to study for it, paying to take an exam like TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS or FCE can really motivate you take your English studies seriously.
63. Model your accent on one particular actor. e.g. try to speak like Robert De Niro. Students who say they want to sound more like a native speaker have the problem that native speakers don't sound all that much like each other. Choosing one model can make the task of improving your pronunciation more clear, and is quite fun. Doing an impression of that person also makes a good party trick.
64. Use an English-English dictionary. Trying to use a bilingual dictionary less and switching to a monolingual one can help you to stop translating in you head when you are speaking or listening, and other useful English vocabulary can come up while you are using the dictionary.
65. Occasionally talk to or e-mail your friends in English. Many people find this a bit false or embarrassing, but if you think of it as a study club and set a particular time and/ or place, it is no different from studying maths together.
66. Go to an English or Irish pub. As well as having a menu in English and being a good way of finding out something about the culture of English speaking countries, you might also find there are free English language listings magazines, English language sports on the TV and/ or foreign people you can speak to.
67. Buy a speaking electronic dictionary. Although most electronic dictionaries are not as good as paper ones for the amount of information they give you about each word, some of them have the very useful function of saying the word with the correct pronunciation.
68. Learn your electronic dictionary vocabulary list. Most electronic dictionaries also have a button which you can push to see the last 30 or more words you looked up. By deleting words you decide are useless or you have already learnt from this list, you can use it as a "to do list" of words to learn that you can look at several times a day in the train etc.
69. Switch operating system to English. Changing the operating language of your mobile phone, video recorder etc. to English can be an easy way of making sure you use the language everyday.
70. Set goals. Deciding how many hours you want to study, how many words you want to learn or what score you want to get in a test are all good ways of making sure you do extra study.
2. Write a news diary. Another daily writing task that can work for people who would be bored by writing about their own routines in a diary is to write about the news that you read and listen to everyday. If you include your predictions for how you think the story will develop (e.g. "I think Hillary will become president"), this can give you a good reason to read old entries another time, at which time you can also correct and mistakes you have made and generally improve what you have written.
3. Sign up for a regular English tip. Some websites offer a weekly or even daily short English lesson sent to your email account. If your mobile phone has an e-mail address, it is also possible to have the tips sent to your phone to read on the way to work or school. Please note, however, that such services are not usually graded very well to the levels of different students, and they should be used as a little added extra or revision in your English studies rather than as a replacement for something you or your teacher have chosen more carefully as what you need to learn.
4. Listen to MP3s. Although buying music on the internet is becoming more popular in many countries, not so many people know that you can download speech radio such as audio books (an actor reading out a novel) and speech radio. Not only is this better practice for your English than listening to English music, from sources like Scientific American, BBC and Australia's ABC Radio it is also free.
5. Listen to English music. Even listening to music while doing something else can help a little for things like getting used to the natural rhythm and tone of English speech, although the more time and attention you give to a song the more you will learn from listening to it again in the future.
6. Read the lyrics to a song. Although just listening to a song in English can be a good way of really learning the words of the chorus in an easily memorable way, if you want to really get something out of listening to English music you will need to take some time to read the lyrics of the song with a dictionary. If the lyrics are not given in the CD booklet, you may be able to find them on the internet, but please note that some lyrics sites deliberately put a few errors into their lyrics for copyright reasons. Once you have read and understood the lyrics, if you then listen and read at the same time, this can be a good way of understanding how sounds change in fast, natural, informal speech.
7. Sing karaoke in English. The next stage after understanding and memorising a song is obviously to sing it. Although some words have their pronunciation changed completely to fit in with a song, most of the words have the same sounds and stressed syllables as in normal speech. Remembering which words rhyme at the end of each line can also be a good way of starting to learn English pronunciation.
8. Write a film, music, hotel or book review. Another motivating and easy way to make yourself write in English is to write a review for a site such as Amazon or Internet Movie Database. Many non-native speakers write reviews on sites like this, and if you have some special understanding of the book, music or film due to your first language or knowing the artist personally, that would be very interesting for the English speakers who read and write reviews on the site.
9. Only search in English. Switching your search engine to the English language version of msn, yahoo, Google etc. can not only be a good way of practising fast reading for specific information in English, but could also give you a wider choice of sites to choose from and give you an idea of what foreigners are writing about your country and area.
10. Read a book you've already read or seen the movie of in your own language. Although most language learners under Advanced level would probably learn more from reading a graded reader or something from the internet than they would from reading an original book written for English speakers, for some people reading something like Harry Potter in the original can be a great motivator to improve their English. To make this easier for you and make sure that it motivates you rather than just making your tired, try reading a book that you already know the story of. This not only makes it easier to understand and guess vocabulary, but you are also more likely to remember the language in it. If you have not read the book before, reading a plot summary from the internet can also help in the same way.
11. Read a translation into English. Another way of making sure books are easier to understand is to choose a book that was originally translated into English, preferably from your own language. Even if you haven't read the book in your own language, you will find the English is written in a slightly simplified way that is more similar to how your own language is written than a book originally written in English would be.
12. Skip the first ten pages. If you have given up with a book in English or are reading it very slowly, try skimming through the first ten pages or skipping them completely. The start of most books tend to be mainly description and are therefore full of difficult vocabulary and don't have a clear story line yet to help you understand what is happening and to motivate you to turn the next page. If the book is still too difficult even after the introductionary part is finished, it is probably time to give that book up for now and try it again after you have read some easier things.
13. Read a book with lots of dialogue. Opening up books before you buy one and flicking through them to find one with lots of direct dialogue in it has several advantages. If there is less text on the page due to all the speech marks etc, this can make it easier to read and easier to write translations on. Dialogue is also much easier to understand than descriptive parts of a book, and is much more like the language you will want to learn in order to be able to speak English.
14. Read English language comics. Even more than books with lots of dialogue, comics can be easy to understand and full of idiomatic language as it is actually spoken. There can be difficulties with slang, difficult to understand jokes and/ or dialogue written how people speak rather than with normal spellings, so try to choose which comic carefully. Usually, serious or adventure comics are easier to understand than funny ones.
15. Read English language entertainment guides. Nowadays most big cities in the world have an English language magazine and/ or online guide to the movies, plays, exhibitions that are on in the city that week. Reading this in English is not only good value, but it could also guide you to places that English speakers are interested in and where you might hear some English spoken around you.
16. Read English language magazines. Like books, if you can read two versions of the same magazine (Newsweek in your language and in English, for example), that could make understanding it much easier.
17. Take a one week intensive course. Although you cannot expect to come out of a very short course speaking much better English than when you started it, if you continue studying a little over the following weeks and months, the knowledge you gained then will gradually come out and mean that your level of speaking, listening etc. are better than they would have been if you hadn't taken that course. This positive effect can still be true up to a year later.
18. Follow your intensive course up with an extensive course. The more time you can spend studying English the better, but studying periodic intensive courses with a few hours of study a week in between is probably better value for money than any other system as it gives your brain time to subconsciously learn and start using the new language you have learnt before you introduce the next new "chunk" of language.
19. Supplement your group class with a one to one class. Another good way to combine two different kinds of classes is to study both in a group class and one to one. Having a one to one teacher, even if just a couple of times a month, will mean that you can be taught exactly the language that you need, that you will have more time to speak, and that you can have as much error correction as you like.
20. Supplement your one to one class with a group class. The benefits of having a group class are often less clear to students, but they include the fact that you will learn to deal with several people speaking at once, have a chance to practice skills such as interrupting people, and will hear a range of different viewpoints and topics.
21. Teach your children or friends some English. Recent research has shown that elder children tend to be a couple of IQ points above their younger siblings, and the most likely reason is that explaining things to their little brothers and sisters gives them an intellectual boost. In the same way, teaching someone lower level than you the English you already know is a great way of permanently fixing that knowledge in your own brain.
22. Ask your company to start English lessons. Even if you don't need to speak English at work, English lessons can be a fun and reasonably priced way for your company to spend their training budget in a popular way.
23. Have English radio on in the background while you are doing your housework. Even if you are not listening carefully, it will help you get a feel for natural English rhythm and intonation.
24. Play English language learning games on your Nintendo DS. Although such games can have quite random language and are unlikely to improve your ability to speak English on their own, the next time you hear or read the same language elsewhere it will be really fixed in your brain by the fact you have played a game with it in already. It is also a nice way of taking a break from your other English studies while also doing some English. To make sure it really is a break and to avoid wasting time learning language from the game that is not much used in daily life, don't bother writing down any new language you see in the game, but just try to learn it from playing the game again.
25. Say or think what you are doing in English as you do your daily tasks. As you are doing your chores, try creating sentences describing what you are doing, e.g. ‘I am unscrewing the ketchup bottle cap'. This gets you used to thinking in English without translating, and can be a good way of seeing what simple vocabulary that is around you everyday you don't know. yet
26. Watch English language films with English subtitles. For people who can't understand a film without subtitles but find themselves not listening at all when reading subtitles in their own language, this should be the way of watching a film that you should aim for. If it is too difficult to watch the whole film this way, try watching the (usually important) first 10 or 15 minutes of the film with subtitles in your own language, switch to English subtitles after that, and only switch back to subtitles in your own language if you get totally lost following the story of the film.
27. Watch films in your language with English subtitles. If you are finding English films with English subtitles too difficult or you can't find English films with English subtitles in your local video shop, this is a good second best option. Looking for local films with English subtitles can also sometimes be a good sign of quality, as it means the producers of the film are expecting it to be popular internationally as well.
28. Watch English films with subtitles in your language. Again, this is not as good practice as English language films with English subtitles, but is more relaxing, can be easier to find suitable DVDs for, and is also possible with VHS.
29. Watch the same film or TV episode over and over again. This can not only save you money on DVDs, but will mean that you can really learn the language without having to study it. Some comedies can also get funnier the more you watch them, especially if you watch them with no subtitles and so understand a little more each time you watch it.
30. Be realistic about your level. One thing that holds many language learners back is actually trying too hard and tackling something that their brain is not ready for yet. Checking your level with a level check test on the internet, by taking an English language test (FCE, CAE, IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL etc.), or by taking a free trial level check and/ or lesson in a language school will help you find out what your level is and so choose suitable self-study materials.
31. Be realistic about your reading level. Most researchers agree that people learn most when reading something they understand almost all of. If there are one or two words per page that you have never seen before, that is about the right level. If there are three or more on every page, you should switch to something easier and come back later.
32. Read graded readers (= easy readers). These are books that are especially written for language learners like you, e.g. Penguin Readers. Although it can be difficult to find something as interesting as things written in newspapers or on the internet, in terms of learning the language only people who need to read for their work or an exam usually gain more from reading things written for graded readers. Graded readers of classic books like Charles Dickens also have the benefit of giving you a lot of knowledge about the literature, and culture more generally, of English speaking countries in a short time.
33. Read the whole thing with no help. Although using a dictionary has been shown to help with both short term and long term learning of vocabulary, the fact that using it slows reading down can stop some people reading in English at all. Reading a whole book quickly through just for pleasure from time to time will help you remember how fun reading in another language can be.
34. Read and learn everything. At the opposite extreme, it can be hard work but very satisfying to get to the end of a book knowing that you have learnt every word in it. See other tips on this page to make sure it is a book that is easy enough to do this with and to ensure that the vocabulary you learn is useful.
35. Watching English children's films or TV programmes. Although some of the vocabulary you can learn from things made for children can be a bit strange (lots of animal names and maybe animal noises, including baby names for things), the fact that not only the language but the structure of the story is simplified can make it an easy and motivating thing to watch. Like good language learning materials, the same language is also often repeated to make it memorable, and the use of catchy songs etc. can increase this positive effect on your memory.
36. Read English children's books. This is very similar to watching English children's movies, but with the added advantage of there being more illustrations than adult books, which both helps you to understand the story and makes the page brighter and more motivating to read.
37. Keep a list of language to learn, e.g. a vocab list. Even if you don't often find time to go though your vocab list and it keeps on building up, just the act of choosing which words you need to learn and writing them down on a special list can help you learn them.
38. Go through your vocab list several times every day. If ticking off words on a vocabulary list on the train to work is inconvenient or embarrassing for you, you can keep your list of words to learn as an entry in your electronic dictionary, as a mobile phone to do list or as a text file in your MP3 player (e.g. iPod). Although the time spent transferring the information between different formats like these may seem wasted, in fact any time you spend using the vocabulary like this will help you learn it.
39. Convert your vocab list to English only. One way to stop yourself translating and therefore increase your speed of comprehension and production is to learn all your vocabulary without the use of your own first language. Ways you can write a vocab list in only English include with synonyms (words with the same meaning, e.g. "tall" and "high"); with opposites ("high" and "low"); with pronunciation factors such as number of syllables (the number of beats, e.g. three for "de- ci- sion") and the word stress (the syllable that is pronounced louder and longer, e.g. the second syllable in "baNAna"); and gapped sentences (e.g. "I am not _________________ in science fiction" for the word "interested").
40. Cross out and delete. Crossing out or deleting words, sentences or whole pages that you have learnt can be a great motivator, and save your list of things to learn becoming too big to handle.
41. Throw everything away and start again. One of the things that can put most people off learning is a stack of half finished books or a huge list vocabulary waiting to be learnt. Simply getting rid of all that and starting again with something new from zero can be a great motivator and get your studies underway again.
42. Label things in your house or office with post-its. The easiest vocabulary to learn is the vocabulary of things you see and use everyday. If you can write the names of things around you on slips of paper and stick them on the real thing, this is a great way of learning useful vocabulary. If you can leave them there over the following days and weeks, this is a very easy way of revising the vocabulary until it is properly learnt.
43. Label a drawing. For people who can't put labels on real things, the next best option is to take a photo of a real place in your life like your office, print it out, and then draw lines to all of the things you can see in the picture and label them in English with the help of a dictionary. You can do the same thing with places you pass through everyday like the station. Because you will see the same thing again and again, it should be easy to really learn the words for those things.
44. Keep a diary in English. This is a popular method of making sure you use English everyday for people who don't often speak English and can't think of things to write about. The fact that you are writing about real things that have happened to you means that any words you look up in the dictionary will be vocabulary that is useful for you and easy to learn.
45. Online chat. The closest thing to speaking for people who don't have the chance to speak English is online chat, as you have to think and respond quickly, and the language is short and informal just like speech.
46. Listen to the radio news in English. You can make this easier by reading the news in English first, or even just by reading or listening to the news in your own language.
47. Read an English language newspaper. Freebie newspapers like "Metro" in London are usually the easiest to understand, followed by mid-brow titles like "The Daily Express" or "The Daily Mail" in English. Popular newspapers like "The Sun" are more difficult because of the idiomatic, slangy use of language and the number of jokes in the headlines and articles.
48. Write fiction in English, e.g. short stories. For people who find writing a diary about things that happen to them everyday boring, the best thing is to let your imagination go and write about whatever comes into your head. The advantage of this is that if you can't think of how to say something in English, you can just change the story to something that is easier to explain. Perhaps the easiest way to start writing fiction in English is with a diary, changing any details you like to make it more interesting and adding more and more fantasy as the weeks go on.
49. English language exercise videos. This is quite similar to how babies learn, by listening, watching and copying. It is also good for your health!
50. Learn a famous speech or poem in English by heart. Although you may never hear or get the chance to say exactly that line, having one memorable example of an English grammatical form in your head can make it much easier to learn other examples of the same grammar as you hear them. It is also something you can practice over and over without being as boring as grammatical drills.
51. Get tipsy (= a little drunk) before speaking English. This can not only improve your fluency while you are drinking, but can also improve your confidence in future days and weeks by showing you that you can communicate what you want to say.
52. Use a dictionary while you are watching a movie. Films often have the same words many times, so if you look up important words the first or second time you hear them, you should have learnt them by the end of the film. It is easier to use a dictionary if you watch with English subtitles.
53. Learn and use the phonemic script. Although there are many sounds in English, there are even more spellings. By learning the phonemic script and writing vocabulary down with it, you can both add another stage to your vocabulary learning that should help you learn it more thoroughly, and improve your pronunciation. It can also make things easier for you by stopping you trying to pronounce different spellings of the same pronunciation different ways.
54. Learn some spelling rules. Many people think that English spelling is random, but in fact most words follow some kind of rule, e.g. the "magic E" that changes the pronunciation of "mad" and "made".
55. Record your own voice. For people who don't have much or any correction of pronunciation from a teacher, recording yourself and listening back makes it easier to hear whether you are really making the English sounds that you are trying to or not.
56. Use computer pronunciation analysis. Although most programmes that claim to tell you when you are pronouncing correctly or not don't actually do that, listening many times and seeing how your voice changes as you try to match the sounds and waveform given by a pronunciation CD ROM can be good practice and more motivating than just recording your own voice.
57. Learn as many words as you can of one category, e.g. animal words. Learning similar words together can both expand your overall vocabulary and make them easier to learn by forming links between the words in your brain.
58. Take holidays abroad. This is not only a good opportunity to speak English in situations where you really have to make yourself understood in order to live, but it is also a good motivator to study English seriously in the weeks and months before your trip. If possible, also try to use English even when you could use your own language, e.g. when you pick a guided tour of a museum or historic place or when you book a flight on the internet, and try to avoid package tours.
59. Draw pictures of the words you want to learn. Especially if you are artistic, this can be a better way of learning vocabulary than writing translations or example sentences.
60. Find a foreign friends. No tips on how to do this here, but everyone agrees that getting foreign frienda can be a great motivator to improve your language skills.
61. Arrange a conversation exchange. Swapping lessons and conversation with someone who wants to learn your language can be a good alternative for those who aren't looking for romance, or can sometimes lead onto dating for those who are!
62. Sign up for an English language exam. Even if you don't need to take an exam and don't want to or can't take a special course to study for it, paying to take an exam like TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS or FCE can really motivate you take your English studies seriously.
63. Model your accent on one particular actor. e.g. try to speak like Robert De Niro. Students who say they want to sound more like a native speaker have the problem that native speakers don't sound all that much like each other. Choosing one model can make the task of improving your pronunciation more clear, and is quite fun. Doing an impression of that person also makes a good party trick.
64. Use an English-English dictionary. Trying to use a bilingual dictionary less and switching to a monolingual one can help you to stop translating in you head when you are speaking or listening, and other useful English vocabulary can come up while you are using the dictionary.
65. Occasionally talk to or e-mail your friends in English. Many people find this a bit false or embarrassing, but if you think of it as a study club and set a particular time and/ or place, it is no different from studying maths together.
66. Go to an English or Irish pub. As well as having a menu in English and being a good way of finding out something about the culture of English speaking countries, you might also find there are free English language listings magazines, English language sports on the TV and/ or foreign people you can speak to.
67. Buy a speaking electronic dictionary. Although most electronic dictionaries are not as good as paper ones for the amount of information they give you about each word, some of them have the very useful function of saying the word with the correct pronunciation.
68. Learn your electronic dictionary vocabulary list. Most electronic dictionaries also have a button which you can push to see the last 30 or more words you looked up. By deleting words you decide are useless or you have already learnt from this list, you can use it as a "to do list" of words to learn that you can look at several times a day in the train etc.
69. Switch operating system to English. Changing the operating language of your mobile phone, video recorder etc. to English can be an easy way of making sure you use the language everyday.
70. Set goals. Deciding how many hours you want to study, how many words you want to learn or what score you want to get in a test are all good ways of making sure you do extra study.
BM DKB : CONTOH KERTAS KERJA AKADEMIK
Halangan Pemikiran Kreatif Dalaman Dan Stail Pemikiran Minda
Guru Pelatih KDPM Semester 3
Oleh :
Chua Yan Piaw
Jabatan Penyelidikan
Maktab Perguruan Ilmu Khas
ABSTRAK
Tujuan kajian deskriptif ini ialah untuk mengenal pasti: 1) Halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman, dan 2) Stail pemikiran minda bagi sekumpulan guru pelatih KDPM Semester Tiga dari Maktab Perguruan Ilmu Khas (N=224). Tiga Instrumen digunakan dalam kajian ini. Instrumen-instrumen“The Story-Writing Test” dan “The Two Strings Test” (Dacey, 1989) digunakan untuk mengenal pasti halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman subjek, manakala Instrumen Yanpiaw Stail Pemikiran Otak (Ybrains) digunakan untuk mengenal pasti stail pemikiran minda subjek. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa majoriti subjek mempunyai stail pemikiran otak kiri yang memusat kepada pemikiran lojik, rasional dan sistematik. Keputusan kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa keupayaan pemikiran kreatif majoriti subjek (87.95%) dihalang secara serius oleh salah satu halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman, iaitu ketetapan ransangan. Hasil kajian memberi implikasi bahawa pensyarah-pensyarah bagi kumpulan guru pelatih ini seharusnya membimbing mereka untuk melepasi halangan dalaman ini, sebelum berusaha untuk memupuk keupayaan pemikiran kreatif dalam mereka.
PENGENALAN
A) LATAR BELAKANG
Manusia bertindak secara berbeza terhadap situasi-situasi tidak menentu (ambiguous situations), iaitu situasi yang menyebabkan ketegangan pemikiran kepada seseorang individu, dan menyebabkan mereka tidak dapat berfikir secara kreatif. Beberapa orang penulis dan pengaji (Sarnoff & Cole, 1983 dan Torrance, 1984) berpendapat bahawa keupayaan untuk terus berfikir secara terbuka dan bebas semasa berdepan dengan situasi-situasi tidak menentu adalah tanda bagi personaliti pemikiran kreatif.
Halangan pemikiran kreatif boleh dibahagi kepada dua jenis, iaitu halangan pemikiran kreatif luaran dan halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman. Menurut Dacey (1989), dua jenis halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman yang menghalang manusia daripada terus berfikir secara bebas dan terbuka semasa berdepan dengan situasi-situasi tidak menentu ini ialah ketetapan ransangan dan ketetapan fungsi.
Dacey (1989) mendefinisi ketetapan ransangan sebagai keadaan di mana seseorang yang berdepan dengan ransangan tertentu akan hanya dapat menumpukan perhatian kepada ransangan tersebut, sehingga tidak dapat membuka mindanya secara kreatif, untuk memikirkan perkara-perkara selain daripada ransangan tersebut. Halangan ketetapan
ransangan inilah yang menyebabkan seseorang itu hilang pemikiran kreatif semasa berdepan dengan situasi-situasi yang tidak menentu. Di samping itu, hasil kajian yang dilakukan oleh Dacey (1989) ke atas sekumpulan pelajar sekolah menengah menunjukkan bahawa hampir 75% daripada pemikiran pelajar-pelajar tersebut kaku dan tidak dapat berfikir secara kreatif kerana faktor ketetapan ransangan. Beliau mengulas bahawa pemikiran pelajar-pelajar tersebut terkongkong dengan ransangan di depan mereka, sehingga tidak dapat memikir maklumat-maklumat lain secara kreatif.
Di Malaysia, kajian Chua (2002) menunjukkan bahawa min skor piawai bagi indeks pemikiran kreatif segolongan pelajar sekolah menengah Malaysia adalah lebih rendah berbanding dengan min skor piawai bagi indeks pemikiran kreatif segolongan pelajar Amerika Syarikat yang sama umur.
Di samping itu, beberapa penulis dan pengaji (Norrizan, 2000; Kim dan Michael, 1995) berpendapat bahawa kaedah pengajaran dan kurikulum di sekolah pada masa kini lebih mementingkan kaedah pengajaran, pembelajaran dan penilaian yang “berorientasikan otak kiri”, yang mementingkan proses menghafal, pemikiran konvergen, dan yang berpatuh kepada arahan dan keinginan para guru di sekolah. Torrance & Sato (1979) pula berpendapat bahawa hemisfera kiri dan hemisfera kanan adalah bahagian-bahagian otak yang berfungsi bersama-sama untuk memproses maklumat, dan kedua-duanya diperlukan untuk menyelesaikan masalah secara kreatif. William (1983) mengatakan bahawa manusia mempunyai dua hemisfera otak tetapi sistem pendidikan lazimnya beroperasi seolah-olah kita hanya mempunyai satu otak sahaja, dan ini secara tidak langsung menjadi penghalang kepada pemikiran kreatif.
Sehubungan ini, kajian ini bertujuan untuk meneroka dan mengenalpasti halangan-halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman dan stail pemikiran minda sekumpulan guru pelatih maktab perguruan.
B) OBJEKTIF KAJIAN
Objektif kajian ini ialah untuk mengenalpasti 1) Halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman guru-guru pelatih dari segi: a) ketetapan ransangan dan b) ketetapan fungsi., dan 2) Stail pemikiran minda bagi sekumpulan guru pelatih.
METODOLOGI
Kajian ini merupakan kajian deskriptif yang menggunakan data-data kuantitatif dan kualitatif.
A) PERSAMPELAN
Subjek kajian ini terdiri daripada seramai 224 orang guru pelatih semester 3 (ambilan Januari 2002) Maktab Perguruan Ilmu Khas,
B) INSTRUMEN KAJIAN
Tiga instrumen digunakan dalam kajian ini.
-Instrumen yang pertama ialah “The Story-Writing Test” (Dacey, 1989). Instrumen ini merupakan ujian kertas-pensil yang mengandungi gambar seekor kucing yang sedang memandang ke arah sebuah segi empat (Lampiran B). Subjek diminta menulis cerita pendek yang menarik dan luar biasa, yang orang lain tidak terpikir. Instrumen ini digunakan untuk mengumpul maklumat tentang halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman, iaitu ketetapan ransangan.
-Instrumen yang kedua ialah “The Two Strings Test” (Dacey, 1989). Instrumen ini merupakan ujian kertas-pensil yang mengandungi gambar seorang pemuda yang sebelah tangannya memegang tali yang diikat pada siling bilik, dan sebelah tangannya ingin mencapai tali yang jauh darinya (Lampiran C). Subjek kajian diminta untuk membantu pemuda menyelesaikan masalah dengan menggunakan sebuah alat perangkap tikus. Instrumen ini digunakan untuk mengumpul maklumat tentang halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman, iaitu ketetapan fungsi.
-Instrumen yang ketiga ialah Yanpiaw Stail Pemikiran Otak (YBRAINS, Chua, 2001) yang digunakan untuk mengumpul maklumat tentang stail pemikiran otak subjek. YBRAINS dibina berdasarkan hasil-hasil kajian hemisferisiti otak. Ia merupakan ujian kertas-pensil yang mengandungi 40 item. Setiap item tersebut mempunyai pilihan-pilihan stail pemikiran otak kiri dan otak kanan.
C) PROSEDUR KAJIAN
Subjek kajian menjawab soalan-soalan dalam tiga-tiga instrumen kajian dalam kelas secara individu di bawah pengawasan pensyarah-pensyarah yang mengajar kelas-kelas yang berkenaan. Masa yang diperuntukan untuk setiap instrumen pertama dan instrumen kedua ialah 8 minit, manakala masa yang diperuntukkan untuk instrumen ketiga ialah 30 minit.
D) PENGANALISISAN DATA
Disebabkan kajian ini merupakan kajian deskriptif, data bagi halangan pemikiran kreatif, iaitu ketetapan ransangan dan ketetapan fungsi dijadualkan berdasarkan frekuensi dan peratusan. Data tersebut juga dianalisis secara kualitatif, dimana jawapan-jawapan pelajar dihuraikan berdasarkan kepada definasi ketetapan ransangan dan ketetapan fungsi. Bagi stail pemikiran minda, data (stail otak kiri, otak kanan dan seluruh otak) yang dikumpulkan dijadualkan berdasarkan frekuensi dan peratusan.
DAPATAN KAJIAN
1. Halangan Pemikiran Kreatif Dalaman
Frekuensi dan peratusan bagi halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman subjek berdasarkan ketetapan ransangan dan ketetapan fungsi ditunjukkan dalam Jadual 1 (Lampiran A).
Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa sebanyak 87.95% daripada subjek kajian mengalami halangan pemikiran kreatif dari segi ketetapan ransangan dan 3.13% daripada subjek mempunyai masalah halangan pemikiran kreatif dari segi ketetapan fungsi. Hasil kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa ketetapan ransangan merupakan halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman yang dihadapi oleh majoriti subjek kajian. Walau bagaimanapun, hanya sekumpulan kecil sahaja subjek kajian yang mengalami masalah ketetapan fungsi.
-Ketetapan Ransangan
Apabila cerita-cerita pendek subjek dinalisis secara kuantitatif, didapati bahawa kebanyak subjek hanya dapat menulis cerita yang berpusatkan garis segiempat dalam gambar tersebut. Contoh-contoh cerita pendek yang mewakili kumpulan subjek ini ialah:
“Di dalam kotak itu terdapat makanan. Seekor kucing terbau ikan goreng tersebut dan
“Kucing berlari dengan pantas. Matanya melihat ke arah sekeliling.
“Suatu hari kucing ternampak satu lubang di dinding rumah tuannya. Kucing ingin melihat apa yang ada di dalamnya. Lalu kucing itu memerhati di depan lubang itu sambil menunggu, tiba-tiba seekor tikus melompat keluar…” (subjek 8)
“Seekor kucing ingin mencari kawannya yang telah lama hilang. Ketika ia berjalan-jalan mencari kawannya yang hilang itu, ia ternampak sebuah kotak yang sangat besar. Ia
Data kajian jelas menunjukkan bahawa keupayaan subjek-subjek di atas untuk berfikir secara terbuka dan bebas semasa berdepan dengan situasi-situasi tidak menentu adalah rendah. Kelemahan ini (pemikiran terkongkong dengan segiempat dalam gambar yang mewakili situasi tidak menentu) adalah halangan mereka untuk berfikir secara kreatif sebelum berupaya menghasilkan idea yang unik.
Contoh-contoh cerita pendek yang ditulis oleh kumpulan subjek kedua, yang bebas daripada ketetapan ransangan adalah seperti berikut:
“Pada satu malam yang sunyi. Saya merasa letih dan tertidur di atas katil. Saya membuat satu mimpi yang aneh. Di dalam mimpi saya, seekor kucing yang badannya berbulu kuning sedang kelaparan. Ia mencari makanan di sekeliling rumah tuannya dan
akhirnya berjumpa dengan seekor ikan di atas meja. Semasa kucing itu ingin memakan ikan itu, ia nampak seekor kucing lain yang lapar dan sakit. Ia teringat ibunya yang baik hati dan sering menolong kucing-kucing lain yang memerlukan bantuan…” (subjek 34)
“Kamal ialah seorang pelukis. Pada satu hari, kamal melukis sebuah gambar yang cantik (gambar seekor kucing seperti dalam gambar di atas). Kamal mewarnanya dengan warna yang cantik. Dia ingin menjual lukisan ini kepada tuan punya sebuah restoran, tetapi tuan punya restoran tidak mahu membeli lukisan itu kerana tidak faham apa maksud lukisan itu. Kamal menjelaskan bahawa lukisan itu akan membawa tuah kepada tuan punya restoran kerana kucing dalam gambar itu mewakili pelanggan yang sangat berminat dengan makanan restorannya, dan jika lukisan itu digantung pada dinding restoran, peniagaan restoran akan bertambah baik…” (subjek 77)
Perbezaan kedua-dua jenis contoh cerita di atas ialah cerita kumpulan pertama mengarang cerita seolah-olah terdapat arahan bahawa cerita tersebut harus berpusat kepada garis segiempat dalam gambar tersebut. Di bawah keadaan begini, pemikiran mereka adalah terkongkong dan tidak dapat menghasilkan cerita yang luar biasa dan unik. Pemikiran mereka terhalang dan tidak dapat berkembang secara kreatif. Walau bagaimanapun, cerita kumpulan yang kedua tidak terkongkong dengan garis segi empat dalam gambar, tetapi menggunakan seluruh gambar atau unsur-unsur dalam gambar sebagai tanda asas untuk dikembangkan menjadi cerita baru yang lebih bebas dan unik. Pemikiran mereka tidak terhalang dengan ketetapan ransangan.
-Ketetapan Fungsi
Data kajian dalam Jadual 1 (Lampiran A) jelas menunjukkan bahawa hanya sebilangan kecil (3.13%) daripada guru-guru pelatih tidak dapat menyelesaikan masalah (berdepan dengan situasi tidak tetap) secara kreatif, kerana mereka tidak dapat membayangkan bagaimana perangkap tikus digunakan untuk fungsi lain selain daripada fungsinya yang asalnya. Guru-guru pelatih ini mencadangkan supaya perangkap tikus digunakan untuk menangkap tikus dan menggunakan tikus untuk membantu pemuda mencapai kedua-dua tali tersebut.
Walau bagaimanapun, kebanyakan subjek dapat berfikir secara lojik dan rasional, dengan menggunakan konsep tarikan graviti (berat perangkap), menghayung perangkap yang diikat dengan tali B untuk mencapai tali A.
2. Stail Pemikiran Minda
Taburan frekuensi dan peratusan stail pemikiran minda pelajar-pelajar dipamerkan dalam Jadual 2 (Lampiran A). Didapati bahawa kebanyakan pelajar cenderung menggunakan otak kiri untuk berfikir (otak kiri 63.4%; otak kanan 30.8%; dan seluruh otak 5.8%).
PERBINCANGAN
Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa kebanyakan (87.95%) guru-guru pelatih mangalami masalah ketetapan rangsangan. Mereka tidak berupaya menentang kecenderungan untuk menumpukan perhatian kepada ransangan sahaja apabila berhadapan dengan keadaan-
keadaan tidak menentu. Keadaan ini merupakan halangan kepada pemikiran kreatif dalaman yang menyekat pemikiran mereka daripada berfungsi secara kreatif.
Hasil kajian ini selaras dengan dapatan kajian Dacey (1989), yang mendapati bahawa 75% daripada subjek kajiannya menghadapi masalah ketetapan ransangan. Keadaan ini mungkin disebabkan oleh sistem pendidikan di sekolah yang secara langsung atau tidak langsung menekankan pemikiran yang berorientasikan “sistematik, lojik, dan berstruktur”. Pelajar-pelajar diajar supaya mengikut arahan selangkah demi selangkah dan berfikir secara lojik sejak mereka masuk ke sekolah (Hart, 1983). Penekanan ini secara tidak langsung akan melatih mereka untuk memusat dan melihat setiap ransangan dari satu perspektif sahaja. Penekanan sebegini hanya meningkatkan keupayaan lojik pelajar, tetapi sebaliknya melenyapkan pemikiran kreatif mereka.
Dapatan kajian ini seterusnya disokong oleh data kajian tentang ketetapan fungsi, di mana kebanyakan guru pelatih dapat berfikir secara lojik, dengan menggunakan konsep-konsep sains, iaitu tarikan graviti (berat perangkap tikus) dan ayunan tali dan pemberat untuk menyelesaikan masalah dalam ujian dua tali. Mereka dapat melihat fungsi perangkap tikus sebagai pemberat, tetapi bukan fungsi-fungsi lain yang luar biasa. Dapatan kajian ini juga disokong oleh data dalam jadual 2, yang menunjukkan bahawa kebanyakkan guru pelatih ini cenderung menggunakan otak kiri yang memusatkan kepada pemikiran lojik, rasional dan sistematik untuk berfikir.
Walau bagaimanapun, hasil kajian tentang ketetapan fungsi ini tidak selaras dengan dapatan kajian Dacey (1989). Ketidakselarasan kedua-dua kajian ini mungkin dapat menjelaskan hasil kajian Chua (2002), yang menunjukkan bahawa min skor piawai indeks pemikiran kreatif pelajar
A) IMPLIKASI DAN CADANGAN
Hasil kajian ini memberi implikasi bahawa guru-guru pelatih dalam kajian ini menghadapi masalah ketetapan ransangan semasa berdepan dengan situasi-situasi yang tidak menentu. Untuk membebaskan guru-guru pelatih daripada halangan pemikiran kreatif ini, adalah dicadangkan supaya para pensyarah menyedarkan guru-guru pelatih tentang halangan pemikiran kreatif dalaman mereka, dan menjelaskan keadaan semula jadi proses pemikiran kreatif, di samping menyediakan persekitaran yang membenarkan pemikiran kreatif kepada mereka. Ini dapat membantu mereka menyingkirkan halangan pemikiran dalaman mereka, iaitu ketetapan ransangan, sebelum keupayaan pemikiran kreatif mereka diperkembangkan.
RUJUKAN
Chua, Y. P. 2002. Corak pembelajaran dan pemikiran, keupayaan kreatif pelajar, dan cara penilaian guru Pendidikan seni ke atas hasil kerja pelajar. Kertas kerja dibentang di Seminar Kebangsaan Profesion Perguruan JPPG 2002, Alor Setar, Kedah.
Dacey, J. S. 1989. Fundamentals of creative thinking.
Hart, L. A. 1983. Human brain and human learning.
Kim, J. and Michael, W. B. 1995. The relationship of creativity measures to school achievement and to preferred learning and thinking style in a sample of Korean high school students. Educational and Psychological Measurement 55 (1), 60-74.
Norrizan, R. 2000. More than passing exams. The Sun. April 22, 2000, p16.
Sarnoff & Cole, 1983. Creative and personal growth. Journal of Creative behaviour. 1983, 17(2), 95-102
Williams, L. V. 1983. A Guide to Right/Left Brain Education: Teaching for the Two Sides Mind.
BI P.3: QUESTION TYPES
QUESTION TYPES
1. Yes or no question.
2. WH question.
3. Tag question.
QUESTION BASED ON NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.
1. Yes or no question.
- Does computer brain-training boost IQ?
- Are the game includes memory and reaction time tests?
- Is computer-based brain training can improve IQ?
- Is there evidence that these tests improve cognition?
- Is true that 70 volunteers were trained?
2. WH question.
- Who developed the game?
- How many copies have been sold?
- How IQ can be improve beyond becoming better at practiced task?
- What Braithwaite said about the brain’s age?
- Who is the director of research for the Alzheimer’s society?
3. Tag question.
- The game on the handheld console, isn’t?
- The game was developed by the Japanese neuroscientist, isn’t?
- You can get games on mobile phone and computer, aren’t?
- The game includes memory and reaction time tests, aren’t?
- Many older people buy this gadgets, isn’t?
1. Yes or no question.
2. WH question.
3. Tag question.
QUESTION BASED ON NEWSPAPER ARTICLE.
1. Yes or no question.
- Does computer brain-training boost IQ?
- Are the game includes memory and reaction time tests?
- Is computer-based brain training can improve IQ?
- Is there evidence that these tests improve cognition?
- Is true that 70 volunteers were trained?
2. WH question.
- Who developed the game?
- How many copies have been sold?
- How IQ can be improve beyond becoming better at practiced task?
- What Braithwaite said about the brain’s age?
- Who is the director of research for the Alzheimer’s society?
3. Tag question.
- The game on the handheld console, isn’t?
- The game was developed by the Japanese neuroscientist, isn’t?
- You can get games on mobile phone and computer, aren’t?
- The game includes memory and reaction time tests, aren’t?
- Many older people buy this gadgets, isn’t?
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