Process Of Encoding And Decoding English Language Essay

Process Of Encoding And Decoding English Language EssayThe main purpose of any classroom teaching in English is to improve the communicative abilities of the prentices. To improve the communicative abilities, the classroom teaching has to be necessarily skill oriented. English oral conference is widely manipulationd for intercourse purposes and so competency in lecture skills has become necessary to improve the communicative abilities specially earshot, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW).Among these four skills, both listening and reading are called as receptive skills or passive skills and the separate 2 skills, namely speaking and writing are called as productive skills or dynamic skills. It is important to bring up that these skills are interconnected in order to achieve the overall objectives of communication. Every thing condenses place and develops within the linguistic scientistic, cultural and social boundaries of the implicated society in which the particul ar actors line is spoken. It is the curriculum, syllabus text book, teaching methodologies under the efficient functioning of the teacher in the classroom, those students are shaped in communicative competence.2.4.1 listen Skillsearshot is the capacity to passage information coming from an aural microbe. Such information is first filtered by the perceptual processes of the listener and heedless into the short-term memory. Selected information is then stored into the long-term memory for retrieval at a later stage, if and when required.Listening is the first and foremost row mode that children espouse which provides the basis for the other language arts (Lundsteen, 1979).The activity of listening plays an important role in the process of acquiring/ erudition language whether it is first or second language.The linguistic items like phonemes, morphemes, lexical items, grammatical items, syntax and semantics are taught to listen in order to develop other modes of language viz sp eaking, reading and writing.Listening is a conscious act. It is a complex, multi step process by which spoken language is converted into meat in the mind (Lundsteen, 1979.1) Wolvin and Coakly (1985) spend a penny identified trine steps in the process of listening which are receiving, attending and assigning inwardness. In the first step, listeners receive the aural stimuli or the combined aural and optical stimuli presented by the speaker. In the second step, listeners focus on or attend to select stimuli while ignoring other distracting stimuli in the classroom. In the third step, listeners assign meaning to or understand the speakers message.The Process of Encoding and DecodingAn act of communication requires encoder- the speaker and decoder- the listener. The speaker encodes the concept or message through a treated of code. The listener decodes the concept or message from the set of code apply by the speaker. That is, on the one hand, the act of encoding involves hearing th e operates into voice communication, words into sentences, sentences into discourses. On the other hand, the act of decoding involves identifying the sounds, cause the utterances and their meanings, and recognizing the prosodic features like tone, intonation, pitch, stress etc. used by the speaker.Listening comprehensive processRichards (1990) draws 2 modal value process of listening comprehension top-down and bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, the listener gets an overall or general view of the text. This is facilitated in the listeners schemata allow him/her to have appropriate expectations of what he/she is going to come across. In bottom-up processing, on the other hand the listener focuses on individual words and phrases and achieves understanding by putting the detailed elements together to build up a whole (Harmer 2001). According to Harmer it is useful to see acts of listening texts as interactions between top-down and bottom-up processing.The Speaker-Listener PolarityFor the effective exchange of information, both the speaker and the listener are expected to be equipped with the competence of the language which is used. That is, the same level of competence is expected from the listener and the speaker as well. Any short- coming in the linguistic competence of the listener or the speaker would affect the communication. So, both the polarities should be more or less equally equipped with the linguistic competence of that language for effective and efficient communication.Types of ListeningCralvin (1985) (as cited by Chidambaram, (2005) has identified eight categories of listening with due general purpose.Translational listening-attainment new information (speeches, debates, political conventions).International listening-recognizing personal component of message (new pieces of speech, report).Critical listening- evaluating reasoning and evidence (news broadcast).Recreational listening- come on random or integrated aspects or event.Listen ing for appreciation- information, making critical discriminations or selection.Selective listening- Selecting certain features at a time ( phonic features)Intensive listening- for expound (vocabulary, grammar)Extensive listening- (general idea stories, rhymes, songs).Relationship between Speaking and ListeningSpeaking and listening are interdependent processes. The activity of speaking requires at least a listener, an individual or an audience. The speaker speaks keeping certain objectives in his or her mind. That is, speaking involves conveying meaning using a code and listening involves understanding the meaning with the help of code the speaker used. If it is a transaction, one way listening, the speaker does not receive feedback, but if it is interaction, two- way listening the speaker receives feedback for the listener. In transactional or conversational discourse, sending-receiving and receiving-sending are alternative phenomena.Purpose of ListeningWhile listening to various texts, one applies different skills to process the text, depending on the purposes for which one is listening.Listening is the and medium through which one access the sounds of a language and all the supra segmental features of the language, such as tone, pitch, stress, pause, etc. Hence, listening is a pre- demand for speaking and at a later stage, for reading.Without knowing how a language sounds, one shadownot engage confidently in speaking in the language, and without knowing how the sound patterns of the language function, reading its graphics servicings little purpose. pedagogics discriminative listening helps the learner to comprehend the language.Listening can be a major source of pleasure and relaxation. Listening to the sounds in nature can be very soothing. Listening to someone reading stories aloud or poem is a agreeable activity.Listening is also an important social skill. People listen to allow a speaker to talk through a problem. Children, as well as adults, ser ve as a systematic listener for friends and family members.Sub-Skills of ListeningEach skill of language comprises a large number of sub skills, whose value and relevancy vary from one situation to another. Rosts (1990) has distinguished two kinds of clusters of micro skills of listening. Enabling skills (those employed in order to perceive what the speaker is saying and to interpret what they intend to mean) and Enacting skills (those employed to respond appropriately to the message).Enabling SkillsPerceptionRecognizing prominence within utterances, includingDiscriminating sounds in words, especially phonemic contrasts.Discriminating strong and weak forms, phonetic change at word boundaries.Identifying use of stress and pitch (information units, emphasis, etc).InterpretationFormulating content sense of utterance, includingDeducing the meaning of unfamiliar words.Inferring implicit information.Inferring links between propositions.Enacting Skillsmaking an appropriate response includi ngTranscoding information into written form.Identifying which points need classification.Integrating information with other sources.Providing appropriate feedback to the speaker (Adapted from Rost, 1990. 152 153). (As cited by Chidambaram, 2005).Difficult Factors in Listening in that respect are five major factors that researchers believe affect listening comprehension.Text characteristics (Variation in a listening passage / text or associated visual support. interlocutor characteristics (Variation in the speakers personal characteristics.Task Characteristics (Variation in the purpose for listening and associated response).Listener Characteristics (Variation in the listeners cognitive activities and in the nature of the interaction between speaker and listener).Teaching Listening ComprehensionListening comprehension involves a number of language skills, though the listening may be the specific focus. Teaching listening can be categorized into two modes. The first one is teaching li nguistic nuances like phonemic variations, discrimination of similar sounds in words, recognizing word boundaries, recognizing morphemes, distinguishing grammatical and lexical items in a sentence, etc. The second one is teaching how to listen to a context, how to deduce meaning for an unfamiliar word, how to recognize them over a discourse. These two modes are important and inseparable for teaching of listening comprehension. If any shortcoming is found in teaching of either of this mode, its consequences will be seen in other skills of language.Testing listening skillsListening tasks should aim at helping students arrive at the meaning of words and provoking an examination of the given material. The test items overwhelm Dialogue, news, railway announcement, sentence, words, word pairs, numbers, telephone numbers, years, days were used to test listening comprehension of the students understudy. These test items aim at evaluating the ability and skills of listening such as predicti ng text based on information, deducing meaning of unfamiliar words, recognizing prominence with in utterance including Discriminating sounds in words especially phonemic contrasts, phonetic changes, deducing the meaning of unfamiliar words, recognizing grammatical errors in sentences, recognizing word boundaries, etc,.ConclusionHere, the emphasis is on the importance of addressing the differences between spoken and written texts in the teaching of listening skills. It is only when learners are aware of the unique characteristics of authentic listening input that they can be equipped with the skills to handle real feel communication.2.4.2 Speaking SkillsLanguage is the radical form of communication between human beings and in a society. As human beings, they always need communication to let out their ideas to do everything whats more as students or learners they have to speak to express their ideas to their teacher as long as learning process takes place.Speech is the first and fo remost form of communication. It occupies a predominant position in enlightening the minds of the concourse. Information is understood and processed easily through speech rather than writing. Speech is biologically endowed demeanor of human beings.Spoken language has wider range of functions to perform than the written language. They start from casual spontaneous conversations ending with formal speeches and so on. Written language tends to serve rather specialized functions at the formal level.In the process of learning spoken mode of second language, learner encounters difficulties because of inter and intra-lingual factors, language break, cultural shock and so on. However, difficulties and problems are inevitable in the process of learning spoken or written mode of the L2.Process of conversationCommunication is a process of exchanging verbal and non-verbal messages. It is continuous process. This process can be termed as human communication or oral communication. The activit ies of the communication maintain eco-balance, co-operation, and tolerance and bring the people in a common line.The complete communication process is the hierarchical arrangement of the various components of communication. They are as followsIntended messageEncoderSignalsDecoderThe certain messageFeedbackMessage is the key idea that the transmitter wants to communicate. Messages can be abstract ideas and feelings of speaker who wishes to communicate. Encoder is a person who sends the message in the form of words and gestures. Signal is a means used to exchange or transmit the message in the form of the mechanical impulse. Channel is the medium through which a signal travels. Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended/aimed. Decoder receives communication signals into meaning and ideas. Received message is the result of decoding communication signals. Feedback helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of message by the decoder. Psychologically speaking af ter receiving the message, the nervous system of the receiver is activated and subsequently construe and appropriate meanings are assigned to the received codes to make the communication process complete.Communicative CompetenceThe term communicative competence is coined by the anthropological linguist Dell Hymes (1967, 1972). Light (1997. 63 ) has described communicative competence as Being able to meet the changing demands and to fulfill ones communication goals across the life span. Communicative competence is the ability to send messages which promote attainment of goals while maintaining social acceptability.The term all modes of communication(Hymes, 1962) can further be explained as the language competence that has total comprehension, and total verbal exposition in all modes of society, which includes group interactions inter-personal interaction involving different dialectal areas. As it is evident from the above, one thinks of two different types of competence, namely gra mmatical competence and communicative competence.Grammatical competence is the ability to recognize and to produce distinctive grammatical structures of a language and to use them effectively in communication. Whereas, the communicative competence can be achieved by exposing oneself both to the structure of the language as well as the social demeanour which pivots around certain conventional rules as put forth by the society.Teaching/Learning SpeakingEffective communication depends on ones ability to express oneself in speech clearly, accurately and fluently. The development of spoken language involves the development of pragmatic usage in addition to the development of pronunciation, constructing words, phrases, sentences and discourses. Discourse in learning of second language plays a vital role.The stages of learning the speaking skills of L2 are same as learning of speaking L1. The problems encountered by the learners in the process of learning subtle, and detailed knowledge, s how the gradual development of spoken language. The purpose of learning the second language fulfills when the learners use language with the real people for real purpose.Communication systemZheng (2004) suggests that communication strategies are feasible and to some extent inevitable for language learners to use in their oral communication. These strategies can enhance language learners confidence, tractableness and effectiveness in oral communication.Tarone (1980. 420 1983.65) defines communication strategies as a mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be shared.In addition, Canale (1983) and Bygate (2000) argue that communication strategies are used not only to cope with any language related problems of which the speaker is aware during the course of communication, but also to enhance the effectiveness of communication even if there is no problem or fuss involved in an oral communication. Thus, it can be said that communication strategies are commonly used not only to bridge the gaps between the linguistic and sociolinguistic knowledge of the second language learners and those of the interlocutors in any communication situation but also to keep their talk flowing within their for sale linguistic knowledge, and eventually manage their oral communication. And also the learners adopt the strategies wherever they encounter problems at all the levels of language like phonological, morphological, syntactical and discourse.Cook (2001) says communication strategy of L2 learners will enhance the learning and the learners strategy indicates that the learners are encountering the linguistic problems in the process of learning. The learners knowingly or unknowingly use the intra and inter lingual strategies to convey their message to others. By using the strategy they get satisfaction, assuring that they have conveyed the meaning completely to the questions by the researcher.Learning S trategyLearning strategies are delineate by Oxford and Crookall as Steps taken by the learners to aid the acquisition, storage and retrieval of information (404).Strategic competence is the way learners manipulate language in order to meet communicative goals (Brown, 1994, 228). It is the ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of linguistic, sociolinguistic, and discourse rules (Berns, 1990). With reference to speaking, strategic competence refers to the ability to know when and how to take the floor, how to keep a conversation going, how to terminate the conversation, and how to clear up communication breakdown as well as comprehension problems.The strategy of learning differs from learner to learner. However Omalley and Chamot (1990) have defined three types of strategy used by L2 studentsMeta cognitive strategies which involve planning and thinking about learning, such as planning ones learning, monitoring ones own speech or writing and evaluating how well one has done.Co gnitive strategies which involve conscious ways of tackling learning, such as note taking, resourcing (using dictionaries and other resources) and elaboration (relating new information to old).Social strategies mean learning by interacting with others. Such as working with fellow students or asking the teachers help.Strategy processLanguage processing involves the retrieval of words and phrases from memory and their assembly into syntactically and propositionally appropriate sequences. Effective speakers need to be able to process language in their heads and put in coherent order so that it comes out in forms that are comprehensible and convey intended meaning.Process being used with reference to the systematic series of steps by which the learner arrives at the same usage overtime. Bialy Stock (1978) distinguishes process from strategies by the criteria obligatory/optional. equal criteria are used by Fravefelder and Porqurer (1979) who classify process as universal, strategies as optional mechanism employed by individual L2 learners. Other researchers also defined process as continuing development involving a number of changes.Testing SpeakingIn second language research, a great deal of attendance has been paid to related area of communicative behaviour. So, this part of the chapter concentrates on communication strategies of the L2 learners. Here, it is a tactic followed by the learners to conceal a gap in their communication. Hence, it is a test given to identify when and how the learners make use of such strategies in speech.