English reflection: (9-15/9/13)

Monday: 

Reflection on Socratic Circles:-

Vocabulary

half-a-crown (line 161, pg.13): (noun) A coin formerly used in Great Britain, worth two shillings and sixpence.

I've always heard this term when I watch British movies and always wondered if it meant the Queen's royal crown (really expensive). In the context of Pygmalion in the time of the Victorian Era (1837-1901) this would have worth a lot hence used as exaggeration when mentioned by the The Flower Girl as she was filthy poor.

liberties (line 282, pg.16): (noun) the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.

Even after knowing what liberties meant, I'm still unsure as to what it means in the context of "You take us for dirt under your feet, don't you? Catch you taking liberties with a gentleman!" (line 281-282, pg.16) :(

kerbstone (line 406, pg.20): [as adj. ] informal unqualified; amateur : curbstone commentators.

After knowing what kerbstone meant, it was easy to understand its usage in the context of the phrase "kerbstone english", portraying really basic English or unsophisticated English.

Strategies/Techniques for Comprehension and Analysis

Clarifying before changing topics- Gives other participants in the discussion a heads-up and to avoid confusion

Analyzing a topic completely before moving on- This is important to allow all participants in the discussion to thoroughly understand the context of the question and to make sure everybody is on the same level of understanding before leaping into another topic.

Being a proactive questioner- Being a proactive questioner helps to push dreary discussions forward and to constantly engage with members of the circle to produce fruitful discussions.

Reflection on Performance

Today, I really saw most of my classmates putting in effort to improve the socratic circle than before.

Personally, I believe I was not prepare enough for today's Socratic Circle meet as I did not study the specific excerpt that was assigned to us. I have only read Act 1 hence I knew the gist of the story but I had not studied specific selection of texts to be brought forward in discussions. I unfortunately had not had the chance to speak in the circle today but I believe my commentary on the quality of the circle discussions would be helpful as I complimented my fellow classmates who made significant improvement and stated their strategies such as clarifying before changing topics, staying on topic and being a proactive questioner.

As we discussed about an example of a socratic circle conversation before starting our circle on Pygmalion Act 1, Ashraf noticed the importance of the "questioner" or simply, the initiative to ask questions when the discussion gets dull in efforts of sparking energy back into discussion. Not only did he observe but he impressively applied that method in his turn within the socratic circle and helped his circle to analyze finer details. Danial and Jit also steered discussions back into topic when discussions were going off which is commendable. Moreover, Shahirah also clarified before she moved into a new topic while discussing which I thought would be a great method to practice as this will prevent us from getting confused and engulfed in different topics.

Reflection on Content

Thesis: "Symbolism of gender hierarchy in Act 1."

First paragraph: In Act 1 of Pygmalion, I found it particularly interesting when I saw the contrast in hierarchy between the conversations of The Daughter and Freddy, and The Flower Girl and The Note Taker. In my imaginary essay, I would highlight the grammar of all 4 speakers, and identify which has the highest quality of sophistication as after today's analysis, the quality of their discourse reflects upon their status.  Moreover, I would also investigate the weak points of each of their speech and determine what creates the aura of submissiveness as displayed by Freddy and The Flower Girl, who are the subservient characters when conversing with The Daughter and The Flower Girl respectively.

Second paragraph: The study of the symbolism of gender hierarchy in Act 1 could be relevant to the hierarchy of gender today as many assume that Men are usually the dominating figures but in retrospect, there also have been cases where women were also leading figures such as Cleopatra, who was the last pharaoh of Egypt for example. However in symbolism, the modern day has an array of them in the sense of household tasks and the task of "bringing back the bacon" usually associated with a specific gender.

'Ghetto' English

This video entitled "Priorities" is a parodical comparison of the Malaysian English accent with a British accent, demonstrated by Dennis (the specky Asian guy) and Joe (Joe Brooks, Caucasian).

The context of the conversation is preparing for an English exam hence the need to revise for it was belittled by Joe who sarcastically huffs and muttered, "Dude it's an English exam.... English, in "English" as a response to Dennis's grammatically poor probe, "Eh cue me, don't you have English exam tomorrow morning? Video game? Real-ly?"

Dennis' way of speaking also displayed very basic sentences and often lacking in vocabulary hence sounding unfinished or partial as shown when he said, "Don't you have English exam tomorrow morning?" where the usage of 'an' before "English" was absent. Hence the syntax of the typical Malaysian English accent is usually 'broken' as sentences are often incomplete with appropriate grammar.

As the discourse between Dennis as Joe is often initiated by Dennis and is short as well, merely exchanges of 1-2 sentences every time, this also displays the lexis of a Malaysian English accent whereby it's often informal, short and straight to the point.

However, pragmatics is also used often as implied when Dennis asks "Eh cue me, don't you have English exam tomorrow morning?" but is not too complicated to be perceived.

Even as Dennis tries harder than Joe and revises more, we could still see that Joe has a better lexis and syntax as his sentences are not grammatically incorrect while Dennis struggles with "was" and "were". This then places Dennis, who spoke with such 'broken' syntax, at a weaker spot as his speeches isn't as sophisticated as Joe's in terms of grammar, lexis and syntax.