Syntax

What is syntax?

Why do we; as future teachers need to study syntax?

God creates us with minds different from other creatures to differentiate between things and to see how things actually work. We as humans it’s our nature to study things and see how they really work. As any other study, language syntax and linguistic must be studied to see how sentence are formed and how they are structured.

This semester I took the syntax course. It was a fruitful and interesting course. Rather than only memorizing theories or books and reading novels, syntax gave us the chance to solve applications and think in a scientific way, since it can be considered as a scientific method and we can apply in syntax the scientific methodology (gathering data, making generalizations, and developing hypothesis).

As a definition, syntax is the study of the rules, principles and processes that dominate the structure of the sentence in general, and word order specifically. While writing these sentences the writer tends to reach a variety of reasons; such as, fitting the situation, reaching the audience and achieving certain purposes. 

Syntax is not only important in written language, it is also part of the components of the oral language (as shown in the following web - what is oral language Heinemann?)

Why do teachers have to study syntax?

·         First of all, the more teachers know about how language works, the more they can effectively use language to help their students learn.

·         It’s not necessary for students to know much about syntax if they want to learn the language. It’s not important for them to know how to draw trees for sentence structure, know the binding theory or the X-bar theory. It’s not essential for students in grade one or any other grade to know all of these. However, the teacher has to know them because the greater the teacher’s understanding of the language the easier he/she will make good decisions on complicated topics like spelling and grammar.

·         Teachers must study syntax to understand how students acquire the language.

·         Studying syntax gives us many answers for many questions we used to ask when we were in elementary schools and no one told us the right response. As well as, it is the answer to the students’ questions that they might ask us as future teachers.

·         Syntax helps teachers to develop set of rules that we mainly call parameters. Some linguists said that all languages have the same parameters which we call the universal grammar. (Chomsky-1928)

·         The study of syntax includes the study of the function of the words within a phrase or a sentence. So teachers have to recognize this to help students understand words in sentences or phrases and their corresponding positions.

In conclusion, syntax is a very important skill that future teachers should acquire. Syntax is the study of the principles and processes by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Syntactic investigation of a given language has as its goal the construction of a grammar that can be viewed as a device of some sort for producing the sentences of the language under analysis. (Noam Chomsky) 

How can we Turn Lebanon Green?

How we can Turn Lebanon Green?

Three Possible Ways


1. Reduce Pollution:
                     “Being Environmentally Friendly” 

•        Walk or ride Your bike whenever possible
•        Use public transportation
•        Recycle and Reuse 
•        Stop burning
•        Plant more

2. Save Money by: 

•        Save water
•        Save energy
•        Grow your own food 

3. Green your homes and make them smaller:

•        Live in a normal size house
•        Try to make less rooms
•        Try to make bigger gardens around 

How to Manage your Anger

I will share with you some tips to reduce your anger

•Recognize your anger signs. Like fast heartbeats and weakness. When these signs are recognized, then you will be able to calm down.

•Count to ten before saying or acting. You will be able to rethink of what your doing.

•Breathe slowly alone in any corner. 

•Exercise. Run, walk or swim.

•Listen to music and dance.

•Express your feelings to another person. You may feel better. 

Bridge Plan

Helping Others

(From Learn English Kids-British Council)  

Parents should teach their children to help others in many different ways. They should be role models to their kids. As long as parents are helping others in front of their sons or daughters, as long as the kids are learning a moral habit that they would do till the end of their lives. I'd like to make a copy of this "fact file" example and hang on the wall or on the fridge in my house, so my kids will always remember it.

Learning is about People

So people are much more important that theories, methods, strategies, ways, researches…etc. before thinking about that, we have to think about the learners themselves. We know that people learn better when they feel positive about it. How do we as English teachers foster the students’ positive self-image?

One of the best things is to appreciate students work. Students would feel proud of their achievements and they would feel more confident, in addition they would give more. Also the teacher would praise a student among his/her friends. This would encourage competition between students and it would create a good relation between the teacher and the student. For instance, I’m a TD student and I love when a teacher praises me in front of my classmates, so how about the younger learners!

Hinduism

Hinduism is a name of a religion that encourages my curiosity to read more about. Hinduism is a religion of over a billion people and the world oldest religion. It is at least 3500 years old and it is the third largest religion after Christianity and Islam. Hindus consider that their religion is a way of life.

In addition, Sanskrit is the ancient language for the Hindus and they have a river was known by “Sindhu” but later they named it Hindu which is the name of the religion nowadays. So the people that were living around the river became Hindus. What is really interesting about this religion is that they have seven beliefs:

1.      Belief in a one universal soul: this soul is known as Brahman and he is the source of all reality as well as the material that made this universe.

2.      Belief in an immortal individual soul. This means when you die your soul moves to an another body. This is known as Atman.  

3.      Belief in Karma: They are actions that affect souls in the present and the future. For example, Karmic actions such as bulling, affects a person today and a 100 years later.

4.      Belief in Moksha: Hindus achieve Moksha when they realize their way to Brahman.

5.      Belief in Vedas: Vedas are their four books. The Rig Veda, The Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda.

6.      Belief in cyclical time: for Hindus there are no beginnings nor endings. According to them, time is a cycle of four parts and they believe that we are now in the final part.

7.      Belief in Dharma: this maintains balance of the universe. Each creature has its own Dharma. For instance, the Dharma of a whale is to eat fish in order to survive. Or learners Dharma is to achieve success.

Hindus have no prophet, no ONE GOD and no holy books unlike other religions. On the other hand, a Hindu person should have four goals to achieve: Balance in the Dharma, true prosperity, pleasure in body and mind and Moksha which is the release of the soul.

Meanwhile, Hindus have to get rid of six temptations:

1.      Materialism

2.      Anger

3.      Greed

4.      Power

5.      Pride

6.      Jealousy

(https://www.history.com/topics/religion/hinduism, n.d.)