WEEK 10: OVERALL REFLECTION

Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah as finally we are reaching to the end of this course, and the blog has been created as it is now. Although there were lot of hardship we had gone through in order to complete the task of creating this blog, but we thank Allah for His mercy by giving us time, health, and strength so that we can come out with a blog that we hope can be beneficial for us as well as the readers. Throughout the journey of creating the blog, we have learnt a lot of things and experienced sweet and sour of a journey of creating an informative and interesting blog.

We learnt a lot through this course as we knew the history of CALL, CMC, Islamization of knowledge, corpus linguistics and other related fields. We do not only learn them, but we also try to incorporate them into language learning and try to understand how these different sub-branches are useful in helping learners to learn a language. We didn't only learn the content on this subject, but we also learnt how to use technology indirectly by creating this blog. We discovered a lot of new things as we had to dig up how to make use the tools and technology in order to complete this task. As the process of creating, designing, posting and editing the posts was time consuming, we tried to co-operate with each other with the guide from Dr.Rozina bt Abd Ghani to create an informative blog.

As the purpose of this blog is to share our limited knowledge on Islamization of knowledge and we try to focus on Islamization of Discourse Analysis, we found out that it was not an easy task to do, but we hope that our restricted knowledge on the subject  can be beneficial to the readers. This blog also allowed us to be critical and creative in thinking as we need to reflect our class discussion.That’s all from us. May Allah bless us and help us in gaining knowledge and understanding. InsyaAllah.    

WEEK 10: SUMMARY AND REFLECTION ON FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

SUMMARY ON FORENSIC LINGUISTICS from afiqah rosa khadijah awatif

REFLECTION ON FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

Forensic linguistics have become one of the branches in crime investigation. Experts in language are needed in this field since in involves the knowledge of linguistics such as stylistics, discourse analysis, phonetics and sociolinguistics. Although forensics linguistics might not be seen as important as the forensic science, it actually contributes a lot in solving criminal crimes. It can be proven through some of the cases mentioned in class that open our eyes on the need of forensic linguistics. Besides, language is being used every day. Criminals also use language. Hence, it is the job of forensic linguists in analyzing the idiosyncrasy of the people involves in crimes by looking into the language pattern in any text or spoken language. Linguist might be able to identify the status or background of the criminals through the pattern used. In the meantime, by investigating the daily interactions or language used by a person, we can identify his/her personality and characteristics. 

For instance, linguistics knowledge can help us to detect the psychological states and behavior of a person, hence, will help in criminal investigations. Besides the normal crime, forensic linguistics can also solve the increasing numbers of cyber crimes. Cyber crimes involve plagiarism, copyright infringement, threat and harassment through the internet. Thus, linguist can use their knowledge to analyze the linguistic evidences in internet. In our opinion, forensic linguistic is an interesting field of study which can help to reduce the burden of people who involve in criminal investigations. Thus, as linguistic students we need to help forensic linguistics to be more recognized and established. 

Forensic linguistics is undeniable one remarkable field of study that promotes justice. In Islamic point of view, forensic linguistics can be viewed as a medium to encourage fairness in our everyday life. As we all know, Islam stresses on the important to be just on others since the dawn of man as mentioned in the Holy Qur’an,

"Allah enjoins justice and kindness, and giving to kinsfolk, and forbids indecency and abomination and wickedness". (An-Nahl, 16:90).

As Muslims, we have been taught to uphold righteousness in our everyday life. It is our duty as the Khalifah of Allah s.w.t to do justice as stated by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), 

"For every day on which the sun rises, there is a (reward) for the one who establishes justice among people." Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Hadith 870.

 Justice has been an important concern in human history especially in crime. What is to be done when an injustice is committed? When a crime or offense like raped or murdered is committed one of the ways to solve it for both the victim and the offender is through forensic linguistics. Therefore, forensic linguistics is not only an important component in solving crime but also in social life as it could guarantee peace. 

WEEK 10: SUMMARY AND REFLECTION ON COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS

SUMMARY ON COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS from afiqah rosa khadijah awatif


REFLECTION ON COMPUTATIONAL STYLISTICS

          Every author or writer have their own distinctive styles of writing in their works. Literary works can be in the form of novels, short stories, poems, and also plays. Sometimes, they purposely stick with one style of writing to distinguish their works from other writers. Moreover, the style will become the significance features of their writing that make it easier for readers to recognize their works.

           In Computational Stylistics studies, the computer’s function is to detect the pattern and similar in style of writing. It can be done manually by people, but with the help from computer, the result became more accurate and the process is easier. A lot of time can be saved from analysing it through computer. There are many good programme and software that offers such assistance.

          As writers, it is important for them to protect their own works from being plagiarized by others. In every work done by them it is followed by their hardship and also immense effort to complete each work. So, as readers and morale people, we need to honor their works and effort by giving credit for what they have done. There is nothing wrong for us to take the ideas from them as long as it is not exceeding the limitations that comes into the door of copying or plagiarizing. The matter of plagiarizing is a misconduct that people often forget to look at. Allah s.w.t has given us the same ability and talent, we just need to improvise it and use our mind to be creative in every work that we want to do. As Allah had mentioned in Al-Quranul Kareem, in Surah Al-Kahfi, verse 84,

"Verily, We established him in the earth, and We gave him the means of everything".                                  

In this particular verse, it is clear mention about Allah s.w.t had given us the knowledge, method and ways to do anything. it is according to our own effort that makes it either useful or wasted. So in this matter, a question for us Muslim, why we need to copy or plagiarize other works if we could have done better work than others?  :)

WEEK 9: SUMMARY AND REFLECTION ON LEXICOGRAPHY

SUMMARY ON LEXICOGRAPHY from afiqah rosa khadijah awatif

REFLECTION ON LEXICOGRAPHY

Lexicography concerns with the editing, compiling, writing or making of a dictionary or also known as the principles and practices of dictionary making and linguist whose specific expertise in writing dictionaries is known as Lexicographer. There are two related fields; which are Practical lexicography which deals with art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries and Theoretical lexicography which involves with the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language. Lexicography is very important as it uses corpora to come out with dictionaries as well as grammar books. This is related to the previous part of our lesson where we learned about corpus linguistics and we knew that Lexicography is actually one of many linguistics branches that make use of corpus. 

We deduce that corpus linguistics play a vital role in producing dictionaries and grammar books as linguists must choose the most appropriate data from the corpus that reflect the most current, reliable, and relevant information for the production. We infer that dictionaries and grammar books are essential in language learning as learners must have referred to dictionaries for their vocabulary building and grammar books for the rules of the new language they are learning. As language evolves, dictionaries and grammar books also must be up to date so that learners will catch up with the progress of the language as well and use the language learned appropriately. We believe that Lexicography is an important field of study as it leads to the improvement of currently available dictionaries and creation of new dictionaries which is crucial for language learning as bilingualism or multilingualism are a common phenomenon nowadays. Development of new dictionaries in many other languages will be enormous assist for learners to learn new languages.    

Today, Islamic studies are taught and learnt through the medium of English language in addition to Arabic language. This gives opportunity for many Muslims that could not understand Arabic well but fluent in English instead to master Islamic studies as well. This can be seen in International Islamic University Malaysia where it offers Islamic Revealed Knowledge courses in English. The problem lies where certain Islamic terms are translated or being Romanized but the meaning given in dictionaries does not reflect Islamic canon at all. As English dictionaries are mostly produced by non-Muslims, there are a lot of misinterpretations of Islamic terms or certain words are given bias connotations. 

For example, halal in Islam means any actions, things, food and drinks that are permissible by Allah (s.w.t). However, Oxford Dictionary (2005) defines halal as meat from an animal that has been killed according to Muslim law and Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2008) describes halal as meat from an animal that has been killed in the way that is demanded by Islamic law, or someone who sells this meat. This shows that these dictionaries just define halal in term of meat, contrast with Islam which includes everything whether it is an action, food, drinks and anything. We feel that Muslims should engage in dictionary making as many Islamic words need correct interpretation that connote the Islamic values and increase the credibility of Islamic English. 

References

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. (3^rd Ed.). (2008). Cambridge University Press: New York

Oxford Dictionary. (2^nd Ed.). (2005). Oxford University Press: New York

   

WEEK 9: SUMMARY AND REFLECTION ON CONCORDANCE

SUMMARY ON CONCORDANCE from afiqah rosa khadijah awatif

REFLECTION ON CONCORDANCE

Concordancer is a basic tool used in corpus linguistics. It is a software for text analysis where it constructs a concordance which is a collection of the occurrences of word-form or word list. Some examples of concordance software are The Oxford Concordance Program  (OCP), Word Cruncher, TACT, The Child Language Analysis (CLAN), COALA and LMC (The Longman Mini Concordancer). Concordance is very useful and it has been used in language learning and teaching and other language research because concordance makes word lists,  arrange it, and calculate the frequency and percentage of the words based on different categories we want for example collocation, idioms proverb and so on. This is very beneficial as we can know easily one’s idiosyncrasy and this is useful in analyzing renowned writers’ works.   

Nowadays, everything that we want is always available and even some it’s just a click away. Many modern and advanced technologies have been developed by the experts in order to make human life easier. In this particular language field, concordance has been known and proven in making our works easy and simple. It is to make sure that people will not be lagged in terms of education and knowledge and will be through in achieving success and victory.

Concordancer as we all know comes in many versions of texts and language. The function is not only limited to English Language but it also has been developed to study the Arabic language.  So, there are no more excuses for those who reluctant or lazy to understand Al-Quran because concordance for instance provides the best method in analyzing the Arabic words in the Qur’an. Hence, it helps us to understand the Holy Quran better in an interactive mode. Furthermore, researchers and linguists can easily find the materials that they want. Moreover, not only researchers and professionals can reach for the function, but also for language beginners like students and normal people can have the access to it. Nevertheless of status, age, religion and occupation, we are strongly recommended by Allah s.w.t to find and discover the good knowledge, because only with knowledge, people can easily see the light and the true path of God.

WEEK 8: SUMMARY AND REFLECTION ON CORPUS LINGUISTICS

SUMMARY ON CORPUS LINGUISTICS from afiqah rosa khadijah awatif

REFLECTION ON CORPUS LINGUISTICS

Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics, Grammar, Syntax, Language Acquisition, Language Teaching, Lexicography, Psycholinguistics, Semantics, Sociolinguistics and Stylistics are some of the different areas of language study that make use of corpus in the research which help these branches of language study to improve and develop or to solve problem related to these fields. The study related to corpus is known as corpus linguistics. Corpus linguistics deals with corpora which enable the linguist to study the real language used by real people. Corpora consist of a large amount of authentic data which are real language used, whether it is in spoken or written form presented in machine readable form. The authenticity and large amount of data offer the reliability and validity of the corpus, thus lead to the reliability and validity of the research. 

The computer made the task easier as this technology can handle the huge corpus easily and accurately. We agree that technology and computer advancement have a lot of benefit to offer in linguistic study as it provides the linguists the easier way to collect, save, organize, retrieve, calculate and analyze the corpus. Computer makes the result obtained more reliable as computer is mistake free compared to human being. By knowing the existence of this corpus linguistic, we have broadened our knowledge on different branches of language studies that we can set interest in and use corpus for our future research.

In addition to that, as mentioned in our post on Islamization of Discourse Analysis, we know that Discourse Analysis is actually can  shape the perception of people about Islam and vice versa. Hence, corpus linguistics can be used to examine any type of discourse related to Islam. For instance, through research in corpus linguistics, we can know how Islam and Muslim are being represented in mass media such as newspaper and television .We know that the mass media can influence our thoughts. Thus, many anti-Islam people use mass media to spread the false belief about Islam. We can find that they often link Muslims with terrorism and fundamentalism through their discourse. (Paul Baker, 2012).  Therefore, because we have already known the false perceptions of Western people about Islam, we can use this opportunity to clear up all the misconceptions for instance by exposing the true knowledge of Islam itself.

Besides, corpus linguistics also can be used in analyzing the Islamic writings by looking at the language used. Hence, we will know how people use language to spread the teachings of Islam. It also allows us to compare all the Islamic writings to improve our knowledge of Islam. After all, even corpus linguistics can bring a great contribution to Islam. Thus, we must not forget that any branch of knowledge can be used to promote Islam to the people.

REFERENCE

Baker, P. (2012, May 25). Taylor & Francis Online. Retrieved April 12, 2013,

from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17405904.2012.688297

       

WEEK 6: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

1) How has CMC transform the dynamics of interaction?

          Computer mediated content (CMC) has actually changed the dynamics of human interaction nowadays. It evolved according to the time and technology that has been advancing to different levels and circumstances. Firstly, CMC helps us in widening our interaction scope between people regardless of place and status. For instance, we have Social Network Site (SNS) that represent ourselves in the virtual site. Starting from normal webpage such as MySpace, Friendster and MSN Chat room, many other new interactive sites such as Facebook, Tagged, Skype and Twitter have been popularized. All of these sites enable us the users to connect with everybody from any parts of the world. Information and knowledge also can be shared easily regardless of time, space and place. For example, in terms of education, we can easily connect with teachers and lecturers out of our country to share thoughts and opinions on some certain issues. Other people also can join in if they are interested with it. They can enjoy the conversation or discussion among them and can freely throw out their opinions and comments.

          Secondly, CMC can actually change the notion of someone’s attitude and behavior. It can change someone who is an introvert type of person into extrovert type. This is because usually CMC mode of interaction involves the use of electronic gadgets such computer, laptop and mobile phones. Hence, it will avoid the face to face communication which is seen as burden to some people and for that they will be more active and lively to share their opinions. In virtual conversation, they do not need to open their mouth to talk or and came up with spontaneously reply. They can leave the conversation and after a while they can continue it back. Hence, it always gives time for us to reply and edit our messages.

2) How has this transformation shape society?

          In the positive lights, CMC has built a society that is open-minded and flexible. Once they are on the SNS sites, everyone that has their own opinions and views can share it directly to the intended person or even to the public. Thus, with the light and very relaxing environment, they can simply give reactions and comments without any burden. Society also has become up-to date without missing any important event that happens in the country. Many websites provide us with information and knowledge within the tip of the finger. One cannot claim that he/she does not know about anything nowadays because all information and news are actually can be got in one click. Another important point to be discussed on is the social capital network. It simply means that people from various place, religion and culture can easily be connected with CMC modes of interaction. There is no harm in having many contacts from various people as Allah s.w.t already mentioned in Al-Quran on how we should interact and get to know each other. Surah al- Hujurat, verse 13:

          O mankind! We created you from a single (pair), of a male and a female, And made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other (Not that ye may despise (Each other). Verily, the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).

          Nevertheless, there are some downbeats of using the CMC mode of interaction in our life. CMC as the mode of communication will make us lose the social and soft skills. It means that we will not have a normal and smooth face to face conversation anymore because we tend to depend too much on CMC. The value of having people talking face to face will fade away when discussion and conversation are done virtually. For instance, if a father and a son only have their conversation through computer or over short messaging system (SMS) most of the time, their relationship will not be as good as the relationship between a father who give advices and maintain the physical contact with his son.

3) Is this mode of communication in synchronous with Islam?

          As long as the communication is not equipped with contents that are contradictory to Islamic teachings, and it does not bring any harm to the mankind, it is alright. Islam is a religion that is simple and eases the followers in every possible way. But sometimes, having a real conversation (face to face) is more convincing and solidifies the bonds among the Ummah. A conversation is more meaningful if it is beautify with body languages and gestures. It gives more meanings in thoughts and deep understanding towards the person that we talk with.