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CMC RESEARCH PAPER

Computer Application in Language Learning

ENGL 4740 Section 2

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC):

Analyzing Language Features in YouTube Comments

Prepared by:

Adilah Husna Binti Ibrahim (1318922)

Nur Syakirah Binti Mohd Rashid (1312206)

Nurul Syafieqah Binti Jaafar (1313302)

Nurul Syafiqah Binti Zainal Abidin (1316566)

This paper is a partial fulfilment for the requirement of ENGL 4740 Section 2 instructed by Dr. Rozina Abdul Ghani, Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Semester 2, 2016/2017.

1.0  INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

       In today’s world, face-to-face communication is no longer the only mean that messages can be transmitted. In fact, with the advanced technologies available these days, communications can take place through computers where messages can be reached to its intended receiver without having to physically attend to one another. Such thing is called as Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). According to McQuail (2005), CMC is defined as ‘any communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more networked computers’ (as cited in Yu, 2011).  In other words, a communication occurs with the use of computers made by both, the sender and receiver. CMC is divided into two forms which are; first, synchronous where the communication takes place in a real time and second, asynchronous where the communication takes place in a time lag. This study is looking at asynchronous communication where YouTube comments, one of the examples of asynchronous communication, are being made as the corpus to be analysed in this study.

       YouTube which was launched on May 2005, is a platform not only enables its users to watch and share their videos, it also enables them to interact to one another through the comment sections whereby they can discuss on the topic of the video viewed. For instance, the users would discuss on how well the archer performed in a game.

       This paper aims to look at YouTube comments particularly from one of the videos from YouTube which is “The best archery shots ever! Olympics, London 2012” as our topic is focused on sports. The video chosen shows the highlights of some of the best shots done by the athletes from different countries during Olympics Games in 2012. The comments posted by YouTube users on the mentioned video will be analysed based on three frameworks chosen which are; language features specifically jargons, language deviations (grammatical deviation and graphological deviation), and politeness (positive politeness and negative politeness). By looking at the frequency of these language features, it will determine the type of language used (either formal or informal language) by the commenters. These will be discussed further.

1.2 Purpose of Study

The purpose of this study is to look at the language features used by YouTube commenters.

1.3 Research Questions

What is the frequency of jargons in the corpus?

What is the frequency of language deviation in the corpus?

What is the frequency of politeness in the corpus?

To what extent is the language depict formal or informal discourse?

1.4 Significance of Study

This study can be contributed for the researchers who are doing a study on language in online communication especially YouTube comments. Apart from that, teachers can also be benefitted from this to spread the awareness to their students on how to use their language in online communication.

2.0  LITERATURE REVIEW

Study 1

Title: A Classification Scheme for Content Analyses of YouTube Video Comments

Year: 2013

Author: Madden Amy, Ruthven Ian and McMenemy David

URL: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JD-06-2012-0078

Journal of Publication: Journal of Documentation

Purpose: This study investigates the Youtube comments and classifies the type of comments as a way to find out how the Youtube users communicate and express their opinion.

Statement of Problems: The rapid changes of the internet has made an increase in the user’s participation in uploading content, sharing and recommending content, and leaving comments and giving ratings. The internet has divided into two main types of social websites which are people-focused and activity-focused. The clear line between these types are becoming blurred as whether social websites incorporate people-focused features or activity-focused.

Research Questions:

How do people use this community aspect of YouTube?

What are the communicative purposes of this community?

Methodology: Content Analysis

Sampling: The sampling was done by using the “Browse” option and chose the videos by their category. The videos were selected according to the “Most Discussed” videos of the previous month. The videos are specifically chosen by looking at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th most commented videos in each category.

Framework: Previous studies done by Jansenet al.(2009) and Parket al.(2008) were looked at to make comparison and contrast of the comment categories in order to produce one in this study.

Procedure: The researchers analyzed 66,637 of the user comments on YouTube videos and later produced a classification schema as a reference before labelling the types of the comments.

Findings:

Ten broad categories and;

58 subcategories which reflect the wide-ranging use of the YouTube comments facility.

Discussion: The researchers have proposed a classification scheme that includes covers impressions, advice, opinions, and comments based on the use of YouTube itself. There is also an unusual comment whereby the users use it to pay tributes to the deceased, expressing personal desires and making recommendations on how to behave. It is a subjective matter at how to categorize personal reactions and impressions type of comments thus the researchers agreed that to do a research based on opinion-mining and also to research on video indexing through textual annotations. The categorization of the comments can be done based on the content of the comment alone however, the researchers also need to watch the video closely.

Study 2

Title: Leave a Comment! An In-Depth Analysis of User Comments on YouTube

Author: Peter Schultes, Verena Dorner, and Franz Lehner

Year: 2013

URL: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=wi2013

Journal of Publication: Wirtschaftsinformatik Proceedings 2013

Statement of Problem: Youtube comments has been regarded as the most known features of Youtube but at the same time it brings a lot of debatable issues. Although Youtube comments are treated as non-ethical and only hold a little value but there are still numbers of comments being posted every day.

Purpose of study:  This study is being done to clarify the differences in user attitudes and behavior according to the propose comment classification approach. With this approach, it will provide the researchers with a data of significant aspects found in the YouTube comments.

Research questions:

What are the added value that YouTube comments offer?

How can we measure the value of YouTube comments?

What are the influence of identified comment types on users’ rating behavior?

Methodology: Explorative study

Sampling/corpus:

The researchers begin     by finding a corpus of YouTube comments with a large amount of words.

Next, they     developed a formal model for the comments and applied the data mining     methods.

An in-depth     analysis of 136.854 comments of different 304 videos on YouTube is being     conducted. The videos are taken from the date between 03.15.2012 and     03.21.2012.

After that,     through YouTube Data API, the comments were put together for subsequent     analysis.

The videos were     chosen automatically from the feeds such as ‘most popular’ or ‘most     viewed’ according to selected region Great Britain, North America and     Germany.

There are a few     particular video categories that need to be chosen and each of them need     to have a minimum of five videos.

The researchers     decided to only took the videos that reached at least 50 comments while     the videos are going through the evaluation period.

All of the sample     chosen characterized the most famous videos in the specific region during     the time.

Frameworks:

Discussion (T1),

Inferior post (T2)

Substantial comment (T3)

Procedure:

The researchers came out with a two-tiered classification approach to make it easier for them to collect structured information on the comment type and quality.

Next, they lead an explorative study in order to confirm the validity of their research model and suppositions.

They proved that YouTube comments can also be analyzed semantically.

In order to find out the elements that affected the comment types, the researchers look over users’ rating behavior.  

Findings:

The purpose of the study was to identify the type of comments based on the three frameworks; discussion (T1), inferior post (T2) and substantial comment (T3).

It is found that the immoral image of YouTube comments come from the high numbers of T2 comments.

However, some of the users still make value of the comments by contribute to the amount of comments coming from TI and T3.

With the usage of the classification approach, the researchers successfully found out the salient features of YouTube comments.

Discussions: The study benefit on the awareness of people to accept YouTube comments as valuable. The comments written actually reflected how people think of online videos. With this study, people are now able to identify the major features of a comments that could provide added value for the users. Hence, the data obtained from this paper could give a glimpse of how online comments should be written.

Study 3

Title:   Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement?

Year:  2014

Author: Patricia G. Lange

URL:http://www.academia.edu/24334253/Commenting_on_YouTube_rants_Perceptions_of_inappropriateness_or_civic_engagement

Journal of Publication: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

Statement of Problem: There were quite a number of video makers addressing the camera to rant about issues such as unfair copyright policies and confusing layout changes on YouTube’s video pages.

Purpose of Study: This study examines the impressions of the viewers via text commentaries posted to rant videos whether the videos were regarded as inappropriate or if the commenters chose to support the ranter emotionally.

Research Questions:

Are rant videos that identify problems about YouTube considered by viewers to be inappropriate?

Are the viewers who post text comments interested in or offended by the form, content, or emotional timbre of rant videos?

How do commenters react to the emotional pitch of the rant videos?

Methodology: Qualitative study

Sampling/ corpus:

   The corpus was taken from the comments of YouTube Videos under rant videos posted in YouTube. There were a total of 35 videos in the corpus to be analysed.

Framework:

Inappropriateness and impoliteness

Procedure:

35 videos that were found on search list with the term ‘‘rants’’ were included in the corpus (4 found videos plus the first 31 eligible videos returned by the search list)

The researcher analysed a corpus of 330 comments that were taken from 35 videos. From each videos, 10 comments were selected randomly. But for videos that had less than 10 comments, all the comments were analysed.

Findings:        

There were many text commenters which     respond to the rants showing their support and empathy to the ranter.

But, there were very few commenters that     regards the rants as impolite or inappropriate.

There were around 107 or 32% comments that     shows supports directly or indirectly to the ranter. The supports included     words or phrases and also the number of “Like” the videos could get.

Discussion:

People like rant videos because they agree     with the content and some of them will express their support through text     comments or “Like”.

Most commenters did not find the rant to     be improper or impolite based on the corpus that has been analysed.

People did not react emotionally towards     the videos. Instead, some of the commenters would give their support to     the ranter through comments.

3.0  METHODOLOGY

3.1 Sampling

The analysed data is a corpus which consists of 1104 words. The corpus was obtained from the comment section of a YouTube video that is entitled “The best archery shots ever! Olympics, London 2012”.

3.2 Research Design

This study is a qualitative study where the corpus is analysed to look at the frequency of language features which are language deviation, jargons and politeness were being used among the commenters. Next, the elements that influence these usages are also being analysed.

3.3 Frameworks

This study is based on the following frameworks of linguistic features including grammatical deviation, graphological deviation, jargon, positive politeness, negative politeness, formal and informal language.

Linguistic features

1)      Linguistic deviation: “A work of art in some way deviates from norms which we, as members of society, have learnt to expect in the medium used” (Leech, 1969).

         I. Grammatical deviation: “Leech (1968) states the types of grammatical deviation can bedrawn between morphology and syntax. In morphological deviation, it willanalyze from the grammar of the word. While, the syntactical deviation ismore about the grammar of how words pattern with sentences.” (as cited in Widayanti, 2014)

         II. Graphological deviation: “Graphological deviation is deviation on the form of word, especially in spelling. According to Leech (1968), to the extent thatspelling represents pronunciation, any strangeness of pronunciation will bereflected by strangeness of written form.” (as cited in Widayanti, 2014)

2)      Jargon: “Language and vocabulary that is peculiar to certain people in a trade, profession, or other group.” (Jessica Ong Hai Liaw, 2013).

3)      Politeness: “Politeness in an interaction can then be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person’s face. In this sense, politeness can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness” (Yule, 1996).

           I.  Positive Politeness: “A face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face will tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both speakers want the same thing and they have a common goal ” (Yule, 1996).

           II. Negative Politeness: “A face saving act which is oriented to the person’s negative face will tend to show deference, emphasize the importance of the other’s time or concerns, and even include an apology for the imposition or interruption” (Yule, 1996).

4)      Formal and informal language:

             I. Formal language: Occurs in a formal situation where the use of languages tend to be objective, polite and standard form of lexis (Eggins, 2004).

            II. Informal language: Occurs in informal situations where we tend to use words that express our attitudes. It usually includes the use of attitudinal lexis, slang and abbreviation and swearing (Eggins, 2004).

The following table shows the features of formal and informal language drawn by Suzanne Eggins (2004):

4.0  FINDINGS

       Based on the corpus, the total number of linguistic deviations is 50.5 out of 100.3. Linguistic deviations are divided into two which are grammatical deviation and graphological deviation. Grammatical deviation includes errors in sentence structure and deviates from general norm. On the hand, graphological deviation involves spelling errors, short form, capitalization and any punctuation that alters the actual meaning especially the possessive markers. The total number of grammatical deviation is 12 while graphological deviation is 56. It is found out that there are 48 jargons being used in the corpus, and a total number of politeness is 17. Politeness is categorized into two which are positive politeness with a total number of 7 while 12 for negative politeness.

          According to the graph shown above, the language features with the highest percentage is graphological deviation with 41.5%. Among them are; its, i, r, Think, ull, im, traind, every Day and wich. Meanwhile, the language feature with the lowest percentage is positive politeness 5.2%. Some of the positive politeness used by the YouTube commenters are; Hi, hope you are all well!, yeah that’s what i mean, and I wish you peace, and may this noble art of ours live on!.

          In the findings, it can be seen that both grammatical deviation and negative politeness share the same percentage which is 9%. Several examples for grammatical deviation are; control thing, bring you bow and Some technique whereas examples for negative politeness are; I would love to see you, oh my where do I start, and I think that. While jargon is the second highest percentage of the language features with 35.6% where they used terms such as; traditional shooting, ash Longbow, and war archers.

5.0 Discussion

          Based on the findings, it shows that the graphological deviation is the highest language feature used by the YouTube commenters. The reason behind this to occur is that it is believed that the commenters do not observe their language while commenting which causes spelling mistakes and capitalization misused such its, thats and im without including the apostrophe (‘). According to Jyoty Raj (2015), another reason that causes the graphological deviation to occur is to make an emphasis. An example that can be found is will take me Years. From this sentence, it shows that the commenter wanted to emphasize that it will take many years for him or her to be able to shoot at a 70-metre distance. There is minor errors found under grammatical deviation, this happens because they are probably not aware of their language in the discussion such as the repetition of very in very very difficult. This reason is similar to the graphological deviation. Another possible reason is due to the commenters’ lack of language proficiency in English language. This can be found as in the sentence They also train mentally a lot. In this sentence, train mentally could be interpreted as mental training thus this shows the lack of English proficiency of the commenters as the errors is transparent.

          As the chosen corpus discussed on sport specifically archery, jargons are used by the commenters in the discussion. Among the jargons used are real bows, war archers and perfect shot. The use of jargon is common among people who share a similar interest or profession. In the corpus, the jargons mentioned by the commenter shows that they are interested in archery because it could only be understood among them.

          Other than that, the researchers also found out that the commenters used politeness in their comments. The frequency of negative politeness is higher than positive politeness. This is because most of them have their own opinions on the issue discussed. Several examples of negative politeness in the corpus are; no it wouldn’t and I don’t think I’m getting your point. According to Yule (1996), people may use negative politeness to be less direct, not apparent and the sentence structure would usually be more complex (p.65). This can be seen in the corpus such as; “But hey, I could be mistaking, so if you manage to do a perfect shot at 70m and record it, please let me know” and “Also, have you ever tried archery? Because if you did you would normally know that 70 metres is pretty far if you want to be precise and consistent.”. In both of the sentences mentioned the commenters implicitly being sarcastic by using longer sentences in their comments. However, it should be noted that to identify sarcasm readers need to look at the context of the discussion and have a shared knowledge of the language used.

          In contrast, the used of positive politeness in the corpus are not as frequent compared to negative politeness. Lange (2007) mentioned “publicly private” in her article, which talks about how the Youtube users disclose their identity online. By doing so they tend to point out their opinions more openly online than in real life. The reason is that they feel more comfortable as they are anonymous to others. This lead to the use of positive politeness lesser than negative politeness in the corpus.

          From the findings, the researchers have concluded that the language used in the corpus can be both formal and informal due to the balanced percentage displayed. The percentage of both are 49.8% as for formal which includes positive politeness, negative politeness and jargons and 50.2% as for informal which includes grammatical and graphological deviation. This indicates that there is not much difference between the two results. The language used by the commenters depicts a formal discourse as they used politeness, careful turn-takings and jargons which these features are among formal language features listed by Eggins (2004). Despite the formality used by the commenters, the corpus could also be considered as an informal discourse because the significant number of graphological deviation committed by them. Abbreviated forms which falls under informal language according to Eggins (2004) is part of graphological deviation. For that reason, the language in the corpus can neither be ruled as formal or informal discourse.

6.0 Conclusion

        YouTube is being recognized as one of the biggest platform for people to share videos as well as communicating through user comments or like button. The comments being posted can either be related to the content or unrelated depends on the category of the YouTube videos.

       As mentioned by Dorner et al, there are a lot of negative perceptions on YouTube comments by the public (2013). They normally perceive YouTube comments as unethical and that it only hold very little value of information (Dorner et al, 2013). However, based on this study, most of the comments have added value for people who share the same interest. This shows that YouTube comments can also be treated as a place to share information between users.

       Apart from that, as reported by Dorner, Lehner and Schultes (2013) in their analysis of user comments on YouTube, about 20% of all comments in categories like Sports and Gaming are part as a discussion thread. It is also mentioned that in sports category, users would usually comment on the content of the video or any particular scene appear in the video posted (Dorner et al, 2013). This can be found in the researchers’ corpus where most of the comments are related to the content of the YouTube video itself. The analysed corpus shown that discussion thread existed a lot in sports category. This is because majority of the comments taken in the corpus are part of the discussion thread where it is consists of replies from the user to the previous comment.

       YouTube can also be a platform for researchers to analyse some linguistic features used by the commenters. There are varieties of YouTube categories on particular topic such as music, gadgets, education and fashion. In this study, the video chosen is “The best archery shots ever! Olympics, London 2012”. The selected comments on the video are being analysed based on the frequency of the particular language features to find out whether it depicts more toward formal or informal discourse.

The findings show that the YouTube commenters in sport like archery choose to use both formal and informal discourse in their conversation. The frequency of the particular language features help the researchers to have a better looking of the result. There are a lot of jargons used to indicate the usage of formal lexis in formal discourse. However, the high percentage of graphological deviation shows that most of them are not aware of the errors made where it depicts more toward informal discourse. In addition, this study shows that YouTube commenters of a particular category such as sport may use several linguistic features that is generally accepted by the group of people commenting. Thus, the researchers concluded that the commenters are neutral in the usage of both formal and informal discourse.

References

Amy, M., Ian, R., & David, M. (2013). A classification scheme for content analyses of YouTube video comments. Journal of Documentation, 69(5), 693-714. doi: 10.1108/JD-06-2012-0078.

Bin Yu (2011). Computer-Mediated Communication Systems. Triple C 9(2). Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.899.9921&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Eggins, S. (2004). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Hossein Pirnajmuddin & Vahid Medhat (2011). Language Deviation in Poetry Translation: An Investigation into the English Renderings of Shamlu’s Verse. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2(6), 1330. doi: 10.4304/jltr.2.6.1329-1336.

Jessica Ong Hai Liaw (2013). Language Usage of Jargon and Slang in Strategic Studies. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4), 662. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281493093_Language_Usage_of_Jargon_and_Slang_in_Strategic_Studies.

Lange, P. G. (2014). Commenting on YouTube Rants: Perceptions of Inappropriateness or Civic Engagement? Journal of Pragmatics, 73, 53-65. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/24334253/Commenting_on_YouTube_rants_Perceptions_of_inappropriateness_or_civic_engagement.

Schultes, P., Dorner, V., & Lehner, F. (2013). Leave a Comment! An In-Depth Analysis of User Comments on YouTube. Wirtschaftsinformatik Proceedings 2013, 42, 659-672. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=wi2013.

Sukasih Ratna Widayanti (2014). A Stylistic Study of Language Deviation in Thomas Hardy’s The Ruined Maid. Magistra, 26(90), 53-58. Retrieved from http://journal.unwidha.ac.id/index.php/magistra/article/view/460.

Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Great Clarendon Street, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Appendices

Posted comments in Youtube Video:  “The best archery shots ever! Olympics, London 2012”.

middle earth/larp/archery 2 months ago

it would have been harder with a real bow

archery is life 3 weeks ago

as far as I know those are real bows

middle earth/larp/archery 3 weeks ago

archery is life with real bow i mean wooden with no helping equipments

archery is life 2 weeks ago

Well I can't contradict you on that, doing this with a traditional bow would be near impossible

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life no it wouldnt

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life they r not even that far from the target. war archers shot from long distance and close

archery is life2 weeks ago

yes war archers shot from further away and were pretty good, but their goal wasn't to be precise, it was to shoot at a general direction at the same time as other archers (for long range). But hey, I could be mistaking, so if you manage to do a perfect shot at 70m and record it, please let me know

archery is life 2 weeks ago

Also, have you ever tried archery? Because if you did you would normally know that 70 meters is pretty far if you want to be precise and consistent.

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life will take me Years. but my point is that u said it was impossible. its not its just very hard. and no im not saying that war archers was more skilled than these People but if the war archers had this equipments then i Think theyd Hit The bulls eye

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life What do u mean archery? im doing combat and mounted archery

archery is life 2 weeks ago

Well I said near impossible as in very very difficult, so I guess we agree on that point. And I'm sorry I didn't actually read your name of looked closely at your profile picture so I didn't know you were an archer but in that case I don't understand why you are saying that 70m is not that far. I mean its not difficult to hit a target at 70m, but making a perfect shot is. Also I don't think I'm getting your point about the war archers that could probably shoot like that with modern equipment (and some change in the form).

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life yeah thats what i mean with not that far. its hard to get the bulls eye but ull hit.

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life well u see war archers traind every Day in hours. and that why i Think that all war archer would do better then them (without equipment)

archery is life 2 weeks ago

well olympic archers also train everyday for hours, it's their job. They can shoot more than 800 arrows a day. They also train mentally a lot.

middle earth/larp/archery 2 weeks ago

archery is life nah some Times they take vication but still they use equipment wich makes it harder for them when they shot with out them

archery is life 2 weeks ago

The equipment does make it easier to be consistent, but it does not erase the need for perfect form. Olympic archers do not depend on their accessories. If an archer's form is wrong by only a millimeter while shooting, the shot at 70 meters will be off by centimeters. The accessories don't do that much in reality. A lot f the accessories control thing that you couldn't normally control. There are only 3 accessories that affect things that the archer could technically control. The sight (lets you aim), the clicker (makes you have a millimeter precise draw length, only if you know how to use it) and the stabilizers (makes a steadier aim). In fact, I think that war archers would be trash at shooting a modern recurve, because it simply isn't what they are used to. If I were to try mounted archery, I would shoot very poorly, and if you were to try modern recurve, you would shoot badly too. I just don't think we can compare different styles of archery.

Kätyri nro 16 months ago

You pencil neck shooters don't have even a guts to shoot real medieval bow. You can't hold 200lbs ash warbow and aim for ten hours to shoot bullseye from even 10m far. I've got homemade english ash Longbow and it is real hard to pull 90% off its force even I benchpress 250lbs and around ten years of weightlifting. You got no lasersights or any aim but your eyes and your killer instinct. "Perus paska suoritus"- Seppo Räty. Finnish Javelin Real Master

Ben Coyle 5 months ago

Kätyri nro1 oh my where do I start. This is a different style of shooting to traditional shooting, no professional archer would say that their style is "best" because it is an each to their own sport. Secondly, I would love to see you shoot a 10 ring at 70 meters. And finally, if you would like to be able to draw your bow then it may be beneficial for you to learn the Anatomy of an archer, the muscles used in the draw and hold of the bow are not your arms or chest, so it does not matter much how much you can "bench". The muscles you use are your shoulders and your back, if you watch a few videos on this then it should aid in your archery ability allowing you to draw your bow properly.

Ben Coyle 5 months ago

Kätyri nro1 also what's this about laser sights?

Nanorisk 5 months ago (edited)

You loud dinosaur don't have the guts to take your bow to a competition. Stop whining and bring you bow to the Olympic, if you win you can say whatever the fuck you want. An archer is judged on the ability to hit the target, not by how heavy the bow you own or how heavy you can bench, nothing else matters, especially not whining. And all proper archer has some technique in aiming and none of them rely on instincts, only the stupid fuck claims they aim by instinct.

Thunder Foot 1 month ago (edited)

Hi, hope you are all well! Both forms of archery are very different and their objectives are different, it'd be unfair to compare them. Modern competitive olympic archery is all about placing a arrow on the target very accurately - but the traditionalists will argue that its hardly an arrow by any standards, more like a needle/dart with little to no damage or killing potential (these arrows would barely pierce a jacket from 20yards). From their perspective they are correct, but they need to understand thats not what modern archery was designed for. Traditional archery however is about damage, range, firing speed and functionality (shooting while running or horseback are common) with the tradeoff being that its not as accurate as modern archery. - Can we all agree that the best archer is the one thats well rounded in all forms of archery? both old and new! :-) I wish you peace, and may this noble art of ours live on!

Androandroandrica Len 3 weeks ago

i bet you cant even pull 50 pounds bow

[compassionapp-blog]

REFLECTION 9

One of our assessments for Computer Applications in Language Studies course is to do a mini research on CMC. Dr. Rozina gave us a duration of four weeks to work on the research. Within the given times, we have encountered two problems regarding the assignment on CMC. Since it is a group work, we worked as team to resolve these issues.

The first problem that we encountered was regarding the research questions. When we designed our research questions, we did not think thoroughly how they would affect our purpose of study, significance of study and also our findings and discussion. Thankfully, we realized our mistakes during our appointment with Dr. Rozina and she guided us how to design our RQs. We looked back at our corpus and frameworks as well as the sample assignments from the previous semester as how to conduct research questions. We also looked at the past research related to analyzing Youtube commenters and how the research questions need to be aligned with the purpose of study and they all must be answered in the discussion part. And as a team, we brainstormed our ideas to come out with the right research questions based on the past research.

The second problem we faced was the analysis part. We were stuck at the calculation of the findings. Nonetheless, this was resolved quickly as we discussed among each other to look at the words since our frameworks focused more on the words and phrases rather than the whole sentence. We also looked at the sample assignments from the previous assignments as a guidance to our assignment.

Overall, the issues were resolved smoothly as each member gave their full cooperation. Even though we worked our hardest to complete the assignment to a perfection we cannot deny that problems will always arise in conducting research. However, these problems have given us more motivation in completing the assignment and we also learned how to conduct research properly this time.

[compassionapp-blog]

REFLECTION 8

With the existence of technology, Islamic teachings can be easily spread to non-Muslims no matter where they are. In other words, the teachings are within their reach. In today’s world, one of the most common ways to spread the Islamic teachings is through social media.

These days, Islamic teachings are widely spread on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social media. There are many Muslim scholars share their thoughts through those platforms. Our group members take this opportunity to share the Facebook and YouTube posts and retweet the tweets posted by the scholars on their feeds. By doing these, we believe that other people especially our social media friends and followers will benefit from our shares and retweets. After all, Islam does encourage its believers to share messages of Islam to others as it is regarded as a good deed and rewards will be given by Allah S.W.T. Other than that, the posts that we have shared and retweeted would be reminders to our friends and followers as mankind easily forget.  

Other than sharing posts, we also promotes Islamic teachings regarding to female Muslims’ dress code where the photos that we upload on Instagram and Facebook follow the rules that Allah S.W.T. has outlined. This includes covering our aurah properly (including our friends and family members’ aurah). If our aurah is not properly covered, the photo will not be posted on our social media. Physical appearance is important because many people judge others physically. So we adhere to the dress code to avoid any misunderstanding to be occurred and to portray how a good Muslim should be for the non-Muslims to look at.

Moreover, Islam does not favour plagiarism as Allah says in the Qur’an “Allah does command you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due” (An-Nisa: 58). From this Qur’anic verse, it shows that it is crucial to give credits to the owner of the ideas which we use. Therefore, all the posts and videos we shared and retweeted, we shall give credits to the owners.

Last but not least, in the future, as there are some of us want to be a writer and a lecturer, they have the intention to publish articles whether it is scholarly or non-scholarly done about Islam to clear out misconceptions that non-Muslims have as well as to preserve the Islamic teachings for the future generations to refer to.

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REFLECTION 7

In today’s teaching world, educators established a new way of studying English language in a way to enhance their students’ English language proficiency. This is done by analyzing corpora. Corpora refer to texts which consist of billions of words. This corpus based study requires students to analyze and critically look at linguistic features that can be found in it; whether the language features follow the linguistic rules or not.

By integrating corpus based study in their syllabus, the learners are able to enhance their English language proficiency especially their writing skills. This is where the learners would develop their confidence in using English language in writing. This is because as they analyse their corpus, syntactically speaking, they are exposed to types of sentences; simple, compound and complex sentences and how to use them. Other than that, the learners also would enhance their proficiency morphologically where they will learn how words are placed in a correct place, what tenses would suit the best to the corpus being looked at and what inflectional forms involved to portray the tenses. In addition, this teaching strategy would help the learners to increase their English vocabulary as they going through text with thousands of words.

In conclusion, corpus based study would help the learners in enhancing their English language proficiency. Not only they get to see how the language should be written according to the English language properties, they would develop their language awareness about how important to use the language correctly so that the intended meaning of their message is delivered correctly.

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REFLECTION 6

We are needed to reflect on the lecture given by Madam Mazni, a Phd student of Dr. Rozina. In her lecture, she explained to us about her research on CMC which she has been working on since last year. Her research paper is on negotiation of meaning in online forum discussion (OLFD). In negotiation of meaning, she observed the coherence of the discussion based on the topics that has been specified. If any of the participants deviated from the topic, there would be someone to re-state the topic again to prevent the discussion from ending. She had chosen CMC as her research because it is a trend in ICT and it is undeniable that almost all of us are already being immersed in technology. Nowadays, people are both physically and mentally attached to their smartphones and without realizing it, we would feel disconnected from the world if our smartphones are not with us.

Apart from that, people could change their personality in virtual communication and tend to talk more than what they usually does in actual life. This is actually some of the benefits of online forum discussion (OLFD) because it gives an opportunity to those who are too shy to interact face to face. Some people would become more confident when interacting online because they are not actually confronting the person whom they are talking to. Other than that, Madam Mazni showed to us how she analysed her data using atlas.ti. Atlas.ti is actually a software to analyse corpus data in a systematic way. However, to be able to use it skilfully, she needed to attend a few workshops for her to be familiar with the software.  

From her lecture, the students could get a rough idea on how a Phd research should be conducted if they are considering to continue for postgraduate study. A research should be done critically and it should not be taken for granted. This is because research is a discovery of new knowledge. It is common for researchers to sacrifice their time while conducting a research in order to reach the expected result or finding. Indeed, there are a lot of things that needed to be considered before we decided to further our study. But, it was never too late for someone to further their studies. This is because learning process is an ongoing process and only death could stop us from it.

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REFLECTION 5

CMC has very much affected our lives as nowadays we mostly communicate through technology even with those who live close to us or the people we meet every day. We use IM such as WhatsApp to communicate, blogs or bulletin boards for a discussion and other various forms. Using these technologies for different purposes, it is difficult to say whether CMC falls under formal or informal discourse.

When we think of formal discourse, our first thought would be a formal discussion with an assigned topic and the discussion usually sticks to the context and it is coherent and cohesive. The language used is formal and polite although there might be few users who may use profanities. This kind of discussion can be found in Bulletin Boards, Online forums where we can find a heated discussion being debated among the users. The topic can be a serious or even a free topic is acceptable too. To make it a formal discourse, the discussion must be kept for coherent and cohesive purpose and a moderator should also be present to get the discussion going. Although, we mentioned of bulletin boards and online forums, clearly any kind of applications are acceptable such IM, video conferencing, blogs, social networks and others as long as there is a real discussion, the language used is formal and does not breach the online netiquette.

Therefore, we can consider that CMC is geared more toward a formal discourse because we mainly use CMC to communicate something which leads to a discussion. CMC can also be an informal discourse, however this happens mostly among friends or acquaintances. Informal discourse commonly focuses among IM users such WhatsApp, chatrooms and similar to them, and the interaction is normally on daily conversation and no specific topic. The language used is also informal as they use colloquial language.

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REFLECTION 4

Computer Mediated Communication or simply called as CMC occur when two or more people interact through networked computers. The interaction could be in the forms of text, images, voices or even videos and the purpose of the communication could be for transferring, sharing or retrieving information between people.

In the era of millenniums where every people that we bump were either carrying a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop shows how greatly CMC has affected our lives now. They could all possibly have access to any social networks available today such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. All three of the social networking sites mentioned serve the same function which is to enable people to communicate online. The virtual world of social networking can be seen as a successful form of online communication as most of the users prefer to use their online identity to communicate with others. It is noted that not all of them who use social network are considered as introverted or anti-social but some of them may feel more comfortable by expressing their emotions and opinions through words.

The existence of social networking site and instant messaging proves that people accept online interaction as another form of communication. One of the obvious examples that can be seen among IIUM community is Whatsapp group. We use Whatsapp group to discuss and convey any information of the particular subject among our classmates or friends. It can also be a Whatsapp group created for clubs, societies or any event that required instant communication. It is undeniable that face to face communication is considered as more effective in conveying messages but it is not possible to have a daily meeting as all members of the group have different time schedule. With the existence of Whatsapp group, they could easily deliver their message as long as they are connected via internet.

Other than that, bulletin boards, forum or blog are some of the places where people having a discussion online on various issues. It can be about politics, sports, education or health. Here it shows that CMC also provide an online platform for different level of ages, profession, interest or subjects in order for them to have a further conversation by changing opinions, arguments and knowledge. Hence, the use of CMC in daily life has make our communication become easier to be reached.

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LL WEBSITE

About the website developer:

Mike C. Lee

Shanghai, China

The University of Ilinois

Computer Assisted Language Learning

Arcadia,California

Facebook: leerc8

The website covered all 4 language skills:

Writing

Reading

Speaking

Grammar

Why we choose rong-chang.com?

It is unique as it provides different kind of topics to be chosen.

The reading topics are interesting.

Provide feedback so that learners can improve on their learning.

We look over the language learning website(rong-chang.com) features based on Mohamed A.Embi’s criteria.

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REFLECTION 3

Many researchers outlined the criteria of choosing a language learning website. Based on our observation, we came to a conclusion that the most important feature would be the content of the website. One of its concerns is about the information presented on the website.

In order for the website to be authentic, the content should be taken from reliable sources. If the content is taken from other sources it needs to be mentioned on the website. Preferably, the information should be recent so that it would attract the learners to use the website.Besides that, it should not contain any sensitive issues that is related to racism or religion. Some websites are designated for adult learners even though it is labelled as Beginners.The content should be useful in order for the learners to improve their language proficiency. 

Apart from the content, interactivity is also an important criteria in choosing a language learning website. When learners do activities available in the website, they will need feedback in order for them to know whether they have made mistakes or not. The feedback will function as a mean to improve their language proficiency. For example, if the feedback provide some explanation on the exercises, it will help the learners to understand the form and uses of the language better. Meanwhile if the website only provided a ‘Right’ or ‘Wrong’ feedback, the learners will exposed to discovery learning. The feedback may vary according to the websites where some will provide an elaborate ones and some may not or a mixture of both.

Thus, while looking for a language learning website, we should consider the content and the interactivity of the website as a priority.

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REFLECTION 2

In the class, we learned about CALL in LSRWG. LSRWG stands for listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar skills.

First of all, we discussed how we use computer to acquire all of the skills while learning English at school. One of our members shared her learning experience of using the computer for her listening skill in school. She watched videos in class and later she was required to complete a particular exercise. She had to fill in the blanks that is related to the previous videos shown before.

Other than that, Syakirah has also used CALL in her reading skills. She had to read playwrights and watch a movie. Later, she had to answer a comprehension exercise based on the playwrights and movie.

In the discussion, we talked about receptive and productive skills where receptive skill refers to listening and reading meanwhile productive skill refers to speaking and writing. Reading is the hardest skill to learn and assess since it needs critical thinking and understanding. It involves the learners' mind and cannot be shown explicitly unless they are tested on it.

During her learning process in school, Syakirah was asked to write a short story using computer. From that, it involved authentic uses of the language. Hence, writing can be considered as part of integrative CALL since it would expose learners to authentic discourse.

Overall, we realised that computer can be used in all of the five skills in language learning.

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CRITERIA OF LANGUAGE LEARNING WEBSITES

It is important for a language learner to choose the right websites for them to use as a medium to enhance their language proficiency. Below are the criteria in choosing the right websites drawn by researchers:

Mohamed A. Embi (2004)

Reliability • The information on the academic qualification of the author is clearly stated. • The information on the author’s contact address is clearly stated. • The biodata of the author of the website is clearly stated. • The information on the author’s expertise in his/her field is clearly stated. • The information on the author’s written works is clearly stated. • The source of information available in the website is stated clearly

User-friendliness • The options (e.g. Menu) available help me to navigate the website easily. • The neatly arranged content enables me to look for information easily. • The main path to get information (e.g. ‘Click Here’ instruction) helps me to start navigating the website easily. • The systematic classification of the links helps me to look for information easily. • The systematic classification of the content helps me to look for information easily. • The linkage to the main page on each supporting page helps me to navigate the website easily. • The complete display of the website enables me to view the content easily. • The short time to display the website enables me to start using the content in the website quickly. • The downloadable files (e.g. video clips) can be downloaded quickly.

Usefulness • The information presented in the website is useful for language learning. • The options available at the menu are useful for language learning. • Most of the links provided are useful for language learning. • The content in the website is useful as a supplement to the language lessons that are taught in class. • The information presented in the website is not available in other sources.

Suitability • The words used are easy to understand. • The instructions in the website are easy to follow. • The information presented in the website is easy to understand. • The graphics or photos used in the website could cause controversy to any individual or group learner. • The information in the website could be sensitive to any individual or group learner.

Attractiveness • The colors used make the website attractive. • The graphics used make the website attractive. • The background used makes the website attractive. • The font size used makes the website attractive. • The animations used make the website attractive. • The consistent design/style used make the website attractive.

Interactivity • The facility to become a registered member of the website functions expectedly. • When clicked, most of the available links to other websites displays the appropriate site expectedly. • The search engine in the website (e.g. ‘Google’ or ‘Yahoo’) functions expectedly. • The downloadable files functions expectedly. • When clicked, the options available at the menu display the expected contents. • The facility to give feedback/comments (e.g. via E-Mail) to the author functions expectedly. • The facility to share experience with other language learners functions expectedly. • The facility to contact other language learners (e.g. via E-Mail) functions expectedly. • The facility for online interaction (e.g. Forum) functions expectedly.

Jeong Bae Son (2005)

Purpose (i.e., Is the purpose clear? Is the content in line with the purpose? Is the Website appropriate for its targeted learner?)

Accuracy (i.e., Is the content accurate? Are spelling and grammar accurate?)

Currency (i.e., Is the Website current? Is the Website updated regularly?)

Authority (i.e., Is there information on the author? Is the author well-recognized for his or her work?)

Loading speed (i.e., Does the Website download fast? Do the content pages download efficiently?)

Usefulness (i.e., Does the Website provide useful information? Are the language activities or tasks useful?)

Organization (i.e., Is the Website well-organised and presented? Is the Website interesting to look at and explore? Are screen displays effective?)

Navigation (i.e., Is the Website easy to navigate? Are on-screen instructions easy to follow? Is it easy to retrieve information? Are hyperlinks given properly?)

Reliability (i.e., Is the Website free of bugs and breaks? Is the Website free of dead links?)

Authenticity (i.e., Are the learning materials authentic? Are authentic materials provided in appropriate context?)

Interactivity (i.e., Is the Website interactive? Are methods for user input effectively employed?)

Feedback (i.e., Is feedback on learner responses encouraging? Is error handling meaningful and helpful?)

Multimedia (i.e., Does the Website make effective use of graphics,sound and colour? Is the level of audio quality, the scale of graphics or video display appropriate for language learning?)

Communication (i.e., Can the user communicate with real people online through the Website? Is on-line help available?)

Integration (i.e., Can the learning materials be integrated into a curriculum? Does the content fit with curricular goals?)

Kartal & Uzun (2010)

Physical Characteristics • A good, user-friendly design where each part and section should be clearly seen and easy to use. • The site should allow for easy transition between sections without bothering the user by opening a lot of windows, or leading him/her to unintended places. • The color of the site should not tire the eyes of the users, and should stimulate certain nerves in the brain while also providing relaxation. • Users should be able to use online dictionaries or some other programs in concordance with the activities and exercises in the site. • Users should be able to find rich written, audio, and visual materials related to any linguistic subject or skill.

Contextual Characteristics • Users should be able to find materials appropriate for the level, subject, or type of their choice. • The materials should be up to date and authentic in order to match the needs and interest of the users. The materials should be arranged carefully under specific titles. • There should be materials of every type (e.g., written, visual, audio) for every level and every subject. • The available materials should be supported by extrinsic sources and programs such as search engines, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, papers, posters, etc. • The exercises in the site should allow for customization and contribution of the users, and be of flexible use. Learners should be able to save, delete, change, or go back or forward while doing the exercises. • The users should receive feedback, and they should be able to choose the type of feedback needed. • The construction of practice and testing tools should serve the option for learners to choose from various types and levels of exercises.

Pedagogical Characteristics • Explanation and guidance about the exercises and activities should be short and comprehensible. • Provided feedback should be informative, reinforcing, and constructive. • The content should be designed considering the innovations in the education and language teaching fields. • All materials should be at an appropriate level.

James Nyachae Michira (2017)

Goal, purpose and objective(s) • It is important to find out if the author(s) of a language teaching website have stated the purpose of the website. • This includes broad goal, specific objectives and the identification of knowledge and skills to be learnt. • A statement on the target audience or level of language learning is equally significant.

Authority and credibility • This is a critical set of criteria because the content, language skills and the pedagogical aspects of teaching a foreign language depend, substantially, on the qualifications, expertise and experience of the author or teacher. • In this case, a credible website ought to state the qualification and credentials of the authors in the given field. Is the website an individual, institutional, organizational or commercial entity? • Domain names and other website aspects can be used to establish such information.

Content and learning materials • This is the core of a website where the learner is exposed to the content. • In particular, the following key question matter when assessing a website: • Is the content and information accurate, well researched, verifiable and correct? • Is the content as well as learning materials appropriate and relevant to the target group (if it is identifiable?)? • Is the coverage and scope of the content and skills adequate (including speaking, listening, reading and writing)? • Does the website contain authentic materials? • Does the website contain content and materials in multimedia formats including text, audio and video? • Is there objectivity in the presentation of content and use of materials? Are there any biases evident? • Is the content or information current?

Pedagogical dynamics • A website may contain adequate and appropriate content but that alone may not help a leaner. • Appropriate pedagogical considerations ought to be made to enable the learner achieve the objective of learning the language successfully. • Hence, the following questions: • Is the content presented and explained in a clear manner? • Is there evidence of logical organization of content, skills and materials? • Are the methods of teaching the content and skills appropriate? • Are there learning activities like exercises, tests or even games? • Is the learning process interactive? Can the learner give and obtain feedback as well as online help? Is the help real-time or not? • Are there learning aids and tools such as bilingual dictionaries, language processing tools such as translators, search engines, among others?

Website design and ergonomics • Ergonomics refers to science of equipment design that is meant to maximize product while minimizing user fatigue and • Therefore, the overall design, structure, organization and appearance of a website contribute substantially to its effectiveness as learning platform. • How well is the website organized and structured? • Is it stable and reliable? Does it break down often or have dead links? • What about the general appearance and color harmony? • Is the website easily legible in terms of font size, style and format? • How easy is it to navigate and transition from one page to another? • Are there links and do they work? • Is the website well maintained, current and up-to-date? When was the last update done?

We have decided to choose the criteria outlined by Mohamed A. Embi (2004) as a guide for us in choosing a great language learning website for English language learners to use.

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REFLECTION 1

In four years of our studies in this beloved IIUM as BENL students, almost all of our assignments involved using computers. We have improved our critical thinking skills and language proficiency and widened our perspectives on English language. The idea of Islamization of knowledge has changed our perspectives about BENL course which is widely regarded as western teachings.

Error and Contrastive Analysis is one of the subjects that BENL students need to take. The subject involves various assessments which include spotting grammatical errors made in advertisements and interviewing a foreign student who has English as their second language. The data obtained from the interview were used to identify the differences of linguistic aspects of their first language and English language. We also learned the reasons why the grammatical and pronunciation errors were made by the participant. From this task, not only we had learned about their first language, but we also learned their culture when interviewing the participant.

The interview assignment included the three phases of the Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). We concluded that it was a behaviourist phase because the computer acted as a tutor where we listened to the conversation between us and the participant repeatedly to identify the errors made by the participant. It was also a communicative phase because we focused on the process more than the product. The lecturer also looked at our written report to look at the process and evaluate accordingly. In other words, each of the process took place to produce the final product which was the written report was evaluated. In addition, communicative CALL encourages discovery learning. This is parallel to this assignment where we discover the linguistic features of the participant’s first language. Lastly, we also believed that integrative phase had played a role too as the assignment required us to use computer as a tool for learning. First of all, we used the internet for our research on the participant’s first language. Then, we analysed the relationship between their first language and English language and why they made the errors. We also used word processor and slideshow to complete our assignments as it helped us to create documents and revised and edited our written report.

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