PRIMACY OF LANGUAGE DOMAINS PERTAINING TO TENYIDIE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

 

Dr. Petekhrienuo Sorhie ¹, Nokesel Sachu ¹

 

¹ Department of Tenyidie, Nagaland University, Kohima Campus, Meriema – 797003, India

 

1. INTRODUCTION

Language is a tool for communication which can be considered as the key to knowledge and the root for development and co-operation of a human society. Language is being used as the system of communication through which one can express ideas, thoughts, and feelings. According to Bloomfield, language is the totality of the utterances produced by all the people in a community. Encyclopaedia Britannica define language as a system of communication through which human express themselves and interact with each other. Thus, we can say that language is a process of communication in which we interact with each other in the form of speech sounds or written symbols to communicate on daily basis and that is what distinguishes a human from animal. In education, language plays a significant role as medium of growth and development, to pass on and receive knowledge. In learning, language is the key to pick up information and also increases the cognitive ability of an individual. Without language, human beings are no less different than animals but it is language that gives him the highest power of ability to produce speech sound or arbitrary vocal sounds through which he/she can communicate and interact with each other.

Language proficiency or linguistic proficiency is the ability of an individual to comprehend and understand what others have said and interact in appropriate manner or perform well in an acquired language. Language proficiency is the mastery of a language to listen, speak, read, and write. Tenyidie language proficiency in simple term is the ability on how well a learner can read, write, listen, and speak in Tenyidie language.

There are four language domains to find out the language proficiency of an individual. These four language domains are also known as the linguistic skills sub-divided into receptive skills and expressive skills. Listening skill and Reading skill are the receptive skills as we receive and interpret while listening and reading. Speaking skill and writing skill are the express skills, as we produce or express our ideas and feelings while speaking or writing. No individual can become proficient in any language without learning the four basic language skills. By practicing and learning the four language domains one can improve and become proficient in Tenyidie language.

 

2. Review of literature

Review of previous work done by other researcher related to studies on language skills and language proficiency have been done by the present researcher. Chronological order of literature review has been done to collect and store ideas on how to improve language skills and provide some measures to develop proficiency in Tenyidie language.

 Aydogan & Akbarov (2014) carried out a study on the four basic Language Skills to determine teaching and process of evaluation to assess the levels of English language skills. The study also focusses on assessing the uniformity among the four basic language skills and highlight the significance of consolidated language skills in English. The study implies percentages and frequencies to determine the significant difference among the basic language skills of the learners. The study used questionnaire to find out differences and improvement level of the four language skills. Internet survey tool, questionnaire and a five-point Likert scale were used to interpret the results. The study highlighted developing the right language skills is essential for language development. The result of the study shows that there is no significant difference of difficulties in using daily language skills among the learners. The result of the findings provides suggestions to learners to develop English language skills.

Dey (1991). conducted a study to investigate on aspects of English Language as a second language in West Bengal. To investigate the study the researcher included grammatical structures, contextual meaning, spelling and vocabulary, stylistic transformation, and applied grammar as area for the study. 606 students were drawn as the sample of the study, in which 304 were boys and 302 were girls for the sample of the study. English Proficiency Test (EPT) was used as the tool to collect the data. The study was tested using ANOVA, factor analysis and regression analysis. The study found that urban students showed better performance in the proficiency test in English as compared to the students in rural.

Mallillin and Castillo (2016) conducted a study on level of language proficiency using descriptive correlation research method and a purposive sampling technique with a sample of 349. Scale of measuring, standard deviation, multiple regression, and scale description were used to interpret the result. The result of the study shows that learners exposed to studying English at their early childhood improve their English proficiency. The study highlighted the result of the learners in reading, listening and speaking on language proficiency level as above average.  The study provide suggestion for the need to improvement for identifying errors and correct usage in speaking and vocabulary. The result of the study reveals that learner’s level of language proficiency variance among the four language skills.

Rao (2016) carried out a study on English language proficiency related to employability. The investigation was carried out on English language proficiency focuses on its importance and to build competencies to obtain accessible English even at international level. The study also focuses with the aim to refresh learners to acquire language proficiency in English. The study had shown a rationale report on English proficiency index of 60 countries and its rank. The result of the study reveals that low proficiency in English become a barrier to academic success, job entries or achievement in related workforce. The study also stresses on the importance that communication skills have become an essential requirement for a career at national or international level. The study has shown that English proficiency has become a key factor for the accessible communication skill of success and advancement.

Grisso (2018) examine to test to investigate the reading skill for third grade English language learners on relations to English language proficiency and academic achievement. The study examines to investigate the introducing of English language and its impact on the learners. The study employed Quantitative correlational research study in testing the hypothesis. The sample of the population was drawn from 3^rd grade of English language learners with a sample of 967. Out of 967 total students, 497 boys and 469 girls’ students were selected as the sample of the study. The result shows that there is no correlation between the introduction and receiving of English language to the learners.

Siegel & Burns (2018) carried out a study on international perspectives on teaching the four Skills in English Language Teaching. The study provides a collection of international illustration on the four language skills with an aim to draw attention to the ways of the four language skills that have being perceived and categorized in English language teachers. The study also presented theoretical and practical ideas about each skill which can be taught that have been develop comparison to past years. The study also presented a localized description of teaching the four language skills have been provided illustrations of issues rather intended ideals or models foe teaching a particular skill. The study also suggested that distinguishing of one skill from others may overlap or support learning related to another skill and the development or improvement of one skill will impact the other language skills too. The study provide suggestion on questions and self-reflection in teaching a language skill on how the view points and ideas are expressed to be applied to teaching of one single skill or combination of different skills in a local context for the improvement of personal and professional practices.

Markstrom (2019) conducted a study on language skills with its objective to investigate on how teachers of English focusses on various language skills in their lessons. The study frames several questions to find the importance of language skills and teaching strategies. Semi-structured interviews were used to find the qualitative measures with teachers. The questions of the study were centres around on the most important language skill from their point of view with similarity skills on what they focus on teaching. The study also emphasis queries on what reason the teachers need to pivot on certain language skills and teacher’s strategies to teach and improve these language skills. The questions of the study were answered and collected through theories of English foreign language teaching, by employing communicative approach. The study also made comparison of previous research works on importance of language skills for English language proficiency. The result of the study from the interviews reveals that the teachers lay more emphasis on reading and writing. While stress less focus on listening. The study provides measures on several methods to explain how certain language skills may be taught and suggestions for the improvement of language proficiency. The four language skills presented in the study are reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The result of the study shows that there is absence of harmony on the teachers’ assumptions which they consider the most important language skills and language skills they teach in the real classroom activity.

Khasawneh (2021) conducted a study to identify and investigate the relationship of learning language skills and learning difficulties in English language. Descriptive-analytic approach was employed to investigate the study. 300 samples were drawn as the total population for the study, 150 male and 150 female students. The questionnaire was designed and used in the study to identify and investigate the correlation of learning language skills and learning difficulties among students. The domains of four language skills, listening, speaking, reading, and writing were included for the test to bring out the result. The study shows impressive result on the overall standard at the primary stage in all the four language skills. The researcher concluded with a notable suggestion that it is significant to recognize the importance of learning language skills for learners. Teacher should have awareness and know their role to employ the language skills.

 

3. Language domain

Language domain include the four ways on how we interact with each other using a language. Language domain are the four language skills i.e. listening skill, reading skill, speaking skill, and writing skill. Language skills are the communication skills that helps one to convey or transfer ideas and express himself/herself freely and clearly. In language skills, speaking skill and writing skill are considered as the productive skills, reading and listening are considered as the receptive skills. We create and produce language while we speak or write and we receive or detect information and understand what the speaker or author said by reading and listening. One often undermine the importance of the four language skills and deduces that being able to speak well or write well in a language is proficient enough compromising on the fact that all the four language skills are equally important for the simple fact that one may speak a language fluently but if one does not listen attentively or understand while listening and reading, he/she will be lacking or won’t be able to detect information clearly and misinterpret or misunderstood what the speaker or author’s had said and may even fail to make sense of the information. So, all the four language skills shares equal importance and by developing the language skills will assist one to communicate proficiently and interactively.

 

 

 

4. Classification of language domains:

The language domains can be classified into two categories.

1)    Productive skills or Active skills: Speaking skill and writing skill:

·        Speaking skill:

Speaking is an active and productive oral skill. It is an effective skill and plays a significant role in our day-to-day human activities for communication and interacting with each other. Speaking required creativeness and it is expressive through which one can exhibit or share his/her ideas while interacting or communicating with another speaker or audiences. The act of speaking requires creativeness and awareness of limiting the grammatical errors and use of correct pronunciation for effective communication.

Speaking is also an expressive skill through which thoughts and ideas are express verbally. Expression of ideas or thoughts with clarity and fluency is an effective way of speaking which includes abilities to express with confidence and interactively.

·        Writing skill:

Writing skill is a productive skill in a written form which refers to the linguistic capacity in making the of mechanics of writing by a writer. Writing skill comprises the ability to shape the letter and involves presenting thoughts and ideas in the form of text and written symbols using the right structure and flow of information. Writing skill is the ability to choose right vocabulary and grammatical text while framing sentences and presenting text to deliver the intended message accurately.

Writing is a skill and methods of expressing thoughts through written symbols for communication. Writing is the medium of language and preservation of one’s culture in the form of symbols and use as recorder of customs humanities. Writing skill have a significant role in teaching and testing procedures for growth and development of a language.

2)    Receptive skills or passive skills: Listening skill and Reading skill

·        Listening Skill:

Listening is a passive and receptive skill. Listening is an essential part of the communication process as it is crucial for the listener to stay attentive and engaged actively to comprehend what is said. We receive information and messages by listening to others or sounds produced by someone or mechanical device. By listening carefully and attentively we can understand or interpret and analyzed what people have said, it also entails hearing and decoding of the audible signals which we hear.

Listening is the first and foremost important language skill in learning language domains. We listen to language and used it in real life situation, as we may not be able to understand each and every word utter by a speaker in a speech but it is important to know and understand what the message or speech is all about. Listening is a process of receiving sounds of the language into lexis and understanding the words received from hearing. In learning, attentive listening is a key to understand and probe right question to your doubt and store information for the later recollection of knowledge.

·        Reading skill:

Reading is one of the two receptive skills used for understanding or comprehension of text. Reading is also an attentive activity and considered as one of the best sources of learning for self-education, by reading one can obtain worldly knowledge and keep himself /herself up to date reliable to the latest news or knowledge. Reading is a thinking procedure through which written symbols meanings and ideas are gained.

There are three important sub-skill of reading viz, skimming, scanning and inference; by skimming means when we read something just to get a general idea and ignore some parts, by scanning means when we read quickly just to extract a specific information from a text and by inference means we read text as a whole and understand those difficult words and meanings.

Reading skills is crucial for improving one’s overall literacy skills as it can help and enhance for better interactions and communication. Being attentive and focused while reading can also help an individual to interpret the meaning of the text effectively and retain the information for a longer duration rather than rote memorization.

 

5. Importance of language skill

1)    Improve decision making and cognition:

Language skill helps an individual and improve his thinking ability. According to Noam Chomsky in his theory of Language Acquisition Device, human are born with a set of rule within a brain as an innate capability of a child in acquiring language. The acquisition capability in an innate template for language in which knowing more than one language gives more advantages and more logical decisions. Learning other languages also make us think to transferring of meaning or translation from known to unknown which become more systematic and make use of the right word, language skills can build and improve cognition through language learning.

2)    Better performance and perception:

The good use of language skill will lead to performance of the thinking ability and better speed processing. It will enable an individual to communicate effectively and appropriately. The good use of language skills can make easier to learning other language in which an individual who knows more than one language has a higher degree of memory and has a greater ability to see another person’s perspectives and also advance in reasoning ability.

3)    Better cultural understanding and relationships:

Proper learning of language skill will give better understanding of one’s own culture and others culture too. Through language one can connect and interact with outside world, by having good language skills will definitely give better understand to communicate and know about other culture, it will also improve inter-cultural understanding and relationships. It can also help an individual to explore more of different cultures and collaborate with the outside world.

4)    Enhances multi-tasking skills:

In language learning, when a person learns one or more languages it will enforce and strengthen skills to critical thinking and better concept of understanding, it will also enable an individual to transfer thinking process between the languages which will improve an individual thinking ability and mental exercise for multi-tasking for better adjustment with sudden changes and traits.

 

 

 

6. Some ways to develop proficiency in Tenyidie language by improving language skills

Here are some ways to develop language proficiency in Tenyidie by improving the four language skills in learning:

1)    Listening:

·        Note down important and meaningful words while listening to proficient speakers or teachers. Listen to Tenyidie music or folksongs on daily basis and ascertain proper meaning of the lyrics and words of the folksongs as it is replete with beautiful and meaningful words.

·        Listen to radio, television or cultural events that are held in Tenyidie as words are spoken mostly in formal terms.

·        Inculcation of curiosity to listen and learn more in Tenyidie.

2)    Speaking:

·        Speak Tenyidie using simple words of your everyday activity with friends or family.

·        Learn names with correct pronunciation of regularly used tools or items in Taenyidie.

·        Speak in Tenyidie while having conversation with friends through phones or face to face interactions.

·        Practice correct pronunciation of Tenyidie difficult words.

·        Practice speaking in Tenyidie every day, record and re-record while practicing speaking in Tenyidie which will improve the speaking skill in Tenyidie.

·        Try to participate in group discussions or gatherings and share your ideas in Tenyidie which will facilitate to building confidence in speaking Tenyidie.

·        Participate in co-curricular activities like debate or extempore speech which will improve your thinking ability as well as your speaking skills.

·        Never fear of committing errors or feel shy to speak in Tenyidie, unless you are confident and proud to speak out a language, you cannot be part of that language to master it. Proper learning is inculcated through trial and error which paves way to better usage and proficiency of the language.

·        Code – Mixing may be avoided and take privilege to speak Tenyidie while leading or participating in any formal program.

3)    Reading:

·        At the initial stage, it is important to learn and master all the alphabets of Tenyidie. While learning these alphabets read aloud and try to memorize or master it with clarity which will definitely improve one’s reading skill as well as speaking skill.

·        Try to read and learn new and difficult words (diesouko) in Tenyidie every day.

·        Read Tenyidie books, magazines, newspapers (Capi), articles (Ura dze) and Tenyidie novels regularly.

·        Try to underline every difficult word or new words that you find while reading and try to find its meaning using Tenyidie dictionary (MKS Dieda) or any other help that you could find or you can seek help from Tenyidie experts.

·        Read with curiosity and enthusiasm to find more difficult words and find its meaning, then you will become more familiar with Tenyidie.

4)    Writing:

·        Try to write your diary daily in Tenyidie.

·        Try to record and write down meaningful and beautiful Tenyidie words.

·        Try to write and compose short poem or quotes in Tenyidie.

·        Practice simple grammar translation from English to Tenyidie, this will improve your language skills both orally and written.

·        Start to think in Tenyidie and write short stories or notes to improve your writing skills as well as to improve your speaking skills.

·        Try to write down and frame sentences with new difficult words in Tenyidie.

·        Try to type short messages or short notes in Tenyidie while texting or chatting with friends through phones or mobile.

·        Try to write with correct spelling and word division in Tenyidie which will improve your writing skill as well as other skills too.

 

7. Conclusion

We use language to communicate every day in our lives in one way or the other and every activity or tasks we do constitutes communication. We interact and exchange our ideas and express our feelings by using language. Effective communication is needed and in order to communicate effectively it is crucial to learn the four language skills effectively as well. These four language domains are the foundation for communication and hence they form the foundation for the Tenyidie language proficiency of the learners. A learners’ proficiency in using Tenyidie language can be determined by how well or successful handling of the four basic language domains by a learner.

 

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

None. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

None.

 

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