Summertime!

Guys, we finished!!! This class was so much fun and I am so glad that I was able to meet all of you.
Wanna know what I'm going to be up to this summer? Then keep reading!


Technically my summer starts after my Chemistry Final that I am taking on Thursday, but I wanna brag about the fact that I get to go to my very first concert ever tonight! I'm going to see a band called Twenty One Pilots, and they are sort of a mix between Indie-pop and rap music. It's a two man band and I'm super duper excited about it. But this summer I plan on reading a lot of books and performing as much as possible. When I went to Paris I bought a bunch of books that I haven't had much time to start reading so I plan on reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise, Dante's Inferno, as well as some other books that include a collection of short stories, as well as some by Mitch Albom and other authors we should all know. I'm going to be auditioning for a play called "Look at the Grouse!" by Scott Johnson, who asked me personally to come audition for his play. It's a bit of a drive north for me, but it's going to be worth it. The play consists of three couples who are enjoying their final summer together before college starts. It's a time we all remember as one with lots of memories and goodbyes. I also plan on creating some projects for me to work on, because I'm tired of being unproductive over the summer. I'm trying to push myself forward and not waste precious time. We only have so much time to work with before we leave, so I'm trying to make the most out of it. I'll be writing songs and working on my drawing skills (which definitely need some work), but hopefully I'll be able to get out of my house and away from the hot summers that come with living in Phoenix. I hope that everyone has a wonderful, and productive summer, and I hope to hear from you all about what your plans are, where you are going, and what you want to achieve!

This isn't goodbye, I want to keep posting. Find me on Facebook if you would like!! Evelyn Julie Michaud

Blog 9: Disney Dialects

Alright guys, It's my turn to bring Disney to the table!

Disney Dialects  is a YouTube video that I found that examines the different English dialects Disney has incorporated into their movies throughout the years.

If you take a listen, the video demonstrates how the hero of the story has always had the Standard English dialect, while other characters do not.

The evil mothers of the Disney characters often have British Accents to represent Evil, and strictness.
Even when the character lives in a region that should have a different dialect than standard (such as Jasmine from Aladdin) it is not the case. The hero always speaks perfect standard English.

However characters inferior to the main (Yao- Mulan's friend with a Brooklyn accent) (Mushu-Dragon of Mulan's-Eddie Murphy's-Ebonic voice)  and many more are sad examples that the movies are still using stigmatized dialects to represent their inferior characters.

I got goosebumps from listening to this because I never realized how throughout my entire childhood Disney was using this sad technique to teach me that the white standard English speaker is the one I should strive to be.

Thankfully Disney was able to give Tiana from the Princess and the Frog a Southern Black English Dialect so maybe Disney is changing for the better.

Blog 8:The Critical Period for The Deaf Child

Hey everyone!  I found a report online called THE CRITICAL PERIOD FOR LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE DEAF CHILD'S LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION : A PSYCHOLINGUISTIC APPROACH
which talks about the Critical Period for language acquisition. The report mainly focuses on research done to show the differences and similarities between language acquisition of spoken languages compared to signed languages.

There is a common misconception that language constraints do not apply to sign language because it is not a spoken language. Many people believe that sign language can be just as easy to learn at age 30 as it is at age 3.
The writer of the paper tried out some experiments to prove that this is an inaccurate assumption

1st study:
Comparing the comprehension skills of native learners of ASL (deaf children who learned language from their deaf parents from birth), verses normative learners (learned ASL around age 9-16 because their parents didn't know ASL so didn't teach it). Basically, the native learners completely blew the normative learners out of the water. This proved that sign language is not so easy to learn when the critical period has been missed. More studies were conducted if you would like to read further feel free :)

The report goes on to talk about what exactly the critical period is. It's a hypothesis that language is best acquired during earlier stages of development. The hypothesis stuck around for 100 years until scientist Wilder Penfield showed the world neuroplasticity. Which in a nutshell is what younger brains have more of and so can retain information quicker and easier than an adults brain. This was discovered through many tests that often compared individuals with disabilities to animals who also suffered from a loss of a sense unnaturally-in the lab, sight was taken away during the believed "critical period" and afterwards the animal had a sight issue ever since because the brain developed with that lack of sight.

The article goes on to answer 4 research questions that explore the critical acquisition period and it's relation to individuals who sign. I encourage you to read it all the way through for the answers to those questions.

I really like reports like this because unlike many common articles that we can find in magazines or videos on YouTube, or links on Facebook to "credible sources", Reports such as the one I've shared today give you the full experiments that create the statistics we often cannot put into perspective.

The human brain works in certain ways, and because we all use a universal grammar, and that all languages fit within that category, I see sign language as a language no different from all others in the world. I believe that like any spoken language, ASL is retained better when taught during the critical period of a child's life. I've learned that children under the age of 11 who learn a second language can successfully speak that language without an accent, while children and adults who are older speak with accents. I see this as a clear sign that the critical period is real, and that even for people with disabilities, and even those who have a language that is communicated through a different lens have the ability to take hold of this window of opportunity. Or at least know that they don't get excluded from the rest of the world that learns a language.

Blog 7: Niches of New York

 I found an article written in April of 2010 about the Lost Languages, Found in New York

This article goes into great detail about specific languages that were thought to be lost but were found in New York which has been discovered to be "an endangered hot spot" for dying languages. Through interviews with many of the individuals who speak the language we get a sense of how they feel about the language being lost.
Many believe that their language isn't required to move forward in the world since they can get along with the mainstream languages of their countries.
One person was asked whether they believed their children (who did know the rare language) would continue to speak it when they grew up. To that the individual responded that if they married someone who also spoke it then yes, but if they married an American then probably not. It makes sense to think that this will happen because "Americans" as well as many other western culture societies don't depend on multiple languages, but rather one language, especially English. However I know that that it isn't always the case because my best friend can speak Arabic because her mom taught her (who is Palestinian) while her father is a Jersey boy who speaks only English.
It was mentioned that as these rare-foreign-language speakers get older they are thinking more and more about the idea that perhaps their culture is being lost with their language.

However this article is mainly about the Endangered Language Alliance which was a project put together by a professor in New York to identify and record foreign languages. You can read the article to learn more. But I think that this idea is fantastic! It's such a wonderful idea to try and preserve languages like this and I'm sure that it will be appreciated when the language does eventually disappear but even the article said that "It's not like putting jelly in a jar. A language is used. Language is consciousness".

Even if it was preserved in dictionaries and language teaching books, It's difficult to keep something alive if it doesn't come into use in the real world. That is all that most people are interested in. Something that drives them to better succeed. Unfortunately most people don't believe it is worth the time to learn a language that won't come into play often in their lives.

Also fun fact that I learned was that the United Nations keeps an atlas of languages that are becoming extinct. I learned something :)

Hope you enjoy!

Blog 6: This is NOT the Title of this Post

Paradoxes

In Chapter 5 we learn what a paradox is. The book defines a Paradoxical sentences as one that is "impossible to ascribe a truth value. The example used in the book is the following sentence:
"This sentence is false." 
We see that this sentence can not be labeled as true of false because if we say that the sentence is true then it is false, and it cannot be false, otherwise it would be true. 

The following link will bring you to a site that gives examples of some known and unknown paradoxes that show how sentences and ultimately situations, can be said in a grammatically correct way, but when examined thoroughly are found to be paradoxical. 

11 Brain-Twisting Paradoxes

After reading these examples I learned that even when someone says something that is grammatically correct and seems to be semantically correct as well, there are cases when a sentence can contradict itself. Only with further examination and knowledge on the meaning of a sentence (truth conditions) can we fully understand the possibilities of paradoxical sentences. We can see through many of the given examples that paradoxes can hinder our communication because of the confusion created by them. It can hurt the brain to analyze to the depth required to fully understand how paradoxes exist and interfere with language. 
I feel like, after it all paradoxes help to expand our minds, if you will, like philosophy class. It makes you think harder than you may want to, but analysis is good especially when it comes to the analysis of the language that we speak. 

Blog 5: The Quick 10

 Once again I am linking you to Mental Floss, where I get to learn and have fun at the same time. I found this quick read in January and thought that I would save if for my 5th blog.

The Quick 10: 10 Extinct Languages of the US

I chose this article because it is really interesting to hear about languages that have gone extinct. The languages that are no longer spoken are now simply a part of our language history and we should learn about them.

What I found most interesting about this article was the mindset that It put me in. It's super interesting that there are so many languages that I was unaware of and that disappear just as unknowingly. I had no idea that there were many of these languages, especially the Martha's Vineyard Sign Language. This article makes me think even more about the fact that there was life before mine. And that there is so much history that I don't know about. And I love thinking about lives that are outside of my own. 

There wasn't really an argument in this article for me to agree or disagree with, but I can agree with the idea posed through the article that any preservation of a language is something very precious. The Eastern Atakapa language had only 287 words of it written down in the 1800's. This discovery was probably very significant, and yet depressing because it is so small. And that even with the preservation of the language on paper, it can still be impossible to learn it and bring it back to life without help from someone who speaks it. 

I do want to learn more about the languages that no longer exist although that would be one great feat to try and conquer. I want to continue opening my mind in this way though, so that I can try to picture the abstract idea that language is history and when it's lost it can be difficult to get back. 

This topic effects the world because the entire world suffers from the loss of language. For the US specifically we can learn from this article and better understand our language history and how diverse this melting pot is, or was :( . 

Blog 4 Refusing to Speak a Language

Psychology Today- Refusing to Speak a Language

This is an article that I found on Psychology Today that talks about how bilinguals choose to speak a specific language depending on their situation and their environment. 

I picked this article because I have many friends who are bilingual and who constantly choose to not speak their foreign language around me, at school or even in their homes. Language speakers are constantly reminded that they are different when they are put in a setting that doesn't fit their language and those who can switch to the language that is most common to their environment do so the majority of the time. 

What I find most interesting about this article is that peer pressure is the main reason for this language switching. Children will refuse to speak their first language and speak English instead because they don't want their friends to think different of them. No one wants to be separated from the group. 

There is also the fact that sometimes we don't need to use a language anymore so it becomes dormant. Especially if it is a language seen as a minority or "enemy" as explained in the article through examples such as Jewish people who spoke German during WWII, and other examples.

This makes me think of the movie Dances with Wolves and how Stands With Fist In The Air actually forgets how to speak English because it is scary and foreign to her after spending most of her life living with the native Americans (if you haven't seen that movie definitely take time to watch it. It has a lot of language related topics in it, and Kevin Costner is amazing). This fits the quotation from the article, "Strong negative attitudes towards a minority language will also lead speakers of that language to refuse to speak it in public."

I agree that this is a common attitude that people exhibit when they want to conform to their environment. I've seen it happen with lot's of friends. I think that this could possibly be instinctive for survival but we don't really see it as such today. 

I do want to learn more about this topic because I think that it's so important that people should be comfortable being who they are, and I feel like the language of a person is something that is especially important to someone's identity in the sense that it's part of their culture and their upbringing. I love language, especially languages I don't know because they are so beautiful. When I hear a friend talking to a family member on the phone in Spanish, or Arabic, or Romanian I can't help but listen with a smile on my face. 

This topic effects the world because every country in the world has foreign language speakers and culture clashes are unfortunately common. Everyone needs to see that language is beautiful and that it shouldn't be something that separates groups of people but rather is a fun topic to discuss. We need to see it as an opportunity for more communication and understanding, rather than the one thing that defines someone and makes them unwelcome in a group.

I hope you guys like the article, I sure did. 

Blog 3 On Body Language

Hey everyone, I want to share with you an article from Psychology Today that talks about the use of Body Language and how important it is.

You Say More Than You Think:

So You Think Body Language is Bunk?

I chose this article because I know that body language is a crucial element to communication and people who use their voice and ears mainly when it comes to speaking an listening don't often think about their body language. 

What I found most interesting was that people who are deaf pick up the subtle facial expressions one uses in normal conversation better than people who can hear. This makes a lot of sense because they have to use their other senses which are heightened rather than hearing.

I agree with this article because it has good scientific research to support the ideas throughout, and good points, because it's true that people who are deaf need to rely on their other senses and do so during every conversation they have.

I do want to learn more about the topic, especially what it is like to be raised by two deaf parents like the family mentioned by the author. Although that is sort of a side tangent on the actual point of the article I feel like it would be really interesting to learn about how a child who is born to a family that uses more body language than voice learns to use their voice and be raised bilingually.

This topic effects the world because, as mentioned in the article, body language is a world language. Everyone in the world uses body language to communicate, and being aware of the use of body language as a person who uses it is very important so that the right messages come across. 

Blog 2

Today I will be sharing with you one of my favorite YouTube channels called mental floss. It is also a magazine that is filled with fun facts but there are also many YouTube channels dedicated to mental floss.

Anyways, in this video with John Green (author of #1 New York Times best seller The Fault in our Stars as well as many other teen novels) you will get to learn

  48 Names for Things You Didn't Know Had Names. 

I picked this Video because it has a lot to do with language. We don't realize that the common things we do/see/feel actually have names for them. I also picked this video because John Green is fantastic and so funny and nerdy. This Video tells us some names of things we didn't know and where the names came from. We also learn names of certain types of words which I find most interesting. It's also incredible that there are words in the English language for so many things but we don't need to use them in everyday conversation so we just don't learn those words. 

I feel like this video is telling us that there is a lot that we don't know about the language that we speak everyday. I agree with this because he proves this to us in the video. 

This video opened my eyes and made me realize that I still have a lot to learn about language and that it can be fun to learn about it!

The fact that our language is so vast affects the world because to non-English speaking people this language can be difficult! I don't realize how lucky I am that English was my first language. We can see that language really is limitless.

Blog 1 Jan 20th, 2014

The First link is a short article about how studying our inner voice can be beneficial to science and medicine.
Why we can "hear" our Inner Voice Experiment
After reading this article I was a bit dizzy because thinking about the inner voice while reading with my inner voice was a bit mind-boggling. Once again it's that concept where we don't think about our language until we compare it to something else, or to the lack of language all together. I picked this article because I don't often think about the fact that I hear my own voice in my head while reading, typing, or thinking about my situation. But the article's argument makes sense. We can hear our own voices in our head so that our auditory system can take a break or focus on other things while we predict what our voice would have sounded like out loud. I think that the evolution of the capability to do this is an amazing thing and very interesting! I want to learn more about speech impediments and what areas of the brain are activated when they are overcome so that I can see the connection between the science experiments. This topic clearly affects the world because everyone uses language and the ability to overcome speech impediments and be more knowledgable about the human capability to use language is key to understanding our potentials.

Not-So-Random Fun Fact: Reading silently is a generally new activity in the scheme of human evolution.

Introductory Post

This is me with messy hair from being
on a motorcycle
 and in the background is my sister

Hi everyone, my name is Evelyn Michaud. Some people call me Ev or Eve or Eevee, but most of the time Evelyn is what I answer to. I am 18 and I have been attending Glendale Community College since the first Summer session of 2013. I am working on the accumulation of credits and required classes to transfer to ASU to finish a Bachelor's degree in Business with a focus in Communications. I later plan to achieve a Master's degree in Communications as well. I'm very interested in the Arts, being a former theater student and art fanatic, and therefore am working on many personal art projects just for fun. I also enjoy singing, playing acoustic guitar, writing, and being a part of the Forensics Team here at GCC. This team is not the awesome "forensics" where you get to cut open dead bodies and observe the evidence of a crime scene, but a team that competes both nationally and internationally as a Speech and Debate team. I can only speak English, but I took Mandarin Chinese for two years in high school and plan to one day become fluent in it. I am taking ENG 213 because it was a choice requirement for my major and it has an Honors credit for my scholarship from the school. Even with all that however, I truly have been excited about this class because language is so interesting to me. Experiences that I have had that relate to language would probably be moving from Connecticut to Arizona 2 years ago. Moving from a place that's residents are predominantly white English-speaking folk, to a much more diverse location was huge change for me. In CT there weren't many people who spoke Spanish, and in business very few people seemed to need to use their knowledge in a second language. But here, I go to the post office and one the workers is speaking fluent Spanish to make communication easier with her customers and that's fascinating. From moving, I see how language is such a big deal in the world and how important it is that we all understand it and use it to the best of our abilities. And that's what I'm here to do. Hopefully you are too!