SLANG

Definition of Slang

Few linguists have endeavored to clearly define what constitutes slang. Attempting to remedy this, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the following criteria:

·         It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely to be considered in those contexts a "glaring misuse of register."

·         Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people who are familiar with it and use the term.

·         "It is a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."

·         It replaces "a well-known conventional synonym". This is done primarily to avoid the discomfort caused by the conventional item or by further elaboration.

2.    Some Thoughts on Slang

a.    Slang is the poetry of everyday life. 
     -S. I. Hayakawa, Language in Action, 1941 

b.    Slang, n. The grunt of the human hog (Pignoramus intolerabilis) with an audible memory. 
     -Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911 

c.     I shall invent a new game; I shall write bits of slang and poetry on slips and give them to you separate. 
     -George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1871 

d.    Slang is "language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands -- and goes to work." 
     -Carl Sandburg (as quoted in Crystal 182) 

e.    Slang is humanity's first play toy. 
     -John Algeo, University of Georgia professor 

f.     Slang, at its worst, it is stupidly coarse and provocative.  At its best, it makes standard English seem pallid. 
     -J. E. Lighter, chief editor of Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang

Slang should be distinguished from jargon, which is the technical vocabulary of a particular profession, and which meets only the second of the criteria given above. Jargon, like many examples of slang, may be used to exclude non–group members from the conversation, but in general has the function of allowing its users to talk precisely about the technical issues in a given field.

3.    Extent and origins of slang

Slang can be regional (that is, used only in a particular territory), but slang terms are often particular instead to a certain subculture, such as music or video gaming. Nevertheless, slang expressions can spread outside their original areas to become commonly used, like "cool" and "jive." While some words eventually lose their status as slang (the word "mob", for example, began as a shortening of Latin mobile vulgus), others continue to be considered as such by most speakers. When slang spreads beyond the group or subculture that originally uses it, its original users often replace it with other, less-recognized terms to maintain group identity.

One use of slang is to circumvent social taboos, as mainstream language tends to shy away from evoking certain realities. For this reason, slang vocabularies are particularly rich in certain domains, such as violence, crime, drugs, and sex. Alternatively, slang can grow out of mere familiarity with the things described. Among Californian wine connoisseurs (and other groups), for example, Cabernet Sauvignon is often known as "Cab Sav," Chardonnay as "Chard" and so on; this means that naming the different wines expends less superfluous effort; it also helps to indicate the user's familiarity with wine.

Even within a single language community, slang, and the extent to which it is used, tends to vary widely across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata. Slang may fall into disuse over time; sometimes, however, it grows more and more common until it becomes the dominant way of saying something, at which time it usually comes to be regarded as mainstream, acceptable language (e.g. the Spanish word caballo), although in the case of taboo words there may be no expression that is considered mainstream or acceptable. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and sometimes into formal speech, though this may involve a change in meaning or usage.

Slang very often involves the creation of novel meanings for existing words. It is common for such novel meanings to diverge significantly from the standard meaning. Thus, "cool" and "hot" can both mean "very good," "impressive," or "good-looking".

Slang terms are often known only within a clique or in group. For example, Leet ("Leetspeak" or "1337") was originally popular only among certain Internet subcultures, such as crackers and online video gamers. During the 1990s, and into the early 21st century, however, Leet became increasingly more commonplace on the Internet, and it has spread outside Internet-based communication and into spoken languages. Other types of slang include SMS language used on mobile phones, and "chatspeak," (e.g., "LOL", an acronym meaning "laughing out loud" or "laugh out loud" or ROFL, "rolling on the floor laughing"), which is widely used in instant messaging on the Internet.

            According to the British lexicographer, Eric Partridge (1894-1979), people use slang for any of at least 15 reasons: 

1.  In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; 'just for the fun of the thing'; in playfulness or waggishness. 

2. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour.  (The motive behind this is usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in virtuosity). 

3. To be 'different', to be novel. 

4.  To be picturesque (either positively or - as in the wish to avoid insipidity - negatively). 

5. To be unmistakeably arresting, even startling. 

6. To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise.  (Actuated by impatience with existing terms.) 

7.  To enrich the language.  (This deliberateness is rare save among the well-educated, Cockneys forming the most notable exception; it is literary rather than spontaneous.) 

8.  To lend an air of solidity, concreteness, to the abstract; of earthiness to the idealistic; of immediacy and appositeness to the remote.  (In the cultured the effort is usually premeditated, while in the uncultured it is almost always unconscious when it is not rather subconscious.) 

9a. To lesson the sting of, or on the other hand to give additional point to, a refusal, a rejection, a recantation; 

9b. To reduce, perhaps also to disperse, the solemnity, the pomposity, the excessive seriousness of a conversation (or of a piece of writing); 

9c. To soften the tragedy, to lighten or to 'prettify' the inevitability of death or madness, or to mask the ugliness or the pity of profound turpitude (e.g. treachery, ingratitude); and/or thus to enable the speaker or his auditor or both to endure, to 'carry on'. 

10.  To speak or write down to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public; or merely to be on a colloquial level with either one's audience or one's subject matter. 

11.  For ease of social intercourse.  (Not to be confused or merged with the preceding.) 

12.  To induce either friendliness or intimacy of a deep or a durable kind.  (Same remark.) 

13.  To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class; in brief, to be 'in the swim' or to establish contact. 

14.  Hence, to show or prove that someone is not 'in the swim'. 

15.  To be secret - not understood by those around one.  (Children, students, lovers, members of political secret societies, and criminals in or out of prison, innocent persons in prison, are the chief exponents.) 

4.    Examples of Slang

Here are some examples of American slang language:

Slang:  Originally meant abuse 

Have a Cow:  This is normally used as part of a sentence.  For example: "Don't have a cow." Or "My mom’s going to have a cow."  There are some variations, for instance, "have a bird." 

Cool:  This popular expression is used to describe something that is very good. 
  Ex:  “That band is cool!” 

Cat’s Pajamas:  Used in the 20’s, this expression is very similar to "cool." 
            Other slang term that have similar meanings are: "radical," "groovy," 
             "da-bomb," and "neat-o." 

Chill:  This can mean to calm down, for example, “Chill out, Dude.” It also can have an "-in" ending added to mean to relax, as in “We’re just chillin at my house.” 

Dude:  This is can be used to refer to any person whether they are known by the speaker or not.  Example: “That dude is stealing my car.”  Or “Dude, I’m glad you finally called.” 

Peace:  Used as a greeting during the late 60’s and early 70’s. 

Stinks:  When used as a slang term, this means "is bad."  For example:  “This exam stinks.” 

Trollin:  Used to describe a car or cars traveling slower than the flow of traffic.  Example:  "This car is really trollin." 

Mr. Charley: a white man 

The Man:  the law 

Uncle Tom:  a meek black person 

23-skiddoo:  used in the 1920s 

Booze:  alcohol 

Buzz off:  go away 

John, head, can, loo:  toilet 

Schnozz:  nose 

Grub, slop, garbage, gas:  food 

Tart:  upstart young woman or prostitute 

Makin' whoopee (Walter Winchell - 1929):  making love. 

USE OF ICT IN TEACHING

Teaching at School as well as Higher Education, mostly, concentrates on giving information which is not the sole objective of Teaching. Along with giving information, the other objectives are:

·         developing understanding and application of the concepts

·         developing expression power

·         developing reasoning and thinking power

·         development of judgment and decision making ability

·         improving comprehension, speed and vocabulary

·         developing self-concept and value clarification

·         developing proper study habits

·         developing tolerance and ambiguity, risk taking capacity, scientific temper, etc. 

With the present infrastructure, class size, availability of teachers, quality of teachers, training of teachers, etc., it is difficult to achieve all the objectives. Further, most of the teachers use Lecture Method which does not have potentiality of achieving majority of above mentioned objectives. The objectives are multi-dimensional in nature, so for their achievement multiple methods should be used in an integrated fashion. At present ICT may be of some use. It is a well known fact that not a single teacher is capable of giving up to date and complete information in his own subject. The ICT can fill this gap because it can provide access to different sources of information. It will provide correct information as comprehensive as possible in different formats with different examples. ICT provides Online interaction facility. Students and teachers can exchange their ideas and views, and get clarification on any topic from different experts, practitioners, etc. It helps learners to broaden the information base. ICT provides variety in the presentation of content which helps learners in concentration, better understanding, and long retention of information which is not possible otherwise. The learners can get opportunity to work on any live project with learners and experts from other countries. The super highway and cyber space also help in qualitative improvement of Teaching – Learning Process. ICT provides flexibility to learners which is denied by the traditional process and method. Flexibility is a must for mastery learning and quality learning.

On INTERNET many websites are available freely which may be utilized by teachers and students for understanding different concepts, improving vocabulary, developing Reasoning & Thinking, etc. ICT can help in preparing students for SAT, GRE, TOEFL, etc.  

Teaching Learning with Advanturer Game

Teaching English through Adventurer Games

English is an international language that  is used almost in every country. The growing of English an as international language is difficult to be denied. English is used in every sector such industry, trade, education and so on. Considering the important role of English in human resources development, the government includes English in the educational curriculum as an primarily school subject. It means the students are required to have skills in English; speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Teaching that skills, there are many ways which are delivered. One of them is using video games due to the fact that it has   edutainment aspects which motivate the students for learning English and help students get fun while learning English, and the most suitable video game for teaching English is Adventurer Games.

The adventurer games are kind of video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The adventurer games contain conversations, narratives, and rules. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film, encompassing a wide variety of literary genres. The entire adventurer games have been already on the internet and it is played by online, so it is such appropriate way that good for teaching English.

First, the adventurer games program student’s brain with good English. When student play an adventure game, they have contact with a large number of correct sentences in real, conversational English. These sentences are not only spoken (as on TV). In many adventure games, students can also turn on subtitles. If students do, they will hear the pronunciation and see the spelling at the same time. In effect, the sentences stick in their head more strongly, and they gain the ability to produce similar sentences.

In the same way, the adventure games help students add their vocabularies. All of the words on that game is written in English .For instance , the rules are written in English. So , the players ( students) will pay big attention upon the game Indirectly, they have tried to find out and comprehend the meaning of words through the rules .

In addition, the adventurer game gives understanding of spoken English. In modern adventure games, students can hear all the characters speak real English. The dialogue is easier to understand than in movies: it is slower, clearer, and they can often stop the action and listen to a phrase again.

'           In brief, teaching english through  adventurer games is one effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of this research suggest that adventure games  are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence.'