Pronoun and its kinds

 Pronoun

A Pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun. Words such as I, We, You, He, Him, They etc. are called Pronouns because they are used in place of nouns which we don’t want to repeat in a sentence or in a piece of continuous writing.

Look at these examples.

·         I asked John whether John knew John’s marks

We do not speak or write in this way, repeating the noun ‘John’. We therefore put pronouns in place of ‘John and says:

·         I asked John whether he knew his marks

‘He’ in this sentence stands for ‘John’ and ‘his’(the possessive form of he) for Mohan’s’

Pronouns are of different kinds

i) Personal Pronouns

I, we, you, he, she, it, they are called Personal Pronoun because they stand for three persons, the First Person, the Second Person and the Third Person.

i) the person speaking (I and We are said to be the first Person)

ii) the person spoken to (You is said to the Second Person)

iii) the person spoken of ( He, She It and They are said to be the Third Person)

Here is a chart giving you these pronouns in their ‘Subject’, ‘Object’, Possessive Adjective’ (or Determiner’) and ‘Possessive Pronoun’ forms.

Subject	Object	Possessive Adj. or Determiner	Possessive Pronoun
I	me	My	Mine
We	us	Our	Ours
You (both Sin & Plu)	you	Your	Yours
He	Him	His	His
She	her	Her	Hers
It	it	Its	-----
They	them	Their	Theirs

(note that ‘it’ is not used in the possessive pronoun form)

The uses of Personal Pronouns

a) ‘I” stands for the speaker and is used to refer either to a masculine or a feminine noun

b) ‘We’ is used to refer either to a masculine noun or a feminine noun

c)’You’ is used to refer either to a masculine noun or a feminine noun

d) ‘He’ is used to refer to a masculine noun

e) ‘She’ is used to refer to a feminine noun

f) ‘It’ is used to refer to an animal or a thing, or a child whose sex is not specified

g) ‘They’ is used to refer to masculine or feminine or  neuter nouns according to what is stands for.

ii) Possessive Pronouns

The forms mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs are called Possessive Pronouns. They are used to denote the nouns that follow the possessive adjectives my, our, your, his, her and their respectively. Ex. a) That book is hers   b) The idea of yours is excellent

iii) Reflexive Pronouns

When ‘self’ is added to my, your, him, her, it and ‘selves’ to our, your, them, we get what are called Compound Personal Pronouns and are called Reflexive Pronouns. When the action done by the subject turns back upon the subject as,

They hurt themselves

iv) Emphatic Pronouns

Look at the sentences

I wash my clothes myself

Policemen themselves sometimes break the traffic rules.

In these sentences the ‘self’ pronouns are used to emphasize the nouns or pronouns they stand for. They are called Emphatic Pronouns.

iv) Demonstrative Pronouns

In the sentences below this, that, these and those are used not as Demonstative Adjectives (i.e. as Determiners), but as Demonstrative Pronouns. They stand for the things or persons pointed to.

Ex. a) This is the computer my sister gave me

(‘This’ stands for this computer)

v) Indefinite Pronouns

Look at the sentences

a) Some of the boys didn’t take the examination

b)  None of the boys knew the answer to the question

c) The doll is very nice. I buy some for my children

In the sentences above ‘Some’ ‘None’ refer to persons or things in a general way, but do not refer to any person or thing in particular. They are therefore, called Indefinite Pronouns

vi) Distributive Pronouns

Each, either, neither are called Distributive Pronouns because they refer to persons or things one at a time. For this reason they are always singular and as such followed by the verb in the singular.

‘Each’ is used to denote every one of a number or persons or things taken singly

Either means the one or the other of two

Neither means not the one nor the other of two. It is the negative of either

vii) Relative Pronouns

The words Who, which, whose, which and that are called Relative Pronouns

Look at the sentences

a) I met Ram who had just returned

b) She has found the pen which she lost

In the sentences above the words ‘who’ and ‘which’ are used instead of noun Ram. It, therefore, does the work of a Pronoun. The word who joins or connects two statements. It, therefore, does the work of a conjunction.

viii) Reciprocal Pronouns

Each other and one another are treated as single units. They express mutual or reciprocal relationship, and are therefore called Reciprocal Pronouns. They are used as objects of verbs and of prepositions, as shown in the examples below, but are not used in the subject position

a) The two sons quarreled with each other

b) The people of the village used to help one another at harvest time.

 

 

 

 

John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (part I)

 

Short summary of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’

    - John Bunyan

One day Bunyan sleeps in a den. In his dream he notices a man standing in a field, his name is Christian. He cries out in pain and sorrow because he and his whole family as well as the town in which they live are to be destroyed. He has read about it in the book he holds in his hands, the Bible. Evangelist, a preacher of Christianity comes to Christian and presents him a roll of paper on which it is written that he should fly from the wrath of God and makes his way from the City of Destruction to the City of Zion. Christian explains it to his neighbours and family, but they think he is either sick or mad. Finally Christian runs off towards the light to find the Wicket Gate which opened into Heaven

     On his way he meets Pliant and Obstinate. He explains his plan to escape the city and convinces Pliant, but not Obstinate, to join him. The two hurry onward but soon fall into a bog called the Slough of Despond. Pliant turns back toward the city. Christian struggles his way out of the bog with the assistance of a man called Help.

Walking along further, Christian encounters Mr. Worldly Wiseman. He tells Christian of a nearby town called Morality where a father-and-son team, called Legality and Civility, live. Christian is fooled into taking Worldly Wiseman's advice. Evangelist catches up with him and warns him that Civility and Legality are frauds.  He advises Christian to follow the right path so Christian arrives at a Wicket-Gate. As per the instruction near the gate, he knocks the gate. He is greeted by Good-will, who opens the gate and sends Christian on toward the house of the Interpreter, who will show Christian "excellent things."

Arriving at the Interpreter's house, Christian finds himself in a kind of museum. The Interpreter first shows Christian a picture of "a very grave person" holding "the best of books" and speaking "the law of truth," with a golden crown hanging over his head. . Next comes a large and spacious room that is first dusted by a man with a broom, an action that kicks up choking clouds. The next room has two children named Patience and Passion. Another room holds a burning fire, which is continually doused by the devil but secretly fueled by Christ so that it never stops burning. After this, Christian learns the meaning of many of the Christian mysteries. Another room, dark and somber, holds a man in an iron cage, which represents the despair of those who have abandoned their faith. In a final scene, a man rises from his bed, troubled by dreams of the Last Judgment. Having seen all these things, Christian thanks the Interpreter and takes his leave with hope and fear.

 Continuing on his journey, he comes to the Holy Cross and the Sepulchre of Christ. There, his burden of sins fall off. Three "shining ones" appear and give Christian new clothing along with a sealed "roll" (scroll) to serve as a kind of passport at the Celestial Gate. He sings a song of rejoicing and resumes his journey, encountering three sleeping men "a little out of the way," with their feet bound in irons. He calls to the men—whose names are Simple, Sloth, and Presumption—but they fail to recognize that they are in any danger and lie back down to sleep. Next, Christian encounters Formalist and Hypocrisy, two men who snuck over the wall rather than going through the Wicket-Gate. Later, Christian pauses for a nap, the "roll" slips out of his pocket and is lost. Realizing he has misplaced his roll, Christian goes back down the hill and searches for it and  finds it.

, Christian happens upon a palace called Beautiful. He attempts to enter and seek a place to sleep but is deterred when he sees two lions near the entryway. The gatekeeper chides Christian for his cowardice and tells him the lions are chained. Christian takes Watchful at his word and enters the palace, where he meets four damsels named Discretion, Prudence, Piety, and Charity. They offer him food and lodging and converse with him about his travels.

     In the Valley of Humiliation, Christian is forced to fight the giant devil, Apollyon, whose body was covered with the shiny scales of pride. In the battle Christian defeats the giant but wounded. He heals his wounds with leaves from the Tree of Life. By reciting the verses from the Pslams, Christian crosses the Shadow of Death. After passing through this danger, Christian has to go by the caves of the old giants, Pope and Pagan. Then Christian meets his fellow traveler Faithful. As the two friends continue, they are joined by Talkative. Soon Talkative parts ways with them. Then Evangelist approaches Christian and Faithful and warns them of the dangers in the town of Vanity Fair.

Soon enough, the two pilgrims arrive in the town of Vanity, where the famous Vanity Fair is held year-round. There, all kinds of vain worldly goods are sold, and all sorts of crimes and subterfuges are committed. Christian and Faithful pass through the fair, drawing attention on account of their strange clothes and their distaste for the fair's goods. The crowd begins to mock them and eventually throws them into a cage as if they were madmen. The pilgrims remain calm, it aggravates the townspeople. Christian and Faithful are brought to trial before a judge named Lord Hate-good, where they stand accused of creating a public disturbance. Faithful is sentenced to be burned alive and Christian is put in prison. When Faithful dies in the fire, a Chariot comes down from Heaven and takes him up to God. Christian escapes from the prison.

Christian is now joined by Hopeful, a former resident of Vanity. They next visit Hill Lucre, where a man named Demas has set up a silver mine. The mine is dangerous, yet many adventurers are lured to it and end up losing their lives. The path to the Celestial City now runs parallel to a river for a while. The scenery is so pleasant and the going so easy that Christian and Hopeful are tempted to follow a side trail, not noticing that it curves away from the true way. The trail leads them to the domain of Giant Despair, who, with his wife, Diffidence, keeps the pilgrims prisoner in Doubting Castle. He seeks to convince them, through starvation and beatings, to give up on life and commit suicide. They escape, however, when Christian recalls that he has had a key, called Promise, to get out of the dungeon all along. Returning to the main road, the two pilgrims post a sign to warn others of the dangers of Doubting Castle.

They meet the four shepherds – Knowledge, Experience, Watchful and Sincere – who show them the Celestial Gate and warn them of the paths to Hell. Then the two pilgrim pass by the Valley of Conceit. There, they meet by ignorance and other men who have not kept to the straight and narrow path. They pass on the country of Beulah. At a  distance, they see the gates of the City of Heaven glistening with pearls and precious stones. Thinking that all their troubles are behind them, they lay down to rest.

When they go on toward the city, they come to the River of Death. They enter the river and begin to wade through the water. Soon, Christian become afraid and more afraid he becomes the deeper the water rolls. Hopeful shouts to him to have hope and faith. Cheered by these words, Christian becomes less afraid, the water becomes less deep and finally they both get across safely. They run up the hill toward Heaven. Shining angels welcome them through the gates.

 

 

 

     

Christian

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress has only one main character, Christian, the Pilgrim, formerly known as Graceless, or just 'Man'. He is an everyman character. He is meant to inspire readers, just as his story inspires other characters in the text. Christian had a book, the Bible, in hand and a great burden, the weight of worldly cares and concerns, on back.  This burden, which would cause him to sink into Hell, is so unbearable that Christian must seek deliverance. He meets Evangelist as he is walking out in the fields, who directs him to the "Wicket Gate" for deliverance. Since Christian cannot see the "Wicket Gate" in the distance, Evangelist directs him to go to a "shining light," which Christian thinks he sees. Christian leaves his home, his wife, and children to save himself: he cannot persuade them to accompany him. He appears in every scene and dominates them all. Other characters are those he chances to meet on his journey and with whom he talks for a longer or shorter time. His intelligence and worldliness improve a great deal over the course of the text because he learns from each misstep. He proves that tenacity and diligence, when matched with God's grace, are the keys to entering heaven. He stops at nothing in order to achieve his salvation, even though it means leaving his family and his hometown behind. He is eager to share what he has learned with other pilgrims along the way, but he is humble enough to absorb their teachings as well.

 

Lady Windermere’s Fan   - Oscar Wilde

 

The importance of the opening scene

 

As in most of the plays, the opening scene in Lady Windermere’s Fan also has its own importance. All the important characters appear in the opening scene. Their nature and expectations expose in this scene. It helps the readers to understand play easily

The play opens in a morning at Lady Windermere’s residence in London. She prepares for her twenty-first birthday ball. She is quite happy with her husband and six-month old baby. Lady Windermere is visited by Lord Darlington, who is wicked by nature. He starts complimenting Lady Windermere in a manner she considers improper. He uses highly romantic language to convey his infatuation about her. Lady Windermere is quite sane and sensible. She rejects his silly compliments.

By the arrival of Duchess of Berwick, Lord Darlington leaves shortly thereafter.

The Duchess tells Lady Windermere that she believes Lady Windermere’s husband is having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne and gives large sums of money to the woman.

After the Duchess leaves, Lady Windermere starts to look for evidence to see if what she has heard is true or not. Lady Windermere searches her husband’s bank book but finds nothing wrong. She soon finds another bank book with a lock on it and when she breaks the lock, Lady Windermere finds that her husband gave large sums of money to Mrs. Erlynne just as the Duchess said.

A fierce verbal battle breaks out when Lord Windermere comes home. Lady Windermere enquires him about what she has found, but her husband denies cheating on her. He tries to explain to his wife the nature of his relationship with Erlynne. But she turns a deaf ear to him. Lord Windermere pleads that Lady Windermere should send an invitation to her birthday party to Mrs. Erlynne. Lady Windermere rejects his plea.

Lord Windermere then sends an invitation himself through his servant, Parker. Lady Windemere threatens to insult the woman if she does show up at the party.

Lady Windermere leaves the room and Lord Windermere reveals that he is protecting his wife by hiding Mrs. Erlynne’s identity, knowing that if his wife were to find who she really is, the shame would kill her.

Thus, the opening scene throws light on the characters of all the prominent persons in the play

Testing and Evaluation

Testing and Evaluation

Testing and evaluation of language skills and competencies are very important components of. language teaching. Testing becomes an integral part of teaching because it provides significant information or. inputs about the growth and achievement of learner's difficulties, styles of learning, anxiety levels.

Difference between Testing and Evaluation

Education professionals make distinctions between assessment, evaluation, and testing. ... A test or quiz is used to examine someone's knowledge of something to determine what he or she knows or has learned. Testing measures the level of skill or knowledge that has been reached. Evaluation is a process that critically examines a program. It involves collecting and analyzing information about a program's activities, characteristics, and outcomes. Its purpose is to make judgments about a program, to improve its effectiveness, and/or to inform programming decisions 

Kinds of tests

There are many kinds of tests, each with a specific purpose, a particular criterion to be measured.

Proficiency Tests

 A proficiency test is not intended to be limited to any one course, curriculum, or single skill in the language. Proficiency tests have traditionally consisted of standardized multi­ple-choice items on grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, aural comprehension, and sometimes of a sample of writing.

A rather typical example of a standardized proficiency test is the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) produced by the Educational Testing Service. It is used by nearly 1000 institutions of higher education in the United States as an indicator of a prospective student's ability to undertake academic work in an English medium. The TOEFL consists of the following three sec­tions:

Section 1, Listening Comprehension, measures the ability to understand English as it is spoken in the United States. The oral aspects of the language are stressed. The problems tested include vocabulary that is more frequently used in spoken English, structures that are primarily peculiar to spoken English, and sound and intonation distinctions that have proven to be difficult for nonnative speakers. The stimulus material is recorded in standard American English; the response options are printed in the test books.

Section 2, Structure and Written Expression, measures mastery of important structural and grammatical points in standard written English. The language tested is formal, rather than conversational. The topics of the sentences are of a general academic nature so that individuals in specific fields of study or from specific national or linguistic groups have no particular advantage. When topics have a national context, they refer to United States history, culture, art, or litera­ture.

Section 3, Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension, tests the ability to under­stand the meanings and uses of words in written English as well as the ability to understand a variety of reading materials. So that there is no advantage to indi­viduals in any one field of study, the questions based on reading materials do not require outside knowledge of the subject matter.

Diagnostic and Placement Tests

A diagnostic test is designed to diagnose a particular aspect of a particular language. Some proficiency tests can serve as diagnostic tests by isolating and analyzing certain sets of items within the test. An achievement test on a particular module in a curriculum might include a num­ber of items on modal auxiliaries; these particular items could serve to diag­nose difficulty on modals.

A placement test typically includes a sam­pling of material to be covered in the curriculum (that is, it has content valid­ity), and it thereby provides an indication of the point at which the student will find a level or class to be neither too easy nor too difficult but to be appro­priately challenging.

Achievement Tests

An achievement test is related directly to classroom lessons, units, or even a total curriculum. Achievement tests are limited to particular material covered in a curriculum within a particular time frame.

Aptitude Tests

Finally, we need to consider the type of test that is given to a person prior to any exposure to the second language, a test that predicts a person's future success. A foreign language aptitude test is designed to measure a person's capacity or general ability to learn a foreign language and to be successful in that undertaking. Aptitude tests are considered to be independent of a par­ticular foreign language, predicting success in the acquisition of any foreign language. 

Teaching of English

Teaching of English

Enriching one’s vocabulary

      Vocabulary enrichment does not mean rote-learning or memorizing words. It can be exciting. Look at the following problems:

     The plural of ‘milkman’ is ‘milkmen’; but the plural form of ‘walkman’ is ‘walkmans’ and not ‘walkmen’ – not even the nonsexist walkpersons! The reason is walkman is not a kind of man; it is the brand name for an instrument.

Hollywood has been making films based on comic book heroes; it has so far made three ‘Supermans’ (not supermen), and two ‘Batmans’ (not Batmen)

The plural of ‘mouse’ is ‘mice’ but we say that administration is full of ‘Mickey Mouses’ (not Mickey Mice) because it refers to timid people.

      Crimes like ‘robberies, muggings and pick-pocketings …’ Should it be  ‘pocket –picking or pick-poketing? One who does it is called a ‘pickpocket’, not a pocket-picker (though we have rag-picker) or a ‘pickpocketer’

   Such problems can create a lot of interest in word formation processes. By learning the company that words keep (called collocation), one can learn a lot about how words are used in combination with other words, phrases and idioms. Take idioms, for example:

    Kick the bucker, Spill the beans, Bite the bullet, Go bananas……

      There is no way to predict the meaning of such expressions from the meanings of their components: for example, kicking the bucket is not a kind of kicking, and buckets have nothing to do with it. We have to take these phrases as ‘words’ and learn their meanings.

Homonyms

Homonyms are two words that are spelled the same and sound the same but have different meanings. The word "homonym" comes from the prefix "homo-," which means the same, and the suffix "-nym," which means name. Therefore, a homonym is a word that has the same name as another word, meaning that the two words look and sound exactly alike.

A simple example of a homonym is the word "pen." This can mean both "a holding area for animals" and "a writing instrument." Another example is "book," which can mean "something to read" or "the act of making a reservation." In both cases, the sound and spelling are the same, and only the definition changes.

Homonym Examples

Here are 30 more examples of homonyms. Note that some homonyms have more than two meanings (for example, "tender" can also mean sensitive, easily chewed, or even refer to chicken strips), but to keep things simple we've only included two in our homonyms list:

·         Address - to speak to / location

·         Air - oxygen / a lilting tune

·         Arm - body part / division of a company

·         Band - a musical group / a ring

·         Bark - a tree's out layer / the sound a dog makes

·         Bat - an implement used to hit a ball / a nocturnal flying mammal

·         Bright - very smart or intelligent / filled with light

·         Circular - taking the form of a circle / a store advertisement

·         Current - up to date / flow of water

·         Die - to cease living / a cube marked with numbers one through six

·         Express - something done fast / to show your thoughts by using words

·         Fair - equitable / beautiful

·         Jag - a sharp, jutted object / a crying spree

·         Kind - type / caring

·         Lie - to recline / to tell a falsehood

·         Match - to pair like items / a stick for making a flame

·         Mean - average / not nice

·         Pole - a person from Poland / a piece of metal that holds a flag

·         Pound - unit of weight / to beat

·         Quarry - a site for mining stone / to extract or obtain slowly

·         Ream - a pile of paper / to juice a citrus fruit

·         Ring - a band on a finger / something circular in shape

·         Right - correct / direction opposite of left

Homophones

Homophones are pairs of words that sound the same, but have distinctly different meanings and different spellings. Understanding homophones is an essential part of mastering the English language, both for vocabulary building and spelling.

20 Common Homophone Pairs

Some common examples of homophones, including the words used in a sentence, are:

·         brake/break: When teaching my daughter how to drive, I told her if she didn't hit the brake in time she would break the car's side mirror.

·         cell/sell: If you sell drugs, you will get arrested and end up in a prison cell.

·         cent/scent: I won't spend one cent on a bottle of perfume until I know that I love the scent.

·         die/dye: If you accidentally drank a bottle of fabric dye, you might die.

·         flour/flower: To bake a flower-shaped cake, you'll need some flour.

·         for/four: I purchased four new pairs of shoes for my upcoming vacation.

·         heal/heel: If the heel breaks on your shoe, you might fall. However, your injuries will heal over time.

·         hear/here: I wanted to sit here so I could hear the singer performing without any distractions.

·         hour/our: We have one hour before our appointment with the real estate agent.

·         idle/idol: Being idle makes me unhappy, but listening to my idol Taylor Swift makes me happy.

·         knight/night: The knight is on his way to the castle, but traveling at night is very dangerous.

·         knot/not: I do not know how she learned to tie the knot to make that necklace.

·         poor/pour: I pour drinks at a bar every night. I am poor because I have too many bills and not enough money.

·         right/write: There is no right way to write a great novel.

·         sea/see: At my beach house, I love to wake up and see the sea.

·         sole/soul: I need to get a new sole put on my favorite pair of running shoes. Jogging is good for my soul.

·         son/sun: My son is 13 years old. He likes to spend time outside in the sun.

·         steal/steel: Someone who decides to steal a car has committed a crime, but auto parts are made of steel.

·         tail/tale: My cat was crazily chasing his tail while I read a fairy tale to my children.

·         weather/whether: I don't know whether to bring a jacket or not. The weather looks unpredictable today.

Frequently Confused Homophones

There are several homophones in the English language that almost everyone gets confused at some point. These frequently confused homophones include:

·         accept/except: Accept is a verb that means to take or receive. Except is used as a preposition or conjunction to mean but or exclude.

·         affect/effect: Affect is a verb (in most cases) and indicates influence. Effect is a noun (in most cases) and is the result of an action or change.

·         compliment/complement: Compliment means to say something nice about someone or something. Complement means something that enhances or completes.

·         then/than: Then is a versatile word used as an adverb, noun or adjective to show the order of how things happened. Than is a subordinating conjunction you can use to make comparisons.