LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Interference of Mappila Dialect in the Standard Malayalam Language -
with special reference to the writing performance of Primary School Children

Saidalavi C.

Abstract

This paper is based on a small-scale study on the impact of Mappila Malayalam dialect forms on the writing ability of the standard Malayalam language of Upper Primary School Students in the Malappuram district, where Mappila dialect is prominent. The study collects the nonstandard Mappila Malayalam occurrences that appeared in the students writing. It also classifies this occurrence into different linguistic categories (phonological, morphological, syntactical and lexical) in an effort to find out outstanding problems for each category. Findings indicate a significant positive correlation between degrees of Mappila Dialect interference in the writing of standard Malayalam. Such findings can be useful in gaining a better insight into the issues of language in education and for the preparation of appropriate teaching material that can facilitate the reduction of non standard occurrences in the writing of the student.

Introduction

Variation in language is a part of a well-organized and structured language system, occurring in specific linguistic contexts. Since structured variation of this kind is unconscious, it is likely to be beyond our conscious control, and therefore it is naive in the extreme to suppose that children could be taught to readily substitute one form for another. All over the world it is found that the mass language and the official language are unrelated.

The 'standard' is the variety of language used in writing. It is the language of media, commerce and administration. The language used for educational purpose is not the one they use in their daily life and at home. Thus it offers a great opportunity for the investigator to find out the relationship between dialect and linguistic competencies in standard language. The problem for dialect speakers with oral and written language production was mainly due to the interference of the dialect with the standard. Although the dialect interference is tended to decrease during their course of education, it continues to be an important source of error up to university level of education.

The present study attempts to identify the interference of the Mappila dialect of Malayalam in the writing performance of standard Malayalam language among primary school students and to classify these dialect elements in to different linguistic categories- phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical. It is hoped that the finding may contribute to a better understanding to the phenomenon of dialect interference in the writing skill of students and for the preparation of the appropriate materials that may facilitate the reduction of dialectic elements in the writing of the standard Malayalam language.

The students using Mappila dialect of Malayalam often found difficulty in conceiving ideas through the highly Sanskritized standard Malayalam used in text books.

For example:

1. Drishti gocharamallatha (standard Malayalam usage in science text book)
2. Kannukondu kananpattatha (common usage)

Both the words are used to signify "the one that can not be seen through eye". The second one is easier for the student to conceive the idea. Owing to the extreme influence of their dialect student reflexively omit the feature of standard Malayalam and prefer their dialectic feature even in the written performance of the language.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Interference of Mappila Dialect in the Standard Malayalam Language - with special reference to the writing performance of Primary School Children | Effect of Environmental Education to School Children Through Animation Based Educational Video | Women as Victors of the Social Milieu in Amy Tan's China | A Comparative Study of the Language Learning Strategies Used by the Students of Formal and Non-Formal Systems of Education in Pakistan | New Vistas in Comparative Studies | Comparative Analysis of MA English Results under Annual and Semester system: Quality Assurance in Pakistan | A Virtual Learning Environment in an ESL Classroom in a Technical University in India | When a School Becomes a Pool - What Can We Do to Make Language Learning Interesting to Yemeni Students | Does Number Affect English Pronunciation? | Shashi Tharoor: Transmuting Historical and Mythical Material into Literary Ideas | The Impact of Working Memory on Text Composition in Hearing Impaired Adults | A Study of the ELT Teachers' Perception of Teaching Language through Literature at the Higher Secondary School and Degree Levels in Pakistani Milieu | Some Aspects of Teaching-Learning English as a Second Language | Challenges Encountered by Teachers in Rural Areas and Strategies to Triumph Over | Variation of Voice Onset Time (VOT) in Kannada Language | A Comparative Study on the Efficacy of Two Different Clinical Language Intervention Procedures | Dilemma of Usage and Transmission - A Sociolinguistic Investigation of Dhundi-Pahari in Pakistan | Teaching Beyond the Regular Curriculum | Claustrophobia in Anita Desai's Cry, The Peacock - "From Defeat to Disaster" | Code Mixing and Code Switching in Tamil Proverbs | A Phonetic and Phonological Study of the Consonants of English and Arabic | HOME PAGE of May 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR