Text 19A4-II 

        Photo exhibitions are great opportunities for excited and ambitious photographers to showcase their work beyond just the safety of their friends and family. They’re also a stellar opportunity to develop a thicker skin, as your work will be subject to critique, but that’s all part of the territory that comes with getting more exposure as a photographer, which is what all artists should strive for. Beyond that, they’re a great way to advertise yourself as a photographer, both your talents and your availability. Think of it almost as the artist’s equivalent to having a booth at a trade show when you’re selling a product. 

        First-timers to an exhibition will likely find themselves a bit unsure of what to do and somewhat nervous. Here’s a series of surefire tips to make any exhibition a success. Before you do anything else, it’s imperative that you make up your mind about what you’ll be showcasing at your exhibition. You only have two choices, when you think about it: brand-new work that you’ll shoot especially for the exhibition or archival stuff that you’ll just pull out for the exhibition. Also, being creative when finding the exhibition location is as important as the showcase itself. 

Internet: <https://contrastly.com> (adapted). 

Text 19A4-I 

        It is a universal fact that cinema is a visual medium. Films have the power to overwhelm our senses as well as our minds, subjecting us to a variety of experiences that can range from the sublime to the devastating. Colours play a crucial role in this interesting phenomenon, forming an integral part of the composition of each frame and dictating how the viewer perceives the spectacle on the screen. Apart from the cinematic medium, colours have always been a part of our experience and how we make sense of the vastly nuanced world around us. Although science has definitively explained what colours are in terms of light, they have always mystified artists and philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Ludwig Wittgenstein, who tried to understand their importance in anthropological frameworks. 

        More notably, the famous German poet and artist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published a seminal exploration of colours in his 1810 work Theory of Colours. In it, he examined how each colour corresponds to various psychological states in the minds of human beings. He wrote, “Light and darkness, brightness and obscurity, or if a more general expression is preferred, light and its absence, are necessary to the production of colour… Colour itself is a degree of darkness.” Goethe’s theories might seem baselessly romantic in the 21st century but the underlying ideas have been implemented by filmmakers and cinematographers to curate the voyeuristic experiences of their audiences. Famed cinematographer Vittorio Storaro has based his artistic vision on Goethe’s work, insisting that colours do have a direct connection to the mind of the viewer. 

Internet: <https://faroutmagazine.co.uk> (adapted).

Examine the set of sentences to answer question.

1. Sam has stayed in Los Angeles for two years, and completed his course.

2. Raj has just gone out to the market since we’ve run out of coffee.

3. We have been to many amazing foreign countries.

4. My brothers have waited for hours at the train station last week.

5. My last birthday was the worst day I have ever had.

6. Sheila has been working on that project for over a month.

7. Hasn’t he been trying to get into Jawaha University? Is there any progress?

8. As the weather was fine, the old man sat down to read outdoors.

9. I can’t get in my house because I lost my keys, and my wife isn’t home.

10. Scientists have recently discovered a new breed of monkey. 

Read the text to answer question.

The nature of “Language Input” for Language Acquisition

   “INPUT” is a vital concept within language acquisition, especially within second language acquisition. Theoretical models in research on language acquisition typically require the explanation of how INPUT is treated by the learners and the impact on language acquisition.The presence of INPUT, however, does not guarantee acquisition. This is generally understood. Watching 20 hours of Korean drama does not necessarily lead to acquisition of Korean – if that worked, we would have loads of proficient Korean speakers around the world now. Notwithstanding that, we also understand that the absence of target language INPUT also implies no language acquisition will take place for the target language. This should also be easily understood. It cannot be the case that a person who has never listened to a word of Yiddish, to be able to speak Yiddish suddenly.

   There are various theories on the psycholinguistic processes of how INPUT generates acquisition. Nevertheless, most scholars agree that INPUT needs to be converted to “INTAKE” before acquisition can take place. Using the analogy of the Korean drama earlier, we may also have heard of examples of learners who seemed to have acquire new understanding and able to use Korean at a slightly different level after watching numerous Korean dramas. Yet, the same experience does not always hold for all others. In that sense, for those who have improved or level up, INPUT has become INTAKE in their minds.

   Technically speaking, INPUT is akin to data (in fact, some scholars define input as primary linguistic data) available in the environment that the learner has opportunity of access, and intake refers to the data that the learner actually takes in and process. Just as in data science where processed raw data then becomes useful information, LANGUAGE INPUT that is processed can then become information for acquisition – the psychological region where “new information is matched against prior knowledge” (Gass, 1997:5), enabling the learner to confirm/reject any previous hypothesis or form new hypothesis about the target language. Note that this can be implicit and is unknown to the learner.

   The key question then is: What types of LANGUAGE INPUT can then have a higher opportunity of becoming INTAKE? This is one question of inquiry that research has yet to provide very conclusive answers, although there are many influencing factors. As such, the various types of LANGUAGE INPUT to be discussed contribute in different manners to acquisition. We should take note of these types to construct relevant languaging experiences for our learners.

(Disponible in: https://www.languageeducatorsassemble.com/types-of-language-input. Adapted.)