Welcome To Lick The Bowl

Hello there, dear reader. Welcome to our blog. In it you will find the culmination of our works throughout the semester we've studied Computer Applications in Semester II, year 2008-2009, in the International Islamic University Malaysia. What we intend with this blog is basically to share what we've learned from our course with you, dear reader, as well as others who might be so inclined to read if of when they do so. You might ask yourself “why would anybody want to base their intention on that? Its just an assignment”. True, it is. What started out as drudgery however, a knuckle-scrapping exercise in academic tedium has metamorphosized into something completely different, something that we actually have an interest in.

Firstly, the pertinence of the issue is of somewhat personal significance to every member of our university. The truth is that almost everyone in IIUM is bilingual, including every member of our course, our degree program, even the faculty and staff. And as English Majors, the issue of bilingualism is dually important, at an academic level as well as a personal level. We embody our education and the issues pertaining to it in the very fiber of our thoughts, our future careers, the very things that we say. And we love electronic mediums. There is hardly any student on campus that doesn't chat, socialize, communicate or entertain him or herself electronically. And we use language to interact with these electronic mediums. So it makes sense to address issues that are relevant to this intrinsically personal aspect of language learning as well as users of electronic media.

Secondly, in the pursuit of building our blog to the requirements of the course, we chose socio-linguistic phenomena to feature in it, and in particular, the issue of bilingualism and bilingual education. The issue is a pertinent one. Recently, the issue of bilingual education has become a greatly debated issue with regards to the national education system, and perhaps unfortunately, it has been politicized to the point of being an exercise of narrow-minded polemic and the stark socio-economic and intellectual needs of a growing, expanding society.

Most importantly however, dear reader, we are ever more increased and exposed to the rest of the world, at a pace unparalleled by history, thanks to advances in user-friendly Computer Mediated Communication. That fancy, academic word we use in reference to teaching methods and the enhancement of the scholastic experience refers also to the casual chat between friends and lovers at 2am in the morning. It is simply that important, and that ubiquitous. And as a result, the issue of bilingualism is directly, intrinsically, undeniably relevant. The vast majority of electronic communication and interaction, be it passive (radio, TV) or active (Internet, video games) is done in English, and yet the average proficiency of English in the average secondary student fluctuates wildly between various factors.

It is for these reasons that we have created this blog. We hope you gain something from it, learn and take with you some kernel of wisdom that we perhaps might have put in, and more importantly, above all else, take home a consciousness of your lingual world, its influences, and what it means to you. Thank you.