Language Systems: A Good Teacher. One of The Qualities Listed Was "Knowledge of The Topic

MODULE 3
 a good teacher. One of the qualities listed was "knowledge of the topic.
 English can be described as having four broad language systems:
 lexis (vocabulary)
 grammar
 phonology
 function
and four broad language skills:
 speaking
 listening
 reading
 writing
Language Systems
Every language can be broken down into four systems: lexis, grammar, phonology, and
function.
LEXIS (meaning of words)
 English has a rich vocabulary, consisting of hundreds of thousands of words. In fact,

of all the world's languages, which number over 2,700, English has one of the largest
vocabularies. The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words. Moreover, it
is estimated that there are another 500,000 technical and scientific terms that have
not yet been listed in the dictionary!
GRAMMAR (word order, tenses and moods)
 Grammar can be defined as the system or structure between words and patterns of
words that help us communicate our ideas.
 This also refers to the rules we have created to define these relationships and
patterns, and includes everything from the rules of tense usage to the syntax (word
order) of the English language.
 Having a firm grasp on what the tenses are and a few other key areas will greatly
improve the teachers’ ability to help his or her students understand English.
PHONOLOGY ( words sounds including pronunciation and stress)

 Phonology is the sound system of a language
 which refers to how we form the different sounds that make up the pronunciation of
that language.
 Your students in Saudi Arabia are having trouble hearing the difference
between, and pronouncing, words that begin with p versus words that begin
with b, as in peas and bees.
 Your students in Mexico are having similar problems distinguishing between
berry and very.
 Your students in Thailand never pronounce their final s on any word.
 Many of your students in your multilingual class cannot pronounce the th
sound found in then and bath.
 Your students will often stress the wrong syllable in a word, which changes
that word’s meaning and impedes comprehension: "Record your message
after the beep" vs. "We have a record of your payment."
 Your Japanese students speak with an unfamiliar rhythm.
 The curriculum of many schools and the layout of many textbooks are based
around grammar or functional language systems. In addition, many students will
specifically request more work on pronunciation or grammar skills.
FUNCTION ( the purpose of language)
 When we use language to communicate a particular purpose that we wish to

achieve (such as greeting an acquaintance, extending an invitation, accepting an
offer, or giving directions), we use certain words and grammar.
 Functionalism is actually an independent approach that is used in the ESL/EFL
classroom where the whole focus on what is taught is based on these particular
purposes of language.
 Shall we go? (function: suggestion)

 Could you possibly tell me where the library is? (function: polite request)
 Why don't you walk to school? It'll be good exercise. (function:
recommendation/advice)
 How do I get to the airport from here? (function: requesting directions)

 We could look at the meanings of the words. We could consult a dictionary if
any words were new. Taking this approach, we are concerned with the
sentence’s lexis (vocabulary).
 2. We could look at the structure of the sentence. Where is the subject?
What tense is it? This sentence is an example of the imperative mood,
which is structured differently than the more common indicative mood. This
perspective of viewing this simple sentence is concerned with its structure,
or grammar.
 3. We could consider how these words sound or the rhythm or intonation of
the sentence. The letters v and b are often difficult for students to
pronounce. We could point out the vibration and the position of the lower lip
and teeth when producing the sound of /v/ in the word "give". This
demonstration would concentrate on the sentence’s pronunciation, part of
the study of phonology.
 4. We could consider how these words function together in a particular
situation; in this case the sentence makes a request or demand. We could
elicit other ways to make a similar request (“Would you mind handing me
the book, please?”) and appropriate replies. With this approach to the
sentence, we are concerned with its job or what it is accomplishing - its
function.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
 Language skills dictate how people actually use English. Consider the relationship
between the two categories, language systems and language skills. It is helpful for
people to learn new words (study vocabulary), but only because they will then be
able to communicate more; in conversations with others using those new words or
understanding those new words when encountered in an article and producing
them in their writing.
 Learning the word – the work of language systems – is only useful when it
becomes accessible to the students in their lives.
 There are four macro-skills that we teach in the ESL/EFL classroom:

listening, speaking, reading, and writing. At times, we break these macro-
skills into subskills. For example, scanning for details is a subskill of reading.
One way of thinking about these skills is to consider the terms productive
and receptive.
PRODUCTIVE SKILL
We produce language through speaking and writing. Speaking and writing are termed
productive because these skills require active participation on the part of the student,
such as writing a paragraph or orally answering a question.
RECEPTIVE SKILL
We receive language through listening and reading. Listening and reading are
receptive skills, but that does not mean they are passive. An EFL student who is
listening to you, another student, a song, or a listening activity is probably participating
in a very active manner to develop his listening skills as much as possible. And
certainly, if a student finds a reading passage to be interesting, his mind is fully
engaged in trying to understand the reading.
Integrating Language Skills

While we classify these components of language into systems and skills, we rarely
teach these as separate units. No skill or system is isolated or separate from the
others. When you teach vocabulary, for example, you may write it on the board, and
your students will read it (receptive) and may write it down in their notebooks
(productive). You pronounce the word, then they pronounce the word, and you may
assign homework that requires the students to write a sentence or story, incorporating
the new word. You may do a role-play in which your students will use the new
vocabulary in spoken form. You have included a wide variety of language skills and
systems into this vocabulary lesson.
that includes almost all of the European languages spoken today (exceptions being
Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Basque), as well as numerous languages in
southern Asia. This broad family includes:
 Latin and the modern Latin languages: Italian, Spanish, French, etc.
 the Germanic languages: German, Swedish, Icelandic, English, Dutch, etc.
 the Indo-Iranian languages: Farsi (Persian), Hindi and Sanskrit, etc.
 the Slavic languages: Russian, Polish, Serbian, etc.
 the Baltic languages: Latvian and Lithuanian
 the Celtic Languages: Welsh, Breton, Gaelic, etc.
 and Greek.
Specifically, English is derived from the Germanic group of languages. These
evolved from a common language that existed 3,000 years ago in the region of the
Elbe River around the 2nd century B.C. This language began to divide into three
groups: East Germanic, which is not spoken today; North Germanic, which evolved
into the Scandinavian languages of today (except Finnish); and West Germanic,
which is the source of modern German, Dutch, Frisian, English and Flemish.
Many people assume that the story of English begins with the Roman occupation
in Britain. In fact, however, little Latin entered the language during this period,
except some modern place names in England that are derived from words such as
castra, meaning walled encampment (as in, Manchester), and wic, meaning village
(as in Greenwich). The conversion of England to Christianity later in the 7th century
after the Roman occupation also brought in a number of Latin, church-related
words like priest, vicar and mass.

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MODULE 3

and four broad language skills:

 English has a rich vocabulary, consisting of hundreds of thousands of words. In fact,

PHONOLOGY ( words sounds including pronunciation and stress)

FUNCTION ( the purpose of language)

 When we use language to communicate a particular purpose that we wish to

 Shall we go? (function: suggestion)

 How do I get to the airport from here? (function: requesting directions)

 There are four macro-skills that we teach in the ESL/EFL classroom:

Integrating Language Skills

 the Germanic languages: German, Swedish, Icelandic, English, Dutch, etc.

 the Indo-Iranian languages: Farsi (Persian), Hindi and Sanskrit, etc.

 the Slavic languages: Russian, Polish, Serbian, etc.

 the Baltic languages: Latvian and Lithuanian

 the Celtic Languages: Welsh, Breton, Gaelic, etc.

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