LICENSURE EXAMINATION FOR TEACHERS (LET)

Reviewer for English Majors

Linguistics

Scope of Linguistic Studies

Phonology studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the combination of
syllables and larger units.

Phoneme is a distinctive, contrasted sound unit, e.g. /b/, /æ/, /g/. It is the smallest unit of sound of any
language that causes a difference in meaning.

Allophones are variants or other ways of producing a phoneme.

Phonetics studies language at the level of sounds: how sounds are articulated by the human speech
mechanism.

Morphology studies the patterns of forming words by combining sounds into minimal distinctive units
of meanings called morphemes.

Morpheme is a short segment of language which (1) is a word or word part that has meaning, (2) cannot
be divided into smaller meaningful parts without violating its meaning, (3) recurs in different words with
a relatively stable meaning.

Allomorphs are morphs which belong to the same morpheme e.g., /s/, /z/, and /ez/ of the plural
morpheme /s/ or /es/.

Free morphemes can stand on their own as independent words, e.g., beauty in beautifully, like in
unlikely. Thus, they can occur in isolation.

Bound morphemes cannot stand on their own as independent words. These morphemes are also called
as affixes.
Inflectional morphemes never change the form class of the words or morphemes to which they are
attached. They show person, tense, number, case, and degree.

Derivational morphemes are added to root morphemes or stems to derive new words.

Syntax deals with how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences, and studies the way
phrases, clauses, and sentences are constructed.

Structure of predication refers to the two components : subject and predicate

Structure of complementation has two basic elements : verbal and complement

Structure of modification includes two components : head word and modifier

Structure of coordination covers two components : equivalent grammatical units

Semantics attempts to analyze the structure of meaning in language and deals with the level of meaning
in language.

Lexical ambiguity refers to the characteristic of a word that has more than one meaning.

Syntactic ambiguity refers to the characteristic of a phrase that has more than one meaning e.g. Filipino
teacher.

Pragmatics deals with the contextual aspects of meaning in particular situations ; studies how language
is used in real communication.

Speech act theory advances that every utterance consists of three separate acts (1) locutionary force
an act of saying something and describes what a speaker says, (2) illocutionary force the act of doing
something and what the speaker intends to do by uttering a sentence, and (3) perlocutionary act an act
of affecting someone; the effect on the hearer of what a speaker says.
Categories of illocutionary acts refers to categories proposed by John Searle to group together closely
related intentions for saying something:

Representative stating, asserting, denying, confessing, admitting, notifying, concluding, predicting, etc.

Directive requesting, ordering, forbidding, warning, advising, suggesting, insisting, recommending, etc.

Question asking, inquiring, etc.

Commissive promising, vowing, volunteering, offering, guaranteeing, pledging, betting, etc.

Expressive apologizing, thanking, congratulating, condoling, welcoming, deploring, objecting, etc.

Declaration appointing, naming, resigning, baptizing, surrendering, excommunicating, arresting, etc.

Discourse studies chunks of language which are bigger than a single sentence.

Language Views / Theories of Language

The Structuralists support the idea that language can be described in terms of observable and verifiable
data as it is being used.

Language is a means of communication.

Language is primarily vocal

Language is a system of systems.

Language is arbitrary.

The Transformationalists believe that language is a system of knowledge made manifest in linguistic
forms but innate and, in its most abstract form universal.

Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical.

Language is innate. Children acquire their first language because they have a language acquisition device
(LAD) in their brain.
Language is universal: all normal children learn a mother tongue, all languages share must share key
features like sounds and rules.

Language is creative and enables speakers to produce and understand sentences they have not heard
nor used before.

The Functionalists advocates that language is a dynamic system through which members of a
community exchange information. It is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning such as
expressing ones emotions, persuading people, asking and giving information, etc.

They emphasize the meaning and functions rather than the grammatical characteristics of language.

The Interactionists believe that language is a vehicle for establishing interpersonal relations and for
performing social transactions between individuals.

Language teaching content may be specified and organized by patterns of exchange and interaction.

Language Acquisition / Theories of Language Learning

Behaviorist learning theory the language behavior of an individual is conditioned by sequences of

differential rewards in his/her environment.

According to Littlewood (1984), the process of habit formation includes the following :

Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.

People recognize the childs attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforce (reward) the
sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.

In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns so that these
become habits.

In this way t he childs verbal behavior is conditioned (shaped) until the habits coincide with adult
models.

Behavioralists see three crucial elements of learning: (1) a stimulus, which serves to elicit behavior, (2) a
response triggered by the stimulus, and (3) reinforcement which serves to mark the response as being
appropriate and encourages the repetition of the response.

Cognitive learning theory. Noam Chomsky believes that all normal human beings have an inborn
biological internal mechanism that makes language learning possible.
Cognitivists / innatists mentalists account of second language acquisition include hypothesis testing, a
process of formulating rules and testing the same with competent speakers of the target language.

Krashens Monitor Model (1981).This is the most comprehensive theory in second language acquisition.
It consists of five central hypotheses.

The acquisition / learning hypothesis claims that there are two ways of developing competence in L2:

Acquisition the subconscious process that results from informal, natural communication between
people where language is a means, not a focus nor an end in itself.

Learning the conscious process of knowing about language and being able to talk about it, that occurs in
a more formal situation where the properties of a language are taught

The natural order hypothesis suggests that grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order
for both children and adults _ certain grammatical structures are acquired before others, irrespective of
the language being learned.

The monitor hypothesis claims that conscious learning of grammatical rules has an extremely limited
function in language performance: as a monitor or editor that checks output.

The input hypothesis. Krashen proposes that when learners are exposed to grammatical features a little
beyond their current level those features are acquired.

The affective filter hypothesis. Filter consists of attitude to language, motivation, self-confidence and
anxiety. Learners with a low affective filter seek and receive more input, interact with confidence, and
are more receptive to the input they are exposed to.

Teachers must continuously deliver at a level understandable by learners

Teaching must prepare the learners for real life communication situations

Teachers must ensure that learners do not become anxious or defensive in language learning.

Formal grammar teaching is of limited value because it contributes to learning rather than acquisition

Language Teaching Implications

Language theories provide some basis for a particular teaching method or approach.

Structuralism / behaviorism has produced the audiolingual method (ALM), oral approach / situational
language teaching, bottom-up text processing, controlled-to-free writing.

The cognitive learning theory results to the cognitive approach that puts language analysis before
language use and instruction by the teacher, before the students practice forms.

Learning as a thinking process gives birth to cognitive-based and schema-enhancing strategies such as
Directed Reading Thinking Activity, Story Grammar, Think-Aloud, etc.
The functional view of language introduced methods which are learner-centered, allowing learners to
work in pairs or groups in information gap tasks and problem-solving activities where such
communication strategies as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction are used.

These communication-based methods include the Communicative Language Teaching / Communicative

Approach, Notional-Functional Approach, Natural Approach

Cognitive affective has given rise to a holistic approach to language learning or whole person learning. It
also includes the humanistic approach, allowing learners vocabulary for expressing, sharing and
understanding ones feelings, values, and needs.

The humanistic techniques cover Community Language Learning.

Literature

Goals of Teaching Literature

Develop and/or extend literary competence. Jonathan Culler defines literary competence as the ability
to internalize the grammar of literature which would permit a reader to convert linguistic sequences
into literary structures and meaning.

Develop and/or enhance learners imagination and creativity.

Develop students character and emotional maturity.

Develop creative thinking.

Develop literary appreciation and refine ones reading taste.

Methods in Teaching Literature

Lecture Methods : formal, informal, straight recitation

Discussion Methods : pair work, buzz group, group work

Public Speaking Methods : memorizing, interpretive reading (Readers Theater, Chamber Theater),
debate, panel forum

Audio-Visual Methods : using slides, transparencies, film, vcd, dvd,

Project Methods : scrapbook making, exhibit/diorama, dramatization, literary map, time line,
video/audio scriptwriting

Field Research Methods : field trip, author interview

Creative Writing Methods : journal writing, closure writing, team writing, writing workshop

Some Strategies and Techniques in Teaching Literature

Show and Tell and Blurb Writing using the title and cover design
Movie Poster and Movie Trailer transforming a literary piece into film

Writing Chapter Zero / Epilogue writing a prequel or sequel

Mock Author Interview assigning a student to play the role of the author

Biographical Montage compiling authentic materials about the author

Graphic Representations using sketching or other visual representations

Sculpting making a tableau or montage

Creative Conversation, Speech Balloons, or Thought Bubbles supplying dialogues

Worksheets completing grids or writing responses

Transforms translating or turning a piece into another genre

Literary Criticism involves the reading, interpretation and commentary of a specific text or texts which
have been designated as literature. Literary criticism is the application of a literary theory to specific
texts. Literary theory identifies what makes literary language literary and the function of literary text in
social and cultural terms.

Classical Literary Theory literature is an imitation of life.

Mimesis (Plato) literature is an imitation of life.

Dulce et utile (Horace) function of literature is to entertain or to teach/instruct

Sublime (Longinus) style may be low, middle, high, or sublime

Catharsis (Aristotle) purgation of negative emotions of fear and pity

Historical Biographical and Moral Philosophical Approaches

a. A literary work is a reflection of its authors life and times or the life and times of the characters in the
work.

b. It emphasizes that literature functions to teach morality and to probe philosophical issues.

Romantic Theory. William Wordsworth articulated it in his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads as literature
which should

a. have a subject matter that is ordinary and commonplace

b. use simple language, even aspiring to the language of prose

c. make use of the imagination

d. convey a primal, simple, uncomplicated feeling

e. present similitude in dissimilitude (similarities in differences)

New Criticism believes that literature is an organic unity. To use this theory, one proceeds by looking
into the following : the persona, the addressee, the situation (where and when), what the persona says,
the central metaphor (tenor and vehicle), the central irony, the multiple meaning of words.

Psychoanalytical Theory – applies Freudian psychoanalytic ideas to literature.

a. It looks into the characters or authors motivations, drives, fears, desires.

b. It believes that creative writing is like dreaming it disguises what cannot be confronted directly the
critic must decode what is disguised.

Mythological / Archetypal Approach is based on Carl Jungs theory of collective unconscious.

a. Repeated or dominant images or patterns of human experience are identified in the text.

b. It also uses Northrop Fryes assertion that literature consists of variations on a great mythic theme
that contains the following : (1) the garden : the creation of life in paradise, (2) alienation : displacement
or banishment from paradise, (3) journey : a time of trial and tribulation, (4) epiphany : a self-discovery
as a result of struggle, (4) rebirth / resurrection : a return to paradise.

Structuralist Literary Theory comes from the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure which
recognizes language as a system or structure. To Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov , structuralism
should identify the general principles of literary structure and not to provide interpretations of
individual texts. Three dimensions in individual literary texts :

a. the text as a particular system or structure in itself (naturalization of a text)

b. texts are unavoidably influenced by other texts (intertextuality)

c. the text is related to the culture as a whole (binary oppositions)

Deconstruction interrogates our common practices in reading and exposes the gaps, incoherences, the
contradictions in a discourse and how the text undermine itself or how a text contradicts itself.
Deconstruction draws much from the works of Jacques Derrida. The process involves

a. identifying the oppositions in the text

b. determining which member is favored/privileged and looking for evidence that contradicts it

c. exposing the texts indeterminancy

Russian Formalism led by Viktor Shklovsky aims to establish a science of literature and discover the
literariness of a text by highlighting the devices and technical elements used by the author. These
elements should include :

baring the device e.g. distorting time in various ways foreshortening, skipping, expanding, transposing,
reversing, flashback, flashforward, etc.

defamiliarization this means making strange and using fresh ways of describing things

retardation of the narrative the technique of delaying and protracting actions by using digressions,
displacements, extended descriptions, etc.
naturalization – refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways of making sense of the
most random or chaotic utterances or discourse.

carnivalization Mikhail Bakhtin used this term to describe the shaping effect of carnival on literary texts.
The festivities associated with the carnival are collective and popular; hierarchies are turned on their
heads (fools become wise; kings become beggars); opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and
hell); the sacred is profaned; the rigid or serious is subverted, mocked or loosened.

Marxist Literary Theory. It aims to explain literature relation to society that literature can only be
properly understood within a larger framework of social reality. Marxist literary critics would like to look
at the structure of history and society and then investigate whether the literary work reflects or distorts
this structure. They insist that literature has a social dimension it exists in time and space, in history and
society. Moreover, writers are constantly formed by their social contexts and social class.

Feminist Criticism. Branching out from Marxism, it is a political discourse; a critical and theoretical
practice committed to the struggle against patriarchy and sexism.

a. Feminism asks why women played a subordinate role to men in society.

It studies the male-dominated canon to understand how men have used culture to further their
domination of women.

b. It studies literature by women for how it addresses or expresses the particularity of womens life and
experience. Feminist critics insist that womens experience is different from mens.

Postcolonial Criticism. Postcolonialism refers to the independence enjoyed by Third World countries
after the decline of colonial rule by imperialist powers. The many concerns of postcolonial criticism
includes the following :

a. attempt to resurrect their national culture and to combat the misconceptions about their culture

b. dramatize the colonial experience and their response to it

c. escape from the implicit body of assumptions to which the language of the colonizing power, English,
was attached.

d. study diasporic texts outside the usual Western genres, especially works by aboriginal authors,
marginalized ethnicities, immigrants, and refugees.

e. analyze nationality, ethnicity, and politics with poststructuralist ideas of identity and indeterminacy,
and hybrid constructions (Homi K. Bhaba)

Post Modern Literary Theory. Postmodern refers to the culture of advanced capitalist societies, which
has undergone a profound shift in the structure of feeling. Postmodern texts have the following features
:

a. fragmentation g. intertextuality

b. discontinuity h. decentering

c. indeterminacy i. dislocation
d. plurality j. ludism

e. metafictionality k. parody

f. heterogeneity l. pastiche

Linguistic Approaches to Reading

Bloomfield Approach Leonard Bloomfield and Clarence Barnhart advocate that the child should be
acquainted with the letters of the alphabet at the very start. The child should begin with capital letters
and then go to small letters.

Fries Approach Charles Fries basic concept : Learning to read in ones native language is learning to shift,
to transfer, from auditory signs for the language signals which the child has already learned to visual or
graphic signs for the same signals for language perception. The aim is to develop high-speed recognition
responses to English spelling patterns.

Eclectic Approach

Reading as interest development of the recreational reading habit; the major approach is personalized
or individualized reading.

Reading as language process

Language Experience Approach a strategy which views reading as an extension of speaking :

thinking/experiencing, talking, writing, reading.

Psycholinguistic Approach view reading as an interaction of thought and language, a process of

combining psychology and linguistics. This approach advances that reading, like listening, is a receptive
process, used to understand a written message, that readers reconstruct the authors meaning in their
own words.

Reading as culture focuses on the relation between dialect differences and the written message as well
as on ones cultural heritage. It makes instruction relevant to the pupils cultural background.

Reading as a learned process emphasizes on controlled development of skills in a structured sequence

progressing from simple to complex

The Basal Textbook Approach follows this general format : scope-and-sequence or flow chart for all an
overall view of skills; kindergarten readiness workbooks; first grade, second grade and above skillbooks;
teachers guides and assessment tests. The standard basal text lesson follows these steps:

background or motivation

vocal development

purposeful or guided silent reading

discussion

purposeful rereading
skill instruction in word recognition, comprehension skill with the use of workbooks

enrichment activities

The Linguistic Approach look at reading as recognizing and interpreting graphic symbols representing
spoken sounds which have meaning. It stresses sound-symbol regularity and systematic exposure to
frequently used sounding patterns.

The Phonics Approach believes that the English spelling system is essentially regular in its
correspondence between letters and speech sounds and that letter sounds can be blended together to
form words. For second language learners short phonics drills on crucial sounds like f, v, j, sh, th, z, a and
the schwa are needed.

Programmed Instruction includes step-by-step learning, learning, immediate feedback, regular and
constant review and individual progress through materials.

The Skills Monitoring Approach reading is analyzed in terms of skills arranged in hierarchies. This
approach entails

(1) a scope and sequence chart of reading skills

(2) a battery of tests for preassessment of reading abilities

(3) based on test results, instruction to adjust to pupils interest, abilities, and needs

(4) a continuous assessment using both formative and summative tests

(5) a corrective or remedial measures

(6) an adequate and challenging enrichment activities for the bright pupils.

Stage and Speech Arts

Level / Context of Speech Communication

Intrapersonal involves only oneself.

Internal discourse like thinking, analysis, contemplation, meditation

Solo vocal communication like thinking aloud, soliloquies

Solo written communication not intended for others like diaries, or personal journals

Interpersonal involves an exchange between sender and receiver of a message. It may be direct (face-
to-face) or indirect (via telephone, e-mail, teleconference)

Dyadic communication ; two people talking

Group communication ; study group, committee meetings

Public communication ; scholarly lectures, political campaigns

The Speech Arts

Different types of public speech according to purpose

Informative to present facts, knowledge, information

Persuasive to reinforce or modify the audiences beliefs

Occasional or entertaining to amuse the audience

How the speech is delivered

Impromptu speech delivered with little or no preparation

Extemporaneous speech delivered with some prepared structure such as notes or outlines

Memorized speech reciting speech from memory

Manuscript speaking reading the speech word-for-word from its written form or the manuscript

Types of oral interpretation

a. Solo interpretation

Story telling oral sharing of a personal or traditional story; it may be illustrative (using drawings) or
creative / dramatic (using gestures and creative movements) for entertaining or educating

Interpretative / interpretive reading also called dramatic reading, oral reading, or reading aloud by using
the elements of voice and diction to convey meaning and mood

Declamation recitation of a poem from memory and is marked by strong feelings

Monologue interpretative oral performance of prose or poetry in which the interpreter plays a role

b. Group interpretation

Reading concert also known as Readers Theatre- oral reading activity with speakers presenting
literature in a dramatic form

Chamber Theater theatrical approach to performing narrative literature

Speech Choir also choral reading, choric interpretation, vocal orchestration ensemble reading
technique where a group of readers recite as one in coordinated voices and related interpretation : (1)
reading in unison several voices sound like one instrument, (2) solo and chorus soloists recite lines and
chorus recites refrains, (3) responsive reading lines are recited alternately by solo or chorus