ENG 301

INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS
BSED I

NAME: ________________________________________

LINGUISTICS
 Language - A system that uses some physical sign (sound, gesture, mark) to
express meaning.

 Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Its breadth and depth reach various
fields and affect our daily lives. In the field of language teaching, linguistics plays a
very important role. Primarily, it provides language teachers with “what to teach”
since basic linguistic concepts serve as the foundation of language, hence language
teaching. Secondly, the study of language and how it is learned provide teachers
with basic ideas on “how to teach”.

We are uniquely language user We Use

Other Animals Communicate
Language
We can separate our vocalization from a given
• Cats arch their back to scare
situation (cats only arch their back in the
the neighbor cat
appropriate situation).
• Bees tell each other when they
• We can lie (animals only report)
have found food
• Chimpanzees can be taught to
• We can speculate (animals are bad at
use primitive sign language to
counterfactuals)
communicate desires.
4 parts to Language Grammar
• Phonology – Rule pertaining to the sound system
• Morphology – Rules governing word structure.
• Syntax – Rules governing the structure of sentences
• Semantics – Rules concerning meaning.

How Do We Make Speech Sounds?

History of English Language
 Helps teachers understand the origins of our phonology, morphology, orthography
and semantics.
 Helps teachers understand and explain our spelling system.
 Provides an appreciation for the variety and expressive precision of English
vocabulary.
 Enhances vocabulary teaching.
 Explains the historical origin of some common errors seen in invented spelling.

Vocabulary Building
 Latin words from this period are often composed of prefixes, roots and suffixes.
 Students can learn many vocabulary words at once by learning about these Latin
roots and affixes.
Prefixes and suffixes: Using this information in the classroom

 Most of today’s suffixes date from the Middle English period of history.
 Inflectional Suffixes (learned early):
 -s, -es, -ed, -ing, -er, -est
 Derivational Suffixes (usually change part of speech):
 -able, - ness, -ful, -ment, -ity
 The suffixes may change pronunciation of base words:
 define à definition
 compete àcompetition

BACKGROUND: Language, including the phonology, is always changing but the “great
vowel shift” was an unusually profound and quick change. It occurred over a 100 to 200
year period from 1400 to 1600. Scholars have not really found a reason for this.
Examples of some changes in vowels that occurred in the modern period of English are
shown on the next slide.
The great vowel shift
 During the Renaissance, the pronunciation of words changed particularly for the
vowel sounds.
 The spelling system was already established and did not change to accommodate the
changing sound.
You now know
 What sounds will children confuse with /p/ and how can I help?
 Why do common sight words such as “was,” “what,” and “said,” have irregular
spellings?
 How many meaningful parts (morphemes) are there in the word contracted?
 Why is English spelling perceived as “crazy?”

Rules that enable us to combine morphemes into sentences (bridge between sound and
meaning).

When children put words together they are following syntactic rules about how morphemes
are put together.

Semantic
Arbitrariness of the Sign - Sounds of words bear no relationship to meaning
(except for onomatopoeia).
In Philosophy we often distinguish between denotation and connotation.

Semantics Follow Syntax

“The people talked over the noise”

Two Syntactical Interpretations

1. [The people] [talked [over]the noise]]] - Over is a preposition
2. [The people [talked over][the noise] – Over is a particle

A single sentence can correspond to two propositions, each of which has a distinctive
syntactic (and logical) structure, hence, a different cognitive representation.
• Evidence that meaning is assigned to syntactic structure, rather than to words and
sentences.

Grammar - How do we know that one sentence is grammatical and the other is not?

Enter Rules
But what are rules, and how are they represented in the brain?
How do we come to have such knowledge?
In what form is such knowledge represented in the mind?
How can children learn grammar?

Interesting Facts about Language

• The number of sentences is infinite.
• We are able to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences.
• We are able to recognize truncated sentences (“Stop it”) that are missing nouns.
• We are able to recognize ambiguous sentences (“Andrew saw the girl with
binoculars”)
• We can create sentences that paraphrase each other.

Noam Chomsky
Focused on the vast and unconscious set of rules he hypothesized must exist in the
minds of speakers and hearers in order for them to produce and understand their native
language.  

Chomsky’s Views
• He abandons the idea that children produce languages only by imitation (abandon
behaviorism)
• He rejects the idea that direct teaching and correcting of grammar could account for
children’s utterances because the rules children were unconsciously acquiring are
buried in the unconscious of the adults.
• He claims that there are generative rules (explicit algorithms that characterize the
structures of a
Hypothesis – The inborn linguistic capacity of humans is sensitive to just those rules that
occur in human languages. Language development occurs if the environment provides
exposure to language. Similar to the capacity to walk.
Universal Grammar - Despite superficial differences all human languages share a
fundamental structure. This structure is a universal grammar. We have an innate ability to
apply this universal grammar to whatever language we are faced with at birth.

Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Rules

• Prescriptive Rules – E.g., Don’t split the infinitives. A pronoun must agree in gender
and number with the noun to which it refers.
• Descriptive Linguistics – Implicit knowledge of rules that are inherent in the
language.

Grammar is descriptive
Support for Chomsky 2
Claim that children can’t be taught grammatical rules because they are not explicitly
known. Rather, they absorb these rules unconsciously, as their language is spoken around
them.

Phonological Rule: Plural Marker

DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE
Cognitivist
Structuralist Transformationalist Functionalist Behaviorist Interactionalist
System Mental Phenomenon Interaction
Arbitrary Innate To persuade Repetition Socialization
(absolute)
Means of To give/ask Reinforcement
Communication LAD information
Primarily Vocal To make
someone do
something
OTHER DEFINITIONS
PSYCHOLINGUISTS- Language is learned through schema
SOCIOLINGUISTICS- Language performs a social function
WEBSTER- Language is the expression and communication of emotions or ideas between human
beings by means of speech and hearing that is systematized and confirmed by usage among a
given people over a period of time.
The sounds of English (A language is a complex structure)

A. Vowel sounds – high, mid, low ( front, central back)

Vowel sounds can also be classified as SPREAD, ROUND OR NEUTRAL.

B. CONSTANT SOUNDS

NASAL PLOSIVES FRICATIVES AFFRICATIVES LATERAL GLIDES

m,n,ng b,d,g,p,t,k, v,f,s,z,sh dz,ch w,l,r,j,h
(voice and voiceless)

What is a word?
A word is a particular combination of sounds and meaning.
 We can identify words by the strings of sounds that comprise them.
 We can also tell what is a ‘possible word’ in our native language.
Listeners tacitly know:
 The sound sequences that make for ‘possible words’ in their language.

What lies behind our ability to distinguish possible from not possible words?
 Tacit knowledge of the phonotactic constraints of the language.

Loanwords
 As a result of cultural contact, one language may ‘borrow’ words from another.
 The newly borrowed words are transformed to meet the phonological constraints of
the borrowing language.
Words have phonological structure
 The phonological structure of a word tells us how to pronounce it and how
to recognize or distinguish it from other words.

Words have morphological structure

 The morphological structure of a word is a guide to its meaning and its role
in sentence structure.

Second Language Acquisition Theories.

A plethora of theories have evolved and they can be broken down into four major
categories:
 Behaviorist “Use behavioral training for accurate pronunciation and rote memory of
information such as object and motor vocabulary.”
 Humanistic “Reduce tension and support a positive emotional state in the learner.
 Cognitivist “Align learning with the brain and its natural ways of knowledge
acquisition.”
 Postmodern Techniques of Knowledge:
 Constructivist “Leave behind one-size-fits-all methods and negotiate activities and
objectives based on the needs of the learner, using knowledge of learning styles and
multiple intelligences, and encouraging meta-cognition and self-reflection in order to
increase students’ self knowledge and capacity for making conscious meaning.”

Linguistic Concepts

Scope of Linguistic Studies:

1. Phonology. It studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the
combination of syllables and larger units. It describes the sound system of a
particular language and distribution of sounds which occur in that language.
Classification is made on the basis of the concept of the phoneme. It is the study of
the sound system of language: the rules that govern pronunciation. It is the
component of a grammar made up of the elements and principles that determine
sound patterns in language.

Phonological Rules
The rule system within a language by which phonemes are sequenced and uttered to make
words. Language consists of a fairly small set of sounds (phonemes). There are about 40 in
English. Most have no meaning in themselves; rather we string them together to form
meaningful bits and pieces.

Phonology: A related Term

 PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING: The use of information about speech sounds which
can include:
 Pronouncing words
 Remembering names
 Rhyming, identifying syllables
 Segmenting and blending sounds

2. Phonetics. It studies language at the level of sounds: how sounds are articulated by
the human speech mechanism and received by the auditory mechanism, how sounds
can be distinguished and characterized by the manner in which they are produced.
3. Morphology. It studies the patterns of formation of words by the combination of
sounds into minimal distinctive units of meaning called morphemes. It deals with the
rules of combining morphemes to form words, e.g. suffixes or prefixes are attached
to single morphemes to form words.
Morphology is the study of word formation; it deals with the internal structure of
words. It also studies the changes that take place in the structure of words, e.g. the
morpheme ‘go’ changes to ‘went’ or ‘gone’ to signify changes in tense and aspect.
4. Syntax. It deals with how words combine to form phrases, phrases combine to form
clauses, and clauses join to make sentences. Syntax is the study of the way phrases,
clauses and sentences are constructed. It is the system of rules and categories that
underlies sentence formation. It also involves the description of rules of positioning
elements in the sentence, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adverbial phrases,
etc.
 5. Semantics. It deals with the level of meaning in language. It attempts to analyze
the structure of meaning in a language, e.g. how words similar or different are
related; it attempts to show these inter-relationships through forming categories.
Semantics accounts for both word and sentence meaning.
6. Pragmatics. It deals with the contextual aspects of meaning in particular situations.
It is the study of how language is used in real communication. As distinct from the
study of sentences, pragmatics considers utterances – those sentences which are
actually uttered by speakers of a language.
7. Discourse. It is the study of chunks of language which are bigger than a single
sentence. At this level, inter-sentential links that form a connected or cohesive text
are analyzed.

I. Basic Linguistic Concepts

1. Phonology is the study of sounds—the most basic building blocks of language. From
these basic units, sounds are arranged into bigger units of speech. From this basic
definition, it is safe to say that this study of the sound system of language determines
the rules of pronunciation
Some of the most important concepts that should be remembered in relation to
phonology are the following:
 Phoneme- the smallest unit of a sound that causes a difference in meaning (e.g.
/m/, /n/, /æ/) [pIn] <a piece of small and solid metal> would have a different
meaning if pronounced as [pEn] <a tool for writing> (or that changes one word
into another word).
 Phonemes should not be confused with letters. Phonemes are the sounds of speech.
Letters may represent phonemes in written language.
Consonant phoneme
 A consonant phoneme is a speech sound that is formed by fully or partially
obstructing flow of the airstreams. Consonants are often described as closed sounds
 Allophones- variants or other ways of producing a phoneme. They are
phonetically similar. For example, the systematic variations of /p/ are:
i. Aspirated /p/ as in pen
ii. Released /p/ as in spot
iii. Unreleased /p/ as in pot
 Consonants- sounds produced with the obstruction of airflow. The airflow is
either blocked momentarily or restricted so much that noise is produced as air
flows past the constriction. Consonants are described in terms of physical
dimensions such as: place of articulation- a point of contact between two
articulators (e.g. tongue and lips), manner of articulation- the description of how
the speech organs are involved in making a sound, and voicing-the change in
sound (i.e. either voiced or voiceless). To further understand and remember
these concepts, check the table of consonant sounds below. (Source: Parker, F. &
Riley, K. (1994) Linguistics for Non-Linguists)
Phonics – Teaching the connections between sounds and spelling
PHONETICS: The study of linguistic speech sounds and how they are produced and
perceived.
 What parts of your mouth are involved?
 tongue & roof of mouth; lower lip and upper teeth; lower teeth and tongue

Orthography - A writing system.

 What part of each of these words stands for the sound of long e?
tree speak chief be baby receive these
 Which orthographic rule is used in adding each of the suffixes below?
cups pennies tripped starring baking
Labiodental

Interdental

Alveolar
Bilabial

Palatal

Glottal
Velar

STOPS voiceless p     t   k  
 Voiced b     d   g  
voiceless   f ϴ s š   h
FRICATIVES Voiced   v ð z ž    
voiceless         č    
AFFRICATES Voiced         ǰ    
voiceless              
NASALS Voiced m     n   ƞ  
voiceless              
LIQUIDS Voiced       l r    
voiceless              
GLIDES Voiced w       y    

 Vowels- sounds produced with little obstruction in the vocal tract and are
generally voiced. They are described in terms of: tongue height,
frontness, lip rounding, and tenseness. To further understand and
remember these concepts, check the diagram of vowel sounds below.
(Source: www.thedialectcoach.com)

 Suprasegmentals- prosodic features that form part of the make-up of

sounds no matter what their place or manner of articulation is. These
properties are pitch, intonation, stress, and juncture.
 Pitch- the auditory property of sound that is determined by the
frequency of the waves producing it -- highness or lowness
 Intonation- refers to the variation of tone when speaking. It is the rise
and fall of pitch which may contrast meanings of sentences. The
statement “Mario is a teacher” ends with a fall in pitch; while “Mario is a
teacher?” has a rising pitch
 Stress- refers to the relative emphasis of syllables; the syllable that
receives the most prominent stress is referred to as primary stress. To
produce a stressed syllable, one may change the pitch (usually by
raising it), make the syllable louder, or make it stronger.

e.g.
2 1 2 1 1 2
Fundamental introductory secondary
 Juncture- refers to the pauses or breaks between syllables. The lack of
any real break between syllables of words is referred to as close
juncture; plus juncture, or open juncture is used to describe a break or
pause between syllables in the same word or adjacent word—e.g. nitrate
vs. night rate; why try vs. white rye; black bird vs. blackbird

2. Morphology is the study of the patterns from which words, through the
combination of sounds, are formed. When these sound units are combined, they
form distinctive units of meaning called morphemes. In general English
terminology, these are usually called affixes—although morphemes are more than
 just the ordinary affix that we have learned in Basic English courses. Some of the
most important concepts to be remembered are the following:
Morphological Rules
Language is made up of Morphemes. (we call these morphemes as Lexicon - our mental
dictionary). 3 million words in English (about 200,000 words in common use today).

 Morphemes- a word or a part of a word that has meaning; morphemes

cannot be further subdivided since it is the smallest unit; it may be found
in other words since it usually has a stable meaning (e.g. the word
“review” has two morphemes {re}, which usually means ‘to do again’ and
{view} )
 Allomorphs- variants of a morpheme that may be phonologically or
morphologically conditioned (e.g. the plural {-s} has at least three
allomorphs [-s] as in /catS/, [-z] as in /dogZ/, and [-iz] as in /boxIZ/
 Free morphemes- those that can stand on their own as independent
words—e.g. {view} in review and {like} in unlike; they can also occur in
isolation.
 Bound morphemes- those that cannot stand on their own as
independent words; they need to be attached to a free morpheme or a
free form—e.g. {re-}, and {un-} they are commonly called affixes
 Inflectional morphemes- those that do not change the form class of the
words or morphemes to which they are attached; they are always
attached to complete words; they cap the word; they are a closed-ended
set of morphemes. English has only 8 inflectional morphemes:
-s 3rd person sing. Pres. She stay-s at home.
-ed past tense She stay-ed at home.
-ing progressive She is stay-ing at home.
-en past participle She has writt-en a letter.
-s plural She wrote letter-s
-‘s possessive Kay-‘s book is new.
-er comparative This car is fast-er than that.
-est superlative This is the fast-est car.

 Derivational morphemes- those that are added to root morphemes or

stems to derive new words; they usually change the form class of the
words to which they are attached; they are open-ended, i.e. they are
potentially infinite.
e.g.
real + {-ize} = realize
hope + {-ful} = hopeful
{un-} + faith + {-ful} = unfaithful

3. Syntax is the study of the way phrases, clauses and sentences are constructed. It
deals with how words, phrases, and clauses combine to make meaningful
“thoughts” and “ideas”. It also involves the description of rules of positioning
elements in the sentence, such as noun phrases, verb phrases, adverbial phrases,
etc. Some of the most important structures that should be remembered are the
following:
 Structure of Predication- has two components: a subject and a
predicate (e.g. the moon shines; soldiers fought bravely; rain has ceased
falling)
 Structure of Complementation- has two components: a verbal element
and a complement (e.g. send the e-mail; plant new trees, be still)
 Structure of Modification- has two components: a head word and a
modifier—whose meaning serves to broaden, qualify, select, change, or
describe in some way affect the meaning of the head word (e.g. helpful
students, great teachers, interestingly delicious)
 Structure of Coordination- has two components: equivalent
grammatical units and joined often but not always by a coordinating
conjunction (e.g. black and white; love not hate; neither safe nor
secured)

Syntactic Rules
Rules that enable us to combine morphemes into sentences (bridge between sound and
meaning). When children put words together they are following syntactic rules about how
morphemes are put together.

SYNTAX: The rule system governing sentence formation; the study of sentence structure.
 Arrange these words into a coherent sentence and write it down.
little mine red is sports car cute the
“the red cute little sports car” “the sports little red cute
car”

How does word order affect the meaning?

Who’s the boss? Jan is the boss of Martin. Martin is the boss of Jan.
The boss of Jan is Martin. Is Jan the boss of Martin?

4. Semantics deals with the level of meaning in language. It attempts to analyze how
words similar or different are related and in turn, show these inter-relationships
through forming categories. Semantics accounts for both word and sentence meaning.
Some of the most important concepts to be remembered are the following:
 Lexical Ambiguity- a characteristic of a word that has more than one
possible meaning (e.g. the English word “bank” may mean ‘a financial
institution’ or ‘an edge of a river’)
 Syntactic Ambiguity- a characteristic of a phrase or sentence that has
more than one meaning (e.g. ‘He ate the chips on the couch.’ can mean
‘he ate the chips while sitting on the couch’ or ‘he ate the chips that were
placed or left on the couch’)
 Synonymy- words having the same idea; (e.g. big and huge; student and
pupil; buy and purchase)
 Antonymy- two words which are different in form and in meaning (fast
and slow; heavy and light) Some antonyms are gradable (hot and cold—
not everything that can be hot or cold is, in fact, either cold or hot; a
liquid, for example, may be warm or cool)
 Hyponymy- a word or a phrase that has its meaning included within
another word; the contained word is also know as the superordinate (e.g.
laptop contains the meaning of computer; therefore, laptop is a hyponym
of the superordinate computer)
 Homonymy- a sense relation in words with the same phonetic form but
different in meaning (e.g. bow ‘to bend forward to show respect’ or ‘a
weapon that shoots arrows’)
 Anaphora- a linguistic expression that refers to another linguistic
expression (e.g. The earthquake killed hundreds of thousands of people in
Haiti. It was devastating.) It is used anaphorically to refer to ‘the
earthquake’.

SEMANTICS: The study of word and phrase meanings

 To what category do these words belong?
bicycle bus taxi automobile
scooter
skim scan peruse review study

5. Pragmatics deals with the role of context in the creation of meanings. It is the study
of how language is used in real communication. Pragmatics considers utterances,
which are actually uttered by speakers in authentic communication. Some of the
pragmatic concepts that should be remembered are the following:
 Locutionary force the literal meaning of the sentence; what sentences
say (e.g. “Why don’t we buy a new car?” – Wh Question)
 IIllocutionary force: the pragmatic meaning of the sentence; what
sentences do (e.g. “Why don’t we buy a new car?” – Request of Action:
“buying a new car”)
 Perlocutionary force: the reaction of the hearers: how people react to
sentences (e.g. “Why don’t we buy a new car?” – husband gets
annoyed/interested/amused: husband ignores/ husband searches for
brochures/ husband takes the wife with him to the car dealer)
 Conversational maxims is any of four rules which were proposed by
Grice (1975) stating that a speaker is assumed to make a contribution
that is adequately but not overly informative (quantity maxim); the
 speaker does not believe to be false and for which adequate evidence is
had (quality maxim); is relevant (maxim of relation or relevance), and is
clear, unambiguous, brief, and orderly (maxim of manner).
 Implicature is something that is meant, implied, or suggested which is
different from what is actually said. (e.g. When Aling Myrna said that
Mang Jun is going to drive them to the Airport, Aling Aning said “I better
check my insurance policy”. Aling Aning’s utterance shows that Mang Jun
is a fast and reckless driver.)

Theories of Language and its Influences on Language Teaching
Some of the most basic questions in language teaching and learning are: “how does one
learn a language?” and “how should a teacher teach language?”. These questions may be
answered by some of the theories of language, which took roots from linguistics. The
discussions below will present an overview of the developments of various theories that
influenced the practices in modern-day language teaching.

Theories of Language
1. Structuralists see language in terms of its structure. They believe that by describing
the observable and verifiable features of the language, one can learn it. Hence, as the
name implies, structuralists see language as a system and studying these systems
would make it possible to learn language. Some of the most prevalent thoughts that
sprung out of structuralist vews are the following:
 Language is a means for communication- Language is an important tool for
communicating. It gives shape to people’ thoughts, as well as guides and controls
their activitiy.
 Language is primarily vocal- Speech is the primary concern of language, and the
written form is merely a graphic representation of the oral language. Therefore, it
is assumed that speech is a priority in language teaching.
Language is a system- Language is a system which is structurally related with
other elements or ‘building blocks’ for the encoding of meaning. These elements
are the phonemes (sounds), morphemes (words), and tagmemes (phrases and
sentences/clauses).
 Language is arbitrary- There is no inherent relation between the words of a
language and their meaning or ideas conveyed by them. The relationship
between the words and the “things” they denote is merely dictated by what the
natives “want” it to be.

2. Transformationalists believe that language is innate and universal. They believe that
language rules are universal and every normal being would eventually find ways to
transform input into intelligible language. Some of the most important tenets of
transformationlist view to language are the following:
 Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical.
 Language is innate. The presence of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in
the human brain predisposes all normal children to acquire their first language in
an amazingly short time, around five years since birth.
 Language is universal. All normal children acquire a mother tongue. Also, all
languages must share key features of human languages such as: all languages
have sounds; all languages have rules that form sounds into words; and all
languages have transformational rules that enable speakers to ask questions,
negate, issue orders, defocus the doer of the action, etc.

3. Functionalists believe that language is vehicle for expressing “functional meaning”

such as expressing one’s emotions, persuading people, asking and giving information,
making people do things for others, etc. This view deviates from the structural view
since it focuses more on the meaning rather than form. Thus, this leads to a language
teaching that prioritizes the teaching of language notions and functions rather than
language rules.

4. Interactionists believe that language is a vehicle for establishing interpersonal

relations and for performing social transactions between individuals. Interactionist
principles are basically pegged on the socio-cultural theory of Levinsky Vygotsky and
the Experientila learning theory of Jean Piaget and John Dewey. Interactionists view
language as a vital tool in creating and maintaining social relations through
conversations. Some of the most basic premises (Richards & Rodgers, 2001) that
interactionists hold are the following:
 a. We are born to talk.
b. Talk is organized in conversations.
c. Conversations have rules/maxims.
d. These maxims are learnt through conversation.
e. 2nd lg. maxims are learnt through participation in cooperatively structured
interactional activities.

Theories of Second Language Acquisition

1. Behaviorist learning theory. This theory holds that the language behaviour of an
individual is conditioned by the rewards and punishments provided by his/her
environment. It regards language as a “behaviour” which means that, like other forms
of human behaviour, it may be learned through the a process of habit formation. The
three crucial elements of learning in behaviourism are: a stimulus, which serves to
elicit behaviour; a response triggered by the stimulus, and reinforcement, which
serves to mark the response as being appropriate (or inappropriate) and encourages
repetition (suppression) of the response. Behaviorist perspective in language learning
is usually attributed to B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior.
2. Cognitive learning theory. Chomsky contested Behaviorist assumptions since
individuals are not machines that can be set to learn something. He argues that
language is not acquired by sheer imitation and through a form of conditioning on
reinforcement and reward. He believes that all normal beings are born to learn a
language, through an innate Language Acquisition Device that allows humans to
transform inputs into the universally accepted language rules.

Major strategies used in the Cognitive approach include:

• Chomsky’s Generative Grammar: “Language is learned through reinforcement
and an active language processor, the language acquisition device (LAD) which
generates rules through the unconscious acquisition of grammar.”
• Krashen’s Monitor Model: “Krashen considered acquisition (an unconscious
process that occurs when language is used for real communication) more important
that learning (which involves “knowing about” language and its rules) in achieving
fluency, and deemphasized direct instruction of syntax rules.”
• Information-Processing Theories: “The sensory register (input/recognition),
short-term memory (information encoding), and long-term memory (storage) work
together during learning.” Perception is the process by which the sensory register
receives and briefly holds environmental stimuli, either as images or sound patterns,
and selects input for further processing.”
• Alternative Theories of Mental Functioning: “As information is received, the
brain creates a pattern across the net, adjusted over time by repeated exposure.”
3. Krashen’s Monitor Model. Probably the most cited theory of second language
acquisitionis Krashen’s theory which involves five general hypotheses:

a. The acquisition/learning hypothesis claims that there are two ways of

developing competence in L2:
1. Acquisition – the subconscious process that results from natural
communication between people where language is a means, not a focus nor
an end in itself. This means that language may be learned even in the
absence of formal teaching.
2. Learning – the conscious process of knowing about language and
being able to talk about it. This means that explicit teaching should be done
since it involves knowledge of the language rules. (Grammar and Vocabulary)

b. The natural order hypothesis suggests that there is a predictable and

natural order from which grammatical structures will be acquired for both
children and adults.

c. The monitor hypothesis claims that learners who have acquired or

learned particular language rules will eventually monitor or check himself or
herself during the process by which he/she uses that language. The monitor is an
editing device that may normally operate before language performance.
d. The input hypothesis. For an individual to learn a language, Krashen
believes that learners should be exposed to grammatical features a little beyond
their current level (i + 1), those features are acquired. Too difficult lessons may
threaten the learner, while too easy lessons may bore a learner. This will both
result in failure
 e. The affective filter hypothesis. Krashen believes that emotions play a
very important role in language learning. The more threatened or anxious a
learner is, the lesser or slower will he/she learns. On the other hand, the more
confident a learner is, the higher and faster is the possibility for him/her to learn
a language.
• Other Universal Theories
1. The Competition Model by Felix (1985):
2. Dulay and Burt’s Creative Construction Theory (1974):
3. Krashen’s Monitor Model
1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis (1981)
2. The Natural Order Hypothesis
3. The Monitor Hypothesis: The Input Hypothesis:
4. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
4. Continuum of learning - language is acquired through predictable and
sequential stages of language development.
• Stage I: The Silent/Receptive or Preproduction Stage
• Stage II: The Early Production Stage
• Stage III: The Speech Emergence Stage
• Stage IV: The intermediate Language Proficiency Stage
• Stage V: The Advanced Language Proficiency
5. Alternative Theories of Mental Functioning:
6. Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner (1983):
7. Emotional Intelligence by Salovey and Mayer (1990) and popularized
Goleman (1998):
8. Suggestopedia by Lozanov (1982): “Pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar
are assimilated and learned intuitively.”
9. Humanistic Approach
10. Postmodern Techniques of Knowledge
o constructivism, intercultural positioning, metarational thinking, and creation
of meaning
Influences of Theories on Language Teaching
1. Behaviorism led to methods and activities that make students “overlearn” the lesson.
Most activities involve mimicry and memorization. Moreover, teaching under the
behaviourist perspective involve a lot of practice and drills. These are repeated until
students master the lesson. Some of the most popular “products” of behaviourism
are the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), Oral Approach/Situational Language Teaching,
Operant Conditioning approach, Bottom-up Text processing, Controlled-to-Free
writing, etc.
2. Cognitivism produced language teaching approaches and Activities that prioritizes
language analysis over language use and instruction by the teacher. It is compatible
with the view that learning is a thinking process, a belief that underpins cognitive-
based and schema-enhancing strategies such as Directed Reading Thinking Activity,
Story Grammar, Thinking-Aloud, etc.
3. The Functional view led to the creation of communication-based methods that
provide exercises and classroom activities that focus on the realistic functions of the
language, rather than the previous focus on the forms of the language. Some of the
offshoots of functional view are Communicative Language Teaching/ Communicative
Approach, Notional-Functional Approach, and Natural Approach. These methods are
learner-centered which means that learners have ample time for interaction,
information sharing, and negotiation of meaning, as opposed to the previous
approaches that are teacher-centered.
4. The view that is both cognitive and affective eventually developed to a holistic
approach to language learning or whole-person learning. These approaches created
humanistic techniques in teaching the language, which means that aside from the
cognitive aspects of the learner, teaching has involved the emotions of the learners.
One of these approaches is what has come to be known as the Community Language
Learning.

Language Teaching Methodology - Definition of some important terms:

Language and Literature teaching goes beyond knowing the content or the “what to teach”.
Hence, teachers should be knowledgeable and skilful in planning and executing lessons for a
language and literature class. The succeeding review discussions would focus the “how to
teach” language and literature. Before going into the details, here are some important terms
to be defined:
 Approach - is a set of assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning,
and teaching. (Anthony, E.; 1963)
- defines assumptions, beliefs, and theories about the nature of language and
language learning. (Richards, J. and Rodgers, T.; 1982, 1986)
 Method – is an overall plan for systematic presentation of language based upon a
selected approach. (Anthony, E.; 1963)
- is an umbrella term for the specification and interrelation of theory and practice.
(Richards, J. and Rodgers, T.; 1982, 1986)
 Technique – is a specific activity manifested in the classroom which is consistent
with a method and therefore in harmony with an approach as well. (Anthony, E.;
1963)
- is the level at which classroom procedures are described. It is a medium of
implementation (e.g., a particular trick, strategy, or contrivance) used to accomplish
an immediate objective.
 Design – specifies the relationship of theories to classroom materials and activities.
(Richards, J. and Rodgers, T.; 1982, 1986)
 Procedures – are the techniques and practices that are derived from one’s
approach and design. (Richards, J. and Rodgers, T.; 1982, 1986)
 Strategies – are specific methods of approaching a problem or task , modes of
operation for achieving a particular end, planned designs for controlling and
manipulating certain information.