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General Education - LET-English-Majorship
General Education - LET-English-Majorship
I. Linguistics
A. Scope of Linguistic Studies
1. Phonology – studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the
combination of syllables and larger units.
a. 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.
b. Allophones are variants or other ways of producing a phoneme.
2. Phonetics – studies language at the level of sounds: how sounds are articulated by the
human speech mechanism.
3. Morphology – studies the patterns of forming words by combining sounds into minimal
distinctive units of meanings called morphemes.
a. 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.
b. Allomorphs – are morphs which belong to the same morpheme e.g., /s/, /z/, and /ez/ of
the plural morpheme /s/ or /es/.
c. Free morphemes can stand on their own as independent words, e.g., beauty in
beautifully, like in unlikely. Thus, they can occur in isolation.
d. Bound morphemes cannot stand on their own as independent words. These
morphemes are also called as affixes.
e. 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.
f. Derivational morphemes are added to root morphemes or stems to derive new words.
4. Syntax – deals with how words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences, and
studies the way phrases, clauses, and sentences are constructed.
a. Structure of predication –refers to the two components : subject and predicate
b. Structure of complementation – has two basic elements : verbal and complement
c. Structure of modification – includes two components : head word and modifier
d. Structure of coordination – covers two components : equivalent grammatical units
5. Semantics – attempts to analyze the structure of meaning in language and deals with the
level of meaning in language.
a. Lexical ambiguity – refers to the characteristic of a word that has more than one
meaning.
b. Syntactic ambiguity – refers to the characteristic of a phrase that has more than one
meaning e.g. Filipino teacher.
6. Pragmatics – deals with the contextual aspects of meaning in particular situations ; studies
how language is used in real communication.
a. 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.
b. 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.
7. Discourse – studies chunks of language which are bigger than a single sentence.
B. Language Views / Theories of Language
1. The Structuralists support the idea that language can be described in terms of observable
and verifiable data as it is being used.
a. Language is a means of communication.
b. Language is primarily vocal
c. Language is a system of systems.
d. Language is arbitrary.
2. The Transformationalists believe that language is a system of knowledge made manifest
in linguistic forms but innate and, in its most abstract form universal.
a. Language is a mental phenomenon. It is not mechanical.
b. Language is innate. Children acquire their first language because they have a language
acquisition device (LAD) in their brain.
c. Language is universal: all normal children learn a mother tongue, all languages share
must share key features like sounds and rules.
d. Language is creative and enables speakers to produce and understand sentences they
have not heard nor used before.
3. 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 one’s emotions, persuading people, asking and giving
information, etc.
They emphasize the meaning and functions rather than the grammatical
characteristics of language.
4. 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.
C. Language Acquisition / Theories of Language Learning
1. 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 :
a. Children imitate the sounds and patterns which they hear around them.
b. People recognize the child’s attempts as being similar to the adult models and reinforce
(reward) the sounds by approval or some other desirable reaction.
c. In order to obtain more of these rewards, the child repeats the sounds and patterns so
that these become habits.
d. In this way t he child’s 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.
2. 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.
3. Krashen’s Monitor Model (1981).This is the most comprehensive theory in second
language acquisition. It consists of five central hypotheses.
a. 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
b. 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.
c. 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.
d. The input hypothesis. Krashen proposes that when learners are exposed to
grammatical features a little beyond their current level those features are acquired.
e. 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.
oTeachers must continuously deliver at a level understandable by learners
o Teaching must prepare the learners for real life communication situations
o Teachers must ensure that learners do not become anxious or defensive in
language learning.
o Formal grammar teaching is of limited value because it contributes to learning
rather than acquisition
D. Language Teaching Implications
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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 one’s feelings, values, and needs.
The humanistic techniques cover Community Language Learning.
II. Literature
A. Goals of Teaching Literature
1. 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.
2. Develop and/or enhance learners’ imagination and creativity.
3. Develop students’ character and emotional maturity.
4. Develop creative thinking.
5. Develop literary appreciation and refine one’s reading taste.
D. 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.
1. Classical Literary Theory –literature is an imitation of life.
a. Mimesis (Plato) – literature is an imitation of life.
b. Dulce et utile (Horace) – function of literature is to entertain or to teach/instruct
c. Sublime (Longinus) – style may be low, middle, high, or sublime
d. Catharsis (Aristotle) – purgation of negative emotions of fear and pity
2. Historical – Biographical and Moral – Philosophical Approaches
a. A literary work is a reflection of its author’s 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.
3. 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)
4. 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.
5. Psychoanalytical Theory – applies Freudian psychoanalytic ideas to literature.
a. It looks into the character’s or author’s 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.
6. Mythological / Archetypal Approach – is based on Carl Jung’s theory of collective
unconscious.
a. Repeated or dominant images or patterns of human experience are identified in the text.
b. It also uses Northrop Frye’s 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.
7. 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)
8. 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 text’s indeterminancy
9. 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 :
a. baring the device – e.g. distorting time in various ways – foreshortening, skipping,
expanding, transposing, reversing, flashback, flashforward, etc.
b. defamiliarization – this means making strange and using fresh ways of describing
things
c. retardation of the narrative – the technique of delaying and protracting actions by
using digressions, displacements, extended descriptions, etc.
d. naturalization – refers to how we endlessly become inventive in finding ways of
making sense of the most random or chaotic utterances or discourse.
e. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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
women’s life and experience. Feminist critics insist that women’s experience is different
from men’s.
12. 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)
13. 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
V. Structure of English
A. Sentences. Every sentence must have both a subject and a verb.
1. Three kinds of sentences
A declarative sentence states a fact, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel.”
An interrogative sentence asks a question, e.g., “Does Connie love Rommel?”
An exclamatory sentence registers an exclamation, e.g., “Like, I mean, you know, like
wow!”
2. Three basic structures
A simple sentence makes one self-standing assertion, i.e., has one main clause, e.g.,
“Connie loves Rommel.”
A compound sentence makes two or more self-standing assertions, i.e., has two main
clauses, e.g., “Connie loves Rommel and Rommel enjoys it.”
A complex sentence makes one self-standing assertion and one or more dependent
assertions, subordinate clauses, dependent on the main clause, e.g., “Connie who has
been desiring Rommel these twelve years, loves him, and Rommel, what’s more, still
enjoys it.”
In compound sentences, the clauses are connected by coordinate
conjunctions, in complex sentences by subordinate clauses.