LESSON 1.

Definition and Views of Language

ACTIVAT WORD HUNT
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Direction: Find and encircle the words given below.

Language Communication
Creative Written
Structuralist Vocal
Universal Transformational
Interactionist Functionalist

M N B V C X Z F D S A J K I G F T Y V D
C F Q S F U N C T I O N A L I S T C B N
Q W C T E R I U O L L J K H F O V S C C
Z X C R Y T H Y A S D F G H A A G L L O
T Y R U E W Q A L G T T R R E M D P A M
E F G C W A Q E A F E N G D S T Y Y N M
G R S T Z X T H C D S N O T Q R S H O U
A M U U T Y L I O S S M S P Q M U T I N
U S A R E F L H V U N I V E R S A L T I
G T C A C X Z F Q E N A L I S T C B A C
N V S L F U N C W O E K H F O V S C M A
A G L I E R I U I T R G H A A G L L R T
L I U S M M N T I Y W C T E R I U W O I
T H Y T B N C Z O U X C R Y T H Y X F O
R Q A V C A X L K U Y R U E W Q A Y S N
M Q E W R I T T E N F G C W A Q E F N K
S I U E W C T E R I W C T E R I U W A J
T A T O X C R Y T H X C R Y T H Y X R H
V N K L Y R U E W Q Y N B B E E T R T G
I I O L G T T R R E M D P W O E K H F O

ANTICIPA QUESTION AND ANSWER

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Direction: Answer the following questions below. Explain your answers briefly.

QUESTIONS JUSTIFICATION
1. What is language?

2. What is the importance

of language in
communication?

ACQUIR IT’S ALL ABOUT LANGUAGE

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Definition of Language
Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual, or written symbols by means of which human beings, as
members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include
communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release (Robert Henry Robins,
David Crystal).

Views about Language

1. The structuralists believe that language can be described in terms of observable and verifiable data as it is being
used. They also describe language in terms of its structure and according to the regularities and patterns or rules
in language structure. To them, language is a system of speech sounds, arbitrary assigned to the objects, states,
and concepts to which they refer, used for human communication.
 Language is a means of communication. Language is an important means of communicating between
humans of their ideas, beliefs, or feelings. Language gives shape to people’s thoughts, as well as guides and
controls their activity.
 Language is primarily vocal. Language is speech, primarily made up of vocal sounds produced by the
speech apparatus in the human body. The primary medium of language is speech. Speech is language; the
written record is but a secondary representation of the language. Linguists claim that speech is primary,
writing secondary. Therefore, it is assumed that speech has a priority in language teaching.
 Language is a system of systems. Language is not a disorganized or a chaotic combination of sounds.
Sounds are arranged in certain fixed or established, systematic order to form meaningful units or words.
Examples:
a. No words in English starts with bz-, lr-, or zl- combination, but there are those that begin with spr-, str- (as in spring
and string).
b. The sentence “Vince bought a new book” is acceptable but the group of words “ Vince bought new book a” is not
acceptable as the word order of the latter violates the established convention in English grammar, the Subject- Verb-
Object or SV-O word order.
Language is a system of structurally related elements or ‘building blocks’ for the encoding of meaning, the elements
being phonemes (sounds), morphemes (words), tagmemes (phrases and sentences/ clauses). Language learning, it is
assumed, entails mastering the elements or the building blocks of the language and the learning rules by which these
elements are combined, from phoneme to morpheme to word to phrase to sentence.
 Language is arbitrary. There is no inherent relation between the words of language and their meanings or
the ideas conveyed by them. Put another way, there is no one to one correspondence between the structure
of a word and the thing it stands for.
Examples:
Filipino- ibon
Spanish- pajaro
English- bird
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.
 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 from both.
 Language is universal. It is universal in the scene that all normal children the world over acquire a
mother tongue but it is also universal in the sense that, at a highly abstract level, all languages must
share key features of human languages, such as all languages have sounds; all languages have rules that
form sounds into words, words into phrases and clauses; and all languages have transformation rules
that enable speakers to ask questions, negate sentences, issue orders, defocus the doer of the action, etc.
 Language is creative. It enables native speakers to produce and understand sentences they have not
heard nor used before.
3. The functionalists believe 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, making people do things for others.
 This view of language emphasizes the meaning and functions rather than the grammatical characteristics
of language, and leads to a language teaching content consisting of categories of meaning/ notions and
functions rather than of elements of structure and grammar.
4. The interactionists believe that language is a vehicle for establishing interpersonal relations and for performing
social transactions between individuals. It is a tool for creating and maintaining social relations through
conversations. Language teaching content, according to this view, may be specified and organized by patterns
of exchange and interaction.

APPLY ESSAY WRITING

Question: Among the four views presented above, what is the most relevant to the trends and issues in teaching English
as second language? Support your answer with concrete example. Write your answer in 3- 5 sentences inside the box
provided below.