Question1:(PhD)

Linguistics provides us with a large part of the theoretical basis of language teaching.
Can we then assume that to be a good teacher one has to have a thorough training in
linguistics?

It has been argued that every teacher should go through a training in linguistics drawing on
all what is best from this academic field in order to support a wide range of learning and
teaching needs both in the classroom and beyond. So, to what extent knowledge about
language and the awareness of how it works in terms of its structures, systems, and uses is
deemed to be important for teachers? And why do some scholars insist on the fact that
linguistics is not so important as it thought to be for teachers?

As Halliday (1981) writes, “A child doesn’t need to know any linguistics to use language
to learn; but a teacher needs to know some linguistics if he wants to understand how the
process takes place—or what is going wrong when it doesn’t.” According to him, teachers
armed with linguistics knowledge can help all their students learn language.

On a more concrete level, understanding more about the nature of language, which is the
core of linguistics, enables teachers to understand the relationship between oral language and
its written representation. This might be useful to the understanding of why some students
have an easier time mastering the written language than others. Linguistics doesn’t necessarily
provide direct answers to such questions, but it does provide an additional way of thinking
about them.

The greater a teacher’s understanding of basic language structures and processes, the
easier it is for that teacher to make good decisions on tough topics like phonics, spelling, and
grammar. The more teachers understand language, the more effectively they can help their
students develop their knowledge of language.

Yet, some linguists like Johnson (1967) and Lamendella (1969) expressed their
disagreement to the assumption that to be a good teacher one has to have a thorough training
in linguistics. For Lamendella (1969) it is a mistake to look to transformational grammar or
any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for second language
pedagogy. What is needed in the field of language teaching are not applied linguists but rather
applied psychologists.

Even though the reassessment of the relationship between linguistic theory and language
teaching has shown the emergence of two distinct viewpoints about the importance of
linguistics to teachers, one has to recognize the great contributions of linguistics to the field of
teaching in using explicit knowledge about language for practical classroom work.
 Question 2:(PhD)
"Structural approaches to foreign language learning produce structurally competent
but communicatively incompetent learners". Discuss fully.

During the past decade, considerable changes have taken place in the field of Language
teaching. Due to the rapid developments witnessed, the need for learning foreign languages
has been increasingly higher. Therefore, a number of teaching methodologies have been
proposed by language scholars and educators.
Both, the Oral and Audiolingual methods which correspond with the British and American
structuralist traditions of foreign language teaching (FLT) became dominant, especially, after
World War II. these Structural Approaches stress the importance of arranging the structural
items or patterns into a suitable order. The teacher gives choral, group and individual oral
drills to reinforce the language items taught since the basis of teaching is Structures and
patterns of English.
These FLT approaches have made the learners structurally competent and have developed
in them the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences. One might say that once the
linguistic competence is acquired, the communicative competence will follow as a more or
less automatic consequence. However, Widdowson's evidence (1978) suggests that this is not
the case. The acquisition of linguistic competence does not seem to guarantee the consequent
acquisition of communicative competence in a language. On the contrary, overemphasis on
drills and exercises for the production and reception of sentence tends to inhibit the
development of communicative competence. Johnson and Morrow (1981) argue that the
students coming out of the traditional classrooms are likely to become "structurally competent
but communicatively incompetent."
In this sense, D.Hymes (1971) had, also, argued that there are rules of use without which
the rules of grammar would be useless. These structurally competent but communicatively
incompetent learners know the grammar but lack the ability to be appropriate as well as fluent.
These learners know the rules of grammar but do not really know the rules of ‘use’ of the
language.
Chomsky in his book, Syntactic Structure (1957), has clearly explained the incapability of
structuralism to take into account the fundamental characteristics of language. Students who
have received several years of formal English teaching often remain deficient in the use of
language in normal communication whether in spoken or written form of sentences to perform
a variety of different acts of an essentially social nature. Students mostly fail to communicate
what they really want to do, not because they lack ideas, thoughts and feelings but because
they have not been taught so far how and when these communicative tasks and acts are
performed. Consequently, they are not able to communicate and whatever they communicate
is enough proof that their communicative competence needs to be developed
Since the view of language as a' set of structures was regarded as too confining, as it
ignored the communicative purposes for which language is used, the appearance of new
approaches became more than a necessity as William Littlewood (1981), asserts that language
scholars and educators need to be more strongly aware that it is not enough to teach learners
how to manipulate the structures of the foreign language. They must also develop strategies
for relating these structures to their communicative functions in real situations and real time.
 Question3:(PhD)
Account for the general evolution of linguistic theory in the last half century
(structural Linguistics; Transformational Generative Grammar; Psycholinguistics;
Sociolinguistics…etc.) in correlation with the general trends in foreign language
teaching.
It’s universally acknowledged that any new language teaching theory cannot come into
being without the break in linguistic theory first. And any generation of linguistic theory has
brought about new language teaching theory as well. the theories of linguistics have
experienced different stages in their history from traditional grammar to structuralism and then
functionalism. They are closely related to each other and generated the change of language
teaching theories.
traditional grammar refers to the grammar theories originated from ancient Greece and
Rome, which became popular in the end of the 18th century before the birth of historical
comparative grammar and dominated the research of grammar and language teaching for a
long time in Europe. It values the old language model, emphasizes written language, neglect
oral language. It tries to purify language and settle language. So it’s called prescriptive
grammar, which was adopted by most school in their language class. In this case, it’s called
school grammar as well.
The direct influence language teaching received from traditional grammar theory is
grammar translation method of language teaching. The ultimate purpose of foreign language
teaching is to read materials written by foreign language, such as reading foreign classics, so
written language is emphasized rather than oral language. And Because oral language ability
is not the goal of this kind of teaching, it results in many learners who have learnt even more
than ten years buy still couldn’t use it to communicate with native speakers of the language he
or she had learnt. Langue form, i.e. grammar, is emphasized. Students are always encouraged
to grasp this part. In order to make students understand this part clearly, teachers always use
their native languages to conduct the lessons.
Because in GTM The whole process of foreign language teaching is mechanical, paying
attention only to written language instead of spoken language, Some scholars gradually
became not satisfied with it They thought it blocked the way of further research of language. It
eventually would cause negative effect on language development and the development of
linguistics. They looked for new approaches to language study, and this brought about
structuralism (structural linguistics).
Structuralism is an approach to linguistics which stresses the importance of language as a
system and which investigates the place that linguistic units such as sounds, words, sentenced
have within this system.
If we study the two approaches carefully, we find they have the following differences
- Traditional grammar consider written language to be the first place, spoken language the
second. But for structuralism, it’s just the opposite.
- Traditional grammar is prescriptive. It holds that pure language must be in accordance
with grammar, otherwise it corrupts language. Structuralism is descriptive. They think if we
want to study language, we must describe language first. Whether a language is pure or not is
just a matter of how we set the criteria.
 - Traditional grammar does study about the inner part of languages independently, it does
not view the different parts of a language are closely related with each other. Structuralism
gives systematic study to all the layers of a language as a general principle.
- The description of language by traditional grammar is always subjective because its
research is often based on the meaning rather than language form. However, structuralism
gives objective description of language materials. Any subjective involvement in the
description of language is not allowed.
From the above comparison, we can see that their differences are rather huge. Their
difference has made us realize that structuralism is more scientific than traditional grammar. It
more objectively describes languages on a whole. Because of all these, it was welcomed by
scholar since the end of the 19th century, and soon became popular in the whole world.
Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, called as the father of modern traditional linguist, is
widely respected as the founder of structuralism. Saussure championed the idea that language
is a system of arbitrary signs, and his conceptualization of the sign has been highly influential.
A number of structural theories have made a considerable amount of influence to language
teaching. Leonard Bloomfield, one of the founders of American structural linguistics used
behaviorism to guide his structuralist approach to language study, and audio-lingual language
teaching method was brought forward.
Bloomfield used behaviorism to guide his structuralist approach to language study, and
audio-lingual language teaching method was brought forward. Drilling is a central technique
in a language class conducted by way of Audio-lingual language teaching method. This
method considers that every language has a certain amount of sentence patterns that help
students form the habit of using it. The purpose of language teaching is to let students acquire
these sentence patterns. They learn sentence structures before vocabulary. Oral language is
considered to be more important than written language, so oral practice is more emphasized in
the whole course of teaching and learning. And Teachers play the role of a model for the
target language; students should try their best to mimic the pronunciation and intonation of the
teacher. the final purpose of audio-lingual language teaching method is to train the students in
the target language and let them have the ability to use it to communicate with the native
speakers.
In the second half of the 19thcentury, Noam Chomsky developed a new linguistic theory
where he explained the incapability of structuralism to take into account the fundamental
characteristics of language. This theory called Transformational-generative (TG) grammar
marked the beginning of the Chomskyan Revolution. Chomsky believes that language
competence is somewhat innate, and that our children are born with a language acquisition
device (LAD), or language competence, which fit children for language learning. LAD is
supposed to consist of three elements: a hypothesis-maker, linguistic universal, and an
evaluation procedure. Chomsky further put out a new theory, ―generative grammar. By this,
he simply means a system of rules that in some explicit and well-defined way assigns
structural descriptions to sentences.
Dell Hymes is one of the persons who do not completely agree with Chomsky. He pointed
out that Chomsky’s theory about language competence is not convincing enough to interpret
language phenomenon. He put forward the theory of communicative competence. In it, he
argues that ―language competence is part of communicative competence.
 These new theories finally brought the ideal of functional-notional grammar and
functional-notional approach in language teaching. This new approach holds that the functions
of language used in the real daily life are most important and it is essential for a language
learner to take part in the everyday language activities such as giving directions, buying a
ticket, bargaining or consoling and so on. That is to say, to know the forms of a language are
important, but it is more important to know the functions and decide which situations to use
each kind of function, the learner should practice real and practical communication in a
language learning class.
M. A. K. Halliday is the representative of systemic-functional linguistics. In this theory,
Halliday has intended to create a new approach in linguistics that regards language as
foundational for the building of human experience. A key concept in Halliday's linguistics is
the "context of situation" which obtains "through a systematic relationship between the social
environment on the one hand, and the functional organization of language on the other"
With such great enrichment of language theories, new theories have made it clear that
communication is the most basic function and characteristic of language. Meanwhile, they
have brought the birth of communicative approach of language teaching. This approach was
first mentioned by Wilkins and Widdowson.
The communicative approach is characterized by a set of ideas that include not only a
reconsideration of which aspects of language to teach, but also an emphasis on how to teach.
In communicative approach of language teaching, what matters most is that students
should be aroused the desire to communicate something, supply them a purpose of
communicating, for example, to write a letter to a friend or to make an appointment with a
teacher. Students should concentrate on the content and use a variety of language structures
rather than just
a single language structure. such activities should attempt to take the place of real
communication in life. The multiple roles a teacher plays include planner, participant,
diagnostician, provider, manager, and organizer.
History has proved that new language-teaching theories are the off springs of new
language theories. How much we understand our languages, how far we can go in teaching
them. Only depending on new language theory , language teaching theory can move forward
step by step . Luckily, the buds of spring are indeed round the corner. W ith several new
branches of linguistics, such as computational linguistics, corpus linguistics,
psycholinguistics, etc., are marching forward in a fast speed in our time with the assistance of
information technology, brain science, psychological science, and so on, we hopefully will
witness the day that new language teaching theories will emerge in the near future.
 Question4:(PhD)
What is the basic nature of language and how will this affect teaching?

By examining the different theoretical views of the nature of language one can follow the
different practices and principles in language teaching.
The first and the most traditional view is structuralism which views language as a system
of structurally related elements for the coding of meaning. Language learning is seen to be
done through the mastery of phonological units, grammatical units and operations in addition
to lexical items. The Audiolingual method embodies this particular view of language as do the
Silent Way. Audiolingualism holds that language learning is like other forms of learning. And
since language is a formal and rule governed system, it can be formally organized to maximize
teaching and learning efficiency. It advocates a speech-based instruction with the prime
objective of oral proficiency and dismisses the study of grammar and literature. The language
skills are taught in the order of listening, speaking, reading and writing. This, the starting point
is a linguistic syllabus which contains the key items of phonology, morphology and syntax of
the language. On the other hand, the silent way is based on the premise that a teacher should
be silent as much as possible and that the student should be encouraged to produce language
as much as possible. The sentence is the basic unit of teaching. And the teacher focuses on
propositional meaning, rather than communicative value. Students are presented with the
structural patterns of the target language and learn grammar rules through largely inductive
processes.
The second view of language is the functional view in which language is a vehicle for the
expression of functional meaning. The communicative movement in language teaching
subscribes to this view of language. This theory emphasizes the semantic and communicative
dimension rather than merely the grammatical characteristics of language, and leads to a
specification and organization of language teaching content by categories of meaning and
function rather than by elements of structure and grammar. In communicative language
teaching learners learn a language through using it to communicate. Communication involves
the integration of different skills. And the learning process involves trial and error.s
The third view of language can be called the interactional view in which language is seen
as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relations and for the performance of social
transactions between individuals. Language is seen as a tool for the creation and maintenance
of social relations. This draw on the development of interactional approaches to language
teaching including interaction analysis, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology.
Language teaching content, according to this view, may be specified and organized by patterns
of exchange and interaction.
 Question5:(PhD)
The phrase “learner-centered” makes it sound as if the teacher is not in control of the
classroom. In the light of your readings, discuss fully the notion of learner centeredness
and its application in Algeria.

When considering the different approaches to teaching, the debate over the role of the
teacher in a student-centered environment comes in the forefront.
Though the phrase “learner-centered” makes it sound as if the teacher is not in control of
the classroom, but in such kind of instruction, both the student and the teacher share the focus.
Students and teachers interact equally. Group work is encouraged, and students learn to
collaborate and communicate with one another.
As opposed to teacher-centered approaches where instruction is direct, deductive and
expository, learner cantered approaches (sometimes referred to as discovery learning,
inductive learning, or inquiry learning) place much a stronger emphasis on the learner’s role in
the learning process. The teacher is no longer a filter through which all information must pass
before reaching the learner.
In the most traditional and classical modes of teaching, there are two main roles that
teachers perform:
- Knower: the teacher is the source of knowledge.
- Activity organizer: the teacher sets up and steers learning activities in the right direction,
motivates and encourages students, and provides authoritative feedback on students'
performance.
In a learner-centered approach, teachers have more functions than is thought to be. These
roles can be summarized as information-gatherers, decision-makers, motivators, counselors,
Facilitators of group dynamics, and Providers of opportunities for communicative and
authentic language use.
As far as the Algerian context is concerned, a certain unreadiness for implementing
learner-centeredness has been noticed. Pupils still consider the English teacher as the first and
the most responsible in their learning. This teacher-dependent characteristic is due to pupils’
lack of motivation, their negative attitudes. Besides, the absence of autonomy oriented training
for them and teachers to accept the change easily .
We might say that the development of learner autonomy is hardly a reality in Algeria.
Teachers without any training may experience difficulties in creating such a classroom culture.
Hence, the earlier language teachers are made aware of the importance and necessity of
learner autonomy in their initial teacher training, the more easily they will be able to
implement this approach in their own future classrooms. In addition to that, other attempts
need to be taken at the level of institutional rules and instruments, tools such as textbooks and
computers so as to fully implement the notion of learner-centeredness in Algeria.
 Question 6:(PhD)
“Applied Linguistics is a field in which collaboration cuts across disciplines and
where theories and methods are involved in the search for an understanding of problems
relating to language and language discourse.” Discuss.

Over time, the term Applied linguistics has broadened from being restricted to the
application of linguistic research to mother tongue education and to the teaching and learning
of foreign and second languages to the much broader interpretation given by Gunnarsson
(1995) in which he sees that AL “is a field in which collaboration cuts across disciplines and
where theories and methods are involved in the search for an understanding of problems
relating to language and language discourse.”
Early AL studies and works reflect the linguistic trends at that time (structuralism and
functionalism), as linguistics has expanded to include pragmatics, discourse analysis,
semiotics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, conversation analysis and many other new
disciplines, AL has also undergone some changes. The study of smaller units of words and
sentences has yielded ground to studies of larger units of texts and discourse.
Disciplines like socio and psycholinguistics, for instance, have brought a multidisciplinary
approach to the study of language and discourse. This collaboration across disciplines has
evolved being able to solve new types of problems related to gender and language, medical
discourse, language and education in multilingual settings…etc.
This new situation for linguistic research has blurred the borderline between general and
applied linguistics where the latter plays a role in the development of linguistic theory and
methods.
Applied linguistic research has acquired a dynamic and an expansive character. The
narrower view of applied linguistics as an area dealing with the application of linguistic
theories to language teaching is most certainly no longer valid.
1
 Question 7:(PhD)
Successful classroom management involves not merely responding effectively when
problems occur but rather preventing them. Discuss

Recent research has shown that there is no systematic difference between effective
classroom managers and those who lack good management skills when responding to student
misconduct. Yet, the two groups differ in other ways. In particular, teachers who are said to be
effective classroom managers systematically minimize the frequency with which students
become disruptive in the first place. So, how do some teachers manage their classrooms
effectively?
Effective managers stop problems in the beginning before they could escalate into
disruption. It is clear that this is not achieved through a few isolated techniques but instead is
the result of a systematic approach to classroom management which starts with good
preparation and planning and implemented initially through systematic communication of
expectations and establishment of procedures and routines at the beginning of the year, and is
maintained throughout the year, not only by consistency following up on stated expectations,
but by presenting the students with a continuous stream of well-chosen and well prepared
academic activities that focus their attention during group lessons and engage their
concentrated efforts during independent work times.
Effective managers are able to monitor the classroom regularly, stationing themselves
where they could see all of the students and scan all parts of the classroom continuously. This
and related behaviors let students know that their teachers are aware of what was happening at
all times and likely to detect inappropriate behavior early and accurately.
Effective managers also have to do more than one thing at a time when necessary. When
conferring with an individual pupil, for example, they would continue to monitor events going
on in the rest of the classroom. When ' teaching reading groups, they would deal with students
from outside the group who come to ask questions, but in ways that do not involve disrupting
the reading group. In general, they handle routine housekeeping tasks and met individual
needs without disrupting the ongoing activities of the class as a whole.
That’s why, it becomes very clear that successful classroom management involves not
merely responding effectively when problems occur but preventing problems from occurring
very frequently at all. In turn, this prevention is accomplished primarily by good planning and
instruction that “keeps students profitably engaged in appropriate academic activities.
 Question 8:(PhD)
The process of foreign language learning can be affected by several factors. Discuss

Answer:
If we take a look at foreign language learners, it is quite obvious that not all of them learn
in a similar way. There are students who obtain very good results while others achieve very
little. Numerous attempts to classify the factors that affect the process of foreign language
learning have been presented.
Among these is P. Martinez representation of the variables in foreign language learning.
According to him there are three independent factors (teaching, learner and context) and two
dependent ones (learning and outcome) which are determined and conditioned by the previous
ones. Each of these factors need also to be subdivided further as they are affected by several
factors or elements.
The first element, teaching, makes references to the teaching conditions under which
instruction is being conducted. Factors such as the type of methodology used, the syllabus
selected, the teacher profile and the resources available play a relevant role.
The second factor is centered on the learners themselves and on all the variables that may
directly affect them. These can be cognitive, such as intelligence, cognitive style and aptitude
for language learning. The physical and psychological factors such as age and personality also
affect learners.
The third variable is related to the contextual conditions where language learning takes
place. It is quite clear that the opportunities for language use and practice vary considerably
thus affecting the process of learning.
The fourth point is no doubt the most complex of them all because it is influenced by the
previous three. It consists of two kinds of processes: unconscious and conscious. The former
being uncontrollable directly by the learner because it is determined to a high degree by the
learners first language (L1). The latter, learning strategies, are monitored by the learner and
include mechanisms that are used by learners. They can be different types: cognitive,
metacognitive and social.
Finally, outcome, shows the results of learning process or the proficiency level attained by
the learner as well as several aspects of language performance, such as errors and external
reaction to the language, the people and the culture that the target language represents.
 Question9:(PhD)
The applied linguist, the teacher and the learner are all agents of the language
learning/teaching process. Each one has a particular task to perform for the efficiency of
this experience.

Answer:
The joint relation between the applied linguist, the teacher and the learner is complex
matter that show how interrelated it is. Each one of them has a vital role in the efficiency and
success of the language learning/teacher process. So what task each one of these agents
perform?
Teachers’ roles can change from one task to another or form one stage of an activity to
another, and an ability to be flexible in moving between roles can contribute to the success of
the language learning process. Harmer (2001) identifies eight major roles that teachers can
perform to assist classroom learning: controller, assessor, organizer, prompter, resource,
participant, tutor, and observer. Hedge (2000) adds a number of interpersonal roles to these
pedagogic ones, noting that teachers may be called on to counsel, mediate and support learners
as well as work to create a positive classroom atmosphere. Roles are partly influenced by the
task, for example, whether the teacher is providing instruction on a language point, organizing
group discussions of a reading, monitoring a group work, or assessing the accuracy of a
finished project. Such a variation in roles is essential to facilitate learning.
As far as learners are concerned, their role should not be that of passive receivers of
information. They have to understand why they are learning specific topics, accept
responsibility for their learning, take the initiative in planning and executing learning activities
and are willing to assess their own learning. Learners’ active participation in and
responsibility for their own learning process are essential in the field language learning.
Learners are the makers of their own fortune. Learners need to build up their own personal
criteria for the quality of their work and develop independence from the teacher as the sole
judge of their weaknesses and strengths. This helps the learners make informed decisions
about their next steps in the learning process and removes the dependence on the teacher.
When it comes to applied linguists, Howatt [26] mentioned that their role in language
teaching is an honorable one. He added that if there is one single source which has been
responsible for stimulating innovation and activity in language teaching, it is applied
linguistics.
Over the years, applied linguistics has tried to investigate the real-world problems of
language teaching and learning. Van Lier [27] argued “I think that it is the applied linguist,
who works with language in the real world, who is most likely to have a realistic picture of
what language is and not the theoretical linguist who sifts through several layers of
idealization.”
 The role of applied linguists has been mostly concerned with solving or at least
ameliorating problems involving language. Generally, these problems are likely to be
revolving around Language learning such as (emergence, awareness, rules, use, context,
automaticity, attitudes, expertise). And language teaching such as (resources, training,
practice, interaction, understanding, use, contexts, inequalities, motivations, outcomes).
Applied linguists has offered and still produce a wealth of knowledge about language from
uses of a languages sound system to create meaning, to factors that affect language teaching
and learning, to knowledge of how people structure conversation, to ways of how people use
language to signal membership in particular language communities, among other issues.
As a conclusion, we can say that the applied linguist, the teacher and the learner are all
agents of the language learning/teaching process. Their roles, though different, are to a large
extent complementary; thus, each one has a task that helps in the efficiency of the language
learning/teaching experience.
 Question10:(PhD)
Language learning is part of mental, emotional and physical development of learners
and it takes place in a multidimensional context of the society. So how did
psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics influence language learning?

Answer:
Psycholinguistic study gives us knowledge of the underlying processes of language in the
human mind, how we come about to store linguistic information and understand each other in
communication. Psycholinguistic contributions made by Stern (1984), Mackey (1978), Rivers
(1964), Wilkins (1972), Corder (1973) have become fundamental pillars in the solution of
classroom problems – dealing specifically with perception, memory, aptitude, motivation,
attitude, foreign language learning strategies, problems concerning the best age to learn
another language, the concept of repetition, etc.
as Jackendoff, 1994 states, Language is extremely complex; therefore, it is essential to realize
how essential it is to become familiar with all the processes comprised in language learning.
Since the language classroom is the lab room where different learning experiences take place,
language teachers can function as researchers who, utilizing the principles psycholinguistics
offers, can find and devise methods and approaches that benefit students’ language learning
and development
Language is a social phenomenon. This implies that teachers will have to depend on
sociolinguistic data to carry out their job more efficiently. No teacher would deny the benefit
that he can get from the findings of sociolinguistics with regards to the factors which affect
language learning in a specific community. Sociolinguists have studied language use and the
described the communicative competence of speakers from various speech communities This
prompted foreign and second language specialists to look to sociolinguistic research for clues
in designing syllabuses for language teaching like the notional/functional syllabuses, and
developing teaching methodologies suitable for the teaching of this material such as the
communicative methodology.
psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics are necessary for the process of language learning.
Although are not seen as the most important part of language teaching, their contributions to
language learning cannot be ignored. Both fields brought and still bring to teachers better
knowledge about language; thus, enabling teachers to make decisions about teaching process
and satisfy the students’ need related to language.
 Question11:(PhD)
Researchers recently pointed out the importance of both affective and cognitive
factors in the acquisition of a foreign language. Discuss with particular reference to
foreign language acquisition.

Answer:
In foreign language learning, some students progress rapidly while others struggle along
making very slow progress. Researchers recently pointed out the importance of some factors
that influence greatly the learning process. These involve both the cognitive and affective
factors.
Cognitive factors refer to characteristics of the person that affect performance and
learning. These factors serve to modulate performance such that it may improve or decline.
These factors involve cognitive functions like aptitude, intelligence, language learning
strategies, former language experience and training. These factors which determine the
different individual differences are good indicators of the rate of learning and the eventual
success.
Affective factors are emotional factors which influence learning. They can have a negative
or positive effect. These factors involve motivation, attitudes, learning style and anxiety. For,
Ellis (2008), the learners affective state is influenced by anxiety, a desire to compete, and
whether learners fell they are progressing or not. Thus, affect, which involves aspects of
feeling, emotion, mood and attitudes that have impact on behavior may impede or facilitate
language learning.
The primacy of cognitive factors over affective factors was acknowledged till the late
1990s. the last decade has witnessed the recognition of the importance of affective factors and
their influence on success in foreign language acquisition. Stern (2003) states that the affective
component contributes as much and often more to language learning than the cognitive skills.
Even though recent research studies pointed out the importance of both affective and
cognitive factors in the acquisition of a foreign language, it remain difficult to make a precise
prediction about how individuals characteristics influence the success in language learning.
 Question12:(PhD)
One of applied linguistics main objectives is to solve language teaching problems.
Discuss.

Answer:
In contrast with general linguistics or theoretical linguistics, applied linguistics tackles
real-world problems in which language is a central issue. One of its main objectives is to solve
language teaching problems.
From difficulties learning a new language to assessing the validity and reliability of
language, applied linguistics covers an interdisciplinary domain of problems. According to
"The Oxford Handbook of Applied Linguistics" by Robert B. Kaplan, "The key point is to
recognize that it is the language-based problems in the world that drive applied linguistics."
One such example comes in the form of language teaching problems wherein scholars try
to determine which resources, training, practice, and interaction techniques best solve the
difficulties of teaching a person a new language. Using their research in the fields of teaching
and English grammar, linguistic experts attempt to create a temporary-to-permanent solution
to this issue.
A teacher of English as foreign language might wonder why groups of learners sharing the
same first language regularly make a particular grammatical problem that learners from other
language backgrounds do not. A recourse to applied linguistics might be helpful so as to
resolve this problem.
Even small variations like dialects and registers of modern vernaculars present problems
that can only be solved through applied linguistics, affecting translation and interpretations as
well as language usage and style.
In applied linguistics, today the term ‘language problem’ has become a key concept. This
discipline is primarily devoted to seeking “a practical answer to a language problem.”
 Question13:(PhD)
The need for an eclectic approach to second language learning combines the best
features of different approaches. However, the translation of such general conclusions
into actual classroom practice is a complicated affair.”
Elizabeth Ingram (1976) P.289.

Answer:
It is very important for a teacher to become aware of the thoughts that guide actions in the
classroom. In this sense, it becomes very important to recognize that there are links which
connect thoughts and actions, because teaching is not entirely about one or the other. Methods
are a coherent set of such links.
As language teachers have many approaches and methods from which to choose, it is
extremely difficult to come to conclusion about which methods and approaches are best and
most appropriate to develop learners’ language abilities. If we take a deeper look at methods
know to language teachers one can easily find advantages as well as drawbacks in each of
them. For instance, a natural approach to language follows the natural steps from L1
acquisition but there are times where grammar is necessary. The Silent way is a good choice
for novice teachers who got little to no teaching experience yet how can learners get to speak
if they don’t have a model (the teacher) to follow. In a Suggestoppedia atmosphere, there is no
anxiety but it is often not easy to find an ideal situation as the method tells.
From this, it is impossible to conclude that one method is the best simply because there are
many variables which enter into play in a teaching-learning situation. In this sense, Bonner
(1999) argues that a single teaching method typically cannot create all the conditions
necessary for a given learning objective. Teachers who follow blindly one or another method
will certainly at some moments face problems of student resistance and incomprehension.
Toledo (1998) laments the fact that teachers who try affective learning and humanistic
teaching, who try drama and other role-play communicative techniques, fall flat on their faces
in secondary classes where students are not interested and who merely wish to get good
grades.
 Teaching and learning is a contract between two parties for which they both need to agree
on terms. Therefore, the framework for choosing a teaching method should primarily be based
on a deep understanding of learning objectives and the surrounding conditions. All this
amounts to eclecticism where decisions about what and how to teach are based essentially on
objectives and what seems to work. Eclecticism refers to a teaching situation in which the
teacher does not use any one particular method but includes a mixture of different methods to
suit the class and the learning objectives.
Those who support eclecticism, like Freeman and Mellow, argue that it has the
protentional of keeping teachers open to alternatives and achieve success easily because a
single teaching method typically cannot create all the conditions necessary for a given learning
objective. Those who oppose this view say that eclecticism degenerates into an unsystematic
and an unprincipled pedagogy. If one choses mixed methods, it is very likely that all kinds of
conflicts will arise.
The real issue when dealing with eclectic method of teaching, is the translation of such
method into actual classroom practice. If a teacher fails to use the methods he adopts carefully,
confusion and chaos in the classroom will be the result. If one is adopting new techniques and
mixes it with conflicting and contradictory one, the effect of new technique will be diluted.
That’s why there has to be principled combination of different methods and techniques to
avoid frustration among students like the principals proposed by Mellow (2002) for
categorizing, selecting and sequencing activities in such a mixed method approach.
The knowledge about language teaching methods and being able to implement them in the
classroom is vital in developing one’s personal approach to teaching, an approach in which
teachers do not just follow recipes, but use their own methods shaped by their understanding
of what happens in the classroom.
 Question14:(PhD)
L.Van Lier stated that theorising, researching and practising are inseparable
ingredients in the professional conduct of a language educator. Do you agree with this
statement? Give reasons.

Answer:
L. Van Lier’s combination of theoretical discussion, empirical research report and
pedagogical model intended primarily for language teachers and educators rejects the
ubiquitous theory /practice dichotomy has been a mile stone around the neck of language
teachers for decades. He regards theory research and practice as inseparable ingredient in the
professional conduct of a language educator.
The research done in classrooms should always serve to refine and improve teaching
practices. It must also contribute meaningfully to debates on theoretical accounts of language
learning, provide useful description about what happens in the classroom and thus, generates
hypotheses and research questions that fuel further studies.
Educators should carry out both qualitative and quantitative studies. Through comparing
and contrasting classroom observations, interviews, questionnaires and language assessments,
studies of such a kind will certainly help in tracking progress, analyzing deficiencies, and
providing solutions.
 Question15:(PhD)
The technological explosion of the last 50 years has impacted all domains of our daily
life. Education is no exception to this; it has not remained inflexible towards the
profound changes taking place in other areas of knowledge. Nowadays, many
researchers advocate a technological approach to language learning/teaching while other
remain reluctant. So how would ICTs make language education more effective?

Answer:
For advocates of technology, when students are able to use technology in class the
generational gap is diminished and teachers are seen as part of their daily life. For them, In an
era in which technology is an everyday issue for adolescents and young adults, the fact that
technology should be implemented by teachers in their classes is a must.
That’s why there are many advantages in introducing technology in language classes. It
makes learners more interested about the subject, it decreases learning time, and it provides
opportunities to learn in non-traditional ways. The resources for teaching have significantly
changed and technology is transforming the way students learn.
In many arenas, ICTs equal or surpass human performance. They surpass human
performance in storing large amounts of information, categorizing or sorting it and retrieving
it quickly. Much of language learning is facilitated by repetition. ICTs are useful in delivering
drills for practice whether in grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation or listening, as they are
tireless. Unlike human interlocutors who may grow weary of repeating a word for a learner,
ICTs will repeat a word a hundred times if the user wishes.
 Students show more interest in classes in which technology is used as a primarily resource
that those that use the traditional methods. Increased access to authentic materials, and
collaborative activities spur student motivation to learn languages.
When instructors decide to use ICT materials, some considerations need to be taken in
order for the process of learning to be fruitful as much as possible. Good instructional
materials should not just be attractive. Effectiveness and good design go beyond being merely
eye-catching. The activity should be something that is done better using technology than
without.
In practice, however, the realization of integrating technology may lie beyond the realm of
language learning. Institutions might be constrained by a lack of resources, embedded
teaching practices, and large class sizes. Instructors must be well trained in order to be able to
use technology in the best way.
In addition to that, although ICTs are useful adjuncts in language learning, there are still
many things it cannot accomplish. Machine translation is a problematic issue where tools fail
to create a text that a native speaker would consider idiomatic or even grammatical when
doing the task of translation. Mechanized systems do not have the ability to customize
feedback with the same sensitivity that a human instructor does. In fact, the best systems
provide nothing but a simple explanation of what is right and what is wrong. Though many
modern systems are equipped voice recognition software, these programs are still inefficient in
accurately detecting natural speech and converse it into discrete words. Modern word-
processing software usually comes equipped with grammar-checking tools. Unfortunately,
most fall short of the grammatical editing a language class requires.
There is nothing certain about the future of technology, except that it will no doubt
become more ubiquitous and powerful. technology provides the interdisciplinary and
multicultural learning opportunities for students to carry out their independent studies.
Learning a language is a continuous process as well as technology, this let us to understand
that both processes can become together to improve students’ language skills and make them
to feel that language classes are becoming part of their daily life.
 Question16:(PhD)
Harmer believes that failure in EFL teaching is largely due to the fact that many
approaches and methods are based on a very western idea of what constitutes good
learning

Answer:
The field of foreign language teaching has been dominated mostly by Western views.
While some of these views can indeed be implemented, many others stumble over problems
when implemented on non-western societies due to their incompatibility with local
constraints.
These western-based approaches and methods where sometimes the students are asked to
talk about themselves and their lives in a potentially revealing way, or where the students are
asked to take charge of the class and the teacher is just a helper and guide rather than the only
source of knowledge an authority, seem to fall flat or fly in the face of an educational tradition
of a different culture.
On a more concrete level, for instance, the implementation of community language
learning (CLL) in our country seems to bring tremendous amount of practical problems. The
ratio between students and the teacher is unrealistic. If in some countries the luxury of one
teacher to one student is possible, in many other communities, it would be a dream to have a
class in public schools of less than 50 students.
Another example deals with one big practical problem that arises with the implementation
of total physical response(TPR) in an Eastern society where class setups in public schools
cannot be modified very easily to accommodate just for language classes. Schools teach many
other subjects, not just language. Demanding a language class to be set up differently would
create envies among other teachers.
In some other cultures, it would be a violation of accepted cultural norm not to see the
teacher as the authoritative figure. Thus, integrating a learner-centered approach to language
teaching would be impossible as both teachers and students still believe in the traditional
relation between them.
Toledo (1998) lamented the fact that some teachers who try drama and role-playing and
other communicative techniques fall flat on their faces in secondary classes because students
are not used to all what is related to theatre and are not interested and merely wish for good
grades.
These are some of the realities that western methodologies ignore. therefore, we must
admit that many of these ideas in foreign language teaching cannot be readily adopted in
Eastern societies.

Question17:(PhD)
Do you believe that language learning teaching should focus on function rather than
form?

Answer:
During the past decade, considerable changes have taken place in the field of Language
teaching. Due to the rapid developments witnessed, the need for learning foreign languages
has been increasingly higher. Therefore, a number of teaching methodologies have been
proposed by language scholars and educators.
Different from the structuralist tradition of language teaching which was established in the
early twentieth century and which stresses the importance of teaching language structure, new
approaches emerged. The new view of language teaching emphasized the study of language in
relation to its setting, participants and their relationship.
Krashen (1982) argued that the process of language acquisition is achieved by focusing on
meaning rather than form and that formal instruction in grammatical patterns and rules had no
part to play in the process. For him, the traditional FLT approaches have made learners
structurally competent and have developed in them the ability to produce grammatically
correct sentences. In this sense, Widdowson's evidence (1978) suggested that the acquisition
of linguistic competence does not seem to guarantee the consequent acquisition of
communicative competence in a language. That’s why Johnson and Morrow (1981) argue that
the students coming out of the classical traditional classrooms are likely to become
"structurally competent but communicatively incompetent."
Advocates of new communicative teaching methods focus on teaching meaning rather
than grammar so as to fulfill some communicative functions like requesting, greeting …etc.
language teaching in these methods uses functional units organization and practice to replace
grammatical ones.
Yet, this view was criticized. The writings of Rutherford (1987) and other have
emphasized the importance of rising the learner’s conscious awareness of grammatical form.
For Al-Humaidi (2013) the stress on function rather than meaning generates an ignorance
towards reading and writing skills. That’s why, Hughes (1983) says that such a
communicative approach leads to the production of fluent but inaccurate learners since the
focus is put on fluency rather than accuracy in grammar.
From all these contradicting views, I believe that we need to make language classrooms a
place where genuine and meaningful communication because both under-and over emphasis
on grammatical structures lead to language learning problems.

Question18:(PhD)
Discuss the implications of inductive vs deductive teaching of grammar in terms of
students' reaction and differences in effectiveness.

Answer:
Grammar teaching holds a crucial role in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL),
as without good command of grammar, the language use will be constrained. The controversy
over methods of teaching grammar has developed in the recent past, leading to the opposition
of two distinct instructional approaches which are inductive and deductive. but the question
remains as to the relative effectiveness of these two different approaches.
Both approaches can offer certain advantages. The deductive approach derives from
deductive reasoning where the concept goes from general to specific. Rules, patterns,
principles are presented first, and then moves to the examples. Deductive approach which is
also known as rule-driven teaching goes straightforwardly to the point and can, therefore, be
time-saving. A number of rule aspects (for example, form) can be more simply and clearly
explained than elicited from examples. A number of direct practice/application examples are
immediately given. The deductive approach respects the intelligence and maturity of many
adult learners in particular and acknowledges the role of cognitive processes in language
acquisition. It confirms many learners’ expectations about classroom learning particularly for
those who have an analytical style.
On the other hand an inductive approach starts with some examples from which a rule is
inferred. In grammar teaching, teachers present the examples at the beginning then
generalizing rules from the given samples. In Inductive approach Learners are trained to be
familiar with the rule discovery; this could enhance learning autonomy and self-reliance.
Learners’ greater degree of cognitive depth is “exploited”. The learners are more active in the
learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients. In this activity, they will be
motivated. The approach involves learners’ pattern recognition and problem solving abilities
in which particular learners are interested in this challenge. If the problem-solving activity is
done collaboratively, learners get an opportunity for extra language practice.
Both methods seem effective when teaching grammar. No one has been able to support
their claims with an unquestionably conclusive research about which method is more
effective. Many teachers use a combination of these two approaches based on their students.

Question19:(PhD)
Why has the teaching concern shifted from teacher centeredness to learner
centeredness?

Answer:
Deriving from the constructivist view of learning, a learner-centered approach has been
advocated during the last few decades over a teacher-centered approach. This shift from one
approach to another can be explained by taking a deeper look at both of them.
To understand learner-centered teaching, it is necessary to begin with the teacher-centered
approach, which is closely related to the behaviorist tradition. It assumes that learners are
passive and that they become active by reacting to stimuli in the environment. Therefore, the
teacher’s role is to create an environment which stimulates the desired behavior and
discourages those that are believed to be undesirable. This role makes the teacher the focus of
attention.
By contrast, the learner-centered approach assumes that learners are active and have
unlimited potential for individual development. The individual learner rather than the body of
information is the focus of teaching. Kain (2003) explains that in learner-centered approaches,
the construction of knowledge is shared, and learning is achieved through learners’
engagement with various activities.
With a move away from teacher centeredness to learner centeredness, students are not only
made responsible for their learning journeys, but more importantly educators, in their new
role, help create a path of achievable success.
The learner-centered approach is praised in research and practice to address individual
learners’ needs. However, instructors still use traditional, teacher-centered styles. Therefore, a
discrepancy between theory and practice needs to be identified so as to promote more training
in the learner-centered approach.

Question20:(PhD)
Discuss the extent to which "Grammar" can be viewed as order-seeking and / or
order-imposing.

Answer:
When we talk about the grammar of a language, we mean the set of rules a speaker knows
that allow him or her to produce and understand sentences in the language. a grammatical
sentence is therefore a possible sentence in the language. an ungrammatical sentence is one
that is impossible in a given language, one that a native speaker of that variety would never
utter naturally.
There are two very different conceptions of grammar. There is one school of thought that
views grammar as a collection of rules that must be learned in order to use language
“correctly.” For this school, users of language who do not adhere to the rules are using an
“inferior” or “sloppy” form of the language. The correct rules must often be learned and
practiced, and may at times be contrary to what even educated native speakers use in formal
language contexts. This is the prescriptive school of grammar.
On the other hand, the descriptive school of grammar sees it as a blueprint of language.
For this school, grammar guides speakers in how to string together symbols, sounds, and
words to make coherent, meaningful sentences. This type of grammar knowledge is intuitive
and reflects the innate ability of speakers to learn and use their native language. Children, for
instance, do not memorize rules as they learn to speak; what they actually learn are the rules or
patterns governing their language. Grammar is what allows language users to create and
understand an unlimited number of new and original sentences.
Prevailing academic approach to grammar quite often opt for the descriptive approach but
professional approaches often agree on the convenience of adopting both of them
simultaneously.

Question21:(PhD)
Assess the different meanings of the concept of "rule" from the perspective of
traditional linguistics and modern linguistics.

Answer:
When linguists study language, Perhaps the most important background fundamental
assumption they make is that human language at all levels is governed by systematic
regularities in the form of rules.
Every known language has systematic rules governing pronunciation, word formation, and
grammatical construction. Further, the way in which meanings are associated with phrases of a
language is characterized by regular rules. Finally, the use of language to communicate is
governed by important generalizations that can be expressed in rules.
This usage of the term “rule” is very different from the traditional views of language. In
classical school learners were taught so-called rules of grammar, which were told to follow in
order to speak and write ‘‘correctly”. Rules of this sort are called prescriptive rules; that is to
say, they prescribe, or dictate to the speaker, the way the language supposedly should be
written or spoken in order for the speaker to appear correct or educated.
In sharp contrast, when modern linguists speak of rules, they are not referring to
prescriptive rules from grammar books. Rather, linguists try to formulate descriptive rules
when they analyze language, rules that describe the actual language of some group of speakers
and not some hypothetical language that speakers ‘‘should’’ use. Descriptive rules express
generalizations and regularities about various aspects of language. Thus, when we say that
language is rule-governed, we are really saying that the study of human language has revealed
numerous generalizations about and regularities in the structure and function of language.
Even though language is governed by strict principles, speakers nonetheless control a
system that is unbounded in scope, which is to say that there is no limit to the kinds of things
that can be talked about. The tradition view of Prescriptive rules has nothing to do with
prescription of grammar but rather with prescription of style.

Question22:(PhD)
The concept of 'native speaker' is central in linguistics, but it often leads to a number
of difficulties when one tries to define it. Consider some aspects that might be critical to
the definition of this concept

Answer:
The native speaker occupies a curious position in linguistics. This concept is rich in
ambiguity. It raises, quite centrally, the issue of the relation between the particular and the
universal. So how does the concept of native speaker lead to a number of difficulties when
trying to define it?
Disputes and differences of opinion about the native speaker arise because the concept is
interpreted differently. That is why it has been referred to as both myth and reality (Davies
2003). Discussions of the native speaker concept get trapped in the very different ideas of
what is being talked about. One main type of approach sees the native speaker as the
repository and guardian of the true language. Chomsky, as a protagonist of the universalist
position, sees that to be a human is to be a native speaker. For him, 'everyone is a Native
Speaker of the particular language states that the person has 'grown' in his/her mind/brain.
Chomsky's view is uninfluenced by any social factor or contextual constraint.
The other type of approach, concerns the native speaker as the standard setter. The two
views are related and merge into one another. But what they reflect is that different positions
can be taken on the basis of interest in and concern for the same phenomenon, because what is
at issue is the individual speaker in relation to his/her social group, and to its community
norms, i.e. the standard language.
Failure to define the native speaker may indicate that, like other majorities, native speakers
define themselves negatively as not being non-native speakers. To be a native speaker means
not being a non-native speaker.
At bottom, we can say that the native speaker is both metaphor and embodiment of the
language-parole and of the competence-performance distinctions.

Question23:(PhD)
“What we can do as a part of investigation of language is concentrate on those
properties which make human language a unique type of communication system”
* Discuss.

Answer:
The human species is the only creature which has the capacity to speech. However, the
human creature is not the only one that is capable of communicating. All creatures from apes
to zebras are capable of doing so. Thus, as Yule argues, “what we can do as a part of
investigation of language is concentrate on those properties which make human language a
unique type of communication system.” In this sense, Linguists have suggested six
distinguishing features that make the human language properly human.
 Humans can refer to past and future time. This property of human language is called
displacement. It allows language users to talk about things and events not present in the
immediate environment. Indeed, displacement allows us to talk about things and places (e.g.
angels, fairies, Santa Claus, Superman, heaven, hell) whose existence we cannot even be sure
of.
the property of reflexivity (or “reflexiveness”) accounts for the fact that we can use
language to think and talk about language itself.
The aspect of the relationship between words and objects in human language is described
as arbitrariness where here is no “natural” connection between a linguistic form and its
meaning. The connection is quite arbitrary.
Humans are continually creating new expressions by manipulating their linguistic
resources to describe new objects and situations. This property is described as productivity (or
“creativity” or “open-endedness”) and essentially means that the potential number of
utterances in any human language is infinite.
This process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next is described
ascultural transmission. It is clear that humans are born with some kind of predisposition to
acquire language in a general sense. However, we are not born with the ability to produce
utterances in a specific language such as English. We acquire our first language as children in
a culture.
Human language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. This property is
calledduality(or “double articulation”). When we speak, we have a physical level at which we
produce individual sounds, liken, bandi. As individual sounds, none of these discrete forms
has any intrinsic meaning. In a particular combination such as bin, we have another level
producing a meaning that is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one
level, we have distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality
of levels is one of the most economical features of human language because, with a limited set
of discrete sounds, we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations
(e.g. words) that are distinct in meaning.
These properties may be taken as the core features of human language. A unique
communication system, which seem extremely unlikely that other creatures would be able to
understand it.

Question24:(PhD)
Discuss fully the statement made by Chomsky (1972 ):
“Personally, I am primarily intrigued by the possibility of learning something. From the
study of language that will bring to light inherent properties of the human mind”.

Answer:
There are any number of questions that might lead one to undertake a study of language.
For Chomsky, an investigation of human language might be intrigue by the interest and
possibility of learning something. For him, studying language will bring to light inherent
properties of the human mind.
The most interesting aspects of contemporary work in language are the attempts to
formulate principles of its organization which, are universal reflections of properties of mind;
and the attempt to show that on this assumption, certain facts about particular languages can
be explained.
And since language, for Chomsky, is a mirror of the mind, studying language would draw
our attention to the relation between language and thought and to the strong ties between the
language of a people and their spirit or culture. Consequently, linguistic forms can be used to
investigate the differences in the history of "mental development" of various cultures.
understanding language is also a vital aim of stylistics because the discipline is basically
concerned with investigating style as a property of the creativity in the human mind. With
formal and qualitative analyses, its purpose is to study how a work of art reflects the artist's
mind.
So, as Chomsky says, From the study of language one can learn something.

Question25:(PhD)
Some schools of linguistics share similarities while some others have totally different
views about language. Discuss.

Answer:
Modern linguistics emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the
shift of focus from historical concerns of changes in languages over time to the idea that a
language can be viewed as self-contained. This lead to the emergence of different schools of
thought which share similarities as well as differences.
 Based on the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism emerged as an approach to
linguistics that focuses on the idea that languages are fixed systems made up of many different
units that connect with each other. This school of thought marked a shift from historical
linguistic analysis to non-historical analysis. Structural linguistics involves collecting a corpus
of utterances and then attempting to classify all of the elements of the corpus at their different
linguistic levels: the phonemes, morphemes, lexical categories, noun phrases, verb phrases,
and sentence types.
In Europe, Saussure influenced: the Geneva School of Albert Sechehaye and Charles
Bally, the Copenhagen School of Louis Hjelmslev, the Paris School of Algirdas Julien
Greimas, and the Prague School of Roman Jakobson and Nikolai Trubetzkoy, whose work
would prove hugely influential, particularly concerning phonology. Prague school is one of
the representatives of functionalism, which is best seen as a particular movement in
structuralism. Functional theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a
tool, it is reasonable to assume that its structures are best analyzed and understood with
reference to the functions they carry out. The Prague school has always acknowledged its debt
to Saussurian structuralism, although it has tended to reject his point of view on certain issues
especially on the sharpness of distinction between synchronic and diachronic linguistics and
on the homogeneity of the language system.
In America, linguist Leonard Bloomfield's reading of Saussure's course proved influential,
bringing about the Bloomfieldean descriptivism phase in American linguistics that lasted from
the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. Bloomfield "bracketed" all questions of semantics and
meaning as largely unanswerable, and encouraged a mechanistic approach to linguistics.
Bloomfieldean linguistics in America was challenged later by the work of Noam
Chomsky, initially articulated in his publication Syntactic Structures in 1957. This work which
has developed as a reaction to Bloomfieldean linguistics became the basis for the generativism
approach to linguistics. It was originally a way to explain how humans acquire language in the
first place, but soon it came to be used to explain the different phenomena that occur in all
natural languages. The generative theory of language suggests that, in its most basic form,
language is made up of certain rules that apply to all humans and all languages. This led to the
theory of “universal grammar”, that all humans are capable of learning grammar.
As a reaction to generativism, the cognitivist linguist school of thought emerged. In basic
terms, cognitivism says that language emerges from human cognitive processes. It challenges
“universal grammar” by suggesting that grammar is not something that all humans can
inherently understand, but rather it is learned by using language. In this sense, it is a bit similar
to functionalism. However, the main focus of cognitivism is how language is based on
meaning that the mind creates.
Contemporary linguistics is a richly diversified field, with so many specializations that
acquired their separate identities from approaches guiding their orientations and goals. Some
schools of thought in linguistics emerged as an evolution while other as a revolution and
reaction to other schools.