Basic English 2

Joel M. Torres
Instructor, College of Education
Central Luzon State University
 OVERVIEW
I. Communication
II. The Speech Sounds
III. Morphemes and Word Formation
IV. Idiomatic Expression
V. Figurative Language
VI. Verbal Analogies
VII. Elements of Short Story
VIII. Literary Lexicons
IX. Reading Comprehension
Communication
• Communication is a two-way
process by which information is
exchanged between or among
individuals through a common
system of symbols, signs and
behavior (Martinez, 2001).
Verbal vs. Nonverbal and
Paralinguistics
• Verbal communication is the transmission of
ideas, opinions, feelings, emotions or
attitudes through the use of words
(comments, questions, reactions)
• Nonverbal is the sending of messages to
another person utilizing methods or means
other than words (facial expression, eye
contact, gesture)
Levels of Communication
• Intrapersonal
• Interpersonal
Dyad
Small Group
Public Commuication
Communication Skills

LISTENING

SPEAKING

READING

WRITING
Speech Sounds
Speech sounds are those of vowels and
consonants. A vowel sound is a speech sound
that is produced through an open throat and
mouth passage without any hindrance or
obstruction. A consonant sound is one that is
pronounced with a certain degree of obstruction
and restriction at the lips, inside the mouth and
in the throat.
Speech Sounds
There are eleven recognizable vowel sounds and
twenty-four consonant sounds in English and several
more variants which include the vowel types and
consonant forms. Unfortunately, however, the number
of sounds is more than the letters of the English
alphabet. Because of the multiplicity of sounds a letter
can have, linguists have devised a scientific codification
of sounds, the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet),
where a symbol represents a distinct speech sound
(Flores & Lopez, 1984).
The English Vowel
 Sample Test Item

•All of the following has

/a/ sound EXCEPT:
a.cough c. rack
b.cap d. hard
 The Consonant Sounds
• Bilabial [p, b] – The two lips come together.
• Labiodental [f, v] – The upper teeth touch the lower lip.
• Dental [ᶿ,ᶞ] – The tongue tip touches the upper teeth.
• Alveolar [t, d] – The tongue tip touches the alveolar
ridge.
• Alveo- palatal [ʤ, ʦ] – The tongue tip or blade touches
the hard palate.
• Velar [k, g] – The root of the tongue touches or comes
near the velum.
• Glotal [h] – The vocal folds narrow.
 The Consonant Sounds
• Stop [p, d] – The vocal tract is closed completely, with the lips for [p] and
with the tongue for [d], allowing air pressure to build up behind the
closure, which is then abruptly opened.
• Fricative [ f, z] – The vocal tract is partly closed, forcing air through the
constriction at a velocity high enough to produce hissing noise.
• Nasal [m,n] – As the oral cavity is closed, air flows through the nasal cavity.
• Liquids [l, r] – The center of the tongue closes, and air escapes around the
sounds in the lateral [l]; the tongue tip curls upwards and back, and the
center of the tongue is hollow in a retroflex [r].
• Affricate [ʤ, ʦ] – A complete closure is released into a partial closure; or
the sound begins as a stop but ends as a fricative.
• Glide (semi vowel) [j, w] – Vowel like sounds that precede or follow true
vowels.
• Voiced/voiceless [b, d/p, t] – The vocal folds vibrate in producing voiced
consonants but not voiceless ones.
Manner Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glotal

Stop vl p t k

v b d g

Affricate Vl ʦ

v ʤ

Fricative vl f ᶿ s h

v v ᶞ z

Liquid V l, r

Nasal v m n Ŋ

Glide V j W
 Sample Item
• All of the following are voiceless consonant
EXCEPT:
a. /p/ c. /k/
b. /t/ d. /b/
Stress
• Stress is sometimes called accent. It is given to a
syllable by pronouncing it with force to give more
importance than the other syllables in the word. In the
word level, for example, the first syllable is stressed
because a) the first syllable is louder than the second
b) the first is higher in pitch, and c) the length of the
vowel is greater than that in the second.
• To enhance rhythm, students must learn to apply
stress, which is changes in pitch, force and duration,
and intonation which is the pattern or melody of pitch
changes.
Stress
• Majority of two-syllable words are stressed on the first
syllable. (ABsence, ACcent, Selfish, Never, PROfile, PUBlish,
SUMmon, Finish, Actor, SURface, PURchase, ARgue, Cocoa,
Impious, Ensure, MENace, PREfix)
• Compound nouns have a primary stress on the first
component and a secondary stress on the second.
(BLACKbird, HEADache, PASSport)
• Compound verbs have a primary stress on the second
component and a secondary stress on the first.
(understand, overflow, underline)
• Numbers ending in teen may receive the stress in the last
syllable to distinguish clearly between thirty and thirteen
for example.
Stress
• Many words show a shift in stress to indicate their use
either as a noun, or as a verb.
• Intensive-reflexive pronouns receive a stronger stress
on the second syllable (yourSELF, mySELF, herSELF)
• Generally, when a suffix is added to a word, the new
form retains the stress on the same syllable or the
word from which it was derived. (HAppy-HAPpiness,
asSIGN- assignment, CLOUdy-CLOUdiness)
• Words ending in –tion, -sion, -ic, -ical, and –ity always
have primary stress on the syllable preceding the
ending. (examiNAtion, adMIssion, economic, logical,
serenity)
acCOMpaniment
agREEment
asSOciate
comMITTee
comPETitor
contRIBute
deVElop
diPLOmacy
disTRIbute
eCONomy
exECutive
geOGraphy
 hoRIzon
inEVITAble
lieuTENant
maCHInery
muNICipal
oPPonent
oRAtion
voCABulary
adVANtage
PHOto
PROverb
PAris
CLImate
eCOLogy
TRANquil
 Sample Item

In what syllable does the

primary stress fall in the word
penicillin?

a. First c. Third
b.Second d. Fourth
Morphemes
• the smallest meaningful unit in a language

BEAUTIFUL = 2 morphemes
Beauty
-ful
Morphemes
Two Types of Morphemes

a. Free Morpheme
b. Bound Morpheme
b.1 derivational
b.2 Inflectional
Driver = 2 morphemes

Drive + er = Driver

Drive = free morpheme

-er = derivational
Drives = 2 morphemes

Drive + -s = Drives

Drive = free morpheme

-s = inflectional
Sample Item

• How many morphemes are

present in the word
disentanglement?
a. Three c. Five
b. Four d. Six
Sample Item

All of the following morphemes are

derivational EXCEPT
a. Babies
b. Development
c. Kingly
d. Blacken
 Word Formation
• Borrowing
• Coining
• Clipping
• Acronym
• Onomatopoeia
• Compounding
• Branding
• Blending
• Lexical Shift
Identify the word formation technique that
governs each word
1. PhD
2. Xerox
3. Simulcast
4. Kodak
5. Exam
6. Boom
7. I-Kim-Chui
8. Judo
9. SCUBA
10. rainbow
Imagery & Figurative Language
An”image” is “a word or sequence of words
that refers to any sensory experience”
(Kennedy and Gioia 741).
Imagery
What are your five senses? Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste,
and Smell

 An image conveys a sense perception , i.e., a visual

picture, a sound, a feeling of touch, a taste, or an odor

 Imagery = a noun used to refer to a set of related

images in poem or the totality of images in a poem:
Figures of Speech

Figurative language uses figures of speech to

convey unique images and create some sort
of special effect or impression.

A “figure of speech” is an intentional

deviation from the ordinary usage of
language.
 Figures of Speech
Figure of speech—word or phrase that makes a comparison
between seemingly unlike things.

He collapsed onto the grass like a half-empty flour sack.

from “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst

You’ll come across figures of speech—or figurative language—

in poetry, in prose, and in everyday speaking and writing.
 Figures of Speech
Figures of speech
• are not literally true
• make imaginative connections
• express meaning in fresh and original
ways

• often act as a kind of shorthand

Figures of Speech
Some figures of speech have become part of our everyday
language. We don’t even think about the fact that they aren’t
literally true.

He didn’t notice how quickly the time

flew by.
My heart leapt at the thought.
She must have gotten tied up in traffic.
His room is a pigsty.
Poetry works by comparison

 Poets often create images or enhance

meaning by comparing one thing to another
for special effect.

 A most important figure of speech is the

Metaphor
Metaphor
 The term metaphor has two meanings, a
broad, more general meaning and a concise,
specific meaning.

– All figures of speech which use association,

comparison, or resemblance can generally be
called types of metaphor, or metaphorical.

– One specific figure of speech which compares

two things by saying that one IS the other is
called a metaphor.
Simile
 A simile is a type of metaphor, a figure in which
an explicit comparison is made using the
comparative words like, as, resembles, than.
Similes are easy to spot.
(X is like Y: X is compared to Y in order to illustrate X
more fancifully, poetically, or effectively. But Y is not a
literal representation of X, not actual.)

 The team’s center looked like a skyscraper.

 My love is like a red, red rose.
 We were as quiet as frightened mice.
More similes

 Kennedy and Gioia offer a good list of ways

to make a simile:

My love is like a red, red rose.

My love resembles a rose.
My love is redder than a rose.
She came out smelling like a rose! (767)
Metaphor
 A metaphor also compares, but a metaphor is a bit
more sophisticated than a simile.

 For one thing, in a metaphor, the words

like or as are missing. So readers have to
recognize the comparison on their own without
those easy words which help us to spot a simile so
quickly.
Metaphor (continued)

In a metaphor, a poet writes that X is Y. Readers

understand that we are not to take the comparison
literally, but that the metaphor helps us to see X in
a new way.

My brother is a prince.
Razorback Stadium was a slaughterhouse.
More metaphors
Richard was a lion in the fight.
Her eyes are dark emeralds. Her teeth are pearls.

But Avoid Mixed Metaphors (combining two or more

incompatible images in a single figure of speech):

Management extended an olive branch in an attempt

to break some of the ice between the company and
the workers.
Implied Metaphor
Kennedy and Gioia offer a kind of metaphor (767)
lacking the actual “to be” verb (is, am, are, was,
were and other such forms of the verb “to be”)
called

an Implied Metaphor
What is implied here about the speaker’s love?

• Oh, my love has petals and sharp thorns.

• Oh, I placed my love into a long-stemmed vase
And I bandaged my bleeding thumb.

And here, what is implied about the city and the subway?
• The subway coursed through the arteries of the city.
 Extended Metaphor
 This kind of metaphor may run through an entire work. In
George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, the farm is
compared to a nation, with different possible forms of
goverance. This comparison extends throughout the novel.

 Sometimes a poet will use an extended metaphor throughout

a poem rather than simply as one single figure of speech in
a poem.
Dead Metaphor
 A dead metaphor has been so used and overused that it has
lost its power to surprise, delight, or effectively compare.

A cliché is a dead metaphor, a phrase so often repeated that

it no longer has force:

– He hit the nail on the head.

– She was cool as a cucumber.
– Jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
– This powerpoint show is crystal clear.

– Avoid the use of clichés in your own writing!

Personification
Another kind of comparison is called
personification. Here, animals, elements of nature,
and abstract ideas are given human qualities.

John Milton calls time “the subtle thief of youth” (599).

Homer refers to “the rosy fingers of dawn” (599).
Other examples of personification
– The stars smiled down on us.

– An angry wind slashed its way across the island.

 The three main uses of figurative language needed
to read poetry are the previous:
– Simile
– Metaphor
– Personification

– But there are many other poetic devices used.

The more you recognize, the richer your
reading experience can be.
– Here follow more figures of speech:
Oxymoron
 Oxymoron - two contradictory terms are placed side by side,
usually for an effect of intensity:
• darkness visible (John Milton)
• burning ice

People often enjoy joking sarcastically by declaring certain

pairs of words to be oxymorons:

military intelligence
Hyperbole

 Hyperbole (hy per bo lee) is intentional exaggeration or

overstating, often for dramatic or humorous effect:

Your predicament saddens me so much that I feel a

veritable flood of tears coming on:
Understatement
 The intentional understatement is used for effect also:
“Thank you for this Pulitzer Prize: I am pleased.”

 Another kind of understatement called Litotes occurs when

a negative is used to state a positive:

“When I won the Pulitzer Prize, I was not unhappy.”

Apostrophe

 A person or thing which is absent is

addressed:

“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt

Whitman” (Ginsberg 599).
“Oh sun, I miss you, now that it’s December.”
Metonymy

 In this figure (m’ tawn ni’mee) one thing is

replaced by another thing associated with it:

 The Crown is amused (“The Crown” is the

Queen).

 The White House is furious (“The White

House” is the President).
Synecdoche
 Here, (sin nec duh kee) a part represents
the whole:
• All hands on deck!
• Lend me your ears.
• Let’s buy one hundred head of cattle!
A repetition of
initial consonant
sounds.
 Alliteration
The sign reads:
Education:
The inculcation of
the
incomprehensible
into the
indifferent by the
incompetent.
 Alliteration

If Peter Piper
picked a peck
of pickled
peppers, how
many pickled
peppers did
Peter Piper
pick?
Want more?
 Figures of speech are numerous. The effective
practice of communication is called rhetoric, and
many, many figures of speech can be identified in
language use.

 Some other figures are anachronism, euphemism,

pun, and onomatopoeia (o no mat o pee ya). In this
last figure, words are used to convey sound, like

bzzzz or cock-a-doodle-doo.

Oh no, you say? Here it comes!

Words
written like
the sound
they make.
 Words used
that have a
different
meaning than
the literal
meaning.
“ You can’t tell a book by its
cover.” Meaning: You can’t
know a person by their looks
alone.
Identify what figurative language
is used in the following
 1. Night o night move fast and help me
find my father.
 2. He travelled seven boondocks just to see
you.
 3. Silence speaks louder than voice.
 4. They passed over the sleeping town.
 5. Marius’ life is a jig-zaw puzzle.
Identify what figurative language
is used in the following
 6. I think, my life is useless without you.
 7. Alfredo is his shining star. .
 8. Wind oh wind, bring me to my little
angels.
 9. Silence he is, but beware he is full of
deceit.
 10. Your answers to my letter are no less
precious to me.
Identify what figurative language
is used in the following
 11. The sky cries when Lean failed to
answer the teaser question.
 12. Ming-ming, our pet, is not prolific, in
fact she is giving birth every quarter.
 13. A hundred silver wings passed over the
sleeping town.
 14. His mind is a calculator.
 15. Klick, klick, tha LSR Nikon camera
sounds.
“live out of a
suitcase”
meaning
traveling all
the time.
“name
dropper”
Someone
who wants
others to
know they
associate
with
important
or famous
people.
“had a
ball”
meaning
had a
good time
“I’ll cross that bridge
when I come to it.”
Meaning: I’ll deal with
that when the time comes.
“Don’t burn your
bridges.”
Meaning: Don’t alienate
people that can help you,
or don’t cut off your
connections to
opportunities.
“man on the
street” meaning
the ordinary or
average man
“highway
robbery”
meaning
charging too
much i.e. Some
credit card
interest rates
are highway
robbery.
Example: I was late because I was
caught in a traffic jam.
 Idiomatic Expression
An idiomatic expression is a combination of
words that means something different from
each word by itself.

For example, in the phrase "pulling

someone's leg," pulling means moving
something towards yourself, and the leg is
the part of the body above the foot.

But pulling someone's leg doesn't mean to

drag that person's leg; it means to try to
fool the person.
• It's raining cats and dogs today.
• Maria felt like a fish out of water
on the first day of school.
• He didn't have his coat on, and he
caught a cold.
• Last night my mom lost her temper.
• I think that you will get a kick out
of the movie.
• I let the cat out of the bag and told
her that I was moving.
 VERBAL
ANALOGY
 To answer an analogy
question you must:
• Formulate and recognize the relationship
between the words in the given word
pair
• Select the answer containing words
related to one another in most nearly
the same way
• Recognize when two word pairs display
parallel relationships
 Analogies test your ability
to:
• Recognize the relationship between
the words in a word pair
• Recognize when two word pairs
display parallel relationships
 Analogies look like this:
STEM:WORDS ::
A. First pair
B. Second pair
C. Third pair
D. Fourth pair
E. Fifth pair
In what ways could two words
be related?

• The relationship will always have to

do with the meaning of the words
 Examples of possible
relationships
• Synonyms or antonyms
• A part to the whole
• A member to the category that contains it
• Cause to effect (or effect to cause)
• Varying degrees of a quantity or quality
• Object to function
 Examples of possible
relationships
• Problem and Solution Analogies
• Verb Tenses Analogies
• Performer and action Analogies
• Object and Location Analogies
• Rhyme Analogies
• Things That Go Together Analogies
 Here is one example of
each of these relationships
Synonyms INFANT: BABY GROWN-UP : ??
Antonyms BIG : SMALL FULL : ??
Part to whole WHEEL : CAR BRANCH : ??
Member to APPLE : FRUIT CARROT : ??
Category
Cause to Effect SLIVER : PAIN HEAT : ??
Matters of WARM : HOT COOL : ??
Degree
Object to TRUCK : TRANSPORT OVEN : ??
Function
 PRACTICE
PLATOON:SOLDIER
HOT:SCALDING
STARVATION:BINGING
GILLS:BREATHING
PERSUASIVE:CONVINCING
SOCCER:SPORT
 Examples

• crying & laughing, fire & water, question

& answer
• knife & kitchenware, knife & weapon,
red & color, pants & clothing,
• cat & kitten, plant & seed, dog & puppy,
• wolf & pack, tree & forest, seagull &
flock
 Examples
• flat & skyscraper, tired & exhausted,
warm & hot, cold & freezing
• spin & dizzy, fire & burn, read & learn,
• paint & painting, build & house, write &
letter
• itch & scratch, unemployment & job
application, tired & sleep
 Examples
• walk & walked, eat & ate, sent & send
• painter & paint, soldier & to fight,
scientist & to research
• brick & wall, glass & window, glass &
light bulb, page & book
• keyboard & to type, telephone & to call,
paintbrush & to paint
 Examples
• plane & hangar, dog & doghouse, tree &
forest
• salt & pepper, statue & socket, fork &
knife
• deer & steer, red & rod, glasses &
mosses
 Approaches that may be helpful
in answering analogy questions:
• Try to establish a precise relationship
between the words in the given pair
• Form a sentence that captures the
relationship between the two words
• Then look for the answer choice
containing the word pair whose
relationship is closest to that of the
given pair and can be expressed in a
similar fashion
 Example
APPLE : FRUIT ::
A. Salad : Mix
B. Orange: Banana
C. Juice : Can
D. Slice : Core
E. Carrot : Vegetable
 How do you know if you
have a good sentence?
• Look at the answer choices
• If more than one answer choice
seems to fit, then your sentence is
too general
• If none of them work, then your
sentence is too specific
 Example
PEN : WRITE ::
A. Pencil : Sharpen
B. Ink : Blue
C. Letter : Compose
D. Knife : Cut
E. Mistake : Erase
 Helpful Approaches con’t:
• Pay attention to the order of the words in the pair
• Pay attention to the parts of speech
• The relationships you need to explain will be
constant relationships
• Analogy questions are vocabulary intensive
• Remember that a single word can have several
different meaning
• Never decide on the best answer without reading
all the answer choices
• Practice recognizing and formulating relationships
between word pairs
 Practice
Mnemonic : Remember ::
A. Amnesiac : Forget
B. Euphoria : Relax
C. Nostril : Smell
D. Audio : Hear
E. Glasses : See
 Answer
Mnemonic : Remember ::
E. Glasses : See
SHORT STORY
ELEMENTS
Characters
Types: Protagonist and Antagonist
Kinds: Major and Minor
Classification:
flat/static, round/dynamic,
stereotype, the good/evil
 Settings
• Geographical
• Time
• Economic
• Social
 Plot (Pattern I)
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution
• Ending
 Plot (Pattern II)
• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Denouement
 Conflict
• Man vs. Man
• Man vs. Animal
• Man vs. Nature
• Man vs. Society
• Man vs. Himself
 Point of View
• First Person Narration
• Third Person
-Objective
-Omniscient
• Stream of consciousness
• In the eyes of a child
Theme
Reading Comprehension
Happiness is one subject everyone thinks about
but few seems to understand. Some gain
happiness and keep it. Others momentarily grasp
it, then lose it. A few never experienced it at all.
Yet, however elusive happiness may be, it is
attainable no matter how miserable you may have
been in the past.

What conclusion can be drawn from the selection?

a. A happy person is born, not made.
b. A person becomes unhappy as he becomes older.
c. One who has a sad past never experienced happiness.
d. One may attain happiness in spite of some unfortunate
experience in life.
Reading Comprehension
Imee insisted that her son be baptized in a
catholic church, although her protestant in-
laws were not pleased about it. Her first born
twin as well as her three other siblings who
are all female, were baptized in the Methodist
Church.
With her husband who plans on
undergoing vasectomy, this baby boy might be
their last. And so, Imee was determined to
have her way this time no matter what
happens.
Reading Comprehension
1. What religion does Imee want her son to
acquire?
a. Catholicism b. Protestantism
c. Islam d. a&b
2.How many children does Imee have in all?
a. three b. four c. five d, six
3.Who were against her plan to have her son
baptized in the Catholic Church?
a. The other children b. her husband
c. her in-laws d. her parents
Reading Comprehension
4. The word it in the first paragraph refers to __?
a. The son’s baptism in the Catholic Church
b. Imee’s religion
c. Imee’s newborn son
d. the in-laws who were against the plan
5. It is implied that __
a. Imee’s in-laws don’t like her
b. Imee is Catholic but her husband is not
c. Imee’s son wanted to be a Catholic too
d. Imee’s other children are not Catholic
Reading Comprehension
Rice, one of the world’s most important
and most versatile food came originally from
the wild pants in Asia. Some archaeologist
believe that the grain was first cultivated in
Southeast Asia and Southern China.
Excavations in China in the early 1970’s
unearthed rice about 7,000 years old. Other
historians say rice originated in India dating
back to 5,000 B.C., and North Thailand, rice
was found that was grown in 4,000 B.C.
Reading Comprehension
In Java, it is believed that the rice is
the gift of the goddess, Dewi Sri to the people.
Whereas in Japan, legend has it that the sun
goddess sowed rice in the fields of heaven and
gave some of the seeds to the descendants of
the emperor to plant.
Reading Comprehension
Other countries for sure have their own
way of explaining how rice came into being –
scientifically or legendarily. But when and
where did rice originate shouldn’t be our
concern, rather, we should learn how to make
use of this world’s most prolific food in every
way we can.
Reading Comprehension
1. Where did rice originate?
a. From the sun goddess
b. from the emperor
c. from the wild plants
d. from the unknown
2. In paragraph 2, the origin of rice is purely __?
a. scientific b. experimental c. opinion
d. legendary
Reading Comprehension
3.All of the following statements are true
EXCEPT
a. Rice is a versatile food.
b. Rice is a grain.
c. Rice originated in Asian countries.
d. Rice grows only in China.
PRACTICE TEST