Linguistics for Teachers 1

Getting Started
Welcome to Linguistics for Teachers 1
Overview

• Introduction to the course

• Introduction to Linguistics

• Overview of Units
Introduction to Linguistics for
Teachers 1
Introduction to Linguistics for Teachers 1

• instructor
• course outline
• objectives of course
• evaluation and assessment
• class schedule
Instructor
• Susanne Campbell
• Teaching background
• 1 year in Canada
• 1 year in Korea
• 5 years in Japan
• 4 years in Canada
• Educational background:
• undergraduate degree in English
• master’s degree in Applied Linguistics
• CELTA
• TESL Canada Level III Permanent Certification
Course Outline

• objectives of course
• time and place of class
• required text
• recommended reading
• evaluation and assessment
• class schedule
Objectives of the course
to introduce you to the fundamentals of Linguistics
-phonetics, phonology, morphology, pedagogical
grammar, syntax, discourse analysis, and
sociolinguistics
to demonstrate its importance in the classroom
-focusing primarily on non-native speakers in the
classroom
to provide you with a foundational knowledge of
language
-allowing you to anticipate and assist students with
language issues
Evaluation and Assessment
Class participation (forums) 20%

Assessment (4 major assessments) 15%

Weekly assignments 10%

Midterm Assessment 25%

Final Assessment 30%

Date Meeting Online Component
September Getting Started Unit 1 - Phonetics and Phonology
9
September Unit 1 – Phonetics and
16 Phonology
September Unit 2 – Morphology
23
September Unit 2 – Morphology
30
October 7 Unit 3 – Pedagogical Grammar
and Syntax
October Unit 3 – Pedagogical Grammar
14 and Syntax
October Unit 4 – Discourse Analysis and
21 Sociolinguistics
October Unit 4 – Discourse Analysis and
28 Sociolinguistics
November Review of Units and Final
4 Assessment
Introduction to Linguistics
Introduction to Linguistics

• What is language?

• What is the difference between linguistic

competence and linguistic performance?

• What is linguistics?
What is Language?
What is Language?
“…languages are systems of symbols
designed…for the purpose of
communication” (Lyons, 1981, p.8)
“From now on, I will consider a language to
be a set (finite or infinite) of sentences,
each finite in length and constructed out of
a finite set of elements” (Chomsky, 1957, p.13)
“Language composes, though not
exclusively, what we are as a species and
who we are as individuals in society” (Curzan &
Adams, 2006).
“The possession of language, perhaps more
than any other attribute, distinguishes
humans from other animals” (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998)
Animal Language vs. Human Language
Animal Language
What do the barking of dogs, the meowing
of cats, and the singing of birds have in
common with human language?

What are some of the basic differences

between these forms of communication?

(Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.30)

Animal ‘language’
parrots
“Polly wants a cracker”
“Hello”
bees
-3 special dances to represent
3 distances of honey from hive
chimpanzees
-Gua, Viki, Washoe, Koko,
Sarah, Nim Chimpsky
-learned to use speech,
symbols or sign language to
‘communicate’
Unlike human language
-Polly may not want a cracker at all
-Polly may not differentiate between ‘hello’ or
‘goodbye’
-bees have no flexibility to their ‘language’
-always the same dance
-always the same information
-were only able to imitate specific
sounds or symbol sequences
-lacked creativity in their ‘language’
-acted on an action-reward basis
What is the difference between
linguistic competence and
linguistic performance?
Competence
Competence

• what you ‘know’ about a language

• ‘knowing’ the sound system, words,

sentence structure of a language

• having the ability to understand and create

an infinite combination of sentences
Performance
Performance
• what you ‘produce’ as language

• what you ‘comprehend’ as language

• physiological and psychological limitations

to your performance of a language
What Is Linguistics?
What is linguistics?

“as a social science, linguistics

incorporates both scientific approaches to
language as a system and a focus on
language as a social phenomenon”
(Curzan & Adams, 2006)
Language as a System

• Phonetics (the description and classification of

sounds) and Phonology (sound systems and
sound change in a particular language)

• Morphology (the formation of words)

• Pedagogical Grammar and Syntax (the structure

of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences)
Curzan & Adams, 2006
Language as a Social Phenomenon

• Discourse Analysis (the way we communicate

with language)

• Sociolinguistics (the way we use language in

society)

Curzan & Adams, 2006

 phonetics
and
phonology
Language as a System

morphology

pedagogical
LINGUISTICS grammar
and
discourse syntax
analysis

Language as a
Social
socio-
Phenomenon linguistics
Overview of Units
Overview of Units
• Language and Sounds
-phonetics and phonology

• Language and Words

-morphology

• Language and Meaning

- pedagogical grammar and syntax

• Language and Society

-discourse analysis and sociolinguistics
 UNIT 1
Language and Sounds
phonetics
and
phonology
phonetics
[p] and [b] are two different sounds in English

How do you explain to a foreign student where the

sound is made? (place of articulation)
How do you explain to a foreign student how to
make these sounds? (manner of articulation)

In some languages, [p] and [b] can be used

interchangeably
phonetics
• sound segments (which sounds make up a word – words like
knot and not have the same sound segments)

• the North American Phonemic Alphabet (set of symbols

that represent the sounds of English)

• sounds and the vocal tract (places in the mouth and throat
where sounds are produced)

• articulatory phonetics (how the sounds are produced)

• vowels, consonants, diphthongs

phonology
Minimal Pair:
/pat/ and /bat/ differ in meaning due to one sound

Insertion:
Fromkin is often pronounced Frompkin for ease of
production

“Hit Saw My Fought” – Can you hear a real

sentence here?
phonology
• phonemes (meaning-distinguishing sounds)
• phones (phonetic units)
• allophones (various versions of one phoneme)

• minimal pairs (pat vs. bat – one sound substituted for another
produces a different meaning)

• phonological rules (the ways sounds change predictably in

certain environments)

• phonotactics (the particular pattern of sounds allowed in a

specific language)
 UNIT 2
Language and Words
morphology
morphology
• A student might write ceive as being the
root word of deceive and receive.

• How is this student correct?

• How is this student NOT correct?
Morphology
morpheme – smallest unit of meaning
derivational prefixes (un, dis, a, anti)
suffixes (ize, ly, ful, er)
bound
morphemes inflectional suffixes (s, ed, ing, est)

-carry the content of the message

lexical (nouns, adjectives, adverbs,
free verbs)
morphemes -perform specific functions in the
sentence
functional
(prepositions, conjunctions,
articles)
 UNIT 3
Language and Meaning
pedagogical grammar
and
syntax
pedagogical grammar
• Have you ever heard someone say “I seen”?

prescriptive grammar:
You must not split an infinitive.
You must not end a sentence with a preposition.

descriptive grammar: describes grammatical categories

The _____ slept soundly.
Which grammatical category would fit here?
pedagogical grammar
• traditional grammar (parts of speech, agreement,
gender)

• prescriptive grammar(the rules of grammar are

prescribed as “proper” use) vs. descriptive
grammar(the rules of grammar are described)

• open-class (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs) and

closed class (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns,
auxiliary verbs) lexical categories
syntax
• Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

• First of all, developing people do not know

enough to limit their reproduction, understanding
ecosystems and how civilization is living on
capital provides the appropriate context for
analyzing the population problem is very
important.

Which sentence could be correct?

syntax
• generative grammar (a set of rules that create all sentences)

• syntactic categories (sentence, determiner, adjective, adverb,

auxiliary verb, verb, verb phrase, noun, noun phrase)

• phrase structure trees (tree diagrams that show hierarchical

organization of syntactic structures)

• phrase structure rules (a small number of rules that would

allow the generation of a large number of sentences)

• transformational rules (an alternative to a phrase structure

rule in which a branch of the tree has been moved to a different
position)
 UNIT 4
Language and Society
discourse analysis
and
sociolinguistics
discourse analysis
Him: That’s the telephone
Her: I’m in the tub
Him: O.K.

Carol: Are you coming to the party tonight?

Lara: I’ve got an exam tomorrow.

so, then, look, you know, I mean

discourse analysis
• cohesion and coherence
• implicature
-maxims of conversation (maxims of quantity, quality, relation, and
manner)
• speech acts
• the cooperative principle
-turn-taking, hedges
• background knowledge
-schemas and scripts
• politeness and face
-positive and negative face
-face threatening acts
sociolinguistics
The man testified that he was in his hoopty around dimday
when some mud duck with a tray-eight tried to take him
out of the box.

What’s the difference between a dialect and slang?

What can be implied from these two speakers?

A: We weren’t responsible for that mess.
B: It wasn’t us what done it.
sociolinguistics
• dialect (variation of a language specific to a particular group)

• regional variation (the political, geographical and cultural factors that affect a
variety of a language)

• social variation (the economic and ethnic factors that affect a variety of a
language – standard or non-standard dialects)

• language and gender (the relationship between language forms and

gender)

• speech style and style shifting (register and jargon, slang and
vernaculars, speech accommodation)
Required Reading

What Is Language?

Read the article by Lyons (1981) and notice the

varying definitions of language.

Which definition do you agree with?

Required Reading

Animal Language

Fromkin & Rodman (1998), pp.22-28

In what way is animal ‘language’ like human

language?
Required Reading

Competence vs. Performance

Fromkin & Rodman (1998), pp.12-13

Imagine that your student is writing an in-class

midterm exam. How does the student’s
competence compare to his/her performance?
Required Reading
Linguistics

Explain how language is looked at as a

system as well as a social phenomenon.
Summary
• Introduction to Linguistics for Teachers
-instructor, course outline, course schedule, assessment,
objectives of course

• Introduction to Linguistics
-what is language?, what does it mean to ‘know’ a
language?, what is linguistics?

• Overview of Units
-phonetics and phonology, morphology, pedagogical
grammar and syntax, discourse analysis and
sociolinguistics