The Nature of Language and

Language Study
“Language is the road map of a culture.
It tell you where its people come from
and where they are going.”
- Rita Mae Brown
A Quick Look at Language, Macro Skills and
Communicative Competence

• Language
• The word ‘Language’ comes from the Latin term,
lingua. It means tongue and the French term langue.
Macro Skills

Oral skills Literacy skills

Receptive skills Listening Reading

Productive skills Speaking Writing

Receptive Skills

• Both listening and reading are receptive skills.

• Verbal response
• Creative response
• Written response
Productive Skills

• Both speaking and writing are productive skills.

 Listening
• Listening is a prerequisite to understanding. It is the skill of
grasping and decoding information during the exchange of
messages. Listening is the beginning of understanding and a
valuable key to effective communication. It is the task of
getting the meaning of what is being heard. (Underwood, 2009)
Remember: Listening is not the same as
Hearing!
 Methods of Teaching Listening Skills
• Interpersonal Activities
• Group Activities
• Audio Segments/Songs
• Video Segments
 Speaking
• Speaking is the ability that make us superior to other species. It is a
complex cognitive and linguistic skill that involves words and sounds. It
also involves:
• Meaning: connotation, denotation, grammar
• Sociality, Relationship, Affect: formal, informal, slang, turn-taking
• Performance: articulation, projection, pronunciation
• Sound Elements: how volume pitch, pace, and nature of sound
complement/contradict/replace words
 Functions of Speaking
• Interaction
• is seen in social conversations.
• Transaction
• happens when someone wants to cut across a message. There is an act to
be done after the message is received.
• Performance
• is when an audience accepts the message spoken.
 Reading

• Reading is a multifaceted process involving word

recognition, comprehension, fluency, and motivation.
Learn how readers integrate these facets to make
meaning from print (Leipzig, 2001).
• "Reading" is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and
getting meaning from them. When we read, we use our eyes to receive
written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our
brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that
communicate something to us.
• Reading can be silent (in our head) or aloud (so that other people can
hear).
• Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that we:
• Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition
• Construct an understanding from them – a process called
comprehension and
• Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading
is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency.
 Brown suggested the category as outlined below:
• A. Oral Reading
• B. Silent Reading
• I. Intensive
• a. linguistic
• b. context
• II. Extensive
• a. skimming
• b. scanning
 Writing

• "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters

of the alphabet, punctuation, and spaces) to
communicate thoughts and ideas in a readable
form.
Steps for Writing
• Decide the topic

• Research and Collect Information

• Outline and Plan

• Start writing a Simple Draft

• Review, Edit, and Format

 Video Viewing

• Viewing skills allow students to pause and reflect and

think about the images they are seeing and analyze or
evaluate further these visuals for better use.
• It includes giving meaning to the images or visuals
and even with computer programs and websites that
have printed and spoken words.