Linguistics and The Teacher

Yaseen Taha

Is linguistics a method of teaching?

Many language teachers and learners tend to

ask this question: Why should we teach or learn

linguistics?

What is the importance of linguistics?

What do linguistics and teacher deal with?

What is Linguistics?

What are the main branches of linguistics?

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. There are three

aspects to this study: language form, language meaning, and

language in context

phonetics (the study of the production, acoustics and

hearing of speech sounds)

phonology (the patterning of sounds)

morphology (the structure of words)

syntax (the structure of sentences)

semantics (meaning)

pragmatics (language in context)

Linguistics?

Phonetics sounds

Phonology sounds

Morphology words

Syntax sentence

Semantics meaning

Pragmatics meaning

Linguistics is a major that gives you insight into one of the

most intriguing aspects of human knowledge and behavior.

Majoring in linguistics means that you will learn about

many aspects of human language, including sounds

(phonetics, phonology), words (morphology), sentences

(syntax), and meaning (semantics). It can involve looking

at how languages change over time (historical linguistics);

how language varies from situation to situation, group to

group, and place to place (sociolinguistics, dialectology);

how people use language in context (pragmatics,

discourse analysis); how to model aspects of

language (computational linguistics); how people

acquire or learn language (language acquisition);

how people process language (psycholinguistics,

experimental linguistics); how language relates to

historical, social, and cultural issues

(anthropological linguistics); how language is

taught in a classroom setting, or how students

learn language (applied linguistics).

One very good reason for studying linguistics is that

language is what makes us distinctly human. Lederer (1991)

puts it in the strongest terms: “The birth of language is the

dawn of humanity …. before we had words, we were not

human beings”

The relationship between linguistics and second languageteaching has always been a controversial one. Many linguistshave argued that linguistics has nothing to say to the teacher.Sampson (1980, p.10), says: "I do not believe that linguistics hasany contribution to make to the teaching of English or thestandard European languages.

Johnson (1982,p.10) points out that language teachers havealways looked to the linguist for guidance on how to teachlanguages.

Language after all, is what both the language teacher and thelinguist are concerned with: the teacher is concerned with"teaching something which is the object of study of linguistics,and is described by linguistic methods" (Halliday, McIntosh andStrevens 1964, p.166).

Why should teachers study linguistics?

• The more they know about how language works, the more

effectively they can use language to help their students

learn.

• 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” (p. 9).

• 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.

a well-educated person should know something about language. It isusually only when students study foreign languages that they begin tolearn how their own language works.

The study linguistics is that “the study of language is ultimately the studyof the human mind” (Akmajian, Demers, et al. 1979, p. 5).

As Chomsky (1975) puts it, “language is a mirror of mind in a deepand significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence,created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyondthe reach of will or consciousness” (p. 4).

Pit Corder (1973: 30) also points out

that the role of linguistics in language

teaching is to provide the most detailed and

comprehensive description of language

As Wilkins(1972: 229) says that the real contribution of

linguistics is to increase one’s understanding

of the nature of language.

As David S. Taylor (1987: 8) says that some specific

linguistics knowledge is required by the language teacher – for

assessment, for choosing learning activities, for course planning

and design. There is a need for the teacher to know about

language and how it is learned.

Julian Edge (1988: 9) says, “Knowledge about language and

language learning still have a central role to play in English

language teacher training for speakers of other languages”. It

means that linguistics and applied linguistics have a place in a

teacher education programme for language teachers.

Halliday, (1964: 166) points out that the role of linguistics

and phonetics in language teaching is not to tell the

teacher how to teach. The teacher of the language is as

much a specialist in the field as the linguist is in his, and

will remain so. He is not teaching linguistics. But he is

teaching something which is the object of the study of

linguistics, and is described by linguistic method.

By studying linguistics he will have deeper insights into

the nature of language, and act accordingly in teaching

the language. For instance, when he agrees that the use

of language is a matter of habits and practice, in teaching

it to his students he must implant the habit of using it for

communication until it becomes deeply established.

Pit Corder has said (1968: 74) that a teacher can not teach

a language by any of current techniques without

linguistics knowledge.”

……..linguistics has a great role in language teaching.

Further, the points out that it is mistaken when someone

claims that he has been teaching English for years but he

knows nothing about linguistics. What actually he does not

know is the meaning of the word linguistics itself.

Although there are still many differences between

linguistics and language teaching in their attitudes

towards language, their goals, and their methods, they

are both independent of and interacting with each other

Linguistics provides important implications for the

preparation of syllabuses, teaching programmes, materials

and methodology. The language teacher cannot proceed

without the linguistic sciences,

The relationship between linguistics and language teaching is

like the of knowledge about engine and the skill in driving a

car.

It will be better for the driver to be supported with some

knowledge about the car or the engine so that he can drive

it well and know how to overcome some engine trouble in

case he has to face it. In the same way it will be better if a

language teacher has some knowledge about, for instance,

the characteristics of language in general and the specific

language he is teaching in particular. In this relation, he

should know how language works and express meaning, and

what structures are used in the particular language he is

teaching.

Many language learning theories are proposed

based on certain linguistic theories.

The beginning of the relationship between linguistic theory

and language teaching can be traced back to the late of

19th century one was to say that linguistics is not so

important as it has been thought, i.e. its importance had

been overrated. Some linguists like Johnson (1967) and

Lamendella (1969) expressed their disagreement to regard

linguistics as the basis of a strategy of learning.

For all the differences between linguistics and

language teaching, they are in many ways

interacting with each other

Many language learning theories are proposed on the basis of

certain linguistic theories. As a matter of fact, knowledge in

linguistics lies at the root of understanding what language

learners can learn how they actually learn and what they

learn ultimately

Traditional Grammar

A traditional grammar is a pre-20th century languagedescription based on earlier grammars of Greek or Latin.The traditional approach to language teaching involvesthe presentation of numerous definitions, rules andexplanations, and it adopts a teacher-centered grammar-translation method, i.e., the main teaching and learningactivities are grammar and translation study.

Structuralism Linguistics

Structuralism linguistics describes linguistic features in terms of

systems or structures. Dissatisfied with traditional grammars,

structuralism grammar set out to describe the current spoken

language which people use in communication. For the first time,

structuralism grammar provides description of phonological

systems that aids the systematic teaching of pronunciation.

However, like traditional grammars, the focus of structuralism

grammar is still on the grammatical structures of a language.

Structuralism linguists are influenced by the behavioristic.

Proposed by Chomsky, Transformational-Generative grammar(TG grammar) sees language as a system of innate rules. InChomsky’s view, a native speaker possesses a kind oflinguistic competence. The child is born with knowledge ofsome linguistic universals.

Transformational rules may assist the teacher in the teachingof complex sentence construction.

Transformational-Generative Linguistic

Functional Linguistics

Halliday’s systemic-functional linguistics sees language asan instrument used to perform various functions in socialinteraction. Halliday writes a number of works in which heexamines the development of language functions in thechild and the functions language has in society. ForHalliday, learning language is learning to mean. In orderto be able to mean, one has to master a set of languagefunctions that have direct relation to sentence forms.

The Theory of Communicative Competence

The concept of competence originally comes fromChomsky. It refers to the grammatical knowledge of theideal language user and has nothing to do with the actualuse of language in concrete situations. The theory ofcommunicative competence stresses the context in whichan utterance occurs. In its application, the teacher mayteach how in different situations the same sentence canperform the function of statement, command, or request.

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