ENGLISH: GRAMMAR & LP
INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
3 APPROACHES
Interpretive communication Reading & listening
Presentational communication Writing & speaking
Interpersonal communication Spontanious interaction skills
TRADE-OFFS
- Fluency: spontaneous & automatic, appropriate pace & pauses
- Accuracy: error-free vocabulary & grammar, correctness
- Complexity: varied & sophisticated vocabulary & grammar, difficulty
HOMEWORK: THE BENEFITS OF THE BILINGUAL
LANGUAGE
Passive parts: listening & reading
Active parts: speaking & writing
balanced bilingual: both parts are equal
Compound bilingual Child learns 2 languages simultaneously (eg. 2 bilingual parents)
Coordinate biligual eg. Learns English at school & speaks Spanish at home
Subordinate bilingual learning 2nd language by filtering it through 1st language
Other bilinguals:
THE BRAIN
Left hemisphere: analytical & logical processes
Right hemisphere: emotional & social processes
Critical period hypothesis
it’s easier for children to learn language: plasticity of the brain
They use both hemispheres in language acquisition
Adults: language = lateralized to one hemisphere (left)
Learning language as adult: less emotional, more rational approach to confronting problems in 2 nd language
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,Advantages multilingual brain
- Higher density of grey matter (contains neurons & synapses)
- More brain activity in certain regions when speaking another language
- Delay of diseases like Alzheimer’s & dementia
ATTITUDE TOWARDS BILINGUALISM
Before 1960s: bilingualism = handicap
2 languages forces child to spend too much energy distinguishing language 1 & 2
<-> not true: engaging in 2 languages -> strengthens dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Executive function (problem solving, focusing, switching
between tasks …)
INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMAR
- Origin: Late Middle English from old French gramaire -> Greek grammatike (art of letters)
- Definition: how sentences and utterances are formed, how words are put together
o Syntax: arrangement of items
o Morphology: structure of items
HOMEWORK: WHAT GRAMMAR IS AND WHAT NOT
GRAMMAR AND ITS ROLE IN LANGUAGE
- Grammatical rules can be followed by native speakers without knowing them consciously
o eg. native speakers automatically say ‘the red big balloon’ (rule: size before colour)
o children learn how to speak without formal tuition by listening to others
- Studying grammar does not improve spelling! (=written representation of sounds)
- Grammar = central part of language relating to sound and meaning
o Meaning words put together by grammatical rules conveyed by sound
o Phonology: system of sounds
o Semantics: system of meaning
traditionally: grammar was related to writing (Latin) <->written form is secondary to spoken form
grammar = mechanism for producing speech and writing: conveying in speech ≠ conveying in writing
GOOD AND BAD GRAMMAR
Descriptivism: how ppl actually use language studying grammar: describing how people do speak
prescriptivism: how language should be used
Who did you give this to?
o prescriptivist: incorrect: cannot end sentence with preposition to whom did you give this
o descriptivist: correct
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, Different ways a sentence can be wrong
Ungrammatical Sentence does not follow a rule that native speakers do use
eg. ‘to was or not to was, that be the ask’
Bad etiquette Point of view of descriptivism: inappropriate in more formal context
eg. ‘I ain’t going nowhere tonight’
Bad style No effective communication (meaning is unclear)
eg. ‘If the baby cannot drink cold milk, it should be boiled’
VARIATION IN LANGUAGE
Many varieties of English: American – British, northeners – southerners, young – old, men – woman
variation according to characteristics of its user
variation according to the use speech is put to: eg. talking to friends vs talking to strangers
Informal speech: more regional differences than formal speech!
PARTS OF SPEECH (=WORD CLASSES)
there is no single correct way of analysing words into word classes!
you need context to assign a word to a word class: eg. fast (can be a verb, adjective & adverb)
Lexical - Form-class words - Nouns: course, variety, …
- Have a clear meaning: you can - Adjectives: useful, available, clear
describe them - Adverbs: regularly, quickly, …
- Verbs: provides, gets, …
Functional - = grammatical, structure-class words - Pronouns: our, we, their
- Hard to define their meaning -> - Articles: the, a , an
grammatical function - Prepositions: in, of, on, to
- Linking words: and, so that, …
Open - New words can be made
- form-class words
Closed - No introduction of new words
- Structure-class words
ARTICLES
subcategory of determiners
Use ‘the’ for specifying or explaining
Don’t use ‘the’ when generalizing or talking about abstract concepts (eg. celebrities, wealth)
PREPOSITIONS
Grammatical function: show relationship in space or time or logical relationship between ppl, places & things
single word (at, above, below) or multi-word (along with, according to, in front of
verb follows preposition: verb must be in -ing form (he insisted on arguing)
formal English: preposition before relative pronoun (this is the research on which)
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