Aries John G.

Enardecido II-11 BSE English/M/T/TH/F (7am-8:30)

Introduction to Linguistics Prof. Arceli Amarles

Basic Linguistics is a must for Language Teachers: What does the course means to me as a future language teacher?
Is it necessary for a language teacher to take a Linguistics course first before she can teach? Can a language teacher teach without studying or taking Linguistics? These are the questions that first come to my mind during when I was acquainted with the course. Since I thought of Linguistics as prerequisite for all language teachers, I supposed that I cant teach without any knowledge about it, but fortunately, I can still actually teach without taking Linguistics. Study has shown that there have been excellent second language teachers who knew no Linguistics and there are excellent Linguists who do not know the first thing about second language teaching (Hammerly, 1982). For instance, Linguistics is really important to be studied by language teachers because it provides them knowledge or awareness about theories, nature, and universal characteristics of a language in order for what they say about the language to be linguistically valid. Linguistics involves processes and methods that better explain how a particular language changes and that can be a basis for further explanations. How can you imagine a language teacher (who did not take Linguistics) works and addresses questions in the class? Of course, even teachers who have never formally studied Linguistics make use of Linguistic notions such as verb, noun, sound, agreement, subject, etc.; but these and other linguistic concepts can be understood better and applied more effectively in the classroom if they are explored as part of a series of courses in Linguistics (Hammerly, 1982). She can answer but the knowledge imparted to the students would be limited to the extent that if someone asks about how and why is it so, she might not explain it explicitly certain features of language (language varieties, their speakers, and their expected contexts of use etc.) because she fails to consider/include some considerations that take place in the language (that happens to be the concern of Linguistics). Linguistics, therefore, is scientific study of language that is why it is methodical in nature; it involves methods to be followed such as: identifying the corpus of data, making a hypothesis, carefully observing and analyzing abstractions, and drawing a conclusion.

According to Hammerly(1982), Linguistics can offer certain valuable insights, such as the distinction between form and meaning, the differentiation of speech from writing, the central importance of structure, and so on.These fall beyond the language description wherein language as a system, an oral communication, structure of language, etc. are emphasized. These fundamentals will serve as the language teachers developing knowledge and skills in language that will also be used to explore along their students, the nature of English language particularly its grammar and its meaning systems (Delahunty & Garvey, 1994). These also can direct teachers towards the learning of the basic framework of linguistics structure because they will learn how to make careful selection, organization, presentation of the linguistic data, and how to correct the students errors so as for the student to achieve accuracy that will enhance both the intelligibility and acceptability of communication (Hammerly, 1982). According to Miller(1968) as cited from the book of Field (2003), The nature of importance of these common properties, called linguistic universals, are only beginning to emerge as our knowledge of the worlds language grows more systematic (Greenberg, 1963). Basic Linguistics means basic literacy regarding language that is ought to be a significant part of every teachers training. That is why we need to distribute language study across the curriculum so that we will be aware on how a particular language behaves in a certain way. It will serve also a training ground for language teachers in planning to put into application those they have studied. This course means a lot to me as a future language teacher because language will be certainly part of my life as I teach. This will strongly serve as my background support to broaden, strengthen, and enrich my philosophy in teaching. This is not only one of the English courses that has to be studied and considered to support vocabulary and communicative functions of language. It implies us to embrace change, completeness, complexity, system, communication, symbols, learning, and culture as what language is ought to be, and this happens when we consider language as equivalent to life within a linguistic community where everyone can be understood everywhere.

References:

1. Delahunty

G.

&

Garvey

J.

(1994).

Language,

Grammar,

and

Communication.USA: McGraw-hill, Inc. 2. Hammerly H. (1982). Synthesis in Second Language Teaching: an introduction to Languistics. USA: Second Language Publications. 3. Field J. (2003). Psycholinguistics. USA: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.