I would like to share my presentation as I am a teacher of English. I hope that I can get feedback from whom comments for me

1. 1
Cambodia International Cooperation
Institute
Chapter I
What is Language?
Presented by Lect. Kak Sovanna
Academic year: 2014-2015
21 June 2014

2. AL “ means many things to
many people” (Cook, 2006
cited in Davies, 2007:1)
21 June 2014 2

3. 3
What is language?
Language is not entity.
1. social fact
2. Psychology state
3. A set of structures
4. or collect of outputs
21 June 2014

4. 4
Language can be viewed as a system of
system.
 There is a sound system to what order s the
words.
 The is a system to what sounds we use in
English.
 Ex. Towel and Cowl
What is language?
21 June 2014

5. 5
 Language is a mental reality.
1. It is in the head of people
2. Grammar is mental entity
3. Grammatical system that allows
people to produce suitable utterance.
4. Grammar has as many meaning as
language.
Ex. Kim kissed the crocodile.
Ex. The crocodile kissed Kim.
What is language?
21 June 2014

6. 6
 The total of utterances that can be made in
a speech community is the language of that
speech community. (Bloomfield 126: 26)
 Language is a set of finite or nonfinite of
sentences, each finite in length and
contracted out of a finite set of elements.
(Chomsky 1957:13)
What is language?
21 June 2014

7. 7
 E-language is the external manifestation of
the internally mentally represented
grammars or I-languages of many
individuals.
 E-languages are the appropriate domain
for social, political, mathematical or logical
statements.
 I-language are the appropriate domain for
statement about individual knowledge.
What is E-language?
21 June 2014

8. Noam Chomsky introduced the terms I-
Language and E-Language to refer to
internal/internalised and
external/externalised language respectively
where internal and external are to be
interpreted with reference to the individual
speaker. So, the linguistic knowledge that is
in the mind of the speaker is I-Language
whilst the observable linguistic output
(sentences, songs, texts etc.) is E-Language.
21 June 2014 8

9. 9
What are E and I-language different?
 Utterances are E-language.
 Sentences belongs to I-language.
 Intellectual apparatus allows children to
construct a language by themselves.
 The language capacity
21 June 2014

10. Utterance:
- a spoken word, statement, or
vocal sound.
- the action of saying or
expressing something aloud.
21 June 2014 10

11. What is IDIOLECT?
 The description of what is in any person’s
head can never provide a full description
of a language in the sense that English is a
language.
Ex. when family members talk to each other,
their speech habits typically differ from
those any one of them would use in, say, an
interview with a prospective employer.
1121 June 2014

12. 12
What is Universal Grammar?
• Every speaker knows a set of principles
which apply all languages and also a
parameters that can vary from one
language to another.
• According to UG, acquiring a language
means applying the principle of UG of a
particular language.
• For Example: សិសសល្អ/ good student
21 June 2014

13. • Universal grammar (UG) is a theory in
linguistics, usually credited to Noam
Chomsky, proposing that the ability to learn
grammar is hard-wired into the brain.
• The theory suggests that linguistic ability
manifests itself without being taught (see
the poverty of the stimulus argument), and
that there are properties that all natural
human languages share.
21 June 2014 13

14. 14
What does it mean to know a language? (1)
 When you know a language, you can
speak and be understood by others who
know that language. This means you have
the capacity to produce sounds that signify
certain meanings and to understand or
interpret the sounds produced by other.
21 June 2014

15. 15
What does it mean to know a language? (2)
• Therefore, part of knowing a language
means what sounds (or signs) are in that
language and what sounds are not.
• Ex. This/ That
• It also means knowing which sounds may
start a word, end a word, and follow each
other.
• Ex. Nkrumah (Nekrumah or Enkrumah)
21 June 2014

16. 16
What does it mean to know a language?(3)
• Knowing a language means also knowing
that certain sequences of sounds signify
certain concepts or meanings.
• (Vocabulary) Ex. toy, boy,…. (not moy)
• Ex. glare, glint, gleam, glitter, glossy,
glaze, glance, glimmer, glimpse, glisten,…..
(not gladiator, glucose, glory, globe….) Ex.
Happily, disable, communism, rewrite…
21 June 2014

17. 17
What does it mean to know a language? (4)
 Knowing a language also means being
able to produce new sentences never
spoken before and to understand
sentences never heard before. (The
Creative + Grammar)
 You can’t buy a dictionary or phrase book
of any language with all the sentences of
the language, because the number of
sentences in a language is indefinite.
21 June 2014

18. 18
What does it mean to know a language? (5)
• E.g. This is the house.
• The is the house that Jack built.
• This is the malt that lay in the house that jack
built.
 The is the dog that worries the cat that killed
the mouse that ate the malt lay in the house
that jack built.
E.g. The old, old, old, old, old, old, man came.
- A beautiful old red round Russian wooden
dining table.
21 June 2014

19. 19
What does it mean to know a language? (6)
 In addition to knowing the words of the language,
linguistics knowledge includes rules for forming
sentences and making the kinds of judgments
about those sentence.(The Grammar)
21 June 2014

20. 20
What does it mean to know a language? (7)
E.g.
• (a) John kissed the little old lady who
owned shaggy dog.
• (b) Who owned the shaggy dog, John kissed the
little old lady.
• (C) John is difficult to love.
• (d) It is difficult to love John.
• (e) John is anxious to go.
• (f) John, who was a student, flunked his exam.
• (h) Exams his flunked student a was who john.
21 June 2014

21. 21
What is linguistics?
 According to Widdowson: Linguistics is the
name given to the discipline which studies
human language. (1996:3)
 He maintains that its purpose is to identify
some relatively stable linguistic knowledge
which underlies language behavior.
 Access to that linguistic knowledge is
achieved by a process of idealization.
21 June 2014

22. 22
What is linguistics? (1)
 In the late 1950s, linguistics is moved away from
its traditional concerns with language in all its
manifestation, into a non-accountable, never
applied, laboratory of cognition and the mind.
 This core linguistics view of language focuses on
language forms, ignoring the context in which
those forms are used.
 Therefore, nowadays the focus falls on units of
language larger than the sentence and on
context.
21 June 2014

23. 23
What is applied linguistics?
 Applied linguistics is using what we know about
(a) language, (b) how it is learned and (c) how it is
used in order to achieve some purpose or solve
some problems in the real world. (Schmit, 2002)
 Applied linguistics is concerned with increasing
understanding of the role of language in human
affairs and thereby with providing the knowledge
necessary for those who are responsible for taking
language-related decisions whether the need for
these arises in the classroom,
21 June 2014

24. 24
What is applied linguistics?(1)
responsible for taking language-related decisions
whether the need for these arises in the classroom, the
workplace, the law court, or the laboratory. (wilkins,
1999)
 Applied linguistics is a practice-driven disappline that
addresses language-based problems in real-world
contexts. (Kaplan, 2002)
21 June 2014

25. 25
Applied linguistics Vs Linguistics
 When you are doing applied linguistics are you
doing (1) linguistics only, (2) linguistics plus
something else, or (3) only something else?
 Applied linguistics is just another area, part of
linguistics.
 The general heading “Linguistics” includes a
number of sub-disciplines, namely:
 Theoretical linguistics
 Descriptive linguistics
 Historical linguistics
21 June 2014

26. 26
Applied linguistics Vs Linguistics
 Comparative linguistics
 Cognitive linguistics
 Computational linguistics
 Structural linguistics
 Text linguistics
 Systemic linguistics
 Synchronic linguistics
 Diachronic linguistics
 ……..
21 June 2014

27. Development of Applied Linguistics
• Early history
 -Both “plato and Aristotle contributed
to the design of curriculum beginning with
good writing, then moving on to effective
discourse and culminating in the
development of dialectic to promote a
philosophical approach to life. (Hawatt,
1999:618)
2721 June 2014

28. Development of Applied Linguistics 1
Early history (2)
 -In 1755, Samuel Johnson published his
Dictionary of the English Language, which
influences on meanings and spelling of
words.
 - About the same time (1762), Robert
Lowth published an influential grammar,
Short Introduction to English Grammar,
which prescribed what “correct” grammar
should be. 2821 June 2014

29. Development of Applied Linguistics 2
 AL during the 20th Century
 - Grammar-translation method (Karl Plotz)
 * 1 or 2 new grammar rules
 * A list of vocabulary items
 * Practice examples to translate from L1 into L2
or vice versa
 * Disadvantages: too controlled, too focus on
accuracy and explicit grammar rules, to analyze
but not to use.
2921 June 2014

30. Development of Applied Linguistics 3
 AL during the 20th century (2)
 -Direct method
 * An emphasis on exposure to oral language
(listening and speaking)
 * Meaning was related directly (no translation)
 * Explicit grammar instructions.
 Disadvantages: teachers need to be highly
proficiency, differences between L1&L2, not
enough exposure.
3021 June 2014

31. Development of Applied Linguistics 4
 AL during the 20th century (3)
 -Reading method (by Michael West)
 * An emphasis on reading and vocabulary
 * Substitute low-frequency words with
more frequent one.
 * Reduce lexical loads for readers
 Disadvantages: not conversational fluent.
3121 June 2014

32. Development of Applied Linguistics 5
• AL during the 20th century (4)
• - Audiolingual method
• * Habit formation (Drills)
• * Reinforce good language habits
• * Attention to pronunciation, intensive oral
drilling, a focus on sentence patterns and
memorization.
• Disadvantage: not focus on language forms,
Universal Grammar, knowing how to use it.
3221 June 2014

33. Development of Applied Linguistics 6
• AL during the 20th century (5)
• -Hymes (1972) added the concept of
“communication competence”
• *not just being able to form
grammatically correct sentences but also
knowing when and where to use these
sentences and to whom.
3321 June 2014

34. Development of Applied Linguistics 7
 AL during the 20th century (7)
 -Communicative language teaching
 * Focus on message and fluency rather than GR.
 * Problem solving activities and tasks
 * Interaction and usage
 * Content
 * Later explicit grammar instruction
 Disadvantages: fluent but not accurate,
persistent GR mistakes.
3421 June 2014

35. Development of Applied Linguistics 8
AL during the 20th century (6)
-Monitor theory (Krashen)
* Exposure to comprehensible input.
* Focus on meaning rather than form
* Affective filter
3521 June 2014

36. References
• Schmitt, N. (2002) An Introduction to
Applied Linguistics. London: arnold.
• Fromkin,V., Hyam, N., and Rodman, R.
(2011). An Introduction to Language.
United States of America.
• Davies, A. (1999). An Introduction to
Applied Linguistics: From Practice to
Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
3621 June 2014