How to teach English.

1. Describing language (Chapter 5)
Hassan Hassani

2. Meaning in context
No one who speaks English has any difficulty
understanding the meaning of a sentence like
'It's warm in here.'
But why it is being said, and what the speaker
wishes to convey by saying it, depends entirely
on two things: the context in which it is said
and what the speaker wants people to
understand.

3. 1. Someone who is either lazy, ill or in
some position of power, might be either a
request or an order for someone to open a
window.
2. Two people come in out of the cold, might well
be an expression of satisfaction or pleasure.
3. two people are trying to decide which room to
use as their bedroom, might serve as a
suggestion to choose or not to choose the room.

4. The meaning of language depends on where it
occurs within a larger stretch of discourse, and
thus the relationship that the different
language elements have with what comes
before and after them. In other words,
speakers and writers have to be able to
operate with more than just words and
grammar; they have to be able to string
utterances together.

5. A : We can leave the ice here till we need it.
B : It's warm in here.
A : Is it? OK, then, let's find somewhere else.
The utterance 'It's warm in here' acts as a
rejection of A's suggestion.
A can then use 'it' to refer to the whole of B's
proposition ('It's warm in here').
'OK' suggests that A has absorbed all of the
discourse so far (suggestion - rejection -
agreement with the rejection)

6. The elements of language
Whatever the sentence 'It's warm in here.' is used
to mean, the speaker has put together a number
of elements in order to get that meaning across:
1. Grammar
Our sentence depends, for its success, on putting
a number of elements in the correct order, in this
case subject (it), verb (is), complement ( warm ),
and adverbial ( in here). The elements have to go
in the right order for the sentence to work.
*'It here in warm is'

7. We can't, for example, put an adjective or an adverb in
the subject slot.
*'Stealthily is warm in here.'
Or a verb in the adverbial position
*'It's warm go.'
However, there are some changes we are allowed to
make to our sentence elements, and these will alter
the meaning of the sentence.(subject-verb ---> verb-
subject) will make our sentence into a question.
'Is it warm in here?'

8. Not all sentences consist of just one clause. We can make things
considerably more complex by joining and amalgamating a number
of different clauses. For example, the following sentences:
'The girl met the woman.'
'The woman was standing by the canal.'
'They went to a cafe.'
'They had a meal.'
'They enjoyed it very much.‘
can be amalgamated into a multi-clause sentence such as:
'The girl met the woman who was standing by the canal and they
went to a cafe and had a meal, which they enjoyed very much.'

9. 2. Vocabulary
The sentence 'It is warm in here.' is made up
of the words 'it', 'is', 'warm', 'in' and 'here'.
The speaker has chosen these words on
purpose to express a particular meaning. He
or she could have chosen 'hot' or 'cold'
instead of , warm' and, as a result, the
sentence would mean something different.

10. A speaker's knowledge of a word also includes an
understanding of how the shape of that word can be
altered so that its grammatical meaning can be
changed. We call the system of rules that determine
how these changes can be made morphology. For
example, a simple morphological change will make the
sentence which started this section less categorical (It's
warmish in here') whereas adding '-er' to the adjective
(It's warmer in here') makes it a comparative adjective.
In the same way adding '-ed' to a regular verb ('he
walked', 'she played') makes it a past tense verb.

11. 3. Pronunciation
The way the sentence is spoken will also determine
exactly what it means. Pitch describes the level (high or
low) at which we speak. Changing our pitch in an
utterance is absolutely crucial for getting our meaning
across.
The word 'Yes', for example, can be said with a falling
voice, a rising voice or a combination of the two. By
changing the direction of the voice we can make 'Yes'
mean 'I agree' or 'Perhaps it's true' or 'You can't be
serious' or 'Wow, you are so right', or any number of
other things.

12. There are two main categories of sounds: vowel sounds and
consonant sounds. Vowel sounds can either be single or
combinations of two or more sounds (diphthongs or triphthongs).
Consonants can sometimes be joined together to make sounds.
Consonants can be either voiced or voiceless. Voiced consonants
are those where we close the vocal cords in our throat and they
vibrate as the air from the lungs passes between them. Consonants
like Ibl, Idl, Ivl and Ig/are all voiced in this way, whereas when we
say the consonants Ipl, Itl, If I and IkI the vocal cords are left open
and so there is no vibration, and therefore no voice. Thus, while, for
example, we use exactly the same parts of the mouth to make the
sounds Idl and Itl, the first is voiced while the second is not. The
same is true of the pairs Ibl and Ipl, lvI and If I, and Igl and Ik I .

14. Forms and meanings
1. One form, many meanings
The present continuous verb form can refer to both the
present (I'm not listening') and the future (I'm seeing him
tomorrow'). It can be used to refer to a temporary
uncompleted event ('They are enjoying the weather') or to a
series of completed events ('He's always putting his foot in it').
Words can also mean more than one thing, for example,
'book' (something to read, to reserve, a list of bets, etc)
With so many available meanings for words and grammatical
forms, it is the context the word occurs in which determines
which of these meanings is being referred to.

15. 2. One meaning, many forms
A meaning or concept can be expressed in many different ways.
Consider, for example, the concept of the future. Different forms
can be used to express the same basic concept.
I’ll see you tomorrow.
I’m going to see you tomorrow.
I’m seeing you tomorrow- that's the arrangement, isn't it?
I can get to you by about six o'clock.
I see you at six, and afterwards I have a meeting with John.
The choice of which way to express futurity depends on whether
the speaker wants to talk about fixed arrangements, plans,
schedules, offers, or just a simple concept of the future with none
of these overtones.

16. Word meaning can also be expressed in different ways.
Even where words appear to have the same meaning - to
be synonyms - they are usually distinct from each other. For
example, we can describe an intelligent person by using a
number of different words: 'intelligent', 'bright', 'brainy',
'clever', 'smart', etc. But each of these words has a different
connotation (shade of meaning). 'Brainy' is an informal
word and might well have a negative connotation
when used by a schoolchild about a classmate. 'Bright‘
carries the connotation of lively and young. 'Smart' is
commonly used in American English and has a slight
connotation of trickiness, and 'clever' is often used in
phrases with negative connotations.

17. Parts of speech
These are the categories which help us
determine how grammatical sequences
are put together, and which words can go
in which slots.
We will consider the parts of speech in
terms of the noun phrase, verbs, adverbs
and prepositions, and discourse.

18. 1. The noun phrase
A noun phrase may consist of just a noun
(John) or a pronoun (he, they). The noun may
be preceded by a determiner (this woman, a
man). There may be one or more adjectives
before the noun (a young woman, a
handsome old man), and the noun may be
post- modified in some way (a woman with a
computer, the man wearing a hat).

19. Nouns:
Countable and uncountable
Plural nouns, singular verbs( darts, news)
Collective nouns (family, team, government)
Compound nouns (walking stick, cherry tree )
Pronouns:
personal pronouns( objective, subjective)
reflexive pronouns (myself, mine ...)
relative pronouns (who, where ...)

20. Articles and determiners
Articles ('the', 'a' and 'an') belong to a class of words
called determiners. These identify the noun phrase,
telling us whether it is general or specific, or whether it
is known about or is new. Other examples of
determiners are 'this',
'that', 'these', 'those', 'some' and 'all of'. Determiners
usually come before a noun or at the beginning of a
noun phrase, e.g. 'an apple', 'the red bus', 'some of my
best friends', 'these fresh oranges'.
Definite article (the)
Indefinite article(a/an)

21. Adjectives
Comparative and superlative forms('big -
bigger‘ 'biggest', 'more colourful', 'most
colourful', 'bad - worse - worst‘)
Adjective sequence
size colour origin material purpose noun
the
small purple German silk evening gown
the
large () () wooden () crate

22. Adjective and preposition
'interested in', 'keen on','happy about'
Adjectives as nouns
'the blind', 'the poor‘
Adjective or adverb?
Some words can be both adjectives and adverbs,
depending on whether they modify nouns or verbs.
When we say 'I had a late lunch', 'late' is an adjective,
but when we say 'He arrived late', it is an adverb.
Although many adverbs end in '-ly', a word like 'deadly'
('a deadly disease') is functioning as an adjective

23. 2. The verb phrase
In any discussion of verbs we need to bear in mind
two main parameters, tense and aspect.
A verb tense is the form of the verb we choose
when we want to say what time ( past, present,
future). The aspect (continuous, simple, perfect,
etc) which we choose for the verb describes this.
There are three different types of verb: auxiliary
verbs, main verbs and phrasal (multi-word) verbs.

24. Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary and the modal auxiliary verbs. They are used with main verbs in affirmative sentences,
negative sentences and question formation.
Main verbs
They can stand alone and express the main idea.
Phrasal (multi-word) verbs
Phrasal verbs are formed by adding a particle (adverb or preposition - or an adverb and a
preposition) to a verb to create new meanings.
Type 1: intransitive: does not take a direct object (take off, stand up)
Type 2: transitive and inseparable: These are verbs which take an object, and where the object
must come after the complete verb (the verb and the particle cannot be separated). (go on, look
after)
Type 3: transitive and separable: the object can come between the verb and the particle. (give
back, work out)
Type 4: transitive, 2+ particles, inseparable: Where there is more than one particle, the object has
to come at the end. (run out of, break up with)

25. Verb forms
Participles: (present and past participles)
Regular and irregular verbs
Active and passive
Verb complementation
simple continuous
present
John is in the kitchen. What's happening?
I love it here. I'm not listening.
past
She said goodbye.
He was waiting at the
gate.
He cried.
They weren't listening.She didn't buy a new
cellphone.

26. simple continuous
present perfect
I've read his new book. I've been reading his new book.
They haven't arrived yet.
They haven't been travelling for
long.
past perfect
He had studied English as a child. He had been waiting for about
half an hour.
I had never worked with a robot
before. They hadn't been talking for
more than a minute when ...
future perfect
I'll have finished this homework
by tomorrow.
In August we'll have been living
here for twenty-six years.
By this time next year, I will have
been to the gym about 160 times.
When you get back, I'll have
been working on this chapter for
six hours.
Perfect verbs

29. Hypothetical meaning
When we talk about something that is not real, but
that might be the case, we are talking hypothetically.
English has many ways of expressing hypothetical
meaning:
1. Modal verbs
modals are auxiliary verbs which we use to comment
on the likelihood of something. Thus, if we say 'It
might rain' we are saying that it is a hypothetical
possibility. If we say 'Perhaps I could be persuaded' or
'I would if I could' we are hypothesising situations in
which such eventualities are possible.

30. 2. Conditional sentences
Conditional sentences are formed when the conjunction
'if' is used to preface a condition, e.g. 'If it rains
(condition), you'll get wet (result)'. In this case, it is quite
likely that it will rain, and therefore the result is possible.
However, if we change the sentence to 'If it rained, you
would get wet' we are suggesting that the chance of it
raining is unlikely - in other words, we are talking
hypothetically - and this is signalled by the use of 'would'
rather than 'will'. A further change of verb tense/form
(using the past perfect) will produce an impossible
condition, e.g. 'If it had rained, you would have got wet'.
But it didn't so you were spared!

31. These three conditional forms are often called first, second and third conditionals.
It is useful to understand whether they are real (possible) or hypothetical
(impossible) and whether they refer to the present, future or past.
hypothetical real
If I had a dog, I'd take it for
walks.
I'd take a dog for walks if I had
one.
If you pay online, you get a
discount.
You get a discount if you pay
on line.
talking about the present
If I won the lottery, I'd travel
round the world.
If I were you I'd get a new
jacket.
If you work hard, you'll pass
the exam.
You'll pass the exam if you
work hard.
talking about the past
If I'd known about the rail strike,
I would have come by car.
I would have come by car if I'd
known about the rail strike.
If it was very warm, we ate
outside.
We ate outside if it was very
warm.
talking about the future

32. Words together
1. Collocations: If any two words occur together more often than
just by chance, we often call them collocations. In other words,
when you hear the word 'asleep' there is a good chance that the
word 'fast' will be used with it ('fast asleep'). More examples:
heavy traffic, heavy rain/snow, heavy fighting, heavy drinker ...
2. Lexical chunks: Lexical chunks are strings of words which behave
almost as one unit. Some of these are fixed (which means you
can't change any of the words, e.g. over the moon, out of the
blue), and some of them are semi-fixed (which' means you can
change some of the words, e.g. nice to see you/good to see
you/great to see you, etc).
3. Idioms: Are lexical phrases where the meaning of the whole
phrase may not be comprehensible even if we know the meaning
of each individual word ('full of beans' = energetic, 'as plain as the
nose on your face' = obvious).

33. Language functions
A language function is a purpose you wish to achieve
when you say or write something. By 'performing' the
function, you are performing an act of communication.
If you say 'I apologise', you are performing the function
of apologising; if you say 'I promise', you are
performing the function of promising. But functions
are more often performed without using verbs like this
at all. We can apologise by saying 'sorry' and invite
someone not by saying 'I invite you' but by saying
things like 'Do you fancy coming round for a meal?'. As
we have seen above, there are many ways of
recommending a course of action.

34. Text and Discourse
1. Cohesion: Cohesion refers to the devices we use to stick text together -
the way we connect ideas and sentences together. Lexical cohesion
involves using words and groups of words throughout a text to bind a
topic together. In this case we use grammatical cohesion, anaphoric
reference and tinkers.
2. Coherence: Cohesion will make no difference to the success of a text if it
is not coherent. When a text is coherent - when it has some internal
logic – the readers should be able to perceive the writer's purpose and
follow their line of thought.
3. Conversational discourse: Many of the same elements of cohesion and
coherence apply to face-to- face spoken discourse as well. But in speech
we can also use ellipsis for grammatical cohesion, and participants need
to be proficient at turn-taking, the conversational convention that
requires that only one person speak at anyone time. Moreover, if the
conversation is to be successful, speakers should avoid long silences, and
should listen when someone else is speaking.

35. Language variables
The way English speakers use systems of grammar, vocabulary and
pronunciation is dependent upon a number of variables; speaking
and writing, register and language varieties.
1. Speaking and writing: The way we put words together in correct
sequences is often influenced by whether or not we are doing it in
speech or writing. For example, we find that in conversation we
tend to use more contractions (e.g. 'it is' contracted to 'it's', 'I
have' contracted to 'I've' ) than in writing. In speech we might well
shorten 'It's warm in here' to 'Warm in here' or even 'Warm',
though such ellipsis is less likely in writing. However, the choice of
whether something is more or less speaking-like or writing-like
may depend on the register the speaker is using. Students of
English need to be able to recognise the difference between more
speaking- like and writing-like language, and to use these
differences creatively.

36. 2. Register: Our choice of words is also determined by
the register we are speaking in. Register refers to both
the topic we are speaking about and the tone (for
example formal or informal) that we wish to adopt.
Thus, for example, in a weather forecast we would
expect to hear topic words such as 'depression', 'cold
front', 'moving in from ... ', 'temperatures' and 'hot',
'cool' and 'warm'. Students of English need to be able
to recognise register differences so that they can
choose their words appropriately, depending on who
they are speaking or writing to, and on the topic in
question.

37. 3. Language varieties: English is not just one language, of course.
There are many different varieties. Even if we take just British
English for example, we will find that whereas a speaker from
southern England might say 'It's really warm in here', someone
from Newcastle in the north of England might say 'It's right warm
in here' (where 'right' is pronounced 'reet'). There are regional
variations in Britain in pronunciation, word choice and grammar.
There are differences between varieties of British English and the
English used in other countries too. An Australian speaker, using
an informal tone, might well change our sentence to 'Bloody
warm in here, mate', and many American speakers of English will
say Iwo:rmI rather than Iwo:mI - i.e. with the Irl sound clearly
audible. There are other marked differences between British and
American English, too.

38. The status of English as one language is challenged by the many
different 'Englishes' being used around the world, and notions of
the ownership of English have shifted dramatically. Although there
are still many people who advocate using a native-speaker model to
teach English, there is growing acceptance of the concept of an
International English, used as a common language of
communication by people whose native language is not English.
This International English belongs to everyone who speaks it, but it
is no one's mother tongue. Students should be aware of the
difference in language varieties and should be given opportunities
to experience different Englishes, though not in such a way as to
make things incomprehensible to them. Furthermore, they need to
be aware that there is much more that is similar about different
Englishes than is different.

39. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for your attention.