theory of language description

1. COURSE: ESP
NAME: RUBEELA TABASSUM
SEMESTER:3RD
PRESENTED TO: DR. IQBAL BUTT

2.  Any ESP course makes use of explicit or implicit ideas
about the nature of language.
 These ideas are drawn from the various language
descriptions that have been developed by succeeding
schools of thoughts in Linguistics.
 There is a brief outline of the various ideas about
language that have influenced ESP in some way.
 We can identify six main stages of development.

3.  Classical or traditional grammar
 Structural linguistics
 Transformational Generative (TG) grammar
 Language variation and register analysis
 Functional/Notional grammar
 Discourse analysis

4.  Although language teaching has a long history stretching
back to ancient times , the ways of describing language
remained little changed until this century .
 Descriptions of English and other languages were based
on the grammars of the classical languages, Greek and
Latin.
 These descriptions were based on an analysis of the role
played by each word in the sentence .
 Languages were described in this way because the
languages were case-based languages where the
grammatical function of each word in the sentence was
made apparent by the use of appropriate inflections.

5.  Thus the form of a word would change according to
whether it was a subject , object , indirect object and so on.
 Since ESP emerged after the classical form of description
had been largely abandoned , its influence on ESP has
never been strong.
 Nevertheless, it has continued to provide the teacher with a
useful indirect source of guidance.
 It can also be argued that, although cases may no longer be
apparent in modern English, the concepts they represent
underlie any language (Fillmore, 1968).
 Thus a knowledge of the classical description can still
deepen our knowledge of how language operate.

6.  Structural linguistics was founded in 1930 by Leonardo
Bloomfield.
 In a structural description the grammar of the language
is described in terms of syntagmatic structures which
carry the fundamental propositions ( statement,
interrogative, negative, imperative etc.) and notions
(time, number, gender etc.)
 By varying the words within these structural
frameworks, sentences , with different meanings can be
generated.

7.  With the help of structural linguistic the structural syllabus was created. In
such syllabus , items are graded so that simpler and more immediately
useable structures precede the more complex ones.
An Example of ESP syllabus based on structural principals.
1. Simple present active
2. Simple present passive
3. Simple present passive and active
4. -ing forms
5. present perfect; present continuous
6. Infinitives
7. Anomalous Finites
8. Past perfect

8.  Structural syllabus provides the learner with a
systematic description of the generative core of the
language.
 For this reason ,structural syllabus continue to be
widely used in spite of criticism from advocates of
functional , notional or use-based descriptions of
English.

9.  Structural view of language as a collection of
syntagmatic pattern until the publication in 1957 of
syntactic structures by Noam Chomsky.
 Chomsky argued the structural description was too
superficial , because it only describe the surface
structure of the language , and thus could not explain
the relationship of meaning which were quite clearly
there, but which were not realized in the surface
structure.

10.  John is easy to please
 John is eager to please
would according to a structural description , indicate the
same relationship between the words in the sentences.
But obviously the relationship is not the same .
 In the first sentence , john is the receiver of pleasing
,while in the second he is doing the pleasing . Similarly
the identity of meaning between an active and passive
would not be shown.

11.  Chomsky conclude that these problems arose because
language was being analyzed and described in isolation
from human mind which produces it.
 He maintained that, if we want to understand how
language works , it cannot be viewed as a phenomenon
itself . It must be viewed as a reflection of human
taught patterns.

12.  He proposed 2 levels of meaning:
 A deep level, which is concerned with the organization
of thoughts.
 a surface level , where these thoughts are expressed
through the syntax of language.
 The grammar of the language is , therefore , not the
surface structure themselves , but the rules that enable
the language user to generate the surface from the deep
level of meaning.

13.  Chomsky’s work had an enormous and direct influence
on the world of linguistics
 He re-established the idea that language is rule
governed .
 He widened the view of language to incorporate the
relationship between meaning and form. For ESP , the
most important lesson to be drawn from Chomsky’s
work was the distinction to be made between
performance (i.e , the surface structures) and
competence (i.e , the deep level rule)

14. Chomsky’s own definition of performance and
competence was narrowly based, being concerned only
with syntax. In ESP, we need to take a much broader
view, but the basic distinction itself is still valid.

15.  The concept of language variation give rise to the type
of ESP which was based on register analysis .
 If language varies according to text it was argued ,then
it should be possible to identify the kind of language
associated with a specific context such as an area of
knowledge.(legal Eng, social Eng , Medical Eng ,
business Eng).

16.  The whole communicative act is made up of a number
of contextually dependent factors.
 Language varies to the context of use that enables us to
distinguish formal from informal, written from spoken
etc.

17.  Functions are concerned with social behavior and
represent the intension of speaker or writer for
example, advising ,warning, threatening, describing
etc. Equated with the communicative acts that are
carried out through language.
 Notions on the other hand reflect the way in which
human mind thinks. They are categories in to which
the mind and thereby language divides reality for
example time frequency, duration gender, number,
location, quality, etc.

18.  The move towards functionally based syllabus has been
particularly strong in the development of ESP, largely
on the pragmatic ground.
 Majority ESP students had done a structurally
organized syllabus at school, their need therefore, are
not to learn the basic grammar, but rather to learn how
to use the knowledge they already have.

19.  Functional syllabus appears to be based on the
language in use which contrast to the structural syllabus
showing only form.
structure +context =function
 The functional syllabus however has its own
drawbacks. It suffers in particular form lack of any kind
of systematic conceptual framework and as such does
not help the learners to organize their knowledge of the
language.

20.  Looking at how meaning is generated between sentences.
 The context of the sentence is also important in creating
meaning.
1. Can I go out to play?
it’s raining.
1. Have you cut the grass yet?
it’s raining.
1. I think I’ll go out for a walk.
it’s raining.

21.  In each case proportional meaning(statement) of the
sentence is the same
 The notions in it are also the same (present time)
 But the sentence is fulfilling three different
communication purpose.

22.  In the first dialogue , a parent could be talking to a
child. The child is asking permission, and the parent’s
reply it’s raining acts as refusal of the request.
 2nd dialogue, might be a husband/wife. “it’s raining”
function as reason of excuse.
 3rd dialogue “it’s raining” acting as advice or a mild
warning and might take place between friends.

23.  The meaning of the sentence change with the different
context. Brought by two factors:
 Sociolinguistics factor : who is speaking to whom and
why. The meaning changes according to the
relationship between the participants in the dialogue
and according to their reason for speaking.
 By the relative positions of the utterances is precedes
or follows. It might be called the discoursal meaning

24.  We can identify two key ways in which results of
studies into nature of discourse have been used in ESP
teaching materials:
A. Learners are made aware of the stages in certain set-
piece transactions associated with particular specialist
fields(like in the doctor patient communication)
B. The second use of Discourse analysis in ESP has been
through materials which aim to explain how meaning
is created by the relative positions of the sentences are
combined in texts in order to produce a particular
meaning.

25. THANK YOU!