Language, Culture, and Society

1. A Quick Look at
Language, Macro Skills
and Communicative
Competence
LESSON 1:
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2. Language the principal method
of human communication,
consisting of words used in
structured and conventional way
and conveyed by speech, writing,
or gesture.
What is Language?
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3. The word “Language” comes from the Latin term
lingua. It means tongue and the French term langue.
Language is associated with human vocal and
auditory means of expressing ideas and feelings. It is
an entire multifaceted phenomenon.
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4. Macro Skills
 As future language teachers, we need to facilitate the
development of 5 - macro skills. These are listening,
speaking, reading, writing and viewing. These are
essential for communication. Humans develop the skill to
communicate by listening just like babies.
.
As the skills progress, then they learn to read then write.
Along with all these also comes the viewing.
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5. Listening
 It is the skill of grasping and decoding information
during the exchange of messages. Listening is the
beginning of understanding and a valuable key to
effective communication. It is the task of getting
the meaning of what is being heard (Underwood
2009).
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6. 10 Steps to Effective Listening
(Dianne Schilling)
Step 1: Look at the speaker in the face and eyes.
Step 2: Focus and give attention but relax.
Step 3: Be open-minded.
Step 4: Listen and picture what the speaker is saying.
Step 5: Don’t speak while the person is talking.
Step 6: When the speaker pauses, you may ask clarifying
questions.
Step 7: Ask relevant questions.
Step 8: Put yourself in the speaker’s place.
Step 9: Give feedback.
Step 10. Focus as well to nonverbal cues.
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7. Table Topics
Choose one from the list below and share your ideas with the class like
delivering an impromptu speech.
1. The most important lesson in my life so far…
2. My biggest concern for the future is..
3. Art is essential to life.
4. Real wealth is never measured in money or possessions.
5. The more we communicate, the less we say.
6. Poverty is a state of mind.
7. If you could one superpower, what could it be and why?
8. How would you define integrity?
9. The hardest thing I have ever done is..
10. Intelligence is not enough. True wisdom comes from…
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8.  Meaning: connotation, denotion, grammar
 Sociality, Relationship, Affect ; formal, informal, slang, turn- taking
 Cultural Issues: class, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, dialect
 Performance: articulation, projection, pronounciation
 Sound Elements: how volume, pitch, pace, and nature of sound complement/contradict/replace
words
Speaking- it is the ability that makes us seperior to other species.
It is also a complex cognitive and linguistic skill that involves words
and sounds. It also involves:
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9. Functions of Speaking
Interaction Transaction Performance
Interaction - is seen in social conversations. For example, a student shares her weekend gateway
experience to a friend, a taxi driver chats with his passenger, or a saleslady telling her manager about her
recent experience, etc.
Transaction - happens when someone wants to cut across a message. There is an act to be done after the
message is received. For example, a boy orders a box of pizza, a teacher gives instructions on the
assignment of the lesson to her students, or book a plane ticket via phone call.
Performance - is when an audience accepts the message spoken. For example, speeches conducted to
persuade like oration or debate. There is an emphasis on the accuracy, the sequencing of ideas, the form
and the organization.
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10. Reading - is a multifaceted process involving word recognition,
comprehension, fluency, and motivation. Learn how readers
integrate these facets to make meaning from print (Leipzig,2001).
Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that we:
 identify the words in print - a process called word
recognition.
 construct an understanding from them - a process called
comprehension and
 coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that
reading is automatic and accurate - an achievement called
fluency.
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11. Brown (1998) suggested the category as outlined below.
A. Oral Reading
B. Silent Reading
I. Intensive
a. linguistic
b. context
II. Extensive
a. skimming
b. scanning
c. global
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12. • Oral Reading is reading aloud. This can be a technique to improve poor
reader’s word identification in context. By reading aloud, the person learns
to correct and detect errors that the reader produced. It improves proper
pronounciation and enunciation.
• Under silent reading are extensive and intensive reading. The later is the
end in itself. Practicing specific reading strategies entail intensive reading
while extensive reading is the means to an end. Extensive reading includes
reading for pleasure or reading technical, scientific, or professional material.
Under these are two specific types of reading: scanning for key details or
skimming for the essential meaning.
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13. Writing - the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet,
punctuation and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in a
readable form.
 The steps for writing begins with deciding on the topic, followed by
researching and collecting information, then making the outline to
serve as the flow plan. When the plan is set, you may start writing;
this wil serve as the first draft. Then revise to improve your work.
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14. Steps for Writing
Steps
for
Writing
Decide
the topic
Research
and collect
information
Outline
and Plan
Review,
Edit and
Format
Start
writing by a
Simple
Draft
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15. Viewing skills - allow students to pause and reflect and think about
the images they are seeing and analyze or evaluate further these
visuals for better use.
• King and VanHecke (2006) assert that learning happens when
connections are created like schema in the mind. Biologically we
connect through the neutral network; concepts and ideas are
linked in mind and interactions made between experiences are all
essential in the process of learning.
Ideas may be presented visually through:
• pictures
• graphics
• posters
• drawings
• vedios
• web pages
• multimedia
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16. Types of Viewing
Visual Literacy Critical Viewing
 skill to decipher the meaning from visuals
(Georgis, 1999)
 ability to create visuals to convey
effectively the ideas in mind (Valmont,
2003; Heinish,1999)
 skill to understand and evaluate information
from visuals
 ability to analyze the composition of the
picture
Communicative Competence
• Cooley and Roach (1984) mentioned that communicative competence refers to the knowledge
one has on morphology, phonology, syntax including how and when to use these appropriately in
utterances.
• Canale and Swain (1980) looked at communicative competence as the overall system, which
includes the skill and knowledge one needs for communication. They proposed a 4-dimensional
theory comprising of grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competences.
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17. In developing communicative competence, remember the three
principles:
CP or communicative principle: As teachers, we provide activities for
students that push them to use language in a communicative context.
TP or task principle: Teachers provide real-life activities to complete or do. In
so doing, they learn and gain communicative competence.
MP or meaningful principle: Teachers must carefully choose authentic and
engaging activities that create meaning for students for learning to take
place and endure.
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LESSON 2:
First Language vs.
Second Language

20. What is First Language?
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 Whatever the language used and learned by a
person from birth until the critical period is
considered his/her first language.
 It is the language used in the house.
 Therefore it is suffice to say that children learn their
first language from the people they were with from
birth until the critical period.

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 After learning the first language (L1), a person accommodates
another language usually learned afterwards. This is referred to as
second language (L2). In learning L2, it takes effort and a conscious
will by familiarizing with form, vocabulary, pronounciation, functions,
and rules of language.
 Learning L2 is a personal choice. A person or community can choose
a second language among other languages and it is learned
consciously from guidance and instruction and requires constant
effort. A second language is a new aspect of a person’s life.
What is a second language?

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LESSON 3:
Micro and Macro
Linguistic Studies

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Micro linguistics Macro linguistics
• looks at linguistics with a narrower view
• the focus is more on the structures of the
language system in itself and for itself
• looks at linguistics with a broader view
• the focus is on the way languages are acquired,
stored in the brain and used for various functions;
interdependence of language and culture;
physiological and psychological mechanism
involved in language behavior
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Psycholinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Neurolinguistics
• Discourse Analysis
• Computational Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
Let us look closely at some linguistics studies.

24. • Phonetics is a branch of linguistics which focuses on the sounds. In particular, it looks into
how the sounds should be articulated, transmitted and received.
• Phonology is the study of the functions of speech sounds in a language. Its focus is on
the ways speech sounds are organized.
• Morphology is the study of the construction and formation of words. It is a branch of
linguistics, which breaks words into morphemes and is considered the grammar of words.
• Syntax is the study of relationship between linguistic forms, how they are arranged in
sequences and which sequences are well-formed.
• Semantics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and entities in the
world. It focuses on the meaning of a sentence.
• Pragmatics is the study of the relationships between linguistic forms and the users of
those words.
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• Psycholinguistics is the study of language and mind: the mental structures and processes,
which are involved in the acquisition, comprehension and production of language.
• Sociolinguistics studies the relations between language and society: how social factors
influence the structure and use of language.
• Neurolinguistics is the study of language processing and language representation in the
brain. It typically studies the disturbances of language comprehension and production caused
by damage of certain areas of the brain.
• Discourse Analysis is the study of how stretches of the language used in communication
assume meaning, purpose, and unity for their uses.
• Computational linguistics is the application of linguistic theories and computational
techniques to problems of natural language processing.
• Applied linguistics is the field of the study that looks at how linguistics can help understand
real-life problems in areas such as psychology, sociology, and education.