They look at the inner workings of language. Why language works like it does, in other words. Think of learning about linguistics in the same way you’d learn how an internal combustion engine works. Linguistics is what’s under the hood… you don’t need to know it to drive a car, but it helps understand what’s going on if you ever break down!
So… TEFL teachers should find these useful in providing more of a background to their teaching and students, too, will find them helpful in understanding language at a slightly deeper level.
In linguistics, the term Language Register is used to talk about the type of language a person might use in a certain social context, in other words, how formally they will speak. For example: A speaker might say I never done nuffin’ when talking to their friends, but when presented […]
While need or motivation can be strong impulses in second language learning, they do not influence language acquisition. The question is do we as children acquire language for any other reason than that we are communicating (speaking) animals and language is as natural to us as breathing? I think part […]
Korean is spoken as a first language by over 70 million people. This article looks at the kind of issues Korean native speakers have when they learn English. Overview Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea as well as the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. […]
Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. According to recent research by the FSI Japanese is the hardest language for English speakers to learn and, presumably, Japanese speakers find learning English the hardest also. This article […]
The IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet is an alphabet of sounds (not letters). It is used to show how to pronounce words. Using the IPA in your class is a useful tool to give your students. It will help them understand the pronunciation of English words they find in the […]