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.
Generative Grammar is a branch of theoretical linguistics that tries to provide a set of rules that can accurately predict which combinations of words are able to make grammatically correct sentences. Generally speaking it suggests that humans have the ability to learn language built in and just by exposure to […]
Frisian refers to a closely related group of Germanic languages: West Frisian spoken in the Netherlands Saterland Frisian spoken in Lower Saxony, Germany North Frisian spoken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany East Frisian Low Saxon, the dialect of East Frisia in Lower Saxony, Germany Although the language was at risk of being […]
If someone learns English but they live in a non-English speaking country they are most likely learning English as a Foreign Language or FL. They do not need English for everyday survival and needs, but they will need it to conduct business or take an exam or when they are […]
Finnish is spoken by the majority of people in Finland (92%) and ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It’s one of the two official languages of Finland (along with Swedish). It is related to Estonian and a few other minority languages in the region. Finnish uses the Latin alphabet with å, […]
ESOL is an acronym meaning English to Speakers of Other Languages. It is all about people who do not have English as a mother tongue, learning English. A more common term to ESOL is ESL which means English as a Second Language and refers to people learning English to live […]