Teaching of Language Skills

Teaching of Language skills

Introduction

Language is a medium of communication. Which helps us to gain knowledge.Here in Teaching of language skills, this unit contains certain chapters as given below.

Ø Grammar

Ø Discourse

Ø Sociolinguistics

Ø Computer assisted Language learning

Ø Observation  etc.

So, let us elaborate these chapters in detail.     

Grammar

Grammar is very wide term, which has multiple meaning. Moreover, a study of English grammar includes function words such as frequently occurring articles, whose role is largely syntactic. Some grammars also include phonology and semantics, but the usual interpretation organization of Language. The use of grammar may vary in purpose and scope.

There are two types of descriptive grammars.

Types of grammars:

Ø Formal Grammar

Ø Functional Grammar

Let’s illustrate descriptive grammars in detail.

1)    Formal Grammar:

Formal grammar deals with the form or structure of language. It focuses on how words are framed as it is needed in the English Language Teaching.

In the communication sometimes Formal grammar functions well as we have to observe or focus on the structure that how sentences are arranged and how it articulates. So Formal grammar is very much necessary in Language.

2)    Functional Grammar:

Functional Grammar determines with the meaning of language (semantic level or level of meaning). It highlights on how words are utilized. In Language education in matters a lot as it deals with the meaning.

Grammar in Language Education:

In language education grammar is very much significant part. Therefore, freeman tried to distinguish grammar on this chapter of grammar. In language education the method of audio-lingual has been practiced in the 1950s and 1960s by scholars.

Because of the influence of transformational grammar, materials in the 1970s features sentence based linguistic rules with exercise asking student to transform one sentence pattern into another.

As far as Grammar is concerned in Language Education the major shift in Language pedagogy received additional impetus from Second Language acquisition was negotiated in learner interactions.

Discourse

What is Discourse?

“The study of discourse is the study of Language independently of the notion of the sentence.”

It deals with the relationship between a text and the situation in which it occurs.Grammatical analysis of sentence has no such constraints on it. Further we may say that sentences can be studied in isolation as blocks of language, illustrating well or ill formed grammar. Who or what the subject is can be specified by the kinds of subject permitted by the chosen verb. This is what grammarians mean by well formalness.

Discourse analysts are also interested in things being “well – formed”, discourse analysis work with utterances (sequence of words written on spoken in specific contexts) rather than with sentences.

Discourse Analysis:

Ø Spoken (speech analysis)

Ø Written texts (text analysis)

Furthermore, it can be said that generally different models have grown up for analyzing spoken and written Language. It is widely agreed that there is no simple, single difference between speech and writing. The most useful way to conceive of the differences is to see them as scales along which individual texts can be observed.

For example, we can take that casual conversations tend to be highly involved interpersonally; public notices, on the other hand tend to be detached. Speech is most typically created ‘on line’ or spontaneously and received in real time, writing is most typically created ‘off line’ usually with time for reflection and revision.

A further complication is that the terms text linguistics and discourse analysis have, respectively become strongly associated with the study of either written texts or spoken recordings or transcripts.

So, at last we may say that both approaches have made significant contributions to applied linguistics and language teaching.

Sociolinguistics

“Sociolinguistics examines the relationship between Language use and the social world”

It deals with how language operates within and creates social structures. It looks at speech communities base on social categories such as age, class, gender, geographical, profession and sexual identity.

Origin of Sociolinguistics:

The term sociolinguistics, which emerged in the 1960s,  in part as a reaction to ‘autonomous’ Chomskian linguistics, capturing the interdisciplinary nature of the enterprise, a distinction is often made between Micro- Sociolinguistics and

Background of Sociolinguistics:

Both of these methods which are known as quantitative and qualitative, which have been employed to example such linguistic phenomena as phonological differences between dialects or discourse variation between male and female speakers. While on the other hand macro- sociolinguistics looks at the behavior of entire speech communities.

Sociolinguistics:

Ø Micro –Sociolinguistics

Ø Macro – Sociolinguistics

Let’s elaborate it in detail.

1)  Micro – Sociolinguistics

1)    It refers to linguistics slant

2)    It focuses on dialect variation

3)    It deals with quantitative and qualitative research

4)    Coulmas refers it as social- dimensions of language.

2) Macro- Sociolinguistics

1)    It deals with the behavior of entire speech community.

2)    Coulmas refers Macro – Sociolinguistics as linguistics dimensions of society.

Research Sociolinguistics:

Ø Language Variation

Ø Linguistic Relativity

Ø Languages in Contact

1)    Language Variation

As far as language variation is concerned, it is earliest studies, which reported the work of Labov and his colleagues among inner city youth in New York City. In 1979 as a result youth of court testimony by linguistics including Labov and Smitherman a US federal judge.

Apart from language variation, Pidginisation is a process that results from contact of two or more languages in a contact of two or more languages in a context where language must be satisfied through the use of simplified code.

Through a creolisation process, speakers develop an elaborated code that can accommodate the full range of life’s functions. A gradual decreolisation process can occur as speakers incorporate features from a dominant language.

2)    Linguistic Relativity

In Linguistic relativity Hymes coined the term ethnography of speaking to describe the task of the researcher who is concerned with the situation and use and functions of speaking. In computer – assisted language learning there is a learning which is possible through computer. In the 1990s the personal computer emerged as a significant tool for language teaching and learning.

Computer Assisted Language Learning

 The widespread use of software, local area networks (LANS) and the internet has created enormous opportunities for learners to enhance their communicative skills and abilities. The history of the computer began very early because much of the early history of computers in Language learning in the 1980s and 1990s were concerned with keeping abreast of technological change. With the gradual development of the multimedia personal computer were the changes in our understanding of the teaching and learning of Languages.

1)    Communicative approaches

2)    Content – based learning

3)    Task –based learning

 Are all enhanced by the use of the computer.

In computer assisted language learning a very important interest of the early CALL studies was the comparison of computer- enhanced classes with traditional or conventional classes. Another area of interest is comparing computer use with other technologies. For example: computer based listing activities and audio- taped language materials in a ‘traditional’ language lab.

Linguistic Analyses and Skills Acquisition:

Broader skills areas are also receiving attention. For example:  chum and pass examine the reading comprehension skills, Negretti uses conversational analysis in web-based activities and Sullivan explores the connections among reading, writing, speaking and critical thinking.

The Computer as a research tool:

With the advancement of technology here the computer can be taken as a research tool, and the recent studies indicate a growing trend towards using the computer as primary research tool either to elicit data or to record data indirectly.

Observation

In language learning observation plays very significant role, which is used here as a term which deals with the examination of teaching or learning events through systematic process of data collection and analysis. However, teachers themselves have undertaken classroom observation foe a variety of reasons. These include peer observation for professional development purposes, peer couching and action research

.

In language, observation in second foreign language classrooms has been strongly influenced by the traditions of observation in first language classrooms in general education settings.‘COLT’ – communication orientation of language teaching is an example of an observational instrument which was developed as a result of changes in Language pedagogy.

COLT’s categories reflect developments in communicative language teaching, such as the use of information gap activities.

Discourse analysis examines both written and spoken texts, so discourse analytic procedures can be brought to bear on classroom speech as a data base.

When using an obtrusive form data collection, such as a video camera, it can be helpful to familiarize the learners with the equipment. It is also useful to visit the classroom often enough over time that the teacher and the students become desensitized to the presence of the observer and the recording device.

In anthropological research, triangulation refers to process of verification which gives us confidence in our observations. Denzin describes four different types of triangulation.

1)    Data triangulation, in which different sources of data contribute to an investigation.

2)    Theory of triangulation, when various theories are brought to bear in a study.

3)    Researcher triangulation, in which more than one researcher contributes to the investigation.

To Sum up:

At last we can say that these all chapters are an integral element of language and it also deals with peer observation and peer coaching, teachers themselves use a variety of procedures for observing classroom interaction and analyzing the data collected during observations.