Language Key Terms and Concepts: Module 1 & 2

• Module 1 explores the evolving nature of language in the world and Module 2 explores language, learning and Media

Key Terms and Concepts on Language

• Linguists define a language by its grammar, phonology, and vocabulary.
• Language enables the expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
• Language is a complex system that transmits meaning through vocabulary, rules, and sentence structure.
• Recognizing language features maximizes communication effectiveness.
• Language is a defining feature of culture and personal identity.
• It facilitates relationships, understanding, experience, reflection, and societal contribution.
• Language is the primary basis of all communication and thought.

Language Acquisition

• The human brain absorbs and builds language skills effortlessly from infancy.
• It involves deciphering sounds and structures to enable communication.
• It's how humans learn to understand and represent the world through spoken, written, or manual sign language.

3 Elements of Language Acquisition:

• Syntax dictates how words combine to form sentences.
• Phonetics pertains to the sounds of written letters, varying across alphabets.
• Vocabulary encompasses the words one uses and their meanings.

Language Learning

• All students are capable of language acquisition.
• Language learning is a shared responsibility involving students, parents, teachers, and the community.
• Students need continuous opportunities to practice language in diverse forms.
• Language learning starts at home and widens as children join the larger community.
• Schools offer environments for developing language skills to meet personal, social, and academic aims.

Language Development

• All teachers share responsibility for language development.
• Subject area instructors teach specialized language forms within their subjects.
• Language arts teachers have a key role, focusing on language forms and functions to help students comprehend, compose, and respond effectively.

Mother Tongue

• The first language learned in early childhood.
• It is crucial for shaping thoughts and emotions.
• Learning the mother tongue is vital for a child's comprehensive development.
• Fluency in the mother tongue associates children with their culture, enhances cognitive development, and supports learning other languages.
• Children first understand their surroundings through the language spoken by their mothers.

Second Language

• An additional language learned after the first.
• It enhances communication and cultural understanding.
• Learning a second language broadens horizons, enriching personal and professional life, sharpens cognitive skills, and builds empathy.
• Acquisition can be through absorption or active learning.
• Learning effort is impacted by differences between languages.
• Learning multiple languages benefits international business, travel, and improves cognitive functions.

Language Change

• Language is in a constant state of flux, varying across space, social groups, and time.

Language Contact

• Contact arises from migration, conquest, and trade.
• Contact leads to bilingualism.
• Languages borrow words, sounds, and constructions in contact situations.

Social Differentiation

• Social groups adopt distinctive norms, language included.
• Linguistic identity involves vocabulary, pronunciation, morphological processes, and syntactic constructions.

Natural Processes in Usage

• Rapid speech leads to assimilation, dissimilation, syncope, and apocope.
• Changes become conventionalized.
• Meaning shifts through metaphor and metonymy.

Natural Processes

• Assimilation: Sound impacted by an adjacent sound.
• Dissimilation: A sound changes when near a similar sound.
• Syncope: The loss of a medial sound
• Apocope: The loss of a final sound

Internal and External Sources of Language Change

• Internal: Within a linguistic community.
• External: Contact phenomena.

World Englishes

• World Englishes involves differing English language forms used globally.
• Scholars focus on English variations in sociolinguistic contexts, analyzing their background, function, and influence.
• Language evolves to meet societal needs.
• Societies differences cause diverse English language varieties.

Adaptation

• New English varieties emerge through adaptation.
• This involves adapting a familiar variety to fit a new social context.
• These adaptations lead to differences in word choice, spelling, pronunciation, grammar, accent, and meaning.
• Linguistic adaptations can lead to the emergence of a distinct English variety.
• Scholars look at sociolinguistic context, functional domains, and ease of acculturation when classifying a new English variant.

Emergence of Different Varieties of English

• The emergence of different varieties of English results from historical, sociopolitical, and cultural factors.
• As English spread, it transformed significantly.
• Colonization, trade, migration, and language contact diversified English.
• English varieties feature unique linguistic features, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.

British English

• British English is spoken and written in the United Kingdom or throughout the British Isles.
• Formal written English has slight regional variations.
• It originated from West Germanic brought by settlers from northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands.
• Common Brittonic was spoken by the resident population that existed at the time of the Roman occupation
• Influence on English from Welsh, Cornish, and Cumbric was limited due to remoteness.

American English

• American English, also known as U.S. English is used in the United States and Canada.
• It is the most spoken language in the United States.
• It is also used by the federal government.
• It is considered the de facto language of the country because of its widespread use.
• It has official status in 32 of the 50 state governments.

Australian English

• Australian English is the main language used in Australia.
• English has no official status.
• Australian English is the country's national and de facto official language.
• Australian English began to differentiate from British English in 1788 and was recognized around 1820.
• It developed from the mixing of dialects from various parts of the British Isles.

Canadian English

• Canadian English is native to Canada.
• According to the 2011 census, it is the first language of about 57% of Canadians.
• It was first attested in 1857.
• The English language has been a product of settlements over the last two centuries.
• The first English wave speaking settlement in Canada came from the Mid-Atlantic States due to the American Revolution.
• Some scholars believe it comes from northern American English.

Indian English

• English in Indian education began in the 1830s during the East India Company.
• In 1835, English replaced Persian as the official language.
• Lord Macaulay introduced English and concepts to Indian education.
• The use of English in India has shifted from being viewed as colonialism to a means of economic advancement, resulting in the widely known Indian English.

Ugandan English (Uglish)

• Ugandan English is a dialect spoken in Uganda.
• The speech patterns of Ugandan languages influence spoken English.
• Uganda has a variety of indigenous languages.
• Individuals native to Uganda can identify someone's native language through the way they speak English.

New Zealand English

• Unique dialect spoken by most New Zealanders.
• This dialect has roots in English, influenced by Maori.
• Alike Australian English but has its own features.

South African English

• A unique dialect with distinctive characteristics
• Around 4.89 million South Africans speak this dialect.
• This dialect developed with influences from Afrikaans, Dutch, and other languages.

Philippine English

• Similar to American English and is native to the Philippines
• Taught in schools alongside Filipino (Tagalog).
• Has substantially changed from what it was decades prior.
• Before English, Spanish had dominant influence due to Spanish rule.
• English expanded after the U.S. took control.

Myths About English in the Philippines

• Teaching through memorization became popular in the colonial public schools.
• Mimicking Anglo-American writings was evident in Philippine writing.
• The myth that only American English is correct has led to prioritizing native speakers.
• The Philippine government has a focus of strengthening the use of the English in schools.
• English is seen as the only way to fix economic issues.

English and Filipino in Opposition

• Conflicts arise from institutionalizing English amid attempts to preserve national language.
• Education domain cites nationalism for resisting English.

English as Sole Language of Knowledge

• Some Filipinos believe English is the primary language for accessing knowledge, especially in mathematics and science.

The 3 Concentric Circles of English

• Braj Kachru's model visually represents how English is spread.
• It includes the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.
• The Inner Circle represents traditional English-speaking countries.
• The Outer Circle consists of countries formerly colonized by Inner Circle ones
• The Expanding Circle countries are where English is learned as a foreign language.

Kachru's Model of Concentric Circles

• Linguist Braj Kachru created the Model of Concentric Circles
• It describes global spread and use based on proficiency.
• These circles consist of the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.
• In the Inner Circle, English is native to the population and used in daily life.
• The Outer Circle of nations use English officially and as a second language.
• Expanding Circle countries use English for practical purposes.
• English varieties from the Inner Circle serve as models.
• Globalization incorporates a hybrid understanding of World English.

Differences In Expressions or Diction

• Cultural differences impact communication.
• Communication uses diverse styles and phrases.

Cultural Misunderstanding

• Skills in communicating effectively holds importance.
• These can occur more readily across diverse English speaking cultures

Examples of Expressions

• "Under the weather" means unwell.
• "It's all Greek to me" conveys incomprehension.
• "No worries" indicates reassurance.
• "Fall seven times, stand up eight" is a Japanese proverb about resilience.
• "Spill the beans" means revealing a secret.
• Words, such as Biscuit, different meanings in US and UK English.

Cross Cultural

• Cross-cultural is offering comparison between cultures.
• The key to Cross-Cultural Communication is etiquette and a lack of slang.

Academic Text Understanding

• Academic language is formal, analytical, and objective.
• Effective academic writing is clear and supported by research.
• Explicit structure, transitional devices, signposting, and critical analysis enables ease of reading
• Academic texts should conform to target audiences

Factors to Consider When Dealing with Academic Texts in Different English Varieties

• Academic Texts often uses specialized vocabulary, formality, grammar, syntax, cultural references
• Terminology consistency in science and technology

Expressions or Words Commonly Used in Academic Texts Include:

• Pedagogy, Curriculum, Assessment, Constructivism
• Metacognition, Literature Review, Quantitative Research
• Qualitative Research, Pedagogical Approach, Educational Psychology

Notes on Academic Style

• Focus is kept on the content not the author of the writing
• Evidence of existing works should be made
• Words of classical origin should be used

Academic Writing should be:

• Cautious
• Impersonal
• Nominalization
• Devoid of Rhetorical questions
• Devoid of contracted forms
• Precise
• Detailed

Academic Reading

• Academic reading is reading materials like lectures, books, journals, or researches.
• It relies on deriving proper meanings, morphemic analysis, and contextual clues

Morphemic Analysis

• Morphemic analysis involves dividing words into smaller parts with meaning.

Contextual Analysis

• Contextual analysis derives word meaning from sentence clues.

What to Keep in Mind For Accurate Media Consumption:

• Source of the information
• Author accreditation
• Intention of text
• Believability
• Consistency

Artificial Intelligence

• Is classified from narrow to generative
• Al can be used for both good or bad if it is not kept regulation
• Al changes social aspects of life
• Al makes more work accessible
• Al helps with efficiency and accuracy

Chat GPT

• Helps generate different outputs with commands
• Succinctness
• Tone
• Limitation

Tradional Graphic Aids

• Key elements to understanding visual aids
• The methodical practice of incorporating graphs and visual aids into readings and studying is one strategy that can help with comprehension
• Key chart elements include understanding the flow
• Organization chart also helpful
• Tables helps compare data across sets
• Graphics and Lines can help show realation of parts to whole

Mobile media and Fake news

• A lot of reliance on the internet for information
• The rise of fake news
• Information on the quality of the news
• Who is the source
• is the headline exaggerated
• Does it have supporting soruces
• Is all of it satircal

Categories of fake news

• misinformation
• disinformation
• malinformatin