Language Teaching and Linguistic Description

1. Language Teaching and Linguistic Description

2. The criteria for training courses selection: 1-How the knowledge affects the material the teacher will be dealing with. 2-How the Knowledge prepares the teacher for future developments. 3-Learning to teach is more than simply knowing the results of research and theory ,it involves learning the(craft) of classroom exposition ,explanation ,organization, and guidance.

3. Current language teaching controversies *The role of native-speaker-like proficiency as an aim of FLT. *The role of explanation and explicit grammatical guidance in the classroom. *The desirability of teaching students how to process language data using strategies as well as the data itself. *The addition of the role of subject specialist to that of language teacher in LSP situations.

4. Is linguistics worth knowing? -Many have questioned the value of the theory of language for the language teacher. There are two arguments encouraging more appreciation ; 1-The fact that language is a biological feature – an (instinct)- which arguably defines us as human ,and therefore perhaps holds the key to understanding human cognitive processes. 2-The fact that research in all areas of linguistics and language teaching is expanding all the time means that only those with some understanding of the theoretical sources of the research can hope to follow it .

5. A call for understanding of the nature of language as; • A cognitive process; • A biological fact; • A faculty of the mind; • An aspect of our lives that we can so easily lose in strokes and other kinds of brain damage;

6. *a source of apparently unimaginable variety of linguistic systems called language and dialects. *a system of interpersonal operations through which we manage our relations with other people. *a system by which we structure and express our position in society. *a vehicle for self – expression .

7. Do we need a description of a language in order to teach that language? -The learning of descriptions was prerequisite to the development of fluency in that language. Advantage of descriptions; 1-A metalanguage (a language about a language ) for describing the features of the particular language may be very useful and many teachers , native and non-native , believe they require it.

8. *Modern descriptive reference books displaying the grammar of languages benefit from the decades of thought that have developed grammatical concepts. 2- A descriptive metalanguage is a prerequisite for design discussions. The grammatical dimension demands a consistent way of reference . 3-Consistent and clear descriptive terms are needed for individual error and diagnoses possible remediation.

9. It became clear that; 1-the reliance on comparative linguistics was misplaced. 2- trying to discuss an error with a learner some liberal conception of the learners’ misunderstanding is necessary.

10. *It is significant for the learner to Know .. - Language typology. -typical sentence orders such as Subject Verb Object ; Verb Subject Object ;Subject Object Verb. -the implications for other areas of the grammar of the large systematic differences like pronoun-drop.

11. * Further considerations for linguistic description; 1- In contrast to the audio –lingualists’ stricture (Teach the language not about the language ) , perhaps the language awareness approach is more appropriate, (Teach about language and teach the language’). 2-Languages and dialects .A crucial question for language teaching though not for linguistics ,is ‘ what language to teach?’ and therefore ‘what language to describe?’.

12. *Learner language is generally known as 'Interlanguage '. -There may be as many interlanguages as there are learners.

13. Done under the supervision of Dr. Fifiby: Gr. A Gr. B Areej Al-Sharif Wejdan Al-Subhi Jehan Al-Sa’idiWafaa Al-Tumbakti Āmaal Al-BishriFatima Al-Shamrani Ālaa Al-LeheibiManal Al-Sa’idi