Linguistics and Language Teaching

This document discusses the importance of phonetics and phonology in English language education. It also explains the uses of Simple Present Tense and Present Continuous Tense with examples. The document also provides a rationale for the order in which the uses of Simple Present Tense should be taught to lower secondary school students.

Running head: LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE TEACHING
LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE TEACHING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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1. Teachers of English need to have a good knowledge of phonetics and phonology. Discuss
and justify your answer.
The speech and sound system of a language forms a significant section of the
pedagogy of that language. Despite years of neglect in the field of language teaching, with
steady advancements in teaching methodologies like audiolingual method and the direct
method, the teaching of phonetics and phonology has become more prominent in the field of
English language education (Murphy 2014; Mart 2013). According to Pennington and
Richards (1986), pronunciation is defined as the process of articulation of individual sounds
of a language. This to a lesser extent follows the stress and intonation patterns of a target
language, according to most language teachers (p. 208).
The teaching of sounds of a foreign language which differ from those of the native
tongue has been a concern for most English teachers for a long time. The introduction of the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has made the job of teaching phonetics to the students
easy (Thorpe 2019). It is beneficial to teach through the IPA because it is not language
specific and can be understood by all learners of almost all languages as the IPA is structured
around sounds. While phonetics is concerned with identification and use of sound units
(phonemes) in distinct pronunciation, phonology is concerned with the study of the
distinctive sound units (phonemes) of a language and their internal relationship (Richards &
Schmidt 2013). This branch of linguistics help identify the phonological features of a
language and makes it easy to interpret as well as predict features that would be significant
for the spoken aspect of the language. Therefore, for English teachers, it is important to have
a strong knowledge of phonetics and phonology.

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2. a. Pair each sentence in column A to its use in Column B.
1. The sun sets in the west – e. expresses general truths.
2. We have a meeting next week – g. expresses future scheduled events.
3. Gloria speaks Mandarin fluently – d. expresses facts about the present.
4. The train to Ipoh departs at 10 in the morning – c. expresses routines or habitual
actions.
5. PM calls for energy conservation – a. Used in newspaper headlines to express recent
past events.
6. Ronaldo passes to Messi – b. expresses action happening at time of statement.
b. In which order would you teach the above uses of Simple Present tense to lower
secondary school students. Discuss and justify your answer.
The order for teaching the above uses of Simple Present tense would be as follows:
1 > 3 > 4 > 6 > 5 > 2.
Rationale – the first sentence in the order would be a universal truth. Therefore,
irrespective of the tense used, their meaning would not change, making it a solid beginning
for lower secondary students to the introduction of Simple Present Tense. The first sentence
would be followed by the third and the fourth sentences which states a fact about the present
and a habitual procedure respectively. These two sentences are marked by a third person
singular followed by a fact and the structuring of the sentence makes it simpler for lower
secondary students to understand simple present tense. Afterwards the sixth sentence and the
fifth sentence also serve similar purposes where in a third person singular is used in the
subject followed by a third person recipient (in 6) and an understood recipient (in 5). These
two sentences come in this order to establish the difference in the way the object is identified
and taught to students. Whereas 6 is used in general commentary and 5 in news headings, a
simple change in the word order would also render the sentences interchangeable in meaning

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and use case. E.g. “Ronaldo passes the bill” can be a newspaper heading whereas “PM calls
out the president” would be used to explain actions happening at the time of the statement.
Finally, the second sentence would be used to establish future scheduled events identifying
the shift in the timeline expressed by the statement.
c. How do you explain the Present Continuous Tense to your students? Focus your
explanation on its forms and uses. Provide appropriate examples.
The most efficient way to start teaching the present continuous tense is by modelling
the introduction in a scenario that the students would be able to identify and relate with. The
best example would be the ones to use from the classroom. E.g. “I am teaching present
continuous tense to the class right now” or “you are studying present continuous tense now”.
These examples would be followed by examples provided from other external sources like
textbooks or magazines.
Students learn the best through reflection and practice (Ovando & Combs 2018).
Therefore the third step would be to show them the picture of actions and ask them questions
like “what are they doing now”. The expected answer should be on the lines of “they are
doing this right now”. This is the juncture where the rules of present continuous would be
introduced to the students. I would introduce the rules behind present continuous, saying that
it is used to notify about events happening around the present time. In order to structure a
present continuous, the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ would be in contrast with the other auxiliary
verbs and ‘-ing’ would be added to the verb in a present continuous form.
Finally, the lesson would conclude with more examples and the introduction of the
negative form of the present continuous tense. I would use textbooks, magazines or even web
resources to help the students identify which aspect of the action is not happening and draw
out responses in negative about them.
e.g. Is Laura playing golf? – No Laura is not playing golf.

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References
Mart, C.T., 2013. The audio-lingual method: An easy way of achieving speech. International
Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(12), p.63.
Murphy, J.M., 2014. Intelligible, comprehensible, non-native models in ESL/EFL
pronunciation teaching. System, 42, pp.258-269.
Ovando, C.J. and Combs, M.C., 2018. Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in
multicultural contexts. Rowman & Littlefield.
Pennington, M.C. and Richards, J.C., 1986. Pronunciation revisited. TESOL quarterly, 20(2),
pp.207-225.
Richards, J.C. and Schmidt, R.W., 2013. Longman dictionary of language teaching and
applied linguistics. Routledge.
Thorpe, S.R., 2019. A Guide to the International Phonetic Alphabet and its Application. The
Choral Journal, 59(9), pp.51-59.