POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES x
Republic of the Philippines
Polytechnic University of The Philippines
College of Education – Graduate Studies
ACTIVITY 1
QUESTION: Among the ideas about language of Daniels, what do you think are the
three principles that are relevant nowadays for English teachers? Expound on the
relevance and application in your own classrooms.
TESL 600
Linguistic Foundations for Second Language Learning and
Teaching
SECOND SEMESTER OF SCHOOL YEAR 2021 – 2022
Submitted by:
JESSA M. MOLINA
Submitted to:
PROF: EMETERIA LEONILA PEREZ
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES x
ACTIVTY 1:
QUESTION: Among the ideas about language of Daniels, what do you think are the
three principles that are relevant nowadays for English teachers? Expound on the
relevance and application in your own classrooms.
Communication is a vital enabler of effective and productive human interactions
and engagements. According to Saunders and Mills (1999), there are four main skills
involved in communication engagements by individuals, listening, speaking, reading, and
writing, and that the effectiveness of the process of communication is heavily dependent
on the extent of shared understanding of the contexts in which the communication takes
place.
In connection with Harvey A. Daniels’s Nine Idea of Language, languages are
intimately related to the societies and individuals who use them. this is a very relevant
idea about language, for it highlights the importance of knowing that language is related
to societies and individuals who use them and putting on top the idea of cultural diversity
and social differences that are relevant factors for successful communication.
Students are going insane in learning the different languages and dialects, but
despite the fact of having the ability to acquire different languages, there has been a
great decline on the understanding and comprehensions skills of students. This is
evident on the previous English Proficiency Index (EPI) which Philippines ranked 14 th
place in 2018 to 20th place in 2020. This is due to our inability to understand that
language is ultimately anchored with the context. And being able to speak the language
is not the key to understanding, it is our ability to communicate in consideration with the
context where the communication takes place that is a viable solution for
misunderstanding and misconceptions of meanings.
Rueda (2006) believes that the role of instruction may be to furnish the learners
with knowledge of the socio-cultural rules but that can only be done if educators realized
that ‘language in use’ is highly context dependent that should purposely serve students
not themselves.
Moreover, languages emerge and change over time at the population level
though interactions between individual speakers, “Language change is normal”. The
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES x
power to understand and accept that language is always changing and evolving, is
ultimately relevant because language also needs to adapt the needs of its users.
Language changes for several reasons. First, it changes because the needs of
its speakers change. New technologies, new products, and new experiences require
new words to refer to them clearly and efficiently. We get new words from many different
places like (boondocks). We borrow them from other languages (chopstick, oppa), we
create them by shortening longer words (bra from brazier), or by combining words
(spork from spoon and fork), and we make them out of proper names (Nike, Hermes).
Sometimes we even create a new word by associating it to someone or someone’s
personality, like (Karen, Marites).
One of the reasons for language change begin with teens and young adults. “If
you're too "basic" to "YOLO" or think that slang is never "on fleek," fear not. “As an
educator, one of the scenarios that you can hear and witness in a language classroom
are students conversing at each other using pretty peculiar and unfamiliar languages,
some are coined words, some are newly invented, some are barrowed from their
dialects which will later be integrated in their daily conversation. Tidball (2016) States
very commonly, people think that teenagers are ruining language because they are
texting or using shorthand or slang, but our language is constantly developing and
changing and becoming what it needs to be for the generation who is speaking it.
As long as the needs of language users continue to change, so will the language.
The role of the teacher relates on the fundamental changes with the delivery of a
multidimensional language teaching and development. As the Core classroom moves
from teacher-centered to student-centered and from a language-based to a needs-based
approach, one of teacher's responsibilities in language class is to establish conditions
and develop activities so that students can adapt the language in a meaningful context
and appreciate the diversity and appreciate the new changes in language.
Another thing about Daniels’s Nine Idea of Language is “Speakers of all
languages employ a range of styles and a set of subdialects or jargons”. Styles and
jargons are vital factors in teaching and learning process, teachers and students have
identifiable styles of talking to each other that linguists call a register, jargon on the other
hand are words meant to enhance communication by simplifying a particular concept,
these two are relevant in the field of education.
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Neill (2017), communication in the context of teaching and learning differs from
normal communication in a variety of ways. Unlike in normal communication
engagements, the communication between teachers and students is grounded on the
existence of a formal relationship bond, like the use of styles and jargons. As such, it
involves upholding the norms and values of the field of teaching while communicating. In
a language classroom, more than often, the teacher acts as an addresser or a speaker,
whereas a student acts as an addressee or a listener.
Although, teacher talk varies somewhat with the tasks or purposes at hand, it
also has uniformities that occur across a range of situations. Teachers’ strategy
simultaneously influences the course of discussion and focuses students’ attention, and
in these ways also helps indirectly to insure appropriate classroom behavior. Thus,
teacher communication skills are important for a teacher in the delivery of education to
students (Burns & Seidlhofer, 2010). As in normal communication, communication
between teachers and students entails the decoding of the ideas by the students as
transmitted by the teacher. Furthermore, communication between teachers and students
is also influenced by styles and jargons being used.
REFERENCES:
Burns, A. & Seidlhofer, B. (2010). Speaking and pronunciation. An introduction to
applied linguistics, 197-214. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amt046
Neill, S. (2017). Classroom nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Rueda, Y. (2006) ‘Developing pragmatic competence in a foreign language’, Colombian
Applied Linguistics Journal, 8, pp. 169–182.
Saunders, S. & Mills, M. (1999). The knowledge of communication skills of
secondary graduate student teachers and their understanding of the
relationship between communication skills and teaching. Retrieved Feb, 4,
2010.
Tidbal (2016). Teenagers' role in language change is overstated, linguistics research
finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 3, 2022
