DISCUSS WHY SOUND LANGUAGE IN LINGUISTICS CAN HELP TO BECOME AN EFFECTIVE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

According to the Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, Linguistics is the scientific study of language or of particular languages. Linguistics focuses on different aspects of the language such as morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. Linguists investigate how linguistic understanding of this kind is acquired, how it interacts with other mental processes, how it varies from a person to another person and a region to other region and how computer programs can model this knowledge. The word "syntax" refers to the relationships of words within a sentence. In English, speakers and writers generally indicate these relationships through word order. For example, the actor--or "subject"--in a sentence generally comes before the verb. Recipients of actions--or "objects"--generally appear after verbs. English syntax actually is much more complex than these examples suggest, but they illustrate a general principle: syntax is the system that speakers and writers use when they combine words into phrases and clauses, ultimately creating meaning (Misty Wilson, 1998). According to the text that I have chosen, the writer seemed tend to make mistakes in using inappropriate verb construction which means the writer could not make a right sentence when it comes to the involvement of a verb. In a simple way, the writer did not have a strong idea of syntax, which is the way that words and phrases are put together to form sentences in a language or the rules of grammar in the language. Syntax can help to become an effective English language teacher because a teacher can identify the mistakes done in the writings. Good writing consists not only of a string of varied, correctly-structured sentences. The sentences must also lead from one to the next so that the text is cohesive and the writer's ideas are coherent. For instance, The doctor advise him to always relaxing his mind and never thinking so hard. This sentence is wrong because the infinitive is to relax. The adverb always splits it by coming between the to and the relax. The word relaxing should be in root word after the word to infinitive. The correct sentence is, The doctor advised him to relax his mind and never think so hard.

As educators we need to realize that education occurs in the context of a social climate. Many children are made fun of when they try to speak English and also when they speak their native language; so they end up silent and withdraw from participation. This further interferes with their learning and achievement. They often lack the ability to interact in social settings with English speaking peers because they are in separate classrooms and often have limited opportunity to interact academically or socially. They often have great difficulty learning the "slang" and social English because they have no one to learn it from. These children come to prefer English out of necessity, often abandoning their native languages to fit in. By studying the different linguistic characteristics between different languages, a teacher can better understand how language ties together with nationality, culture, and the way people of a certain linguistic background act towards each other and communicate. Usually people who major in linguistics have an interest in a particular region of the world or dialects within a language. A dialect is basically a way a specific group of people speak a certain language. People usually speak a dialect of a language when they are in a specific area in relation to the country. For an example, people in the south of the United States may speak a different dialect than people in the North. It is still English, but some words may be different or mean different things. Another example would be that people in Malaysia itself, whereby Malaysians use Manglish which is Malay + English and it is still English. For example, Fortunately there had 24 hours clinic near at our house. This sentence clearly shows that the writer had actually direct translated the sentence from Malay language to English. The right sentence should be Fortunately there had 24 hour clinic near our house or Fortunately there had 24 hour clinic at our house Teachers also need a thorough understanding of educational linguistics--how language figures in education. This foundation would support teachers' practice overall, and in particular, it would help them teach literacy skills (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998), especially to English language learners (August & Hakuta, 1998). If approached coherently, preparation in educational linguistics would cover many items on lists of teacher competencies, such as skills in assessing children, individualizing instruction, and respecting diversity. When it comes to assessing children, teachers would know what are the common errors make by the students. Teachers also know if the students could follow the instruction or not. Further,

linguistics would teach the teacher itself to respect diversity of language that existed around the world. Besides that, if a teacher has broad knowledge in Linguistics, a teacher could apply the knowledge grammatically whereby the requirement of understanding on how the word relates to similar forms, how it can be used grammatically, and how it relates to other words and concepts can be used. Grammar is the set of rules a speaker knows that allow him or her to produce and understand sentences in the language. A grammatical sentence is therefore a possible sentence in the language. An ungrammatical sentence is one that is impossible in a given language, one that a native speaker of that variety would never utter naturally. For instance, They were died 2 years ago in a one tragic accident. This sentence is ungrammatical because it is not a natural sentence that a speaker of modern English would use. The sentence supposed to be They were died 2 years ago in a tragic accident. @ They were died 2 years ago in one tragic accident because the determiner a and one show same meaning which is one. Thus, the determiner should be used only once in a sentence. Effective vocabulary instruction requires that teachers understand how words are learned in no instructional contexts through conversation and reading. Teachers must have a solid-enough knowledge of grammar to support children's writing development and pinpoint problems in writing and interpreting text. Partly because teachers may feel insecure about their own writing, partly because students are not given opportunities to write frequently, and partly because teachers of writing are sometimes reluctant to correct students' writing, students may not be receiving the kind of corrective feedback that will help them be better writers. This problem is particularly acute for English language learners. Hence, teachers must have strong basic idea of the root of Linguistics itself. Further, linguistics not only teaches you about languages, but also improves practical and intellectual skills such as Information Literacy. Because of linguists read through large amounts of data, including texts, audios, and videos, they are trained to search for essential information among piles of data. Through this process, linguists gain intuition as to where and how to approach information. As a teacher, linguistics would be very help in Information Literacy. Teacher will know how to approach information in order to get knowledge for the students. The skills that the teachers have could be applied in every day process of learning. As well as in

Written and Oral Communication, Linguistic research requires writing papers, giving presentations, and creating projects. Thus, linguistics teaches the skills necessary to communicate efficiently using evidence and arguments. A good teacher surely has to teach the students on how to communicate efficiently using evidence and arguments in order to generate the students mind to think. Reasoning is always good in order to prove that anything is to be said is reliable. Many people assumed that the grammar of English is the same for all speakers but surely it is not. Not everyone speaks English in exactly the same way. English is actually a general label under which a number of language varieties fall. English is spoken all over the world. English also has a long history and has changed over time. Thus, the study of Linguistics can help to become an effective language teacher in many ways.

REFERENCE

Caroline Mei Lin Ho. 3 March 2003. Retrieved http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Ho_Grammar_Errors.html

April 9, 2011 from

(a.d).( n.d). Retrieved on April 9, 2011 from http://www.english-the-easyway.com/Adjectives/SuperLative_Adjectives.htm Maddox Maeve. (n.d). Retrieved on April 9, 2011 from

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what%E2%80%99s-the-difference-between%E2%80%9Ctoo%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Calso%E2%80%9D/ (n.a).( n.d). Retrieved on April 9, 2011 from http://www.english-the-easyway.com/Prepositions/Prepositions_for_while_during.htm (n.a).( n.d). Retrieved on April 9, 2011 from

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartipsplitinfinitive August, D., & Hakuta, K. (Eds.). (1998). Educating language minority children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Fillmore, L.W. (1991). Second language learning in children: A model of language learning in social context. In E. Bialystok (Ed.), Language processing by bilingual children (pp. 49-69). New York: Cambridge University Press. McCabe, A. (1995). Chameleon readers: Teaching children to appreciate all kinds of good stories. New York: McGraw-Hill. Snow, C.E., Burns, M.S., & Griffen, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

No

Identification of Error

Error Definition and Classification

Explanation of Rule

1.

The movie end at 1.00 a.m.

Verb

'The movie refers to one thing, ie singular subject, and requires singular

Wrong combination of verb 'ends or ended': subject and verb The movie ends/ended at 1.00 a.m 2. I had saw who was out there. Inappropriate verb construction I had seen who was out there 3. The doctor advise him to always relaxing his mind and never thinking so hard. Inappropriate verb construction Verb The infinitive is to relax. The adverb always splits it by coming between the to and the relax. The word relaxing should be in root word after the word to infinitive: Verb The non-continuous past perfect tense uses had + the past participle:

The doctor advised him to relax his mind and never thinking so hard. 4. For the first, I felt so scary. Inappropriate selection or usage of preposition Preposition The preposition "for" is used to express how long something or someone is doing something. "For" is used to state a period of time and is usually used with a noun/pronoun (or any other form of nouns) . Thus, the appropriate preposition is at to indicate when something happens:

At first, I felt so scared. 5. Fortunately there had 24 hours clinic near at our house. Unnecessary insertion of preposition Fortunately there had 24 hour clinic near our house. 6. I felt so pity at the old man Inappropriate selection or usage of preposition 7. We were slept lately that night Inappropriate selection or usage of adverb We slept late that night. The adverb also and too brings the similar means. Thus, either one of them should be used. Unnecessary insertion of adverb She was also very shocked after seeing our neighbour... @ She was very shocked too after seeing our neighbour... 9. The doctor advise him to always relaxing his mind and never thinking so hard Inappropriate selection or usage of adverb Adverb The adverb never is used to modify adverb, adjective and verb but not noun. Thus, the adverb never should not be used. Adverb I felt so pity to the old man. The adverb lately shows thing that happened recently or in recent past. Thus, the adverb late should be used to describe/modify the verb slept. Preposition The preposition at is used as locators in time and place. Therefore, at is inappropriate selection in the sentence. Preposition Two prepositions cannot be used at the same time. Near already indicate the location of the clinic. Thus, at is unnecessary insertion.

8.

She was also very shocked too after see our neighbour...

Adverb

The doctor advised him to relax his mind and never think so hard. The adjective hard is not appropriate to Inappropriate selection or usage be used because firm it or means difficult.

10. He asked for our help to bring him to the hospital because he got a hard headache.

Adjective

something

solid,

Hence, the adjective hard should not be used but have to replace with another horrible He asked for our help to bring him to the hospital because he got a strong headache. The adjective scary is wrongly used. It should be scared. adjective like strong or

11. For the first, I felt so scary.

Adjective

Inappropriate selection or usage 12. So that we decided to bring him to the nearer clinic to get a treatment. Inappropriate selection or usage Adjective At first, I felt so scared. The adjective nearer is comparative to nothing in the sentence. However the sentence indicates that the clinic is something is the most, there can't be anymore or that something is the least, there can't be any less. A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things. So that we decided to bring him to the nearest clinic to get treatment. 13. She was also very shocked too after see our neighbour who is Unnecessary Determiner Problem is uncountable noun and does not require the plural marker s. Thus, the insertion of a is

the old man and see like in a problems.

insertion

unnecessary. If a is inserted, the problems a. should be problem,

following the rule of singular noun after

She was also very shocked too after see our neighbour who is the old man and see like in a problem. 14. So that we decided to bring him to the nearer clinic to get a treatment. 15. They were died 2 years ago in a one tragic accident. Unnecessary insertion Unnecessary insertion Determiner So that we decided to bring him to the nearest clinic to get treatment. The determiner a and one show same meaning which is one. Thus, the determiner should be used only once in a sentence. Determiner The insertion of a is unnecessary.

They were died 2 years ago in a tragic accident. @ They were died 2 years ago in one tragic accident

TEXT 5 Being a public holiday, my sister and I were stayed up to see a movie at home. We were slept lately that night. The movie end at 1.00 a.m. We were planning to sleep after that. I had just switched off the light when suddenly there was a knock on the door. In the peep-hole at the door, I had saw who was out there. It was very strange when someone knock the door especially in a late night. For the first, I felt so scary. Then I was shocked after saw that my neighbour is out there. I shouted to my sister to see what happen at the outside. She was also very shocked too after see our neighbour who is the old man and see like in a problems. We asked the old man what was exactly happen to him. He asked for our help to bring him to the hospital because he got a hard headache. I felt so pity at the old man. Actually he had no other family anymore which can help him. They were died 2 years ago in a one tragic accident. So that we decided to bring him to the nearer clinic to get a treatment. Fortunately there had 24 hours clinic near at our house. My sister had drove us to the clinic by her car. Then we took the old man to enter the clinic carefully. After a few minute the old man settle his treatment. The doctor said that he had the headache because he is doing very hard thinking. So he got a pressure. The doctor advise him to always relaxing his mind and never thinking so hard. My sister and I think that he maybe always thinking so hard. My sister and I think that he maybe always think of his family. I also give him some encourage to him to life better. I promised to take care of him after this and can be like his daughter. He was thankful to us because of helping him.