Living Language: a method to learn English as a foreign

language
By Leonardo Corrêa Rosado

Introduction

Giving the first steps: some important

concepts to use the method

1. Language

It is really interesting to observe how we can produce a number of complex

sentences, which combine phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic,
and pragmatic units, without thinking of how to do it. The faculty of
language is an amazing thing that makes human species a privileged one.

Every single human being is born with a biological and mental capacity of
producing language. This capacity allows humans to use a finite number of
rules to create an infinite number of sentences, that is, human beings have
the competence of creating sentences by applying these rules in some
units.

Picture 1 - Language areas in Human beings' brains

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 Living Language: a method to learn English as a foreign
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Thus, this competence, also called grammar1, is formed by some rules of

formation and some linguistics units, which can be of various levels:

a) Phonological. This level refers to the auditory aspect of language; I

mean, the sounds, or phonemes 2 , produced by such a language.
English, for instance, has a certain number of sounds that differs from
the Portuguese. Below, there is a chart which presents the phonemes
of English:

Picture 2 - Phonemes of English

b) Morphological. This is the level of the words. Every word is formed

by some others small parts called base or morpheme3. These bases
or morphemes are divided in to different groups: (i) roots, which can
be considered as the main part of a word (e.g. “insane” is the root for
forming the word insanity; “teach” is the root to form teacher and
teaches); (ii) suffix, is the morpheme added in the end of a root,
giving a new meaning and also changing the word class (e.g. “-ed”,
this suffix is added in a verb in order to show that this verb is in the

1
The concept of grammar presented here is not that one which deals with the idea of saying what
is “correct” and wrong. Grammar here must be understood as a competence composed by some
linguistics units and rules of formation.
2
The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as
the m of mat and the b of bat in English.
3
A meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word, such as man, or a word element, such as -ed in
walked, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts

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past or in its past participle form, like walked; “-able”, added in the end
of verb or noun to form an adjective, like portable); (iii) prefix, a
morpheme added in the beginning of a word, which gives to this word
a different meaning (e.g. “a-“, when this prefix is added to a word, it
gives to it an opposite meaning, like in amoral, which opposes to
moral; “hyper-“, gives to the word the idea of excessive, like
hyperactive). Yet, these morphological units cannot be employed by
chance, that is, the employment of such units follows some
morphological rules which somehow organize the morphemes in order
to create meaningful and comprehensive words. Moreover, these
morphemes are used by speakers to create some new words; for
example in the poem, “The Jabberwocky”, Lewis Carroll uses the
morphemes sli- and –thy, from the words lithe and slimy, to create the
neologism “slithy”, which, according to Humpy-Dumpty, means “(…)
‘lithe’ and ‘slimy’. ‘Lithe’ is the same as ‘active’. You see, it’s like a
portmanteau – there are two meaning packed up into one word.”

c) Syntactic. The level of the sentences themselves. The sentences are

language units which are logically structured in certain syntactic
elements, called syntagmas 4 . The syntagmas, are divided in to
different groups: (i) nominal syntagma, which refers to the subject
and verb complements (objects) (e.g. in “Marry has a little lamb”,
“Marry” and “a little lamb” are the nominal syntagmas of this sentence;
the first one is the subject, whereas the second is the verb
complement (direct object)); (ii) verbal syntagma, which concerns to
the predicate (e.g. in “Mike bought a new car yesterday”, “bought” is
the verbal syntagma of such sentence); (iii) adverbial syntagma,
refers to the adverbial adjuncts of a sentence (e.g. in “Karol and Beth
were at the cinema yesterday”, both “cinema” and “yesterday” form,
each one, an adverbial syntagma of this sentence; the first one is,
indeed, a place adverbial adjunct, while the second is a time one; (iv)
adjectival syntagma, concerns to the adjectival adjuncts of a
sentence (e.g. “A pretty woman looked at him, while he was dancing in
the dancing floor”, “pretty” is the adjectival syntagma of this sentence;
it gives to the nominal syntagma “woman” an extra quality). Likewise
the morphemes, the syntagmas can just be ordered in an sentence
according to certain rules, called syntactic rules; I mean, these are
responsible for organizing the sentences in a certain way that become
them logic, comprehensive, and understandable to the listeners.
These rules also prescribes what it is “normal” in a certain language in
term of syntax, that is, what is somehow acceptable by a certain group
of speakers (linguistic community). For instance, differently from
Portuguese, English speakers do not form a sentence without a
subject, even if the verb refers to a meteorological aspect, like the

4
A sequence of linguistic units in a syntagmatic relationship to one another.
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verb “rain” (e.g. “It rained today” – the subject “It” belongs to sentence,
whereas in Portuguese “Chuveu hoje”, there is no subject).

d) Semantic. It is the level of meaning, signified or signification.

According to some perspectives, words are linguistic signs, which are
constituted by three different elements: (i) a significant, which is the
sound or graphic sequence of a word; (ii) a signified, the mental
concept of such word; (iii) a referent, the element, in the real world to
which the word refers

Signified

Referent
Significant

Picture 3 - Pyramid of sign: significant, signified and referent

For instance, the sign or word dog has a significant “D-O-G”, a

signified, “a domesticated carnivorous mammal”, and a referent, the
animal itself. Whereas the morphological and phonological aspects of
a language concern about the significant, the semantic one deals with
the signified and sometimes with the referent. Thus, when language is
approached in such level, what it is concerned is the meaning of a
sentence or a word. Hence, every single sentence or word has an
intrinsic meaning which can refer to something in the real world. This
meaning, by its turn, was settled in the language system through years
and years and does not have a connection with the
communicative situation the sentence or word is used. Thus, it
can be said that the meaning or the signified is something denotative,
that is, something that is settled as to be understandable in a linguistic
community, although, sometimes meaning receives some connotative
traits. Moreover, meaning is what a sentence or a morpheme
intrinsically have in order to make them acceptable; that is, besides its
formal and logical aspects, both, morphemes and sentences must
have a certain sense to be acceptable.

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e) Pragmatic. It is the level of sense. Meaning and sense, even though

were taken as the same thing by some approaches, are in fact two
different language units. Whereas meaning is something intrinsic of a
certain morphological and syntactic unit, sense is a unit which is
necessarily related to the historical-social context in which
language is used. Thus, sense is a larger unit (compared to
meaning), which deals with the ideas of “where”, “when”, “who”, “how”,
and “what”, besides some ideological aspects. Moreover, sense is
responsible for constructing and signifying the world in many ways.
Hence, it can be said, that the pragmatic unit is the sense,
understandable here as “the meaning” related to a certain social
communicative situation. And this kind of situation is going to be better
discussed in the topic of communication (cf. 2).

These language levels do not functions isolated: they have necessity of

each other to constitute a language competence properly said and to
be used in communication.

Nevertheless, as every single human being has a mental capacity of

“speaking” every language, how, then, do certain communities or people’s
group speak certain language, like Americans speak English, and other
ones speak another language, like Brazilians speak Portuguese?

One of the answers to this question it is found in the environment children

is inserted. According to Chomsky (1957), environment has an important
role in competence or grammar formation. Chomsky says that to the faculty
of language (also called universal grammar (UG) or Language acquisition
device (LAD)), which brings all the parameters to constitute any kind of
language, needs to be added the experience of “living” a certain language.
This experience can just be felt when a child or a group of children is
inserted in a space or place where other people are talking a certain
language. From this place or space, children take the parameters and rules
of a certain language, selecting in their universal grammar these same
parameters and rules, in order to constitute, in the end, the language
particular grammar they are experiencing. Thus, under this perspective,
language is a kind of mental capacity which is formed by the internal-
biological faculty of language and the experience a child has in his
acquisition process.

Language is even a social product, that is, the environment where

children take from the parameters is the reflection of the linguistics aspects
of the community which lives in this environment. Then, it can be said that
language is not an immutable and adynamic thing as we firstly have the
impression; though language is a “live organism”, which evolves and
transforms throughout ages. As an example of what has been said,
comparing the two texts below:

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 Living Language: a method to learn English as a foreign
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“A good WIF was ther, OF “There was a WIFE of BATH,

biside BATHE, or a near city,
But she was somdel deef, Who was somewhat deaf, it
and that was scathe. is a pity.
Of clooth-makyng she At making clothes she had
hadde swich an haunt, a skillful hand
She passed hem of Ypres She bettered those of Ypres
and of Gaunt.” and of Ghent.”

The poem above was taken from The Canterbury Tales, of Geoffrey Chaucer
(1342 -1400). This poem was written in Middle English and was published in
the 14th century. The left side shows the poem in its language integrity,
whereas the right side displays the poem in Modern English. Forgetting the
resources used by the poet to settle the metric, there are some clear
differences between both texts: Wif – Wife; deef – deaf; somdel – somewhat;
makyng – making; hadde – hand, etc. These examples allow us to say that
English has changed through the ages.

Moreover, language is not a standard form, but a sum of varieties which have,
each, their own characteristics; that is, language varies according to some
social, cultural, geographical, political, economic, and historical conditions. It is
known, for example, that both English and American people speak the same
language. Nevertheless, in each of these countries English has some different
characteristics related to levels discussed and presented above (phonological,
morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic), like the use of shall to
form the simple future in British English, (e.g. “I shall be late this evening.”),
and the use of will in American English (e.g. “I will be late this evening.”). And
even inside of each country, the language varies from region to region. That is
the same to say, the English spoken in the state of Alabama (U.S) is not the
same one of New York.

Hence, language is a concept that deals with mental-biological and social

aspects. The first one, the mental-biological aspect, as it was said before,
concerns about the capacity of faculty human beings have to acquire
and speak any kind of language, whereas the second, the social aspect,
refers to the linguistic community children is inserted in to get the
necessary parameters to constitute their particular grammar and also to the
varieties a language has from country to country, from region to
region, and from time to time.

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2. Communication or Verbal Interaction

Language, as it was displayed in the section 1 above, is something abstract, which

usually does not have a “meaning” for speakers. This type of thing happens
because the reality of language is not abstract, but it is concrete, I mean, language
is used in order to communicate something. Thus, it can be said that, whereas
language is the abstract system (competence) speakers use to organize their ideas
and therefore communicate, communication, also called verbal interaction, is a
concrete action which deals with language, but it is also formed by other aspects:

Language

Communication or Verbal
Interaction
(Language in action)

Picture 4 - Language (abstract system) and Communication (Language in action)

The picture 4 above gives us an idea about the dichotomy Language and
Communication. It shows the nature of language (abstract system) and the nature
of communication (language in action).

It can also be said that a verbal interaction always occurs in a concrete

communicative situation, and this situation, besides gives to verbal interaction a
concrete reality, is formed by some traits, such as:

Communicative Situation Elements

This element refers to the ideological context in which
verbal interaction is inserted, that is, it concerns about
the social representations a linguistic community
Ample Horizon creates about an object. For example, in 1800s women
were not allowed to work and even to choose their own
husband, their parents did it for them; nowadays,
women are freer, and besides they are allowed to work

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and raise their own money, they can choose their own
partner.
It refers to the immediate context verbal interaction is
Immediate Horizon related to; I mean, the immediate horizon is the exactly
time and place where and when the interaction occurs.
Usually, this element is considered as the person who
Speaker 1 “starts” the verbal interaction. It can also be said this
is the person who speaks or writes.
It is the person to whom speaker 1 directs. Under
some approaches, he is the listener, but, I do not agree
Speaker 2 with this concept, because speaker 2 can also speaks
and emits his own opinion about what speaker 1 points
out.

This element refers to the purpose speaker 1 has

when he starts the interaction. Once speaker 1 gets
himself in a concrete communicative situation, he
always has a purpose that he wants to achieve and to
be “caught” by speaker 2. Thus, it can be said that in a
Intention or purpose
verbal interaction speaker 1 directs to speaker 2 with
a purpose that he wants to be “caught” by the last one.
When speaker 1 starts a verbal interaction, he needs to
use something concrete to share his purpose and
ideas. If language were not something abstract, he
could use it to communicate, but as it is, how does he
communicate? What speaker 1 does is to transform the
Text abstract linguistic elements of his competence in
something concrete: a text. , Thus, this is the element
which deals necessarily with language, that is, the text
is language transformed in something concrete. It is
also the result of a verbal interaction or
communication.

The scheme below gives us a better idea about communicative situation elements:

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Picture 5 - Communicative Situation scheme

In picture 5, it is easy to observe the elements of a communicative situation:

Speaker 1 is in interaction with speaker 2 within a concrete social-historic
circumstance (immediate horizon), which is somehow determined by some
ideological aspects (ample horizon). In this verbal interaction, speaker 1 creates a
text, which expresses his purposes and ideas about something, and directs it to
speaker 2, who, by its turn, “catches” the purpose and emits his own opinion about
it.

In order to have a better view of these elements, consider the example (1) below,
which is a conversation between a waiter (speaker 1) and a costumer (speaker 2)
within a communicative situation in a restaurant:

Waiter: May I take your order?

Customer: Yes, I’d like a hamburger and a large
order of french fries, please.
Waiter: All right. And would you like a salad?
Customer: Yes, I’ll have a mixed green salad.
Waiter: OK. What kind of dressing would you
like? We have vinaigrette, Italian, and
French.
Customer: Italian, please.

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Waiter: And would you like anything to drink?

Customer: Yes, I’d like a large soda, please.

Example 1 - Conversation between a Waiter and a Customer in a restaurant

In this example, speaker 1, the waiter, is taking speaker 2’s order. Each one, when
is talking, creates a text – which can be formed by one or more sentences – and
each text expresses speaker’s purposes and ideas.

Hence, communication is something concrete that differs from

language, because it realizes in a certain concrete circumstance,
which is formed by many other elements, like speaker 1 and
speaker 2, purpose, ample horizon, immediate horizon and text.
Thus, as Bakhtin (1992) says:

It is not words that we pronounce or hear, but truths or lies, good things or bad,
important or trivial, pleasant or unpleasant, and so on. The word is always
filled with some content or an ideological living sense. (BAKHTIN: 1992, p. 95)

3. Genre

When speakers are in interaction, they create their texts according to two perspectives:
(i) their purposes and ideas; and (ii) the discourse genre chosen to communicate.
However, what is a discourse genre?

Every verbal interaction results in a text which, by its turn, is framed in a discourse
genre, or just genre. The genre is the “element” that organizes, arranges, and
establishes language units (which belongs to language competence), according to
what can be said in this verbal interaction. Thus, discourse genres are ways of
communicating which deals with the restraints a social situation demands. For
instance, the example (1) above refers to a communicative situation that occurs in a
restaurant. As this situation is very dynamic, it allows speakers to use a genre which is
also dynamic. In this example, the genre chosen by them was “face-to-face
conversation”. Other genres can also be found in this situation, like the menu and the
order pad. These are, in such situation, ways of communication something.

The scheme below tries to demonstrate the place of a genre in a certain

communicative situation:

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Picture 6 - Genre scheme

Picture 6 shows the same scheme of picture 5, including on it, the genre (pointed blue
line). As it can be observed, the genre is what frames the text, which is the result of a
certain verbal interaction. Under this perspective the genre is not the whole
communicative situation, but a part of it.

Discourse genres are selected by a certain linguistic community in order to orientate

their verbal interactions. Thus, genres are deeply bound to the cultural and social life of
such community. Examples can be found everywhere, like letters (formal, informal,
letters to the readers, letters to the editor), advertisements (ads, propagandas), essays,
articles (scientific, news), phone calls, recipes, prescriptions, e-mails, cartoons, jokes,
instructions for the use of medicine, horoscopes, menu (restaurant), reviews (movie,
book, etc.), abstracts, interviews, chats, etc.

Like the communicative situation, a genre is characterized by some features, such as:

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Genre elements
The aim a genre has. It refers to the goal a genre
wants to achieve; for example, in a menu, the
communicative purpose is to inform what is usually
served in a restaurant. Some genres have more than
Communicative purpose:
one purpose, such as the “face-to-face conversation”
in which the purpose can be: to inform someone about
something, to invite someone to somewhere, to
entertain someone, etc.
It is what a genre “talks” about, that is, the topic
that a genre can discuss. Every genre selects its
appropriate theme, and restrains what can be said.
Thus, there are some genres which are more flexible
Theme: in this feature, whereas others are more restrainable.
For instance, the genre MSN chat allows speakers to
talk about many topics, like love, dating, political
problems, friendship, bills, diary problems, health, etc;
while a first aid manual just talk about health.5
Language offers many resources to achieve a goal.
Usually, these language resources are used in a
certain way to make our purpose more original. The
result of this selection is what is called style. The
style is often divided in two great groups: Formal style
and Informal style. They are often chosen by speakers
according to the degree of formality 6 they have with
each other.

 Formal style: it is used when speaker 1 and

Style: speaker 2 are not acquaintances, that is, they
do not know each other very well. Therewith,
formal style shows respect, politeness or
distance. It does not allow speakers to use any
kind of contraction, like it’s, they’re, he’s, doesn’t,
can’t, mustn’t, etc. or abbreviation (4U – for you,
2U – to you, etc. Usually, in formal style
monosyllabic words are not very common; the
same is available for phrasal verbs. Slangs and
idioms are forbidden to be used in this style.
Examples of genre which deals with formal style

5
Do not misunderstand theme with purpose, each one is different. Theme is the topic of the genre, such as,
friendship, love, political problems, etc, while the communicative purpose is what you want to achieve with
the theme;

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are religious sermons, business letters, scientific

articles;

 Informal style: It is used when speakers 1 and

2 know each other very well. It expresses
friendliness, equality or solidarity with someone.
Differently from formal style, informal language
accepts reductions, contractions and
abbreviations, phrasal verbs, monosyllabic
words, idioms and slangs, short sentences, and
every kind of linguistic unit which is short and
also quick to speak or write. Genres like, face-to-
face conversation, informal letters, MSN chat,
testimonial of Orkut, allow speakers to use
informal language.

They are textual sequences defined by their linguistic

nature of their composition, like lexical aspects,
syntactic aspects, verb tenses, logic relations, etc
(MARCUSCHI: 2003, p. 22). Some genres let us to
Textual Types: use all the textual types to achieve its goal, while
others do not. They are, according to Marcuschi
(2003), in number of five: Narrative type,
Argumentative type, Descriptive type, Injunctive type
and Expositive type.

In order to have a better view of these genre characteristics, consider the example (2)
below:

6
Formality is all about your relationship with the person you are speaking or writing to.

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Example 2 - The Genre Cartoon

Example (2) above is a cartoon. Usually the purpose of a cartoon is to entertain

someone with themes like sports, daily problems, political arrangements, etc. Its style
is often informal, and the narrative, descriptive and argumentative textual types are
often selected.

Hence, when people communicate, they choose an appropriate

genre which is related to the communicative situation they are and
inserted in, and this genre through its characteristics, like its
purpose, its theme, its style and its textual types, orientates the
verbal interaction in a certain way.

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4. Textual Types

Every text which speakers produce is related to a specific genre, like the ones
discussed above. Besides this, a text is formed by the linguistic units (cf. 1) which
belong to speaker’s language competence. Thus, when these speakers
communicate they need to organize those linguistic units (phonological,
morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) in textual types, which, by its
turn, are used to satisfy both speaker’s purpose and genre purpose.

According to Marcuschi (2003), textual types are:

(...) A kind of sequence theoretically defined by the linguistic nature of its composition (lexical
and syntactic aspects, verb tenses, logical relations). In general, the textual types cover about half a
dozen categories, known as narration, argumentation, exposure, description, injunction. (p. 22)

Among the textual types cited by Marcuschi (2003), there are:

Textual Types
Textual type Explanation
It is the kind of textual type
which deals with the
development of an action
during an interval of time.
Narrative
Usually, it is characterized by
using verbs in different tenses,
like the simple past, the past
perfect, the past continuous.
It is the textual type which
deals with the qualities
characters and people have
in a certain text. The
Descriptive
descriptive also identifies
these characters and
situates them in a certain
place. Usually, the descriptive
Examples
“I was born in the year of 1632. In
the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my
father being a foreigner of Bremen
who settled first ad Hull. He got a
good estate by merchandise and,
leaving off his trade, live afterward
at York, from whence he had
married my mother, whose
relations were named Robinson, a
very good family in that country,
and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer, but by the
usual corruption of words in
England we are now called, nay,
we call ourselves, and write our
name “Crusoe”, and so my
companions always called me.”
(DEFOE, D. Robison Crusoe.
England: Penguin popular
Classics, 1994. p. 8)
“Marianne’s abilities were, in many
respects, quite equal to Elinor’s.
She was sensible and clever, but
eager in everything; her sorrows,
her joys, could have no
moderation. She was generous,
amiable, interesting: she was
everything but prudent. The
resemblance between her and her

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selects the adjectives, nouns
or pronouns to achieve its
purpose. Verb tenses like the
simple present, present
continuous and past
continuous can also be used.
This is the textual type which
deals with the idea of
imposition and order.
Through this textual type,
Injunctive
speaker 1 obligates speaker
2 to do something. Usually,
this textual type uses the
imperative to reach its goal.
It is the textual type that deals
with the idea of explanation,
that is, with this textual type
speaker 1 wants to explain
or give some reasons to
Expositive
speaker 2. It is the textual
type for information. Besides,
it selects verb tenses like,
simple present, present
perfect, etc.
It is the textual type speaker 1
tries to persuade speaker 2
about his ideas and
Argumentative
conceptions; I mean, with the
argumentative textual type,
speaker 1 shares his point
mother was strikingly great.”
(AUSTEN, J. Sense and
Sensibility. England: Penguin
popular classics, 1994, p. 5)
“Whisk the milk, eggs, and sugar in
a medium saucepan. Add the
butter and chocolate and heat over
low heat, stirring only until the
butter and chocolate melt. Stir in
the vanilla. Lightly coat a 13-by-9-
inch baking dish with cooking
spray. Arrange the bread slices in 3
layers. Pour the chocolate sauce
over the bread. Cover with plastic
wrap and place another baking
dish on top to weigh down the
bread. Set aside for 1 hour to allow
the bread to absorb the sauce.
(The pudding can be made to this
point up to 1 day ahead.
Refrigerate.)”
“Anal sex is one of those
things that some people like,
some people hate, some
people are curious about, or
some never try at all. What
you need to remember about
anal sex is that it is not a
“safer” alternative to
intercourse. First of all, anal
sex (especially unprotected!!!)
is one of the riskiest behaviors
in terms of contracting a
sexually transmitted infection
if a partner has one. Second,
for some people it can be very
painful; you should always use
a water-based lubricant as well
if you are engaging in anal
sex. And if you are going to try
anal sex, you should always
use a condom!”
“So the harder a wife works, the
cuter she looks. Vitamins for pep.
Pep for vitamins!”
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of view about a certain

object of real world. This
textual can select structures
like indirect questions, passive
sentences and verb tense,
such as the simple present, to
satisfy its goal.

Each genre can select one or more of these textual types to constitute its text. Then,
it can be said that a text, in terms of organization, is not homogeneous, but
heterogeneous, that is, there is no necessarily association with a textual type and a
text, because a text can use all or some of these textual types to satisfy genre
purpose.

The genre advertisement, example (3) below, in its text, selects the argumentative
and explicative textual types:

Example 3 - The Genre Advertisement

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In this example, the sentence “New Dove Anti-Frizz Cream with our Weightless
Moisturizers makes hair smooth, shiny and doesn’t leave it greasy.” Is the
argumentative textual type of such advertisement, whereas “New Dove Anti-Fizz
Cream. A new movement in hair is here.” Is the explicative textual type of it.

Hence, textual types are sequences which use linguistic

units, taken from language competence, to satisfy a certain
genre purpose.

5. Why studies and works with discourse genres?

As far as I am concerned, working and studying discourse genres helps us to

improve our communicative skills in English Language. As many genres we know,
easier becomes the way we communicate.

All the writing will be related to a genre. Hence, we are supposed to study the genre
in class and try to adapt our goals with the goal offered by the genre.

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