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Language : Basic Concepts & Theories

5.1 LANGUAGE: BASIC CONCEPTS AND THEORIES

5.1.1 What is Language?

Some Definitions of Language
Language is defined by various scholars in various ways -
 "Language is that system by which sounds and meanings are related." (Fromkin and
Rodman, 1974)
 "Language is the most sophisticated and versatile means available to human beings for
the communication of meaning." (Brown, 1984)
 "Language is purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions
and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols." (Sapir, 1921)
 "Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other
by means of habitually used oral-auditory symbols." (Hall, 1964)
 "Language is a 'system of sounds, words, patterns etc used by humans to communicate
thoughts and feelings." (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 1989)
 "Language is a patterned system of arbitrary sound signals, characterized by structure
dependence, creativity, displacement, duality and cultural transmission." (Aitchinson, 1987)
5.1.2 Characteristics of Human Language
Language is human so it differs from animal communication in several ways. Language has
many characteristics but the following are the most important ones:
Language is Arbitrary
Arbitrariness is one of the most significant features of human language. Language is thought to
be arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words (morphs) of a language
and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them. We do not know why we call a thing or an idea by
the sound or set of sounds (phonemes) that we use for it. There is no reason why a female adult human
being be called a 'woman' in English, 'aurat' in Urdu, 'zen' in Persian and 'femine' in French. This feature
of language where the choice of words selected to mean a particular thing or idea is purely arbitrary is
significant in language. Ferdinand de Saussure in his famous book Course in General Linguistics, a book
compiled by his students from his lectures, emphasizes on this feature of language, as he points out
the arbitrariness of human language. Except for the onomatopoeic words (words which carries with it
the sense of it, for example, the snake "hisses" - the hissing sound connotes its sense) all other words
or meaningful sounds of a language are arbitrary.
Language is Social
Language is a medium of communication among members of a particular community. Language,
in that sense, is a possession of a social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits
its members to relate to each other, to interact with each other, to co-operate with each other; it is a
social institution. Language exists in society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and
establishing human relations.
Language is Symbolic
Language is not only used for speaking, but also for the purposes of writing. For each sound or
combination of sounds in a particular language a corresponding symbol are employed to demote its
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meaning. These symbols are arbitrarily chosen (similar to the way sounds are chosen arbitrarily) and
conventionally accepted and employed. Words in a language are not mere signs or figures, but symbols
of meaning. The intelligibility of a language depends on a correct interpretation of these symbols. Correct
interpretation of the symbols assumes that the society as a whole (the speech community) shares
among themselves certain codes which everybody follows so that the meaning becomes intelligible.
Language is Systematic
Although language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All languages
have their system of arrangements. Every language is a system of systems. All languages have
phonological and grammatical systems, and within a system there are several sub-systems. For example,
within the grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within these two sub-
systems we have systems such as those of plural, of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc. For example, in
English, the syntactical word order is Subject – Verb – Object (SVO); and everywhere in the world,
English-speaking people use this order. The word Syntactical order of Hindi is Subject – Object – Verb
(SOV).
Language is Vocal
Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory
mechanism in the human body. In the beginning, it appeared as vocal sounds only. Writing came much
later, as an attempt to represent vocal sounds. Writing is only the graphic representation of the sounds
of the language. So the linguists are of the view that speech is primary.
Language is Non-instinctive, Conventional
No language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans.
Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each generation transmits this convention on to
the next. Like all human institutions languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language
then is a convention in a community. It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human beings. Nobody
gets a language in heritage; he acquires it because he has an innate ability to do so.
Language is Productive and Creative
Language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human language can be
combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his hearers may ever have made
or heard before; yet both sides understand each other without difficulty. Language changes according to
the needs of society.
Finally, language has other characteristics such as Duality referring to the two systems of sound
and meaning, Displacement which means the ability to talk across time and space, Humanness which
means that animals cannot acquire it, Universality which refers to the equilibrium across humanity on
linguistic grounds, Competence and Performance which means that language is innate and produced
is society and furthermore, language is culturally transmitted. It is learnt by an individual from his elders,
and is transmitted from one generation to another. Thus using J. Firth's term, language is a 'polysystametic'.
It is also open to be studied from multifaceted angles.

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5.2 WHAT IS LINGUISTICS?

Linguistics can be defined as the scientific study of human language which tries to
uncover the underlying structure of human language. Before twentieth century what the scholars
primarily focused on when they studies language is the aspect of grammar and evolutionary aspect of
language which is terms as philology (Philology is a branch of study of language where one tries
to trace the origin of words and primarily attaches importance to the realm of vocabulary of a
particular language) but linguistics is far wider than that as the realm of linguistics to figure out the
underlying structure not only of a language, but languages per se.
5.2.1 Linguistics and its different subfields
There are different sub-fields of linguistics which tries to structurally figure out the ways language
is manifested by us in our use of it. The different sub-fields include -
 Phonetics, the study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and
perception.
 Phonology, the study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's
mind that distinguish meaning.
 Morphology, the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
 Syntax, the study of underlying structures of sentences.
 Semantics, the study of the meaning of words and how words combine to form the
meanings of sentences.
 Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used in communicative acts, and the role
played by context and nonlinguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning.
 Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed).
There are more areas which come under the area of linguistics or are connected with linguistics
– some areas which are directly connected are -
 Sociolinguistics, the study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.
 Applied linguistics, the study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably
language policies, planning, and education.
 Stylistics, the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.
 Semiotics the study which investigates the relationship between signs and what they
signify more broadly.

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5.3 SAUSSURE'S CONTRIBUTION TO STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913, born in Geneva), who is usually considered as the

'father of modern linguistics', studied Sanskrit and comparative linguistics in Geneva, Paris, and
Leipzig. In 1878, at the age of 21, Ferdinand de Saussure published a long and bright article "Note on
the Primitive System of the Indo-European Vowels" which established his credential as a young scholar.
Saussure's influence on linguists was far-reaching, first through his direct influence on his students at
the University of Geneva, who practically worshipped him, and then through his ideas as collected and
disseminated after his death by two of his students, Charles Bally and Albert Sechaye. These students,
who became well-known linguistic researchers in their own right, put together course notes from their
and another student's notebooks to produce the Cours de Linguistique Generale (Course in General
Linguistics). This composite work, shaped and interpreted by Bally and Sechaye, was prepared in the
years immediately following Saussure's death as a tribute and as a way of making his brilliant ideas
accessible beyond Geneva and for posterity. It worked: the Cours de Linguistique Generale was widely
read in French by scholars all over Europe, and in 1959 was translated into English by Wade Baskin
mainly for American students, who were less likely to have learned to read French than their European
counterparts. A new translation of the Cours de Linguistique Generale by Roy Harris appeared in 1986.
5.3.1 Ferdinand de Saussure: his key ideas
Ferdinand de Saussure lost faith in philology (the study of the historical development of languages)
and the historical (or diachronic) study of language, and argued for structurally studying language as it
exists as a system at a particular point in time (synchronically). This feature of Sassurean linguistics is
taken by structuralists to study any given text or cultural practice from a synchronic perspective.
Synchronic and Diachronic
As against the historical view of language, Ferdinand de Saussure emphasized the importance
of studying language from two distinct points of view, which he called "synchronic" and "diachronic". The
word "chronic" was derived from Greek word "chronos" which means time. Whereas, Synchronic linguistics
sees language as a living whole, existing as a state at a particular point in time; Diachronic linguistics
concerns language in its historical development (Greek dia - through, chronos - time).
Saussure says
"Synchronic linguistics will concern the logical and psychological relations that bind together co-
existing terms and from a system in the collective mind of speakers. Diachronic linguistics, on the
contrary, will study relations that bind together successive terms, not perceived by the collective mind
but substituted for each other without forming a system."
Thus synchronic linguistics deals with systems whereas diachronic with units. The relationship
between the both aspects of language study was diagrammatically represented as

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One has to keep in mind that it is impossible to consider the way a language has changed from
one state to another without first knowing something about the two states to be compared. This need
not to be a pair of complete synchronic descriptions, of course, to complain that it would be a distortion
of what linguists actually do in practice but some non-historical analysis is essential as a preliminary.
Saussure rounds off his discussion with various analogies, of which his analogy with a game of chess
is perhaps the most famous. If we walk into a room while a chess game is being played, it is possible
to assess the state of the game by simply studying the position of the pieces on the board (as long as
we know the rules): we do not normally need to know the previous moves from the beginning of the
game. And likewise the state of board at every move is implicit in any pattern of play we may wish to
study. The synchronic/diachronic distinction, Saussure claims, is very much like this.
Though, Saussure's distinction between diachronic and synchronic studies of the language is a
distinction between two opposing viewpoints, yet one has to keep in mind that a good diachronic work
is usually based on good synchronic work because no valid statement about linguistic change can be
made unless one has good synchronic work of the languages across the time in which the diachronic
work is being done.
Langue and Parole
Saussure argued for dividing language into three levels, langage, by which he meant the human
capacity to evolve sign systems, langue, the system of language that is the rules and conventions which
organize it, and parole, any individual utterance or the individual's use of language. Saussure was chiefly
interested in langue as a-historical phenomenon. For Saussure, Langue is, as Roland Barthes describes
it, "essentially a collective contract which one must accept in its entirety if one wishes to communicate."
In other words, it can be said that langue is the structure of a language at a given point of time and parole
is the performance of a speaker of that language.
Synchronic

(langue)

(parole)
Diachronic the individual speaker

time, change, process

the history of language

stasis
language always only exists in the moment
Saussure also made a categorical distinction between what he called Langue and Parole, where
Langue formed the subject matter of linguistics, parole was constituted of all those elements which lay
beyond the domain of linguistics, as it is to do with individual utterance in the sense of how an individual
uses a language within the structure of a language (langue). Saussure was deeply influenced by the
sociological theories of Durkheim. He therefore considered language to be an abstract body of knowledge
which all members of society shared collectively and individually. This knowledge of the code, which was
encoded in the brain of each individual and which belonged collectively to all the members of society,
Saussure considered to be Langue. The use made by individuals either by choice or predilection on
individual occasions fell in the domain of Parole and therefore was of no direct interest to linguistics. This
is the basic difference between the two: whereas one is social and a body of abstract knowledge, the
other is individual and is perceptible in individual instances.
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The implication, therefore, is very simple: the stable, predictable, pattered, systematic regularities
of language are what linguistics could set out to study. On the other hand, the random, unpredictable,
idiosyncratic and willful individual use of language was not amenable to a scientific analysis and was
therefore of no interest to linguistics.
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations
The synchronic system can then be described in terms of two axes: the paradigmatic and the
Syntagmatic. The paradigmatic is concerned with meaning based on association, and the Syntagmatic
is based on combination. To elaborate: the paradigmatic is concerned with the 'fixed' value of signs
based on their immediate associations with other signs (like the association of the sound/idea "large"
with other size notions such as "small", as well as with other sound images, such as "barge"). On the
other hand, the Syntagmatic is concerned with the 'dynamic', pertaining to meaning conferred by the
combination, order and sequence of signs.

The relationship between the words in Syntagmatic arena in the sentence "the ridiculous girl fell
into the pond" is the relationship where the words are combined together to produce a meaning, where
we have the word order of SVO (subject - object - verb) and we have further each word have a define
relationship with the other words. But each word in this sentence can be substituted with other words,
as given in the diagram above to make an infinite number of sentences having different meanings. This
realm of substitution is termed by Saussure as Paradigmatic. The relationship between the paradigmatic
and the Syntagmatic is analogous to that between the synchronic and diachronic, in that the former is
like a snapshot of related values, where the latter offers a trajectory where value is related to the
sequence or progression. The paradigmatic is structuralism's primary concern, being more readily
systematisable, although a consideration of both (and the correlations between them) is essential for any
structuralist analysis.
Signifier and Signified
In Saussure's view, words are not symbols which 'refers' to things, but are 'signs' which are
made up of two parts: a sound pattern (either written or spoken) called a 'signifier', and a concept called
a 'signified'. Things have no place in Saussure's model as language does not acquire meaning as the
result of some connection between words and things, but only as parts of a system of relations, as
Saussure says - "A linguistic system is a series of differences of sounds combined with a series of
differences of ideas." The relationship between the sounds (signifier) and the ideas or concepts it refers
to (signified) is arbitrary.

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5.4 PEDAGOGY: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHING

5.4.1 The Theory and Process of First Language Acquisition

Language acquisition can be seen as the process by which we acquire the competence to
perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate in a meaningful way. To achieve this
competence one needs to acquire diverse capacities including syntax, (science of sentence construction)
phonetics (study of sounds), and an extensive vocabulary (words, the study of words; that is Morphology).
Language acquisition is primarily in the spoken form in terms of using sounds in a meaningful way, but
gradually human beings also learn the way of using signs or symbols to write down the sounds so that
they can use it for future reference.
Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants'
acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition, which deals with
acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional language(s). This capacity to acquire and use
language in a meaningful way is a key aspect that distinguishes humans from other animals.
A major issue in acquiring the knowledge of language acquisition is how the linguistic competence
is picked up by children. A range of theories of language acquisition has been created in order to explain
this issue, such as, innatism in which a child is born prepared in some manner with the capability to learn
language, as against the other theories in which language is simply learned from the social and linguistic
circumstances in which the child grows up.
5.4.2 General approaches
Innatism
Innatism is approach to understand the process of language acquisition by infants where the
scholars started the study from the basic premise that a human child is born with the innate capability
to learn language. This notion of innatism basically arises from the fact that learning of language by child
happens in a magical fashion and cannot be explained so easily. Therefore from ancient days onwards,
people believed and tried to figure out ways to understand the innate nature of language acquisition
device of humans. As referred earlier, the ancient Greek scholar Plato even felt that human beings are
born with certain innate ability of making the right connection between words and their meanings. Plato's
idealistic theories of reality and language led him to believe that language is god-given and therefore
human beings must be given the proper mechanism even to pick up, understand and interact in that
language.
Not only theories of innatism, but different experiments were also carried out from ancient days
onwards to prove the theory of innatism. Psammeticus, an Egyptian Pharoah during the 7th century BC,
thought language to be inborn in human beings and consequently he thought that children isolated from
birth from any linguistic influence would develop the language they had been born with. In his experiment,
he isolated two children from the social circumstances where the children had no acess to language.
These children were reported to have spoken a few words of Phyrgian, an IE language of present day
Turkey. Psammeticus believed that this was the first, or original, language. In the 15th century King
James V of Scotland performed a similar experiment; the children were reported to have spoken good
Hebrew.
Social Interactionism
Social interactionist theory consists of a number of hypotheses on language acquisition. As the
term "Social Interactionism" suggests this theory believes that children do not learn language only
because of some innate capability that is manifest in them, but also because they interact with the other
members of the speech community that they are born in and grow up. This interaction with the other
members of community makes then pick up language. The compromise between "nature" and "nurture"
is the "interactionist" approach. What are the language behaviors that nature provides innately and what
are those behaviors that are realized by environmental exposure, which is nurture.
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Relational Frame Theory

Whereas Social Interactionist theory makes a dual approach in terms of finding a mid path
between innateness of human beings in picking up language and the social and linguistic environment
of the child; the Relational Frame Theory (Hayes, Barnes-Holmes, Roche, 2001), provides a wholly
selectionist / learning account of the origin and development of language competence and complexity.
Based upon the principles of Skinnerian behaviorism, The Relational Frame theorists are of the opinion
that children acquire language purely through interacting with the environment, which challenges the
notion that language acquisition capability in children is innate. They are of the opinion that the context
in which the child grows up is significant, but they distinguish itself from Skinner's work by identifying and
defining a particular type of operant conditioning known as derived relational responding, a learning
process that to date appears to occur only in humans possessing a capacity for language.
Generativism
Noam Chomsky's studies on syntax had changed the way linguistic studies have been going on
in the twentieth century. His Generative Grammar is one of the principal approaches to children's acquisition
language. Chomsky's (1980) in his Lectures on Government and Binding is of the view that the Child's
acquisition of syntax to some extent is similar to ordering from a menu as the child selects the correct
options using her parents' speech, in combination with the context. It is noted that all the children in a
speech-community ultimately learn almost the same grammar by the age of about five years.
Considerations like these have led Chomsky, Jerry Fodor, Eric Lenneberg and others argue that the
types of grammar that the child needs to consider must be narrowly constrained by human biology.
These innate constraints are sometimes referred to as universal grammar, the human "language faculty,"
or the "language instinct."
Further developments
Generativists have been criticized by many critics who argued that the concept of a Language
Acquisition Device (LAD) is not supported by evolutionary anthropology. Moreover they point out that
generative theory has several hypothetical constructs (such as movement, empty categories, complex
underlying structures, and strict binary branching) that cannot possibly be acquired from any amount of
linguistic input.
Since 1980, linguists studying children language acquisition, such as Melissa Bowerman, and
psychologists following Jean Piaget, like Elizabeth Bates and Jean Mandler, believed that there might be
many learning processes involved in the acquisition process. The more recent position is that in children
language emerges from usage in social contexts, using learning mechanisms that are a part of a general
cognitive learning apparatus (which is what is innate). This position has been championed by Elizabeth
Bates, Catherine Snow, Brian MacWhinney, Michael Tomasello, Michael Ramscar, William O'Grady, and
others. Philosophers, such as Fiona Cowie and Barbara Scholz with Geoffrey Pullum also supported the
empirical point of view of language acquisition.
5.4.3 The Acquisition Schedule
We are all aware of the fact that a child does not learn language in a day. The process takes
time - it is usually thought that by five to six years a child becomes a more or less good user of a
language. Still five to six years is nothing compared to the speed with which a child learns language. This
points to the fact that human child is born with the innate capacity to learn language, but at the same
time as we have discussed earlier, a human child does not acquire language if he or she is not in an
environment where language is used. So, we can say that a child picks up language as a medium of
self-expression and communication, like no other creature, regardless of great differences in circumstances
as the social environment in which he or she grows up decides the kind of language that he or she will
acquire. The process of language acquisition is gradual and goes through different stages.
It is being observed that all children (that is, all normal children) acquire language or develop
linguistic competence, more or less at the same time and very much in the same schedule. For
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example, at one month, a child is usually capable of distinguishing between sounds such as [ba] and
[pa]. From then onwards till about five or six years of age the child carries on picking up different features
of language to make more or less a good user of language by six. What happens is that the young
children actively acquire the language by identifying the regularities in language.
Caregiver speech
As discussed earlier that innatism cannot be the only reason of human language acquisition
device, as the social, linguistic and cultural environment decides the kind of language that a child picks
up. Therefore in this circumstance, the language spoken around the child by the older children, by the
grownups, by the adults, by the caregiver decides the way the child will acquire the language. Many a
times, the care giver uses a language with the child which is much more simplified than the everyday
language that the adults use. The characteristically simplified speech style adopted by someone who
spends a lot of time interacting with a young child is called caregiver speech. Caregiver speech is also
distinguished as of many kinds - the child-directed speech used by the mother is called "motherese";
by the father - "fatherese" and by others as "otherese." Salient features of this child directed speech are
the frequent use of questions, often using exaggerated intonation, extra loudness and a slower tempo
with longer pauses. These are either simplified words (tummy, nana) or alternative forms, with repeated
simple sounds and syllables, for things in the child's environment (choo-choo, poo-poo, pee-pee, wawa).
Caregiver speech is also characterized by simple sentence structures and numerous repetitions.
In the process, the child works out a system of putting sounds and words together to get a hold of the
basic structural organization of language.
Cooing and babbling
The earliest use of speech-like sounds by infants has been described by linguists as cooing. It
is perceived that during the first few months of a child's life, he or she gradually acquires the ability to
produce certain vowel-like sounds, particularly high vowels similar to [i] and [u]. By four months of age,
the developing ability to bring the back of the tongue into regular contact with the back of the palate allows
the infant to create sounds similar to the velar consonants [k] and [g], hence the common description
as 'cooing' or 'gooing' for this type of production. It is also noted that by the time they are five months
old, babies can already hear the difference between the vowels [i] and [a] and discriminate between
syllables like [ba] and [ga].
Between the age of six and eight months, the child starts sitting up and produces a number of
different vowels and consonants, as well as combinations such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga. This type of
sound production is described as babbling. In the later babbling stage, around nine to ten months, one
can perceive recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel combinations being produced,
as well as variation in the combinations such as ba-ba-da-da. Nasal sounds also become more common
and certain syllable sequences such as ma-ma-ma and da-dada are inevitably interpreted by parents as
versions of 'mama' and 'dada' and repeated back to the child.
As the child starts to stand up during the tenth and eleventh months, he or she becomes capable
of using their vocalizations to express emotions and emphasis. This late babbling stage is characterized
by more complex syllable combinations (ma-da-ga-ba). This stage also includes a lot of sound play and
attempted imitations.
The one-word stage
Between the age of twelve and eighteen months, children usually begin to produce a variety of
recognizable single-unit utterances. This period is traditionally called the one word stage, as it is
characterized by speech in which single words are uttered from everyday objects such as 'milk', 'cookie',
'cat', 'cup' etc. Instead of the phrase "the one-word stage" sometimes the term holophrastic (meaning
a single form functioning as a phrase or sentence) is also used which describes an utterance that could
be analyzed as a word, a phrase, or a sentence. In this phase the words uttered by the child is primarily
for the purpose of naming objects, but in certain cases the child also starts extending their use.
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The two-word stage

It is usually perceived that the two-word stage begins around eighteen to twenty months, as the
child's vocabulary moves beyond fifty words. By the time the child reaches the age of two years, he or
she is capable of using a variety of combinations, similar to baby chair, mommy eat, cat bad. Whether
the child is trying to mean something in terms of a sentence or they are simply about naming is very
difficult to predict, but the adult interpretation of such two words expressed by the child is of significance
as the adult tries to interpret these utterances of the child by the context of his or her utterance.
The phrase baby chair may be taken as an expression of possession (= this is baby's chair), or
as a request (= put baby in chair), or as a statement (= baby is in the chair), depending on different
circumstances. The above example taken from George Yule's book suggests that the child may use the
two words "baby chair" for various purposes depending on the circumstances in which he or she is. But
whatever be the intention of the child in making such an expression, it is usually the thing that the adult
tries to interpret the utterance of the child as a way which suggest that a communication is taking place.
Telegraphic speech
Between the age of two and two-and-a-half years, the child begins to produce a large number
of utterances which goes beyond the two-word stage which is usually classified as 'multiple-word'
speech. This phase is also called the stage of telegraphic speech as it is a phase which is characterized
by strings of words (lexical morphemes) in phrases or sentences such as this shoe all wet, cat drink
milk and daddy go bye-bye. In other words, it can be said that in this stage the child starts developing
some sentence-building capacity. By three, the vocabulary of the child increases to hundreds of words
and pronunciation becomes more or less closer to the form of adult language.
Developing semantics
When a child starts using language we figure out that the child starts learning which sound to
associate with object or idea or concept. The process is an interesting one as in the process the child
makes many a mistakes in terms of associating sometimes a single sound with many a object, sometimes
referring to a object with a name which is typically his or her own creation. As the child has limited
vocabulary in the holophrastic stage therefore it is natural that he or she may refer to a large number
of objects by the same sound. For example, "doggie" is a sound that the child not only uses for dogs,
but for any hairy animal that he or she sees.

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5.5 PEDAGOGY OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING/TEACHING

Language acquisition depends on the social environment in which one grows up. A child born in
a mono-lingual social set up picks up one language, whereas if the child is lucky to be born in a set up
where more than one language is used in everyday conversation then it becomes easy for him to acquire
competence in two languages and become a bilingual and in some cases a multilingual individual. For
example, if a child is born in The United states of America, where his or her mother tongue is English,
then the child will pick up just one language, that is, English; but if the child is born in the elite class of
an Indian city where the parents and other individuals at home are bilingual, speaking mother tongue and
English at the same time, then the child will naturally pick up two languages and will have competence
in both of them.
However, in many cases, where as a child one only learns his or her mother tongue, but in a later
period for various reasons, starting from academic, professional and others, an individual may choose
to learn a second language. Though it is true that the learning of second language at a later stage in life
is a bit different than learning a second language as a child.
5.5.1 Barriers in Acquisition of the Second Language
In most of the cases, the learning of second language (L2) is very different from the acquisition
of mother tongue (L1). Most people learn their L2 during their teenage or adult life. Moreover, they tend
to learn the language in an institutionalized setting making them interact in that language only for a few
hours, as for all other purposes they already know a language (L1) in which they communicate. For
example, a teenage child in India learning English only uses English in the school for a few hours.
Outside the school and even amongst the peer group within the school he or she uses L1. Thus various
barriers come in the way of learning the second language. Yet there are many who overcome all barriers
to become effective communicators in the second language. Bilingualism is generally referred to as "a
native like competence in two languages." This situation when a person has a native like competence
in two languages is an ideal state and very few of us reach that state.
Some scholars also are of the opinion that after the critical period for language acquisition is over
which is around the time of puberty, it becomes very difficult to acquire a second language; but this belief
is proved to be wrong many a times by the learners those who have shown tremendous expertise in
second language.
5.5.2 Learning Factors in Second language Acquisition
There are several factors which are responsible for the speed and nature of Second language
Acquisition. The significant factors among them are – learner's age, intelligence, aptitude, motivation,
attitude, personality, cognitive style etc.
Age
Many linguist and psychologists are of the opinion that children are better at learning a second
language than adults. Penfield (1953) and Lenneberg (1968) are of the opinion that the important period
for language acquisition is between the age if two to puberty. After an individual crosses the age of
puberty it becomes difficult and psychologically different for hi m or her to learn a second language.
Seliger (1978) is of the opinion that children acquire phonological system mush faster than adults.
Sex
Several studies are done on whether sex determines the nature of Second language Acquisition
and it is being found out that girls are better learners of second language than boys. Trudgill points out
how women used the prestige linguistic forms more frequently than men, which is a result of female
social insecurity. To compensate this insecurity, women are faster learners of second language than the
boys. Agnihotri is of the opinion that girls pick up prestige second language faster but the stigmatized
form they are slow.

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 English (Sample Theory)

Intelligence
Intelligence of a person obviously decides the way and the speed of Second language Acquisition,
though many studies (Pimsleur et al (1962), Carroll and Sapon (1959)) are being done where scholars
are skeptical about the relationship between intelligence and language acquisition skills.
Aptitude
By aptitude one means whether the person has a "knack" for the thing that one is doing. Often
we hear the phrase "a knack for languages" which means that a person can have an aptitude to learn
a new language. There are two known measures of Second language Acquisition aptitude - Modern
Language Aptitude Test (MLAT), developed by Carroll and Sapon (1959) and The Pimsleur Langauge
Aptitude Battery (LAB) (1966). MLAT talks about four factors that predict a student's success in the
classroom -
1. Phonemic coding ability: student's ability to use phonetic scripts to distinguish phonemes
in the languages.
2. Grammatical sensitivity: student's ability to pick out grammatical functions in a sentence.
3. Inductive language learning ability: student's ability to generalize patterns from one sentence
to another.
4. Rote learning: student's ability to remember vocabulary lists of foreign words paired with
translations.
Personality
There are certain personality traits which are significant in second language acquisition. They are
- social conformity, extrovert, flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, independent, self-confident, mature,
meticulous, responsible etc. these are factors that make a person or a child a better learner of second
language.
Attitude
Attitude plays an important role in the second language acquisition. The nature of attitude of a
second language learner can vary from person to person because of different factors-attitude towards
the teacher, attitude towards the language itself or the group that speaks the language. According to
Allport, "an attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a
directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all object and situations with which it is
related." This readiness to learn a language can make things happen faster or slower.
Motivation
The term "motivation" in the second language learning is viewed by Gardner as "referring to the
extent to which the individual works or strives to learn the language because of a desire to do so and
the satisfaction experienced in this activity." It is the learner's drive to learn language that we can term
as Motivation, not only the favourable attitude. For example, a person living in India has a favourable
opinion about English language, but that does not mean that he is motivated. Moreover, when he puts
in a special effort to strive to learn the language then we can call him motivated.

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5.6 METHOD AND APPROACHES TO SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

5.6.1 The Traditional or Grammar-Translation Method

The Traditional or Grammar-Translation Method was primarily applied to the study of second
languages from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. In the 19th century this method was rather
widespread for learning second languages. Even today, this method has not completely died out, though
there are very few practitioners of this method.
The most relevant principles of this method can be summarized as follows:
 The Grammar-Translation Method emphasizes on the study and translation of the written
language, more than on the spoken form. When one becomes very good in translation
then one starts translating the moment one hears a sentence to be translated. But in the
second language learning schedule, the beginners start translating simpler things and
then slowly move on to more and more complex aspects in written form of the language.
What are primarily given to translate are easier constructions of the language in the
beginning which slowly moves towards the complexities of language.
 Learners are considered successful if they can translate from their mother tongue to the
second language, even if they cannot communicate orally. As translation is the main focus
of this method, therefore if a learner of a second language is able to translate properly;
it is thought that he has achieved command over the second language. The thrust is on
academic use of second language and not on social or everyday use.
 Reading and writing are considered the main language skills. Spoken form of language is
usually neglected.
 Role of the teacher in this method is very authoritarian as the primary interaction is
between teacher-student. Students are not encouraged to talk amongst themselves in any
language as the focus is not on the spoken form of language.
 Students are made to learn grammatical rules and are asked to use them in their exercises.
Understanding and grasping the rules of grammar is very significant in Grammar-Translation
method, therefore, students are made to learn grammatical rules so that it helps in the
process of translation.
 The basic unit of teaching is the sentence.
 The student's native language is usually the medium of instruction.
The main techniques used by the Grammar-Translation Method.
The Grammar-Translation Method focuses on the teaching of the second language grammar
primarily through the grammatical rules and lists of vocabulary along with translations into the mother
tongue. Translation is considered the most important classroom activity. The main procedure of an
ordinary lesson follows this plan: a presentation of a grammatical rule, followed by a list of vocabulary
and, finally, translation exercises from selected texts.
Other activities and procedures can be the following :
 reading comprehension questions about the text;
 students find antonyms and synonyms from words in the text;
 vocabulary is selected from the reading texts and it is memorized; sentences are formed
with the new words.
The major disadvantages of the Grammar-Translation Method.
Major disadvantages of the Grammar-Translation method are :
 Mostly the Grammar-Translation method focuses on the use of language by the great
authors and thereby overlooking the fact of everyday conversational language. The thrust
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of Grammar Translation method being merely on written form of language does not make
the second language learner learn various aspects of language use.
 Grammatical rules and list of vocabulary that the student memorizes are sometimes very
confusing for the student. This method gives too much of importance to morphology, but
neglects syntax when syntax is thought to be one of the basic element of any language
learning.
 The Grammar Translation method provides too much importance to faults to be avoided
and to exceptions, which emphasizes on the prescriptive and mechanical aspect of
language. The mechanical aspect does not make the learners engage with the second
language which hampers the learning process. Sometimes the mechanical aspect deters
the learner away from the language making the grammar-translation method a barrier in
second language learning.
 In most cases, the translations done by learners are not up to the mark as they are done
word by word. Word to word translation can never imbibe the spirit of the language to
which it is translated, as each word of a language has a cultural baggage attached to it.
 Many a time tedious process of memorizing make the learner frustrated about the whole
process of learning a second language.
5.6.2 Direct method
Another important method of teaching second language is called the Direct Method, often
referred to as the natural method, which is evolved due to dissatisfaction with the Grammar Translation
Method. In the Direct Method, the attempt is to create a context similar to that of the mother tongue
acquisition (therefore sometimes also named the Natural Method). It was based on the assumption that
the learner of a foreign language should think directly in the target language. According to this method,
for example, English is taught through English. The learner learns the target language through discussion,
conversation and reading in the second language. This method was established in Germany and France
around 1900. In the U.S., it is known as Berlitz Method. The main aim of this method is to help the
students speak the target language (L2) fluently and correctly. In other words, the focus of this method
is to make the learner get himself or herself equipped with the conversational aspect of the second
language so that he or she becomes adept in using the second language in his or her day to day life.
thus, it can be said that there is a complete shift of focus in the Direct Method from the Grammar
translation Method as one former is more concerned with the spoken form of language and the later with
the written aspect.
Characteristic features of the direct method are
 Teaching of vocabulary is done through pantomiming, real-life objects and other visual
materials, so that the tedious process of memorizing vocabularies so prevalent in the
Grammar-translation Method does not become taxing for learners and does not deter
them from learning the second language. Thus while not giving so much emphasis on
memorizing and moreover by making the students be part of the process of learning
through real life objects the Direct method engages the learners with the second language
and makes the learning process interesting and engaging.
 Teaching of grammar is done by using an inductive approach centrality of spoken language
(including a native speaker like pronunciation), which makes the learner feel that he or she
is growing up to be a part of the speech community of the target language. As discussed
earlier, one of the main motivations of the second language learner is to learn the language
so that he can be a part of the speech community of the second language.
 The focus is on question-answer patterns.
 Teacher is the center of learning.

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Principles
 Instructions in classroom are given in the second language so that the learners get the second
language from the beginning and gets into the habit of interacting in the second language.
 The focus is on the everyday vocabulary and sentences during the initial phase; grammar,
reading and writing are introduced in intermediate phase.
 Oral teaching precedes any form of reading and writing as the primary emphasis is on
the spoken form of language.
 Grammar is taught inductively.
 Pronunciation is taught systematically in accordance with the principles of phonetics and
phonology of the second language so that the learner can be a part of the second
language speech community also in terms of pronouncing the second language exactly
in the same manner as the native speaker of the language.
 The meanings of words and forms are taught by means of object or natural context.
 Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract
vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.
 Both speech and listening comprehensions are taught.
 The focus is on the learner; therefore they speak at least eighty percent of the time.
 Learners are taught from the beginning to ask questions as well as answer them.
Advantages
There are many advantages of Direct Method. They are -
 This method tries to teach the second language in the same way as one learns one's
mother tongue. The language is taught through demonstration and conversation in context.
Therefore, students are quick at understanding spoken from. It is a natural method which
has its benefits.
 As in this method mother tongue is not used therefore the learner focuses not only on
learning the second language but at the same time tries to grasp it to the fullest.
 This method is based on sound principles of education as it believes in introducing the
particular before general, concrete before abstract and practice before theory.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages are -
 Many educationists and scholars are of the view that the Direct Method does not take into
account all aspects of language teaching. It emphasizes on the written form and neglects
the written aspect of language. In other words, it can be said that this method is not
comprehensive enough as Language learning involves acquisition of skills - listening,
speaking, reading and writing. The Direct Method concentrates on listening and speaking
but not reading and writing. That is why many of those who have learned the second
language through the Direct Method feel that they do not get adequate command over
written language.
 Its procedures and techniques were difficult for the learner as the instruction from the
beginning is given in the second language which makes the learner not grasp the
instructions.
 Teachers had difficulty in explaining the difficult words as he or she is not able to use the
mother tongue of the learner to explain difficult concepts and words.
 No selection and grading of vocabulary and structures.
 It was a success in private language schools but not in public secondary schools.
 There was less time and less opportunity available in the classroom.
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5.6.3 The Bilingual Method

Dr. C. J. Dodson developed the Bilingual method, which is also known as the Sandwich Method.
In this method, both L1 and L2 are used as medium of instruction. In this method, the teaching begins
with a Bilingual approach and then gradually becomes monolingual at the end. In the sense, that the
teacher uses both mother tongue (L1) and the target language (L2) in the classroom during the initial
classes and then gradually uses less of L1 to focus on L2.
There is a three-phase structure of presentation - practice - production model followed in the
class room where the lesson starts out with the reproduction / performance of a basic dialogue, and then
moves on to the variation and recombination of the basic sentences and ends up with an extended
application. Dodson thought about the most direct form of access to meaning possible by using oral
mother-tongue equivalents at sentence level to convey the meaning of unknown words or structures in
the second language.
The following principles are followed in the Bilingual method :
 Second language is learnt with the help of L1.
 Mother tongue is not used as Translation, but becomes one of the medium initially for the
teachers to begin the process of acquainting the learners with L2.
 Teacher only uses L1 in the class room, whereas the students are not allowed to use their
mother tongue.
 When the students achieve sufficient communicative proficiency, L1 is withdrawn by the
teacher.
 Syntax is the unit of teaching
Procedure / Steps in teaching
1. The teacher begins by reading out a dialogue to the learner(s). The learners listen to the
teacher with their books closed.
2. Next, the learners repeat the lines with the teacher with their books opened in the second
reading.
3. The teacher gives sentence wise or meaningful parts wise L1 equivalents (meanings)
4. The teacher says each sentence of the dialogue twice with L1 version (meanings)
Disadvantages
The primary disadvantages of the Bilingual Method are -
 One of the primary focus of the Bilingual method is the emphasis on grammatical structures
but not on the day-to-day conversation
 If the teacher is not well conversant in both L1 and L2, then the whole method falls flat
 Learners to some extent become dependent on their mother tongue, thus making their
process of picking up L2 slower.
5.6.4 The Structural-Oral-Situational approach
The Structural-Oral-Situational approach to Second Language Teaching is a method developed
by British applied linguists (Firth and Halliday) which was popular in the 1930s to the 1960s. This method
harps on the structural view of language, where both speech and structure are the basis of language
learning and, especially, the competence to speak. One of the significant features of the method is the
emphasis on vocabulary and reading skills learning. It is noticed that a core of about two thousand words
in English occurs frequently in the language which if mastered could make one proficient in a language.
Moreover, it is believed that an analysis of English and a classification of its principal grammatical
structures into syntactical patterns could be used to assist learners to internalize syntactical rules.
This method held a behavioristic stand to Second language learning as it dealt with the processes
rather than the conditions of learning. These processes encompass three stages :
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 English (Sample Theory)

 receiving the knowledge or material

 fixing it in memory by repetition
 and using it in actual practice until it becomes a personal skill.
The principles of the behavioristic theory of learning are :
 language learning is all about habit-formation
 mistakes should be avoided, as they make bad habits
 language skills are acquired in a better fashion if they are presented orally first, then in
written form
 analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis
 the meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context
The Structural-Oral-Situational approach aims at the following objectives :
 a practical command of a language in the sense of the spoken from of language so that
the learner becomes fully proficient user of the language to make him or her similar to that
of the native speaker of that language.
 accuracy in both pronunciation and grammar
 ability to respond quickly and accurately in speech situations
 automatic control of basic structures and sentence patterns.
The basic important features of this approach are :
1. Learning a language is not only learning its words but also the syntax
2. Vocabulary is presented through grades.
3. The four skills of (LSRW) Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are presented in
order.
4. Sentence patterns exist and can form the basis of a language course.
5. Class room teaching and learning are made enjoyable.
6. Concrete linguistic items are taught through Demonstration
7. Abstract ideas are taught through association.
8. It helps to develop learners' competence in the use of structure in L2.
The Structural-Oral-Situational approach uses a structural syllabus and a word list and relied on
structural activities including situational presentation of new sentence patterns and drills to practice the
patterns. A typical Structural-Oral-Situational approach Teaching lesson would start with stress and
intonation practice. Then the main body of the lesson might consist of four parts:
1. revision (to prepare for new work if necessary)
2. presentation of new structure or vocabulary
3. oral practice (drilling)
4. reading of material on the new structure, or written exercises.
Advantages
Although The Structural-Oral-Situational approach of Second Language Teaching was developed
during the 1930s, it still attracts the interest of many teachers. Its strong emphasis on oral practice,
grammar and sentence patterns conform to the intuitions of many practically oriented classroom teachers.
Disadvantages
 Noam Chomsky thought that the structural and the behaviouristic approaches to language
are flawed and do not account for the basic characteristic of language namely the creativity
and uniqueness of individual sentences.
 Moreover, the situations used in the class room are not real-life situation and therefore

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does not help the learners deal with the language when they are faced with a real-life
situation.
 Another drawback of this method is that the explanations of abstract ideas become very
difficult.
 This method is viable only in the elementary level, but at an advanced stage this method
does not work.
5.6.7 Later Trends
As all the methods discussed earlier have some disadvantages or the other, therefore the scholars
and teachers of the second language pondered over the methods and devised a new way of teaching
the second language which they thought to be more effective than the earlier methods. The new method
is called Communicative Language Teaching Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is a functional
approach to language learning. In 1972, this second language methodology was proposed in Europe. The
main aim is to develop the communicative competency of the learner. Students' need of understanding
and expressing in the L2 is the main focus of this method.
Objectives of CLT
1. To produce effective communicative competence in learners.
2. The focus is on meanings and functions of the language.
3. More importance on the learner and his learning.
4. The teacher is a facilitator in language acquisitions.
5. Involve the learner in the learning process through problem solving, tasks, participation
and interaction.
6. All the four LSRW (listening- speaking- reading- writing) skills are equally treated.
CLT involves many classroom activities like group work, pair work, language games, role play,
and question-answer sessions. It is not confined to any set of text books. The learners are mostly
introduced task based and problem solving situations.
Demerits
1. No single uniform method is prescribed.
2. Different techniques are followed in the process of learning.
3. Several roles are assigned to the teachers.

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Sample Questions With Solutions

1. Which among the following is not a characteristic of human language ?

(A) Arbitrary (B) Creative
(C) Symbolic (D) Uni-dimensional

2. Who among the following talked about the arbitrariness of human language ?
(A) Saussure (B) Chomsky
(C) Labov (D) Fishman

3. What is the syntactical order of Hindi ?

(A) SVO (B) SOV
(C) OBV (D) VSO

4. Who among the following came up with the distinction between Competence and Performance
?
(A) Fishman (B) William Labov
(C) Saussure (D) Noam Chomsky

5. Phonetics is scientific study of _______.

(A) Sounds (B) Words
(C) Meaning (D) Sentence

6. Which among the following is not a field of Linguistics ?

(A) Phonetics (B) Semantics
(C) Syntax (D) Philology

7. Cours de Linguistique Generale is a book which deals with the ideas of _______.
(A) Ferdinand De Saussure (B) Noam Chomsky
(C) Victorian Rodman (D) William Labov

8. What is signifier ?
(A) Sound pattern (B) Concept
(C) Any sound (D) Arbitrary

9. What is "diachronic" study of language ?

(A) Study of language at a given point of time
(B) Study of language over a period of time
(C) Neither (A) nor (B)
(D) Both (A) and (B)

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 English (Sample Questions)

10. Philology is a _______ study.

(A) Synchronic (B) Diachronic
(C) Both synchronic and diachronic (D) Neither synchronic not diachronic

ANSWER KEY
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
D A B D A D A A B B

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SOLUTIONS

1. (D) The first three are true about human language but the last option is not a feature of human
language.
2. (A) Ferdinand de Saussure talked about the arbitrariness of human language as signifier and
signified are arbitrarily connected to each other.
3. (B) In Hindi, we see subject first, then the object and at last we use the verb.
4. (D) Noam Chomsky
5. (A) 'Phone' means sounds and "Phonetics" is scientific study of sounds.
6. (D) Philology is historical study of language and in modern linguistics Philology, it is not
considered to be within the domain of linguistics.
7. (A) The Cours de Linguistique Generale (Course in General Linguistics) is written by Saussure's
students and has the ideas of Saussure and therefore usually considered to be his book.
8. (A) Sound pattern
9. (B) Ferdinand de Saussure talked about two kinds of study of language - Diachronic and
Synchronic - Diachronic refers to study of language over a period of time and synchronic
refers to study of language at a given point of time.
10. (B) Philology is a study of words and their history and therefore it is a Diachronic study.

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