Three Features for Language Proposal Introduction to Linguistics

Lesson 8.4: THREE FEATURES FOR LANGUAGE LESSON PROPOSAL

Identify three linguistic features or closely related sets of features that you would have to teach to non-native speakers when you teach your content topic. The reason you would have to teach these features is that they seem difficult or unusual compared to other language you use. They may be more frequent in your language sample (a short text if it is written or a transcript if it is spoken) or may only be used in the context of your sample so that they may be "new" to a non-native speaker. If you don't teach non-native speakers or don't plan to teach right away, I still want you to be able to identify language features that are particular to a text for the above reasons. That is part of linguistic training, the purpose of the course.

When I refer to language features I mean "language characteristics" of the kind that we have encountered throughout the course already. For example, any of the rules in the AAVE homework describe "linguistic features" (monophthongization, final consonant cluster reduction, -s deletion, multiple negation, invariant be). Or the linguistic variables in Labov's case studies (r-lessness in NYC or centralization on Martha's Vineyard) are linguistics features. Likewise, all of the linguistic ir/regularities in your short text you identified for the first homework qualify as linguistic features. More examples are in the homework samples I provided last lesson. Also, a colleague mentioned comparisons in scientific texts: the heat from the first experiment was greater than that from the second. You could pick a recipe, which came up on-campus when someone requested the recipe for cookies she brought to class. Recipes (like directions in the sample paper) have peculiar language, e.g. no articles before nouns (syntax, pragmatics), command forms of verbs (syntax, pragmatics), abbreviations for measures (morphology). You could tape the news (pragmatic use of language features to introduce new topics) or a talk show (discourse analysis of turn-taking). The linguistic features/sets of features must be from three different areas of linguistics, such as pronunciation (phonetics, phonology), words (lexicon, morphology), sentence structure (syntax), meaning (semantics), pragmatics (meaning in context, discourse structure, etc.), language variation (dialects, language and gender, language and ethnicity etc.). I hope this gives you a few ideas of where to start looking.

Post your language sample and a general, non-linguistic description of the three features you picked. Discuss these features in your online discussion groups; the point of the discussion is to help each other to get focussed on your features. Make sure in your group discussions that everybody concentrates on linguistic features, not a teaching method. The folders for this exercise are called ThreeFeatures1 through 5 and the group member assignments are the same as for the Phonetics discussion exercise. Good luck with this important step towards become a language teachers (and hobby linguist)!

This is the end of lesson 8. You will find lesson 9 next week by going to the list of lessons on the home page
(http://web.hamline.edu/personal/aschramm/linguistics2001/index.html) and clicking on "Lesson 9".