Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing English Language Learning

This chapter examines processes of language variation and change that take place in all languages, with a focus on English. Sociolinguists have observed that demographic and social variables such as where someone is born, their age, gender, and socio-economic status can be relevant to how they speak. However, contemporary work indicates that there is more to how someone speaks than a few checkboxes on a survey. Who does a speaker feel empathy with and want to emulate? How does a multi-faceted sense of personal identity affect how a person speaks? How might a second language (L2) learner's sense of belonging affect their own realization of English? These are some of the questions that this chapter seeks to address.

The Causes of Learner Pronunciation Problems in English

This chapter will provide the language teacher with an introduction to the theory behind the challenges and problems that learners from a variety of language backgrounds face as they learn to pronounce the sounds of English. The primary focus will be on the influence of the first language in second language phonological acquisition. This will include an overview of the role of perception of non-native sounds, as well as a consideration of phonological representation in the mental lexicon and articulatory constraints, all of which can have an effect on difficulties that learners encounter as they learn to pronounce English sounds. Attention will be given to the various components that make up the phonological system, including segmentals, suprasegmentals, phonotactics, and phonological processes. This theoretical understanding will then be applied to pronunciation instruction within the classroom by addressing what teachers can do to maximize the effectiveness of instruction.

Speech Acts and Cross-Cultural Pragmatics

Linguistically diverse learners tend to first relate the pragmatic ability they already possess in their first or more dominant language (L1) to act in the L2; as a result, miscommunication and misunderstandings are frequent and common. Teachers can help learners develop awareness about L2 pragmatic norms by making visible how speech acts are performed in the L2 community of speakers while providing opportunities to engage in role-playing or real interactions involving the accomplishment of selected speech acts. This chapter offers an overview of the importance of context in cross-cultural interactions, a brief survey of the theories of speech acts, and concrete pedagogical ideas for teachers to develop linguistically diverse learners' pragmatic awareness and ability while celebrating and promoting linguistic and cultural diversity.

Lexical Semantics

Lexical semantics is concerned with inherent aspects of word meaning and the semantic relations between words, as well as the ways in which word meaning is related to syntactic structure. This chapter provides an introduction to some of the main themes in lexical semantic research, including the nature of the mental lexicon, lexical relations, and the decomposition of words into grammatically relevant semantic features. The mapping between the semantics of verbs and their associated syntax is discussed in terms of thematic roles, semantic structure theory, and feature selection. A review of some of the most influential findings in second language research involving both open-class and closed-class lexical items reveals important implications for classroom pedagogy and syllabus design in the domain of vocabulary instruction.

Morpho-Syntactic Marking of Inflectional Categories in English

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the connection between morphology and syntax, using inflectional morphemes and functional words that mark specific inflectional categories on the verb. The chapter identifies and discusses four major inflectional categories marked on the verbs, namely, tense, aspect, mood, and voice from a descriptive linguistics approach. This approach provides a much more systematic and simple presentation of how English marks these less-commonly understood and potentially confusing concepts. The chapter first reviews the basic terminology and concepts relevant to the topic and presents a concise survey of both the traditional and the more recent theoretical analyses of English tense, aspect, mood, and voice. Further, it explains and exemplifies the recent analysis of tense, aspect, mood, and voice markers as a demonstration of how they can be taught accurately and in a pedagogically simpler way.

Articulatory Phonetics

This chapter focuses on the articulatory phonetics of English vowels; thus, it identifies descriptive parameters for vowel articulation in English, differentiates monophthongs and diphthongs, classifies the vowels of American English using these parameters, and addresses vowel reduction in American English. The theoretical material is followed by a pedagogical consideration of how the specifics of the articulatory characteristics of English vowels can be addressed in the classroom to facilitate comprehension and production of English vowels by English language learners. Supplementary materials are suggested for readers offering sample activities that could be used by language practitioners in ESL classrooms for this goal, as well as for exploring other dialects of English, including specific regional dialects falling under the umbrella of General American English, the variety addressed in this chapter.

Morphemes

This chapter introduces basic concepts in the field of morphology. In the first section, a morpheme is defined as the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In the second section, morphemes are divided into free and bound types, with bound morphemes further classified as either affixes (prefixes, infixes, suffixes, or circumfixes) or bound roots. This section additionally distinguishes between the role of function words and content words in a sentence. The third section outlines the nine word classes in English: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, determiners, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The final section of the chapter explains the implications of this information for teaching vocabulary, grammar, and language skills. The chapter concludes with questions for discussion and some practice exercises.

Word Formation

This chapter presents a basic overview of the formation of words, with special attention to English. It covers the basics of both free and bound morphemes and the manner in which they combine. Productive processes including inflection, derivation, and compounding are examined with regard to their transparency and productivity; less common processes including zero-derivation (conversion) blending, clipping, back-formation are also covered, as are borrowing and coinage. Readers will be provided with guided practice in the analysis of English words into their constituent parts and in the principles of formation.

Supporting English Learners' Development of Intelligible Speech

In this chapter, the authors discuss how ESL and general education teachers can judiciously infuse intelligibility-based pronunciation teaching into content-based classrooms. First, within a broad understanding of second language development, they identify various sources of English Language Learners' pronunciation problems, and a rationale for why pronunciation teaching should aim for intelligibility rather than for nativeness. They then present the major pronunciation challenges of the five largest language groups in American schools and offer intelligibility-focused teaching practices to stimulate discussion and evolve teacher practice in harmony with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The chapter closes with exercises to further explore implementation of pronunciation teaching practices for ELs' language and academic development.

The Rules of Phonology

This chapter focuses on formulating North American English (NAE) phonological rules and discussing their pedagogical implications. It begins with a brief account of NAE phonology as a rule-governed system and then outlines feature-based phonology as a theoretical framework in which phonological rules operate. The chapter further defines an inventory of distinctive features for characterizing the NAE phonological system. After discussing rule components and matrix underspecification, the chapter presents phonological rules subsumed under seven categories: deletion, epenthesis, metathesis, reduction, assimilation, dissimilation, and morphophonology. Most rules are couched in three expressions—prose, semi-formal, formal—to meet different needs of readers. Pedagogical implications of phonological rules, discussed in the last section, are explicated in the framework of language transfer and universal grammar. The same section also emphasizes the importance of balancing linguistic analysis and classroom practice.