Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM No.:IM-ENL1041ST SEM-2020-2021
College: TEACHER EDUCATION
Campus : BAMBANG
College
DEGREE PROGRAM Logo
Bachelor in Secondary
SPECIALIZATION
Education
English
YEAR LEVEL
BSED 2
I.
COURSE
NO.
COURSE
TITLE
TIME
FRAME
ENL 104
Principles and Theories of Language
Acquisition and Learning
3 hrs WK NO. 2
IM NO. 1
UNIT TITLE/CHAPTER TITLE: Language, Learning and Teaching
LESSON TITLE: Definitions of Language, Acquisition, Learning and Teaching
Language defined
Theories about the Nature of Language
Characteristics: Elements and Functions of Language
II.
LESSON OVERVIEW: This lesson seeks to provide understanding on the various definitions, theories,
nature and functions of language.
III.
DESIRED LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. give a working definition of language;
2. identify the theories about the nature of language;
3. enumerate and explain the characteristics, elements and functions of language, and
4. understand the definitions of learning and teaching.
IV.
LESSON CONTENT
A. Definitions of Language
 Modern Linguistics , summarized by Carroll ( 1973:289)teaches that a language is a
structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds which is used in
interpersonal communication and which rather exhaustively catalogs the things, events,
and processes of human experience.
 Social scientists defined language as an open system interacting with, changed by, and
changing its environment as part of culture. The humanness of language and its place in
human society is one of the most necessary and complex of all social skills.
 Transformationalists spearheaded by Chomsky view language as a system which relates
meanings to substance. Language is a mental phenomenon . It is innate.Man has the
genetically imparted ability for language learning.
 Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of
conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures or marks having understood meanings. (
Websters New International Dictionary of the English Language 1961:1270)
 Language is any set or system of linguistic symbols as used in a more less uniform fashion
by a number of people who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another
( Random House Dictionary of the English Language 1966:806)
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220)
“ In accordance with Section 185, Fair use of a Copyrighted Work of Republic Act 8293, the copyrighted works included in this material may be
reproduced for educational purposes only and not for commercial distribution.”
Page 1 of _5
Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM No.:IM-ENL1041ST SEM-2020-2021
 Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication (
Wardhaugh 1972:806)
 Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture,
or other people who have laerned the system of that culture to communicaate or to interact
( Finocchiaro 1964:8)
Other definitions of language:
1. Language is used for communication.
2. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited to humans.
3. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols.
4. Those symbols are primarily vocal but may also be visual.
5. The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer.
6. Language is systematic and generative.
7. Language operates in a speech community or culture.
B. Theories About the Nature of Language
1. Behaviorist/Empiricist Theory
Proponents: Leonard Bloomfield, BF Skinner and Charles Fries
Language Views:




a set of arbitrary symbols
a system of habits
acquired behavior through conditioning and reinforcement
a surface structure
2. Rationalist/Cognitivist/Mentalistic Theory
Proponent: Noam Chomsky
Language Views:





a mental process- a creative construction process
rule-governed behavior
speaker -hearer has internalized the rules of the language
a universal grammar- universals in language at a highly abstract level; all
languages must share key characteristics
a deep structure and a surface structure
3. Nativist Theory
Proponent: Eric Lenneberg
Language Views:



an innate or inborn capacity of man
man has LAD ( Language Acquisition Device)
Species specific
4. Sociolinguistic Theory- Sociology of Language
Proponent: Dell Hymes, Michael A.K. Halliday
Language Views:
4a. Communication Theory
Input
Output
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Page 2 of _5
Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM No.:IM-ENL1041ST SEM-2020-2021
Encoding
----- Code Language
-------- Decoding
Speaker /Writer
Sound/Graphemes
Listener/Reader
4b. Pragmatic Theory- John Oller


Participants in a conversation should have shared knowledge or presupposition
Language has two elements

Factive or cognitive element which refers to the use of language through words,
phrases and sentences

Emotive or affective attitudinal element which is man’s outlook about others and
his non-verbal communication
C. Characteristics and Functions of Language
1. Recursion. This means sentences maybe produced with other sentences inside them. This maybe
done , for example, by a process known as relativization ( the use of relative clauses).
Ex. This is the boy that chased the dog that chased the cat that ate the chicken in the kitchen.
2. Arbitrary. The relation between a word and its meaning is a matter of convention: the animal caled dog
in English is called perro in Spanish, anjing in Bahasa Malaysia , and aso in Filipino. That is, there is no
necessary connection between the sounds people use and the objects to which these sounds refer.
Words have the meaning they do have and occur in the order they do, just because the native speakers
of the language agree to accept them as such.
3. Productive or Creative. This refers to the ability of the native speakers to understand and produce any
number of sentences in their mother tongue.
4. Social Phenomenon. It is a means of communication between individuals. It also brings them into
relationship with their environment. Language is therefore a socially learned behavior, a skill that is
required as we grow up in society.
5. Complex. Each language is a part of the culture that produces it and is adequate for the needs of the
people who use it. Any language, therefore, is as good as any other in that it serves the purposes of the
particular culture. Words maybe created or borrowed as the need arises. No language is intrinsically
better or worse than any other.
D. Elements of Language
1. Phonology is the study of sound. Phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in
meaning in a language. There are 2 kinds of phonemes- segmental( vowels, consonants consonant
clusters and diphthongs and suprasegmental ( pitch, stress, intonation, and juncture) .
A phoneme is to phonology as a morpheme is to morphology. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful
units of a language. There are 2 classes of morphemes, free and bound morphemes. A free morpheme
is one which can meaningfully occur alone ( book, love, happy) while bound morpheme always occurs
with a base ( books)
2. Lexis/Lexicon- the study of words and their meanings. Lexical words express primarily lexical (or
content) meaning and function words convey primarily grammatical meaning. The 2 sentences refer to
different people and situations. In other words, they differ in lexical meaning. However, they have the
same grammatical meaning. In that the first word is a determiner, the second, a noun, the third, the verb,
the fourth, a determiner and the fifth, a noun. That is, each sentence is made up of the same sequence
of word classes.
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220)
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Page 3 of _5
Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM No.:IM-ENL1041ST SEM-2020-2021
Our mother prepares the food.
Det noun verb
det noun
A guard inspects the building.
Det noun verb
det noun
3. Grammar - subdivided into 3 essential components:
3.1 Morphology- refers to the word formation
3.2 Syntax- refers to the arrangement of words in a sentence
3.3 Semantics - refers to meaning
Part of linguistic competence as a language teacher has to do with the ability to determine the
meaning of sentences. Your competence allows you to determine when a sentence has more
than one meaning, this is semantics.
The shooting of the hunters occurred at dawn.
This particular sentence can have two meanings:
1. The hunters were hot at dawn. In this case the sentence is a transform of:
Somebody shot the hunters. It occurred at dawn.
2. The hunters went shooting at dawn. In this case, the sentence is a transform of:
The hunters shot something. It occurred at dawn.
4. Cultural Load- refers to the cultural component of a particular utterance, sentence or discourse in a
language. Culture is highly important in the learning of a second language. A language is part of a culture
and a culture is a part of language; the two are intricately interwoven so that we can not separate the two
without losing the significance of either language or culture.
E. Learning and Teaching
 Traditional definition of Learning is “ acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by
study, experience, or instruction.
 Educational psychologist would define learning as “ a change in an individual caused by
experience.
 Teaching may be defined as “ showing or helping someone to learn how to do something,
giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to
know or understand. “
Other definitions of Learning
1. Learning is acquisition or “ getting.”
2. Learning is retention of information or skill.
3. Retention implies storage systems, memory, cognitive organization.
4. Learning involves active, conscious focus on and acting upon vents outside or inside the
organism.
5. Learning is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Learning involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced practice.
7. Learning is a change in behavior.
Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning enabling
the learner to learn , setting the conditions for learning. Your understanding of how the learner learns will
determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques.
An extended definition of teaching will spell out governing principles for choosing certain methods and
techniques. A theory of teaching, in harmony with your integrated understanding, of the learner and of the subject
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220)
“ In accordance with Section 185, Fair use of a Copyrighted Work of Republic Act 8293, the copyrighted works included in this material may be
reproduced for educational purposes only and not for commercial distribution.”
Page 4 of _5
Republic of the Philippines
NUEVA VIZCAYA STATE UNIVERSITY
Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya
INSTRUCTIONAL MODULE
IM No.:IM-ENL1041ST SEM-2020-2021
matter to be learned , will point the way to successful procedures on a given day for given learners under the
various constraints of the particular context of learning. In other words, your theory of teaching
V.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
Brainstorming , assigned readings ( https://www.pdfdrive.com/principles-of-language-learning-andteaching-5th-edition-d185518250.html) , uploaded lecture, online discussion
1. Write your own “ twenty-five- words-or less” definitions of language.
2. As a language teacher, which theory will you follow? Why?
3. Which is your best definition of learning among those which mentioned above? Why?
VI.
ASSIGNMENT
What are the general functions of language according to Halliday, Jakobson and Robinson?
VII.
EVALUATION (Note: Not to be included in the student’s copy of the IM)
Online quiz
VIII.
REFERENCES
A) Books
Orillos, Lorenzo Q. (nd). Language acquisition theories, principles and research. Quezon City:
UP Open University and UP Diliman.
B) Electronic Resources
Brown, D. H. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching, 5 th Edition New York: San
Francisco
University.
https://www.pdfdrive.com/techniques-and-principles-in-languageteaching-e165133319.html
Prepared by LOVELLA G. VELASCO
Adopted from LORENZO Q. ORILLOS and DOUGLAS H. BROWN
NVSU-FR-ICD-05-00 (081220)
“ In accordance with Section 185, Fair use of a Copyrighted Work of Republic Act 8293, the copyrighted works included in this material may be
reproduced for educational purposes only and not for commercial distribution.”
Page 5 of _5