Main contributions of linguistics in the degree in teaching English in
UNIREM (Universidad de la República Mexicana)
Autor: Osvaldo Arroyo Caballero
Licenciado en Enseñanza del Idioma Inglés
The English Language Teaching, established as a degree, is relatively new and only a few
important universities in the country where is provided. However social utility,
communication and market demand for this degree, has increased now. Particularly I can
mention the case of the Universidad de la República Mexicana (UNIREM). Such as, this
University offers a degree in English Language Teaching for nine years, where the last
quarter (12-2) graduated the first generation in this degree, which all graduates began to
exert teaching English at different educational levels in this current school year.
Coupled with this, I should mention that I have the opportunity and privilege of working as
a teacher in UNIREM particularly in the degree English Language Teaching, for a year and
a half, where I had the opportunity to meet this generation graduated and impart courses.
This sets the guideline for me to mention in a great way and from my point of view, the
contributions of linguistics (understood as the science that studies human language fully) to
a degree in English Language Teaching.
Therefore in this presentation that I presented from the point of view of linguistics imparted
at UAM-I, an overview of the main contributions of some theoretical-linguistic and
certainly the usefulness of linguistics to the English Language Teaching
A first contribution is the theoretical-analytical contribution in itself, namely the degree in
English Language Teaching, should know the various theoretical frameworks in the study
of human language, such as: Saussure's structuralism, Trubeskoy, Noam Chomsky´s
Generative Grammar, Skinner's Behaviorism, Discourse Analysis of Van Dijk, Social
Semiotics of Hodge and Kress. It should be noted that these theories are relevant to all
languages, not just in Spanish and I think they are useful for this profession because I
believe that students awaken their consciousness enriches language, besides have a broader
view of the languages and get to reflect that each language is a valid structure of reality,
however there are languages today, with supremacy and cultural-social prominence as
English.
Another main contribution that I believe is what the student must know and master the
different levels of linguistic analysis, such as syntactic-grammatical English as a second
language and Spanish as a mother tongue. In this aspect it is very important that the
student of English Language Teaching should know and distinguish the grammatical
categories of their language (Spanish) as in English, inasmuch as it is very often not clearly
differentiate a noun from an adjective, or a verb from an adverb. And furthermore should
be encouraged to study the syntax of these two languages, in order to know how to
construct sentences in each language and which grammatical parts of speech used.
Translation by Osvaldo Arroyo Caballero
Degree in English Language Teaching