WMSU-ISMP-GU-001.

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Effective Date: 7-DEC-2016

See if you can do this!

On Language Focus
Answer the exercises pertaining the use of the English language as your second
language or lingua franca. Encircle the letter/s in each of the word listed below that
is/are unvoiced or silent. The letter/s you encircle will reflect how you pronounce the
word in each item.

Example: listen= t is silent/unvoiced

1. indict - c 6. benign
2. corpse - e -g
3. knack - k 7. debris-
4. rendezvous - s s
5. shepherd - h 8. subtle
-b
9. gnome
-g
10. receipt
-p

On Language Use
Using the words from the list, categorize the words according to the proper terminal
sounds these words should be pronounced.

Walked Flashed dreamt troubled said

Decided Noticed looked asked replied
Had Would needed could carried

/d/ /ed/ /id/ /t/

Had Decided Replied Walked
Would Needed Looked
Could Carried Asked
Said Dreamt
Troubled Flashed
Noticed

Sentential Level
Underline the correct word to be used in the sentence.
1. The student heeded the (counsel’s, council’s) (advise, advice).
2. The (corps, corpse) was in the state of decomposition. He joined the signal
(corpse, corps).
3. He tasted a (dessert, desert) that was foreign to her taste buds when they went to
the sub-Saharan (desert, dessert).
4. Every woman’s dream is to walk on the (aisle, I’ll, isle). The (aisle, I’ll, isle) is full
of lush, green vegetation and seas teeming with fish.
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5. Believing in God is not only a mental (ascent, accent, assent). It is giving him your
full (trash, trust, thrust).
6. The (ewe, hue, you) looks beautiful as it grazes the vast forest where the (ewe,
hue, you) of the scenery in the backdrop looks amazing.

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7. The (sweet, suite, suit) that they (chose, choose, choice) for the guest was very
expensive.
8. The inscription reads: On this (cite, site, sight, scythe) will soon (rice, rise, raise,
race, rays) the Jasmin Tower!
9. The washing machine is a time-saving (devise, device). Groups of engineers
(device, devise) a practical strategy where modern man can have ample use of
quality time.
10. The (imminent, eminent) return of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world as a
witness will really come. This event is very (imminent, eminent).

Write the key word/s as your definition of the following terms below which reflects your
understanding of these words. Example: orthography= spelling
1. phonology = sounds
2. morphology = forms
3. syntax = arrangement
4. semantics = meaning
5. grammar = structure
6. orthography = spelling
7. lexicon = vocabulary
8. polyglot = knowing or using several languages
9. rhetorician = speaker
10. dialectologist = scientific study of dialect
11. linguists = scientific study of language
12. linguistics = language
13. stylistics = style
14. lexicography = compiling dictionaries
15. grammarian = who study grammar
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On the blank spaces provided before the number, write T if the statement is True and F if
the statement is False.
F 1. Not all languages have a grammar system.
T 2. Change happens to all languages.
T 3. All living creatures have the capacity for languages.
T 4. The first language that a child acquires is called mother tongue.
T 5. Two persons who do not speak the same language will never be able to communicate
with each other.

Synthesis

1. Language is a human capacity that consists of (a) system of rules, also known as
grammar (b) a sound system, also known as phonology (c) and a vocabulary, also
known as lexicon.
2. While growing up in a community, people acquire the languages used by those in the
community. This is the process of language acquisition.
3. The languages acquired while growing up are known as mother tongues, which may
also be referred to as first languages.
4. Other than the first languages, there are other languages needed for various reasons.
These other languages are referred to as second languages.
5. People learn their second languages in school or on their own. This is the process of
language learning.
6. In our interaction with other people, our languages come into contact with their
languages, resulting in language change. Language change is a natural behavior of all
languages.

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