Language description

and learning
Third session, 20 Oct 2021
 Language description
• Outline various ideas about language that have influenced ESP in
some ways.
1. Classical or traditional grammar
• What is language as classical description?
• Is traditional grammar really bad?
• Language as form and language as function, what is the difference?
2. Structural linguistics
• What is a grammatical pattern?
• Is it communicative?
• When the syllabus consists of types of tenses, is it an ESP class?
3. Transformational generative grammar
• Chomsky’s concept: performance and competence
• Performance (the surface structure)
• Competence (the deep structure)
• Example:
• John is easy to please
• John is eager to please

• Multangular tower
4. Language variation and register analysis
• What is language variation?
• What is register analysis?
5. Functional / notional grammar
• What is the difference? Functional and notional?
6. Discourse/ Rhetorical analysis
• How meaning is generated between sentences

• Can I go out to play? It’s raining.

Theories of learning
Behaviorism
• Learning as habit formation
• Pattern practice

• Example:
• I have ……
• She has …..
• They have …..
Mentalism
• Rules governed behavior
• ex. Audiolingual method

• Example,
• A: How are you?
• B: Fine thanks, and you?
Learners as thinking beings
• Learners as passive receivers in learning
Learners as emotional beings
• What students learn may motivate them to learn further
Learning and acquisition (Stephen Krashen)
• What is the difference?
A model for learning
• Communicative language teaching (CLT)
• It accommodates relevant theories into the ESP class.