OPINION ESSAY ABOUT LINGUISTICS RELEVANCE FOR THE EFLT

EDUCATION

Marina Sena Freitas e Castro

In his book The Rules of the Sociological Method (1895), Émile Durkheim defines
as a social fact any form of action that is general in a society and that exists independently
of individual manifestations; it is important to note that, in its first chapter, the sociologist
highlights as a social fact the “system of signs that I use to express my thoughts”, that is,
the language. Supporting Durkheimian assumption, Saussure, in his dichotomy Langue
and Parole, establishes language (langue) as a structured system of signs, in which are
the rules that controls the form and content of its manifestations; thus, for Saussure,
language is a social fact due to its homogeneity and the invariability within its community.
Along these lines, a question comes up: in view that Linguistics is the scientific study of
language, which investigates its aspects to comprehend how it works in all its
manifestations, how may this knowledge be useful to EFL teachers in their education?
In consonance with Saussure’s premise, Chomsky states that a language is not just
words: it is a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates
what a community is. In this way, considering language as a social fact that is intrinsic to
society, and having in mind that society is always in change (especially now, because of
globalization and the changes it has caused in social relations), it is assumed that language
is also constantly evolving. Thinking about EFL education, it is up to an EFL teacher to
assist students to understand English language for them to be able to read, write and speak
it. Having it in mind, it is fundamental for the English teacher to know how to analyze
the language synchronically (how English language is structured at a given time – ex.:
“how natives greets each other nowadays?”) and diachronically (why and how English
language evolved – ex.: “why and how did ‘yes’ evolved into ‘yeah’ in informal speech?”)
to be competent to guide the students during the learning process.
 Moreover, in his book Aspects of The Theory of Syntax (1965), Chomsky affirms
that Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-listener, in a
completely homogeneous speech-community. Asserting it, he’s defending that, to analyze
the language, an linguist, an writer or even an English teacher, should consider ideal
aspects of the language and ignore its day-to-day inadequacies. Besides, to understand
English language and to be able to read, write and speak it, students must cognize standard
English; for that, it is necessary an EFL teacher who have proficiency in this.
Lastly, to summarize the whole idea, it is pertinent to recall that: comprehend
Saussure’s assumption that language is a structured system of signs (which is always in
change, since it is intrinsic to society) would be useful for an EFL teacher to explain and
clarify to the students about the most diverse aspects of the English language in use, from
the rules that controls its form and content (synchronically or diachronically), to the
association of its signs and concepts and its use during speech. Furthermore, consider
Chomsky’s inferences about syntactic and “ideal” aspects of the language, certainly
would help EFL teachers to identify day-by-day language inadequacies during the speech
performance, thus adequately assist students to overcome them all along the learning
process. For these (and other reasons) the substantial relevance of Linguistics knowledge
for EFLT education is evident.