English 101

What is language?
Let’s present ourselves

 Name
 Age
 Place of birth
My name is __________
I am ______ years old
I was born in ______
Origins of communication

 From the latin word “communicare” meaning “to share” or “to be in relation
with”
 The human creature evolved living in relation with others, the more humans in a
group, the stronger the group was.
 In this contexts, the need of sharing and communicate was born.
 Language is the structured system humans use to communicate with each
other. Language can be spoken, written or use other types of signs.
 Language also changes over time. We can say that as society changes, also
langue and meaning changes with it.
Origin of English
 Roots
English came from anglo-saxon people, originally
spoken by inhabitants of early medieval England.
 Spanish vs
English
English and Spanish share their
European origins but differ very early in
the tree of languages.
That is why pronunciation, sounds,
structures and words are so different.
Learn vs acquire
  It is a natural process
 Do not require study
 Children acquire languages by listening
to adults

To acquire a  People who live in a country where a

different language is spoken, acquire
language > the language
 Occurs either we are conscious of the
process or not
  It is what we are doing right now
 It is not a natural process
To learn a  Requires study and lots of effort

language  We need to consciously pay attention

Four abilities we need to know

Listening Reading Speaking Writing

Input abilities

 Listening and read are INPUT abilities. We receive

information by using them, we can learn or acquire
language by using this abilities.
 Listening is more related with the acquisition process and
reading with the learning process.
 Input abilities are fundamental to learn a second
language.
Output abilities

 Writing and Speaking are OUTPUT abilities. We use the

language to communicate ideas.
 Output abilities are fundamental to master the use of the
second language.
 The output we produce is closely related with the type of
input we have, think of a person who acquire Spanish in
Chile.
Trivia time!