They look at the inner workings of language. Why language works like it does, in other words. Think of learning about linguistics in the same way you’d learn how an internal combustion engine works. Linguistics is what’s under the hood… you don’t need to know it to drive a car, but it helps understand what’s going on if you ever break down!
So… TEFL teachers should find these useful in providing more of a background to their teaching and students, too, will find them helpful in understanding language at a slightly deeper level.
The English language was heavily influenced by French in the past and there is a great deal of overlap between the two languages, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar. However there are a number of major issues that French native speakers have when they learn English and this article […]
Azerbaijani or Azeri Turkish has over 30 million speakers based in both Azerbaijan and the surrounding countries. It’s closely related to Turkish and is, to a certain extent, mutually understandable. Although there are a couple of major varieties (Northern Azerbaijani and Southern Azerbaijani) and many local dialects, they do not […]
Varieties of English are the different kinds of English used around the world. Often these are geographically based. The varieties are more or less similar and while most English speakers can understand each other, there are occasional problems. The four people in the picture (Whoopi Goldberg, Kylie Minogue, the Queen […]
When you teach English as a foreign language you don’t just teach “English”. No, you teach a specific type of English depending on your class: different people need different English. You can view this in the same way as dance. If you go to a dance class you don’t just […]
LEXEME is the term used in Linguistics to refer to a word (a minimal unit of language) with a distinctive meaning (a semantic value) and often a specific cultural concept attached to it. banana, love, animal, run These are all lexemes. Lexemes can be seen as the basic elements of […]