ESL Supplement DOMAIN 1: COMPETENCY 001

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7 Areas of Linguistics

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1. Phonology

3. Morphology

5. Syntax

7. Lexicon

9. Semantics

11. Discourse

13. Pragmatics

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The sound system of a language that are combined to make syllables and then whole words. Knowing how sounds are produced enables ESL teachers to help EL students modify their sound production to create English utterances.

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PHONOLOGY

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The word construction system of a language; meaningful linguistic units that are used in constructing words. The word "GEOGRAPHY" is made up two bound ______ which both have distinct meaning: geo and graphy.

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MORPHOLOGY

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The system of "rules" for constructing sentences in a language. They are acquired intuitively. They refer not to the grammar rules taught in school but to the way that words are put together to form meaningful utterances in a language.

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SYNTAX

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The collection of words and associated semantic understandings in a specific language. It can also refer to the body of words an individual knows. It's like a learners individually-constructed dictionary of words that s/he knows either fully or operationally or words that are known to a limited extent but are recognized in appropriate context.

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LEXICON

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The system of meaning in a language. It involves knowing how and why words carry meaning. At the simplest level, it can be thought of as the vocabulary or lexicon of a language, but once we start using words of a language, we discover that meaning can be constructed, manipulated, implied, or deflected on the basis of the way we use words.

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SEMANTICS

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The distinct linguistic and cognitive expectations for communication in a specific setting. It is bound and defined by the parameters of the setting in which the output and input are produced. It is associated with distinct social groups, political groups, or any group in which members share ways of thinking, acting, and believing.

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DISCOURSE

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Knowing how to use language to act upon the world, to get things done. It involves extra-linguistic factors such as tonality, inflections, circumstance-specific variations, irony, sarcasm, humor, gestures, body language, and other choices in performative speech acts. EL students may not fully understand it until they have interacted significantly and meaningfully in L2 environments.

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PRAGMATICS

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Systems of variable language uses. They are the "way" we interact linguistically in different discourse settings with different people. They reflect social groupings and social settings. They are marked by setting-specific word choices, attitudes, discourse expectations, and user groupings.

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REGISTERS

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A section of the TEKS curriculum that includes categories of proficiency for EL students: beginning, intermediate, advanced, and advanced high in listening and speaking and in reading and writing. ESL and bilingual education teachers are responsible for knowing the characteristics of each proficiency level to ensure that instruction is appropriately adjusted to meet the EL students' academic and linguistic needs.

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ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY STANDARDS (ELPS)