UASD Program

Reading

Quiz #1
Units 1, 2 and 3
Name: Winston Castillo

Unit 1

1. What is your definition of applied linguistics? (p. 1)

Applied Linguistics is the study of language as it affects situations in real life.

2. Why doesn't English grammar describe English too well? (p. 3)

Because English, which is a Germanic language, was described by a linguistic system borrowed
from Latin, which had previously borrowed the system from Greek. This has left us with English
grammar rules that are much too rigid to describe actual language usage.

3. What were the shortcomings of the "Grammar-translation method?" (p. 4)

One of the main problems with method was that it focused on the ability to analyze language and
not the ability to use it. In the same fashion, the emphasis on reading and writing did little to
promote an ability to communicate orally in the target language.
4. What were the problems with the "Direct method?" (p. 4)
This method required teachers to be highly proficient in the target language. In addition, it did
not take into account the differences between L1 and L2 acquisition.

5. Describe the "Reading method." (p. 4)

Reading method exposes learners to target language through reading by promoting reading
skills through vocabulary management.

6. How did Behaviorism generate Audiolingualism? (p. 4)

Behaviorism stated that language learning was a result of habit formation. In other words,
students were expected to learn through drills rather than an analysis of the target language.
This method proved to be successful in the army during the war so it continued on, and it came
to be known as Audiolingualism.

7. Explain Chomsky's concept of Universal Grammar. (p. 5)

Chomsky posited that children are born with an understanding of the way languages work,
which was referred to as Universal Grammar. They would know the underlying principles and
their parameters by just enough exposure to a language.

8. What was Halliday's contribution? (p. 6)

Halliday systematic-functional grammar approach did not see language as something
exclusively internal to a learner, but rather as a means of functioning in society. He identified
three types of function: Ideational (Telling people facts or experiences), Interpersonal
(maintaining personal relationships with people), Textual (expressing connections and
organization within a text)

9. What did the Council of Europe contribute to in the 1970s? (p. 6)

The Council attempted to create a Europe-wide language teaching system which was based on a
survey of L2 learners’ needs (needs analysis), the concepts (notions) and uses of language
(functions).
10. What was Krashen's contribution to L2 acquisition theory? (p. 6)
Krashen’s Monitor theory stated that a second language was mainly unconsciously acquired
through exposure to comprehensible input rather than being learnt through explicit exercises,
that it required a focus on meaning rather than form, and that learner’s emotional state can
affect this acquisition (affective filter)

11. Define deixis and anaphoric.

Deixis refers to words and phrases that cannot be fully understood without additional contextual
information.
Anaphoric refers to a word or phrase that takes its reference from another word or phrase and
especially from a preceding word or phrase.

12. Until the 80s, what were the 3 principal criteria for tests? (p. 7)
 Validity (did the test really measure what it was supposed to measure?)
 Reliability (did the test perform consistently from one administration to the next?)
 Practicality (was the test practical to give and mark in a particular setting?)

13. What is the relationship between computing technology and corpus linguistics? (p. 7 and 8)
Corpus linguistics is the study of language based on large collections of real life language use
stored in corpora (or corpuses) – computerized databases created for linguistic research.

14. Did behaviorism become the main psychological paradigm of "all English-speaking
countries?"
Yes, during the mid-twentieth century, behaviorism was the overriding psychological paradigm
of all English speaking countries which meant that only stimuli and reactions that could be
observed were considered worthy of discussion in the area of psychology.

15. What is formulaic language? (p. 12)

Formulaic language is a linguistic term for verbal expressions that are fixed in form, often non-
literal in meaning and closely related to communicative-pragmatic context.
16. What are learner strategies? (p. 12)
The learner strategies refer to methods that students use to learn.

17. Explain the terms top-down and bottom-up processing. (p. 13)
Top-down processing utilizes shared knowledge, pragmatic knowledge and contextual
information to achieve an appropriate interpretation or realization of textual meanings and
messages. Bottom-up processing depends on language resources – lexico-grammar and
phonology (pronunciation) or orthography – as aids to the accurate decoding or interpretation,
or encoding or realization, of meaningful text.

Unit 2

18. What is pedagogical grammar? (p. 18 and 19)

Pedagogical grammar is a conception of grammar that specifically takes into account the needs
of learners of a second language.

19. What is the focus of the generative framework? (p. 20)

The focus is primarily syntax and morphology.

20. What are the three components of Larsen-Freeman's grammar? (p. 22)
The three components are Form (morphosyntax), Meaning (semantics) and Use (pragmatics).

21. What is the importance of the COBUILD study? (p. 23)

COBUILD, an acronym for Collins Birmingham University International Language Database.
The most important achievements of the COBUILD project have been the creation and analysis
of an electronic corpus of contemporary text, the Collins Corpus, later leading to the
development of the Bank of English, and the production of the monolingual learner's dictionary
Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. A number of other dictionaries and grammars
have also been published, all based exclusively on evidence from the Bank of English, which
contains more than 500 million words.
22. Why is it difficult to isolate grammar and lexis into two separate categories? (p. 25)
Because grammar does not exist on its own. It is interdependent with lexis and, in many cases,
grammatical regularity and acceptability are conditioned by words.

23. What is the difference between deduction and induction? (p. 26)
An inductive approach involves the learners detecting, or noticing, patterns and working out a
'rule' for themselves before they practice the language. A deductive approach (rule-driven) starts
with the presentation of a rule and is followed by examples in which the rule is applied.

24. Is grammar acquired in a linear fashion? (p. 27)

Second language acquisition research tells us that grammar is not acquired in a linear fashion
since learners use a lot of intermediate forms before conforming to what is accurate in the target
language.

25. What is the role of noticing in teaching grammar? (p. 29)

Noticing is basically the idea that if learners pay attention to the form and meaning of certain
language structures in input, this will contribute to the internalization of the rule.

Unit 3

1. What is a lemma? (p. 34)

A lemma is a set of related words that consists of the stem form and inflected forms that are all
the same part of speech.

2. How can you classify formulaic language? (p. 35)

From a learning perspective, it is classified into three major categories:
 Core idioms: items where the meaning of the parts bears obvious relationship the
meaning of the whole.
 Figuratives: items that have both a literal meaning and a figurative meaning.
 Literals: they are the largest group of formulaic sequences, where the meaning of the
part makes up the meaning of the whole.
3. Which vocabulary should be emphasized? (p. 37)
The high frequency words need to be the first and main vocabulary goal of learners and
teachers.

4. Explain meaning-focused input. (p. 38)

The meaning-focused input strand involves learning through listening and reading. This is
largely incidental learning because the learners' attention should be focused on comprehending
what is being read or listened to.

5. Of the 8 recommendations on page 40, are there any you disagree with? Why?
I partially disagree with number 6 Avoid interference because it states that words of similar
spelling (I agree) and meaning (I disagree) are not supposed to be together in the same pack of
cards. This means days of the week should not be all learned at the same time. Words belonging
to the same category, such as items of clothing, names of fruit, parts of the body and things in the
kitchen. These items interfere with each other and make learning much more difficult. This is not
true. In our practice we have noticed that students internalize better associated words than
words that are not related.

6. Name the forms of vocabulary teaching.

 Pre-teaching of vocabulary before a language use activity.
 Dealing with vocabulary in a variety of ways during intensive reading.
 Exercises that follow a listening or reading text.
 Self-contained vocabulary activities.
 Word detectives, where learners report on words they have found.
 Collocation activities.
 Quickly dealing with words as they occur in a lesson.

7. What do fluency development activities focus on? (p. 42)

Fluency activities focus on the message and aim at fluency in listening, speaking, reading or
writing.
8. What are the benefits of the Vocabulary Size Test? (p. 46)
Vocabulary Size Test covers a very wide range of frequency levels, it includes a large number of
items, the items have been carefully designed and the test is designed to measure just one kind of
vocabulary knowledge.

9. How did the Norman invasion of English influence the language? (p. 47)
After the Norman invasion in 1066, huge numbers of Norman French words found their way into
English, and these words often co-existed side-by-side with already existing native English
words. According to experts, around 10,000 French words (typically with Latin roots) came into
common usage in England. Of these 7,000 French words survive in modern English.

10. What are the consequences of the sheer size of English vocabulary? (pp. 49 & 50)
The sheer size of English vocabulary has a very marked effect on the way we teach English, and
severely constraints the level of achievement we expect of learners.