The importance of teaching Linguistics in public schools
- Aleycha's Corner
- Dec 12, 2022
- 6 min read
"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Ludwig Wittgenstein
In the context of the permanent evolution within society and as a result of socio-economic and political factors, communication in school, which instantly absorbs the reflections of everyday life, requires a linguistic arrangement commensurate with the academic environment in which it takes place. It can be argued that nowadays there is a lack of love for language in general, especially in schools. Students, mainly in rural schools, use a language that is poor in vocabulary and most of the time they are confused by its syntactic elaboration. The functional stratification of the varieties of the same language and the languages of communication within the community is influenced to some extent by several factors such as languages/varieties spoken in the family, type of family (monolingual, bilingual or mixed), mode of language acquisition (in the family, in society, in the educational institution) and the level of competence held by the speaker. The average level of language spoken in school is fed by patterns in social life from which all educational actors come. By using a proper language register and understanding the underlying principles of language, people may increase their chances of career advancement and prosperity as a nation. Education in schools allows students to acquire both communicative skills and a range of metalinguistic skills. They are able to form a certain identity and communicative behaviour with speakers of other linguistic codes. However, it should be considered that this behaviour is closely linked to family traditions and the mentalities and identity representations within the community and society as a whole. One aspect that could improve the education of children today and their perception of language is involving linguists in the language policy and planning and bringing into state education subjects that are only accessible starting with university degrees. Without the power of school which is an essential educational institution in the formation of our children, it is inconceivable to form an intellect, and the leading qualities of the intellect are undoubtedly intelligible speech and a deep understanding of all aspects and means of language (phonetic, lexical, and grammatical). This article aims to look at the benefits of implementing the teaching of sub-fields of Linguistics in language classes.
What is Linguistics?
The short answer given by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics is “the science of language”. A longer comprehensive answer is beautifully portrayed by Edward Sapir where language is defined as a “purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.” (1921:7), but what does that actually mean?
It is safe to say that human language is the essential element that distinguishes us from animals for the reason that we can communicate with each other using our mental lexicon and come up with different ways of creating new sentences giving new meanings every time. This is why linguistics is considered a human science and why it is one of the foundational disciplines in the global intellectual tradition. We may come up with a less sophisticated definition of Linguistics and that is: linguistics is the study of basically anything that is concerned with language. As a result, we find a myriad of areas generated by Linguistics such as Historical Linguistics, Psycholinguistics, Sociolinguistics, Computational Linguistics and Neurolinguistics. We may further subdivide the study of language into areas which are directly concerned with the structure of language:
Phonetics (the study of how speech sounds are made)
Phonology (how sounds are organised)
Morphology (how sounds are organised into units of meaning)
Pragmatics (the relationship between language signs and language users)
Semantics (the study of meanings)
Sociolinguistics (the interaction of language and people)
Syntax (how meaningful units are combined to create utterances)
Applied linguistics (the study of applying all the above to real-life situations)
There are visibly several different fields within the discipline. Nevertheless, we should emphasise that Linguistics embodies the study of human language and the human ability to both communicate and organise thoughts using various tools such as the vocal tract for spoken languages or the use of hands for sign languages. Its main scope is to provide a general hypothesis that explains the origins of language and its functions. Noam Chomsky famously called and generally considered the father of modern linguistics, is believed to be one of the most important figures whose theories (innateness and language acquisition) contributed to shaping the framework of contemporary linguistics. He found that his answers about the universality of language lay in the domain of syntax, a field that studies the set of principles and rules that command the structure of sentences in any given language. He believed that by paying deep regard to the underlying structural rules of a language, we may finally understand why language is universal and how humans have acquired this unique skill for producing words and connecting them into sentences as well as comprehending the meanings behind them. Therefore, Chomsky landed the unconventional but renowned idea that all humans are naturally born with a unique ability to learn languages. As happens with any new idea, Chomsky’s hypothesis attracted criticism from multiple fellow linguists and a large number of literature and counter theories continue to emerge on the subject.
Why should Linguistics be taught in schools?
Now that we have a better understanding of what the study of language is, we may easily argue that implementing the study of language in schools from an early age has multiple benefits, one of them being that it has the potential to boost reading and writing skills while improving cross-cultural understanding and language acquisition. Currently, writing and grammar are taught as an individual set of skills that students must triumph over without fully understanding why they are learning this and when students might ask for further explanations, they might not get a satisfactory answer.
Before all else, it must be noted that the world is continuously being filtered through and organised by language, so learning linguistics in school may provide students with extra skills to support them in perceiving the world around them. Young students may use the knowledge acquired in language classes to understand and value the diversity of language that occurs in secondary schools, for instance. The ability to fully grasp concepts of linguistics will improve students’ potential in school. Recently, there has been a shift towards learning Modern Foreign Languages at school (Spanish, French, German) in UK public schools. However, most students struggle with this and change their attitudes towards language learning entirely as adapting to new languages becomes one of their biggest challenges. This is mainly caused by students not understanding the theoretical foundation and underlying rules of a language. Most teachers assume that these concepts are straightforward if not common knowledge. Nevertheless, many students continue to face challenges in learning new languages. Additionally, they are expected to be able to write accurately from an early age. Syntax and semantics, for instance, are taught to students throughout primary and secondary schools in the UK, but these areas are rarely focused on in A-levels.
Why does it matter?
Taking everything into account, language is certainly a vital human competence. Whether we are using a certain voice recognition software, telling a silly joke, opening a bank account at our local branch, or helping somebody on the street with directions, we find that language is reflected in everything we do. Linguistics in itself is a field that not only provides clarity over the intricacies of world languages but also improves communication between people on a large scale (from translation activities to treating speech disorders). Implementing Linguistics in language classes can inspire students to engage in classroom activities and maintain a genuine interest in the study of languages throughout their education. Most of the time, learning a new language and its underlying rules can be fun when the right activities are created. These activities may be outstanding opportunities for children to play fun games while discovering the art of storytelling and understand language diversity while deciphering the code of language. The study of language can nourish self-confident and curious learners. Additionally, it most certainly enhances children’s communication, social and literacy skills from an early age. Moreover, it will develop students’ critical thinking skills, creativity and flexibility of mind while encouraging different sets of analytical and logical skills gained through literary analysis and cultural study.
Most importantly, the inclusion of linguistics in language classes has the potential to change students’ attitudes towards languages in general. This may essentially empower and encourage students to be critical towards and identify linguistic prejudice and standard-language ideologies. In other words, linguistics helps us better understand the world around us.
Sources and further reading
Hudson, Richard. “Why Education Needs Linguistics (And Vice Versa).” Journal of Linguistics, vol. 40, no. 1, 2004, pp. 105–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4176859 Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.
Matthews, P. H., 1997. The concise Oxford dictionary of linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sapir, E., 1921. Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Sheehan, Michelle, Alice Corr, Anna Havinga, Jonathan Kasstan, Norma Schifano 2021 Rethinking the UK Languages Curriculum: Arguments for the Inclusion of Linguistics. Modern Languages Open, 2021(1): 14 pp. 1–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/mlo. v0i0.368
Yule, G., 2006. The study of language (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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