COAL CITY UNIVERSITY, ENUGU

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & LITERARY STUDIES. FACULTY OF ARTS, SOCIAL & MANAGEMENT SCIENCES.COURSE TITLE: GSP 101. COURSE CODE: USE OF ENGLISH I.LECTURER: SR. DORIS ANN IKE.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES: The course has specific aim that relates to giving the student adequate communicative competence in both spoken and written models of English Language. Since English is the medium of expression in Nigeria, understanding of how to write and communicate effectively in English- becomes a priority. The course also equips the student with the knowledge of the general concepts of language as human activity, the verities of English language, as well as the four language skills.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: At the end of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Define language.2. Mention the cahracteristics and functions of language.3. Identify the barriers to L1 and L2.4. Define English Vocabulary.5. Mention the types of Vocabulary Development.6. Identify the four Language Skills.7. Identity the speech sounds of English Language and their Articulations.8. Identify various Study techniques to learning.9. Acquire and utilise the techniques of Note Taking and Note Making.10. Define literature in English and identify the various genres of English Literature.11. Acquire the skill for proper criticism and analysis of literary texts via Aristotelian and

Platonic view to art.

UNIT ONE:

THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE

DEFINITION: Very often when we talk about language, our mind goes to human activity, his ability to speak and be engaged in human speech. Language in this case refers to a pattern of speech, an organised system of speech employed by humans for the single purpose of communication. Speech is what differentiates man as a social animal (being) from other species of animal.

Therefore, language could be defined as human vocal noise or arbitrary representation of noise which are conventionally accepted by a given speech community for the purpose of communication. From the above definition, we can rightly establish the basic principles of language as: it is a sound-signifying meaning, systemic and conventionally accepted. Thus to lay a man’s understanding, it is a vocal sound (noise) that represents the systematic and conventional use of words by a speech community for the reason of communication.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE.

1. Human LANGUAGE: man is a social animal. What differentiates him from other species is that he possesses the power of speech. Other animals like dog backs, loin roars but man speaks in a certain organised pattern that is decoded with meanings.

2. VOCAL NOISE: language is primarily speech. The graphic representation is a later development after the European model of writing. Sound is the basic character of language, the voice therefore makes communication possible.

3. SYSTEM AND CONVENTION: here, two things are woven together for a common goal. By system, we mean a kind of structural patterning or form in which linguistic events should occur to represent a given idea and by convention we mean that there must be consensus among the users of that language that such unit of words should represent a given idea.

4. A SPEECH COMMUNY: language is the only social phenomenon that evolved with human history. This makes language to have recognised speakers-people who first acquired the language pattern. Due to migration and modernity as well as progressive movement, all speakers of that language belong to one speech community. For instance, English originates from England but have spread to other parts of the world. It is spoken in Austria, America, part of Canada, as well as Africa and most of the countries colonised by Britain or America. It is worth mentioning that English originally evolve with the history of the three Germanic tribes: the Angles, Jutes and Saxons. Following their invasion in s England, the language developed into what we call English. However, all the speakers of English in these parts of the world belong to English speech community.

THE FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE.

Language performs various functions such as:

1. IT IS A VEHICLE OF THOUGHT: Human beings have thinking faculty. They conceive ideas, gather information and plan events. Through language, communication and transfer of information or ideas become possible.

2. PHATIC COMMUNION: As a linguistic event, it serves as a vehicle for socialisation, social and religious relationship depend on language to build strong bounds among members.

3. USED FOR ARCHIVING/DOCUMENTATION: following the western model of education, language has been used for recording and storing information. Historians and anthropologists have extensively used it to achieve success in their discipline. Presently, audio-visual materials are used to disseminate information and store important ideas that should not be allowed to wane in our society.

4. FOR INSTRUCTIVE PURPOSES AND SELF EXPRESSION. Teaching and learning is possible because of language. It is used as the tool of instruction for all educational services. Knowledge is acquired when one decodes meaning from a spoken utterance.

5. TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE6. TO TEACH AND DELIGH

UNIT TWO:

GRAMMATICAL CONVENTIONS.

Barriers to L1 and L2

1. Equivocation 2. Elocution.3. Mechanical Accuracy.4. Transliteration.5. Poor content.

WORLD LITERATURE.

We have earlier said that one of the things that determine the importance of English language is the spread of its use. This means that usage determines its importance and as well as its influence. Originally, English was not the language of the Britain. It is a language spoken by the Germanic tribes: the Jutes, Agles and Saxon who invaded England and after conquering it introduced their language- the Indo-European family. Today English is the widest spread language usage in the world, spoken by many continents of the world: Africa, America, Austria, and New Zealand.

It therefore enjoys wide range of geographical coverage.

IMPLICATION OF WORLD ENGLISH.

It is inevitable that a global language spoken by various geographical zones of the world should have many varieties. Although it is one language, yet verities evolve in response to environment and dialectical differences. Since it is our assumption that one’s culture codes the systematic patterning of language, it is apparent that varieties of language abounds. Thus we have: American English, British English, Australia English, and Nigeria English .etc. This shows that English language like a human character is dynamic, it grows and changes and is sensitive to environment. By implication, Language borrows from the new home it finds itself, old ones dies and new words are incorporated into the vocabulary of the indigenous language: for instance, bungalow is taken from Hindu language- bungali, oba from Yoruba – (king), corn from America- maize, while in Britain it is called – wheat, barley, oats., in

Nigeria, chewing stick, bean-corn- a kind of meal made of corn and beans, bush meat etc. verities is prominent in speaking and writing.

STANDARD AND NON STANDARD ENGLISH.

Every geographical region has indigenous language and official language. In view of the divergent nature of a nation, Standard English becomes that which has been accepted to be used for official purposes. Standard English is the national dialect used in print, media, taught in schools, used for government activities, for conversation and writings. Standard English is the norm for dictionary and grammar. It is the language of nationhood and as such used in T.V programmes, National News broadcast and other official agencies.

UNIT THREE:

ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Definition:

This refers to the totality of all the words known and used by an individual in writing and speech act. Vocabulary therefore has to do with the process whereby a student learns new words and incorporates them in sentence construction or speech act. It is evident that student’s vocabulary grows and develops in view of the followings: age, level of education, awareness and adventure. The individual vocabulary is measured by the totality of words one can effectively and efficiently recorgnise and use in speaking and writing.

TYPES OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT.

1. Reading.2. Listening.3. Speaking 4. Writing.

Reading: this is an aspect of receptive vocabulary. The best way to build your vocabulary is through serious and critical reading: novel, News Papers, magazines e.t.c. in the curse of reading, new words are discovered and this enhances our vocabulary.

Listening: This is also an aspect of receptive vocabulary that forms the highest source

of vocabulary development. In listening, we make reference to the various words we hear in discursive settings. Our ability to understand them within the context of the discourse and apply them meaningfully enriches the level of our vocabulary.

Speaking Vocabulary. This refers to an achievement or productive vocabulary. In this situation, the emphasis is on the level of available words one can use effectively and

efficiently in a communicative setting. Effectiveness and efficiency in this case is dependent on: Lexicon and Semantic usage and interpretation. There should be synthesis of usage of words in context and content.

Writing Vocabulary. This is equally an aspect of productive vocabulary it refers to the range of words we use in writing and the ability to spell them correctly. The measure of our vocabulary is determined by the range of words we can spell and write comfortable without any grammatical implication. This is because English has lots of verities and they defer according to geographical location, regional/national and dialect, this very often interfere with our vocabulary development.

METHOD OF VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT.

The best method of vocabulary development is through semantic mapping. Semantic mapping means the strategy one employs in studying words in reference to the followings:

The class to which the word belong. ……. e.g. Dog-mamals. The example of that particular word----…. . police dog The attributes or properties of that word…….. Barks, hunts. The related concept or other words that belong to the same family of the word

we are dealing with……..wolf, fox which have semblance of the character of dog as a word of study. The above shows the four units of relationship the word shares which enhances realisation of its meaning in speech and writing. This is the easiest way of enriching ones vocabulary and it also enhances our understanding of comprehension passages. Meanwhile, denotative and connotative usage could also show one’s mastery of words which boosts vocabulary development.

English language has assortment of words, thus there are other ways or methods that enhances vocabulary building and correct use of words in lexicon and its semantic interpretation. They include:

1. Synonym, antonyms, homonyms, acronyms.2. Affixation and other morphological processes.

Generally, most English words have dual function.

1. DENOTATIVE MEANING2. CONNOTATIVE MEANING. DENNOTAITON: this refers to the general or popular meaning of a word as

contained in the dictionary. It is otherwise known as the lexical meaning of a given word. For instance:

I bought an (Igbo) cow yesterday. It means that I bought a specie of mammal called cow as seen in the statement.

CONNOTATION: this refers to the use of words in a way that it expresses a different meaning from its lexical, popular or dictionary meaning. For instance:

The boy is a complete Igbo cow. From the word usage of cow, it means that the boy is a fatty person connoting the image of “Igbo Cow” and not necessarily that he is a cow. It is just like saying “I bought a goat” and telling someone “you are nothing but a goat”. Meaning that the boy lacks wisdom, he is a fool.

Synonyms/antonyms: The dyad refers to word relationship in language.

SYNONYMS: this refers to words that has the same meaning or almost similar in meaning and can function interchangeably in sentence construction. The emphasis here is on the ability of the word to have the same meaning and have the capacity to replace the existing without uttering the structure of the sentence. On the other hand, Antonyms refers to words that are opposite in meanings.

WORDS SYNONYMS

Adhere obey,

Abide keep to.

Charity kindness.

Brave courageous

Candid sincere, honest.

Immaculate pure, clean, spotless.

WORDS ANTONYMS

Come Go.

Run Walk.

Energetic. Lazy.

Good Bad

Deep Shallow

Punctual Late

Literate Illiterate.

HOMONYMS: These refer to words that have the same phonetic patterning, they are pronounced alike but have different meaning

WORD HOMONYMS

Nut not

Maid made

There their

Bye buy

Course cause

Week weak

Be bee

See sea

PARONYMS: This refers to words that are derived from the same root word or base form but have different meaning. They may very often sound alike, but different in meaning.

WORD PARONYM

Imaginary imaginative

Sociable sensible

Estimate estimation

Accept except.

ACRONYMS: It refers to an abbreviation derived from a base word, or root word which officially stands for the whole world.

ABBREVIATIONS & ACRONYMS

DEFINITIONS FOR ABBREVIATION AND ACRONYM

DEFINITION:

An Abbreviation is a short form of a word or phrase. It is formed normally by the first letter of each word in the expression. Sometimes, the first, middle and the last letters of the word will make an abbreviation.

Abbreviations are used for words that are frequently used.

Br BrotherAsst. AssistantMP Member of Parliament

Prof. Professor STF Special Task Force

AACRONYMS

Definition: Acronym refers to the process of using the first letters of the group of words or first two or three letters of the group of words to form a word that can be pronounced as a word.

An Acronym is a word formed form the initial letters of a name. Sometimes two or more letters can be formed. E.g.

LAN Local Area NetworkFERA Foreign Exchange Regulation ActLASER Light Amplification by Stimulating Emission of RadiationTELEX Tele-printer and ExchangeFORTRAN Formula Translation

Some Expanded Form of Abbreviations Used in Sentence

ATM He withdrew money from the Automated Teller Machine of First SBank.BL Michela did his Bachelor of Law in London.BIS We need a Business Information System to make plans for Business.

BMA Some tooth paste has been certified by British Medical Association as dependable.CBI Central Bureau of Investigation arrested a local merchant in the metal fixing scan.

CD He bought the Encarta encyclopedia Compact Disc for $30/-.CPU Central Processing Unit is the brain of a compute.

Affixation and other Morphological Processes:

Affixation is an aspect of word formation in English language. In English grammar, words are formed through borrowings from Latin, Greek, indigenous languages as well as affixes and suffices. Words usually undergo morphological processes to expand meaning. According to linguists, a morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a word and the study of how this meaningful part is formed is known as morphology. Therefore, affixation of words could be realised in the followings: suffix and prefixes, free/bound morphemes ‘S’, e.t.c. the presence of affix in any word changes the meaning of the word. It is also important to know that

affixes could only be added to the root or base word which carries the meaning, and such affixation or attachment alters the meaning of the root word. For instance:

SAMPLE OF AFFIXATION THROUGH SUFFIXES AND ES.PREFIXES

PREFIX ROOT WORD SUFFIX NEW WORD.

1. Un- employ able unemployable

m- measure able immeasurable

2. Dis advantage ous disadvantageous

Use of Bound/free mophemes.Here, there is a kind of inflection that changes the meaning of the root word by formation of plurals from singular words;Singular inflectional words plural forms.1. Book “S” books2. Student “ students.

UNIT FOUR:

TOPIC: LANGUAGE SKILLS:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES.

At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:

Identify the four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking skills.

Know the types of listening skill and why it is called a receptive skill.

Factors affecting good listening skill

Strategy for effective listening.

READING SKILL.

The Concept of reading as a linguistic organisation and a vehicle of communication.

Types of reading and process.

Importance of reading and developing readiness for reading.

Factors affecting good reading habit and remedies to reading failures.

Techniques or strategies of reading vis a vis:

a. Skimming and Scanningb. SQ3R methods.c. Intensive and Extensive reading.

d. Understanding difficult words in a given passage.

LISTENING SKILL.

This is one of the four language skills and falls under the receptive mode. Listening is the most important aspect of language skill without which one’s studentship and existence becomes futile and meaningless. To listen is to: hear, (auditory), perceive (cognizance), and decode (interpreting meaning). The conglomeration of the followings will help in the definition of listening skill. According to Emmert, listening is a process by which we receive, construct meaning and form a response to a spoken utterance. It involves mental activity and creative skills which enables the individual to understand and interpret a speech act or a spoken language. Listening as a creative act employs the services of the intellect such as the acts of hearing, thinking, informing, deducing and inference. These acts are borne out of the listener’s interest in the spoken utterance. In listening, we become aware that a process is taking place by the presence of SOUND. The sound is made up of various components of language ranging from words-(vocabulary) arrangement of words-(syntax) – stress and intonation-(rise and fall of tone). One is said to have listened when these components are combined together in order to make a constructive and or meaningful response to a spoken word.

Listening therefore is a process of hearing, identifying, (sound patterning) understanding, and interpreting a given speech utterance of a spoken language. Good Listening involves a lot of participatory skills:

To think along with the speaker. Follow the direction of and flow of his thought presentation. Infer or decipher the speaker’s intent or the ideas he wants to communicate. Critically evaluate the speaker’s intent. Examine the logical ordering of incidents using the law of “cause and effect”.

TYPES OF LISTENING. There are five major types of listening.

There are various forms of listening according to the degree of involvement of the listener.

Intermittent listening, Critical listening, social listening, Aesthetic listening and Creative listening.

1. Informational listening2. Critical and Evaluative 3. Appreciative/ Aesthetic 4. Therapeutic / Emphatic 5. Inferential listening.

In our existential leaving, it is obvious that the amount of energy excreted on a particular object is dependent on the degree of value attached on the object. This also determines the nature of attention and time given to such objects. Likewise, in speech act, the type of

listening we exhibit is determined by some factors: purpose of listening, importance of the message to the listener.

1. INFORMATIVE LISTENING: This is the most common type of listening we engage in. Here, we listen to a given instruction on how to do certain things, operate a system; students equally listen to lectures and take notes on the vital points with the hope of developing it into a full-fledged note by way of further reading. In every listening situation, we hear many things relevant and irrelevant ones. It is left for the student to note the main key ideas, the real content of the message, the details of developing ideas, know the cause of an event and the sequence of the information we are to receive. This is the best way the mind can process information received from a spoken text or speech act so that in a summary way, you can arrive at the purpose of the speech and make a meaningful output of all you have heard. To make a meaningful out-put is to say what the topic is all about, the central message, and be knowledgeable to carry out instruction as required by the speech event.

2. CRITICAL / EVALUATIVE: this is the highest form of listening. It seriously exposes the student’s raison d'être and the intellectual capability. To listen critically is to listen clearly to a discourse, know the stated points and being able to use those points in the contexts and other inter-textual discourse situations to arrive at points not explicitly stated in the context. Such covert meaning could be the speaker’s stereotypical nature of a particular object, bias/ personal opinion as well as propaganda. E.g advert on the miraculous cure of headache with Panadol extra how the man gets cure even when it is certain that the tablet has not gotten to his blood stream. Here we listen critically and rationally evaluate what the speaker is saying. We may agree or disagree, at the end, we make decision and pass judgment.

3. APPRECIATIVE/ AESTHETIC LISTENING.

This is pleasure-seeking listening. Listening of this sort requires getting information from a speech event and be able to decipher the mood of the speaker from the speech event. The point here is for the listener to discover how the speaker makes his word add effect to his intended meaning. It is commonly employed in listening to poem, songs/drama story, radio, programmes T.v etc. the listener appreciates the rhyme, rhythm, image effects and the phonetic pattern of the utterance. For instance, we might get a report that a male teacher bit a student. We may not feel any pity for the child, but when you hear that an angry maths teacher beat up an innocent girl, there is every tendency to show sign of sympathy to the poor innocent girl. In this sentence, adjectives like angry suggests that the maths teacher has an emotional disorder while innocent moves us with pithy for the girl and suggests that she was wrongly manhandled and as such deserves apology from the angry teacher.

3. THERAPEUTIC/EMPATHIC LISTENING.

In therapeutic/ empathic listening, we listen with the mind set to action. Such occur when we encounter a sick person, listen to encourage, calm an angry person, worried individuals (students) etc. listening here educe actions that are sometimes impromptu.

4. INFERENTIAL LISTENING

In inferential, the listener listens and interpret message even beyond what the speaker said /his intent. It is usually used for academic purpose. Likewise, the above mentioned types of listening are essential for personal and interpersonal communicative situations so as to achieve communal goal and social progress.

5. Intermittent Listening: this is a kind of listening where by the listener swings attention on and off to the speaker’s utterance. It is a kind of passive listening whereby the listener gets part of what is being said and loses other parts. Here feedback is usually poor since the listener could not grasp the major ideas of the speaker.

GOALS / PURPOSES OF LISTENING

Listening skill has certain goals or specific purposes it wants to attain in any communication event. To this effect, the National Curriculum for Junior and senior secondary schools has listed the following goals for teaching listening skills:

1. Listening for main ideas2. Listening to follow direction, take note of details and sequence of event/ideas.3. Listening to understand the speaker’s tone, mood and purpose4. Listening to learn various subject matter areas and many other benefits.

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE LISTENING.

1. Ear impairment.2. Distraction3. Poor vocabulary of the subject matter.4.5. READING SKILL

INTRODUCTIONThe teaching of reading can be viewed from two perspectives. First, it can be taken to mean the teaching of initial reading in the second language, English. Secondly, it may refer to teaching aimed at improving the reading skills of those who have already learned to read in English. In this unit, our aim is to focus on improving students reading skills, which is the second perspective.What is Reading?Reading as an aspect of language skill is similar to listening and as such is a receptive skill. To read means to have one’s eyes, mind and full concentration on a printed text with the aim of decoding meaning. Reading can be defined as an act of communication in which information is transferred from a transmitter to a receiver. It involves the act of comprehending and analyzing information as contained in the text. As a process, it involves the direct interaction between the reader and the text. Reading has two basic components: Reaction and Fusion

1. Reaction involves reacting to what has been read in a critical manner to ascertain the truth in it and differentiate fact from fiction or opinion.

2. Fusion involves the act of integrating what one has read with previous experience. In this regard, reading involves the followings: word recognition, comprehension, reaction and fusion. The integration or interaction of this four units is a sign that good reading has taken place. It is therefore regarded as the fastest tool for acquiring knowledge and information.

As an active receptive skill, it entails comprehension and analysis of information presented in writing or print. It is an essential part of language mastery. Goals of Teaching Reading SKILLSAs the aim of this unit is on how to improve the reading skills of students, you are encouraged to:

a. Grasp texts written in English when studying English as a subject and when studying other school subjects, e.g. Mathematics, biology etc

b. Read a wide range of texts in English outside the classroom.c. Acquire a wide range of vocabulary, phrases and grammatical structures which would

facilitate reading.d. Adapt a reading type appropriate to a given purpose of reading.e. Able to read to comprehend and recall main and detailed ideas, infer implied

meanings, compare and contrast opinions, evaluate opinions and make personal judgement etc

TYPES OF READING.We have known that reading is essentially a process of decoding meaning in a written text. This means that one reds for a specific reason, purposes, such as reading for academic purposes, personal interest, pleasure or for gaining information. Your purpose for reading will determine the type of reading to adopt. There are various types of reading students can employ to equip themselves to read for different purposes. Such as:.

1. Silent and Loud ReadingSilent ReadingMost of our daily reading is done silently. It is the natural way of reading. Silent reading involves individual reading without vocalization. No sounds must be made, no lisping. Silent reading is ideal and helps an individual student to comprehend what he is reading. This type of reading is specifically useful to a student who needs to concentrate to absorb and reflect on what is being read. This type of reading is recommended for doing assignments, preparing or writing examinations. Loud ReadingLoud reading involves vocalization or reading out aloud. It involves reading aloud to other people’s hearing. When we read aloud our concentration is divided. This makes reading

difficult and may cause problems of comprehension. However, there are situations when you may have to read things aloud, when others do not have access to the materials. You can also use this type of reading to encourage your students to read aloud so as to ascertain the level of their reading fluency. It will also help you to guide student’s pronunciation, intonation and general speech fluency. You will be developing both reading and speaking skills at the same time using this.

2. Skimming and Scanning.ScanningScanning is a quick reading process with the primary focus of locating particular information. It involves quick eye movements, in which the eyes wander until the reader finds the specific piece of information he/she is searching for. It is used when specific piece of information, such as key words like names, date, symbol, formula or phrase is required or when someone is looking for a particular topic in a table of content of a book. The reader knows what he/she is looking for and so knows when he/she locates it.

SkimmingSkimming is reading for the essential meaning. It is a quick reading process to get to know how a passage is organized, that is, the structure of the text: heading, sub-headings, title etc. It can also be used to get an idea of the writer’s intention or the theme of the passage.Skimming is a more complex task than scanning because it requires the reader to organize and remember some of the information given by the author, not just to locate it. Skimming is a tool by which the author’s sequence can be observed unlike scanning by which some predeterminedinformation is sought after.

3 Extensive and Intensive ReadingExtensive ReadingExtensive reading refers to a relatively rapid style of reading typically of longer texts, which are judged to be within the language proficiency of the student. It involves the student’s reading of long texts or large quantities for general understanding with the intension of enjoying the texts. There are only a few tasks or comprehension exercises associated with the texts or there may be none at all. Reading novels, newspapers, poems etc are forms of extensive reading.For extensive reading, students are allowed to choose the books they read depending on their interests, and there is not always a follow-up discussion or work in class. In this way you encourage your students to read for pleasure and become better readers. FEATURES OF EXTENSIVE READING Reading Materials: Extensive reading involves a large selection of books. You will have to make available large quantity of texts from which the students choose considering their levels.

Students ChoiceStudents choose what they want to read based on their interest.

Teachers Role: The teacher’s role in extensive reading procedure is to encourage and help students with their reading. Students are put off reading when it is tied to class assignment. You can ask your students about books they are reading informally and encourage occasional mini presentation of the books review but these should not be seen as obligations by the students.

Intensive ReadingIntensive reading refers to a careful reading where the aim is to gain complete comprehension of the text. Here the reader aims at a detailed comprehension and analysis of a short passage. Intensive reading is recommended for academic purposes where the goal is to study and learn. It requires concentration by the student and often needs that the student reads silently. Texts for intensive reading are generally short (often around 500 words) and at a language level judged to be slightly above the reader’s proficiency level. It usually has a high proportion of tasks to be done or questions to be answered by the student at the end of the reading. In orderto complete the tasks the students may have to resort to frequent re-reading of the text.Examples of tasks/ exercises student learners may seek out after an intensive reading of a passage include:

Looking for main and detailed ideas. Understanding what is implied as against stated ideas. Making inferences. Making judgment of what the author wrote. Looking at the order or sequence of information and how ideas are linked from

paragraph to paragraph. Identifying transition words that indicate change from one paragraph to another.

.BARRIERS TO READING

The Reading Process: Reading is the translation of symbols or letters into words and sentences.When you read you must follow a sequence of symbols or letters arranged in a particular order. In English we read from left to right, in Hebrew from right to left and in Chinese from top to bottom.You can easily observe how people read. Ask your colleague or course mate to read a book, preferably one produced with large prints. He/she should read it holding it just below his/her eye level. Watch his/her eyes, you will notice that, rather than making one smooth sweep across the page, his/her eyes move sporadically, going forward with a jump and then pausing. This type of jumping movement is referred to as saccadic movement. This stopping and starting movement is essential, since the eye can only take in information when it is not moving. When the eye is motionless, it takes in part of a sentence and then moves on to the next part, so that, in fact we read sentences in small chunks.

FACTORS THAT SLOW DOWN READING SPEED1. Faulty visual perception: this refers to limited perceptual span which invariably leads

to word-by-word reading.2. Slow perceptual reaction time; that is slowness in recognition and response to

materials.3. Vocalization (reading aloud). This slows down reading speed.4. Head swinging, finger pointing or pencil/pen pointing can slow reading speed.5. Sub-vocalization (murmuring, making unnecessary sounds).

Students are to overcome these problems through constant practice under timed conditions.

THE SQ3R READING/ STUDY FORMULA.Prof. Francis Robinson developed a reading formula that is sometimes called pre- reading method. This method is essential for proper reading, comprehension and retention of a given passage. The methods is a quick survey of the tables of the table of contents, the chapters, heading/sub headings, tables of illustrations and other relevant information that aids retention.“S” stands for survey: it involves a quick glance on the paragraphs and topic sentence to have an idea about the text. That is to say, the title, author’s name, preface, publication date, references and chapter summaries are ways of getting established knowledge of the text. So surveying makes one to have a feel of the text or a given material.

Q: stands for Question: Based on what has been surveyed, the student is required to formulate certain thought provoking questions. The questions are necessary because it makes reading purposeful and trying to find answers to them enhances understanding of what is being read.“R”: the first “r” stands for actual reading of the entire book; from the introduction to the concluding paragraphs as well as the references contained in the book. The student is expected to concentrate and indulge in intensive reading. Notes are made and the formulated questions should serve as a guide to purposeful reading so as to grasp the full meaning of the text.“R” Recall: This is an important stage that students very often underestimate in reading skill. It is the ability of the reader to recall what has been read. It involves reviewing in detail the main ideas contained in the passage and make personal constructive criticism of what have been read. To achieve this, we have to: recall what has been surveyed, the questions and meaning decoded from the initial reading. This is the surest way to personally concretise and make that knowledge permanent in one’s life, what Prof. Ezugwu would call “ our second nature” (1).“R” the last “r” stands for Revise and interchangeably called review. It refers to calm but fast reading of what earlier has been read. In this case, the student ought to review the important points, underline the basic principles and important expressions and finally memorise the major concepts in the text. This will go a long way in proper understanding of the text.

METHODS OF UNDERSTANDING DIFFICULT WORDS IN A GIVEN TEXT. For proper understanding of difficult words in a given passage, the student is required to:

Understand the lexical implication of the text, Study words through semantic mappings. Use dictionary for literary interpretation of lexicons.

SPEAKING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS:

SPEAKING SKILLS

What is speaking? Goals of teaching speaking. Language features involved in speaking. Factors that influence one’s ability to speak. Functions of speaking.

Language learning begins with listening, but the ability to communicate depends on mastery of speech pattern of the individual who is faced with the task of expressing himself in a conventional language which has been nationally and internationally accepted as their lingua franca. Speech making therefore is the communication of ideas to listeners to add to their knowledge or influence their behaviour. Speaking is one of the language skills that involve cognitive process. This is to say that the act of speaking involves mental activity. The interest of the speaker is to communicate facts and opinion in an interesting and orderly discourse. Speaking is a two dimensional process linking the speaker and the listener. The two interrelate. Speaking could be seen as a process of constructing meaning, by receiving, processing and producing information. The key words are receive, process, produce. Speaking can be verbal or non-verbal. Verbal has to do with spoken words in which the sound is audibly clear to the listener, while non- verbal uses sign language or symbol/ example of nonverbal is what happen during the announcement of 2015 election result. There are some persons whose duty is to demonstrate through sign whatever the announcer says .Speaking is also context bound. This means that the form and the meaning of what is said depends on the context in which it takes place. Context also involves the (speaker and listener) of great importance is the environment, their collective experience as well as their reason for speaking. Since speaking and listening are inseparable, it is regarded by linguists as an audio-oracy skill.

GOALS FOR TEACHING SPEAKING SKILLS

Apart from equipping the students with a tool of communicative interaction, there abounds other reasons for which we teach students speaking skills.

a. To recorgnise English sound pattern and to pronounce English sounds correctly.b. To master word sounds and stress with the intention of learning how to pronounce

them. to

c. Express their thoughts using correct words, sentence structure, and appropriate register for a given social setting and situation.

d. To equip them with the command of language competence, able to master and use correctly stress pattern and intonation, and rhyme of English meaningfully.

e. Logicality: to organize their thoughts / idea in a chronological order.f. To express ones value and make rational judgment.g. To speak fluently.

LANGUAGE FEATURE INVOLVED IN SPEAKING

There are two major features in speaking skills: segmental and supra segmental features.

Segmental: This refers to the basic unit of sound which unites to form a spoken word or language. They are known as phonemes and it helps us to distinguish word from one another. In English vowels, there are words that have the same sound when pronounced. The segmental feature helps the students to master the differences between the two words and also discriminate between the two sounds through minimal pairs. E.g words like tea, see, bee, be etc.

SUPRA SEGMENTAL FEATURE.

Supra segmental feature has to do with an effect on speech, such as length, stress, tone and that extends over more than one segment of sound. They include: stress, rhythm and intonation.

STRESS: this is the amount of energy used in articulation of a syllable in a word. It is the degree, the loudness, pitch applied to a syllable in a word. It is important to note that all words that have more than one syllable should have word stress. This means that in a word of two-three syllable (s), one syllable should be longer and louder than other parts of the syllable. It is therefore necessary to find out where the stress falls in a word. In language discourse, there are basic rules that aids in identification of word stress. These include:

1. COMPOUND NOUN: In every compound word, the first part of the word is usually stressed. E.g School bus, Notebook, Blue bird, phone book.

2. In phrasal verbs, the stress falls on the preposition. Letdown3. Words with the same spelling but different in meaning. Here the word class

determines and changes the word stress.e.g

Noun verd.

‘Convert convert’

Progress progress

Record record

If the word is a noun, the first syllable gets the stress but if it is a verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ONE’S ABILITY TO SPEAK

One of the goals of teaching speaking skill is to ensure that students acquire native –like pronunciation. Meanwhile, certain factors impede their attainment of this goals. Such as: age, Attitude, individual ability, Home, school/ community environment.

1. Age: scholarly research on human development has shown that after puberty, lateralization is complete and adult ability to acquire native-like sound is limited. Lateralization has to do with the assignment of linguistic function to different parts of the brain. The lateralization effect is also called “Critical period Hypotheses” the hypothesis states if humans do not learn a second/ foreign language before certain age, then, it might be difficult for one to acquire it again like a native-speaker. This happens as a result of some maturative processes in the brain. (Graham 1994)

2. Home/school/community environment: the level of exposure of spoken English available to a student in homes, schools, community will affect the student speech pattern. For instance, people from barracks, Warri area, or Calabbar find it tasking to speak Queens English without pidginising it.

3. Individual Ability: biological and physiological differences can also help students to be more sensitive to and better at imitating sounds than others

4. Attitudinal problem: attitudinal problem of a student towards the target language can impede or enhance one’s speech development. Such attitude can result from culture of the native language. E.g Hausa accent makes their English pronunciation exceptionally unpleasant or sometimes makes the listener to hear a different / confusing word when the speaker meant another thing.

PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC SPEAKING.

Public speaking in is a kind of speech act where one is invited or out of one’s volition decides to speak on a particular topic. In this situation, the speaker very often speaks on a given topic of interest or as required by the audience. For effective Speech delivery, the followings are necessary:

a. Getting an interesting topic and stating the thesis by way of determining how to manipulate or handle the topic.

b. Understanding the target audience.c. Gathering material and pre/ writing stage.d. The actual delivery.

FUNCTIONS OF SPEAKING.

Speaking is usually used for the purpose of: interaction, transaction and performance.

SPEECH TALK AS INTERACTION

It is a known issue that speaking as a talk is an interactive exercise. When two people come together there is a possibility that interaction has taken place as soon as they start to exchange greetings and share experiences or ideas. Talk as an interaction has the following features:

a. Acts as a social functionb. Shows role relationshipc. Reveals speaker’s identityd. Refle3cts degree of politeness, familiarity and can be formal or casual. For students

to become effective speakers they ought to master and know how to engage in:e. A. open and close conversationf. Engage in small talks, jokes, recount personal incidents /experiencesg. Chose topic/ subject to speak on.h. Take turns in discussion, debates and arguments in a logical orderi. Know how to use appropriate speech format for formal and informal settings while

employing standard speech etiquette.

TALK AS TRANSACTION. Talk as transaction occurs when we engage in group discussion such as in classroom, asking someone for direction, buying or selling items in shops etc.The following skills are to be developed in the student for effective transaction:a. Explaining a need / intentionb. Describing an object, asking questions, making request, asking for clarification,

making comparison confirming information, agreeing and disagreeing with somebody.

TALK AS PERFORMANCE

This can also be called informative talk. it is a type of talk that transmits information to the audience. It is inform of speech presentation, where the speaker stands before the audience to deliver a prepared speech/talk. There is need to equip oneself with the necessary tool that guarantees per formative speech so as to avoid unnecessary panic, stage fright that limits student’s talk performance. The student should learn how to:

a. Use correct format of presenting information in a logical /chronological sequence.b. Learn the technique of capturing audience’s interest by creating effect and making

them involve (carry them along) in the presentation.c. Use appropriate word register and vocabulary suitable for the topic, accommodated

and understandable by the audience.

UNIT FIVE:

SPEECH SOUNDS.

At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

a. Identify the 44 speech sounds.

b. Identify organs of speech.c. Understand the categories of speech sounds.

SPEECH SOUNDS OF ENGLISH AND THEIR ARTICULATION.

There are 44 speech sounds of English. 20 vowels and 24 consonants. The articulation of linguistic sounds are produced through the combination or co-ordination of movements, by the relevant parts of the vocal apparatus. This means that various organs of speech are responsible for the production of a particular kind of sound.

The vowel is divided into two broad categories:

a. Pure Vowel also known as monothongsb. Diphthongs.c. Thriphtong.

It is symbolically divided into long and short vowels.

The long vowel is symbolically marked by two dots (:) while the short is free of such symbol.

The articulation of consonant sounds involve the use of: Bilabial, Labio-dental. Dental, Fricative, Alveolar, Palate-Alveolar, Palatal, Velar and Glottal. Consonant cluster is also necessary for effective speech production.

In conclusion, speaking is the key to communication. Students are encouraged to acquire appropriate pronunciation/speech production patterns in English, to determine what skills they already have and what areas need development. By determining what speaking tasks your students can perform and what specific skills your students need to further acquire, you can help them improve their speaking and overall oral competency.

UNIT SIX: STUDY TECHNIQUES.

ACTIVITY ONE: DEFINITION AND APPROACH TO LEARNING.Study technique refers to the general and over view approaches to learning as well as the different methods of studying a particular course. This refers to the assortment of skills one employs for proper reading, retention of information and all the processes needed for effective personal study or acquiring new knowledge. Such as: Mnemonics, time management and self-discipline, critical thinking and the principle of cause and effect. Memorising, use of symbols or graphic representation of ideas and charts are essential for effective study skills.CHOOSING CONDUSIVE ENVIROMENT FOR STUDYINGThe first task in study techniques is to choose an enabling environment free of distraction. Such as: library, class room blocks e.t.c. Study group: forming tutorial classes and discussion groups facilitate easy learning.

NOTE TAKING/ NOTE MAKING.

Note taking a process of systematically putting down the main points of a speaker during speech delivery or from a text. It involves the activity of the language skills of: listening, reading and writing. Note making on the other hand is a process whereby the learner jot down major points from a text with the intention of developing or expanding the noted point later. In this case, the learner uses certain methods or keywords to achieve his purpose.

REASONS FOR NOTE MAKING/ NOTE TAKING.a. To summarise the central idea of the speaker or a given text.b. To facilitate easy remembering and recalling the central idea as expressed in the past

lectures or a text one has read.c. To gain insightful knowledge and consolidate previous learning.d. It acts as a resource material for further reading.e. It helps students in examination preparations.f. It condenses knowledge to a sizable shape.

METHODS THAT ENHANCE EFFECTIVE NOTE MAKING: a. Use of keyword pattern.b. Use of liner or outlining pattern.c. Use and mastery of various abbreviations.

Other things to consider in Note making/taking are: When is it necessary to make or take notes? Types and structures of note taking/ making. The major differences between the two concepts.

Transcoding techniques: it is a process of transferring information or data from one format to another. It could be in a graphic representation of information in a charts or graphs for effective and visual translation of idea in a more concrete manner.

UNIT SEVEN: LITERATURE READING IN ENGLISH

LITERATURE READING FOR STUDY, ANALYSIS AND COMMENT.Literature has been seen as imaginative composition of art, or an organised violence acted on language. The three genres of literature will be briefly explored and their differences established. Literary text like Purple Hibiscus, has been selected for analysis and criticism. Literature has three major genres: Prose, Poetry, and Drama. Each is distinct in view of mode of artistic representation. PROSE: this is a long narrative in story form. It is written in chapters and paragraphs. Poetry is written in stanza and lines, while drama is written in acts and scenes.

A person who writes a novel is called a Novelist, one who writes a poem is called a poet while the writer of dramatic work is known as a playwright.GUIDE TO PROPER CRITICISM AND ANALYSIS OF A TEXT.Analysis should be based from the point of view of the two major literary traditions:

a. Aristotelian concept of: “art for art sake”.b. Platonic concept of Utilitarian art.

INTRODUCTION: Literary criticism derives from the tradition laid by the ancient Greek philosophers namely, Aristotle and Plato. They share the same view of poetry as mimesis (imitation), but differ in their artistic conceptualization of mimesis. Their distinction focuses on how one should discuss art in reference to other things of similar kind. Aristotle’s idea of artistic mimesis has remained an immortal groundwork of criticism and a point of departure in the history of literary criticism with varied adaptations and misinterpretations. Amechi Awkanya, undertakes to examine Aristotle’s notion of mimesis. He notes that the idea of literary art has been misinterpreted and confused with various disciplines that till now delimit the proper understanding of literary art. The misrepresentation of art dates back to Plato and Aristotle’s idea of art in general, namely in viewing art as an object, asking what it is, and in inquiring into what one should look for in art as well as the question of how to validate the truthfulness of art.In the introductory paragraph of Literary Criticism: From Formal to Question of Method. Akwanya avers that “literary criticism and discourse analysis of literature depend entirely on ones understanding of what literature is” (1) namely an object, a composite being” (sunolo), (51), a “self-contained object, referring to nothing beyond itself” (53), to use Heidegger’s word, “a being—coming forth in unconcealment, the disclosure of truth” (Language Poetry Thought 2001). The point Akwanya makes here is that literature is one thing that exists in itself independent of our knowing that it is there and criticism of literature is another thing that is primarily concerned with the saying of what is in the art. From the above it is important to note that Aristotle has taken the path of art existing for itself independent of other things while Plato views art as that which should have utilitarian value. In this case, literature is seen as that which mirrors society and should be capable of depicting the object it represents. This is art seen form the humanist point of view while Aristotle’s concept is art seen from the Formalists point of view.

SUMMARY: In this course, you have learnt that language as a communicative tool is part and parcel of human existence and more importantly the characteristics and functions has been mentioned. You have equally learnt the meaning of Vocabulary and the various ways of developing English vocabulary, as well as the four language skills and other issues that relate to proper reading and criticism of literary texts. Thus, effort should be made to articulate what you have learnt and answer the following questions.

1. Discourse language as an emergent of human existence.2. What are the ways of developing English vocabulary?3. Mention and explain the four language skills.

4. Differentiate note making from note taking.

REFERENCES:1. Amechi, N. Akwanya Literary Criticism: From Formal to Questions of Method.

Nigeria: University of Nigeria Press, 2017. Print2. .The Poetics of Aristotle. Trans .S.H. Butcher. A Penn State Electronic Classics Series

Publication.2000. Web.3. The Republic of Plato. Trans. Allan Bloom. HarperCollins Publisher. U.S.A. PDF.