GNS 102: Communication in English I

Course Syllabus
Course description:
English 102 course is designed to enable students acquire the necessary communicative skills, know the
techniques of correspondence and comprehend written materials.
Objectives: at the end of this course you are expected to achieve: an understanding of the concept of
communication, know how to make oral presentations, know the essential elements of a correspondence and
know the rules of comprehension and interpretation.
Syllabus/Topics
Communication:
 Definition
 Process of communication
 Purpose of communication
 Relationship between language and communication
 The impact of interference on communication at various linguistic levels i.e. phonological,
morphological, syntactical, semantic, and pragmatic
 Code-switching and code-mixing
Oral presentation:
 Label of a diagram of the organs of speech
 Functions of the organs in speech production
 English phonemes and their production
 Distinction between consonants and vowels
 Principles of speech: stress, rhythm, intonation, etc
 Reading exercise for fluency
Correspondence:
 Purpose and importance
 Types: letter, memorandum, circular, etc
 Parts of a letter
 Differences between formal and informal letter
 Characteristic (style) of a formal and an informal letters
 Function of the first, middle and last paragraph of a letter
 Write a formal and an informal letters
Comprehension and Interpretation
 Identify main ideas in a given passage
 Differentiate main ideas from details in a given passage
 Use the main idea to anticipate specific details in a passage
 Use context clue to aid comprehension
 Identify relationship patterns of ideas in passage
 Use context clues such as definitions, restatements and examples to derive meaning
 Explain how affixes modify meanings
 Interpret figurative language in a passage
 Draw conclusions from available information
Course assessments: Depending upon chance, the following would be employed.
1. Grouped written essay to be presented in the class 20%.
2. Test 10%.
3. Final examination 70%.
Total assessment: 100%.

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COMMUNICATION
It is a process of exchanging and sharing understandable “information” between parties in form of spoken
sounds, written symbols or body movement. Information is anything a person(s) wishes to give out i.e. ideas,
knowledge, skills, experiences, needs, desires, feelings, emotions, attitudes, roles, values, rules, customs,
conventions, perceptions, ideology, etc which define and regulates human relationships and events.
Communication could be intentional or unintentional, formal or informal (grapevine), internal or external,
interpersonal or intrapersonal which all involves conventional or unconventional signs using linguistic or
paralinguistic forms.
Therefore, interlocutors (or intra-locutors) can achieve effective communication only when the communicator’s
desired effect is the result of the intentional or unintentional understanding, interpretation, action or reaction of
the receptor in the desired way. To achieve this, certain skills as: vocabulary development, diction, spelling,
pronunciation and oratory, use of punctuation, use of figurations, use of audio-visual materials, visual
improvement, and style need to be acquired and developed by both parties.
In all of the above purpose we interact with a specific aim of persuading, informing, entertaining, assessing or
evaluating a phenomenon, expressing feelings, demonstrating emotions, extending goodwill, performing
actions, proving oneself, eliciting response, encouraging others, requesting, commanding, etc.

Purpose of communication
1. Social interaction: this is the need to meet our social needs such as relating with friends, parents, colleagues,
etc in form of greetings, discussions, reconciliation, condolences, among others.
2. Business and trade: our need and desire to possess things became real through transactions and other forms
of negotiations.
3. Exchange of ideas: humans must share knowledge, ideas, opinions through instructions and training.
4. Socio-political reason: humans as social beings need rules, laws, policies, announcements, campaigns, etc in
order to live peacefully and progress.
5. Socio-cultural integration: to understand each other and other cultures there is the need to appreciate and
value our cultural values, customs, traditions as well as other cultures’.

Types:
1. Oral: it is the use of physical production of sounds system to communicate using the mouth. Some of its
modes are conversation, dialogue, telephone call, video call, cassette (tape) or video/CD recordings, interviews,
meetings, etc.
Advantages:
It is faster, that it allows the exchange of information within a limited time and space.
It is cheaper, it requires little resources.
It is simple in conveying message; it does not require too much skills and expertise.
It allows instant modification or clarification.
It gives the true identity of the participants (i.e. speaker or receptor).
Disadvantages:
Slip of tongue.
Anxiety and fear which may lead to confused message.
Information distortion due to individual perceptions.
Records may be untraceable (except where an electronic gadget is used).

2. Written: it is the systematic representation of information in form of symbols, signs, pictures, graphics,
charts or colours. Some of its modes include letters, notes, circulars, reports, books, articles, essays, posters,
boards, mails, tables, charts, diagrams, graphs, memoranda, magazine/newspaper, billboards etc.
Advantages:
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It allows economical use of words and expressions.
It gives room for wise choices of words and expressions.
It is everlastingly recorded.
It serves as convincing evidence.
It is a source for future reference.
It carries more weight (formality and acceptability) than other forms of communication.
Disadvantages:
It is time consuming when it comes to making choices.
It is strictly formatted with a sequence of conventions in style, structure and format.
It is too complex and difficult because you need other writing skills (spellings, punctuations, etc).
It is not fast in conveying information.

3. Non-verbal (Body Language): the act of conveying massage with the body movements, signs or gestures
without the use of sounds or symbols. This form amount to well over 60% of human communication acts.
Examples of the non verbal communication include eye contact, signs, touch (haptics), gestures, body
movement, space and distance (proxemics), posture, facial expressions, hair style, walking, clothing, eating
habits, architectural designs and colour system.
Advantages:
It complements both the written and oral forms.
It is the best source of hidden and realistic information through assessment of speaker’s impressions, intentions,
emotions, attitudes, behaviours, values, norms, truth value, perspective, interest, beliefs, prejudice, etc. It allows
for maintaining secrete.
It gives additional information –tone, mood, facial expression, gestures, and posture– for clarity and better
understanding.
Disadvantages:
It may not serve as record or evidence.
It, sometimes, does not allow privacy especially in public places.

Elements
1. Stimulus: this the reason for the speaker to start a communication process i.e. to inform, to educate, to
entertain, to persuade, to assess, etc.
2. Source: the initiator of the process. S/He determines topic, mode, time frame and participants of the
communication process. S/He controls the conversational turns. S/He is also seen as a recipient.
3. Message: it is information the speakers wish to share or exchange. It is the actual reason for the
communication, what the sender wants to accomplish.
4. Medium/Channel: medium is the form of the communication (i.e. speech, writing or signs) while the channel
is the pathway or the instrument use to pass across the message. These inseparable elements help greatly in
achieving the task – for without them the process will fail.
5. Receiver: this is the target audience who receives the first message. S/He sustains the communication process
by giving reactions. S/He regulates the communication topic, mode, time frame and participants. S/He is also
called encoder or a sender.
6. Feedback: this is the response or reaction given by the receiver of the message. It determine the level of
understand and achievement of the process. It also influence further reactions i.e. change of topic, participants,
etc. more importantly it determine the continuity or otherwise of the process.
7. Interference: anything that prevents the speaker or the receiver from receiving the message. This would be
elaborated later in the course.

The nature and process

The nature of the communication process is cyclical, complex and ambiguous, encompassing and dynamic yet it
is innate.
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The process begins with a desire to exchange information by the sender who encodes and expresses the
message, using oral, written or nonverbal media and a channel to the receiver. Upon receiving the information,
the receiver deciphers the message and sends his response (feedback) through the same or alternate media and
channel to his receiver, who was the then sender. Somewhere along the process, information from the sender or
the receiver may be tempered with partially or wholly; temporarily or permanently by an obstacle(s) called
interference.

Class Activity: Redefine communication? Which communication mode do you prefer and Why? Attempt an
assessment of the roles of each communication variable. Identify some universal communication signs in both
linguistic and paralinguistic means. Demonstrate certain skills of the nonverbal mode of communication that
are peculiar to your native group. How would you connect the universal signs to your native’s or personal
signs?

Interference
Interference is anything that contributes towards the total or partial loss of information in communication. In
other words it is that barrier that prevents the sender from sending his/her message or that which prevent the
receiver from receiving the message. Such barriers result in failure, misunderstanding, misrepresentation
misinterpretation and misconceptions of the message. There are countless barriers to communication but here
we try to reduce them under the following headings:
1. Physical: these originates from the environment and they include time interval, proximity, noise, distractions,
poor equipment, poor lighting, bad weather conditions, sitting arrangement, etc.
2. Psychological: these are barriers that emanates from the human mind of the individual. They could be as a
result of past experience (i.e. accident), hunger, poor mental attitude, stress, emotional instability, inferiority
complex, trauma (i.e. war victim), depression, guilt, fright, nervousness, mental disorders (i.e. Autism,
Parkinson), etc.
3. Physiological: these barriers come from deficiency in the human body. For example when one is suffering
from ill health, poor sight, hearing difficulties, stammering, anosmia (inability to smell), anaphia (inability to
touch), fatigue, brain damage, handicapped hands or legs, etc.
4. Cultural barriers: these are words, expressions and behaviours that are disapproved by the tradition of a
society to a particular age, gender, social class and social role that obstruct communication. Sometimes certain
factors such as beliefs, values, ideology, traditions (acts of recognition, approval, inclusion, disapproval, etc)
and power and social roles play hindrance to communication.
5. Personal barriers: these originate from individual personality differences, perception, conception, fear of
attack or criticism, social status or power difference, personal space, stereotyping and prejudice, interest,
resistance to change, etc.
6. Language: on one hand, an unfamiliar language may be used. At another, it could results from the speaker’s
or the receiver’s inability to use the language of communication competently and proficiently, at various levels.
These levels are:
 Grammatical/structural: structural ambiguity due to dangling and misplaced modifiers, concord, tense
shift, expressions or dialect.
 Semantic: these refer to the misunderstanding between the sender and receiver arising due to the
different meanings of words, signs, and other symbols used in the communication. They include bad
expressions and lack of clarity due to lexical relations
 Polysemy – head, run
 metonymy – take a bottle, have a can
 hyponymy – machine, bird
 homonymy – bank, date, mole
 heteronyms – Bass [beis] a string instrument; [bas] a fish; Pate [peit] a bald head & [patei] a minced food;
Sewer [seue] one who sews & [sjue] place for human waste; Slough [slvf] the outer layer of skin of a snake &
[slau] a swamp; Buffet [bvfit] to pound or bump & [bufei] place where you serve yourself.
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  homophony – flower/flour, pale/pail, meet/meat.
 euphemism –
 Others include usages such as ‘I am coming’, ‘Sorry’ to one who tripped, ‘not on duty’ (absent), ‘on
seat’ (in seat), on the road, ‘escort you’ (accompany/see you off), ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ (cousin, niece,
aunt, nephew), ‘senior’ or ‘junior’ (elder or younger), ‘tight friend’ (intimate), ‘go slow’ (traffic jam), as
well as some borrowed terms and expressions from our local languages i.e. clothes, food, institutions,
etc.
 Lexical: use of wrong or non-existing words, lexical ambiguity, unfamiliar or misspelled words; slangs
or jargons.
 Phonological: wrong pronunciation (i.e. pun), ascent, tone and voice. How would you pronounce these
words “entrepreneur, jacket, genre, adjective, equipment, I am hot/hurt. Please fill/feel the glass. Talle is not
a good thinker/tinker. What is the date/debt like?

Class Activity: have you ever experience the effect of either of the barriers listed? How did you remedy the
effect? Have you tried the use of radio/tape recorder, TV, computer assisted exercises, spelling contest, word
games, etc? Considering the various topics, contexts, participants, environment and forms of communication
what would you suggest as the possible remedies for interference in communication? How could the 13Cs
(clarity, completeness, consideration, correctness, conciseness, concreteness, courtesy, consistency, context,
content, capability, cleanness, and channels) help you in solving communication problems?

Code switching and Code-mixing

Code switching refers to a situation where two or more languages, varieties of a language or even speech styles
are use (as alternatives) within the same conversation i.e. at inter-sentential level.
On the other hand, Code-mixing is the shift from one language to another within the same utterance (sentence)
i.e. at intra-sentential level.
Humans exist in diversity i.e. race, language, ethnicity, level of education, and social group. In most cases two
or more cultures co-exist within an environment which results in cultural exchange to foster mutual
understanding. Take Nigeria as an example, where more than 300 languages and over 1000 dialects co-exist.
Code switching occurs frequently in almost all conversations, even in professional settings. There is often the
mixing of English and tribal languages where it is very rare to find local languages mixtures. In most major
cities, code switching and code mixing enjoy popularity as they have become a welcome trend in the flow of
conversations. Examples of the two terms are:
Code switching:
 They took the boy away. Ka bisu ka ga inda za su je. So that you let me know. Ka ji?
 Mofe lo si oja. Ige soma abia? I need you.
 Tele wan loo. Anum na azu ke. Hurry up!
Code mixing:
 Haladu ya passing duka examinations din.
 Ka zo mu dille market din mana.
 Hello listeners, la habaruje ma’a ana li Joseph Ladi, ayi sauraro well.

Reasons for Code-switching and Code-mixing

 The speaker’s inability to use the language proficiently
 The receptors inability to comprehend the spoken language
 The will to keep secrete
 Socio-cultural identification (solidarity)
 Habitual speech style – due to availability of alternatives

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Class Activity: Examine the various reasons why people code mix or code switch. Having done so, why would
you code mix or code switch? What would you say are their differences? Must Nigerians switch or mix?
Comment why.

ORGANS OF SPEECH

Source: Yule, G. 2007. The Study of Language. Cambridge, UK..

These are parts of the human body that regulates the air, from the lungs, to produce speech sounds. These are:
1. Teeth Lips 2. Tongue (tip, front, back & blade) 3. Alveolar ridge 4. Hard palate 5. Velum (soft palate) 6.
Uvula 7. Nasal cavity 8. Oral cavity 9. Pharynx 10. Larynx 11. Vocal cords (Adam’s apple) 12. Glottis.
Speech sounds are identified and categorized based on three parameters: place of articulation, manner of
articulation and voicing (state of the glottis).
Place of articulation: The location inside the mouth at which the constriction takes place is refers to as Place
of Articulation. These are:
1. Bilabials: These are sounds formed using both (= bi) upper and lower lips (=labia). They are
represented by the symbols [p] pat, [b] bat, [w] world and [m] mat.
2. Labiodentals: These are sounds formed with the upper teeth and the lower lip. They are represented by
the symbols [f] fat and [v] vat.
3. Dentals: These sounds are formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. The symbols are [θ]
teeth and [ð] there.
4. Alveolar: These are sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the alveolar ridge, which is the
rough, bony ridge immediately behind and above the upper teeth. The symbols are: [t], [d], [s], [z], [n],
[l] and [r]. Words like bus, talk, not, do, right, lit and buzz.
5. Palatals: Sounds produced with the tongue and the palate. Examples are [ʃ] shout, [ʒ] treasure, [j] yacht,
[ʤ] gem, and [ʧ] child.
6. Velars: Even further back in the roof of the mouth, beyond the hard palate, you will find a soft area,
which is called the soft palate, or the velum. They are [k] like, [ɡ] bag, and [ŋ] (angma) sing.
7. Glottal: There is one sound that is produced without the active use of the tongue and other parts of the
mouth. It is the [h] sound which occurs at the beginning of have and whose.

Manner of articulation: so far, we concentrated on describing consonant sounds in terms of where they are
articulated. We can also describe the same sounds in terms of how they are articulated. These are:
1. Stops (plosive): These sounds are produced by some form of “stopping” of the air stream (very briefly)
then letting it go abruptly. The sounds are [p], [b], [t], [d], [k] and [ɡ].

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 2. Fricatives: This involves almost blockage of the air stream and having the air push through a very
narrow opening which results in a type of friction [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s] and [z].
3. Affricates: If you combine a brief stopping of the air stream with an obstructed release which causes
some friction, you will be able to produce the sounds [ʧ] and [ʤ].
4. Nasals: These sounds are produced when the oral cavity is blocked by the lips or tongue and the air
stream is forced to flow out through the nose. The sounds are [m], [n] and [ŋ].
5. Liquids: [l] is formed by letting the air stream flow around the sides of the tongue as the tip of the
tongue makes contact with the middle of the alveolar ridge. The [r] sound is formed with the tongue tip
raised and curled back near the alveolar ridge.
6. Glides: These sounds are produced with the tongue in motion (gliding) to or from the position of a
vowel and are sometimes called semi-vowels. They are [w] and [j].

Voicing: the glottis is on two basic states – closed or opened.

1. When the vocal folds are spread apart, the air from the lungs passes between them unimpeded. Sounds
produced in this way are described as voiceless; i.e. [s], [h], [p], [t], [f], [k], [θ], [ʃ], and [ʧ].
2. When the vocal folds are drawn together, the air from the lungs repeatedly pushes them apart as it
passes through, creating a vibration effect. Sounds produced in this way are described as voiced; i.e. [b],
[d], [m], [w], [v], [z], [r], [n], [l], [g], [ð] [ŋ] [ʒ], [ʤ], [j]

The distinction can be felt physically if you place a fingertip gently on the top of your Adam’s apple to either
feel some vibration in [z] and [v] sounds or no vibration in [s] and [f] sounds. Another trick is to put a finger in
each ear, not too far, and produce the voiced sounds (e.g. [d]) to hear and feel some vibration, whereas no
vibration in voiceless sounds (e.g. [k]).

Class Activity: Can you do the same for the following sounds /ʃ/, /tʃ/, /y/, /k/, /l/, / ŋ/, / ð/, /v/, as you do for the
sound below?
/d/ /p/ /b/
Place: Alveolar Place: Place:
Manner: Stop Manner: Manner:
State of Glottis: Voiced State of Glottis: State of Glottis:

/t/ /dʒ/ /r/

Place: Place: Place:
Manner: Manner: Manner:
State of Glottis: State of Glottis: State of Glottis:

/s/ /n/ /θ/

Place: Place: Place:
Manner: Manner: Manner:
State of Glottis: State of Glottis: State of Glottis:

Consonants Chart
Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Dental
Voicing -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V -V +V
Stops/ p b t d k g
Fricatives f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Affricatives tʃ dʒ
Nasals m n ŋ
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 Liquids l
r
Glides w j
Source: Yule, G. (2007) The Study of Language. Cambridge, UK

The Sounds of English

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet but there are 44 sounds in the English language. This means that the number of
sounds in a word is not always the same as the number of letters. For instance:
 /k/, /ch/, /c/, /q/, & /ck/ letters are all represented with the [k] sound.
 /s/, /psy/, /cy/, /ci/, /ce/, /st/, /sc/ letters are represented by the [s] sound.
 CAT is written /k æ t/
 CATCH is written /k æ ʧ/
In 'CATCH' the three letters TCH are one sound represented by one phonemic symbol /ʧ/.
The 44 sounds in English comprise of 24 consonants and 20 vowels. The 24 Consonants sounds are treated
below. Try not to bother with the words just mind the underlined letters and the symbol aligned to it.
1. /p/ - pipe, pot, shape, wrapper, tap, wipe, rip, paper, park, pardon
2. /b/ - bat, bug, mob, rubber, robe, (nb: /b/ is silent before /t/ and after /m/ debt, bomb)
3. /t/ - table, bright, written, kite, tap, bite, night, hit, talked, tidy, waked
4. /d/ - dog, dig, ride, middle, daughter, detail
5. /k/ - cat, key, quota, character, back, (nb: /k/ is silent in /kn/, & /c/ is pronounced /s/ before /e/,/i/ & /y/)
6. /g/ - get, gum, ghost, goggles, (nb: /g/ is silent in most /gn/ combination)
7. /f/ - fish, phone, philosophy, laugh, office, nephew
8. /v/ - van, vat, behave, leave, preview, view, Wengen, Wenger
9. /θ/ - thick, thump, faith, thank, bath, thaw, thatch, ethnic
10. /ð/ - these, there, smooth, bathe, rather, brother, gather
11. /s/ - sat, sits, psychology, cell, scene, fasten
12. /z/ - zebra, zap, houses, scissors, praise
13. /ʃ/ - ship, sugar, mansion, nation, ocean, schedule, machine, conscious, charlotte
14. /ʒ/ - treasure, leisure, confusion, seizure
15. /h/ - hop, hut, who, how handle, harass, harmer
16. /tʃ/ - chip, matches, nature, merchant, agriculture, chew, chastity, chart,
17. /dʒ/ - lodge, judge, gender, age, soldier, procedure, adjust, hinge, education
18. /m/ - man, mummy, column, thumb, lame, ram, handbag
19. /n/ - man, pan, know, reign, gnaw, nine
20. /ŋ/ - sing, wrong, bring, language, handkerchief, dangle, dung,
21. /l/ - let, lips, fell, file, (nb: /l/ is silent before /f/, /k/, /m/, & /d/ i.e. talk, could, calf, alms)
22. /r/ - rub, ran, rhyme, rhythm, write, strap, starring
23. /w/ - wait, once, one, (nb: /w/ is silent in some /wr/, /sw/, /wh/ & in final position of a word)
24. /j/ - yet, yacht, opinion, hideous, Europe, eunuch, queue,

The 20 Vowel sounds in the Received Pronunciation of British English are:

Short vowels
1. /i/ - bit, busy, become, coffee, dated, carriage, women, private, England
2. /e/ - bet, head, friend, said, bury, read, lead, pet, yet
3. /æ/ - cat, dad, plait, plant, back, add, polymath, fracas
4. /ɔ/ - dog, rotten, knock, because, cough, want
5. /ʌ/ - cut, nut, bus, son, blood, touch, duck, shove, tunnel, London, front
6. /u/ - put, soot, should, woman, push, look, book, fulfill, full
7. /ə/ - about, clever, picture, colour, gather, doctor, letter, centre, confide
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Long vowels
8. /i:/ or /ɪ/ - cream, seen, these, receive, key, quay, neat, senior
9. /ɜ:/ (əː)- burn, firm, fern, journey, turbot, err, search, verve, her, girl
10. /ɑ:/ - hard, far, calm, heart, clerk, laugh, are, pardon
11. /ɔ:/ - corn, faun, sauce, more, war, floor, caught, sore, saw
12. /u:/ - glue, shoe, route, fruit, lose, through, group, guru
Diphthongs
13. /aɪ/ - spice, bite, try, height, buy, guide, eye, viol, viola, vinyl, twilight, paradigm
14. /eɪ/ - wait, fate, day, vein, gaol, gauge, plate, game, age, ape, forte, frail
15. /ɔɪ/ - toy, boy, voice, boil, annoy, moist, envoy, coin, rejoin
16. /əu/ - oats, note, hope, sew, go, no, home, sow, shoulder, goal, ghost
17. /au/ - clown, vow, stout, plough, gown, found, how, brown, ground
18. /ɪə/ - deer, pier, here, idea, weird, rear, ear, cheer, spear
19. /eə/ - hair, bear, bare, fair, care, chair, wear, heir
20. /uə/ - cure, fuel, poor, sure, tour, dual, doer

Pure Vowels

Front Central Back

I u
High
i: u:
e ə ɔ
Middle
ɜ: ʌ ɔ:

Low
æ ɑ:

Diphthongs

Front Central Back

High i u

ə
Mid e
ɔ

Low
ɑ:
Distinction between Consonants and Vowels
 Consonants are mostly articulated via a closure or obstruction of air in the vocal tract, while Vowels are
produced with an open mouth and free flow of air.
 Consonants are either voiced or voiceless while all Vowels are typically voiced.
 All Vowels are produced within the tongue by positioning it forward or backward, or upward or
downward; while consonants are produced by touching various part of the mouth with the lips or tongue.

Class Activity: criticise the oral presentation principles – what other principles can you identify? Can you
identify the consonants and vowels in your language - how many are they? How are the consonants different
from the vowels? Comment on the voicing in both sounds. Give some examples in words and statements. Make a

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lists of homonyms and homophones and differentiate the two i.e. flower/flour, pail/pale, meet/meat,
principle/principal, etc.

Principles of Oral Communication

There are some ethics you need to adhere to make effective oral communication. These are:
1. Effective listening skills: receiving, processing, evaluating, responding & remembering.
2. Know your audiences – behaviours, attitude, culture, educational level etc.
3. Speech attributes: pitch, intonation, stress, mood and accent.
4. Communication ethics: turn taking, interruption, deviation, attitude (regulative) and consultative (signs
meaning).
5. Phonological rules: assimilation, deletion, insertion,
6. Constrain your emotions: overcome all phobia "fright", self esteem and egoism.
7. Professionalism: competence, civility, integrity, sincerity, reliability, and validity, commitment and just.

Stress is the varying force and length in the articulation of words. The strength and length we produce various
syllables of a word varies according to our intention, usage, context and psychological state. Some syllables are
pronounced with high pitch while others with low one. The natives often stressed the content words (i.e. Nouns,
Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs) as against the function words (i.e. Articles, Conjunctions, Prepositions,
Auxiliary verbs, and Interjections). However, a speaker may wish to emphasis the function word to draw
attention. The English natives rely on stress in order to:
 It is the basis for classifying words: verbs, adjectives, articles, conjunctions, prepositions, etc.
 It aids in the interpretation a word – i.e. naming, relating objects, indicating action, connecting, etc.
 It helps focus the attention or intention of the speaker – i.e. I was there.
 Native speakers rely on stress to process what they hear and use it to identify words.
 Word stress affects the sounds of the vowels in the word.
 It gives you more confident in speaking and reading English.
 Miscommunication can be the result of incorrect word stress patterns by the non-native speakers.
 It helps you to project the pronunciation of new words.
 Once you know which syllable to stress in a word, it will be much easier to apply vowel reductions.

Types of Stress
Primary stress: is the highest, loudest and longest pitch indicted with a stroke ( ' ) above and immediately
before the stressed syllable.
Secondary stress: is the moderate in prominence usually marked by a stroke ( ˌ ) below and immediately before
the unstressed syllable.
Tertiary stress: the syllables that do not receive any emphasis and is not marked by anything.

Primary stress Secondary stress

'Progress Pre ˌsent Tertiary (unstressed)
'Project Ob ˌject Impossible
'Report Re ˌbel Silk
Com 'parison ˌRe born Turn
Under 'stand ˌRe fuse
Demo 'cracy ˌBe come
NB: it is quite important to note that stress is restricted to word level alone.

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Class Activity: Now try these two utterances: Gumau is the Rector; the son is the Father of the Child. Can you
identify the stress patterns in your Language. What role does stress play in the oral production? How does it
affect understanding, classification and meaning of words? Compare English stress with that of your language.

Intonation is the pitch pattern or melody of speech utterances realised through the variation in tone which
either rises, falls or rise-fall when we speak. Intonation covers other areas as loudness of speech, speed of
delivery or speech and variation of voice quality. For understanding meaning of utterance natives use intonation
as a mechanism to:
1. To understand or express attitude (courteous, arrogant, excitement, authoritative, indifference, etc): example,
“good MORning” (excitement) & “good morning” (dullness).
2. To identify the grammatical functions of utterances: (statements, questions, command, request, or
exclamation): He is going ↘home. He's going ↗home? This is more typical of AmE than of BrE.
3. Focusing attention to show what information in the utterance is more important, new or already known.
Example, I saw a ↘man in the garden. I ↘saw a man in the garden.
4. To show how clauses and sentences go together in spoken discourse. Subordinate clauses often have lower
pitch, faster tempo and narrower pitch range than their main clause, as in “The Red Planet (as it's known) is
fourth from the sun”.
5. To organise speech into units that are easy to perceive, memorize and perform. “You can have it in red blue
green yellow or ↘black” is more difficult to understand and remember than the same utterance divided into
tone units as in “You can have it in ↗red | ↗blue | ↗green | ↗yellow | or ↘black”.
6 To act as a marker of personal or social identity. Intonation pattern adopted by a particular social group or
individual (i.e. street vendors, preachers, thugs, etc) could be an index for identifying the speaker’s affiliation,
age group, social class, district, vocation and values. Statements ending with a high rising pitch movement are
typically associated to younger speakers especially females.
7. To indicate speaker’s emotions (anger, surprise, fear, etc). When a speaker speaks with high pitch and long
duration is said to be surprise; while to speak in short duration with high pitch indicates anger.
8. To regulates conversational transaction such as turn taking, interruption, avoidance, etc.

Types of Intonation: there are 10 areas where English users apply intonation as discussed below.
1. Rising tune used for:
 Asking Yes/No question. Are you a student? Did you finish your meal?
 Making a request: Would you care for a lift? Stop. Make way here, please.
 Fragmentations: When the man arrived yesterday…; I would like…

2. Falling tune used for:

 Making a statement: I am the champion. I was reading in the Library when I heard the news.
 Giving command: Stand up. Would you clean the table?
 Making exclamations: Oh! Dear, what good news. It’s raining again!
 Asking “Wh-questions”: When is our class? What will you do? Where are you going?
3. Raising-Falling tune used in:
 Counting or listing things: one, two, three, … six. To make a good soup you will need some meat, fish,
tomatoes, pepper, onions, seasonings, salt and vegetable oil.
 Marking out units of information: He straightens up, stretches, yawns and says “Oh! What a life”.
 Question tag. I am not supposed to talk to you, am I? Talle is from around, isn’t he? Hassan came
yesterday, didn’t he? The birds haven’t eat since morning, have they.
NB: it is equally important to note that intonation is restricted to the sentence level alone.

Rhythm is the alternation between stressed and unstressed syllables succeeding one another in an utterance. It
is produced by the manner in which stressed and unstressed syllables succeed each other in terms of force,

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loudness and duration of speech. To achieve a proper rhythm, about the same time has to be spent in saying all
the rhythm units. This implies hurrying over the unstressed syllables and spending more time in saying the
stressed ones. An utterance containing many content words – nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs has more
accentuation than one having more structural words – pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions. Languages (e.g.
English, German) with stress-timed rhythm are those whose utterances can be divided into feet which are
isochronous (i.e. of equal length). Examples:
I 'want / a 'pen. He 'works / in a 'shop/ in the 'market/ with his 'wife.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Time only knows the price we have to pay;
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, If I could tell you I would let you know.
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Suppose all the lions get up and go,
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
And often is his gold complexion dimmed, Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
And every fair from fair sometime declines, If I could tell you I would let you know.
By chance, or nature's changing course
untrimmed:

CORRESSPONDENCE
These are the various ways of written communication among and between firms, organisations, institutions,
individuals and government establishments. Such parties could be partners, associates, relatives, friends or
sponsors. Correspondence are written taking into account the relationship between the parties involved, the
situation, function or purpose of the letter. Diction, expressions and quality of the information matters a lot
when it comes to planning, writing and dispatching such letters. Qualities of a good written communication
include clarity, sincerity, simplicity, courtesy, precision and brevity - where necessary. Examples are:

Memorandum: is a short written document which addresses specific people or groups for the purpose of giving
information or generating action for specific reasons. Memoranda have their structure and could either be
informal or formal; internal or external. Before you write your memorandum, you need to consider – Readers,
Content, Mode of Presentation and Language (Simplicity, Clarity).

Features of a memorandum
Usually memorandum forms are prepared and kept for future use. Whatever the situation, a memorandum has
the following features:
1. Header: this contains information known as identification mark and directorate. They include:
 Name & Address: comprise of; oranisation’s/institution’s trade name, location, postal address, contact
number (phone, fax, telex) and logo.
 Identities: the receivers and senders names, positions, and address (To: / From:).
 Reference column: the senders (our ref.) and receivers reference (your ref.)
2. Date: when the letter is written.
3. Addressee: (where necessary) it is the name of the recipients.
4. Heading: (where applicable) it indicates and summarises the topic discussed in the letter.
5. Body: the actual message written in either essay, schematic or indicative form; containing sections:
 introduction: this informs the reader what the write-up is all about.
 main body: this expands and discusses the message appropriately – paragraphs, headings etc.
 conclusion: states the line of actions base on the arguments presented.
 recommendations: logical conclusions or suggestions are listed for consideration.
6. Close: it includes full names, signature, position, and contact number.
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 7. Enclosure (Enc): indicates documents (letters, invoices, reports, manual) attached with the letter.
8. Copies circulated to (CC): indicates whether other parties received same copy of the letter.

Qualities of a memorandum
For a memorandum to achieve the desired effects it is designed for, the writer should be careful so as not to
present misleading, rude or embarrassing information. Therefore the following qualities should be exhibited:
1. Clarity: this will ease communication and save the limited time businessmen have.
2. Sincerity: the content must be serious, accurate, valid and reliable information.
3. Simplicity: use simple and familiar words and expressions, clear tune and voice. Avoid the use of
jargons, slangs, etc - unless where necessary.
4. Courtesy: use the language that shows concern and respect for one’s personal or collective dignity.
5. Conciseness: you should be brief and straight to the matter and avoid winding statements.
6. Comprehensibility: the writing should be grammatically sound and understandable.
7. Acceptability: write in standard language and in the conventional style.
8. Relevance/Precision: give relevant and required information.
9. Coherence: the various sections of the letter must be unified and linked together to make a whole.

Letters: Letters are used to communicate by making a case, expressing a point of view, expressing feelings and
emotions, narrating a story, registering an opinion or complain or present a need of action. There are two types
of letters – formal and informal letters.
a. Formal Letters: Formal letters serve official purposes. They have structure which should be adhered to
strictly.
b. Informal Letters: Informal letters are letters to friends, relatives, etc. They are more relaxed than formal
letters language use is familiar, friendly and intimate. The use of repetitions of words, contraction of forms,
mixture of long and short sentences, slang, code switching, code mixing and dialectical expressions, emotions
and attitudes, etc are allowed.

Differences between the various components of a formal and an informal letters

FORMAL INFORMAL
1 Writer’s address Writer’s address
2 Receiver’s address
3 Salutation Salutation
4 Title/ Subject Matter/ Heading.
5 Content:- introduction/opening Content:- introduction/opening
body body
conclusion conclusion
6 Close:- complimentary Close:- complimentary
signature name
full name
designation (position)
contact (optional)
7 Language use:- Diction and expression must Language use:- Familiarity and personal expressions
be strictly formal as there is no room for are allowed. The use of colloquial i.e. contraction,
personal expressions. All forms of informal proverb, abbreviation, vernacular, slangs, figuration,
usages must be avoided. idiom, etc are accepted.

COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION

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Comprehension involves reading passage and answering some question about the passage. The reader must
follow the writer’s line of thought, recognise words, group such words, and interpret them according to the
writer’s viewpoint. Students may be tested on their general understanding of the passage; inferential abilities i.e.
understand and interpret logical statements; knowledge of words, phrases, clauses or sentences; as well as their
competence in figurative use of the language.
Watch for context clues as repetition, illustration, exemplification, introductory phrases, summaries, sentence
connectives – adverbials, punctuations, rhetorical questions, citation - authors or books, cohesive devices, etc.
Make inferences, predictions and anticipate what may follow. Question the writer’s ideas by criticizing his
points objectively. The purpose of reading comprehension is to:
a. Understand the plain sense of the passage
b. Generalise from and apply simple logic to the passage
c. Understand the meaning of a part or the whole passage
d. Be able to define key words and grammatical functions of expressions in the passage
e. Understand essential features of the passage
f. Distinguish facts from opinions
g. Understand sentences and recognise figurative expressions, etc.

Tasks for comprehension passage

a. Pre-reading step (read the opening paragraphs; then the first sentence(s) of the remaining paragraphs,
lastly the concluding paragraph).
b. Re-reading step (the whole passage)
c. Understand the topic, paragraphing and sentence functions i.e. explanations, contrast, cause, order,
addition, illustrations, intensification, similarity, etc.
d. Understand grammatical functions i.e. tense, parts of speech, etc.
e. Read and understand the question carefully
f. Consult the passage to get the required information – all you require is in the passage whether openly or
covertly.
g. Unless you are asked to do so, do not copy directly from the passage. Use your own words.
h. Read your answers to check for errors i.e. grammatical, punctuation, spelling, etc.

Reading Exercises – Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph. Give the passage a suitable title.
Identify main points from details. Discuss the organisation of the passage (paragraphs). Interpret the
message of the passage. Identify and interpret meaning of new words (contextual and denotation). Identify
colloquialism, jargon and slangs in the passage. Put the main points to form a good paragraph.

The scientific study of language, its uses, and the linguistic norms that people observe poses a number of problems. Such
a study must go a long way beyond merely devising schemes for classifying the various bits and pieces of linguistic data
you might happen to observe. That would be a rather uninteresting activity, a kind of butterfly collecting.
A more profound kind of theorizing is called for: some attempt to arrive at an understanding of the general principles of
organization that surely must exist in both language and the uses of language. It is just such an attempt that led Saussure
(1959) to distinguish between langue (group knowledge of language) and parole (individual use of language); Bloomfield
(1933) to stress the importance of contrastive distribution (since pin and bin are different words in English, /p/ and /b/
must be contrastive units in the structure of English); Pike (1967) to distinguish between emic and etic features in
language (just as /p/ and /b/ are contrastive, so are emic and etic units, but the two pronunciations of p in pin and spin are
not contrastive); and Sapir (1921) and, much later, Chomsky (1965) to stress the distinction between the ‘surface’
characteristics of utterances and the ‘deep’ realities of linguistic form behind these surface characteristics. A major current
linguistic concern is with matters such as language universals, i.e., the essential properties and various typologies of
languages, the factors that make languages learnable by humans but not by non-humans, and the conditions that govern
such matters as linguistic change.

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There is not just one way to do linguistics, although it is true to say that some linguists occasionally behave as though
their way is the only way. It is actually quite possible for two linguists to adopt radically different approaches to both
language and linguistic theorizing in their work while still doing something that many consider to be genuine linguistics.
Perhaps nowhere can such differences of approach be better observed than in attempts to study the relationship of
language to society. Such attempts cover a very wide range of issues and reveal the diversity of approaches: different
theories about what language is; different views of what constitute the data that are relevant to a specific issue; different
formulations of research problems; different conceptions of what are ‘good’ answers, the ‘significance’ or ‘interest’ of
certain findings, and the generalisability of conclusions; and different interpretations of both the theoretical and ‘real-
world’ consequences of particular pieces of research, i.e., what they tell us about the nature of language or indicate we
might do to change or improve the human condition.
Questions:
i. Identify the topic sentence in each paragraph.
ii. Identify three contributions of scientific study of language as presented in the passage.
iii. Interpret the message of the passage.
iv. Interpret the meaning of the underlined words as used in the passage.
v. Give the passage a suitable title.

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