Preview

This chapter introduces you to verbal language. Topics that this chapter will address include:

• Structure: parts of speech; finding meaning through word order, word changes, or particle use

• Pronunciation: sounds, word stress, word boundaries, sentence stress, pitch, tone, intonation

• Vocabulary: word building, using cognates, using context, using memory strategies, extensive reading

This chapter is written for those learners who have not had any previous opportunity to learn the terminology associated with talking about language – grammar and vocabulary. If you have had a good grounding in English grammar, this will be a review for you, but it might be interesting to learn about aspects of the grammatical systems of some other languages. In studying a foreign language, you may frequently find yourself in the position of comparing the structure of your foreign language to that of English. Knowing the English system well will help you. (We cannot present the entire overview of English grammar here; if you find that this is an area of weakness for you, you might seek out a reference book on English grammar to use as a guide. Some are listed at the end of this chapter.)

Structure

Parts of speech

All languages differentiate among kinds, or classes, of words, or, rather the functions that words have. These different kinds of words are classified into parts of speech. In English, we have eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and exclamations.