THE FAILURE OF THE DISCIPLINE OF LINQUISTICS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

The primacy of Linguistic Description in influencing language content and methodology of second language teaching has led to the failure to develop an adequate discipline of language teaching and learning. This failure manifests itself in inadequate criteria for the selection of language content and a misplaced emphasis on the acquisition of language content rather than language skills. Second language learning and teaching has been too preoccupied with language, not occupied enough with learning and teaching. The result is that while language teachers, materials writers and academics are eager to exploit the latest fashions in linguistic description they seem unconcerned that their pedagogy and learning theory is fifty or more years out of date. There is a need for language teachers to develop their discipline as independent of but related to the discipline of linguistics. Linguistics is one of the prime sources of raw material for language teaching but it is necessary for language teachers to develop processes of scrutiny of this raw material so that the raw material may be used functionally to facilitate the acquisition of language communication skills.