MEANING OF REGISTERS
Registers refers to words or vocabulary associated
with certain fields of human endeavours. The language registers of particular
field or discipline are their trade marks. They are the specialized words or
expression used in discourses in those fields or professions. For instance, a
member of the discipline of medicine is expected not only to be well acquainted
with the language of medicine, but also to use those specialized words properly
in communication, especially with his colleagues in the medical profession.
Further more, register is the
appropriate word or vocabulary used in or associated with particular human
activity or edneavour. Any other word used instead of the appropriate word will
not be suitable. For instance in education sector we talk about ‘classroom’ as
a place where ‘students’ assemble to receive instruction. Therefore any other
word used in place of classroom is not appropriate register or word or
vocabulary.
PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY OF ENGLISH
The study of speech sounds is divided into tow closely
related and overlapping sub-disciplines phonetics and phonology.
Phonetics is the study of language sound production,
the quality of sound produced in terms of phonetic environment in which they
occur and the perception of such sounds. Here are three branches of phonetics.
(1)
Articulatory
phonetics: This is the study of language sound production.
(2)
Auditory
phonetics, this branch is concerned with the perception of language sounds.
(3)
Acoustic
phonetics these deals with the qualities language sounds acquire in the process
of production.
Meanwhile, phonology is the study of the pattering of
language sounds. In other words, it is primarily concerned with the acceptable
sequence or arrangement of the speech sounds of a particular language.
CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS
There are forty-four sound units in English alphabet
and some conventional symbols are used to represent the sound units. These
sound units are also called phonemes.
In transcription, letters of the
English alphabet and some conventional symbols are used to represent the sound
units. These symbols are union as phonetic symbols. The forty-four sounds of
English have been classified into vowels and consonants.
English vowels sounds: A vowel is a
speech sound produced when a speech airflows through the oral cavity without
obstruction.
Short vowel sounds: The short vowel
sounds are so called because their production is usually brief.
Long vowel sounds: The pronunciation
of the long vowel sounds is usually a little longer and louder than that of
short vowel sounds.
The diphthong: the difference between
a diphthong and a pure vowel sound is that a diphthong is a union of two vowel
sounds.
English consonant sounds: There are
twenty four English consonants
NB:
Study the symbols and practice their pronunciation
COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION
Comprehension is the skill of extracting meaning from
print. This entails getting meaning or information from reading a print. Comprehension
proceeds from three levels, namely: the literal or factual level, the
inferential level and critical level.
The literal or factual level: this
means the understanding we get by reading words or sentence as they are stated
directly in texts.
The inferential level: these deals
with the relationships or ideas implied rather than explicitly stated.
The critical level: this is where
the writer’s ideas are used in projecting new ideas. At this level facts are
established, opinions are adequately investigated and proved as either real or
unreal with evidences.
Meanwhile, interpretation is the
proof of comprehension. It is obvious therefore, that we cannot talk about
comprehension without touching the issue of reading as the end product of
reading is comprehension. See the diagram below:
Reading ------------- comprehension ----------- interpretation
FACTORS THAT
DIRECTLY AND INDIRECT COMPREHENSION
There are some obstacles that may directly or
indirectly affects comprehension. These include the followings.
Poor academic foundation: learning is gradual process
and knowledge is built from know to unknown. If for any reason an educational
experience is skipped, it invariably shows at the long run. The problem of not
having enough vocabulary leads to inability to comprehend words used in a
passage.
Psychological situation such as bereavement, sickness
can affect comprehension as the body has to be sound-physically, spiritually
and socially before it gives its best in any field.
Environmental
factor: this is another factor that can obstruct proper comprehension. This
follows that the environment one finds himself when reading will to a large
extent determine the level of comprehension.
Cautious Writing
Outline is a process of planning and organizing the points
or ideas to be developed in an essay, in a letter, in a report, in a story, or
any other form of writing. It involves thinking through the thesis of the essay
and arranging the ideas bit by bit so as to have a clear focus while writing.
Outlining does not just mean writing
down the points it involves logic-good reasoning. The writer thinks,
critically, analyses the prints and puts down the basic framework of the essay
and its details, which he develops one after another as he writes.
Types
of outline: There are three ways an outline of the essay statement can be done.
Main ideas outline, topic outline and sentence outline.
1.
Main idea
outline: Main idea outline consists in simply thinking and writing down the
main ideas to be use in developing an essay statement.
2.
Topic outline:
This is different from main ideas outline because apart form giving the main
ideas, the writer forms subordinate ideas from the main ideas.
3.
Sentence outline:
in this type of outline, complete sentence are used to write the main ideas,
the subordinate ideas, and the subdivisions of the subordinate ideas.
PARAGRAPHING
A paragraphing is a group of sentences
that develops single main ideas. Therefore, a main idea expressed on a sentence
often requires other sentences to fully develop the idea. This is why a
paragraph is a larger unit of expression than the sentence. A paragraph can
serve as a formal introduction to the ideas expressed as means of transition
from one idea to another as a summary.
Essay Writing
Essay writing is the art f composing ideas, thoughts,
knowledge and facts in an orderly and logical manner on a specific topic.
Types
of Essays: Essay writing can be generally classified under four broad types:
narrative essay, descriptive essay, argumentative/ persuasive essay and
expository.
1. Narrative Essay: This is the art of
recounting or giving an account of a story, event, incident or happening in a
sequence. The order of occurrence is very important in this type of essay. It
is necessary to understand that events do not occur in a haphazard manner.
Point of view in a narrative Essay
This refers to the angle from which a story or narration
is made. This is whether the narrator is an outsider or an insider to the
events in the narrative. There are two types of point of view:
(a)
Omniscient point
of view: In this type, the narrator is every where and knows everything. He is
an outsider and tells his story in the story in the third person. He is very
familiar with characters and knows their thought and ideas. It is this type of
point of view that is most commonly used by fictional writers.
(b)
Limited point of
view: Here, the narrator is one of the characters in the story or narration. He
is usually the chief character. The narration is limited as he narrates only
what he sees and hears. He does not know the other characters thoughts or ideas
and cannot predict effectively what their next action will be. He narrates his
story mostly in the first person using “I” or “We”
2. The Descriptive Essay: This entails
saying what somebody is or something looks like. In doing so, we furnish
details of characteristics features, peculiarities, identifying marks,
strength, weakness etc.
3. The expository Essay: This is the type
of essay that seeks to explain new ideas, facts, knowledge, discoveries,
findings etc. it does so by experimenting and expounding the information in
such a way that it becomes fairly comprehensible and intelligible to the
reader. Exposition describes how something is done. It defines an idea or
tangible object, compares and contrast two objects.
4. The argumentative Essay: Here the
writer tries to win his reader to his own point of view. This type of writing
makes use of a lot of persuasion, convincing and logical presentation of facts.
A writer can make an effort to convince his readers appeal to their sense of
reason.
LETTER WRITING
Correspondence
is the act of writing and receiving letters. It is a kind of communication
through which information, instruction, message or request is disseminated
through writing. Letter writing like any other write-up or composition is
individualistic in nature.
Types of letter writing: letter
writing is divided into three, namely: Informal letter, formal letter and
semi-formal letter.
1. Informal letter: This can be called
personal or friendly letter. It is a letter written to people who are very
familiar to us such as members of our family, father, mother, sister, brother
uncle, nephew cousin or close friends and acquaintances. Informal letter takes
the following format:
a. the writer’s address and date
b. the opening greeting or salutation
c. the body of the letter
d. the closing greetings or subscription
2. The formal letter: This is equally
called business or official letter. It includes letter of complaint, official
request, letter of enquires, letter of order and delivery written for an order
of goods and services. There is no element of familiarity in this type of
letter.
Features
a. Two
addresses: the address of the writer and the address of the recipient.
b. salutation
no intimacy here
c. title
or headline
d. the
body of the letter
e. closing
3. Semi-formal:
As the name implies is neither an informal letter nor formal letter. It gets
its format and style from both formal and informal letter. This type of letter can be written to people whom we are familiar
with, but not so intimately.
Features
a.
The writers
address compulsory
b.
The address of
the recipient optional
c.
There may or may
not be a subject matter or heading
d.
Salutation the
surname of the recipient is usually used the body of letter contains both the
style of both formal or informal letter.
e.
The complimentary
close: This usually bears yours sincerely, signature, and the full of name of
the writer.
Research Reports
A research is an investigation that
is discovery orientated. According to Otagburuagu and Ogbonna (1990) say that a
research may focus on:
i. finding out the answer or solutions to
intriguing questions
ii. upholding a certain point of view
iii.
refuting a
hypothesis or a contention
iv.
demonstrating an
alternative point view
v.
finding out new
facts.
Then the findings of such academic investigation according
to them, may be embodied in specialized forms of writing such as:
a. Dissertation
b. Thesis
c. Term paper
The thesis and the dissertation are highly specialized
in content, form and methodology. These are projects written for the award of
degrees. Students are gradually introduced to the thesis and dissertation
through the writing of term papers or long essay.
The term paper is therefore a training in
organization, information sifting and precision and finally in research
reporting.
The process of writing research, report is included in
the following steps:
1.
Select a topic
that you can really research on
2.
Limit your topic
and make purpose of the paper clear.
3.
Gather information
on your limited topic
4.
Plan your paper
and take note in your topic
5.
Write the paper
Format
for writing term paper or long essay.
Term paper
1. Preliminary pages
a. blank
page
b. title
page
c. the
dedication page
d. table
of content
e preface
f acknowledgment
2. The
Text
a. introduction
b. body of the paper with well defined
division and subdivisions such as
chapters division and subdivision.
3. The
supplementary pages
a. references
b. glossary
c. appendices
Use of an
acceptable format and method of documentation
(a)
Format: in
research two referencing styles are acceptable depending on your disciplines.
Discipline in the arts make use of the modern language association (MLA)
format. While education and social sciences accept the American psychological
association (APA) format.
What is a memo (memorandum)?
A memo is an official note form one
person to another within the same organization, establishment, Institution
Company etc. it is a form of written communication, just like the letter.
Types of Memos
There are two types, depending on area of circulation
(i)
Interdepartmental Memo: This is the type of memo that sent from one
department to another within the same organization. It is usually printed on a
sheet within the same organization’s or company’s letter head.
(ii)
Intra-departmental Memo: It is intra-departmental when it circulates within
the same department in an organization
Format for Memo or features
i.
a letter
head
ii.
to line
iii.
subject line
iv.
date line
v.
ref line
vi.
body
vii.
signature
viii.
cc
ix.
enclosure/attached
What is Speech Writing?
Speech writing is the graphic representation of a
formal talk given to an audience.
The occasion for a speech making could be the
inauguration of a students association, a formal welcome address to an
important visitor. It could be leaders addressing members of club or a town
union, a politician making a formal speech to an electorate before elections or
even after.
Planning a Speech:
The ultimate aim of every speech maker is to
communicate some ideas, some messages to the audience to accept his ideas,
beliefs or personality etc. For the speaker to succeed he must plan his speech
very well, along some important points. Then in his planning he must consider
the following points.
(a) The
purpose of the speech
(b) His
audience
(c) The
occasion or context of speech
(d) The
topic or content of the speech
Then in choosing the audience the followings should be
considered.
i. Educational level of the audience
ii. Size of the audience
iii. Occupation of the audience
iv. Age of the audience
vi. Sex of the audience
vii. The religious background of the audience
Format of a Speech
The
following features of every speech include the following:
i. Title
ii. Mark of identification
iii. Salutation
iv. Body
v. Name and signature of writer or speaker
Public Speech
Public speech or speaking is a specialized form of
communication which requires skill. Like essay writing, public speech has topic
and a targeted audience, but unlike essay writing, public speech is open,
practical and some what complex exercise, it reveals the personality of the
speaker, his knowledge of the subject matter and his alertness and enthusiasm.
Every public speech must be candid, concise, clear, correct, concrete and
courteous.
Types of Public Speech
i. The impromptu public speech: This is
the type of speech delivered without prior knowledge and preparations. The
speaker is usually called up to present a speech without any form of
preparation.
ii. Prepared public speech: As the name
implies, the public speech is the one the speaker has had a fore or knowledge.
In this type of speech presentation, the speaker is normally given the topic
before hand or asked to choose one himself.
Introduction of Literature
Literature can be defined as any work or writing that
has an enduring value and of universal interest touching on themes such as
religion, government romance, politics and science.
Distinction between English literature
and literature in English
English literature: This is the literature written in
English by writes who are English in origin or adoption. It deals with mode of
life of the English people including their origin, customs, beliefs and
experience.
Literature
in English: This is the literature in English by writers who are not English by
birth.
Types of literature are oral
literature and written literature
Branches of Literature
Literature is divided into three branches the three
divisions are referred to as the
genres of literature. They are drama, poetry and prose.
Drama
refers to plays acted on the stage. It is the reenactment of action by actors/
actresses impersonating fictional or historical personage.
Characteristics of Drama
1. It is written in acts and scenes
2. It makes use of dialogue
3. It is action centered
4. it makes use of dramatic personae
5. It is best appreciated when acted in
the stage.
6. It takes place in a theatre, on a stage
or platform
Prose: This is a short or long story that is not written in verse
Characteristics of Prose
1. It is written in chapters and paragraphs
2. It deals with intellect
3. Not always musical and may not contain
a rhyme scheme
4. Written to inform and instruct
5. Uses only denotation of words
6. It may be factual or fiction
Poetry: Poetry as an imaginative work of art expressed in strong
emotions. Usually contains rhyme and rhythm it is also said to be the beautiful
arrangement of words in lines. Forms of poetry include poems, songs,
recitations, hymns etc
Characteristics of Poetry
1. Written in stanzas
2. Deals with imagination and emotion
3. Usually musical and in rhyme pattern
4. It is technical
5. It is written principally to express
emotion
6. Uses words both connotation and
denotation
7. Uses
poetic license with the application of incorrect forms of words and expression.