The Study of Language

Bahasa Sug. Arabic. The researcher discusses these two languages as to their similarities and differences.

Longitudinal Research in Language Teaching

I believe that longitudinal research is essential to the advancement of knowledge in language teaching. Both common sense and expert knowledge tell us that teaching a language other than the mother tongue is a complex process that happens thorough and over time. All problems in language teaching are related to time; henceforth these problems can be addressed only within a longitudinal perspective.

Problems in language teaching are fundamentally questions of time and timing. One thing is concerned on biological time at the onset of learning, including “ not only on what age” but also for “how long” learning the second language should occur in context where near-native success is the desired outcome. This problem concerns on what and how to teach learners at a particular age which inspired basic research about maturational constraints for L2 learning and the critical period hypothesis (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003 ; Scovel , 1988). And this can be answered through a longitudinal research.

If the teacher wants to know the ideal length and intensities of instruction in a given curriculum, and has in mind the goal to foster advanced L2 capacities, longitudinal research is the desired research design as found out by Lally (2002). In the study of Lally (2002), he recommended the dichotomization of language programs in North American universities such that the lower- division language course is devoted to the language learning alone, while the upper- division language course is devoted to exclusive learning of literature and cultural studies. Longitudinal research then established the pattern on what to teach in a particular program.

If the instructor aims to teach phonology and morphology, and wants to know also the linguistic features, longitudinal research is useful to solve his problem. The study of Perdue, Benazzo, and Giuliano (2002) for one, charted the development of finiteness in the spoken production of five adult Italian and Spanish immigrant workers in Europe during 30 months of naturalistic exposure to English or French. Bardovi- Harlig (2002) had his longitudinal research also on the development of future tense as evidenced in the written production by 16 college ESL learners during 7 to 17 months of study in a university’s English language program. The studies of Perdue, Benazzo, and Giuliano (2002) and Bardovi- Harlig (2002) concentrated on phonology and morphology of multiple participants, and can help the teachers on how to deal the learners on these aspects of linguistics.

Indeed, longitudinal research is a noteworthy trend in language teaching.

Phonological Feature of Tausug

`This discussion deals on the phonological feature of Tausug, a Malayo- Polynesian language spoken in the Sulu archipelago, and which is now widely used among Tausugs in Tacub, Barangay Zone I, Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur, my homeland. This specifically discusses the allophonic variations of the vowel phonemes which reflect individual differences among speakers from different social group such as tau gimba ( a Tausug living in the forest), tau higad ( a Tausug living in the bay), and tau pu ( a Tausug living in the island). Tausug has a three-point vowel system and have wide ranges of allophonic variation which makes it complex. The Tausug vowel sounds are patterned from the Arabic vowel sounds or the sound of 'Alif' which is equivalent to 'a', the first letter of the English alphabet. Discussion of Tausug phonetic variants is just limited to the three social groups.

The phonetic realization of each of the vowel phonemes of Tausug results from differing distributions in given utterances. The [ i ] allophone of the high-front vowel normally occurs in stressed syllables such as iban [ iban ] ‘companion’ , lindung [ linduŋ ] ‘ shade’ , and bid [ bid ] ‘hill. In unstressed syllable, a more lax and lowered variety , [ I ] , is often heard such as the second syllable of tagi [ tagI ] ‘ fond of’ , and sakit [ sakIt ] ‘sickness’. For some Tausug speakers, the complimentary distribution of the [ I ] and [ i ] in stressed and unstressed syllable, respectively, is consistent. Among other speakers, however, it may be used interchangeably or in free variation since the use of other one for the other does not render a person’s speech unacceptable, neither does affect the meaning of a given word. A word like inum may be pronounced as [ inum ] or [ Inum] with acceptability by tau gimba, tau pu , and tau higad.

Among some Tausug gimba speakers, a centered [ i ] and an unrounded [ u ] are heard as realization of /i/ and /u/ respectively. The [ i ] is made with a less spread lip position than [ I ] such as igun [ igun ] ‘ will remove ‘ and bihun [ bihun ] ‘ will buy’. The [ u ] has an unrounded lip position such as in maisug [ maisug ], and bukun [ bukun ] ‘no’. In the case of low central vowel , a more front variety , [ a ], has been observed to occur following a bilabial or dental consonant such as basu [ basu ] ‘ glass’, dagan [ dagan ] ‘ run’.

This is just a manifestation on allophonic variation as to social group.