Language and Linguistics
What Domain I Covers
Language and Linguistics tests your command of English language systems - phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse - and your ability to convert that knowledge into instruction for K-12 ELs. Expect items asking you to identify an error's source and to choose a linguistically sound instructional response.
Core Concepts
- Phonology: English has roughly 44 phonemes (about 24 consonants and 20 vowels/diphthongs, varying by dialect). Do not confuse phonemes with the 26 letters. High-yield contrasts: /θ/–/ð/ (absent in many L1s), /l/–/r/ (Japanese, Korean), /ɪ/–/iː/ (Spanish, Arabic), final consonant clusters, and /p/–/b/ voicing.
- Morphology: free vs. bound morphemes; English's eight inflectional suffixes (-s plural, -'s possessive, -ed, -ing, -er, -est, -s third person, -en) versus derivational affixes that change part of speech. Cognates help Spanish speakers (roughly 10,000–15,000 English–Spanish pairs), but false cognates mislead: embarazada means pregnant, actual means current.
- Syntax: English is SVO, uses do-support for questions and negation, and has an article system (a/the/∅) that is difficult for L1s without articles (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian). Tense-aspect, especially present perfect versus simple past, is another persistent trouble spot.
- Semantics and pragmatics: polysemy, idioms, politeness and directness norms, turn-taking conventions.
- Discourse: cohesion devices (reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, lexical chains) and register shifting between playground and academic talk.
Worked Example
A student writes, "She no have the book that I buy yesterday." Diagnose: (1) negation without do-support, (2) past tense unmarked on buy, (3) missing third-person -s. These are interlingual and developmental errors within the learner's interlanguage, not carelessness. Instruction targets negation with do/does and irregular past forms in contrastive sentence pairs, then recycles both in short writing tasks.
Traps
Treating dialect features (for example, habitual be in African American English) as errors to be eradicated; assuming all L1 transfer is negative; claiming English "has 26 sounds"; overgeneralizing cognate rules to false friends.