As a second-year student, I am on the journey to approach in-depth knowledge with the help of several subjects in the training program. Among these subjects, “Introduction to Linguistics” offers a unique platform to explore a multitude of English language’s aspects.

How the course enlightens my insight into English is really spectacular. In high school, I was encouraged to learn and use undisputed vocabularies and structures that already existed. “Introduction to Linguistics”, however, is much more concerned with the task of exploring all aspects of language from different perspectives.

The course equips me with a comprehensive understanding of how languages, especially English, have been formed and evolved until now. Take the word “passionately” as an example, instead of acknowledging it as an adv to describe a way that shows your strong feelings or emotions, I now know that this word results from a complicated process of changing free root “passion” in to a verb by adding suffix “ate” before forming an adv with suffix “ly”. Following this way, I am able to analyze any new words and acquire them thoroughly.

For me, “Introduction to Linguistics” sets up a solid foundation that supports me in learning other subjects, and “Pronunciation” is a typical example. In chapter three - Phonology, there is a part that discusses place and manner of articulation to clarify the proper way to pronounce sounds. This is directly relevant to what “Pronunciation” focuses on and significantly helpful in finding an effective way to manage this linguistic component. “Reading” is another example to consider. For language learners, encountering new vocabulary while reading is inevitable. However, by looking at the affixes attached to these words, it is somehow possible to guess whether their meaning is positive or negative. I believe this strategy would be useful in testing settings where a dictionary is unavailable.

Obviously, this course is one of the subjects that strengthen my understanding of English language as well as facilitate my learning process. It is true to say what I learn from it is far more than what I can tell.

Tin: Bảo Ngọc

Ảnh: Bảo Ngọc