LET
General EducationProfessional EducationMajorship (Sec)
Practice Exams

English Majorship Reviewer 📚

Mastering the English majorship requires a balance between technical linguistic knowledge, literary analysis, and pedagogical skill. This module breaks down the high-frequency topics in the LET.

1. Linguistics: The Science of Language

Phonology & Phonetics

  • Phoneme: The smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning (e.g., /p/ vs /b/ in pat and bat).
  • Allophones: Variations of a single phoneme that do not change meaning (e.g., the aspirated [pÊ°] in pin vs the unaspirated [p] in spin).
  • Diphthongs: Gliding vowels where the sound begins at one vowel and moves toward another (e.g., /aɪ/ in buy, /aÊŠ/ in cow).
  • Minimal Pairs: Words that differ by only one phoneme (e.g., ship and sheep).

Morphology: Word Formation

  • Morpheme: The smallest unit of meaning.
    • Free Morphemes: Can stand alone as words (e.g., house, run).
    • Bound Morphemes: Must be attached to other morphemes (e.g., -un, -ing, -est).
  • Inflectional vs. Derivational:
    • Inflectional: Changes the grammatical form (e.g., dog → dogs, walk → walked).
    • Derivational: Creates new words or changes the part of speech (e.g., happy → happiness, govern → government).

Syntax & Semantics

  • Syntax: The arrangement of words to create well-formed sentences. Focus on Transformational Generative Grammar (Noam Chomsky).
  • Semantics: The study of meaning.
    • Denotation: The literal, dictionary definition.
    • Connotation: The emotional or cultural associations of a word.

2. Literature: Critical Approaches & Masterpieces

Literary Criticism (The "Isms")

The LET often asks you to identify the "lens" being used to analyze a text:

  • Formalism: Focuses on the text itself (rhythm, meter, imagery) without regard to the author's life or history.
  • Marxism: Focuses on social class, power struggles, and economics.
  • Feminism: Analyzes the role of women and gender dynamics.
  • Reader-Response: Focuses on the reader's personal experience and interpretation.

World Literature Highlights

  • Greek Drama: Aeschylus, Sophocles (Oedipus Rex), Euripides.
  • Renaissance: Shakespeare (Know the difference between his Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories).
  • Victorian Era: Charles Dickens, The Brontë Sisters, Thomas Hardy.
  • Modernism: T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land), Virginia Woolf, James Joyce.

Philippine Literature

  • Nick Joaquin: Famous for "May Day Eve" and "The Woman Who Had Two Navels." Often used the pen name Quijano de Manila.
  • Jose Garcia Villa: Known as the "Comma Poet."
  • Paz Marquez-Benitez: Wrote "Dead Stars," the first Filipino modern short story in English.

3. Language Teaching Methodology

How do we teach English as a Second Language (ESL)?

  • Audio-Lingual Method (ALM): Based on Behaviorism. Uses drills and repetition to form language habits.
  • Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): The current standard. Focuses on "communicative competence" rather than just grammatical accuracy.
  • Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT): Students complete meaningful tasks (e.g., booking a hotel room) to learn the language.
  • Whole Language Approach: Focuses on the integration of reading, writing, listening, and speaking as a unified whole.

💡 LET Strategy: English Major Tips

  1. Context is King: In vocabulary questions, look for context clues (synonyms, antonyms, or examples) within the sentence.
  2. Identify the Tone: Literary passages often ask for the "tone" (the author's attitude) or the "mood" (the reader's feeling).
  3. The "Longest Option" pattern in Linguistics:
    • Linguistic definitions (like the difference between allophones and phonemes) are often quite wordy to ensure precision.
    • Strategy: Look for the key terms (e.g., "meaning-changing" vs "non-meaning-changing") within the long sentences.

🔗 Related Topics

Practice Quiz

Ready for the challenge? Try the English Majorship Quiz.