Reflect on what you’ve learned this semester about phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, language acquisition, and sociolinguistics, as well as how these subfields of linguistics interact.
As you read your article, ask yourself how everything you know about these subfields contributes to your understanding the study and/or how understanding various levels of language structure were necessary for the researcher to carry out the study.
Ask yourself why the study is important, who would find this study helpful, how might it further general knowledge of certain areas of linguistics.
Identify as many components of linguistics that you can in your study. So for instance, an article that narrows in on a particular word would involve various components of linguistic theory such as the word’s lexical category/ies, possible morphological variants, its semantic meaning(s), and the word’s pragmatics: who uses the word, to whom, when, how, and why.
Part I – Summarize the study
Background of the study (no more than ~200 words)
Who is/are the researcher(s)?
How is the study situated in prior research (i.e., summary of the literature review, if relevant)
Summary of the study (no more than ~300 words)
You may want to include an example from the article that helps explain the study
What is being studied? What are the RQs?
How is the study carried out?
What are some findings/results
Part II – Break it down to show your linguistic expertise:
Why do you think this study is interesting and relevant?
Reflect – synthesize your article with your increasing skills in applied linguistics
What components of linguistic theory are involved in the study?
In what ways does your knowledge of phonetics, phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, pragmatics, etc. help you understand the article?
Give examples and explain how and why.
