synthetic approach n
(in language teaching) a term sometimes used to refer to procedures for
developing a syllabusor a language course, in which the language to be
taught is first analyzed into its basic parts (e.g. the grammar is analyzed into
parts of speech and grammatical constructions) and these are taught separ-
ately. The learner’s task is to put the individual parts together again (i.e. to
synthesize them). A syllabus which consisted of a list of grammatical items
arranged in order of difficulty would be part of a synthetic approach to lan-
guage teaching. In this sense, many traditional syllabuses would be called
“synthetic”.
This may be contrasted with an analytic approach in which units of
language behaviour are the starting point in syllabus and course design (e.g.
descriptions, requests, apologies, enquiries, and other speech acts). At a
later stage, if necessary, the vocabulary and grammar used for different
functions can be analyzed. In this sense, a notional syllabuswould be
called “analytic”.
synthetic language n
a cover term for agglutinating language or inflecting language
synthetic speech n
see digitized speech, speech synthesis
systematic error n
see error of measurement
systematic phonemicsn
a theory that a native speaker’s knowledge of a language includes know-
ledge of the phonological relationships between different forms of words. It
is claimed that the forms of words as they occur in actual speech (e.g. the
English words serene and serenity) are produced from an underlying abstract
level called the “systematic phonemic level”. The abstract form, called
the underlying form, for both serene and serenity is said to be //ser 2 n//,
with // 2 // representing a long //e// segment. This form does not exist in
actual speech.
see also generative phonology
systematic phonetic transcription n
see transcription
systemic-functional grammar n
another term for systemic-functional linguistics
synthetic approach