JSS 3 THIRD TERM LESSON NOTE ENGLISH STUDIES

SCHEME OF WORK FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE

OMEGA TERM JSS THREE

WEEKS TOPIC

1. Revision of 2^nd Terms examination.
2. Comprehension / vocabulary development (looking at some past Questions)

• English structure, review of Nouns and Pronouns.
• Composition Narrative Essay (Review)
• Speech work: review of monothongs.

1. Comprehension / vocabulary development ( use of past Questions).

• English structure: Review of Verbs and Adverbs.
• Composition: Review of Descriptive Essays.
• Speech work: Review of Diphthongs.
• Literature-in English: Review of major / minor characters, theme, plot, tragic and comic elements etc.

1. Comprehension / vocabulary development.

• English structure: Review of Adjectives
• Literature- in –English: Use of Past Questions.
  1. Use Past Questions for all aspect of the revision.

11 EXAMINATION.

WEEK TWO

REVISION

SPEECH WORK

TOPIC: THE VOWEL SOUNDS

In a phonetic definition, vowels are distinguished from consonants in term of how they are articulated in the vocal tract and the associated patterns of acoustic energy.

When vowel sounds are produced, air escapes in a relatively unimpeded way through the mouth or nose. Such articulation involves only slight moments of the tongue and lips.

Vowels can, therefore, be defined as the sounds produced with neither a complete nor a narrowing of the vocal tract. Vowel sounds are produced when there is a free flow of air.

Vowel sounds can also be define as the sound in which there is no obstruction to the flow of air as it passes from the larynx to the lips. Vowels are normally described with reference to four criteria:

1. The part of the tongue that is raised front, back, centre or lip.
2. The extent to which the tongue raises in the direction of the palate-high, mid or low. Alternatively, tongue height can be described as close, mid-close, mid-open and open.
3. The position of the soft palate-raised for oral vowels and lowered for nasalized vowels.
4. The kind of opening made at the lips-various degrees of rounding or spreading.

TYPES OF VOWEL SOUNDS

The vowels sounds of English can be classified into three

1. Monothongs or pure vowels
2. Diphthongs or impure vowels
3. Triphthongs

THE MONOTHONGS

A vowel is monothongs or pure when only one sounds is involved. The monothongs are twelve. However, they are further divided into two groups thus: the short and long vowels.

1. The Short Vowels: They are so called due to the brevity of the sounds the denote during speech process. They are as follows: /i/, /e/, /u/, /əe/, /ə/, /ɔ/, and /ʌ/. The seven short vowel sound can also be called lax vowels.
2. The Fine Long Vowel: Which can also be called the tense vowels are fine. They include /i:, a:, ɔ:, u:, ɛ:/

THE TWELVE MONTHONGS

1. /I:/ – This is a long sound, produced by raising the front of the tongue towards the hard palate; the lips are spread to a neutral position, and the air is forced through. Examples are found in words like read, see, chief, key be etc.
2. /i/ – This is a short form of vowel one. it is produced by raising the front of the tongue towards the hand palate. Especially the central position of the palate, and the middle part of the tongue is raised slightly higher than half closed position and the lips are somewhat spread. Examples; fit, little, hill, ship etc.
3. /e/ – The vowel is produced by raising the front of the tongue and the middle of the tongue to about half the distance between close and open, and the lips between being spread and neutral. Examples are in words like bet, egg, spread, pen, get, pet etc.
4. /əe/ – This is produced by raising the blade of the tongue and the middle of the tongue raised to about one-sixth of the distance between open and close, and the lips between neutral and spread. Examples are in words like: – bad, mat, man, match, back, bag, etc.
5. /a:/ – This vowel involves the back of the tongue unlike the previous ones, the middle of the tongue is quite low down in the mouth, and the lips are in the neutral position. Examples – father, calm, clerk, laugh, dark, saga, class, pass etc.
6. /ɔ/ – This is articulated with the back of the tongue. While the lips are slightly rounded, the jam is usually open during pronunciation. The vowel is not quite fully back, and between open – mid and open in tongue height. Examples not, box, long, spot, bought, because, cop, cough, what, want etc.
7. /ɔ:/ – This is the long variant of vowel 6. It is produced by raising the back of the tongue, slightly raising the middle of the tongue and rounding the lips very considerably. Examples – saw, law, caught, fought, cord, sword etc.
8. /u/ – This sound is produced by raising the back of the tongue toward the soft palate (root of the mouth), raising the middle of the tongue in a little above half close position, and closely rounding the lips. It is short vowel with examples – put, foot, book, push, would, could, bought, woman, bosom, circular, bullet etc.
9. /u:/ – This sound is mad right at the top and back of the mouth and the lips are moderately rounded. During production, the tongue is raised to a certain height towards the soft palate, the middle of the tongue is produced by raising the back of the tongue almost to close position and closely rounding the lips. Examples – two, food, moot, canoe, shoe, do, to, move, mute, rule, fruit, juice, suit etc.
10. /ʌ/- This is a short sharp vowel, produced by raising the back of the tongue, though not fully, raising the middle of the tongue somewhat half way, and leaving the lips difficult sound for most Nigerians. Examples: cut, but mother, cup, stuck, done, some, sum, does, worry come, love, couple etc.
11. / ɛ:/ – This is a long weak vowel, which is produced by raising the central part of the tongue and the lips in a central position. Is a central vowel that is often spelt “er”. It is pronounced “air” – – (r) – – (r). examples: fern, bird, girl, earth, journey, tournament, scourge, thirst, thirty, circuit, skirt etc.
12. /ə/ – This is a short, weak vowel, which is produced by raising the central part of the tongue and the lips kept in a neutral position. It occurs mostly in unaccented syllables. It is called the schwa sound. It is generally not articulated with much energy. Examples: Mature, formula, curable, matter, doctor, neighbour, famous, confuse, today etc.

It is the most frequently occurring vowel for monothongs, it is usual to represent the position where each is articulated in the mouth.

CARDINAL VOWELS CHART

REVISION

GRAMMAR

TOPIC: MEANING AND TYPES OF NOUN

The word noun is derived from a Latin word “nomeri” (a name). a noun can therefore, simply be defined as the name of anything. It may be concrete, real or tangible such as Ayo, Lagos, Book, Teacher, Pupil, Water etc. It may be abstract, intangible or imaginary such as Hope, Fear, Belief, Wish, Idea, Thought, Love etc.

ROLES OF NOUN

A noun can play the role of either the subject or object of a verb. It could also be the object of a preposition or even a complement in a sentence. The role also indicates it position in a sentence.

EXAMPLES

Subject of a verb: Lagos is a busy city

Object of a verb: The girl loves the boy

Object of a preposition: John put the car in the garage

Complement of the verb “is” or its varieties as am, are, was, were: Stella is a teacher

TYPES OF NOUN

There are basically two types of noun: proper and improper or common nouns.

Proper nouns are names given to specific people, places, things, days and months.

Examples;

Ayo, Audu, Emmanuel, Ibadan, Ghana, Europe, The Guardian, Mr. Biggs, UBA Plc, Friday Wednesday, January, December etc.

Improper or common nouns do not refer to anything specific, they can refer to one in a group, count or mass concrete or abstract. Thus we can have varieties of common nouns such as: –

1. Collective:– The name of a group of people or things considered as a unit e.g flock, team, crew, crowd, army, furniture.
2. Concrete: – The name of what can be touched or felt e.g book, teacher, biro, cloth, table radio etc
3. Abstract: – The name of what cannot be touched or felt e.g hope, love, poverty, honesty, fear etc
4. Countable: – The name of a thing that may be counted e.g house, student, three, car clock etc.
5. Uncountable: – The name of a thing that may not be counted e.g water, salt, oil ink etc

REVISION

COMPOSITION

TOPIC: ESSAY WRITING

Writing is a form of persuasive communication. There is always a point of view to project and which the writer wants the reader to understand. In order words, we write for a reader. The success of writing is therefore best judged by how well the reader understands the message we are trying to send by writing.

Writing is one of the most significant features of a literate society. It is the use of language in its writing form. The writer’s opinion is the thesis, which indeed an essay should contain. This thesis should be supported with a range of organized materials properly synthesized constitute good writing.

THE QUALITIES OF A GOOD WRITING

The qualities of a good writing have been discussed in varied forms. However, we find these noted in Ebele Eko (1987) more encompassing and exhaustive than others. They are;

1. Economy
2. Simplicity
3. Clarity
4. Economy: – Economy in this sense means conciseness. To be concise is to utilize the mini-mum number of words to express an idea in a sentence without loosing any detail. Also, a good writing should be concise in the number of sentences in a piece of writing. A good writing should not emphasize economy at the expense of clarity and accuracy. Redundancy of words sentences and paragraphs should be avoided.
5. Simplicity: – The language of a good writing should be simple. It should not be too difficult to understand. To achieve this, the writing should avoid the use of rare and complex vocabulary; and long complex sentences which could be broken down into several well arranged simple sentences. What should engage the writer’s mind is how well his message is delivered and understood. Anyway writing is done for someone else to read. In all, a good writing should be straight forward and easily understood.
6. Clarity: – Clarity is another important quality of a good writing. A writer should express his subject of discussion as clearly as possible. He should have the ordinary readers in mind. He should be eager to invite more people into his field. This can be best done by demystifying the subject with the use of language which does not convey obscurity and vagueness of ideas. No matter how technical and abstract a subject might be, a writer should be able to give the reader information and instruction that are simple, clear, direct and therefore effective, useful and educative. This goes a long way to show that the writer has adequate knowledge of his subject.

THE ESSAY OUTLINE

Longer essays require elaborate outlines. These outlines can occur in any of the two forms – topic and sentence outlines. The topic outline is shorter. It sets down points or ideas in stages without explaining. The sentence outline is more restricted and more specific in its directions.

THE FORM OF THE OUTLINE.

Stage 1: – Formulate the thesis and establish the purpose of the essay.

Stage 2: – Write down the major ideas or topic sentences each directly connected to the thesis as major paragraph.

State 3: – Sub-divide each topic sentence into sub-paragraphs, each dealing with just a point

Stage 4: – (a) Complete the sub-division and write complete sentences (b) Revise the essay, ensuring the topic of the presentation

ADHERE TO THE OUTLINE

TYPES OF ESSAY

1. Narrative Essay
2. Descriptive Essay
3. Argumentative Essay
4. Expository Essay

NARATIVE ESSAY

A narrative essay is not only a story one has made up. Any account of one’s previous experience is a narrative. Most novels and shorts stories are forms of the narrative weather one is writing an imaginary story or a real life experience, there is the need for preparation. The following steps should be taken:

1. Established just what you want to relate.
2. Know that every narrative tells what took place in a definite period of time. Then remember to break up the period into units you can manage; treat each unit separately.
3. Identify the points of emphasis and ensure that each point constitute a unit of expression, just like what you have in a paragraph when writing.
4. Remember to include only those details that will be useful to your narratives.
5. If you have any important lesson to be drawn from your narrative, remember to emphasis it at the conclusion of your decision. Above all, the past tense is predominant in the narrative.

WEEK THREE

REVISION

SPEECH WORK

TOPIC: VOWEL SOUNDS

SUB-TOPIC: DIPHTHONGS

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The diphthongs or impure vowels are eight. A diphthong represents a sound that consists of a movement or glide from one vowel quality to another. It has been observed that during the glide, the first vowel sound is given more prominence than the sound vowel sound. Thus in pronouncing vowel 13, /ei/ for example, there is more prominence on /e/ than on /i/.

The diphthongs can be categorized into three groups namely;

1. Front closing diphthongs (/ei, ai, ɔi/)
2. Back closing diphthongs (/au, əu/)
3. Centering diphthongs (iə, eə, uə/)

Vowel 13 /ei/: – this sound is produced by starting from the position of /e/ or /ɛ/ and gliding towards the position of /i/. So, the glide result in progressively closing the mouth from the beginning to the end. Examples – day, lady, eight, rake etc.

Vowel 14 /ou/or/əu/: – The sound starts somewhere from the central position towards the upper back position. The glide from /o/ to /u/ is easier among Nigerians. Examples – go, know, coat, etc.

Vowel 15 /ai/: This sound is produced with the tongue starting somewhere near the position of /a/ and moving towards the position of /i/. Examples eyes, ice, my, time. Etc

Vowel 16 /au/: This is a sound starting from the position of the /a/ sound and moving towards the /u/ position. Examples: now, how, round, town etc.

Vowel 17 /ɔi/: The position of the tongue is slightly high in the initial part of the glide and then the movement is towards the /i/ position. Examples – boy, oil, soil, etc.

Vowel 18 /iə/: This is the first of the centering vowel i.e those which glide towards the central part of the mouth. The tongue starts in the position of the vowel 2, and there is glade towards the central vowel /iə/. Examples: – here, hear, rear, idea etc.

Vowel 19 /eə/: The tongue starts from the position of the cardinal vowels /e/, and there is a glide towards the central vowels sound. Examples: – bear, fear, scarce, there etc.

Vowel 20 /uə/: The tongue begins the glide from the /u/ position and moves towards the central position for the /ə/ sound. Examples: – Pure, tour, fuel, duel etc

REVISION

LITERATURE

TOPIC: LITERARY TERMS

Plot: The plot is the arrangement of the story of the play. The summary of the story line of the play is expected to be arranged orderly so as to avoid confusion – a story line is expected to have a beginning, the middle and an end.

Theme: This is also called subject matter. It is the central idea of the drama. All drama (whether tragedy, comedy or tragic – comedy) have messages they are passing across to the audience.

Character: These are the members of cast in drama actions; mood and dialogue are portrayed by the character. These are two types of character in a play. They are: – major character and minor characters. They can also be called round characters and flat characters.

Dialogue: This is also called language or diction. It is the major medium through which characters express their thought in words.

Setting: This refers to the place where the actions of a play take place. Examples of setting are;

1. Physical Setting: market, village sequare, in the office, in the morning, in the night etc.
2. Historical Setting: in the olden days or the present time.
3. Social Setting: Types of social atmosphere like language, occupation, religion etc.

Conflict: This refers to opposition of characters or forces within a play resulting from divergent ideas and interest. Conflict is responsible for the development of dramatic action in a play. It goes without conflict because it project the theme of a ply. The actions of the character are therefore geared towards creating conflict and resolving same for the play to come to an end.

Dramatic Irony: Refers to incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or action that understood by the audience but unknown to some of the characters in the play. Also called tragic irony.

Tragic Flaw: Every classical tragic hero is endowed with a tragic flaw, which eventually brings about his downfall despite his impressive credentials. The flaw could be in the form of uncontrollable anger for Odewale in Ola Rotimi’s, the Gods Are Not To Blame, or over ambition for Macbeth.

Comedy: A drama with a generally light atmosphere leading to a happy ending. Examples Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and The Jewel.

Tragedy: A drama with a generally serious intense atmosphere leading to an unhappy ending. Exampls Ngugi’s The Black Hermit Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu

Farce: Is a comedy of a lower kind in which believability is sacrifice for the main objective of exciting laughter. Example Zulu Sofola’s Wizard of Law

Tragic – Comedy: Is a play that combines the salient features of comedy and tragedy and tends towards a happy ending, usually with a great sense of relief after much anxiety.

Melodrama: Like the comic farce, melodrama is a play in which believability is sacrificed for the sake of sensational action and producing the shock effect. When tragedy becomes unrealistic or unconvincing. It becomes melodrama.

ASSIGNMENT: List ten literary terms and their meaning.

WEEK THREE

REVISION

GRAMMAR

TOPIC: ARTICLE

‘A’ ‘an’ and ‘the’ are known as Articles they are in fact demonstrative adjectives.

KINDS OF ARTICLES

There are two types of articles

1. Definite Articles
2. Indefinite Articles
3. Definite Articles: – An article which is used to refer to a particular person or thing is known as the definite article. Example ‘the’
4. Indefinite Article: – An article which does not refer to any particular person or thing is known as the indefinite articles. Example ‘a, an’

THE SELECTION OF ‘A’ OR ‘AN’

The selection between ‘a’ and ‘an’ is determined by sound.

Hints

1. A – Is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound. Examples, a boy, a man, a human, being, a table, a horse, a yard, a young man.
2. A – Is used before a word beginning with ‘h’ ‘y’ and ‘u’. examples – a historical vowel, a human being, a youth, a year, a yellow paper, a university, a useful thing, a unit, a European, a uniform, a union etc.
3. A – Is used before a word beginning with ‘w’ sound. Examples: a one legged sailor, a one man tribunal, a one dollar note, etc.
4. An – Is used before a word beginning with vowel sound. Examples: an hour, an honour, an heir, an heir loom, an honest citizen etc.

THE USE OF INDEFINITE ARTICLE

1. The indefinite article A or An is used in sense of ‘one of a’. Example I met a friend (means one of a certain friend)
2. It is used to represent a whole class or in the sense of all or any. Example; (i) A student should be obedient, (ii) A doctor must love his patients
3. It is used to convert a proper noun into a common noun. Example: He is a Clinton (a great political leader) (ii) She is a mother Theresa (a great social worker)
4. In certain expressions

a, Couple, a thousand, a great number of, a dozen, a million, a good deal of etc.

1. If is used in exclamatory sentences. Example: What a pretty girl, What a shame, What a clever boy, What a hot day

‘A’ OR ‘AN’ IS NOT USED FOR

1. A or An is not used with plural noun. Example dogs, books girls.
2. With uncountable nouns. Example advice, furniture, knowledge, news, information, luggage etc. But, these words may be used with: some, any, a little, a piece of, a bit of, an item of. Example: some advice, any news, a piece of information. Note: A knowledge of English is useful (correct)
3. With abstract noun. Example: happiness, pleasure, courage, beauty, love, intelligence, hope, fear etc.

THE USE OF DEFINITE ARTICLES

1. Unique Things: – The definite articles “the” is used with unique things in nature. Example; the sun, the sea,, the sky, the moon, the earth. The sun rises in the east. The earth moves rounds the sun.
2. Particular Persons or Things: – ‘The’ is used to talk about particular persons or things. Example: The man you met yesterday is my uncle. The lady you saw at the theatre is my wife
3. Persons or Things Mentioned for the second time:­ – ‘The’ is used to talk about persons or things mentioned for the second time. Example: I met a girl. The girl is very tall. I went to a hosted. The hostel is very neat.
4. Singular Nouns:- representing the whole class. Example: The rose is a lonely flower. The scientist should love mankind. The teacher should know the psychology of the students.
5. Proper Noun:­– Used as common noun. ‘the’ when used before a proper noun makes it a common noun. Example; Jos is the Manchester of Nigeria. Rawlings is the savour of Ghana. Calabar is the Switzerland of Nigeria.

Assignment

Fill in the blanks with suitable articles

1. Iron is …………………..useful metal
2. My father is ………………honourable man
3. Honest men speak ……………..truths
4. Jerusalem is ……………………..holy place
5. Do you look at ………………………blue sky?
6. I first met Isioma………………..year ago
7. My friend is ………………………..European
8. Malta is ………………….Island
9. Let us consider ……………………………..problem in detail
10. Yoruba is …………………………..difficult language

REVISION

GRAMMAR

TOPIC: PART OF SPEECH

A adjective is described as a word that qualifies or modifies nouns and pronouns. Adjective generally give more information about nouns and pronouns in items of their attributes such as quality, colour, quantity, etc. such words come nearer to the nouns they modify than all other elements that modify such nouns. [mediator_tech]

TYPES OF ADJECTIVES USES

There are to uses of every adjective namely;

1. Attribute use
2. Predictive use
3. Attributive Use: – An adjective used with a noun is known as attributive use.

Examples;

Beautiful girl

Cleaver student

Tall tree

Fair face

Lovely flower

1. Predictive Use: – An adjective used with a verb is known as predictive use.
2. Examples;

She is afraid

He is alive

They are dead

He looked happy

KINDS OF ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are divided into ten types namely;

1. Adjective of Quality
2. Adjective of Quantity
3. Adjective of Number
4. Demonstrative Adjective
5. Distributive Adjective
6. Interrogative Adjective
7. Possessive Adjective
8. Emphasizing Adjective
9. Exclamatory Adjective
10. Proper Adjective
11. Adjective of Quality: – Is the adjective that is used to talk about the quality of a person or thing. Examples; Wealthy, Regional, Industrial, Fundamental, Elementary, Primary.

Example;

• The Yoruba is regional language
• He is a wealthy person
• Kafanchan is an industrial city

1. Adjective of Quantity: – An adjective used to talk about quantity of things. Example; little, much, enough, no, any, whole, some, all great, half, sufficient.

Example;

• There is a little milk in the jug
• My father earned enough money
• He showed much courage in the war

1. Adjective of Number: – An adjective used to talk about the number of things or person is known as adjective of number.

Examples; fine, few, no, many, all, some, most, several, first any, one

Example;

• She wrote six papers for her B.A
• Only a few people are kind to the poor
• I got first class in my B.A
• All students passed in the exam

1. Demonstrative Adjective: – An adjective use to point out which person or thing we speak about is known as demonstrative adjective.

Examples; this, that, these, those

Example;

• This book is very interesting
• That girl is very beautify
• These flowers are lovely

1. Distributive Adjective: – is an adjective used to refer to each and every person or thing separately.

Examples; each, every, either, neither, any, none, both

Example;

• • Each boy was awarded a diploma
  • Every Nigeria is entitled to adult franchise
  • Every citizen should love his mother land
  • Neither party has got majority in the recent elections
  • Neither country accepted the treaty

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1. Interrogative Adjective: – An adjective used to question is known as interrogative.

Examples; what, which, whose.

Example;

• • What advice shall I give you?
  • What language do you teach at college?
  • Which places do you wish to visit?
  • Which poet do you like most?
  • Whose photograph is this?
  • Whose hand writing is this?

On whose recommendation did you apply for this post?

1. Possessive Adjective: – Is an adjective used to talk about ownership or possession.

Examples; my, your, our, his, her, its, their.

Example;

• • my mother is a teacher
  • your father is a doctor
  • our country is Nigeria
  • his wealth was lost
  • her husband died in an accident
  • all their daughters were married last

ADVERBS

An adverb is a word which modifies the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Examples:

She writes quickly

Bokola is very smart

He explained the poem fairly well

KINDS OF ADVERBS

Adverbs are divided into eight kinds on the basis of their use.

i. Adverb of Manner

ii Adverb of Place

iii. Adverb of Time

iv. Adverb of Frequency

v. Adverb of Certainty

vi. Adverb of Degree

vii. Interrogative Adverb

viii. Relative Adverb

1. Adverb of Manner: An adverb used to show how an action is done is known as an adverb of manner.

Examples; quickly, bravely, happily, hand, fast, well, clearly, soundly, probably, possibly, evidently, unfortunately, luckily, sadly.

Example;

• • They lived happy
  • Bukola walks gracefully
  • She speaks fluently

1. Adverb of Place: Is an adverb that is used to show where an action is done.

Examples; here, there, up, down, near, below, above, away, out, everywhere, backward, within, by.

Example;

• • I went there
  • She stood near the gate
  • Please come here

1. Adverb of Time: An adverb used to show when an action is done.

Examples; now, then, today, tomorrow, early, soon, already, never, since, formerly.

Example;

• • My father is not at home now
  • She will come here soon
  • She came late yesterday

1. Adverb of Frequency: An adverb used to show how often an action is done is known as an adverb of frequency.

Examples; once, twice, often, never, always, occasionally, again, frequently, seldom, sometimes.

Example;

• • They talked to each other again
  • We visited Jos twice
  • They never go to films

1. Adverb of Certainty: An adverb used to show definiteness of the action is known as an adverb of certainty.

Examples; certainly, surely, definitely, obviously.

Example;

• • Surely, she love me
  • I shall certainly help you
  • Janet is obviously very clever

HISTORY OF LAGOS AND HOW TO LOCATE LAGOS ON A MAP OF NIGERIA

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