Incidence of an English Military Terminology Handbook in the process of english acquisition for the students of first year of basic military education at the Army Soldiers' Training School Vencedores del Cenepa in Ambato during the pre- intermediate english level

Abstract

Language acquisition is one of the central topics in cognitive science. Every theory of cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic has aroused such controversy. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans speak, no nonhuman animal does. Language is the main vehicle by which we know about other people's thoughts, and the two must be intimately related. Every time we speak we are revealing something about language, so the facts of language structure are easy to come by; these data hint at a system of extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless, learning a first language is something every child does successfully in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be human, it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received so much attention. This process can be combined with the military instruction because military English is becoming more and more widespread across the world and, as a result, more important to the Ecuadorian Army. However, whilst standard language is one thing, colloquial and slang expressions are another. Substantial time and energy has, therefore, been devoted to analyzing military colloquialisms and slang. Moreover, as there is a lack of reliable English military dictionaries and that those which are available often prove to be both unreliable and imprecise, it is hoped that this work will contribute some way to making the gray areas related to military slang transparent and more comprehensible...