王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二Unitx

王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
Unit1LanguageandLanguageLearning
Aimsoftheunit
Inthisunitwewilldiscusssomegeneralmattersaboutlanguagelearningandteaching.Wearegoingtodiscussfivequestionsonparticular:
Howdowelearnlanguage?
Whatarethecommonviewsonlanguage?
Whatarethecommonviewsonlanguagelearning?
Whatarethequalitiesofagoodlanguageteacher?
Howcanonebecomeagoodlanguageteacher?
1.1Howdowelearnlanguages?
Machof
humanbehavior
is
influenced
by
theirexperiences.
The
way
language
teachersteach
in
theclassroom
is
tosomeextentinfluenced
by
theway
theylearned
languages.This
is
especiallytruein
foreign
languageteaching.Beforewediscusslanguagelearningtheories,letusfirstreflectonourownlanguagelearningexperience.
Task1
Belowisalistofinterviewquestionsonhowpeoplelearnaforeign
language.Inthefirstcolumn,writedownyourownrespons.Theninterviewthreeotherstudentsinyourclassandentertheirrespons
intheothercolumns.Discussyourfindingsingroupof4anddrawsomeconclusion.
You ST1 ST2 ST3
1.Howmanyforeign languagescanyouspeaksofar?
Whendidyoustartlearningtheforeignlanguage(s)?
Howdoyoufeelaboutlearningaforeignlanguage?
4.
Whatdifficulties
haveyouexperiencedin
learning?
5.
Whichskilldoyoufindmoredifficult
tolearn?
Haveyoufocudonknowledgeorskills?Why?
Whydoyoulearntheforeignlanguage(s)?
Doyouconsideryourlfasuccessfullearner?Why?
Whatareyourmostcommonlearningactivities?
Doyoulikethewayyoulearnedtheforeignlanguage(s)?
Fromtheabovetask,youmayhavefoundthat1)peoplestartedlearning
aforeignlanguageatdifferent
ages;2)peoplehavedifferent
experiences
inlearning
aforeignlanguage,
somefind
iteasy,somefind
it
difficult;
3)peoplelearnlanguagesfor
different
reasons;
4)peoplelearnlanguages
indifferent
ways;5)people
havedifferent
understandings
aboutlanguage
learning;6)peoplehavedifferentcapacitiesinlanguagelearning;7)
learning
canbeaffectedbythe
wayit
is
taught;
8)learning
isaffected
bythedegreeofsuccessoneixpectedtoachieve;andmore.Thusthe
challengeconfrontinglanguageteachingishowteachingmethodologycan
ensure
successfullearningbyallthe
learners
whohavemoredifferences
thanthecommonality.
王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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1.2viewsonlanguage
Thequestionthatallapproachestolanguageteachingshouldansweris,
‘whatislanguage?’Theanswertothisquestionisthebasisforsyllabus
designs,teachingmethodology,teachingandasssmentproceduresinthe
classroom.Differentviewsonlanguagegeneratedifferentteachingmethodologies.
Task2
Workingroupof4.Brainstormpossibleanswertothequestion:whatislanguage?Whenyouareready,joinanothergroupandshareyourideas.
Togiveaconcidefinitionoflanguagehasalwaysbeendifficultforlinguistsandphilogists.Althoughtherehasbeenanenormousamountof
rearchinlanguageinthepastcentury, noauthoritative answerhasbeen
givento ‘whatislanguage? ’rather,peoplehavettledowntotalk
aboutviewsoflanguage,eminglyallowingfororacceptingdifferent
theories for themoment.However,languageteachers clearly needtoknow
generally whatsort ofentity theyaredealing withandhowtheparticular
languagetheyareteachingfitsintothatentity(Brown,1994a).for
王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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sampledefinitionof

‘language’

,plearefertoAppendix1.
王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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StructuralviewThestructuralupofvarious(phonology);

王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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viewoflanguageeslanguageasalinguisticsystemmadesubsystems(Larn-Freeman&Long,1991):thesoundsystemthediscreteunitsofmeaningproducedbysoundcombinations
王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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(morphology),
and
the
system
ofcombining
units
of
meaning
for
communication
(syntax).
Each
language
has
a
finite
numberof
such
structuralitems.Tolearnalanguagemeanstolearnthestructural
itemssoastobeabletounderstandandproducelanguage.Whenthis
structural
viewof
languagewascombinedwith
the
stimulus-respon
principles
of
behaviorist
psychology,
the
audio-lingual
approachto
languagelearningemerged.
Functionalview
Inthe1960s,Britishlinguistsdevelopedasystemofcategoriesbad
onthecommunicativeneeds
ofthe
learner
(JohnsonandMarrow,1981)and
propodasyllabus
badoncommunicative
functions.
Thefunctional
view
notonly
eslanguagesasalinguistic
systembutalso
ameansfordoing
things.
Mostof
ourday-to-day
language
u
involves
functional
activities:
offering,
suggesting,
advising,
apologizing,
etc.
therefore,
learnerslearnalanguageinordertobeabletodowithit.Inorderto
performfunctions,learnersneedtoknowhowtocombinethegrammatical
rulesandthevocabularytoexpressnotionsthatperformthefunctions.
Examplesof
notions
arethe
conceptof
prent,
past
andfuture
time,
the
expressions
of
certainty
and
possibility,
the
rolesofagents,
instruments
with
antence,
andspecial
relationships
betweenpeople
and
objects.
Interactionalview
Theinteractionalviewconsiderslanguagetobeacommunicativetool,
whomainuistobuildupandmaintainsocialrelationsbetweenpeople.Therefore,learnersnotonlyneedtoknowthegrammarandvocabularyof
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thelanguagebutasimportantlytheyneedtoknowtherulesforusingtheminawholerangeofcommunicativecontexts.
Thethree viewsprent aneverwiderviewoflanguage. Thestructural
view limits knowing alanguage to knowing its structural rules and
vocabulary.Thecommunicativeornotional-functionalviewaddstheneed
toknowhowtoutherules andvocabulary todowhateverit isonewants
todo.Theinteractionalviewsaysthattoknowhowtodowhatyouwanttodoinvolvesalsoknowingwhetheritisappropriatetodo,andwhere,whenandhowitisappropriatetodoit.Inordertoknowthis,youhavetostudythepatternsandrulesoflanguageabovethentenceleveltolearnhowlanguageisudindifferentspeechcontexts.
Theunderstandingofthenatureoflanguagemayprovidethebasisfora
particular
teaching
method(Richard
and
Rodgers,
1986),
but
more
importantly,itis
clolyrelatedto
theunderstandingoflanguage
learning.
If
languageisconsideredto
haveafinite
numberof
structural
items,learningthelanguageprobablymeanslearningtheitems.If
language
is
morethanjust
asystemof
structures,
itis
moreimportantly
atoolthen
tolearn
thelanguagelearning.If
language
is
morethan
just
asystemofstructures,itismoreimportantlyatool,thentolearnthe
languagemeanstouit,ratherthanjuststudywhatitisandhowit
isformed.Thenextction
discusssomecurrenttheories
aboutlanguage
learning.
ViewsonLanguagelearningandlearningingeneral
Alanguagelearningtheoryunderlyinganapproachormethodusuallyanswerstwoquestions;1)Whatarethepsycholinguisticandcognitive
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processinvolvedinlanguagelearning?2)Whataretheconditionsthatneedtobemetinorderforthelearningprocesstobeactivated?
Task3
Workingroupsof4.Brainstormtheanswerstothetwoquestionsstatedabove.
Whenyouareready,joinanothergroupandshareyourideas.
Althoughthetwoquestionshaveneverbeensatisfactorilyanswered,a
vastamountofrearch
hasbeendone
fromallaspects.
Therearchcan
bebroadly
divided
into
process-oriented
theories
andcondition-oriented
theories.
Process-oriented
theories
are
concernedwith
howthe
mind
organizesnewinformationsuchashabitformation,induction,making
inference,hypothesistestingandgeneralization.
Condition-oriented
theories
emphasizethe
natureofthe
humanandphysical
context
in
which
languagelearningtakesplace,suchasthenumberofstudents,thekind
ofinput
learners
receive,
andthe
atmosphere.Somerearchers
attempt
to
formulate
teaching
approaches
directly
fromthe
theories.
For
example,theNaturalApproach,TotalPhysicalRespon,andtheSilent
Wayarebadononeormoredimensionsofprocessandconditions.At
this
level,
it
is
too
early
toformulate
aspecific
approach,becausome
aspects
arestill
too
vague,forexample,whatis
donein
theprocess.
Behavioristtheory
王蔷主编《英语法教程》第二版Unit
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Thebehaviorist

theory oflanguagelearning

wasinitiated

bybehavioural
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psychologist
Skinner,
whoapplied
WatsonandRaynor’s
theory
of
conditioningtothewayhumanacquirelanguage(Harmer,1983).Badon
their
experiments,
Watson
and
Raynorformulated
astimulus-respon
theory
of
psychology.
In
this
theory
all
complex
forms
of
behavior—motions,
habits
and
such—areenas
compodofsimple
muscularandglandularelementsthatcanbeobrvedandmeasured.They
claimedthat
emotional
reactions
arelearned
inmuchthesamewayasother
skills.
Thekeypoint
of
the
theoryof
conditioningis
that‘youcantrain
ananimalto
doanything
(within
reason)ifyoufollow
acertain
procedure
whichhasthreemajorstages,
stimulus,respon,andreinforcement
’
(Harmer,1983:30).
Badonthetheoryofconditioning,Skinnersuggestedthatlanguageis
alsoaformofbehavior.Itcanbelearnedthesamewayasananimalis
trainedtorespondto
stimuli.Thistheory
oflearningis
referredtoas
behaviorism,whichwasadoptedforsometimebythelanguageteaching
profession,
particularly
in
the.
One
influential
result
is
the
audio-lingual
method,
which
involves
endless’listen
and
repeat’
drilling
activities.
Theidea
ofthismethodis
thatlanguageis
learned
byconstant
repetition
andthereinforcement
oftheteacher.Mistakes
were
immediately
corrected,
andcorrectutterances
wereimmediately
praid.
Thismethodisstilludinmanypartsoftheworldtoday.
Cognitivetheory
Thetermcognitivismisoftenudloolytodescribemethodsinwhichstudentsareaskedtothinkratherthansimplyrepeat.Itemstobe
largely theresult ofNoamChomsky’sreaction toSkinner’sbehaviorist
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theory, whichledtotherevival ofstructural linguistics. Thekeypoint
ofChomsky’stheoryisreflectedinhismostfamousquestion:ifalllanguageisalearnedbehavior,howcanachildproduceantencethatneverbeensaidbyothersbefore?
According to Chomsky,language is not aform of behavior, it is an
intricaterule-badsystemandalargepartoflanguageacquisitionis
thelearning ofthis system.Thereareafinite numberofgrammaticalrules
inthesystemandwithaknowledgeoftheaninfinite numberofntences
canbeproduced.Alanguagelearneracquireslanguagecompetencewhich
enableshimtoproducelanguage.
ThoughChomsky’stheoryisnotdirectlyappliedinlanguageteaching,
ithashadagreatimpactontheprofessi