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Revision Contents:
Unit 1 Language and Learning
1. What are the major views of language? What are their implications to language teaching or learning?
Structural View: It sees language as a linguistic system made up of various subsystem: from phonological, morphological, lexical, etc. to sentence. Each language has a finite number of such structural items.
To learn a language means to learn these structural items so as to be able to understand and produce language.
Audiolingual approach: The teaching of a second language through imitation, repetition, and reinforcement. It emphasizes the teaching of speaking and listening before reading and writing and the use of mother tongue in the classroom is not allowed. The principal features of audiolingualism are an emphasis on structures in the language which can be learned as regular patterns of verbal behavior and the belief that learning is a process of habit formation.
Functional View: It sees language as a linguistic system but also as a means for doing things. Most of our day-to- day language use involves functional activities: offering, suggesting, advising, apologizing, etc. Therefore, learners learn a language in order to do things with it. To perform functions, learners need to know how to combine the
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grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions. Communicative approaches are based on this view of language.
Interactional View: It considers language as a communicative tool, whose main use is to build up and maintain social relations between people. Therefore, learners not only need to know the grammar and vocabulary of the language, but also need to know the rules for using them in a whole range of communicative context.
Some of the language learning approaches and methods based on this view of language are: Strategic interaction; communicative approaches.
2. What are the major Views on language learning? What are their implications to language teaching?
Behaviouralist theory
Based on the theory of conditioning, Skinner suggested language is also a form of behaviour. It can be learned the same way as an animal is trained to respond to stimuli. This theory of language learning is referred to as behaviouralism, which was adopted for some time by the language teaching profession, particularly in America.
One influential result is the audio-lingual method, which involves endless “listen and repeat” drilling activities. The idea of this method is that language is learned by constant repetition and the reinforcement of the teacher. Mistakes were immediately corrected, and correct utterances were immediately praised. This method is still used in many parts of the
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world today. Cognitive theory
It seems to be largely the result of Noam Chomsky’s reaction to Skinner’s behavioural theory, which led to the revival of structural linguistics.
The key point of Chomsky’s theory is reflected in his most famous question: if language is a learned behaviour, how can a child produce a sentence that has never been said by others before.
One influential idea is that students should be allowed to create their own sentences based on their understanding of certain rules. This idea is clearly in opposition to the Audio-Lingual Method.
According to the cognitive theory, learning is a process in which the learner actively tries to make sense of data. The basic technique associated with a cognitive theory of language learning is the problem-solving task.
Constructivist theory: Learning is a complex cognitive process in which the learner constructs meaning based on his or her own experiences and what he /she already knows.
Implications for classroom teaching
Teaching should be built based on what learners already know and engage learners in learning activities.
It is believed that education is used to develop the mind, not just to rotate or recall what is learned.
Teachers need to design activities to interact with learners to foster inventive, creative,
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critical learners.
Teachers must balance an understanding of the habits, characteristics as well as personalities of individual learners with an understanding of the means of arousing learners’ interest and curiosity for learning.
Socio-constructivist theory: It emphasizes interaction and engagement with the target language in a social context based on the concept of ‘Zone of Proximal Development’(ZPD) and scaffolding.
Learning is best achieved through the dynamic interaction between the teacher and the learner and between learners. With the teacher’s scaffolding through questions and explanations, or with a more capable peers’ support, the learner can move to a higher level of understanding and extend his / her skills and knowledge to the fullest potential.
Unit 2 Communicative Principles and Activities
1. The goal of CLT is to develop students’ communicative competence.
2. What is communicative compentence? Try to list some of its components and their
implication to teaching.
Communicative compentence refers to both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations. According to Hedge, it includes five components.
Linguistic competence --- knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning Pragmatic competence --- the appropriate use of language in social context
Discourse competence --- one’s ability to create coherent written text or conversation and
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the ability to understand them (ability to express or to understand a topic logically and coherently by effectively employing or comprehending the cohesive markers used in the discourse /ability to initiate, develop, enter, interrupt, check, or confirm in a conversation) Strategic competence --- strategies one employs when there is communication breakdown due to lack of resources
Fluency---- one’s ability to ‘link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation
Implications for teaching and learning: Linguistic competence
Teachers need to help learners
----achieve accuracy in the grammatical forms of the language; ----pronounce the forms accurately;
----use stress, rhythm, and intonation to express meaning; ----build a range of vocabulary; ----learn the script and spelling rules;
----achieve accuracy in syntax and word formation. Pragmatic competence
Teachers need to help learners
---learn the relationship between grammatical forms and functions; ---use stress and intonation to express attitude and emotion; ---learn the scale of formality;
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王蔷《英语教学法》复习
