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 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 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, 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 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; ---understand and use emotive tone;
---use the grammatical rules of language;
---select language forms appropriate to topic, listener, or setting, etc. Discourse competence
Teachers need to help learners
----take longer turns, use discourse markers and open and close conversations; ----appreciate and be able to produce contextualised written texts in a variety of genres;
----be able to use cohesive devices in reading and writing texts; ----be able to cope with authentic texts. Strategic competence
Teachers need to enable learners ----to take risks in using the language;
----to use a range of communicative strategies;
----to learn the language needed to engage in some of these strategies, e.g. ‘What do you call a thing that/person who…’ Fluency
Teachers need to help learners
-----deal with the information gap of real discourse;
-----process language and respond appropriately with a degree of ease;
-----be able to respond with reasonable speed in ‘real time”. 3. What is communicative language teaching?
Communicative language teaching began in Britain in the 1960s as a replacement to Situational Language Teaching. This was partly in response to Chomsky's criticisms of structural theories of language and partly based on the theories of British functional linguistics, as well as American sociolinguists.
The goal of communicative language approaches is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom. The focus is on functional language usage and the ability to learners to express their own ideas, feelings, attitudes, desires and needs.
Open ended questioning and problem-solving activities and exchanges of personal information are utilized as the primary means of communication. Students usually work with authentic materials in small groups on communication activities, during which they receive practice in negotiating meaning.
This method is learner-centered and emphasizes communication and real-life situations. The role of the instructor in CLT is quite different from traditional teaching methods. In the traditional classroom, the teacher is in charge and \the learning. In CLT the teacher serves as more of a facilitator, allowing students to be in charge of their own learning. 4. Principles in communicative language teaching
Communication principle: Activities that involve real communication promote learning.
Task principle: Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks promote learning.
Meaningfulness principle: Language that is meaningful to the learning supports the learning process.
5. Strong version and week version
A weak version: Learners first acquire language as a structural system and then learn how to use it in communication.
It regards overt teaching of language forms and functions as necessary means for helping learners to develop the ability to use them for communication. A strong version:
Strong version: The strong version claims that ‘language is acquire through communication’. Learners discover the structural system in the process of learning how to communicate.
It regards experiences of using the language as the main means or necessary conditions for learning a language as they provide the experience for learners to see how language is used in communication. 5. List some of the communicative activities. 1) Functional communicative activities Identifying pictures
Discovering identical pairs
Discovering sequence or locations Discovering missing information
Discovering missing features Discovering “secrets”
Communicating patterns and pictures Communicative models Discovering differences Following directions
Reconstructing story-sequences
Pooling information to solve a problem 2) Social interaction activities Role-playing through cued dialogues
Role-playing through cues and information Role-playing through situation and goals Role-playing through debate and discussion Large-scale simulation activities improvisation
6. Main features communicative activities
Some main features of communicative activities (Ellis 1990)The six criteria1. Communictivepurpose2. Communicative desire3. Content, not form4. Variety of language5. No teacher intervention6. No materials controlnotesA need to know something.---’an information gap’A need to do somethingConcentrate on what to do and what to say in the activity, not how to say certain forms.Students are free to use all kinds of language forms and skills, not just certain forms given by teacher.Students work by themselves.Students make use of materials 7. The Task-based Approach A task-based approach sees the language process as one of learning through doing. It stresses the importance to combine form-focused teaching with communication-focused teaching.
The task-based approach aims at providing opportunities for the learners to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities which are designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Task -based Learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson
《英语教学法》复习
