间谍门-倒经
王蔷主编的《英语教学法教程》
第二版-Unit-1
Unit 1 Language and Language
Learning
Aims of the unit
In
this unit we will discuss some general matters
about language learning and
teaching. We are
going to discuss five questions on particular:
1. How do we learn language?
2. What are
the common views on language?
3. What are the
common views on language learning?
4. What are
the qualities of a good language teacher?
5.
How can one become a good language teacher?
1.1 How do we learn languages?
Mach of
human behavior is influenced by their experiences.
The way language
teachers teach in the
classroom is to some extent influenced by the way
they
learned languages. This is especially
true in foreign language teaching. Before we
discuss language learning theories, let us
first reflect on our own language
learning
experience.
Task 1
Below is a list of
interview questions on how people learn a foreign
language. In
the first column, write down your
own responses. Then interview three other
students in your class and enter their
responses in the other columns. Discuss
your
findings in group of 4 and draw some conclusion.
You ST1 ST2 ST3
1. How many foreign
languages can you speak so far?
2. When
did you start learning the foreign language(s)?
3. How do you feel about learning a foreign
language?
4. What difficulties have you
experienced in learning?
5. Which skill do
you find more difficult to learn?
6. Have
you focused on knowledge or skills? Why?
7. Why do you learn the foreign language(s)?
8. Do you consider yourself a successful
learner? Why?
9. What are your most common
learning activities?
10. Do you like the
way you learned the foreign
language(s)?
From the above task, you may have found
that 1) people started learning a
foreign
language at different ages; 2) people have
different experiences in
learning a foreign
language, some find it easy, some find it
difficult; 3) people
learn languages for
different reasons; 4) people learn languages in
different ways;
5) people have different
understandings about language learning; 6) people
have
different capacities in
language learning; 7) learning can be affected by
the way
it is taught; 8) learning is affected
by the degree of success one is expected to
achieve; and more. Thus the challenge
confronting language teaching is how
teaching
methodology can ensure successful learning by all
the learners who
have more differences than
the commonality.
1.2 views on language
The question that all approaches to language
teaching should answer is, ‘what is
language?’
The answer to this question is the basis for
syllabus designs, teaching
methodology,
teaching and assessment procedures in the
classroom. Different
views on language
generate different teaching methodologies.
Task 2
Work in group of 4. Brainstorm
possible answer to the question: what is
language? When you are ready, join another
group and share your ideas.
To give
a concise definition of language has always been
difficult for linguists and
philogists.
Although there has been an enormous amount of
research in language
in the past century, no
authoritative answer has been given to ‘what is
language?’
rather, people have settle down to
talk about views of language, seemingly
allowing for or accepting different theories
for the moment. However, language
teachers
clearly need to know generally what sort of entity
they are dealing with
and how the particular
language they are teaching fits into that entity
(Brown,
1994a). for sample definition of
‘language’ , please refer to Appendix 1.
Structural view
The structural view of
language sees language as a linguistic system made
up of
various subsystems (Larsen-Freeman &
Long, 1991): the sound system
(phonology); the
discrete units of meaning produced by sound
combinations
(morphology), and the system of
combining units of meaning for communication
(syntax). 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. When
this structural view of language was combined with
the
stimulus-response principles of
behaviorist psychology, the audio-lingual
approach to language learning emerged.
Functional view
In the 1960s, British
linguists developed a system of categories based
on the
communicative needs of the learner
(Johnson and Marrow, 1981) and proposed a
syllabus based on communicative
functions. The functional view not only sees
languages as a linguistic system but also 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 be able
to do with it. In order to perform
functions, learners need to know how to
combine the grammatical rules and the
vocabulary to express notions that
perform the
functions. Examples of notions are the concept of
present, past and
future time, the expressions
of certainty and possibility, the roles of agents,
instruments with a sentence, and special
relationships between people and
objects.
Interactional view
The interactional view
considers language to be 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
as importantly
they need to know the rules for using them in a
whole range of
communicative contexts.
These three views present an ever wider view
of language. The structural view
limits
knowing a language to knowing its structural rules
and vocabulary. The
communicative or notional-
functional view adds the need to know how to use
the
rules and vocabulary to do whatever it is
one wants to do. The interactional view
says
that to know how to do what you want to do
involves also knowing whether
it is
appropriate to do, and where, when and how it is
appropriate to do it. In
order to know this,
you have to study the patterns and rules of
language above
the sentence level to learn how
language is used in different speech contexts.
The understanding of the nature of
language may provide the basis for a
particular teaching method (Richard and
Rodgers, 1986), but more importantly,
it is
closely related to the understanding of language
learning. If language is
considered to have a
finite number of structural items, learning the
language
probably means learning these items.
If language is more than just a system of
structures, it is more importantly a tool then
to learn the language learning. If
language is
more than just a system of structures, it is more
importantly a tool,
then to learn the language
means to use it, rather than just study what it is
and
how it is formed. The next section
discusses some current theories about
language
learning.
1.3 Views on Language learning
and learning in general
A language learning
theory underlying an approach or method usually
answers
two questions; 1) What are the
psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved
in language learning? 2) What are the
conditions that need to be met in order for
these learning processes to be activated?
Task3
Work in groups of
4. Brainstorm the answers to the two questions
stated above.
When you are ready, join another
group and share your ideas.
Although
these two questions have never been satisfactorily
answered, a vast
amount of research has been
done from all aspects. The research can be broadly
divided into process-oriented theories and
condition-oriented theories.
Process-oriented
theories are concerned with how the mind organizes
new
information such as habit formation,
induction, making inference, hypothesis
testing and generalization. Condition-oriented
theories emphasize the nature of
the human and
physical context in which language learning takes
place, such as
the number of students, the
kind of input learners receive, and the
atmosphere.
Some researchers attempt to
formulate teaching approaches directly from these
theories. For example, the Natural Approach,
Total Physical Response, and the
Silent Way
are based on one or more dimensions of processes
and conditions. At
this level, it is too early
to formulate a specific approach, because some
aspects
are still too vague, for example, what
is done in these processes.
Behaviorist
theory
The behaviorist theory of language
learning was initiated by behavioural
psychologist Skinner, who applied Watson and
Raynor’s theory of conditioning
to the way
human acquire language (Harmer, 1983). Based on
their experiments,
Watson and Raynor
formulated a stimulus-response theory of
psychology. In this
theory all complex forms
of behavior—motions, habits and such—are seen as
composed of simple muscular and glandular
elements that can be observed and
measured.
They claimed that emotional reactions are learned
in much the same
way as other skills. The key
point of the theory of conditioning is that ‘you
can
train an animal to do anything (within
reason) if you follow a certain procedure
which has three major stages, stimulus,
response, and reinforcement’ (Harmer,
1983:30).
Based on the theory of
conditioning, Skinner suggested that language is
also a
form of behavior. It can be learned the
same way as an animal is trained to
respond to
stimuli. This theory of learning is referred to as
behaviorism, which
was adopted for some time
by the language teaching profession, particularly
in
the U.S. 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
The term cognitivism is
often used loosely to describe methods in which
students
are asked to think rather than simply
repeat. It seems to be largely the result of
Noam Chomsky’s reaction to Skinner’s
behaviorist theory, which led to the
revival
of structural linguistics. The key point of
Chomsky’s theory is reflected in
his most
famous question: if all language is a learned
behavior, how can a child
produce a sentence
that never been said by others before?
According to Chomsky, language is not a form
of behavior, it is an intricate
rule-based
system and a large part of language acquisition is
the learning of this
system. There are a
finite number of grammatical rules in the system
and with a
knowledge of these an infinite
number of sentences can be produced. A language
learner acquires language competence which
enables him to produce language.
Though
Chomsky’s theory is not directly applied in
language teaching, it has had
a great impact
on the profession. 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.
Although people
are pretty much still in the dark as to what
language is and how
language is learned, it is
believed that general knowledge about language and
language learning will help language teachers
do a better job.
Constructivist theory
The constructivist theory believes that
learning is a process in which the learner
constructs meaning based on hisher own
experiences and what heshe already
knows.
Although constructivist theory was not developed
for the understanding
of language learning, it
is widely applicable to learning in general. It is
believed
that education is used to develop the
mind, not just to rote recall what is learned.
John Dewey provided a foundation for
constructivism. He believed that teaching
should be built based on what learners already
knew and engage learners in
learning
activities. Teachers need to design environments
and interact with
learners to foster
inventive, creative, critical learners. Therefore,
teachers must
balance an understanding of the
habits, characteristics as well as personalities
of
individual learners with an understanding
of the means of arousing learner’s
interests
and curiosity for learning (Archambault, 1964).
Socio-constructivist theory
Similar
to constructivist theory, socio-constructivist
theory represented by
Vygotsky (1978)
emphasizes interaction and engagement with the
target
language in a social context based on
the concept of ‘Zone of Proximal
Development’
(ZPD) and scaffolding. In other words, 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 peer’s
support, the learner can move to a
higher
level of understanding and extend hisher skills
and knowledge and
knowledge to the fullest
potential.
1.4 What makes a good language
teacher?
Some people with an excellent command
of a foreign language may not be able to
teach
the language well while others with a general
command of the language
can teach it very
effectively. What do you think might account for
this
phenomenon?
Task 4
Work in
groups. Reflect on your own learning experience
from early school years
to the university.
Have you had an excellent English teacher? Try to
identify as
many qualities as possible of your
best English teacher(s). Note down all the
qualities that you think are important for a
good English teacher.
It is clear
that whether someone can become a good foreign
language teacher
does not solely depend on
hisher command of the language. There are a
variety
of elements that contributes to the
qualities of a good language teacher. These
elements can be categorized into three groups:
ethic devotion, professional
qualities and
personal styles (Parrot, 1993).
Task 5
Ethic devotion, professional qualities and
personal styles jointly contribute to the
making of a good English teacher. All the
adjectives in the box below could be
used to
characterize these three aspects.
1. Work
in groups of 4 and decide which adjectives
describe ethic devotion,
which describe
personal styles and which describe professional
qualities.
Please write your answers on a
separate piece of paper.
2. Add any adjectives
to the list which describe further qualities that
you feel are
missing.
3. These adjectives
are intended to describe positive qualities or
styles. Do you
feel that any of them could
have a negative side as well? If yes, in what way?
For example, an authoritative teacher may make
the students feel assured,
but may also make
the student less free to disagree with himher.
kind dynamic
authoritative
hardworking
creative patient well-
informed fair
resourceful
attentive warm-hearted
reflective
well-prepared flexible
intuitive
accurate
enthusiastic humorous
caring
disciplined professionally-trained
(Adapted from Tasks for Language Teachers, Martin
Parrot,
1993)
From the above
activities we can see that a good English teacher
should have
ethic devotion, certain desirable
personal styles, and more importantly, he or
she should have necessary professional
qualities. These three aspects constitute
the
professional competence of a good English teacher.
A person who has a
good command of English is
not necessarily a good teacher because he has only
one of the elements of professional
competence.
It is assumed that all
responsible English teachers have ethic devotion,
and
they are supposed to make their personal
styles compatible with their work.
These two
aspects, which are beyond the scope of this book,
can be achieved as
long as the teacher
himselfherself has the willingness to do so.
A question that many teachers often ask is: I
like my job, and I love the
students, but how
can I become a good English teacher? Our answer is
that
they need professional competence, which
we are going to discuss in the next
section.
1.5 How can one become a good language
teacher?
The most important and most difficult
part of the making of a good language
teacher
is the development of professional competence,
which is the state or
quality of being
adequately qualified for the profession, and armed
with a
specific range of skills, strategies,
knowledge, and ability.
Task 6
Work
in pairs and discuss how one can become a
professionally competent
teacher of English.
For example, we have to develop our English
proficiency first
and also we may need to
learn from experienced teachers through
observations.
What else can you think of? Make
a list and then pool all your ideas together to
find out about your common beliefs.
A
language teacher’s professional competence is much
more difficult than a
driver’s skill to handle
a car, and is more complicated than a student’s
competence of speaking foreign language. It
involves more factors and longer
learning
time, and may never be finished.
Some
people think teaching is a craft; that is, a
novice teacher can learn the
profession by imitating the experts’
techniques, just like an apprentice. Others
hold the view that teaching is an applied
science, based on scientific knowledge
and
experimentation. By making a compromise between
these two views,
Wallace (1991) uses a
“reflective model” to demonstrate the development
of
professional competence. The following
model is an adapted version to illustrate
the
process of becoming a professionally competent
teacher.
Figure 1.1 Teacher’s
professional development
(Adapted from
Wallace, 1991:15)
From the above model,
we can see the development of professional
competence
for a language teacher involves
Stage 1, Stage 2 and Goal. The first stage is
language development. All English teachers are
supposed to have a sound
command of English.
As language is the subject matter for language
teachers and
also because language is always
changing, language development can never come
to an end.
The second stage is the
most crucial stage and it is more complicated
because it
involves three sub-stages:
learning, practice, and reflection. The learning
stage is
actually the purposeful preparation
that a language teacher normally receives
before heshe starts the practice of teaching.
This preparation can include:
1.
learning from others’ experiences (empirical
knowledge gained through
reading and
observations)
2. learning the received
knowledge (language learning theories, educational
psychology, language teaching methodology,
etc.)
3. learning from one’s own experiences
as a learner
Both
experiential knowledge (others’ and one’s own) and
received knowledge are
useful when a teacher
goes to practice. This is the combination of
‘craft’ and
‘applied science’ knowledge. The
learning stage is followed by practice. The term
‘practice’ can be used in two senses. In one
sense, it is a short period of time
assigned
to do teaching practice as part of one’s pre-
service education, usually
under the
supervision of instructors. This practice is also
called pseudo practice.
The other sense of
‘practice’ is the real classroom teaching that a
teacher
undertakes after heshe finishes formal
education.
Teachers benefit from practice
if they keep on reflecting on what they have been
doing (Stanely, 1999). It should be noted that
teachers reflect on their work not
only after
they finish a certain period of practice, but also
while they are doing
the practice.
When the would-be teachers(trainees) are doing
pseudo practice, they are often
trying out
ideas that they have learned in a methodology
class. Therefore, they
are likely to reflect
on how well a certain idea or technique works and
often their
instructors may require them to do
so. The pseudo practice is beneficial only if
the student teachers take reflections
seriously. The most difficult thing is to keep
on reflecting on one’s work when one moves on
to real classroom teaching.
Ideally, a
teacher should be able to attain hisher
professional competence after
some period of
practice and reflection as shown in Figure 1.1.
However,
professional competence as an
ultimate goal does not seem to have an end. With
the ever-deepening of our understanding of
teaching and learning, and with the
ever
changing needs of the society, of education, of
students, and of the teaching
requirements,
one must keep on learning, practicing and
reflecting. Actually
professional competence
is’ a moving target or horizon, towards which
professionals travel all their professional
life but which is never finally attained ‘.
(Wallace, 1991:58)
Task 7
Work in
groups. Discuss possible answers to the following
questions in relation to
the model presented
in Figure 1.1.
are stage 1 and stage 2
interrelated by a double arrow line?
1.
Why
2. Why are practice and reflection
connected by a circle?
3. Why is
professional competence’ a moving target or
horizon,
which professional travel all their
professional life but
towards
which is never finally attained?'
4.
Where should a TEFL methodology course fill in the
model?
1.6 An overview of the book
This second edition of A
Course in English Language Teaching has allowed us
the
opportunity to expand the original 14
units into 18 in order to include topics
reflecting the recent development in English
language teaching both at home and
abroad, to
revisit a number of areas, to expand an clarify
points that we felt were
not sufficiently
clear in the first edition, and to improve the
pedagogical
usefulness of the text.
Overall, the book aims at introducing
practical methods to teachers of English as
a
foreign language with some basic theories
presented in the first two units. It is
hoped
that classroom teachers or would-be teachers will
not simply copy or
imitate what are suggested
but be able to choose or adapt with an
understanding
of why.
Unit 1 serves
as an introduction for setting the scene for this
methodology course.
It discusses issues
concerning views on language and language learning
or
learning in general with the belief that
such views will affect teachers’ways of
teaching and thus learners’ ways of learning.
The qualities of a good language
teacher is
also discussed in order to raise the participants’
awareness of what is
required for a good
English teacher.
Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) and Task-based Language Teaching
(TBLT) have been the most influential language
teaching approaches in the past
two decades
and they have proven to be effective in a variety
of language
teaching contexts. In Unit 2 we
introduce the basic principles of CLT and
activities followed by an introduction to
task-based approach. It is intended that
most
of the methods that we introduce in the remaining
units will, to some extent,
follow a
communicative approach and task-based language
teaching.
Unit 3 is a new unit which
focuses on the new National English Curriculum. It
begins with a brief overview of the history of
English language teaching in China
followed by
tasks and discussions on the goals, objectives,
and design of the new
English curriculum and
ends with discussions on the challenges facing
teachers
today.
We have arranged
lesson planning and classroom management as the
next two
units of the book-Unit 4 and Unit 5
respectively. With regard to these two units,
the new edition has replaced some previous
lesson plan samples and added some
relevant
issues, i.e. giving effective instructions, asking
effective questions, and
dealing with
students’ errors in the classroom. To have these
two parts in the
early units, our intention is
that the reader will use what is covered in these
two
parts in the early units, our intention is
that the reader will use what is covered
in
these two units to design mini classroom
activities for the teaching of
knowledge and
skills that come in later units.
Like the first edition of the
book, Units 6, 7 and 8 focus on the teaching of
language components, that is, the teaching of
pronunciation, grammar, and
vocabulary, while
Units 9, 10, 11, 12 focus on the teaching of four
skills of
language, namely, listening,
speaking, reading and writing, with Unit 13
discussing the integration of the four skills.
Some new examples and new points
are added to
all these units in the new edition. It should be
noted that neither the
language components nor
the language skills are taught in an isolated
fashion.
We present the teaching of these
language components and skills in separate
units so that there is a clearer focus of
discussion. In classroom teaching, we hope
teachers will be able to integrate all areas.
Unit 14 is about moral education. This is
a new unit aiming at raising teachers’
awareness of the scope available for moral
education in language teaching so that
teachers will be able to create opportunities
and use relevant materials and
activities to
help students form positive social values towards
life and work.
Unit 15 deals with
language assessment. We have avoided ‘testing’ and
‘examination’ as our unit title because we
believe ‘assessment’ is a broader
concept. In
this unit we focus on classroom assessment rather
than standard tests.
Research evidence shows
that classroom-based assessment provides a better
evaluation of what the students have achieved
during the course of study.
Units 16 and
17 are also new units. Unit 16 is about learner
differences and
learner training. As the
purpose of teaching is for learning to take place,
learners
will need to play a major role in
the learning process. We think as teachers we
need to understand learners and the
differences among them so that appropriate
methods and techniques can be selected or
designed to cater for learner needs.
Also, we
teach in order not to teach. In this sense, we
need to help learners
develop awareness of
different learning strategies and learn to take
responsibility
for their own learning . Unit
17 focuses on using and creating resources. It
discusses how to use the available resources
as well as how to explore hidden
resources for
teaching and learning.
Unit 18 introduces
the reader to the most basic things in the
evaluation, selection
and adaptation of
textbooks used in language teaching and learning.
In the
future, classroom teachers will have to
take more responsibility and be given
more
autonomy in selecting and adopting ELT textbooks
for their students.
Throughout the
book, we provide a number of tasks for each unit.
The tasks
usually follow a discussion and are
aimed at providing the reader with
opportunities to relate theory to practice.
Most of the tasks are open-ended, that
is,
they do not have fixed answers or solutions.
Sometimes, discussions following
the task
provide the authors’ further comments.
Occasionally, some tasks seem to
need more ‘concrete’ solutions. In that case,
we remove the solutions to Appendix
1 at the
back of the book. We intend that users of the book
should solve the
problems themselves before
referring to the authors’ suggested solutions.
Most of the tasks involve group work or
pair work. If the book is used in class,
we
consider it very important for students to work in
pairs or groups so that they
can share
knowledge and experience. Individual readers may
find it inconvenient
to perform the task. We
suggest that they discuss the problems with their
colleagues wherever possible.