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英语教学法

By Wang JinForeign Languages School, STU

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Purpose to prepare you for a professional language teacher

Contents language teaching theories skills for teaching language strategies and methods on teaching knowledge strategies and methods on training skills

Assessment Attendance + homework assignments + a final check =

20% + 30% + 50%

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I. Views on languageII.Views on language learning and learning in

general III.To be a good language teacher

1.1 What is language? Language is a means for cultural

transmission. Language is what people use to talk about

the things that are important to them, for example, occurrences in their everyday lives.

Language is a set of sound and sentence patterns that express meaning.

Language is a set of rules through which humans can create and understand novel utterances, ones that they have never before articulated or encountered.

I. Views on language

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Language is a means of interaction between and among people.

Language is a means for doing things ---- accomplishing some purpose, for example, agreeing on a plan of action for handling a conflict.

Language is a medium through which one can learn other things.

……

Corresponding syllabus units and teaching practices

Definitions of Language

Corresponding Syllabus

(what to teach)

Associating Teaching Practices

(how to teach it)

1 Cultural transmission

Works of literature, poetry, history, and the vocabulary and structures that constitute language

Translation exercises

2 Everyday life Talking about family, daily routines, situations (e.g., shopping, going to the post office

Situational dialogues

3 Sound and sentence patterns

Fixed and semi-fixed sentence patterns and sequences such as statements, questions, and negative statements, and sound contrasts, intonation, rhythm, stress patterns that result in differences in meaning

Sentence pattern practice and minimal pair discrimination drills

4 Rules Rules of sentence construction related to permissible word combinations and word orders, for example, forming sentences, question, negative sentences

Inductive/deductive grammar exercises

5 Means of interaction

International language, that is, choosing and using appropriate language within a social context

Role plays

6 Means of doing something

Functions such as agreeing, disagreeing, proposing, clarifying, expressing preferences

Communicative activities and tasks

7 Medium Content such as geography (learning about latitude and longitude, topographical features, climates), along with language leaning strategies such as reading a passage for its gist, editing one’s own writing, guessing word meaning from context

Content-based activities

8 … … …

1.2 Different views on language Structural view: （结构观）

It sees language as a linguistic system made up of various subsystems, 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 langualge 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.

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Functional view:（功能观）In the 1960s, Bristish liguists developed a system of categories based on communicative needs of the learner and proposed a syllabus based on communicative functions. the functional view not only sees language as a linguistic system but also as a means for doing things.People learn a language in order to do things with it, in other words, to perform functions.

In order to perform functions, learners need to know how to combine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary of the language to express notions that perform the functions .

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function: purpose or intention ( greeting, inviting, proposing, apologizing, expressing gratitude, leave-taking, etc.)

notion: contents/ideas (the concept of present, past and future time; the expressions of certainty and possibility, the roles of agent, instrument and patient within a sentence; and spatial relationships between people or objects.

e.g. I am sorry that I was late last night. Function = apologyNotions = past and present time; speaker as agente.g. where is the nearest bank?Function = asking for information Notions = spatial relationships between the speaker and the place ←

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Interactional view: （交互观）It sees language as a communicative tool, whose main use is to build up and maintain social relations between people.

To learn a language, learners not only need to know the grammar and vocabulary, but as importantly, they need to know the rules for using them in the whole range of communicative contexts.

2.1 A broad division ----Process-oriented theories & condition-oriented theories

Process-oriented theories are concerned with how the mind processes 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, what kind of input learners receive, and the learning atmosphere.

II. Views on language learning and learning in general

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Behaviorist theoryProposed by behavioral psychologist Skinner. He suggested that

language is also is 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.

One influential result is the audio-lingual method, which involves the “ 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 are immediately corrected, and correct utterances are immediately praised.

2.2 Typical views on language learning and learning in general

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Cognitive theory: According to Noam Chomsky , language is not a form of behaviour, 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 rules an infinite number of sentences can be produced. A language learner acquires language competence which enables him to produce language.

One influential idea of this theory is that students should be allowed to create their own sentences based on their understanding of certain rules.

 

Constructivist theory ( John Dewey) Learning is a process in which the learner constructmeaning based on his/her own experiences and what he/she already knows.

Socio-constructivist theory (Lev Semenovich Vygotsky) Learners learn best with the dynamic interaction

between the teacher and the learner and betweenLearners.

ZPD and Scaffolding

2.3 Views on learning ---- new developments

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John Dewey (1859-1952)

An American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic and political activist, whose writings and teachings have had profound influences on education in the United States.

John Dewey is considered to be a pragmatist. Dewey's philosophy of education focused on learning-by-doing rather than rote learning and dogmatic instruction, the current practice of his day. He believed that the way people learn center largely on interaction (between people and also people and environment), reflection and experience.

Lev Semenovich

Vygotsky(1896-1934)

Soviet psychologist and educator. His most famous work Thought and Language were published after his death in 1934 and suppressed in 1936 and were not known in the West until 1958.

The major theme of Vygotsky's theoretical framework is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition.

Zone of Proximal Development The potential for cognitive development is limited to a certain

time span which he calls the "zone of proximal development" (ZPD). He defined as(1978):

　　 The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.

Scaffolding Instructional scaffolding could refer to the same processes that should occur in the

zone of proximal development during instruction.

In a learning situation, a teacher or tutor initially might do most of the work, after which the teacher and the learner share responsibility. As learners become more competent, the teacher gradually withdraws the scaffolding so learners can perform independently.The key is to ensure that the scaffolding keeps learners in the ZPD.

It refers to the gradual withdrawal of adult control and support as a function of children’s increasing mastery of a given task.

III. To be a good language teacher

3.1 Use your best qualities

Think about the things that you are good at and write a list of all the qualities and abilities that are necessary for each of them.

Talk about how you could use your good qualities and abilities to improve your teaching.

Things you are good at

Necessary qualities or abilities

1

2

3

… …… ……

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Teachers’ professional development ---- a reflective model (Wallace,1993)

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Views on language Structural view Functional view Interactional view

Views on language learning and learning in general Behaviorist theory Cognitive theory Constructivist theory Socio-constructivist theory

To be a good language teacher Use your best qualities Teachers’ professional development ---- a reflective model

(Wallace,1993)