外语教师自主发展之我见

I.1) English doesn’t have very much grammar, compared to some languages.I don’t agree. Compared to Chinese and Japanese, it seems that English has lessgrammar rules. But in fact, it does have very much grammar. It has so many tenses, mood, it has so many changes in it. It needs a lot time to remember all the rules. And also, Affected by our mother tongue, students may feel difficult to grasp them correctly. So when we teach English grammar in class, as teachers, we should make them know the differences between Chinese grammar and English grammar to get rid of the influence of our native language. Only in this way can we get a good result in teaching English as a foreign language.2)It is the language teachers’responsibility to know as much as possible about thelanguage itself.It is a good point. During teaching, the teacher has to explain something to the students. Of course, there is no need for us to teach every thing to the students. And the teacher has to help the students to solve the problems they encountered when they are learning. But the problem is, we don’t know what kind of problems they will meet. Are they about the grammar rules or about the meaning of the words or about the culture, etc.So as a language teacher, it is our duty to know as much as possible about the language itself. And we should also know as much as possible about other knowledge relevant to language, such as the cultural background, the customs of the target language, and the tuboo of the other countries of areas, etc. Only in this way can we be a fulfilled teacher, and give our students a relative complete knowledge of the languge.3) Grammar is best learned deductively---that is, by studying rules and thenapplying the rules to examples.I don’t agree with itEvery teaching approach has its benefits and drawbacks. It is not so easy to say which one is better, so it is a good idea to combine both approaches. But the inductive approach demands great mental effort and it will result in more effective learning in the long run. When we learn a language, we should know the grammar of the language. But to learn it deductively or inductively depends on situations. In my opinion, to learn grammar deductively is a very traditional teaching and learning method. That is learning rules firstand then applying the rules to examples, It suits the person who is old enough to know the special items in the grammar. For the younger learner I think inductive way is better especially to train the students oral English. The deductive way may be used to practice the students writing and reading.4)Language should always be studied in its typical contexts of use, rather than in isolation.Yes, I agree with this idea. Language should always be studied in its typical contexts of use, rather than in isolation. We know that one aim of our learning language is to use it in its real society. When we meet the situation we can automatically express ourselves. Language belongs to the concept of culture. It is not isolated, and we must study it according to an order. Being a language teacher, we should not only teach the language rules to the students, but also teach the cultural knowledge to them. Language is social. It can not be separated from society. And the function of learning a language is not to remember some rules of language but to learn to communicate with others. If we don’t know the culture or custom of the country, we can not communicate with the people smoothly, rather, it may cause some problems unexpectedly. So, we can not teach language itself. Instead, we should teach the language in its typical context of use.5)Giving learners complete rules, even if theses are more complicated, is better than giving them half-rules.I agree with the idea.Grammar teaching in the teaching of foreign language is controversial. The focus of debate is whether grammar should be taught and to what extent grammar should be taught. Giving learners complete rules, even if these are more complicated, is better than giving them half-rules. The teacher should decide how many aspects of the grammatical items he or she wants to focus on at one time. When presenting a new verb form, the teacher probably will not want to introduce the affirmative, the question forms, the negative, short answers and question tags all in the same lesson. Grammar is a system. A better understanding of grammar can help the students to learn the language more correctly, especially to some students who want to make language their major, grammar study is more necessary. Nowadays, China associate with the foreign countries more and more frequently.We need more and more people who can express themselves clearly and exactly. Learning grammar well is a better way to achieve the goal.II．1．Please compare behaviorist learning theory with mentalist learning theory. What are their implications for foreign language learning?Behaviorist psychology set out to explain behavior by observing the responses that took place when particular stimuli were present. The association of a particular response with a particular stimulus constituted a habit, ant it was this type of regular behavior that psychologists such as Watson(1924) or Skinner(1957) set out to investigate. Behaviorist learning theories base themselves exclusively on observable behavior in the description and explanation of learning behavior, while mentalist learning theories base themselves on the structure and mechanisms of the mind for such descriptions and explanations.The main representative to the study of behaviorist learning theory is Skinner. According to the behaviorist, all learning, verbal or non-verbal, takes place through the same underlying process—habit formation. Learners receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment, and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. As a result, habits are formed. Because language development is described as the acquisition of a set of habits, it is assumed that a person learning foreign language starts off with habits associated with the first languageBehaviorist psychologists attribute two important characteristics to habits. The first was that they were observable. As Watson argued, the true basis for psychological enquiry existed only in objects that could be touched and actions that can be observed. The second noteworthy characteristic was that habits were automatic. That is they were performed spontaneously without awareness and were difficult to eradicated unless environmental changes led to the extinction of the stimuli upon which they were built.The main representative to the study of mentalist learning theory is Norm Chomsky, who argues that the behaviorist theory fails to recognize the logical problem of language acquisition. According to Chomsky, the language the child is exposed to in the environment is full of confusing information (for example, false starts, incomplete sentences or slips of the tongue) and does not provide all the information which the child needs. This view of the language learning process stresses the mental activities of the language learner himself, andstrongly questions the relevance of such external factors as limitation, frequency of stimulus and reinforcement.Both the two theories have their advantages and disadvantages. They both disclose some aspects of language learning. As a language teacher, I think when we teach a language, we should integrate both according to different language situations.2.What is your understanding of a good language learner?In my opinion, a good language learner should have the following qualities:1)He should know how to learn a language, trying to find out what he should do and what he shouldn’t. If he doesn't understand the purpose of a particular exercise, he goes to the teacher.2)He should be willing to experiment and take risks. Try out different ways of learning vocabulary until he finds the way that suits him best. He should be also open not closed. He should know mistakes are not frightening. It can help him learning the language well. But he should also learn to avoid unnecessary mistakes.3) He should be realistic. He knows that it will take time and effort to become proficient in English, and that there will periods where he does not seem to be making much progress.4) He should be independent. He does not expect to learn English just by sitting in the classroom, and does not rely on the teacher to totally direct his learning.5) He should be is organised and active. And he should be always looking for opportunities to develop his language both inside and outside of the classroom.At last a determined mind is needed. For learning a language is not an easy job. It will take a long time . He may lose some opportunities to do other things that he is interested in. Some times learning is boring. He must have the ability to endure the pain and resist the attraction of other interesting things. He should have a balanced concern for communication and accuracy. A good language learner, on the other hand, is concerned with both communicating and doing so as accurately as possible.III. 外语教师自主发展之我见随着时代的发展,科技的进步,对外语教师的工作也提出了更高的要求。