英语教学法

Unit 1

Language and Language Learning

I. The Nature of Language

What is language?Textbook P307 Appendix

Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

1. Language is a system.

2. Language is arbitrary.

3. Language is vocal.

4. Language is for human communication.

II. Views on language

①Structural view ②Functional view ③Interactional view Textbook PP3-4

●Structural view:

Language is a linguistic system made up of various subsystems: phonology, morphology, lexicology and syntactics. To learn a language is to learn its vocabulary and structural rules. (P3) Ferdiand de Saussure (1857-1913 )

●Functional view:

Language is a linguistic system as well as a means for doing things. Learners learn a language in order to be able to do things with it (use it). To perform functions, learners need to know how to combine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions. (P3) professor M A K Haliday

●Interactional view:

Language is a communicative tool to build up and maintain social relations between people. Learners need to know the rules of a language and where, when and how it is appropriate to use them. (P3)

Attention Your view of language determines your way of teaching.

What will be your focus in teaching?

●Structural view–knowledge: vocabulary and grammar

(sentence patterns)

●Functional view–communicative categories, communicative

ability (to be able to communicate)

●Interactional view–to communicate appropriately

(communicative strategies, cultural awareness, etc.) Reflection

Please reflect on your middle school English teachers’ classroom teaching and try to think about how they understand the nature of language.

III. Views on Language Learning and Learning in General

What is learning?

3.1 Views on Language Learning

Behaviorist Theory (P5)

Cognitive Theory (PP5-6)

Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

3.1.1 Behaviorism

Behaviorism is an approach to psychology that arose out of the ideas of early learning theorists who attempted to explain all learning in terms of some form of conditioning.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) S-R

• A nineteenth century Russian Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs and other animals

A response (e.g. salivation) generated by one stimulus (e.g. food) can be produced by introducing a second stimulus (e.g. a bell) at the same time. This is known as S-R (Stimulus-Response) theory or classical conditioning.

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) S-R-R

• A mid-twentieth-century American B. F. Skinner

Stimulu s →response →reinforcement →habit formation Language is seen as a behavior to be taught. A small part of the foreign language, such as a structural pattern, is presented as a stimulus, to which the learners responds, for example, by repetition or substitution. This is followed by reinforcement by the teacher, based on 100 percent success. Learning a language is seen as acquiring a set of appropriate mechanical habits, and errors are frowned upon as reinforcing ‘bad habits’.

The role of the teacher is to develop in learners good language habits, which is done mainly by pattern drills, memorization of dialogues or choral repetition of structural patterns. →Audiolingualism →听说法

Audio-Lingual Method

●‘Listen and repeat’ drilling activities are the most

important classroom activities.

●Mistakes are immediately corrected and correct

utterances are immediately praised.

Repetition Drill: Books open.

Chorus and Group Repetition.

Ask the pupils to repeat the following statements after you first in chorus then in groups:

TEACHER: Look at the 1st picture.