英语学科教学论

(一)

1. What is the goal of foreign language teaching?

To help the learner master the target language in the shortest possible time

By mastering the target language, we mean that the learner is able to have successful communications with others in the target language.

2. What is the nature of FLTM?

FLTM is a science which studies the processes and patterns of foreign language teaching, aiming at revealing the nature and laws of foreign language teaching.

It examines the practices and procedures in foreign language teaching; studies approaches, methods and techniques;and studies principles and beliefs that underline them.

3. Why do we call FLTM is an interdisciplinary science?

It involves a lot of disciplines such as philosophy, linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, Anthropology, Sociology. So we call it an interdisciplinary science

4. What are the main features of traditional linguistics? (purpose, beliefs, approach and contents) Purpose: to help understand classic works

beliefs: the written form of language superior to the spoken form.

approach: a prescriptive approach

Contents: Classification of all the words into 8 parts of speech and the study of the syntax of Greek

5. What are the main features of American structuralism? ( beliefs, approach and contents) beliefs: speech was primary and writing was secondary.

approach: a descriptive and inductive approach

Contents:

1. A language was a habit of verbal behavior which consisted of a series of stimuli and responses.

2. To acquire a language was to form a habit of verbal behavior and learning a language was learning a habit.

6. What is Chomsky’s explanation of the first language acquisition process?

Linguists should study the linguistic competence, not the performance, of the native speaker and try to set up a system of rules that will generate an infinite number of grammatical sentences.

7. What is the main feature of functional linguistics?

the meaning of any single word is to a high degree dependent on its context.

The context of situation must have an important position in a descriptive linguistic model. Linguistic events should be accounted for at three primary levels: substance) the material of language) , form (organization) and context (relations of the form to non-linguistic features of the situation).

Three dimensions: field, tenor, and mode.

8. What is the basic theory of Gestalt psychology?

Contents: the area of perception, aiming at the exploration of the relationship between parts and whole in people’s perceptual experience.

beliefs: people perceives objects and scenes as organized wholes before they noticed their component parts

9. What is the basic theory of psychoanalysis?

Contents: the analysis of the unconscious mind.

beliefs: unconscious mental processes influence conscious thought and action.