典型信息结构与英语冠词教学

Canonical Information Structure and Teaching of the English Article

冠词体系是英语语法中最为复杂的一个方面。本文描述了英语冠词的几个特点及非英语母语的人学习英语冠词感到困难的几个原因,并回顾了国内外英语冠词体系教学的理论研究。然后,运用信息结构的理论分析了一篇遵循典型信息结构的范文。分析结果显示,典型信息结构可以为英语冠词体系的教学提供潜在的帮助。即学习者在为任何一个名词确立合适冠词的时候,都可以根据典型信息结构先作一个初步的估测,从而大大提高冠词使用的准确性。

The English article system is a notoriously complex aspect of English grammar. This paper describes several features of English article and reasons for the difficulty non-native speakers of English meet in acquiring the English article system. This paper also reviews the main pedagogical methods for teaching the article system at home and abroad. The notion of information structure is then applied to a sample text to examine the extent to which canonical information structure is obeyed. The results reveal that canonical information structure may be applied to provide a potential aid in teaching and learning the article system, i.e. the learners can apply canonical information structure as a preliminary guess in determing the appropriate article for any noun, improving their accuracy in applying English article system.