Past studies reveal the prevalence of anxiety,coupled with low motivation and disengagement among students in English-medium instruction(EMI)programs.Given the detrimental impact these negative emotions can have on le...Past studies reveal the prevalence of anxiety,coupled with low motivation and disengagement among students in English-medium instruction(EMI)programs.Given the detrimental impact these negative emotions can have on learning outcomes,it is imperative that teachers establish positive emotional rapport with their students.This study explores how experienced and highly rated EMI lecturers at a Chinese university’s overseas campus use communication strategies to build rapport with their students during interactive academic activities.It identifies the strategies used by these lecturers and examines how the strategies facilitate the teaching-learning process.The data,consisting of 10 hours of tutorials and 10 hours of supervisor-student supervision meetings,is analyzed using an adapted Conversation Analysis(CA)approach.The analysis reveals three types of communication strategies(CSs)frequently used by lecturers:back-channeling,codeswitching,and co-creation of messages.By employing these strategies,the lecturers established a strong rapport with the students,which created an encouraging and supportive learning environment.Consequently,this positive atmosphere facilitated students’learning of content knowledge through English.The findings of this study have implications for the training of lecturers who encounter difficulties in establishing rapport with multilingual students in the EMI setting.展开更多
Reading and writing are input and output respectively. The relation between reading and writing is closely related. Reading is the preparation for good writing. And writing theory or law can provide readers some clues...Reading and writing are input and output respectively. The relation between reading and writing is closely related. Reading is the preparation for good writing. And writing theory or law can provide readers some clues for better understanding. The relation between reading and writing can help our English teaching in and out class. Also the way of thinking influences our reading and writing.展开更多
Interactive language teaching which is the improvement on the traditional language teaching, suits the social request that students can communicate effectively in English. This paper aims to explore the theoretical ba...Interactive language teaching which is the improvement on the traditional language teaching, suits the social request that students can communicate effectively in English. This paper aims to explore the theoretical basis, teaching principles and two teaching models, and states that interactive language teaching is an interaction-based pedagogy, in which students are the center of the learning and teaching activities while a teacher is the initiator.展开更多
As the reverse of language acquisition, language attrition refers to the loss of language ability resulting from little or no use of certain languages over a period of time. Among the three factors of language, vocabu...As the reverse of language acquisition, language attrition refers to the loss of language ability resulting from little or no use of certain languages over a period of time. Among the three factors of language, vocabulary tends to be more vulnerable to attrition compared with syntax and phoneme. Therefore, a study based on vocabulary attrition is of greater importance. By reviewing the literatures on language attrition and outlining the influencing factors of language attrition, the paper tends to figure out the corresponding strategies which are effective in college English vocabulary teaching.展开更多
Reading English newspapers and magazines is an effective way to help the students get the latest information worldwide and improve English levels. The present article first analyzes the features of the English newspap...Reading English newspapers and magazines is an effective way to help the students get the latest information worldwide and improve English levels. The present article first analyzes the features of the English newspapers and magazines and then proposes making good use of them through such classroom activities as discussing the hot issue and role-playing to provide more authentic situations in which the students can have chances to practice four English skills, achieving the ideal teaching result.展开更多
As one of the important phases of language acquisition process, vocabulary acquisition has great impact on one's language competence and communication competence. However, there are still some problems in students' ...As one of the important phases of language acquisition process, vocabulary acquisition has great impact on one's language competence and communication competence. However, there are still some problems in students' vocabulary acquisition. This paper first discusses the current problems in vocabulary teaching, and then analyzes some laws in vocabulary acquisition, and at last it discusses the advantages of making use of Internet in vocabulary teaching, which aims to find a possible solution to the problems.展开更多
In the activity of English teaching, how to improve students' communicative competence is always deemed as an important factor on which English teaching hinges. This paper starts from the idea of communicative compet...In the activity of English teaching, how to improve students' communicative competence is always deemed as an important factor on which English teaching hinges. This paper starts from the idea of communicative competence proposed by linguist Dwell Hymes and then goes deep to find out 4 ways to apply the ideas to spoken English teaching, namely: strengthening students' linguistic input through comprehensible listening; getting a feel of how English is spoken idiomatically; administering the teaching materials according to students' current linguistic capacity and finally exposing students massively to the target culture. Since this paper is about teaching, the discussion of teacher's role will be dealt with at the last part.展开更多
It proves to be a tough job to define culture and to draw characteristics of culture or work out the categories of culture. Based on some influential definitions, and achievements made in sociology and anthropology, t...It proves to be a tough job to define culture and to draw characteristics of culture or work out the categories of culture. Based on some influential definitions, and achievements made in sociology and anthropology, this paper makes an attempt to summarize and discuss some characteristics of culture. With regard to the categorization of culture, we put forward the idea that it is closely related to the definition and features of culture, and also that it is closely related with human cognition and different perspectives, and thus culture category is an open system just as culture in general. Cultural development as product of human evolution and development is both a need and reality, going on through cultural transmission. In the process, it is human nature to encounter cultural conflicts like culture shock, the solution of which partially depends on cultural studies, on a close relationship with the main school of culture or dominating culture and on seeking similarities and accepting differences, and in a word, on friendly and cordial contacts and understanding through linguistic communication.展开更多
The issue on which this essay focuses is how to adapt the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach to China's context. With the recent accession to the WTO, the long-awaited Olympic games in Beijing, China ha...The issue on which this essay focuses is how to adapt the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach to China's context. With the recent accession to the WTO, the long-awaited Olympic games in Beijing, China has made learning English a national priority. It is very important and necessary to research on how to adapt CLT flexibly and appropriately to China's context if most Chinese English learners are to gain a good grasp of oral English, and if specialist learning is to be achieved by those who need English for business and academic purposes. Therefore this essay is structured as follows: First, analyzing the different types of English teaching methods in China and then focusing on the CLT Method. By analyzing and contrasting these English teaching methods, the need to change the current English teaching methods in China will be discovered. Finally, it explains the problems of adopting the more modem CLT Approach and gives suggestions on how it may best be adapted to the Chinese context.展开更多
In the rapidly evolving academic field of CALL (computer-assisted language leaming) in China, it is no longer a question of whether to take advantage of the technologies of computer and Internet in foreign language ...In the rapidly evolving academic field of CALL (computer-assisted language leaming) in China, it is no longer a question of whether to take advantage of the technologies of computer and Internet in foreign language instruction, but of how to make effective use of them. By reviewing the literature of CALL in China and abroad, this article holds the view that in China where the educational resources are insufficient and unevenly distributed, the use of CALL should confirm and expand ESL/EFL theories to the utmost; the research of CALL should focus more on learning or learner, especially on learning strategy in CALL environment; to have a better understanding of the potential and functions of CALL in foreign language instruction, the research of CALL should cover all aspects of language learning.展开更多
With the development of cognitive psychology, the cognitive mechanism of learning transfer has recently become the focus in the general field of cognitive psychology. Based on the same theory, tasked based language te...With the development of cognitive psychology, the cognitive mechanism of learning transfer has recently become the focus in the general field of cognitive psychology. Based on the same theory, tasked based language teaching has become more and more popular. This thesis first analyzes the various factors which affect foreign language learning, then introduces some useful teaching strategies with an aim to help students get an efficient transfer of language knowledge and communicative competence in the context of tasked-based language teaching.展开更多
English, as a language of wide communication, is an international language in both a global and local sense. Its global spread and evolution have been topics of heated discussion. This paper reviews briefly the histor...English, as a language of wide communication, is an international language in both a global and local sense. Its global spread and evolution have been topics of heated discussion. This paper reviews briefly the history and relevant literature of the globalization of English, and explores its implications in English language teaching, especially in the Chinese context.展开更多
The debate on grammar in second language acquisition: past, present, and future, is a well written summary of both explicit and implicit grammar instruction in second language acquisition from past to present and wit...The debate on grammar in second language acquisition: past, present, and future, is a well written summary of both explicit and implicit grammar instruction in second language acquisition from past to present and with future projections. The thesis holds that explicit grammar instruction plays a very important role in foreign language learning and teaching and argues that English education in China should lay emphasis on how to assist students' grammar internalization and promote the conversion from explicit learning to implicit learning.展开更多
Vocabulary is a fundamental element of a language. It undertakes the task of conveying semantic meanings. And it guarantees the implement of language communication. Thus, accumulation of a certain amount of vocabulary...Vocabulary is a fundamental element of a language. It undertakes the task of conveying semantic meanings. And it guarantees the implement of language communication. Thus, accumulation of a certain amount of vocabulary and the master of proper use of them is the essential condition of skillful employment of a language. The current lexical teaching in College English is far from satisfaction. Based on the findings of psycholinguistic research, this paper intends to explore an effective way to help the students enlarge their vocabulary and use them correctly with the help of various psychological associations with English vocabulary through analysis of some lexical mistakes committed in students' daily writing exercises.展开更多
Error correction, in recent times, is seen as one of the important teaching processes in L2 (second language) learning, because comprehensible inputs alone is insufficient for acquisition of language. However, few L...Error correction, in recent times, is seen as one of the important teaching processes in L2 (second language) learning, because comprehensible inputs alone is insufficient for acquisition of language. However, few L2 teachers know much about error analysis and how to correct errors in the L2 classroom. Error correction is a very complicated and a thorny issue in L2 teaching and learning. L2 teachers, therefore, need to be armed with ways in which errors can be treated to ensure maximum effect yet with less harm to learners. Identifying learners' errors is very important in L2 learning, but how to correct them to give the desired effect is equally important and very challenging to L2 teachers. It is therefore crucial to initiate a study in Ghana to find out how errors are corrected in the Ghanaian English language classroom. This case study used complete observation and semi-structured interview as data collection strategies to identify error correction strategies/types English teachers use in the Ghanaian JHS (Junior High School) classroom and how error correction/treatment can be improved to facilitate English language teaching and learning. The findings of the study showed that explicit error correction technique was the most commonly used followed by recast, elicitation, metalinguistic clues, clarification request, repetition, and cues. It was also found that the causes of the disparity in the use of the various error correction types were inadequate teacher preparation, incompetence in English language, limited knowledge in error correction, caliber of students, and insufficient teaching time. This study identified that the situation can be improved through effective teacher training, in-service training, learner involvement, and effective planning.展开更多
In modem society, advertising plays a very important role in people's daily life. We can not imagine the world without advertisements. Advertisers try every means to design persuasive advertisements for their product...In modem society, advertising plays a very important role in people's daily life. We can not imagine the world without advertisements. Advertisers try every means to design persuasive advertisements for their products by attractive patterns, photos and colors, as well as commonly shared resources of language. The use of presupposition in advertising language, which is an important topic in pragmaties, can serve the function fairly well. This paper first presents a general review of previous studies on presupposition phenomena in advertising language, then investigates the use of presuppositions in advertising language by both qualitative and quantitative analyses. By qualitative analysis, the author tries to explore the functions of each type of presuppositions in advertising texts; by quantitative analysis, 100 sentences selected from various advertisements for different products are examined.展开更多
Traditionally speaking, when teaching vocabulary in the class, teachers tend to put emphasis on the words' basic meaning or their meaning in the text. However, vocabulary development in the depth is not so reinforced...Traditionally speaking, when teaching vocabulary in the class, teachers tend to put emphasis on the words' basic meaning or their meaning in the text. However, vocabulary development in the depth is not so reinforced, including the introduction of the social and cultural background of the words, use in the context, etc. Therefore, many learners can't avoid encountering the difficulty to bridge the gap between vocabulary learning and vocabulary application. This paper, which is based on the theory of language cognition, holds that vocabulary teaching and learning in the depth is of equal importance in language education. What's more, some vocabulary teaching method, focused on improving non-English-majored college learners' vocabulary, is put forward for reference.展开更多
Every day communication is an event in which there is an interactional relationship between interlocutors. This interaction needs whole language in which language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing; as...Every day communication is an event in which there is an interactional relationship between interlocutors. This interaction needs whole language in which language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing; associated knowledge of vocabulary, meaning, syntax, etc.; and also, thinking skills are interwoven. This means that language should be kept whole and "if language isn't kept whole, it isn't language anymore" (Rigg, 1991, p. 522, cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 109). In English as a Second Language/English Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) learning settings, improvement in one skill can affect the development of other skills. A particular course may highlight certain skills, but if the teacher is creative or specific tasks and problems are used in language learning settings, learners are provided with the opportunity to improve multiple, integrated skills. This paper aims at elaborating on critical thinking approach to language learning and introducing practical ideas for helping teachers to integrate language and thinking skills. It introduces 3 critical thinking activities (Dialogue journals, reading logs and literacy portfolios), and also discusses how implementing them can serves as a way to integrate language skills. It also maintains that engaging learners in these activities helps them use authentic materials and solve problems of their own interest that in turn has a positive effect on student's motivation.展开更多
How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined...How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined to illustrate how successful and effective interaction is carried out to create the optimal conditions for second language acquisition.展开更多
文摘Past studies reveal the prevalence of anxiety,coupled with low motivation and disengagement among students in English-medium instruction(EMI)programs.Given the detrimental impact these negative emotions can have on learning outcomes,it is imperative that teachers establish positive emotional rapport with their students.This study explores how experienced and highly rated EMI lecturers at a Chinese university’s overseas campus use communication strategies to build rapport with their students during interactive academic activities.It identifies the strategies used by these lecturers and examines how the strategies facilitate the teaching-learning process.The data,consisting of 10 hours of tutorials and 10 hours of supervisor-student supervision meetings,is analyzed using an adapted Conversation Analysis(CA)approach.The analysis reveals three types of communication strategies(CSs)frequently used by lecturers:back-channeling,codeswitching,and co-creation of messages.By employing these strategies,the lecturers established a strong rapport with the students,which created an encouraging and supportive learning environment.Consequently,this positive atmosphere facilitated students’learning of content knowledge through English.The findings of this study have implications for the training of lecturers who encounter difficulties in establishing rapport with multilingual students in the EMI setting.
文摘Reading and writing are input and output respectively. The relation between reading and writing is closely related. Reading is the preparation for good writing. And writing theory or law can provide readers some clues for better understanding. The relation between reading and writing can help our English teaching in and out class. Also the way of thinking influences our reading and writing.
文摘Interactive language teaching which is the improvement on the traditional language teaching, suits the social request that students can communicate effectively in English. This paper aims to explore the theoretical basis, teaching principles and two teaching models, and states that interactive language teaching is an interaction-based pedagogy, in which students are the center of the learning and teaching activities while a teacher is the initiator.
文摘As the reverse of language acquisition, language attrition refers to the loss of language ability resulting from little or no use of certain languages over a period of time. Among the three factors of language, vocabulary tends to be more vulnerable to attrition compared with syntax and phoneme. Therefore, a study based on vocabulary attrition is of greater importance. By reviewing the literatures on language attrition and outlining the influencing factors of language attrition, the paper tends to figure out the corresponding strategies which are effective in college English vocabulary teaching.
文摘Reading English newspapers and magazines is an effective way to help the students get the latest information worldwide and improve English levels. The present article first analyzes the features of the English newspapers and magazines and then proposes making good use of them through such classroom activities as discussing the hot issue and role-playing to provide more authentic situations in which the students can have chances to practice four English skills, achieving the ideal teaching result.
文摘As one of the important phases of language acquisition process, vocabulary acquisition has great impact on one's language competence and communication competence. However, there are still some problems in students' vocabulary acquisition. This paper first discusses the current problems in vocabulary teaching, and then analyzes some laws in vocabulary acquisition, and at last it discusses the advantages of making use of Internet in vocabulary teaching, which aims to find a possible solution to the problems.
文摘In the activity of English teaching, how to improve students' communicative competence is always deemed as an important factor on which English teaching hinges. This paper starts from the idea of communicative competence proposed by linguist Dwell Hymes and then goes deep to find out 4 ways to apply the ideas to spoken English teaching, namely: strengthening students' linguistic input through comprehensible listening; getting a feel of how English is spoken idiomatically; administering the teaching materials according to students' current linguistic capacity and finally exposing students massively to the target culture. Since this paper is about teaching, the discussion of teacher's role will be dealt with at the last part.
文摘It proves to be a tough job to define culture and to draw characteristics of culture or work out the categories of culture. Based on some influential definitions, and achievements made in sociology and anthropology, this paper makes an attempt to summarize and discuss some characteristics of culture. With regard to the categorization of culture, we put forward the idea that it is closely related to the definition and features of culture, and also that it is closely related with human cognition and different perspectives, and thus culture category is an open system just as culture in general. Cultural development as product of human evolution and development is both a need and reality, going on through cultural transmission. In the process, it is human nature to encounter cultural conflicts like culture shock, the solution of which partially depends on cultural studies, on a close relationship with the main school of culture or dominating culture and on seeking similarities and accepting differences, and in a word, on friendly and cordial contacts and understanding through linguistic communication.
文摘The issue on which this essay focuses is how to adapt the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Approach to China's context. With the recent accession to the WTO, the long-awaited Olympic games in Beijing, China has made learning English a national priority. It is very important and necessary to research on how to adapt CLT flexibly and appropriately to China's context if most Chinese English learners are to gain a good grasp of oral English, and if specialist learning is to be achieved by those who need English for business and academic purposes. Therefore this essay is structured as follows: First, analyzing the different types of English teaching methods in China and then focusing on the CLT Method. By analyzing and contrasting these English teaching methods, the need to change the current English teaching methods in China will be discovered. Finally, it explains the problems of adopting the more modem CLT Approach and gives suggestions on how it may best be adapted to the Chinese context.
文摘In the rapidly evolving academic field of CALL (computer-assisted language leaming) in China, it is no longer a question of whether to take advantage of the technologies of computer and Internet in foreign language instruction, but of how to make effective use of them. By reviewing the literature of CALL in China and abroad, this article holds the view that in China where the educational resources are insufficient and unevenly distributed, the use of CALL should confirm and expand ESL/EFL theories to the utmost; the research of CALL should focus more on learning or learner, especially on learning strategy in CALL environment; to have a better understanding of the potential and functions of CALL in foreign language instruction, the research of CALL should cover all aspects of language learning.
文摘With the development of cognitive psychology, the cognitive mechanism of learning transfer has recently become the focus in the general field of cognitive psychology. Based on the same theory, tasked based language teaching has become more and more popular. This thesis first analyzes the various factors which affect foreign language learning, then introduces some useful teaching strategies with an aim to help students get an efficient transfer of language knowledge and communicative competence in the context of tasked-based language teaching.
文摘English, as a language of wide communication, is an international language in both a global and local sense. Its global spread and evolution have been topics of heated discussion. This paper reviews briefly the history and relevant literature of the globalization of English, and explores its implications in English language teaching, especially in the Chinese context.
文摘The debate on grammar in second language acquisition: past, present, and future, is a well written summary of both explicit and implicit grammar instruction in second language acquisition from past to present and with future projections. The thesis holds that explicit grammar instruction plays a very important role in foreign language learning and teaching and argues that English education in China should lay emphasis on how to assist students' grammar internalization and promote the conversion from explicit learning to implicit learning.
文摘Vocabulary is a fundamental element of a language. It undertakes the task of conveying semantic meanings. And it guarantees the implement of language communication. Thus, accumulation of a certain amount of vocabulary and the master of proper use of them is the essential condition of skillful employment of a language. The current lexical teaching in College English is far from satisfaction. Based on the findings of psycholinguistic research, this paper intends to explore an effective way to help the students enlarge their vocabulary and use them correctly with the help of various psychological associations with English vocabulary through analysis of some lexical mistakes committed in students' daily writing exercises.
文摘Error correction, in recent times, is seen as one of the important teaching processes in L2 (second language) learning, because comprehensible inputs alone is insufficient for acquisition of language. However, few L2 teachers know much about error analysis and how to correct errors in the L2 classroom. Error correction is a very complicated and a thorny issue in L2 teaching and learning. L2 teachers, therefore, need to be armed with ways in which errors can be treated to ensure maximum effect yet with less harm to learners. Identifying learners' errors is very important in L2 learning, but how to correct them to give the desired effect is equally important and very challenging to L2 teachers. It is therefore crucial to initiate a study in Ghana to find out how errors are corrected in the Ghanaian English language classroom. This case study used complete observation and semi-structured interview as data collection strategies to identify error correction strategies/types English teachers use in the Ghanaian JHS (Junior High School) classroom and how error correction/treatment can be improved to facilitate English language teaching and learning. The findings of the study showed that explicit error correction technique was the most commonly used followed by recast, elicitation, metalinguistic clues, clarification request, repetition, and cues. It was also found that the causes of the disparity in the use of the various error correction types were inadequate teacher preparation, incompetence in English language, limited knowledge in error correction, caliber of students, and insufficient teaching time. This study identified that the situation can be improved through effective teacher training, in-service training, learner involvement, and effective planning.
文摘In modem society, advertising plays a very important role in people's daily life. We can not imagine the world without advertisements. Advertisers try every means to design persuasive advertisements for their products by attractive patterns, photos and colors, as well as commonly shared resources of language. The use of presupposition in advertising language, which is an important topic in pragmaties, can serve the function fairly well. This paper first presents a general review of previous studies on presupposition phenomena in advertising language, then investigates the use of presuppositions in advertising language by both qualitative and quantitative analyses. By qualitative analysis, the author tries to explore the functions of each type of presuppositions in advertising texts; by quantitative analysis, 100 sentences selected from various advertisements for different products are examined.
文摘Traditionally speaking, when teaching vocabulary in the class, teachers tend to put emphasis on the words' basic meaning or their meaning in the text. However, vocabulary development in the depth is not so reinforced, including the introduction of the social and cultural background of the words, use in the context, etc. Therefore, many learners can't avoid encountering the difficulty to bridge the gap between vocabulary learning and vocabulary application. This paper, which is based on the theory of language cognition, holds that vocabulary teaching and learning in the depth is of equal importance in language education. What's more, some vocabulary teaching method, focused on improving non-English-majored college learners' vocabulary, is put forward for reference.
文摘Every day communication is an event in which there is an interactional relationship between interlocutors. This interaction needs whole language in which language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing; associated knowledge of vocabulary, meaning, syntax, etc.; and also, thinking skills are interwoven. This means that language should be kept whole and "if language isn't kept whole, it isn't language anymore" (Rigg, 1991, p. 522, cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 109). In English as a Second Language/English Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) learning settings, improvement in one skill can affect the development of other skills. A particular course may highlight certain skills, but if the teacher is creative or specific tasks and problems are used in language learning settings, learners are provided with the opportunity to improve multiple, integrated skills. This paper aims at elaborating on critical thinking approach to language learning and introducing practical ideas for helping teachers to integrate language and thinking skills. It introduces 3 critical thinking activities (Dialogue journals, reading logs and literacy portfolios), and also discusses how implementing them can serves as a way to integrate language skills. It also maintains that engaging learners in these activities helps them use authentic materials and solve problems of their own interest that in turn has a positive effect on student's motivation.
文摘How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined to illustrate how successful and effective interaction is carried out to create the optimal conditions for second language acquisition.