“读写”能力不容忽视

所谓'读写'能力并不是一般意义上所指的阅读和写作能力,这里的'读'即'诵读、朗读','写'即'写字、书写'之意,也就是说朗读和书写的能力。现在来讨论这一话题,可说是老话重提,但在这两方面,学生的能力却是越来越差,不得不老话重提,以引起人们的重视。下面笔者对这两方面分别进行说明。

The Construct of the Story Continuation Writing Task: Insights From the China’s Standards of English Language Ability

Although the story continuation writing task(SCWT) has attracted much research attention, few studies have investigated the construct of the task, particularly with respect to which language competence it focuses on. In addition, although some studies have demonstrated that China’s Standards of English Language Ability(CSE) provides comprehensive insights into the development of Chinese learners’ English language proficiency, little research has investigated the relationship between CSE and SCWT. This study drew upon the CSE to develop an SCWT language use inventory to address the above research gaps. A total of 358 high school students were asked to complete the questionnaire, of which 277 valid responses were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis(EFA) on the CSE-based questionnaire revealed the presence of six factors, namely language correctness, language variety, task planning, connecting-and-generating, selecting-andmining, and organizing. The strategy of connecting-and-generating was the only significant predictor of the learners’ SCWT scores. The paper also discusses the findings relating to the SCWT rating and other integrated writing tasks.

Extensive Reading and Writing Reader＇s Response Journal： The Very Way to Improve Students＇ English Proficiency

This paper figures out the problems the Chinese students often meet with when they try to obtain the English language ability. In order to assist my students crack down on such problems, I take up the approach of giving them opportunities to play the active roles in English reading activity and requiring them to write reading response journals and to have frequent discussions in the reading class. The approach aims at improving the students＇ ability and getting them to be trained and improved effectively in the language skills concerned. The approach has come out with remarkable achievements. My understanding is that the process of learning a foreign language is a process indeed of accumulation, including both the language and culture knowledge. The accumulation can be gained by means of reading a lot, thus improving the students＇ language competence, enlarging their cultural and language field of vision on the western world. We teachers play the function of bridge leading the students to succeed in mastering and applying English as a practical tool in their life and work to come. This paper introduces what I have been trying to assist my students in solving their problems through my teaching practice during the past years.

Advocating the Need for Incorporating Critical Pedagogy and Critical Literacy in Teaching English for Specific Purposes

The axis tlhesis of this paper is that, today, it is ESP （English for Specific Purposes） in particular, rather than General English, that is the agent of the spread of globalization. Currently, ESP is witnessing an unprecedented spread, to a point of almost taking over the relevance and frequency of teaching of General English. Hereby, we look at the phenomenon of globalization as a social concept that demands of education that students are taught performativity, therefore just skills needed for the global economy functioning, and not education as a move towards change, refinement, and individuation of a personality. ESP is taught as a sort of socially neutral language, as it presumably deals only with the language of some specific science or profession. Relying on the relevant work of the acclaimed social theorists, it is our claim that as there is no socially and/or ideologically neutral language, and that this fact applies for ESP. It is because of this, that we hereby advocate a strong and urgent need for the application of critical pedagogy and critical literacy stances in the practice of ESP, and we give some broad directions of how that can be achieved.

Plurilingualism and Critical Literacies in the Teaching of English in Higher Education

This work aims at discussing the concept of critical and plurilingual English teaching within the context of the Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program recently implemented at the University of Campinas, Brazil. This program aims at widening possibilities for public students to have access to Higher Education. The teaching of English as a foreign language is part of the curriculum and one of the challenges faced was to design a language course that meant to be meaningful to students and able to develop the necessary knowledge and literacies for active citizenship as well. A discursive approach to language was adopted and, this way, Bakhtinian theories, re-contextualized to the educational field, support the claim for the development of critical literacy in the process. Along with the concept of multiliteracies, linked to the notion of speech genres, the idea of a plurilingual, plurivocal, and pluristylistic language teaching is theoretically discussed and briefly illustrated. The results show that such an approach successfully led to meaningful and critical practices in the language classroom in Higher Education.

Development of reading and writing abilities by teaching textual patterns

It is increasingly important for students to develop reading and writing abilities. Teachers should focus on the teaching of English textual patterns, which plays an important part in sending writers＇ messages. The patterns used in the text help readers unfold the writer＇s message positively and actively. Students can write texts following textual patterns and using appropriate discourse signaling vocabulary. The importance of teaching the lexical signals and specific vocabulary is emphasized here. And the common core patterns in English texts are also analyzed. Besides, some instructional activities are discussed to develop students＇ reading and writing abilities, including raising awareness of textual patterns, focusing on signaling factors, reformulating and making a frame or a diagram.

Gaming Narratives as Frameworks for Writing Self-assessments

The paper addresses the disconnected students experience between evaluating their own writing and traditional evaluation methods, despite effective discussion and analysis in the classroom, especially, wide when students＇ reading skills are limited. The paper considers the application of flipping students＇ intense interest and intimate comprehension of video gaming into a lens for evaluating their writing. The sophisticated storylines in some literacy-laden video games rivet students＇ attention in higher order applications while the intricate plots and characters mirror those literary elements taught in print media. Garner comprehension is demandingly complex; transferring literary elements from the game storyline to their writing provides the comprehension carry-over for effective self-evaluation. They can ＂see＂ as a metaphor, those parallel concepts from screen to print, from playing strengths to reading and writing, for them, literary qualities become more transparent, and thus more accessible.

The Practice of ＂Flipped classroom＂ in the Reading and Writing Course of College English

The reform of college English should focus on the ways to improve the practicing ability. This ability should be based on the improvement of students, which is the fundamental aim of reform on the college English. In order to cope with this problem, ＂flipped classroom＂has many advantages. By Giving definitions to the ＂flipped classroom＂, this dissertation analyzed the differences between the regular class and the ＂flipped classroom＂ and carried out a new way to improve the reading and writing course： we can take advantage of multimedia and new internet technology.

DEVELOPING YOUNG CHILDREN'S LITERACY: FAMILY LITERACY PRACTICES

This paper will present two researches on family literacy and how they develop the children's early literacy behaviors. The first research looked into the literacy behaviors of preschool-age children with ages ranging from three to five years and what home environment factors influenced the acquisition of these literacy behaviors. The second research looked into the training of urban poor families into literacy and numeracy through training modules, and looked into how these parents can develop and enhance their own literacy and numeracy and then teach these to their children.

THE APPLICATION OF SCLT TO THE INTEGRATION OF LANGUAGE AND CONTENT INSTRUCTION

针对当前国内许多研究者提出的我国大学英语教学重心应由EGP教学转向ESP教学这一观点,我们对国外二语教学界新兴的SCLT模式进行了一次为期一年的教学实验,旨在探索该模式在我国大学英语教学中的可行性。实验结果表明,SCLT模式不仅提高了学生的读写能力,而且还提高了学生的批判性思维能力。本文最后讨论了确保该模式成功实施的三个基本因素——阅读材料的学科性、输入内容的真实性和课程设置的适切性,及其相关的问题。