Much debate has surrounded the question of whether middle-school students can learn academic content if they do not yet have a high level of proficiency in the English language, but content-based instruction has alrea...Much debate has surrounded the question of whether middle-school students can learn academic content if they do not yet have a high level of proficiency in the English language, but content-based instruction has already been used to promote both the linguistic and academic development of CLD （culturally and linguistically diverse） students in the grade K-12 in Western countries. This proposal discusses the issues and dilemmas about the curriculum implementation in the EFL （English as a foreign language） education in China’s middle-schools and examines the nature of integrated contend-based （ICB） instruction by providing its rationale, definition, evolution, and delivery, and based on the above, it explores an excellent venue that the ICB could provide for Chinese student’s EFL learning and calls for the application of the curriculum of ICB into the EFL instruction in China’s secondary education.展开更多
Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content...Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content and benefits of language learning. In addition, there are comparatively few studies which offer theoretical foundation for content-based teaching and constructive suggestions for its integration in the settings of EFL. This article aims to connect theory with practice and help teachers of EFL in China to maximize the potential of content-based instruction. To achieve this goal, it first presents a short literature review on project-based instruction, followed by a summary of its advantages and beneficial outcomes of using the intemet in order to implement it. It then proposes an eight-step process for the sequencing of project work and finally demonstrate a real-world project specially designed for Chinese EFL students. Both the design and the teaching activities proposed can be easily transferred to other settings..展开更多
Though collocations have drawn much attention in the field of language acquisition, difficulties with them have not been investigated in much detail. This paper reports on a corpus-based exploratory study that analyze...Though collocations have drawn much attention in the field of language acquisition, difficulties with them have not been investigated in much detail. This paper reports on a corpus-based exploratory study that analyzes the mistakes learners made when they produced English collocations. The current study shows that not only beginners but also advanced learners have difficulties in choosing the right collocates and the difficulties that learners of different levels have are more or less the same. The L1 influence on the production of L2 collocations exists at every stage of learning though it varies with the learners' L2 competence.展开更多
In a case study investigating Chinese EFL university majors＇ perceptions of a portfolio-based writing assessment （PBWA） project, English majors were sampled to find out whether the portfolio method made them more i...In a case study investigating Chinese EFL university majors＇ perceptions of a portfolio-based writing assessment （PBWA） project, English majors were sampled to find out whether the portfolio method made them more interested in writing and/or improved their writing process and writing strategies. Four sophomores were chosen from among an experimental group at a local university in China. Analysis of data from student journals, interviews and reflective essays showed that taking part in portfolio writing empowered them to take charge of their own learning and motivated them to write better. The students welcomed PBWA as a fairer assessment tool than timed, one-shot essay tests. They held more interest in English writing, improved their writing strategies and shifted their attention from products of writing to process of writing and, thus, preferred scores from PBWA as a more satisfactory indicator of their writing ability.展开更多
文摘Much debate has surrounded the question of whether middle-school students can learn academic content if they do not yet have a high level of proficiency in the English language, but content-based instruction has already been used to promote both the linguistic and academic development of CLD （culturally and linguistically diverse） students in the grade K-12 in Western countries. This proposal discusses the issues and dilemmas about the curriculum implementation in the EFL （English as a foreign language） education in China’s middle-schools and examines the nature of integrated contend-based （ICB） instruction by providing its rationale, definition, evolution, and delivery, and based on the above, it explores an excellent venue that the ICB could provide for Chinese student’s EFL learning and calls for the application of the curriculum of ICB into the EFL instruction in China’s secondary education.
文摘Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content and benefits of language learning. In addition, there are comparatively few studies which offer theoretical foundation for content-based teaching and constructive suggestions for its integration in the settings of EFL. This article aims to connect theory with practice and help teachers of EFL in China to maximize the potential of content-based instruction. To achieve this goal, it first presents a short literature review on project-based instruction, followed by a summary of its advantages and beneficial outcomes of using the intemet in order to implement it. It then proposes an eight-step process for the sequencing of project work and finally demonstrate a real-world project specially designed for Chinese EFL students. Both the design and the teaching activities proposed can be easily transferred to other settings..
文摘Though collocations have drawn much attention in the field of language acquisition, difficulties with them have not been investigated in much detail. This paper reports on a corpus-based exploratory study that analyzes the mistakes learners made when they produced English collocations. The current study shows that not only beginners but also advanced learners have difficulties in choosing the right collocates and the difficulties that learners of different levels have are more or less the same. The L1 influence on the production of L2 collocations exists at every stage of learning though it varies with the learners' L2 competence.
基金part achievements of the project "Reform of Reading-to-writing courses of English Major" supported by Guangdong Province Higher Educational Reform Essential Project(2013)the education reform project of Southern Medical University
文摘In a case study investigating Chinese EFL university majors＇ perceptions of a portfolio-based writing assessment （PBWA） project, English majors were sampled to find out whether the portfolio method made them more interested in writing and/or improved their writing process and writing strategies. Four sophomores were chosen from among an experimental group at a local university in China. Analysis of data from student journals, interviews and reflective essays showed that taking part in portfolio writing empowered them to take charge of their own learning and motivated them to write better. The students welcomed PBWA as a fairer assessment tool than timed, one-shot essay tests. They held more interest in English writing, improved their writing strategies and shifted their attention from products of writing to process of writing and, thus, preferred scores from PBWA as a more satisfactory indicator of their writing ability.
