This article makes an investigation of 114 English majors＇ level of a particular communicative performance and the general ability to perform in small-group conversations in their conversation class, and thereafter e...This article makes an investigation of 114 English majors＇ level of a particular communicative performance and the general ability to perform in small-group conversations in their conversation class, and thereafter explores the reasons for their current level with the aid of questionnaire based on a rating scale, together with observation and interviews. Some countermeasures are provided to call for teachers＇ attention in their teaching practice.展开更多
This paper aims to explore how to bring authenticity into oral English class. By discussing a number of conversational features which are prominent in every day interaction, but are lacking in the standard English mat...This paper aims to explore how to bring authenticity into oral English class. By discussing a number of conversational features which are prominent in every day interaction, but are lacking in the standard English material our students are learning every day, we suggest that everyday conversation is different from standard written English, so taking standard written English as a model in our oral English class is not feasible. We believe that applying CL （corpus linguistics） and CA （conversation analysis） into oral English classroom to design the learning material and classroom tasks is a good way to enhance the authenticity of language learning.展开更多
Comprehending speaking materials in a foreign language is one of the most difficult tasks and one of the most useful skills in foreign language teaching. But for many years listening skills have not received the prior...Comprehending speaking materials in a foreign language is one of the most difficult tasks and one of the most useful skills in foreign language teaching. But for many years listening skills have not received the priority it deserves in language teaching. A traditional listening lesson often tends to test listening rather than teach it and does not practice the kind of listening that takes place in real life. This paper explores a communicative way of teaching listening--a combination of seeing, listening and speaking. The new teaching approach can inspire learners＇ interest, help learners develop a better awareness of how to listen, build up their skills and strategies in listening and prepare them to deal with the demands of real world communication. The present study attempts to measure the effectiveness of and student reaction to the new approach to teaching listening.展开更多
According to the principals of the Course Standard of English for Ordinary Senior Schools, published by China Education Ministry in 2001, the general goal of English curriculum on the basic education stage is to foste...According to the principals of the Course Standard of English for Ordinary Senior Schools, published by China Education Ministry in 2001, the general goal of English curriculum on the basic education stage is to foster the students＇ cross-cultural awareness, which is to develop their cross-cultural communicative competence. To achieve this goal, most of all, teachers of English at high school must have a good command of cross-cultural pragmatic competence. By looking through papers in various periodicals and the Internet, the writer finds that most of the studies have coped with pragmatic failures of ESL students but few of ESL teachers＇. Therefore, this thesis studies the present situation --- how much do schoolteachers of English know about pragmatics？ What about their cross-cultural communicative competence？ Can they communicate with the native speakers fluently and appropriately？ What are the most serious problems among them in pragmatics？ What can be done to solve the problems？ With all the questions, this research has collected considerable firsthand data and information. Only after the basic situations are known overall, can actions be taken to solve the problems existing in everyday ESL teaching. So this research is necessary and urgent for the present basic English pedagogy. However, since the present writer＇s ability and research conditions are limited, it is not possible to make a wider investigation in many places. Therefore, the district --- Bameng League, Inner Mongolia, China, is selected as the basic range of the survey, the situation of which is believed to be able to represent the basic educational ones in the poor and remote districts in the north and the west of China where education is more backward. The questionnaire consists of two parts： a table of individual information and a test paper. The former investigates informants＇ basic information, including the items of name, age, sex, teaching age, title of the technical post, degree, academic career, college or university that they graduated from, working unit, grades for teaching and the others. The latter is the test paper cited from He Ziran and Yan Zhuang （1986）, that is, Chinese Students＇Pragmatic Failure in English Communication --- Survey of the Pragmatic Difference between Chinese and English. And it contains 48 items, with items of pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic competence mixedly arranged. 120 of the questionnaire copies were handed out and 86 are collected, but only 64 are collected. The survey covers over 10 high schools in all the 7 banners of Bameng League, including two autonomous region-class key schools and five other league-class key schools. After the investigation, the present writer carefully corrects, marks, arranges, summarizes and analyzes the questionnaire, and obtains plenty of firsthand data and information. Then some conclusions have been drawn based on the data analysis. The result of the survey shows that linguistic competence is not equal to pragmatic competence, that ESL high school English teachers may use English rather fluently, without many mistakes in vocabulary and grammar,but it does not necessarily mean that they can use the target language appropriately to communicate with native speakers without pragmatic failures, and that the informants＇ knowledge of pragmatics and their pragmatic competence are rather poor. As a result, improving their knowledge and competence in pragmatics becomes a very necessary and urgent task to develop the quality of ELT in basic educational stages. In order to solve the above problems, the writer makes some suggestions as follows： （1） Pragmatics should be required as an essential course for the English majors in colleges and universities, especially in normal colleges and universities; （2） In-service high school English teachers must study courses of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication; （3） In some poor and remote districts, if educational conditions don＇t permit, textbooks of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication must be handed out to the high school English teachers who can study by themselves, then tests are regularly held for them and certificates will be given to those who have passed the tests; （4） In some developed districts, if conditions permit, English teachers can be sent abroad to English-speaking countries for further education in order to have a good command of the English language in the authentic contexts; （5） Modern multiple medias, such as VCD or DVD videos, TV or radio programs, the Internet, should be widely and frequently applied to training teachers; （6） More native language teachers and experts from English-speaking countries must be invited to high schools to train teachers of English.展开更多
This study investigates the communicative competence of Chinese students in a British university, and the main purposes of the study are to find out more about Chinese students＇ difficulties in communication and to e...This study investigates the communicative competence of Chinese students in a British university, and the main purposes of the study are to find out more about Chinese students＇ difficulties in communication and to explore learning strategies of developing communicative competence. The research results show that Chinese students had both linguistic and socio-cultural problems in communication. Two case studies are presented of good and less good communicators to show up different patterns of communicative performance and learning strategies. In conclusion, a range of findings support the statement that attitudes, motivation and immersion were important in the development of communicative competence.展开更多
This paper introduces a new, unique, and vivid way of oral class teaching methods： KISS KIM, based on the author＇s rich teaching experience and profound theoretical reflections in an attempt to share some knowledge ...This paper introduces a new, unique, and vivid way of oral class teaching methods： KISS KIM, based on the author＇s rich teaching experience and profound theoretical reflections in an attempt to share some knowledge on this respect with other fellow colleagues.展开更多
This paper reports on a case study which explored Chinese L2 learners＇ conversational involvement in NS-NNS interaction in a study-abroad context. In particular, the study investigated the possible link between topic...This paper reports on a case study which explored Chinese L2 learners＇ conversational involvement in NS-NNS interaction in a study-abroad context. In particular, the study investigated the possible link between topic initiation and conversational involvement examined under the commonly identified topic genres in casual conversations, including ＂observation＂, ＂opinion seeking/providing＂, ＂story-telling＂, ＂chat＂ topics and ＂gossip＂. The findings show differences in the choices of topic initiation between the NS English group and the NNS Chinese group. Further analysis found that the participants＇ topic initiations did not necessarily lead to their active conversational involvement and suggests that the mere fact of getting involved in a topic does not always produce a sense of shared common ground between/among the conversationalists. The positive link between topic initiation and conversational involvement （such as in ＂observation＂）, and its impact upon L2 learners are also discussed in this study, confirming the social constructionist view that social roles and interpersonal relations are created and recreated at a micro-level in everyday discourse.展开更多
文摘This article makes an investigation of 114 English majors＇ level of a particular communicative performance and the general ability to perform in small-group conversations in their conversation class, and thereafter explores the reasons for their current level with the aid of questionnaire based on a rating scale, together with observation and interviews. Some countermeasures are provided to call for teachers＇ attention in their teaching practice.
文摘This paper aims to explore how to bring authenticity into oral English class. By discussing a number of conversational features which are prominent in every day interaction, but are lacking in the standard English material our students are learning every day, we suggest that everyday conversation is different from standard written English, so taking standard written English as a model in our oral English class is not feasible. We believe that applying CL （corpus linguistics） and CA （conversation analysis） into oral English classroom to design the learning material and classroom tasks is a good way to enhance the authenticity of language learning.
文摘Comprehending speaking materials in a foreign language is one of the most difficult tasks and one of the most useful skills in foreign language teaching. But for many years listening skills have not received the priority it deserves in language teaching. A traditional listening lesson often tends to test listening rather than teach it and does not practice the kind of listening that takes place in real life. This paper explores a communicative way of teaching listening--a combination of seeing, listening and speaking. The new teaching approach can inspire learners＇ interest, help learners develop a better awareness of how to listen, build up their skills and strategies in listening and prepare them to deal with the demands of real world communication. The present study attempts to measure the effectiveness of and student reaction to the new approach to teaching listening.
文摘According to the principals of the Course Standard of English for Ordinary Senior Schools, published by China Education Ministry in 2001, the general goal of English curriculum on the basic education stage is to foster the students＇ cross-cultural awareness, which is to develop their cross-cultural communicative competence. To achieve this goal, most of all, teachers of English at high school must have a good command of cross-cultural pragmatic competence. By looking through papers in various periodicals and the Internet, the writer finds that most of the studies have coped with pragmatic failures of ESL students but few of ESL teachers＇. Therefore, this thesis studies the present situation --- how much do schoolteachers of English know about pragmatics？ What about their cross-cultural communicative competence？ Can they communicate with the native speakers fluently and appropriately？ What are the most serious problems among them in pragmatics？ What can be done to solve the problems？ With all the questions, this research has collected considerable firsthand data and information. Only after the basic situations are known overall, can actions be taken to solve the problems existing in everyday ESL teaching. So this research is necessary and urgent for the present basic English pedagogy. However, since the present writer＇s ability and research conditions are limited, it is not possible to make a wider investigation in many places. Therefore, the district --- Bameng League, Inner Mongolia, China, is selected as the basic range of the survey, the situation of which is believed to be able to represent the basic educational ones in the poor and remote districts in the north and the west of China where education is more backward. The questionnaire consists of two parts： a table of individual information and a test paper. The former investigates informants＇ basic information, including the items of name, age, sex, teaching age, title of the technical post, degree, academic career, college or university that they graduated from, working unit, grades for teaching and the others. The latter is the test paper cited from He Ziran and Yan Zhuang （1986）, that is, Chinese Students＇Pragmatic Failure in English Communication --- Survey of the Pragmatic Difference between Chinese and English. And it contains 48 items, with items of pragmalinguistic and socio-pragmatic competence mixedly arranged. 120 of the questionnaire copies were handed out and 86 are collected, but only 64 are collected. The survey covers over 10 high schools in all the 7 banners of Bameng League, including two autonomous region-class key schools and five other league-class key schools. After the investigation, the present writer carefully corrects, marks, arranges, summarizes and analyzes the questionnaire, and obtains plenty of firsthand data and information. Then some conclusions have been drawn based on the data analysis. The result of the survey shows that linguistic competence is not equal to pragmatic competence, that ESL high school English teachers may use English rather fluently, without many mistakes in vocabulary and grammar,but it does not necessarily mean that they can use the target language appropriately to communicate with native speakers without pragmatic failures, and that the informants＇ knowledge of pragmatics and their pragmatic competence are rather poor. As a result, improving their knowledge and competence in pragmatics becomes a very necessary and urgent task to develop the quality of ELT in basic educational stages. In order to solve the above problems, the writer makes some suggestions as follows： （1） Pragmatics should be required as an essential course for the English majors in colleges and universities, especially in normal colleges and universities; （2） In-service high school English teachers must study courses of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication; （3） In some poor and remote districts, if educational conditions don＇t permit, textbooks of pragmatics and cross-cultural communication must be handed out to the high school English teachers who can study by themselves, then tests are regularly held for them and certificates will be given to those who have passed the tests; （4） In some developed districts, if conditions permit, English teachers can be sent abroad to English-speaking countries for further education in order to have a good command of the English language in the authentic contexts; （5） Modern multiple medias, such as VCD or DVD videos, TV or radio programs, the Internet, should be widely and frequently applied to training teachers; （6） More native language teachers and experts from English-speaking countries must be invited to high schools to train teachers of English.
文摘This study investigates the communicative competence of Chinese students in a British university, and the main purposes of the study are to find out more about Chinese students＇ difficulties in communication and to explore learning strategies of developing communicative competence. The research results show that Chinese students had both linguistic and socio-cultural problems in communication. Two case studies are presented of good and less good communicators to show up different patterns of communicative performance and learning strategies. In conclusion, a range of findings support the statement that attitudes, motivation and immersion were important in the development of communicative competence.
文摘This paper introduces a new, unique, and vivid way of oral class teaching methods： KISS KIM, based on the author＇s rich teaching experience and profound theoretical reflections in an attempt to share some knowledge on this respect with other fellow colleagues.
文摘This paper reports on a case study which explored Chinese L2 learners＇ conversational involvement in NS-NNS interaction in a study-abroad context. In particular, the study investigated the possible link between topic initiation and conversational involvement examined under the commonly identified topic genres in casual conversations, including ＂observation＂, ＂opinion seeking/providing＂, ＂story-telling＂, ＂chat＂ topics and ＂gossip＂. The findings show differences in the choices of topic initiation between the NS English group and the NNS Chinese group. Further analysis found that the participants＇ topic initiations did not necessarily lead to their active conversational involvement and suggests that the mere fact of getting involved in a topic does not always produce a sense of shared common ground between/among the conversationalists. The positive link between topic initiation and conversational involvement （such as in ＂observation＂）, and its impact upon L2 learners are also discussed in this study, confirming the social constructionist view that social roles and interpersonal relations are created and recreated at a micro-level in everyday discourse.
