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
By selecting one unit in Junior English for China （JEC）, a textbook for middle school students in some regions in China, this paper aims at analyzing how the grammar feature： Existential There is instructed in term...By selecting one unit in Junior English for China （JEC）, a textbook for middle school students in some regions in China, this paper aims at analyzing how the grammar feature： Existential There is instructed in terms of form, meaning and use, while answering some questions raised by Parrott in his Grammar for English Language Teachers. A conclusion is then drawn with regard to its form-based instruction on basis of the analysis and discussions.展开更多
This study aims to explore the effectiveness of the emerging m-learning in the form of smart phones in English grammar teaching. The research mainly traces revision process of 100 sophomore students using traditional ...This study aims to explore the effectiveness of the emerging m-learning in the form of smart phones in English grammar teaching. The research mainly traces revision process of 100 sophomore students using traditional paperwork practice and smart-phone-based revision methods during half semester of grammar learning. During the research, students＇ learning performances, as well as their self-report reflections, are recorded, compared, and analyzed. Statistics from the research show that students in general prefer the m-learning revision methods than the traditional paper ones. Besides, the modem methods do play an essential role in motivating students＇ learning initiatives, and thus resulting in better learning outcomes. However, on the other hand, some of the students surveyed also demonstrate their negative impression on the m-learning methods, in that they believe this modem technology can inevitably distract them from learning and there are also some technical problems to be worked out.展开更多
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By selecting one unit in Junior English for China （JEC）, a textbook for middle school students in some regions in China, this paper aims at analyzing how the grammar feature： Existential There is instructed in terms of form, meaning and use, while answering some questions raised by Parrott in his Grammar for English Language Teachers. A conclusion is then drawn with regard to its form-based instruction on basis of the analysis and discussions.
文摘This study aims to explore the effectiveness of the emerging m-learning in the form of smart phones in English grammar teaching. The research mainly traces revision process of 100 sophomore students using traditional paperwork practice and smart-phone-based revision methods during half semester of grammar learning. During the research, students＇ learning performances, as well as their self-report reflections, are recorded, compared, and analyzed. Statistics from the research show that students in general prefer the m-learning revision methods than the traditional paper ones. Besides, the modem methods do play an essential role in motivating students＇ learning initiatives, and thus resulting in better learning outcomes. However, on the other hand, some of the students surveyed also demonstrate their negative impression on the m-learning methods, in that they believe this modem technology can inevitably distract them from learning and there are also some technical problems to be worked out.
