This paper suggests a chunk approach to solve the plateau problem among advanced English learners. The paper first discusses the extant problems and then provides a definition of the chunk approach. Based on some rese...This paper suggests a chunk approach to solve the plateau problem among advanced English learners. The paper first discusses the extant problems and then provides a definition of the chunk approach. Based on some research results in cognitive psychology, it analyses the important role that chunks play in language acquisition and production and thus provides a cognitive foundation for implementing the chunk approach in English teaching. The paper also offers a set of classroom activities which can be easily adopted or adapted by other teachers.展开更多
The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH （noun phrase accessibility hierarchy）, comparison and contrast of some aspect...The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH （noun phrase accessibility hierarchy）, comparison and contrast of some aspects of English and Chinese relative pronoun, the paper conducts two experiments, and has proved the hypotheses that students＇ performance generally follows the hierarchy of NPAH and students do have problems with relative pronoun involving prepositions. Besides, some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching are discussed.展开更多
Alignment effect in language research refers to the social cognition process in which people cooperate,adjust,and adapt to each other in interaction.Through empirical study,this paper explores alignment effect in the ...Alignment effect in language research refers to the social cognition process in which people cooperate,adjust,and adapt to each other in interaction.Through empirical study,this paper explores alignment effect in the continuation task of translation(CTOT)and its possible influence on learning of English as foreign languge(EFL).The study was carried out by means of a CTOT.Participants were chosen from non-English major freshmen of similar capacity from a university in Guangzhou.They were divided into two groups,the experimental group(EG)and the control group(CG),with 13 students each.The students in EG were asked to carefully read some English-Chinese bilingual material.Then,the 26 participants were tasked with translating the paragraphs,which followed from Chinese into English.After that,they were asked to write down the words and expressions which they found difficult.Some of the participants were interviewed one month later for a deeper understanding of their memories of the vocabulary and their opinions on the CTOT.The data were analyzed by direct comparison and non-parametric test.The results showed that vocabulary alignment does occur in CTOT.The EG members tended to take advantage of words that appeared in the bilingual reading text.If multiple words from the reading appeared,with the same contextual meaning,they tended to choose the repeated words.As for influence of vocabulary alignment on EFL learning,it seemed that CTOT could not improve the quality of the translation itself,but could assist short-term vocabulary learning though no significant help to long-term vocabulary learning was revealed.The findings of this study provide support and explanation for some features and effects of CTOT,an important form of CT.However,the nature of CTOT itself,and its role in EFL learning deserve further research.展开更多
This study attempts to see whether there are any differences between L2 （Second Language） learners＇ receptive and productive knowledge of SP （Semantic Prosody）. SP is defined as the tendency of the use of some wo...This study attempts to see whether there are any differences between L2 （Second Language） learners＇ receptive and productive knowledge of SP （Semantic Prosody）. SP is defined as the tendency of the use of some words to occur in a certain semantic environment. For example, the verb ＂cause＂ is associated with unpleasant things-death, problem and the like. The study is based on a random sampling of subjects （N = 60） drawn from 180 EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners taking English classes at different language institutes in Khorramabad, Iran. A test of SP as a task of elicitation was constructed, validated and used to measure the learners＇ knowledge of both productive and receptive SP. A matched t-test was used to compare the mean differences between receptive and productive SP measures. The results showed significant difference between EFL learners＇ knowledge of receptive and productive SP, EFL learners perform better in receptive SP measures than in productive ones. Possible imolications of the findings for teaching vocabularv to EFL learners will be discussed.展开更多
Post independence the challenge before educators and policy-makers was to ensure that the diverse socio-cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds of India＇s children are respected and represented in the school cu...Post independence the challenge before educators and policy-makers was to ensure that the diverse socio-cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds of India＇s children are respected and represented in the school curriculum. The need for a comprehensive plan to devise a national system of education was therefore felt. The same mandate holds relevance in contemporary India as many languages are becoming endangered, while some have actually become extint despite claims of multilingualism and maintenance. The loss of a language is equivalent to the erasure of an entire culture itself. This is where schools can play a critical role in preservation and perpetuation by relating the home language to the school language of learners. The integration of one or more language can lead to progressive understanding and use of another language without losing the former. The result would be maintenance of languages in a complementary model. It is also important that in this scheme English is not contextualized in a western ambience, but is taught through a contextually rich local perspective because English is no longer a colonial language per se but a global language in a multilingual milieu. It must therefore find place among local and vernacular languages.展开更多
In the area of computer-assisted language learning(CALL),although a number of studies have adopted various CALL-based devices(e.g.,blogs,gaming,and synthetic environments)to foster second language(L2)acquisition,the v...In the area of computer-assisted language learning(CALL),although a number of studies have adopted various CALL-based devices(e.g.,blogs,gaming,and synthetic environments)to foster second language(L2)acquisition,the vital component of instruction has received little attention.The present study explored the usefulness of CALL-based communication in conjunction with instruction on EFL learners’L2 pragmatic development.Sixty-two EFL students from a university in China were recruited for the current research.The experimental group communicated with a native English speaker through synchronous messaging via Skype and had two instructional sessions pertinent to compliment responses,while the control group interacted with a native English speaker via Skype without having the teaching intervention.Findings from an independent samples t-test demonstrated that the experimental group produced significantly more proper compliment responses in the immediate posttest than the control group(p<.001).Moreover,a significant difference(p<.001)was found for the experimental group between the preintervention and delayed post-intervention mean scores,suggesting that CALL coupled with teaching intervention had a long-term impact on learners’L2 pragmatic development.These findings enrich our understanding of the beneficial and lasting influence of combining CALL with instruction on EFL students’pragmatic development.In addition,pedagogical implications for deploying CALL paired with L2 pragmatics instruction are provided.展开更多
This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and fa...This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.展开更多
The traditional English teaching methods are mainly based on teachers＇ words and students＇ listening type. Neither the quality of teaching can be guaranteed, nor are students＇ thinking ability and innovation develo...The traditional English teaching methods are mainly based on teachers＇ words and students＇ listening type. Neither the quality of teaching can be guaranteed, nor are students＇ thinking ability and innovation developed. To change this situation, many educators have done a lot of research and exploration from both theoretical and practical aspects, of which constructivist theory is one of main results. Constructivist theory emphasizes that leaming is a process of knowledge acquisition. Knowledge can not only get from teachers, but also requires learners to learn from others＇ help in some particular context, with the necessary leaming materials, and through a way of meaning construction. Besides, it has important reference and inspiration effects on discipline study and conducting educational research.展开更多
In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcas...In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcast, interview, trial, commercial negotiation, language teaching, entertainment, etc. However, there is still no research on its application in Public Speaking Contest （hereinafter referred to as PSC ）. PSC is usually regarded as a great annual event for students. In order to analyze the efficiency of hedges in PSC to help students to he skirted in the application of different hedges, this article wiU analyze characteristics of hedges by the comparison with the relevant concept like probability and vagueness; then some scholars＇ approach of classifieation will be introduced; lastly, it will analyze different function of hedges under the context of some articles in＂Filter Cup＂English Public Speaking Contest. Adaptors can make the expression more polite and tact; rounders can make speaker＇ s information more believable and show his sincere attitude for judges; plausibility shields can show thoughtful and clear-headed property; attribution shields can help to avoid the responsibility for a fault.展开更多
Recent years, problems of the current college English courses, such as test-oriented teaching, wasteful duplication of language skills teaching, etc., have been criticized by educators and students in China. Thus, tur...Recent years, problems of the current college English courses, such as test-oriented teaching, wasteful duplication of language skills teaching, etc., have been criticized by educators and students in China. Thus, turning skill-based English courses into content-based ESP （English for Special Purposes） courses has become a tendency at colleges and universities in China. The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors influencing the design of such courses through the means of questionnaire, individual interviews, data survey （e.g., educational plans） etc.. We found the following factors throw light on the questions relating to curriculum design of ESP courses： （1） the learners＇ learning needs; （2） the social needs （esp. labor market needs）; and （3） the academic needs from the university. The analysis serves to reveal the gap between the school system and actual social and students needs. With these factors in mind, designers of such courses can adjust goals, contents, approaches, and assessments in the practical teaching. And thus these factors would enable content-based ESP courses to reflect learners＇ needs better and lead to more effective langrage learning in college English teaching field.展开更多
In the process of learning a language, the language communication from the perspective of applied linguistics cannot exist without certain cultural tendency. Practice proves that an appropriate introduction of the bac...In the process of learning a language, the language communication from the perspective of applied linguistics cannot exist without certain cultural tendency. Practice proves that an appropriate introduction of the background culture having a certain relationship with language environment can enrich the knowledge structure of students, and effectively remove the obstacles in the process of English language communication, so that the cognitive ability is improved. In this paper, applied linguistics as well as the concept of cultural introduction teaching theory is briefly elaborated, and the necessities of cultural introduction teaching and the signiflcances of English cultural introduction teaching are analyzed, and also some rules necessary to follow in the introduction teaching of English culture are introduced, and then the implementation strategies are discussed, so as to provide a reference for a large number of educational workers.展开更多
With the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase...With the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase students＇ exposure to more English varieties, in particular the variety of English used in their country or region. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English （CE）, an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 33 English teachers and 31 students were asked to first evaluate the understandability and acceptability of CE features that are identified in literature and then provide reasons justifying their choices in a questionnaire survey. Results show that both teacher and student participants were reluctant to accept CE as a legitimate variety but their attitudes diverged as regards specific CE features. The in-depth exploration of their justifications revealed that native speaker English ideology, Chinglish stigma and the communicativeness of CE to the outside world were their major concerns in evaluating CE. Findings in this study have implications for educators who attempt to localize English language teaching.展开更多
文摘This paper suggests a chunk approach to solve the plateau problem among advanced English learners. The paper first discusses the extant problems and then provides a definition of the chunk approach. Based on some research results in cognitive psychology, it analyses the important role that chunks play in language acquisition and production and thus provides a cognitive foundation for implementing the chunk approach in English teaching. The paper also offers a set of classroom activities which can be easily adopted or adapted by other teachers.
文摘The paper focuses on the properties of relative pronouns in the acquisition of relative clause by Chinese EFL learners. Based on the NPAH （noun phrase accessibility hierarchy）, comparison and contrast of some aspects of English and Chinese relative pronoun, the paper conducts two experiments, and has proved the hypotheses that students＇ performance generally follows the hierarchy of NPAH and students do have problems with relative pronoun involving prepositions. Besides, some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching are discussed.
文摘Alignment effect in language research refers to the social cognition process in which people cooperate,adjust,and adapt to each other in interaction.Through empirical study,this paper explores alignment effect in the continuation task of translation(CTOT)and its possible influence on learning of English as foreign languge(EFL).The study was carried out by means of a CTOT.Participants were chosen from non-English major freshmen of similar capacity from a university in Guangzhou.They were divided into two groups,the experimental group(EG)and the control group(CG),with 13 students each.The students in EG were asked to carefully read some English-Chinese bilingual material.Then,the 26 participants were tasked with translating the paragraphs,which followed from Chinese into English.After that,they were asked to write down the words and expressions which they found difficult.Some of the participants were interviewed one month later for a deeper understanding of their memories of the vocabulary and their opinions on the CTOT.The data were analyzed by direct comparison and non-parametric test.The results showed that vocabulary alignment does occur in CTOT.The EG members tended to take advantage of words that appeared in the bilingual reading text.If multiple words from the reading appeared,with the same contextual meaning,they tended to choose the repeated words.As for influence of vocabulary alignment on EFL learning,it seemed that CTOT could not improve the quality of the translation itself,but could assist short-term vocabulary learning though no significant help to long-term vocabulary learning was revealed.The findings of this study provide support and explanation for some features and effects of CTOT,an important form of CT.However,the nature of CTOT itself,and its role in EFL learning deserve further research.
文摘This study attempts to see whether there are any differences between L2 （Second Language） learners＇ receptive and productive knowledge of SP （Semantic Prosody）. SP is defined as the tendency of the use of some words to occur in a certain semantic environment. For example, the verb ＂cause＂ is associated with unpleasant things-death, problem and the like. The study is based on a random sampling of subjects （N = 60） drawn from 180 EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learners taking English classes at different language institutes in Khorramabad, Iran. A test of SP as a task of elicitation was constructed, validated and used to measure the learners＇ knowledge of both productive and receptive SP. A matched t-test was used to compare the mean differences between receptive and productive SP measures. The results showed significant difference between EFL learners＇ knowledge of receptive and productive SP, EFL learners perform better in receptive SP measures than in productive ones. Possible imolications of the findings for teaching vocabularv to EFL learners will be discussed.
文摘Post independence the challenge before educators and policy-makers was to ensure that the diverse socio-cultural, linguistic and economic backgrounds of India＇s children are respected and represented in the school curriculum. The need for a comprehensive plan to devise a national system of education was therefore felt. The same mandate holds relevance in contemporary India as many languages are becoming endangered, while some have actually become extint despite claims of multilingualism and maintenance. The loss of a language is equivalent to the erasure of an entire culture itself. This is where schools can play a critical role in preservation and perpetuation by relating the home language to the school language of learners. The integration of one or more language can lead to progressive understanding and use of another language without losing the former. The result would be maintenance of languages in a complementary model. It is also important that in this scheme English is not contextualized in a western ambience, but is taught through a contextually rich local perspective because English is no longer a colonial language per se but a global language in a multilingual milieu. It must therefore find place among local and vernacular languages.
文摘In the area of computer-assisted language learning(CALL),although a number of studies have adopted various CALL-based devices(e.g.,blogs,gaming,and synthetic environments)to foster second language(L2)acquisition,the vital component of instruction has received little attention.The present study explored the usefulness of CALL-based communication in conjunction with instruction on EFL learners’L2 pragmatic development.Sixty-two EFL students from a university in China were recruited for the current research.The experimental group communicated with a native English speaker through synchronous messaging via Skype and had two instructional sessions pertinent to compliment responses,while the control group interacted with a native English speaker via Skype without having the teaching intervention.Findings from an independent samples t-test demonstrated that the experimental group produced significantly more proper compliment responses in the immediate posttest than the control group(p<.001).Moreover,a significant difference(p<.001)was found for the experimental group between the preintervention and delayed post-intervention mean scores,suggesting that CALL coupled with teaching intervention had a long-term impact on learners’L2 pragmatic development.These findings enrich our understanding of the beneficial and lasting influence of combining CALL with instruction on EFL students’pragmatic development.In addition,pedagogical implications for deploying CALL paired with L2 pragmatics instruction are provided.
文摘This empirical study investigates Chinese EFL students＇ attributions in reading. The purposes ot this study are to investigate the development of Chinese EFL learners＇ attributions for their perceived success and failure in second language reading and to clarify the relationship between learners＇ reading proficiency levels and their attributions. The results show that （1） Nearly half of the university students feel ＂Just so so＂ in English reading; （2） Environmental variables such as teacher feedback, peers or classroom play an influential role in the learners＇ attribution. This paper concludes with a number of pedagogical suggestions for the teaching and learning of English reading.
文摘The traditional English teaching methods are mainly based on teachers＇ words and students＇ listening type. Neither the quality of teaching can be guaranteed, nor are students＇ thinking ability and innovation developed. To change this situation, many educators have done a lot of research and exploration from both theoretical and practical aspects, of which constructivist theory is one of main results. Constructivist theory emphasizes that leaming is a process of knowledge acquisition. Knowledge can not only get from teachers, but also requires learners to learn from others＇ help in some particular context, with the necessary leaming materials, and through a way of meaning construction. Besides, it has important reference and inspiration effects on discipline study and conducting educational research.
文摘In recent years, numerous scholars have attached much importance to the pragmatic function of hedges and associated it with daily life. Scholars have conducted a lot of research on how hedges function in news broadcast, interview, trial, commercial negotiation, language teaching, entertainment, etc. However, there is still no research on its application in Public Speaking Contest （hereinafter referred to as PSC ）. PSC is usually regarded as a great annual event for students. In order to analyze the efficiency of hedges in PSC to help students to he skirted in the application of different hedges, this article wiU analyze characteristics of hedges by the comparison with the relevant concept like probability and vagueness; then some scholars＇ approach of classifieation will be introduced; lastly, it will analyze different function of hedges under the context of some articles in＂Filter Cup＂English Public Speaking Contest. Adaptors can make the expression more polite and tact; rounders can make speaker＇ s information more believable and show his sincere attitude for judges; plausibility shields can show thoughtful and clear-headed property; attribution shields can help to avoid the responsibility for a fault.
文摘Recent years, problems of the current college English courses, such as test-oriented teaching, wasteful duplication of language skills teaching, etc., have been criticized by educators and students in China. Thus, turning skill-based English courses into content-based ESP （English for Special Purposes） courses has become a tendency at colleges and universities in China. The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors influencing the design of such courses through the means of questionnaire, individual interviews, data survey （e.g., educational plans） etc.. We found the following factors throw light on the questions relating to curriculum design of ESP courses： （1） the learners＇ learning needs; （2） the social needs （esp. labor market needs）; and （3） the academic needs from the university. The analysis serves to reveal the gap between the school system and actual social and students needs. With these factors in mind, designers of such courses can adjust goals, contents, approaches, and assessments in the practical teaching. And thus these factors would enable content-based ESP courses to reflect learners＇ needs better and lead to more effective langrage learning in college English teaching field.
文摘In the process of learning a language, the language communication from the perspective of applied linguistics cannot exist without certain cultural tendency. Practice proves that an appropriate introduction of the background culture having a certain relationship with language environment can enrich the knowledge structure of students, and effectively remove the obstacles in the process of English language communication, so that the cognitive ability is improved. In this paper, applied linguistics as well as the concept of cultural introduction teaching theory is briefly elaborated, and the necessities of cultural introduction teaching and the signiflcances of English cultural introduction teaching are analyzed, and also some rules necessary to follow in the introduction teaching of English culture are introduced, and then the implementation strategies are discussed, so as to provide a reference for a large number of educational workers.
基金supported by the Educational Bureau of Hubei,China,under the Provincial Social Sciences Research Grant[No.13g049]
文摘With the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase students＇ exposure to more English varieties, in particular the variety of English used in their country or region. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English （CE）, an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 33 English teachers and 31 students were asked to first evaluate the understandability and acceptability of CE features that are identified in literature and then provide reasons justifying their choices in a questionnaire survey. Results show that both teacher and student participants were reluctant to accept CE as a legitimate variety but their attitudes diverged as regards specific CE features. The in-depth exploration of their justifications revealed that native speaker English ideology, Chinglish stigma and the communicativeness of CE to the outside world were their major concerns in evaluating CE. Findings in this study have implications for educators who attempt to localize English language teaching.
