SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF LINGUISTICS TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

There has long been a gap between the two related fields of theoret-ical linguistics and language teaching. Theoretical linguists rately turn upas language teachers,and language teachers seldom pursue advanceddegrees in linguistics. And yet recent developments in linguistic theotyhave had definite effects on current trends and techniques in

Linguistics and Teaching of English as a Foreign Language

This paper focuses on the influence of linguistic theories on the teaching of English as a foreign language and discusses how language teachers can benefit from different branches of linguistics.

The Application of the Whole Language Teaching Approach in College English Teaching and Learning

The goal of College English is to cultivate leamers＇ linguistic competence. There are quite a lot of approaches to make it, if properly applied. This paper intends to present one approach --- the whole language teaching approach in college English teaching. By applying this approach, the emphasis should be laid on the use of language rather than knowledge learning. Also, this paper will present in detail the application of this approach in teaching New Horizon College English.

Language and Linguistics:An Introduction

本书作者约翰·莱恩斯是英国苏塞克斯大学(University of Sussex)语言学教授,该校社会学院院长;他还是英国学会(BritishAcademy)会员、美国语言学会名誉会员。他曾在美国五个州的大学执教,并在欧洲许多国家讲学。 莱恩斯的主要著作有《结构语义学》

Understanding L2 Learners＇ Difficulties in Listening Comprehension

This paper is prompted by a ＂strange phenomenon＂ in L2 teaching and learning as related to listening： it is regarded as ＂easy＂ by teachers, but ＂difficult＂ by students. The paper tries to analyze the difficulties encountered by the L2 learners in the process of acquiring listening skills and competence in an attempt to find out how these problems are related to classroom teaching, and their implications for pedagogical classroom practice.

On How Children Acquire Their Mother Tongue -- Explanation of Chomsky＇s Mental Linguistic Theory

Neither structural linguistics nor behaviorist linguistics can explain how children acquire their mother tongue reasonably, so Noam Chomsky founds mental linguistics. According to the theory of the mental linguistics, the essence of language is interior, physical and genetic. Universal Grammar is the foundation of language development and the most essential part of human beings languages.

Language Learning and the Linguistic Environment

这篇《语言学习与语言环境》,旨在反驳一种曾经颇为流行的观点,即认为儿童是通过消极被动地摹仿所接触到的人(特别是父母)说的话而学会第一语言的,儿童的语言环境在其语言学习中起着主导作用,而儿童自身则被降低到类乎一架不完善的录音机的地位。这种观点还认为,父母或别人通常在儿童摹仿得正确时给予肯定或赞许的表示,而在摹仿不正确时则不作这种表示,他们通过这种叫做“强化”(reinforcement)的行为在儿童的语言学习中发挥积极的作用。 本文的论题牵涉到哲学上两种观点,即经验论和唯理论的对立,也牵涉到心理学上两种观点,即行为主义和心灵主义的对立。这些观点中,没有一种原则上完全否定或排除先天禀赋或后天环境在人类认识(包括语言学习)中的作用,争论的焦点在于哪些源于先天,哪些得自后天。本文引证了多种对儿童学习母语进行观察和实验所得的材料,具体论证语言学习中有些东西的学得不靠摹仿,也无从摹仿,不靠强化,也无由强化,而是儿童先天具备的,随着心智的发育不学而能。 全文共四节。第一节引证语音、词法、句法、语义四个方面的例证说明有哪些东西不可能依靠被动的摹仿学会,而是一种受抽象的规则支配的语言表现。这种表现在不同的儿童身上(包括学习不同母语的儿童)是相同的,而其所体现的规则与Chomsky等生成转换语法学者所描述的规则颇多相似之处。 第二节论证行为主义心理学所谓的“强化”并不是教给儿童语言的重要手段。儿童学会语言不依靠缓解某种生物需求,如饥饿之类(即便动物的学习,如老鼠走迷宫,也不尽然)。而且,成年人对儿童的语言表现所作的肯定与否定、赞许与不赞许等等表示,即或算是一种强化,也多半是针对话语内容真假、意思当否而发的,而不是着眼于语言形式的正误。 第三节通过自幼失聪因而无从接触语言的儿童的手势交际活动的形成和发展,来证明儿童学习语言有许多地方不需要从语言环境中吸取知识,即使与语言环境完全隔绝,也可以认识到语言体系中的某些方面。儿童可以能动地对语言结构提出自己的假设,而他的假设则受到与语言交际本质有关的遗传倾向的制约。作者引用观察材料说明,生而聋哑的儿童能自行创造和使用一套表达情意的手势,这种手势表达方法在结构上与处于同一发育阶段的正常儿童所说的语言有惊人的相似之处。不同的地方往往是一些随具体语言而异的特点,例如这种手势语没有相当于词尾变化和助动词的成分。 文章还引证“母式语言”(motherese)对儿童语言学习的影响,说明母亲对幼儿不论使用怎样的语言,对于儿童语言的基本命题结构(basic propositional structure,按指由名词成分和动词成分结合而成的基本句式)没有多少影响,能有所影响的同样也限于那些随具体语言而异的特点,如词尾变化和助动词之类。但即便是这一方面也离不开天生素质的作用。 第四节从成人语言体系的特性中找出例证,说明语言中有些具有抽象性质的结构关系,不可能依靠来自语言环境的知识,通过摹仿或归纳的方法来掌握。文章引用了Chomsky举过的两个例子,其中一个是英语中陈述句That is a cow中第一个动词is移置句首即构成疑问句Is that a cow?但是儿童从来不会根据这类例子错误地类推出与陈述句The man who is here is your father对应的疑问句是Is the man who here isyour father?Chomsky认为儿童不可能从接触到的语言材料中认识到这一规则,因为这里需要考虑到陈述句中用作主语的名词短语这一结构单位,而不能单纯根据一串平列的词的位置,把第一个动词is移置句首。本文作者引用目前语言研究中新兴的“可学性理论”(learnability theory)来分析儿童如何能够掌握比较抽象的语言结构。这一理论先设定:儿童所学语言的语法(即语言体系)为G,所接触的语言材料为D,所采用的学习程序为 P,然后分析儿童有无可能凭借D,应用P,学得G。如果答案是否定的,那么除了改变关于G,D,P的假设,就只能假设儿童先天地掌握了在上述假设条件下所不可能学到的东西。作者认为,这后一可能解决办法最有吸引力。有人有力地论证了,儿童需要知道一些关于语法规则的运用的非常抽象的性质,才有可能学会运用它。这是本文所持论点的又一条根据。

Appraisal of the Production-Oriented Approach： An Introduction

The production-oriented approach （POA） has been developed over a decade. It is driven by the need to improve English classroom instruction for university students in China （Wen, 2016）. It is also motivated by the aspiration to enhance the quality of foreign language education in other similar pedagogical contexts outside China. A volume of research has been done by Wen Qiufang and her research team, to formulate the theory of POA and to test its effectiveness in classroom pedagogy （e.g. Wen, 2016, 2015; Yang, 2015; Zhang, 2015）. At the moment, the POA is still at an early stage of theory building and almost all empirical research is done in the Chinese context. In order to improve the quality of this theory and to make it intelligible to the international academic community, a one-day symposium was held in Beijing Foreign Studies University on May 15, 2017. The symposium was entitled ＇The first international forum on innovative foreign language education in China： Appraisal of the POA＇. In the forum, leading experts in applied linguistics were invited to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the POA and the directions for its future development. The symposium was the first attempt for the POA research team to discuss its latest work with international scholars. This Viewpoint section collects the responses of four experts who participated in the symposium, listed in alphabetical order. The collection of articles covers three topics related to the POA： its pedagogical application, its use for teacher training, and its research. Alister Cumming is Professor Emeritus and the former Head of the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies, University of Toronto, Canada. His article focuses primarily on POA research as an exemplary case of design-based research. Rod Ellis is Research Professor in the School of Education at Curtin University, Australia. He discusses POA in terms of pedagogy, teacher training and research, with both critiques and constructive suggestions. Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and Director of Second Language Writing at Arizona State University, the writed states. He responds to POA from the perspective of an expert researcher and teacher of L2 writing. Charlene Polio is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Linguistics ＆ Germanic, Slavic, Asian ＆ African Languages atMichigan State University, the writed states. She conceptualises POA as a useful method to address some issues in pre-service teacher development. Overall, the articles in this section are insightful and reader-friendly. They are not only useful for the development of POA in particular, but may also be valuable to a broad range of researchers as they touch upon pertaining issues, as well as emerging topics, in the field of applied linguistics. We therefore find it necessary to make them accessible to a wide readership.