（英语语言文学专业论文）任务型语言教学理论在大学英语《精读》教学中的应用研究.pdf

descriptive chinese abstract i 摘摘 要要 任务型教学途径要求以学生为中心，既要求传授语言知识和言语技能，又要 求注重学生的语言运用能力的培养。任务教学途径在当今外语教学中已引起特别 关注。它对以语言为中心教师为中心课本为中心的语言教学模式无疑是一种 挑战。本文探讨任务型语言教学的理论依据，介绍其在我国外语教学中的应用情 况，并运用其原理进行大学英语精读课程教学，以证其可行性，在此基础上， 对其有效性给予了评价。 任务型语言教学是 20 世纪 80 年代兴起的一种语言教学途径，它在于体现语 言教学目标由语言结构向语言功能的转变，强调由教向学的转移，实现由学什么学什么 到怎样学怎样学的转移。任务型教学主要关注语言的交际功能和社会使用，要求教学实 现以教师为中心到以学生为中心的转变，交际任务是该教学途径的核心。任务型 教学大纲属于过程性大纲，它不再以语言词汇和语法为教学内容选择的依据， 也不必根据语言知识的难易程度来安排教学内容及其顺序，而是设计并排列学习 者在学习中应能执行或完成的各种有利于语言学习的任务。大纲设计和教材编写 中的基本单位不是语言项目而是各种使用目的语进行交际的任务或活动。本研究 通过在大学英语精读课程教学的实证研究，以证学生在课堂教学中完成认知 任务语言任务文化任务和情感任务的过程和能力以及使用语言进行交际的能 力。 本文除引言和结论外，由四部分构成： “引言部分”介绍了本研究的理论背景及其研究目的，揭示了结构主义功 能主义和系统功能语法的观点对任务型教学途径的导向作用。结构主义的语言系 统观在于强调语言知识和言语技能；功能主义语言观强调语言系统的实际使用和 社会使用。系统功能语法将语言的性质归纳为一个社会意义学系统。语言符号与 它所代表的意义是不可分的，意义在于语言的所有层面。任务型语言教学观强调 在社会交际中完成语言学习的各项任务，从而达到学习语言知识和运用语言进行 交际的目的。 本研究在“理论综述部分”中对国内外任务型教学的研究情况予以了详细介 绍， 对 3p 教学途径进行了分析性回顾。 3p 语言教学在实施语言知识和言语技能教 descriptive chinese abstract ii 学方面对任务型教学有一定的借鉴作用，但其在培养语言的实际使用方面又存在 文化缺省等缺陷。本研究还论述了交际语言教学途径对任务型教学途径的影响。 针对任务型语言教学途径， 本研究从任务的定义任务型教学大纲理论背景 （二 语习得和言语行为理论等）任务设计原则等方面进行了详细阐释。最后介绍了 jane willis 的任务型教学模式， 并将作者运用该模式指导大学英语教学的实验情况 予以了介绍。 实验的样本取自长沙理工大学一年级非英语专业两个班的新生，作者运用任 务型教学途径在这两个班中进行了大学英语教学对比实验。在“实验部分” ，本研 究对实验操作规则实施进程和可比性情况等作了简单介绍和基本分析。 在“数据收集情况及问题讨论”中报告了两个班学生期考成绩的 t 测验分析， 以此评估任务型教学的有效性，其中详细分析了对学生进行实验前的和实验后的 调查问卷和访谈情况，研究了学生对该途径的态度以及师生在该途径中角色转变 的情况。 在“教学启示”中讨论了任务型教学的利弊，并提出教学使用中怎样灵活处 理的意见。 本研究在“总结”中陈述了任务型教学途径实施的前景以及值得进一步研究 的问题。 关键词：任务型教学途径；willis 模式；大英精读教学；教学实验； 有效性评价 english abstract iii english abstract tblt approach puts the students as its center. it requires the training of language knowledge and utterance skills, at the same time it also lays stress on the cultivation of learners ability of language using. tblt approach has a prominent status in english as a foreign language (efl) teaching. it challenges the current college english teaching reality in china which is still language-centered, teacher-centered and text-centered. this paper explores the theoretical background and the application of task-based language teaching approach in efl. it tries to appraise the feasibility of tblt approach in teaching college intensive reading. tblt approach emerges in the early 1980s. it reflects the change of teaching goals from language structural goals to language functional goals in efl teaching. its emphasis converts from teaching methods to learning methods. it embodies the shiftiness from what to learn to how to learn. and it mainly focuses on communicative function and its social use. it fulfils the shiftiness from teacher-centered to learner-centered. the communicative task itself is central to this approach. a task-based syllabus is a kind of process syllabuses. the organizing principle involved is not the presentation and practice of the language to be learned but all kinds of tasks and activities which apply target languages to communicate. this research carries out tblt approach in intensive reading class in expect to complete cognitive tasks, linguistic tasks, cultural tasks and affective tasks, and to cultivate learners communicative competence. apart from the parts of introduction and conclusion, the thesis consists of four parts: in “introduction” part, the thesis introduces theoretical background and objectives of the study. it reveals the guidance of structuralist, functionalist linguists and functional grammar on tblt approach. stucturalist linguistics emphasizes on the language knowledge and utterance skills. functionalist linguistics stresses on the use of language and social communications. functional grammar regards the nature of english abstract iv language as a social semiotic system. the language sign and its meaning are inseparable. meaning exists in every aspect of language. tblt approach puts emphasis on the completion of language tasks in social communication so as to achieve the goals of learning and using language. in “literature review” part the paper introduces the research on tblt approach both abroad and at home. and it illustrates ppp model which has a certain influence on tblt approach in the aspects of teaching language knowledge and utterance skills. but it has some demerits on cultural default. then the paper illuminates communicative language teaching approach. as concerning about tblt approach the thesis re-defines task, introduces task-based syllabuses, explores theoretical background and principles of designing tasks, and briefs on jane willis tblt model which is used by the author in the experiment of teaching intensive reading. the samples of the experiment part come from two intact classes of the first year in changsha university of science and technology. the author used tblt approach to carry out contrastive experiment in these two classes. and the thesis briefly introduces the manipulative rules, operative process and contrastive condition. in “data collection and discussion” part the thesis reports the students performance in the final examination by t-test. and sizes up the results of surveys and interviews made before and at the end of the experiment. according to the results the author appraises the effectiveness of tblt approach and probes into the students attitude towards the approach. and also make research on teachers and learners roles respectively in tblt approach. in “pedagogical implications” part the thesis points out the advantages and disadvantages of tblt approach, and suggests how to use tblt approach flexibly in the teaching. in the “conclusion” part, the thesis concludes the prospect of task-based instruction and poses the problems that need further researching. key words: task-based language teaching approach；willis model; intensive reading in college english; teaching experiment; effective appraisal 1 introduction 1 1 introduction 1.1 theoretical background for this study there has been a change of emphasis from presenting language as a set of forms (grammatical, phonological, lexical) to presenting language as a functional system which is used to fulfill a range of communicative purposes in recent years. with the development of the study of linguistics and language teaching, the teaching focus has been changed from language forms to language uses, especially to social communication. 1.1.1 structuralist viewpoints structural linguistics stresses on the importance of language as a system and focuses on the investigation on sounds, words, sentences, and grammar rules. in its widest sense, the term has been used for various groups of linguists, including those from prague school, but most often for the group of american linguists such as bloomfield who published the researches mainly in the 1930s to 1950s. in the 1920s, j.b. wastons behaviorist theory replaced mentalism. watson held that all knowledge comes from direct experience; only data obtained from objective and observable experiments are reliable. behaviorism is based on the belief that human beings can not know anything they have not experienced. waston points out that we experience all kinds of stimuli and responses in our daily life and come to associate certain stimuli with responses. this is the stimulus-response theory. according to waston, all our social behaviors are the result of external stimuli and have nothing to do with mind. learning is only the result of a series of stimuli and responses, because language is a kind of behavior. behaviorism in linguistics holds that children learn language through a chain of stimulus-response reinforcement, and adults use of language is also a process of stimulus-response. according to albert paul weiss, linguists should be able to prove that human beings have no thought, and that they can 1 introduction 2 only make sounds which stimulate other peoples nervous systems as external stimuli on other peoples behavior. what we call thought is nothing but linguistic forms, and the activities of the mind are partly physiological activities and partly social activities. for bloomfield, linguistics is a branch of psychology, and specifically of the positivistic brand of psychology known as behaviorism. structuralism derives from the thought of behaviorism. this is the basis for his theory about language. behaviorism is a principle of scientific method, based on the belief that the only things valid enough to confirm or refute a scientific theory are interpersonally observable phenomena, rather than peoples introspections or “intuitions”. bloomfield also touched upon the application of linguistics to language teaching and criticized traditional grammar. he pointed out that the 18th and 19th century grammarians were mostly laying down rules about what english should be like. he said that learning a language involves constant practice and repetition in real situations rather than merely teaching language learners grammatical theories; traditional practice, being sometimes confusing and far from being economical, can not help the learners much. bloomfields thought started american structuralism as a school of thought. the american structuralist linguistics assumed that the structure of a language could be looked upon as a system of sentence patterns. once the sentence patterns to be taught were identified, the requirement from behaviorist psychology was that they be ingrained in their learner through drilling. and the pattern drill, an exercise in which learners manipulate the sentence patterns of the target language until they can produce them “automatically”, became a major technique. though some efforts were made to provide context for patterns drilled in class, it turned out in practice that contextualization was insufficient and meaning was not learnt. learners could often chant drills perfectly, but all too frequently did not really understand what they were saying and could not apply structures rehearsed in meaningful contexts. the early efforts of the prague school were directed at (1) justifying the synchronic approach to facts of language; (2) stressing the prevailingly systemic character of language; (3) laying emphasis on the function performed by language in given language community. tblt approach makes use of many ideas of prague school. 1 introduction 3 it centers on language function, especially communicative function. this is in accordance with prague school in this point. on the whole, linguistic researches of these linguists were based on the theories of behavioristic psychology and had a considerable influence on some language teaching methods (such as direct method, audio-lingual method and ppp teaching approach). according to the views of structuralists, the teaching approaches and materials concentrate on the development of grammatical competence, almost to the exclusion of the other components. the grammar, the lexicon, or the phonology of a language are at the centre of the syllabuses and teaching materials. the learners are required to produce grammatically or phonologically accurate sentences in the language being studied. in the classroom, teachers are dominators, who are providing model, controlling direction and pace. what the structuralistic linguistic cares about is the language knowledge and the utterance skills. in tblt approach, the linguistic task also puts emphasis on language forms and utterance skills. the two sides are accentuated in tblt approach because they are the necessary prerequisite for successfully communication. only concentrating on developing grammatical competence, however, will not provide the learners with the ability to produce sentences or utterances which are appropriate to the context of use, or can not cultivate their communicative competence. 1.1.2 functionalist viewpoints the 20th century has witnessed another influential type of linguistic schools characterized by functionalism. this camp of theories includes the prague school (or the prague circle), the copenhagen school, and the london school. these schools, after sassure, see language as a complete structural system and believe that every language has its own internal structure, in which everything is determined by its relation to other linguistic elements. functionalist linguists attempt to explain linguistic phenomena from a functional point of view. their aim is not simply to describe language but also why language is what it is. much of european linguistics after saussure may be termed as broadly functional, but functionalism arose from the concerns of vilem mathesius, a teacher in the caroline university in prague. mathesius called for a non-historical approach to the study of language. some of the 1 introduction 4 linguists share his concerns, including r. jackson and prague school. of the many ideas developed in the prague school, three points are of special important. first, it is stressed that the synchronic study of language is fully justified as it can draw on complete and controllable material for investigation but no rigid theoretical barrier is erected to separate diachronic studies. secondly, there is an emphasis on the systemic character of language. it is argued that no element of any language can be satisfactorily analyzed or evaluated in isolation, and that an assessment can be made only when the relationship of an element is established with the coexisting elements in the same language system. in other words, elements are held to be in functional contrast or opposition. thirdly, language is looked on as functional in another sense, that is, as a tool performing a number of essential functions or tasks for the community using it. after the 1950s, the neo-prague school scholars took up the basic principles of their predecessors, developing and enriching their linguistic theories. the prague school linguists distinguished three basic functions: the function of expression, the function of appeal and the function of reference. while the third function conveys the factual content reflecting the communicated extra linguistic reality, the first two functions serve the emotive purposes. the expressive function characterizes the speaker as distinct from other speakers, while the function of appeal is directed at the listener who will be influenced by the given utterance. very often such influencing consists in transmitting to the listener some emotive evaluation of the communicated content, with more or less obvious intention of evoking analogous emotive evaluation on the part of the listener. one of the objectives of tblt approach is to accomplish affective task through communication. actually it serves as the function of appeal. the copenhagen school considers the nature of language as the instrument with which man forms thought and feeling, mood, aspiration, will and act, the instrument by whose means he influences and is influenced, the ultimate and deepest foundation of human society. the aim of linguistic theory is to describe and predicate not only any possible text composed in a certain language, but on the basis of the information that it gives about language in general. 1 introduction 5 one of the representatives is j. r. firth. firths theories mainly concern semantics and phonology. in studying meaning, he took a sociological approach. his term of meaning does simply cover lexical and grammatical meanings, but is a larger concept covering the meaning in the context of language use. he defines semantics as the classification of utterances of a language into the typical contexts of situation for which they might be appropriate. one of the aims of tblt approach is to cultivate learners to produce appropriate speech act according to the situation. functional linguistics concerns with language as an instrument of social interaction rather than as a system that is viewed in isolation. it considers the individual as a social being and investigates the way in which he or she acquires language and uses it in order to communicate with others in his or her social environment. it stresses that language is used to communicate with different people in society. in tblt approach, the functional task centers on language use, especially those of social communication. in task-based instruction, the priority is not the bits and pieces of language but rather the functional purposes for which language must be used. tblt approach focuses on communication and meaning, nevertheless goals are linguistic in nature. they are not linguistic in the traditional sense of just focusing on grammar or phonology, but by maintaining the centrality of functions like greeting people, expressing opinions, requesting information, etc., the course goals center on learners pragmatic language competence. many of the ideas of tblt approach derive from functional linguistics. 1.1.3 the viewpoints of functional grammar halliday studies the relations between language and society from anthropological and sociological points of view, taking language as “social semiotic”. this theoretical framework is characterized by concepts such as functions, systems, levels and context. halliday explores language in terms of the relations between language and social needs, social structure, and sociocultural background. he sees language as one of the cultural semiotic systems in the general social semiotic system the social reality semiotic system which manifests other socio-cultural systems of the society, the nature of language can be accounted for only in a socio-cultural environment. 1 introduction 6 language is also a system of social functions, which lies in all human cultures and is human language-specific. the various social functions of language consist in the social uses of it in various contexts, and every ling