（课程与教学论专业论文）关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究.pdf

杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 2 学校代码：10346 学科、专业代码：040102 研究生学号：y20050191 题目 an experimental study of the language learners reflection in its relation to grammar instruction 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 论文评阅人： 盲审 盲审 盲审 论文答辩委员会 主席（姓名、职称） ：李波阳 教 授 委员（姓名、职称） ：陈家旭 副教授 汤定九 副教授 邵俊宗 教 授 谢 萍 副教授 张曜朗 副教授 学位授予单位： 杭州师范大学 论文答辩日期： 2008 年 6 月 5 日 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 3 独创性声明独创性声明 本人声明所呈交的论文是我个人在导师指导下进行 的研究工作及取得的研究成果。尽我所知，除了文中特别以 标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包括其他人已经发表或撰写 过的研究成果。对本研究做过贡献的老师和同学均己在论文 中作了明确的说明并表示了谢意。 日 期： 导师签名： 本人签名： 关于论文使用授权说明关于论文使用授权说明 本人完全了解杭州师范大学有关保留、使用学位论文的 规定，即：学校有权保留送交论文的复印件，允许论文被查 阅和借阅;学校可以公布论文的全部或部分内容， 可以采用影 印、缩印或其他手段保存论文。 日 期： 导师签名： 本人签名： 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 4 an experimental study of the language learners reflection in its relation to grammar instruction 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法关于语言学习者的反思及其语法 教学意义的教学意义的实证研究实证研究 he lina supervisor professor shao junzong a dissertation submitted as a partial fulfillment for the degree of m.a. in education hangzhou normal university hangzhou, china june, 2008 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 5 abstract current english teaching reform movement lays a special emphasis on individual learner differences. the primary concern of language learning has shifted from teaching to learning. the search for the most efficient type of formal instruction also came to the recognition that successful learning should take into consideration the individual differences. there exists a substantive body of studies on individual differences, but this study will orbit around learners reflection on grammar learning which is embodied on such individual differences levels as cognitive styles and learning strategies and learning beliefs. adopting a quantitative and qualitative research method, the purpose of the current research is to explore the dominant factors of chinese learners grammar learning and to examine closely how these features actually take effect in their grammar learning and what kind of instruction may best suit them. in so doing, it is expected to bring some references to current grammar learning and instruction for english education majors at chinese colleges. the participants consist of 32 freshmen majoring in english education at hangzhou normal university. the study has undergone three phrases. in the first phase, i did a preliminary research to analyze the learners reflection note. in the second phase: a questionnaire was designed to distinguish different features of learners based on the findings of the preliminary research. grammar tasks were given to the participants in the third phase. the qualitative analysis followed the thematic coherence method and the framework for qualitative data analysis. i used spss (the statistical package for social sciences) to analyze the data for correlations between different features and corresponding tasks. the preliminary research and the questionnaire discovered learners two distinctive beliefs about grammar learning: most of them advocate the grammar-translation method while few others prefer the communicative grammar instruction. they unfolded learners three dominant reflective features in learning: 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 6 recollection, intuition, and innate form. the experiment revealed that chinese students learn grammar mostly by recollecting the past experience, especially the learned grammar knowledge and by improving their leaning efficiency. other two correlations found no support for their using of intuition or the philosophical reflection prone for the innate form. these findings confirmed the prediction that learners vary considerably in the way they set about trying to learn an l2 and in what they actually proceed in learning. the findings have important implications for both individual learner and grammar instruction. the best teaching should suit individual differences and improve learner efficiency and autonomy so that they can become more self-aware, adaptive, and empowered learners. key words: grammar, grammar instruction, reflection 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 7 摘要摘要 关注个体差异己成为当前课堂教学改革的要求之一。 语言教学的中心趋向于 从教师，教法转移到了学习的主体学生上。语法研究也发现，成功的语法习 得应该充分考虑学生个体差异。 针对学习者个体化差异的研究内容涵盖很广， 本研究从反思角度考察包括认 知方式，学习者风格，和学习策略等因素，采用定性与定量结合的方法，分析不 同语法习得特征在不同任务中的效能发挥， 以此来判读经验材料对不同特征的有 效性，为师范院校英语语法教学提供参照。 本文研究对象为杭州师范大学 06 级英语专业本科一年级学生共 32 人。 研究 分为三个阶段：首先，通过前期研究对学生的语法学习反思材料进行分析，调查 学生的语法学习观念与基本语法习得途径；其次，利用所得数据设计问卷来确定 学生中存在的不同特征， 第三， 通过前期研究和问卷所得结果设计相关语法任务。 文本数据借鉴了语篇分析中“主题一致”的分析方法，实验数据使用了社会科学 统计软件包（spss）进行相关性分析。 前期研究和问卷调查表明：学生对语法学习的观念存在明显差别，主要倾 向为语法翻译法和交际教学法，学生中呈现出三种反思特征：依据以往语法习得 经验，凭借直觉和哲学思辨倾向。语法任务结果表明： 只有第一种特征与相应 任务，即语法来源分析上具有显著差别， 而直觉性特征与语法判断任务不相关， 哲学思辨特征与“绝对理念”任务不相关。通过对上述结果的分析，我们可以得 出以下结论：中国学生在语法学习中受传统语法教学方式影响，主要依靠一般认 知能力学习语法；其他直觉未获发挥；哲学思辨特征的没有体现出来。后两种特 征不作用于语法学习。 研究证明语法教学应照顾学生个体差异以提高学习过程 中的认知效率和学生的自主学习能力。 关键词：关键词：语法，语法教学, 反思 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 8 contents acknowledgements-i abstract-ii 摘要摘要-iv list of tables - vii list of figures - vii chapter one introduction-1 1.1. background -1 1.2. significance of the research-3 1.3. the overall structure of the thesis- 4 chapter two literature review-5 2.1. grammar and grammar instruction -5 2.1.1. an overview of the role of grammar in language pedagogy -5 2.1.2. theoretical arguments about grammar instruction-7 2.1.3. grammar learning and instruction in china-11 2.2. reflection-13 2.2.1. psychological view of reflection-14 2.2.2. philosophical view of reflection-19 2.2.3. educational view of reflective thinking-21 2.3. summary of reflection-23 chapter three research design-25 3.1. preliminary research-25 3.1.1. participants-25 3.1.2. case studies by qualitative analysis-26 3.1.3. data analysis-29 3.2. questionnaire-34 3.2.1. content and rationale of the questionnaire-34 3.2.2. reliability statistics-35 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 9 3.2.3. results of the questionnaire-36 3.3. language learning efficiency tasks experiment-36 3.3.1. source-analyzing experiment-36 3.3.2. intuitive grammar experiment-36 3.3.3. innate form experiment-37 chapter four results and discussion-38 4.1. results-38 4.1.1. correlation of recollection with source analysis-38 4.1.2. correlation of intuition with intuitive grammar experiment-38 4.1.3. correlation of innate form with innate form experiment-39 4.1.4. other significant correlations-40 4.2. discussion-40 4.2.1. relevant features of reflection to grammar learning-40 4.2.2. implications of the discoveries for individual differences among language learners-41 4.2.3. implications of the discoveries for english grammar instruction-44 4.3. a reflection on reflection as a conclusion-45 4.4. limitations and future efforts-46 bibliography-48 appendix i-54 appendix ii-55 appendix iii-56 appendix iv-57 appendix v-58 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 10 list of tables 1. table 3.1. case summary for sample 1-30 2. table 3.2. case summary for sample 2-31 3. table 3.3. case summary for sample 3-32 4. table 3.4. findings of the cross-case study-33 5. table 3.5. reliability statistics-35 6. table 3.6. results of the questionnaire-36 7. table 4.1. correlation of recollection with source analysis task-38 8. table 4.2. correlation of intuition with grammaticality task-39 9. table 4.3. correlation of innate form with innate form task-39 10. table 4.4. other significant correlations-40 list of figures 1. figure1.1. the framework for qualitative data analysis-28 2. figure 1.2. structure of qualitative analysis -28 3. figure 1.3. kolbs learning cycle - 46 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 11 chapter one introduction 1.1. background there has been an on-going debate over the role grammar played in first and second language learning ever since the word came into being. despite few advocates of non-intervention position, such as chomsky who argues that language acquisition is innately determined, much effort has been made to teach students grammar in various ways based on the assumption that grammar does facilitate language learning. traditional grammar teaching is, in fact, mainly the teaching of language knowledge or/and explanation of language rules. however, modern linguists hold very different views. chomsky (1980) insists that people are born with a built-in device, which predisposes us to language acquisition, and it must be recognized that one does not learn the grammatical structure of a second language through explanation and instruction (cook, 1994: 128). with regard to the availability of ug in l2 acquisition, different views can be summarized into four types: the complete access view; the no access view; the partial access view and the dual access view (ellis,1994: 453). in so far, no solid evidence has been found in the full accessibility of ug among chinese l2 learners. for the facilitative position, there have been two tendencies of grammar instruction, one is meaning-focused and the other is form-focused. it has been a long time when grammar is taught as concrete structure and rules, which is grammar translation method. teachers in the grammar-translation tradition accept the necessity of grammar rules as an integral part of language learning. today, however, grammar teaching in all its aspects is questioned. should grammar be taught at all? is it a hindrance or a help? if grammar, what kind: traditional, structural, transformational, or any other school of thought? the debate about rules for its own sake compared with language teaching without rules has shown no signs of coming to an end. to solve the problems presented by traditional structure-based grammar teaching, long (1991) proposed an approach that he termed focus on form (focus on forms 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 12 refers to instruction that focuses on discrete grammatical forms selected and presented in an isolated manner whereas focus on form involves the teachers attempts to draw the students attention to grammatical forms in the context of communication). many researchers have argued that grammar and communication must be integrated. considerable efforts have been made in the last 10 years to find ways to combine some form of grammar instruction with the provision of opportunities for communicative input and output. current ways of treating grammar in l2 or foreign language classrooms mainly include discourse-based approaches, processing instruction, interactional feedback, textual enhancement, and task-based approaches. in china, grammar has been the sine qua non of language teaching. until quite recently, it is still taken for granted. though attempts have been made to adopt discourse-based and task-based approaches targeting at developing students communicative competence, the effectiveness is far from satisfactory. teaching grammar to college students, especially in grammar only classes for english majors in china, has been explored by many researchers using different ways such as communicative grammar teaching and cognitive approach (huang, 2002). the unsatisfactory teaching effect urges a reconsideration of students grammar learning in different perspectives and with new approaches. this study is based on the assumption that chinese learners, although mostly being taught under restricted classroom context, are able to reflect both in their beliefs about grammar and in their use of strategies in learning grammar other than just memorizing the teachers explanation and practicing mechanically. this understanding brings about four research questions: 1) what are the features of chinese students reflection in grammar learning? 2) how do these features actually take effect in their grammar learning? are there significant correlations between the reflection types and corresponding tasks? 3) what are the implications of the discoveries for individual differences among language learners? 4) what are the implications of the discoveries for english grammar instruction? 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 13 1.2. significance of this study second language (l2) acquisition is a phenomenon that has universal and structural properties. however, it is also important to know that learners vary enormously to both the ways they set about learning an l2 and also in what they actually proceed in learning. although learning a language and using it are basically interactive activities that depend on varying types of relationships with others and with the culture as a whole, the language acquisition process is strongly influenced by individual differences residing within the learner. according to celce-murcia (1985), we have to consider the course objectives together with a number of learner variables such as age, educational background, and learning styles, in order to make informed decisions about the role of grammar in language teaching. so the findings of the dominant individual differences variables that influence english grammar learning will provide learner profiles for use in diagnosis of learning difficulties, grammar instruction, curriculum design, and prediction of language learning success. reflectivity has received much attention in such settings as the reflective thinking over classroom activities, but there has been a neglect of certain traits concerning the definition and typology of reflectivity. in addition, there has been a scarcity of research for students reflective thinking. the reflectivity in cognitive styles has not been thoroughly investigated. since reflective thinking involves complex mental processes, it is also intellectually important to know on what and how learners reflect, how their reflection influences their learning, and, finally, what types of reflective thinking are relevant to grammar instruction. practically, by examining correlations of learners grammar learning features with corresponding tasks, this study aims to help learners to know better about their own learning and motivate teachers to explore and develop more effective and feasible approaches to grammar teaching for chinese l2 learners. 1.3. the overall structure of the study in chapter one, a brief introduction will be given to the significance of this study 杭州师范大学硕士学位论文 关于语言学习者的反思及其语法教学意义的实证研究 14 and the objectives i have in form of four research questions. chapter 2