英语口语教学中的流利度研究.doc

英语口语教学中的流利度研究 摘要 随着社会和经济的发展,英语口语在我国的对外交际中起到了越来越重要的作用。 但是,经过多年的学习,我国许多学生还是不能开口用英语交谈,更谈不上达到流利的程度。因此, 如何使学生经过几年的英语学习能够流利地与外国人进行交际就成为了十分有意义的课题。本文从流利度的角度出发,分析了流利度的定义及流利度产生的内在因素,提出了对提高英语口语流利度行之有效的三种方法,并指出三种方法是有机结合密不可分的。最后通过实验来证明这种教学方法的有效性,并分析了学生话语的特点。 全文包括引言,正文,结论三部分。引言分析了英语口语教学的目的并介绍了论文的主要结构。正文分为四个部分。第一部分主要讨论了流利度的三个不同概念。这三种对流利度的不同理解对英语口语教学和测试都有着十分重要的意义。第二部分主要从认知语言学的角度阐述了两种解释流利度产生的理论模式。第三部分基于上述两种理论模式上提出了三种提高英语口语流利度的方法。第四部分是本文的重点,通过两种教学方法的对比,对学生话语的特点进行了分析, 得出的结论是,无论是在短语的使用还是停顿等各方面实验组都优于控制组。结论部分对全文加以总结,并指出了实验的不足。 作者希望论文所讨论的问题对英语口语教学起到一定的参考作用。3 AbstractWith the social and economical development the ability to speak fluent English is playing an increasingly important role in the communication with foreign countries, but quite a number of university students in China, after many years study of English, still have difficulty in opening their mouths to speak English, let alone communicate fluently with the foreigners. Therefore it is extremely valuable to explore the efficient means of promoting the students spoken English ability within the shortest time possible. From the fluency point of view, the thesis discusses the concepts of fluency as well as the theory explaining the fluent production of speech. and proposes three ways to improve fluency. Finally an experiment is made and the speech samples are analyzed to support the viewThis thesis is divided into six chapters, including Introduction and ConclusionIntroduction briefly discusses the aim of English language learning and teaching and presents the scope of the thesisChapter Two discusses the concepts of fluency from a historical point of view. The different concepts of fluency have great influence on our language learning and teaching and the assessment of oral production. Chapter Three covers the theoretical basis for the explanation of how the fluent production is made. Two models are fully explained in this chapter. Based on the two models, Chapter Four puts forward three ways used to improve the fluent production of speechChapter Five is an experimental study on fluency. After a year s learning with the three ways suggested in Chapter Four, subjects are tested and the evaluation is made to indicate that learners become more fluent after the trainingThe author hopes that the views introduced in this thesis could be of certain help to spoken English teaching in China 4Contents Chapter One: Introduction 1Chapter Two: Concepts of fluency .4 1.1 Introduction 4 1.2 Fluency as proficiency or as a component of proficiency.4 1.3 Fluency as “ smoothness of speech”7 1.4 Fluency as opposed to accuracy10Chapter Three: Explanation of the fluent production of speech13 2.1 Introduction 13 2.2 Accelerating model .13 2.2.1 A model of production.13 2.2.2 A model of development.14 2.3 Instance theory16 2.3.1 Exemplar theory.16 2.3.2 Strength theory.17 2.3.3 Hierarchical Chunking Theory.18Chapter Four: The ways used to improve fluency.19 3.1 Formulaic chunks .19 3.2 Recitation and retelling.22 3.2 Task-based approach .25Chapter Five: An experiment on fluency.28 4.1 Description of the study.28 4.1.1 Purpose28 4.1.2 Subjects29 4.1.3 Method29 4.2 Evaluation of the speech samples30 4.3 Results .33 4.3.1 Subjective analysis.33 4.3.2 Objective analysis36 4.3.2.1 Temporal variables .36 4.3.2.2 Formulaic chunks.42 4.4 Conclusion.46Chapter Six: Conclusion 47Bibiliography .49 5Fluency in oral English teachingChapter One: IntroductionThe last two decades have witnessed a great change in the English language learning and teaching in ChinaWith the rise in the cross-cultural communication, oral English teaching has gained greater importance in China recently, and at the same time, with the advent of communicative language teaching, oral English teaching has turned a new page. But language learning and teaching is a complex phenomenonWithout the consideration of the subjects and the contexts, any method would turn out to be a failure. The goal of the paper is to discuss the concept of fluency and provide guidance in improving the fluent production of oral English in the Chinese context, especially among the college studentsFor centuries before World War Two, language learning and teaching had been focused on the study of the written language. It is well known that written language is quite different from oral language. Written language is the language of literature and of scholarship Brown and Yule, 1983: 1, while the spoken language is primarily for interaction and transaction of information. It is different from written language in that the information is less densely packed, which has implications both for syntactic structure and for vocabulary selection Brown and Yule, 1983:11. They state that oral language has two functions. One is the maintenance of social relationships, and the other is the transaction of information The past century has seen a change of language learning theory and the ultimate goal that the language learners are asked to achieve. It is popularly believed that Chomsky s 1965 notion of competence is too limited to account for the actual language use. The shift has been made to communicative competence in which four different components are included, namely the grammatical competence, discourse competence, socialinguistic competence and strategic competence. In the pedagogic6context in oral language teaching, they can be roughly defined as the fluent, accurate and appropriate use of the language. The success of the class is measured in terms of whether the students can communicate accurately and appropriately with reasonable fluency. The purpose of the paper is mainly about discussing the fluent production of the language. Native-like fluency is the ultimate goal for the foreign language learners to achieve, yet fluency in spontaneous connected speech may take the adult learners of a foreign language years to achieve. For the native speakers, however, it is not a difficult task to produce fluent conversation or speech unless the topic to be discussed is unfamiliar to them. How do they achieve this? What kind of changes are involved in the operation of the underlying cognitive processes. Those are the questions we have to answerFluency in speech often refers to the speed, continuity and accuracy of the action of speaking. A fluent speaker of a foreign language is someone who can speak at the tempo of his first language, without unnecessary hesitations and pauses, and free of nonnative-like errors. Fluency in the foreign language has been conceptualized along two dimensions, Pawley and Synder, 1983 which are native-like selection and native-like deliveryNative-like selection refers to using frequently used and familiar phrases, appropriate for a particular situation, to put across one s messageNative-like delivery has the following five central characteristics: Jansma 1987 1 a rate of delivery of between 150 and 200 words per minute De Bot 1992. Arevant and Nation 1991, 2 short pauses lasting less than 0.5 seconds between short stretches of speech Stern 1992, 3 short stretches of speech consisting of between four and ten words Ellis 1996, 4 a “ jump-up”, “ step-down” intonation pattern, and 5 stress-timed delivery, where important words are spoken at a slower rate and at a high pitch or louder volumeStern 1992In no way are we arguing that accuracy and appropriacy have no position in language learning and teaching. Our goal is to find a balance among fluency, accuracy and appropriacy. But Hammerly 1991, 55 states “ balance will not be achieved by focusing almost exclusively on one type of competence, one skill, or one language component. Neither is balance attained by mindlessly trying to do everything at the7same time ”He thinks that early emphasis on accuracy is necessary, and then learning and teaching should be gradually transferred to the fluency part and appropriacy can be imparted as needed throughout the programThe body of the thesis consists of four parts, each serving to explain how to produce fluent oral English as a foreign language. Chapter Two discusses the concepts of fluency from a historical point of view. The different concepts of fluency have great influence on our language learning and teaching and the assessment of oral production. Chapter Three covers the theoretical basis for the explanation of how the fluent production is made. Like most psycholinguistic research, these studies provide insight into the underlying cognitive processes that are operating when speech is formulated, and three models are put forward. Chapter Four suggests the ways that are used to promote the fluent production of the speech in the Chinese context of foreign language learning and teaching, namely the formulaic chunks, recitation and retelling and task-based approach. Chapter Five is an experimental study on fluency. After a year s learning with the three ways suggested in Chapter Three, subjects are tested and the evaluation is made to indicate that learners become more fluent after the training 8Chapter Two: Concepts of fluency1.1Introduction From the historical point of view, fluency is considered very important both by language learners and teachers, but has not been well understood. For example, what factors contribute to fluent performance and perception of fluency? We often hear people say, “Tom can speak English fluently”What do we have in our mind when we are making the judgment? At the same time, the pioneers in the field leave us rich and diverse literature on the notion of fluency. It has been conceptualized by language teaching professionals, linguists and applied linguists, and these distinctive and different understandings of what fluency is exert great influence on our decision concerning language teaching and language assessment. Therefore it is important to explore different concepts of fluency1.2Fluency as proficiency or as a component of proficiency Proficiency, the ability to use language knowledge in specific contexts, is the goal that all the foreign/second language learners are trying to achieve. Many linguists and practitioners in the language teaching field regard this concept of fluency as something parallel to proficiency. Though it is commonly agreed that it is an idealized ability and impossible to achieve, it provides us with an ultimate goal to make forLesson 1975,142 views the term fluency as referring to the speaking ability of the whole native-speaking population of normal adults. Even though qualitative evaluation of their speech may differ from person to person because of their different educational attainment, levels of intelligence etc, all of them can be classified as “ fluent speakers”Lesson explores the meaning of fluency from the generativist point of view, which, he thinks, is ability parallel to the “ competence” provided by Noam Chomsky. He argues that being capable of generating “ novel” sequence of speech, using a combination of innate generative capacity and learned sequences to fulfill9their communicative needs, is a very important criterion when judging whether somebody is fluent or not. He defines fluency as the ability “ to produce indefinitely many sentences conforming to the phonological, syntactical and semantic exigencies of a given natural language on the basis of a finite exposure to a finite corpus of that language”. This argument is similar to Fillmore s 1979 view of fluency with the former emphasizing the competence end on the competence-performance continuumHis description of fluency goes beyond associations with “ smoothness” , automaticity or ease of speech, to include semantic density, sociolinguistic appropriateness and creativity in language use. He provides us with criteria of fluent speakers. In order to be fluent in the language, the speakers must possess four kinds of ability. The first kind is the ability to talk at length with few pauses and the ability to fill time with talkHe cites disc jockeys or sports announcers as good examples of the persons possessing this kind of ability. The second kind is the ability to produce coherent, reasoned, and semantically dense sentences. The main ingredient of this kind of ability appears to be mastery of the semantic and syntactic resources of the languageNoam Chomsky, he says, is a good example. The third kind is the ability to have appropriate things to say in a wide range of contexts. The person who becomes tongue-tied in the presence of strangers or whenever confronted with an unexpected crisis of human interaction can not be classified as a fluent speaker. The fourth kind is the ability some people have in order to be creative and imaginative in their language use, to express their ideas in novel ways, to pun, to make up jokes, to attend to the sound independently of the sense, to vary styles, to create and build on metaphors, and so on. It is self-evident that this idealized oral production of fluency is applied to the native adult speakers and quite a difficult goal for them to achieve, let alone foreign language learners. The imally gifted wielder of language, then, is somebody who has all of these abilitiesAccording to Lennon 1990, the term fluency can be distinguished into two senses in common language-teaching parlance: the higher-order fluency and lower-order fluency. Higher-order fluency, in a broad sense, corresponds roughly to all-round oral proficiency. Other linguists, Sajavaara and Lehtonen1978, for10example, view the term fluency as referring to being communicatively fit in using language to communicate. They think fluency is the high-quality performance achieved by foreign language learners .It is the ability to produce sentences which are free of hesitations and pauses, absent of grammatical and pronunciation errors and at the same time characterized by features such as the length of the sentences and the speed of delivery. Lehtonen1977 also points out that the register of the talk produced by the speakers plays an important role in judging whether the speech is or is not fluent in the context. To be fluent in the right way one has to know how to hesitate, how to be silent, how to self-correct, how to interrupt, and how to complete one s expression and how to do all these fluently in a way that is expected by the linguistic community and that represents normal, acceptable and relaxed linguistic behavior. He argues that a speaker with weaknesses in any of the linguistic, psychological and sociolinguistic areas can not be regarded as a fluent speaker, and lack of which will result in the disruption in communication. In his opinion, even though the native speakers are proficient in their oral production of their language and therefore can be regarded as fluent speakers, their speech is often marked with what we regarded as disfluency. Lehtonen.1977: 20 This again manifests the complexity of the term fluencyFaerch, Haastrup, and Phillipson 1984 also agree that the notion of fluency should be regarded as the global proficiency of the speaker. They define the term fluency as “ the speaker s ability to make use of whatever linguistic and pragmatic competence they have to achieve their communication needs”. In the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied linguistics, fluent speech contains the “ quality of being natural and normal, including native?like use of pausing, rhythm, intonation, stress