【重点大Chapter 12 Applied Linguistics Teaching Plan.doc

Chapter 12Applied LinguisticsObjectivesThe students will learn how linguistic findings are applied in language teaching so that they will become better-informed and thus more-qualified English teachers in the near-future. Students will be able to1) identify and analyze various English teaching approaches,2) think critically and scientifically about the suggestions they give or are given about how to teach,3) identify and analyze different types of language tests, and4) evaluate a given English test scientifically.Key points1) Six major types of language teaching approaches2) Ten types of tests3) Criteria of a good testTime required: 160 minutesProcedurePart 1 Language Teaching( 80 minutes)1.1 Warming-up discussionTopic 1: Different teachers teach English in different ways (7 minutes)Ask some students to name some differences, leading them to realize the existence of different approaches to language teaching.Topic 2: Wise choices of teaching approaches are not made at random (8 minutes)Ask students to name some factors that should be taken into consideration when the teacher decides his teaching approach, leading them to realize that behind each teaching approach there are theoretical considerations, linguistic or non-linguistic.1.2 Different approaches to language teachingAltogether, six approaches will be introduced; students will be asked to identify the advantages and the disadvantages (or problems remaining to be solved) of each approach, before or after the class.In class, only two approaches are to be examined, the grammar-translation approach (the dominant one used in China before 1980s) and the communicative approach (the most welcome one around the world).1.2.1 The grammar-translation method (25 minutes)1) Before they come to class, students will be asked to read two sample units of the English textbook used by senior middle school students across China, one from the textbook used in the 1980s and the other from the currently used one.2) In class, the teacher will lead students to identify the main features and, especially, the weak points of the method, with reference made to the sample unit of the English textbook used in 1980s in China.Group discussion will be organized, with a spokesperson chosen by each group to report their findings.1.2.2 The communicative approach (30 minutes)3) Lead students to compare the sample unit of the English textbook currently used in China with the other one, in terms of the main features just identified of the grammar-translation method. Group discussion will also be organized, with a spokesperson chosen by each group to report their findings.4) The main features and problems remaining to be solved will be listed.1.3 Questioning and summarizing (10 minutes)5) Listen to the students questions, giving answers to two or three or them. Identify some typical ones and leave them as topics for students after-class discussion.6) Summarizing: Different elements of the identified approaches may be present in a teachers teaching in varying combination; the English teacher well-informed of these approaches can make better choices in deciding his way of teaching in concrete situations.7) Assignments: Ask students to finish the excises and discussion questions, and to preview the second part of this chapter.Part 2 Testing( 80 minutes)2.1 Warming-up discussionHow many types of English tests have you ever taken? (8 minutes)Ask some students to name some different tests (quick test in class, unit exam, final exam, college entrance exam, TEM-4), leading them to realize that language tests may be classified along different dimensions. 2.2 Different ways to classify language tests2.2.1 Five dimensions along which language tests can be classified (10 minutes)8) Fives characteristics in terms of which language tests can be classified will be elaborated one by one.It should be made clear that these characteristics are neither mutually exclusive nor independent of one another. A test can be analyzed either in terms of each individual characteristic or in terms of some or all of the five in combination.2.2.2 Some important distinctions in language testing (22 minutes)9) Achievement and proficiency tests10) Subjective and objective tests11) Discrete-point and integrative tests12) Language aptitude tests and diagnostic testsGroup discussion will be organized, where students are asked to analyze the TEM-4 along the mentioned dimensions.2.3 Principles of language testing (30 minutes)13) Warming-up discussion: How can we tell whether an English test is a good one? (5 minutes)Ask students to name some factors that should be taken into consideration when an English test is evaluated, leading them to realize that there should be some scientific criteria against which a language test is judged.14) The three essential characteristics of a good language test: validity, reliability and practicality (10 minutes)15) Group work will also be organized, where students examine a sample test paper of English Writing, in terms of the three characteristics (15 minutes).2.4 Questioning and summarizing (10 minutes)16) Listen to the students questions, giving answers to two or three or them. Identify some typical ones and leave them as topics for students after-class discussion.17) Assignments: Ask students to finish the excises and discussion questions.18) Concluding remarks of the course and information about the final test.3Lecture Note1. What is Applied Linguistics?The application of linguistic findings to language teaching is called applied linguistics. The term applied linguistics probably first occurred in the United States in the 1940s. Its subject area is concerned with approaches to language teaching, including language learning, syllabus design and course design, materials development and the assessment and testing of language learning.Of course, linguistic findings may be applied in other fields besides language teaching. Therefore, in a broader sense, the term applied linguistics refers to any discipline that applies linguistic findings to address language related issues, such as speech therapy, (machine) translation, lexicography, communicative interactions, language planning, language policy, literature, and so on.The way a teacher organizes the language course reflects a view of language. With some knowledge of linguistics, a teacher can explain to his students why he is teaching the way he does and give them better tips on how to cooperate with the teacher in their learning practice. A less informed teacher may rely heavily on experience which is not always certain to work for every learner. In this chapter, we will confine ourselves to the influence of linguistics on language teaching and language testing, leaving other areas for more advanced courses.2. Language teachingLanguage teachers have looked to disciplinary domains of language study for guidance in answering two basic questions:a) How should language be defined/constrained so that it will be possible to determine what to teach?b) How may language learning itself be characterized?The approach and methodology adopted in language teaching are influenced by a number of factors. First, they will be influenced by general theories of learning. Second, they cant be free from features of the approach to learning in a particular education system in a particular country. Then, they will reflect the place of language teaching within the broader curriculum. Finally, they will be strained by the resources available within a particular education system.Our central concern in this chapter, however, is the influence of views of language on language learning, which is more basic for beginners of linguistics than the other factors. The next sections will examine, one by one, some of the various approaches to language teaching that have been used in the past and are still used today.2.1 The grammar-translation methodThis is probably the most widely known and used of all approaches to language teaching. Although there have been many developments in language teaching, especially in the teaching of English as a foreign language, the grammar-translation method is still used in one form or another. In China, intensive reading is typically taught by this method.2.1.1 Main featuresThe main features of the grammar translation method are the teaching of grammar rules of the new language and the subsequent translation of sentences and passages into the new language using those. The basic techniques are rote learning and the application of the learned rules in translation exercises both into and out of the new language. The grammar translation method is less demanding than some other approaches for a teacher whose oral proficiency may not be adequate.This approach depends heavily on an established and accepted prescriptive grammar. This is the kind of traditional grammar that was produced before the development of modern linguistics and many such grammars are in use today. They contain very detailed descriptions of the correct construction of phrases and sentences of a language. They also contain lists and classifications, in great detail, of rules and their exceptions. The grammar translation method tends to emphasize language at the sentence level. Texts are translated but are often seen as collections of sentences rather than as coherent passages. It encourages students ability to read and write as the focus is on the written work. Accuracy is also stressed and a great deal of vocabulary is usually memorized. Grammar rules are taught deductively as general statements to be applied in particular exercises in translation.2.1.2 Major problemsIn consequence, the organization of language above the sentence level is not so carefully studied and this is particularly true of the spoken word. Oral fluency and spontaneity is not so well developed and common everyday language is often lacking. With the emphasis on grammar, students typically know a lot about the language but not so much about how to actually use it. There is also a tendency towards unnatural or literal use of the new language. Furthermore, the “translation” in the method was no more than a type of exercise, far from translation in the proper sense of the word. Translation is a specialist skill that requires particular training which many students of a foreign language neither need nor want.2.2The direct methodThis method came about as a reaction to the grammar-translation method at the end of the 19th century. Many scholars and teachers were critical of the traditional grammatical approach and drew upon the development of phonetics and on changing views of learning. The spoken language was being increasingly studied in those days by the emerging science of phonetics and many teachers came to argue that speech, rather than writing, was the main means of communication. Children learn language through exposure to speech and this was believed to be a more natural way to acquire a language. Translation was considered an unnatural and unnecessary barrier to the mastery of a new language. Students who learned through heavy use of translation would come to rely on it and to form expressions in the new language on the basis of their thinking in the mother tongue. Students trained by the direct method would learn to think in the new language. Practitioners of this method also believed in encouraging interest in the new culture which the language opened up.2.2.1 Main featuresThe main features of the direct method are the sole use of the new language in the classroom and the memorization of the language patterns presented orally to the students. Learners are required to mimic the new language and in this way become familiar with a particular structure or pattern. The mother tongue is not used and the teachers make frequent use of visual aids, gestures, dramatic effects and many other techniques to convey the message in the new language. Ingenious methods have been devised to present language without having to use the mother tongue and thus rely on translation. The direct method is very demanding for both the teacher and the student.This approach to language teaching is still in use today, although much less widely than many others. It is chiefly used in very intensive language teaching programs and in certain language schools. However, some features of direct language teaching, such as visual aids and dramatic presentations, can be observed in almost every language classroom in every country.The direct method tends to emphasize language at the sentence level but in the context of usually short dialogues such as questions and answers. The learning is focused on speaking and listening and there is a lot of use of the language for everyday communication. Oral fluency and spontaneity are emphasized. Grammar is taught inductively with the student becoming familiar with a structure through repeated use.2.2.2 Major problemsAs a result, while interaction is encouraged through the learning of oral responses in dialogues, much of this is mimicry and responses are sometimes learned inflexibly. Reading and writing are not stressed and may be comparatively weak. This can lead to a lack of breadth of vocabulary gained from reading. Accuracy may also suffer. The absence of active and overt grammar teaching is not always popular with adult learners who, unlike children, may want to learn grammar rules and use them to approach new materials by themselves.2.3The audio-lingual methodAudiolingualism was built on the ideas of American structural linguistics and those of behaviourist psychology. American structuralism, specifically that of Bloomfield, viewed language as a complex set of structures. These structures or regular patterns were what practitioners of audiolingualism saw as the basis of language teaching. Behaviorist psychology saw all human behavior as a set of learned habits. These habits were learned through the process of conditioning. Correct behavior was positively reinforced by reward or praise. Language was seen as one kind of behavior, that is, verbal behavior. The combination of these views presented language learning as the process of learning structures or habits through conditioning.The audiolingual method became widespread during the 1950s and 1960s. It is still used in some places today although it has lost much of its former popularity. It is now often associated with the introduction of language laboratories. As with the direct method, some of the techniques of audiolingualism, such as pattern drills, can be found in use in many classrooms at some time or other.2.3.1 Main featuresThe principal features of audiolingualism are an emphasis on structures in language which can be learned as regular patterns of verbal behavior and the belief that the learning is a process of habit formation. Students learn the language structures moving from the simple to the more complex as they progress. An audiolingual syllabus might typically start with “the article” and move on to the “simple present” and eventually to “the subjunctive”. Learners are required to form good language habits by responding correctly to a given stimulus. Great care is taken to avoid making mistakes as mistakes could be reinforced and become bad language habits as opposed to the correct good habits. This process of stimulus-response learning and reinforcement of the correct behavior is called conditioning. One of the basic techniques employed is the pattern drill. In this approach, linguistic form is more stressed rather than meaning. The use of pattern drills assists the memorization of the structures as stimulus and response. Speaking and listening are seen as primary in the learning process. This last idea was particularly strongly held. It was believed that nothing spoken before it is heard; nothing read before it is spoken; nothing written before it is read.2.3.2 Major problemsThere are, however, a number of difficulties with this method. Perhaps most significantly, the emphasis on linguistic form tends to take place at the expense of meaning. The pattern drills and structure practices are often done out of context and seem to take place as almost meaningless repetitions. Students can frequently repeat the drills perfectly but fail to understand what they are saying and do not know how to use the structures they are learning in real communication. Structural accuracy may be achieved but fluency is impeded.The process of stimulus-response learning is also open to criticism and few people today accept it. Language learning is more complex and involves analysis and the generalization of rules on the basis of limited exposure to language. Language learning is more than just the learning of a set of habits. Moreover, few people accept that the process of second language acquisition is just like that of the mother tongue.2.4Situational language teachingThe situational approach was developed in contrast to audiolingualism, and arguably as a reaction to it. Situational language teaching draws on the linguistic theory of what is sometimes called the London School. They believed that language was tied to cultural contexts and social situations. In their view linguistic description had to take account of the “context of situation”. Unlike structuralists, they put stress on meaning more than on form. Like the structuralists, however, their view of language was also, to a large degree, behaviorist. They stressed the sociological aspect of verbal behavior as opposed to Bloomfield who focused more on the psychological aspect.2.4.1 Main featuresIts main feature is the belief that language is bound up with the social context within which it occurs. Teaching language then should involve the presentation of th