合作原则在初中英语教学中的应用(英文版).doc

Application of The Cooperative Principle in English Teaching in Junior High School 姓名 学号 班级 分数摘要：由于课程改革，初中英语教学由以语法教学为主逐渐转变为以交际教学为主。学生在英语学习过程中会接触更多的交际语，进行更多的对话。成功的对话需要说话人双方的配合与协调。在此之中合作原则起到很大的作用。合作原则要求参与说话的人的话符合交谈的公认目标。每个交谈的人自觉参与到话题中，不要跑题。在英语教学和学习中，它对老师对学生更好地理解会话含义有着不可替代的作用。但是合作原则在教学应用中也会有不完美的存在，所以本研究主要是探究合作原则的遵守与违背在英语教学中如何应用且各自的作用如何，以及有哪些改进的地方。关键字：合作原则； 英语教学； 初中生； 会话； 原则的违背Abstract: Because of new curriculum reform, English teaching method in junior high school is changed from grammar-based teaching into communicative teaching. In the future, students will learn more communicative language in the process of learning English and make more conversations. A successful conversation needs participants cooperation and conformity, while the cooperative principle plays an important role in conversation. The cooperative principle asks words said by participants to follow the accepted purpose of talk exchange. Each participant consciously participates the topic and dont stray from the point. However, violation of the cooperative principle exists in English teaching. And this research aims to explore how the cooperative principle and its violations work in English teaching and its improvement. Key words: The cooperative principle; English teaching; junior students; conversation; violation1. Introduction1.1 Literature review and the significance of thesisThe cooperative principle proposed by Herbert Paul Grice, a Oxford philosopher, refers to the fact that the conversational participants should be cooperative, that is, they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly while providing sufficient information. In his “Logic and Conversation”, he talks about an important theory, which is the theory of conversational implicature. According to the theory of conversational implicature, we can understand superficial meaning and deeper meaning of ones words better. More importantly, the cooperative principle is main content of the theory of conversational implicature. Besides, the cooperative principle is a bridge of understanding conversational implicature, that is, using cooperative principle in English teaching will get positive effects which make the teacher and students beneficial. From definition of language, we know language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication, while that students learn English following the cooperative principle will make conversation and communication more smooth. In conversational practice, students can cooperate with each other. In addition, Grice thinks that people do not follow the cooperative principle all the time, though they talk with others following this principle most of the time. And he gave a discussion of violations in his “Logic and Conversation”. And I will propose it in next chapters. 1.2 The structure of the thesis There are five parts in the thesis: In second chapter, I will display definition of the cooperative principle and its four maxims and its use in English teaching. In third chapter, I will display violations of the cooperative principle. In fourth chapter, I will display the main problems and solutions. In last chapter, I will give the conclusion for the thesis. 2. The cooperative principle and use in English teaching According to the idea of Grice, there is some regularity in conversation. “Our talk exchanges do not normally consist of a succession of disconnected remarks, and would not be rational if they did.” In a talk exchange, participants subconsciously speak sincerely, clearly and relevantly guided by the cooperative principle. To some extent, they have a common purpose or set of purpose, or at least a mutually accepted direction. This principle is of significance for the teachers, the students even for the class. Efficient class needs cooperation between the teacher and students. And the teacher can teach proper and useful knowledge to students in special and interesting way. While students can accept what the teacher teaches and understand them guided by the cooperative principle. The cooperative principle consists of four maxims which are the maxim of quantity, the maxim of quality, the maxim of relation and the maxim of manner. The four maxims can be often found in teachers teaching and students learning. They may be not followed totally in English teaching, but they play an essential role in teaching. Firstly, the content of the maxim of quantity has two points: Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange); Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. In the class, the teacher should teach students sufficient knowledge and complementary knowledge. I take a word of”fruit” as an example. Given that the teacher explains word of “fruit”, it will make students boring and dull if the teacher just tells them its meaning in Chinese. Whats more, students may forget it fast. So if the teacher gives “fruit” more sufficient meaning or displays many pictures of several kinds of fruits, the students can be attracted by the pictures and the class can be active thus the class efficiency is higher. Here is another example that in order to let students study English better, the content of textbook in junior school is apt to the maxim of quantity. For example, “Whats the matter?” “I have a toothache.” There is no more informative contribution than required answer in this conversation. Therefore, students can know how to talk about a topic and how to answer one by one according to quantity equivalent. That is what we say “no more no less”. The second is the maxim of quality, also referred to as the maxim of sincerity, which is to try to make your contribution one that is true. In addition to this, there are two points to need to pay attention. They are: 1) Do not say what you believe to be false; 2) Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence. If it used in the class, the teacher should teach students true and right knowledge for fear that they accept and use wrong information. I think, in English teaching, contents of each class are relevant and successive, which can not be taught well just from one aspect. So the teacher should teach right knowledge to students as possible as much. Besides, educated object is junior students whose ages arrange from 13 to 16, and they have certain ability to judge something right or wrong. So if mistakes are found by students or are perceived by the teacher himself, it must be corrected in time. The maxim of quality mainly emphasizes on authenticity of given information, as is very effective that is used to deal with a relationship between the teacher and students. A teacher plays a role not only as an educator but also as a friend of students. Managing a class is very important and necessary for a teacher, while students is the essence of a class. So the teacher gets on well with students and tries to trust them and to be trusted by them. To be honest, most of students at this age are quite honest and trust what a teacher says and take the teacher as their example. So teachers should do as they say and set a good example for their students. And in junior English textbook, there is a conversation of “How do you go to school?” “I go to school by bike.” First, the teacher will let two students practice the conversation according to the textbook. Then after they are familiar to the conversation, the teacher will ask them the same question and let them answer as their true condition. I think most students are willing to answer the question truly and sincerely. So if the teacher guides the students by the maxim of quality and uses it in English class, it will be better and more meaningful to motivate students interest in learning English and create an active class. The third is the maxim of relation, which is to be relevant. When several people talk about a topic, what they have said should be relevant and extend surrounding this topic. There often appears such condition in the English class that students will say: “Sorry, I dont know” if they do not really know the answer, when the teacher asks them the question. Though their answers are “Sorry, I dont know”, they also have a common purpose and speak surrounding the theme. English conversation strives to preserve the maxim of relation and every participant talks about something relevant to the topic, otherwise he does not keep to the point and violate the maxim of relation. Textbook as a guide instructs students to make a conversation logically and relevantly. For example, SA: What are you doing? SB: I like reading. It is an irrelevant conversation. So students can know each question has a relevant answer through textbook. In addition, the teacher should teach relevant knowledge from contents in English book in class, and should not spend overmuch time and energy on unuseful and irrelevant thing. Any behaviors aim to educate students well. The last is the maxim of manner which is to be perspicuous. We must be aware of the four following points: 1) Avoid obscurity of expression; 2) Avoid ambiguity; 3) Be brief (avoid prolixity); 4) Be orderly. According to these, English teaching has a direction. Because of differences of mindset between Chinese and English, students have a difficulty in understanding some expression. For example, “I go home after shool.” in English, While “我放学就回家。” in Chinese. We know there are almost no logical connectors in Chinese, while sentences need logical connectors to connect them. So students feel confused about some English expressions. Thus they should form logical mind and keep words clear and logical. Though Grice proposed the four maxims of cooperative principle, there exist violations of the cooperative principle if people touch it. Lets look at next chapter.3. Violations of the cooperative principle and its application Violations of the cooperative principle are its literal meaning and break the principle. And we should know “touch one, touch all; break one, break all”. There are three conditions to judge whether the cooperative principle is violated. One is that the participant is unwilling to cooperate at all. And the second is that the speaker lies and the hearer does not know the speaker is lying. Another is that the speaker lies and the hearer also knows that the speaker is lying. But I think there is also a violation of the maxim of manner, that is, the speaker can not express his real thought clearly and logically. And maybe other participants can not understand his meaning. Though some conditions violate the cooperative principle, this violation may be out of some reasons that can not be said. People usually say something or do something with certain purpose or intention. When people talk about a topic, one of them says a word which is irrelevant to the topic. Perhaps other people will feel strange, and they will understand real meaning if they are brilliant and see this word from different perspective. The violations of the cooperative principle do not mean that they just have a bad impact on English teaching. To some extend, it may get an unexpected effects. Now, let us explore bad aspects of the violations of the cooperative principle. First of all, some students are unwilling to cooperate and may want to break the conversation, they will give more information when asked. Such as a conversation practice “How old are you?” “Im 13. And my brother is 9.” Overmuch information causes unsuccessful conversation. Thus it is violation of the maim of quantity. Besides, because the hearer misunderstands the meaning of the speaker and says the different answer, it also violates the maxim of relation. Such as “How do you do?” “I do my homework.” Actually, the later gives a wrong answer. Thirdly, when class begins at a new day, the teacher asks: “Have you finished your homework?” Student A replies: “Yes, but I leave it in my home.” Maybe the student does not do his homework and so he gives a excuse. It violates the maxim of quality. These mistakes and shortcomings need to be corrected. However, the violations of the cooperative principe also have a positive influence on English teaching. Polite principle is created for explaining some violations of the cooperative principe. Most violations aim to reach euphemistic, polite and humorous effects, not real violation. Violation is the way of observance. This conversation is a typical example. T: Whats this? S: Its an elephant. T: Sit down, please. You are so smart. In this conversation, the teacher just needs to say “Sit down, please.”, but he adds a word. Though the teacher violates the maxim of quantity, he praises his students and it is more polite and can encourage students. Besides, when talking about personal questions, some teachers even students refuse to reply or change the topic. This violates the maxim of relation, but it can save face or privacy. As for violation of the maxim of manner, the example is mentioned above: T: You missed school yesterday, didnt you? S: No. Because the word “miss” is ambiguity, the student pretends to understand another meaning to avoid teachers question. In addition, violations of the four maxims can produce humor which English class is lack of. So next, practical problems in English teaching must be improved.4. Main problems in English teaching and Solutions Nowadays, most of teachers have the inclination to adopt situational teaching and communicative teaching in English teaching in order to promote teaching quality and motivate students learning enthusiasm on English. However, the cooperative principle is subconsciously applied in the process of English teaching. Perhaps teachers and students are not aware of this principle, and think it is a convention. So there is no clearly systematic principle applied in English teaching in junior school. This is a main problem. According to contents of English textbook in junior school, there are a large number of situational conversations and conversational practices which aim to enhance students pronunciation and communicative competence. While students competence in all aspects will be relatively improved through practicing a large number of different conversations. Then the teacher should guide the students with the maxim of quantity to make students form habitual thought. It is essential for students to foster conventional thought though most people in modern society advocate creation. Because they will answer the questions one by one according to conventional thought when talking with others. Besides, the maxim of quality can foster students honesty. They, as students, should be honest and trusted under the instruction of the teacher. So in English class, the teacher not only teaches students how to learn English but also educates them how to be a good man. In addition, a successful and smooth conversation needs the speaker and the hearer to have logicality and relevance. If the speaker and the hearer have a confused logical thought, they will not understand each other. So the teacher consciously explains the relationship of sentences clearly and briefly. It observes the maxim of relevance and manner. Violations of the four maxims play an unique and irreplaceable role in English class. Violations are everywhere in English class. For example, when the class is dull and quiet, the teacher may tell English jokes about violations of the four maxims to make students relaxed and active. Or the teacher will add a word to praise and encourage the students after the student answers the question correctly. More importantly, violations of the four maxims can stimulate students converse thought to think of things more particularly. In English teaching, the teacher can create efficient class through humor caused by the violations of the four maxims. English teaching is a bilateral activity between teachers and students. Cooperation of teachers and students can improve quality of t