最近发展区理论在初中英语口语教学中的应用》.docx

ContentsChinese Abstract2English Abstract31.Introduction41.1 Research Background41.2 Research Significance and Objectives42.Literature Review52.1 The Research of ZPD in Education Abroad52.2 The Research of ZPD in Education at Home73. Current Situation in Oral English Teaching73.1 Target Setting and Teaching Process in Class73.2 Quantity and Form of Homework83.3 Quantity and Quality of Evaluation System94. Application of ZPD in Oral English Teaching94.1 Accurate Establishment of ZPD94.2 Efficient Arrangement of Oral Class104.3 Reasonable Distribution of Homework124.4 Diversified Construction of Evaluation System135. Conclusion15References16最近发展区理论在初中英语口语教学中的应用 摘 要“最近发展区”(ZPD)的概念由心理学家维果茨基提出，并在发掘学生潜力、促进学生发展等问题上取得显著的成果。随着理论进一步的发展和应用，各种新的教学模式不断涌现，但关于“最近发展区”在英语口语教学中的应用研究甚少。因此，本文先阐述了ZPD的背景和内容，并结合维果茨基的“教学应当先于发展”的观点，研究其在口语教学中的应用。教师应准确了解学生的最近发展区，并以此为基础，创建一个高效的英语口语课堂。同时，树立新型的作业观，让口语作业“发出声音”，让评价多元化。关键词：最近发展区；初中英语；口语教学The Application of ZPD Theory to Oral English Teaching in Junior Middle SchoolAbstractThe “Zone of Proximal Development”, which was proposed by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, has made remarkable achievements in exploring students potential and promoting their development. The idea has been further developed and applied, thus lots of new teaching models are continuously emerging. But there are few studies on the application of ZPD in oral English teaching. Therefore, this paper expounds the background and content of ZPD, and studies its application in oral English teaching with Vygotskys view that “teaching should be ahead of development”. Teacher should find out the students ZPD accurately, set foot on it, and create an efficient oral English class. Similarly, it will be beneficial for teachers to set up a new view of homework, to make oral English homework vocalized and to make the evaluation system diversified.Key words: Zone of Proximal Development; junior English; oral English teaching 1. Introduction 1.1 Research BackgroundBased on extensive researches on the relation between teaching and development, Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), an outstanding psychologist during the founding of former Soviet Union, put forward Cognitive Development. And it is different from Constructionism represented by Piaget. In Vygotskys theory, the most important one is Zone of Proximal Development (hereinafter referred to as ZPD), in which children have two levels of development. One is the current level referring to childrens capability of solving problems independently; the other is the potential level that children need outside assistance to solve problems. The area between the two levels is children ZPD (Vygotsky, 1978). It is feasible to replace “children” with “students”. Students face a new subject in an unknown knowledge field just as children confront a new world to learn, thus, it is reasonable to apply ZPD to language learners.ZPD has systematically expounded the dialectical relationship among learning, teaching and development. The essence of teaching and individual differences involved in this theory has become the focus during language teaching. Remarkable achievements have been made, dealing with the connection between teaching and development. Through literature review and analysis of bilingual teaching about ZPD, it is not difficult for us to find various new teaching modes and teaching methods based on ZPD are constantly emerging such as Scaffolding Instruction, Teachers Mediatorial Role represented by Feierstein and so on (Pan Qingyu, 2011(6): 9-13). In these literatures, teachers play an important role in mediating and scaffolding, while the learners can gradually complete tasks independently. The theory of ZPD regards students as the main body of learning, which is in line with the modern educational concept and meets the new curriculum reform and requirements. The New Curriculum Standard proposes that student is the main body of learning. And teachers provide as many independent learning chances as possible to students, so that students have the chances to become the masters of the classroom. In addition, it is recommended that teachers should realize and respect the differences of students, which accords with the situation that every student has their own ZPD (金莺, 宋桂月, 2003).1.2 Research Significance and ObjectivesThe concept of ZPD has made remarkable achievements in exploring students potential and stimulating their development. ZPD has shown the fundamental aim of teaching, which is characterized by stimulating and developing students potential ability. The essence of teaching is to constantly reconstruct the students ZPD; whats more, teaching determines the direction and speed of students development (Johnson, 2003). Thus, teaching should be based on the students current level and find students ZPD, which is the most conducive to the develop students potential ability, and then guide students to a higher level.This paper intends to apply ZPD to oral English teaching in junior middle school. Find out the students ZPD accurately, set foot on it, and create an efficient oral English class. Besides, we should also pay enough attention to activities after class, for example, to set up a new view of homework and to make oral English homework vocalize. Finally, it will be good for teachers to establish diversified evaluation system to focus on students learning process.2. Literature Review 2.1 The Research of ZPD in Education Abroad2.1.1 Prototype and interpretationVygotsky is the founder of Sociocultural Theory (马俊波, 2008(3): 9-15). There is an important law of cognitive development in his theory, that is, any mental faculty during childrens cognitive development occurs twice, or on two levels: first between interpersonal relationships, then within individuals, or first at the social level, then at the psychological level. This interpretation not only clarifies the core role of interpersonal communication in the development of cognitive faculty, but also clarifies the sequence of cognitive development. From 1932 to 1934, within the framework of cognitive development, Vygotsky put the theory of “Zone of Proximal Development” forward at late stage of his academic career. Vygotsky believes that these two levels of development are like a pair of moving parallel lines, and different students have different parallel lines. Whats more, he also emphasized that teaching should focus on childrens future, that is, “good teaching should go ahead of students development”. Therefore, it requires that teachers should provide students with appropriate help, guidance and enlightenment based on understanding and analyzing students learning situation in order to construct suitable scaffolds for students and promote the continuous development of their ZPD. In chronological order, the concept of ZPD was initially limited to the application of intelligence tests, and then gradually extended to the relationship between education and cognitive development (Chaiklin, 2003). Thus, “development” is the core of this theory. 2.1.2 The Introduction of ZPDBecause of the political reasons, Westerners did not understand ZPD until the 1960s. However, since its introduction, it has attracted much attention from Western scholars, and has brought a strong impact on education. Many of Vygotskys works have been translated into English and spread to the West. A number of scholars called neo-Vygotskians who inherited and developed Vygotskys thoughts have emerged both in Russia and in the United States. On the basis of sorting out and translating Vygotskys works, they have reinterpreted his theory, broke the limitations of his research orientation and pursued the combinations of new ideas. The neo-Vygotskians mainly follows the following three lines: dynamic assessment of learning ability, transcendence of traditional education model, and construction of enlightenment theory (Pan Qingyu, 2011(6): 9-13). 2.1.3 The Development of ZPDFrom the 1960s to the 1970s, American psychologists developed a series of programs to dynamically evaluate the learning potential of underachievers (Johnson, 2003). The fundamental purpose of these programs is inherently consistent with Vygotskys view that with appropriate help from the outside world, students learn and constantly internalize their abilities. In 1970s, American psychologist, playwright Fred Newman and his colleague Louis Holzman devoted themselves to the development of Vygotskys theory in practice. They studied ZPD from the perspective of performance, and proposed the concept of performance-based learning, which is different from the instrumental learning (高瑞阔, 邓景春, 2016(8): 12-16).2.1.4 The Prosperity of ZPDAfter 1980s, the research on Vygotsky reached a mashroom growth around the world. For several decades, his thought has become the focus among scholars. At the beginning, activation of ZPD is limited to the one-way promotion from experts to novices. In 1994, Aljaafresh and Lantolf studied the individual tutoring of adult second language learners (Lantolf, 1994). The learners find the mistakes in their articles first, and then the tutors read and correct them with the learners. After 8 weeks of studying, learners English grammar ability has been improved and their dependence on tutors has been gradually reduced, that is to gradually transform potential level of development into current level of development. And its worth mentioning that Ajaafreh and Lantolf summed up a regulatory scale with13 level from implicit to explicit, which is used to explain that teachers intervention should follow a certain order, so that students can develop efficiently (Lantolf, 1994). In 1999, Nassaji and Swain conducted similar experiments (Nassaji, 2000(1): 34-51). They observed the process of learning English articles by two adult Koreans. One was taught according to Aljaafreh and Lantolfs regulatory scale, the other was with random scale guidance. The former was better than the latter, and the latter even went backwards. This study further confirmed that guidance should be given in the gradient order, which is consistent with learners ZPD. Next, activation of ZPD extends to bi-directional promotion between peers. Although the above-mentioned interaction is limited to the initial interpretation of ZPD like between “teachers” and “students” or between individuals with different capacity, the scholars of the sociocultural theory still extended it to peers with similar level so that enriches and develops ZPD. In 2007, Ohta used ZPD theory to analyze the study effect between two Japanese learners, and found that both two learners gradually mastered the Japanese grammar rules (Ohta, 2007). There was no one-way model of novice and expert among peers in this study, but they provided scaffolds with each other to cross ZPD. In the process of providing learning support to each other, they learn from others merits, complement shortcomings, and span their own ZPD.In the early study of ZPD, it was mainly limited to preschool and school-aged children. At present, the research has gradually turned to a broader field, such as the moral education in students ZPD, teachers ZPD, and families ZPD and so on, showing a diversified development trend.2.2 The Research of ZPD in Education at Home In the early 1990s, with the introduction of new educational models from abroad, the theory of ZPD has attracted more attention in China than before. However, there are some differences in its application at home and abroad. In foreign countries, the theory of ZPD has been mainly applied to the study of teacher-student error correction, peer cooperative learning, negative feedback in interaction and other activities, focusing on students learning ability. However, the domestic focus is on teaching, and researchers combines ZPD with scaffolding teaching to study how teachers can play their guiding role (马俊波, 2008(3): 9-15).In October 1998, the National Vygotsky Research Association held its founding conference and the first academic seminar in Zhoushan, which indicated that the research of Vygotsky in China had been carried out from scattered academic activity into a planned and organized one.The recent research on the theory of ZPD in China, typified by Professor Ye Haosheng and his doctoral student Ma Yankun from Nanjing Normal University, mainly focuses on three aspects: firstly, dynamic evaluation systems based on ZPD in education and teaching; secondly, cooperative learning within the framework of ZPD among peers or teachers; thirdly, new teaching modes inspired by ZPD such as scaffolding teaching, reciprocal teaching, situational teaching and so on (麻彦坤, 叶浩生, 2004). In addition, Chinese scholars have also brought in the theory, and tried to apply it into the field of second language learning.The research on the Zone of Proximal Development in China is still under exploration and development, and there is still much room for the construction of theoretical system and practical application of it with Chinese characteristics. In China, scholars revise the theory of ZPD in line with students actual situation, and then study the correlation between ZPD and the characteristics of learners. On this basis, scholars develop and apply ZPD, and then promote multi-disciplinary or wide-ranging cooperation from a unique and novel perspective.3. Current Situation in Oral English Teaching3.1 Target Setting and Teaching Process in ClassIt is a common phenomenon that people have such a concept in education: students must set up a lofty target in order to bring into full play their initiatives and develop their capability better. In fact, these ambitious goals have not played a proper role in motivating students instead they are daunting. On the contrary, if the target is easy to achieve, it will have a strong negative effect in terms of development. Appropriate goals can mobilize students enthusiasm for learning, but above-mentioned targets deviated from the students ZPD, resulting in inefficiency in teaching.Teachers should set the best goal, which is not the most valuable one but the most suitable one to be achieved. The suitable goal for students should be within the realm of possibility on account of students ZPD, that is, students can reach their goals when they try their best.Despite the continuous reform of the new curriculum, the teaching pattern in junior middle school is still knowledge transmission. Due to the influence and restrictions of the traditional exam-oriented educational concepts, oral English teaching in junior middle school is seriously restricted. Many teachers have recognized the significance of oral English, but they still focus on grammatical kno