河北师范大学英语教学法王蔷考研笔记.docx

教学法笔记PREFACE l.The name of this course.1) A Course in English Language Teaching2) Methodology of English Teaching3) Methodology of English teaching at middle school/secondary school4) Teaching English as a Foreign Language/TEFL & TESL2.The nature of language teaching1) Whafs methodology?English teaching methodology is a set of methods used for study or action in English teaching. It is the science to research the Teaching rules at middle school, which will guide our teaching to develop the students1 communicative competence.2) The definition of teaching.Teaching is an attempt to help someone acquire, or change some skills, attitude(看法),knowledge, ideal, or appreciation. In other words, the teachefs task is to create or influence desirable changes in behavior, or in tendencies toward behavior, in his students.3) The purpose of English teachinga. To improve their four skills.b. To cultivate their communicative competence.c. To show them the way to study themselves.3 .The significance of learning this course.1) Teaching is a highly demanded art.(4 skills & sing, play, draw and make)2) Teachefs qualificationsa. subject matter competenceb. professional competencec. personal attitude.3)The aims of this course.a)to provide you with the rationale of English teaching at middle school, which will be proved necessary and advantageous to the refbnn of English teaching.b)to help you to clear the importance as well as the aims of English teaching at middle school in present China.c)to provide you with chances to familiarize with the graded contents of the textbooks in the junior section, analysis of thetextbook and to learn the syllabus for middle school English.d)to introduce some commonly used techniques and methods adopted in teaching pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and the cultivation of the students' 4 skills.e)to help you so solve some problems concerning the classroom instruction.f)to make some preparations for the coming teaching practice.4 .How to present this course.1) lectures2) readings3) discussions4) watch video demonstrations5) mini-teaching6) practice writing teaching plan and peer teaching.5 .The relationship between methodology of English and the other subjects.linguistics, psychology, pedagogy, philosophy,QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION1 .What qualifications, in your opinion, should a teacher of English possess?2 .Do you think you will perform well in your future teaching? What qualifications have you obtained now? What will you do if you haven*t got the required qualifications?3 . Who was your admirable teacher of English at junior school?What do you think of him/her?Unit One Language and learning1. How do we learn language?Much of human behaviour is influenced by personal experience. The way language teachers teach in the classroom is influenced by the way they learned languages. This is especially true in foreign language teaching.1. How do we learn our own language?Research into LI shows that the most important factor for LI development is when children are interacting with people around them and when they are experimenting with the language for communication. Therefore, Language learning is a socializing process, and interaction and experimenting with the language in communication are very important factors for language development.2. How do we learn foreign language?From the task above, we may have found that:(1) People start learning a foreign language at different ages;(2) people have different experiences in learning a foreign language .(3)People learn languages fbe different reasons;(4) People learn language in different ways.(5) People have different understanding about language learning.(6) People have different capabilities in language learning(7) Learning can be affected by the way how a language is taught;(8) Learning is affected by the degree of success one is expected to achieve.II. View on language.1. What is language?Here are some of the definitions of language.Language is a system of arbitrary, verbal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learn the system of that culture, to communicate or interact Finocchiaro, 1964:8)Language is any set or system of linguistic symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another.Language is a system of arbitrary verbal symbols used for human communication.(Wardhaugh, 1972:3)Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings.Language is a system of communication consisting of a set of small parts and a set of rules which decide the way in which these can be combined to produce messages that have meaning.To give a concise definition of language has always been difficult for linguists and philologists. But language teacher clearly need to know what sort of entity they are dealing with and how the particular language they are teaching fits into that entity.2. Different views on language.In the past century, language teaching and learning practices have been influenced by three different views of language, namely, the structural view, the functional view and the interactional view. Different views on language generate different teaching methodologies.Structural View: It sees language as a linguistic system made up of various subsystem: from phonological, morphological, lexical, etc. to sentence. Each language has a finite number of such structural items. To learn a language means to learn these structural items so as to be able to understand and produce language.Functional View: it sees language as a linguistic system but also as a means fbr doing things. Most of our day-to-day language use involves functional activities: offering, suggesting, advising, apologizing, etc. Therefore, learners learn a language in order to do things with it. To perfbnn functions, learners need to know how to combine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions.Interactional view: It considers language as a communicative tool, whose main use is to build up and maintain social relations between people. Therefore, learners not only need to know the grammar and vocabulary of the language, but also need to know the rules for using them in a whole range of communicative context.The understanding of the nature of language may provide the basis for a particular teaching method, and it is also closely related to the understanding of language learning. If language is considered to have a finite number of structural items, learning the language means learning these items. If language is more than just a system of structure, it is more importantly a tool, then to learn the language means to use it, rather than just to study what it is and how it is fbnncd.III. Views on language learning.The language learning theory underlying an approach or method usually answers two questions:1) What are the psycholinguistic and cognitive process involved in language learning?2) What arc the conditions that need to be met in order for these learning processes to be activated?The research into the answers fall into process-oriented theories and condition-oriented theories.Process-oriented theories are concerned with how the mind processes new information, such as habit formation, induction, making inference, hypothesis testing and generalization.Condition-oriented theories emphasize the nature of the human and physical context in which language learning takes place, such as the number of students, what kind of input learners receive, and the learning atmosphere.Behaviourist theory: Proposed by behavioural psychologist Skinner, he suggested that language is also a form behaviour. It can be learned the same way as an animal is trained to respond to stimuli. This theory of learning is referred to as behaviourism. One influential result is the audio-lingual method, which involves the "listen and repeat“ drilling activities. The idea of this method is that language is learned by constant repetition and the reinforcement of the teacher. Mistakes are immediately corrected, and correct utterances are immediately praised.Cognitive theory: The term cognitivism is often used to describe method in which students are asked to think rather than simply repeat. It is Noam Chomsky, theory. The key point of Chomsky's theory is reflected in his most famous question:If all language is a learned behaviour, how can a child produce a sentence that has never been said by others before?According to Chomsky's theory, language is not a form of behaviour, it is an intricate rule-based system and a large part of language acquisition is the learning of this system. There are a finite number of grammatical rules in the system and with a knowledge of these rules an infinite number of sentences can be produced. A language learner acquires language competence which enables him to produce language. One influential idea of this theory is that students should be allowed tocreate their own sentences based on their understanding of certain rules.Consructivist theory: The constructivist theory believes that learning is a process in which the learner constructs meaning based on his/her own experiences and what he/she already knows.It is believed that education is used to develop the mind, not just to rote recall what is learned.Therefore, teachers must balance an understanding of the habits, characteristics as well as personalities of individual learners with an understanding of the means of arousing learners1 interests and curiosity for learning.Socio-constructivist theory: similar to constructivist theory, social-constructivist theory emphasizes interaction and engagement with the target language in a social context based on the concept of “Zone of Proximal Development” (ZPD) (近侧发展区间)and scaffolding (鹰架理论).In other words, learning is best achieved through the dynamic interaction between the teacher and the learner and between learners.IV. What makes a good language teacher?Not just a good command of foreign language, there are a variety of elements that contributes to the qualities of a good language teacher*. They are: ethic devotion, professional qualities and personal styles. ( Parrot, 1993)(look at task 4on Page 7)We can see that these three aspects contribute the professional competence of a good English teacher.A good teacher should enable the students to communicate in English inside and outside class, put an emphasis on practice rather than explanation, and co-operate among teachers.A good teacher should have a goal in teaching. A major goal in English teaching is enable learners to use English effectively. And the objectives of every lessons engaging the students' attention and interest.A good teacher should from the start establish English as the main classroom language. Keep in mind that communicating in English and learning English go hand in hand.A good teacher should create conditions fbr learning. The material conditions are not important in language learning. More important fbr successful language teaching and learning are plenty of opportunities fbr learners to participate in classroom activities, and the atmosphere in which students feel motivated to learn. Motivation is essential fbr learning. A good teacher should do all he can to stimulate the students' motivation to learn. He should set appropriate goal and objectives in learning; carefully plan the activities; choose topics of personal interest; have a fair attitude to all students.V. How can one become a good language teacher?The most important and most difficult part of the making of a good language teacher is the development of professional competence, which is the state or quality of being qualified fbr the profession, and armed with a specific range of skills, strategies, knowledge and ability.According to Paul Davis, a successful teacher has the following qualities:1. Have a practical command of English, not just a knowledge of grammar rules.2. Use English most of the time in every class, including beginners, class.3. Think mostly in term of learner practice, not teacher explanation.4. Find time for really communicative activities, not just practice of language forms.5. Focus their teaching on leamers, needs, not just on “finish“ the syllabus or course book.To develop professional competence, we can use the “reflective model“ by Wallace (1991). (See Figure 1.1 on page 9).Stage I: language development. All English teachers are supposed to have a good command of English.Stage II: The second stage is more complicated, for it can be divided into three sub-stages: learning, practice and reflection.The learning stage involves:(a) learn from others* experience (empirical knowledge)(b) learn received knowledge (such as language theories, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, educational psychology, etc.(c) learn from one's own experience.The learning stage is followed by practice. The term “practice“ can be used in two senses. First, it is a short period of time assigned for students to do teaching practice as part of their education, under the supervision of their instructors. The other sense of practice is the real work that the teachers undertake when they finish their education.Stanley (1999) pointed out that teachers benefit from practice if they keep on reflecting on what they have been doing. The teachers reflect on their work not only after they finish a certain period of practice, but while they are doing the practice. And the most difficult thing to do is to keep on reflecting on their work when teachers are doing practice in the real work sense. After some period of practice and reflection, a teacher matures and approaches the goal. But this goal is “a moving target or horizon, toward which professionals travel all their professional life but which is never finally attained.Home work：1. Finish reading 1.6 on page 11.Prepare a mini-teaching: Class begins.Unit 2 Communicative Principles and Task-based Language teachingAims of the unit:1. how is language learned in classrooms different from language used in real life?2. What is communicative competence?3. What are the implications of CLT to teaching and learning?4. What are the main features of communicative activities?5.What is Task-based Language Teaching?6. How is Task-based Language Teaching different from PPP?7. Are there imitations of CLT and TBL?1. Language use in real life vs. traditional pedagogyTask 1.Generally speaking language use in real life differs from traditional language teaching pedagogy in the following aspects:In real lifeIn traditional pedagogyHow is Lang, used /taught?