外语教学法的进展

YANG Xiao-li H U Qi-ping

(School of Foreign Languages,Xinjiang Agricultural University,Urumqi Xinjiang 830052,China)

0 Introduction

Attempts at teaching foreign languages,especially teaching English,have never been ceased in the past hundred years,namely,language instructors have never stopped trying different methods or approaches in teaching foreign or second languages although they all agree that there is no best method or words to that effect.And also,all the time they have been carrying on sustained researches and discussions on how to teach a certain textbook in a certain period of time in order to help their specific learners to grasp as much as possible in the shortest time available.It is true that language teachers and learners have benefited a lot from the numerous publications and researches in this field.But as David Nunan(2001,p.1)put that“As language teachers,we are a branch on a much larger tree,and our professional lives will be immeasurably enriched if we are knowledgeable about the rest of the tree”,based on the similar view,in the following part,this paper aims to help teachers to broaden their knowledge or vision in applying suitable method(s)to their jobs by reviewing different methods/approaches set forth by various linguists or used by different language instructors since English began to serve as a second language or foreign language in the classrooms around the world.

1 Methods and approaches used in foreign language instruction

1.1 Traditional Methods or Approaches Applied in Earlier Period of Time

1.1.1 The Grammar-translation Method

This method was historically used in teaching Greek and Latin in the Middle Age Europe,but generalized to teaching modern languages.Its primary focus is on memorization of sentence patterns,grammar rules,and vocabulary.For example,vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated glossary.Elaborate explanations of grammar are always provided.Grammar instruction provides the rules for putting words together；instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words.Reading of difficult texts is begun early over the course of study.Little attention is paid to the content of texts.Application of this knowledge was directed on translation of literary texts—focusing on developing students'appreciation of the target language's literature as well as teaching the language.Activities utilized in today's classrooms include:questions that follow a reading passage；translating literary sentences/passages from one language to another；memorizing grammar rules；memorizing nativelanguage equivalents of target language vocabulary.Teachers almost control all the activities in classrooms and mother tongue is used with little active use of the target language.This method was once popular and widely used in teaching Russian in 1950's in mainland China and its trace can still be found everywhere in our English teaching programs today.

1.1.2 The Direct Method

The method was introduced by the German educator Wilhelm Vi?tor in the early 1800's.It was developed initially as a reaction to the grammar-translation method in an attempt to integrate more use of the target language in instruction.Focusing on oral language,it requires that all instruction be conducted in the target language with no recourse to translation.Reading and writing are taught from the beginning.Although speaking and listening skills are emphasized,grammar is learned inductively and the rules are generalized from the practice and experience with the target language.Four skills are emphasized and due attention is paid to the balance.Lessons usually begin with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in the target language.Learning material is first presented orally with actions or pictures.The mother tongue is strictly controlled.There is no translation.The preferred type of exercise is a series of questions in the target language based on the dialogue or an anecdotal story.Advanced students read literature for comprehension and pleasure. Literary texts are not analyzed grammatically.The culture associated with the target language is also taught inductively.Culture is considered an important aspect of learning the target language.

1.2 Humanistic Teaching Methods

1.2.1 The Silent Way

This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands.The teacher is active in setting up classroom settings while the students do most of the talking and interaction among themselves.All four skills (listening,speaking,reading and writing)are taught at the start.Student errors are expected as a normal part of learning；the teacher's silence helps to foster self-reliance and student initiative.?This method may work with advanced students who are highly independent,but not with the beginners.It is based on Noam Chomsky's argument that language acquisition could not possibly take place through habit formation since people create and understand utterances they have never heard before.This method impinged little upon FLT in China,because teachers facing a large number of students dare not use this method.

1.2.2 Desuggestopedia

The principle of this method is that language learning environment should respect for students'feelings.Desuggestopedia helps reduce or eliminate psychological barriers to learning.It aims at providing a relaxed and subdued learning environment,with low lighting and soft music playing in the background.Students choose a name and character in the target language and imagine being that person.Students relax and listen while dialogues are presented accompanied by music.Students later practice dialogues during an “activation” phase.

1.2.3 Community Language Learning

Teachers recognize that learning can be threatening and by understanding and accepting students'fears,they help their students feel secure and overcome their worries and fears of language learning—ultimately providing students with positive energy directed at language learning.Students choose what they want to learn in the classroom and the syllabus is learner-generated.This methodology is not based on the usual methods by which FLs are taught but based on counseling techniques.Learners are not considered as students but as“whole persons”and the instructor should act as a counselor,not as a teacher.The aim of the language counselor's skill is first to communicate empathy for the client's threatened inadequate state and to assist him linguistically.Then slowly the teacher—counselor strives to enable him to arrive at his own increasingly independent language adequacy.It is believed that this method works with adult learners.

1.3 Methods Relating to Social Psychology

1.3.1 The Audio-lingual Method

This method is based on the behaviorist belief that language learning is the principles of behavior psychology,that is,language learning is habit formation.It evolved from the principles and procedures of the Direct Method,in part as a reaction to the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Method.New material is presented in the form of a dialogue in the classroom,and then the learner repeats phrases and patterns until s/he is able to reproduce them spontaneously and fluently.There is abundant use of language laboratories,tapes and visual aids.Use of the mother tongue by the teacher is permitted,but discouraged among the students.Successful responses are reinforced；great care is taken to prevent learners'errors.There is a tendency to focus on application of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.It was once widely used in the army training program during the postwar years in 1040's in the United States and achieved some of its goals such as good pronunciation and formulaic speech,although it did not always result in communicative competence.The method is still being applied to teaching oral English in China.

1.3.2 Cognitive Method

Based on the idea that language learning is a process which involves active mental processes such as thought,reasoning,intelligence,sensory perception,comprehension,memory and regards language as a way of explaining and understanding human behavior and not simply the forming of habits,cognitive method attaches importance to the learners'active part in using and learning a language,particularly in the learning of grammatical rules,and emphasizes the conscious acquisition of language as a meaningful system.Its characters are:1.it concentrates on the learner's processes of knowing rather than on the mechanic procedures imposed upon them by the teacher；2.teachers are required to tell the learners about the language,because knowledge of language rules can facilitate learning.But the learning of grammar should be conducted in a functional way so that students may apply what they have learned to actual communicative situations；3.it believes that learners play a decisive role in classroom teaching (learners' positive attitude,confidence,strong motivation and correct learning method all play a part in the success of language learning；4.it insists that learning is based on understanding and language learning is a creative process,so meaningful learning and practice are emphasized.It attaches equal importance to all the four skills,but listening and reading should proceed speaking and writing.It holds that mistakes are unavoidable in the creative use of language.What the teacher should do is to analyze the mistakes so that they could find the cause and do some remedial work accordingly.

1.4 Methods Relating to Second Language Acquisition

1.4.1 Total Physical Response

Total Physical Response Method is defined as one that combines information and skills through the use of the kinesthetic sensory system.In the TPR classroom,students can hear,see,act out and repeat.This combination of skills allows the student to assimilate information and skills at a rapid rate.As a result,this success leads to a high degree of motivation.It is based on the belief that listening comprehension should be fully developed before any active oral participation from students is expected.This method can be widely seen to teach children English in China,but seldom found in universities.

1.4.2 Communicative Language Teaching

The goal of communicative language approaches is to create a realistic context for language acquisition in the classroom.The focus is on functional language usage and the ability of learners to express their own ideas,emotions,attitudes,desires and needs,that is,in technical terms,to break down the global concept of language into units of analysis in terms of communicative situation in which they are used.Open-ended questions,role plays,problem-solving activities and exchanges of personal information are utilized as the primary means of communication.Students usually work with authentic materials in small groups participating in communicative activities,during which they receive practice in negotiating meaning.This approach emphasizes the real,meaningful communication between learners.Learners are the center of all the activities.It is sometimes called Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Learning or Functional-notional Approach.This approach is already widely spread in China,especially at secondary education level.

1.4.3 Natural Approach

Natural Approach is similar to the Direct Method,concentrating on active demonstrations to convey meaning by associating words and phrases with objects and actions.Associations are achieved via mime.It focuses on the principles of meaningful communication,comprehension before production,and indirect error correction.Krashen's input hypothesis is applied in the Natural Approach,too.

1.4.4 Task-based Approach

This approach,from its name we know,is an approach based on the use of tasks as the central unit of language planning and teaching.It focuses on process rather than product.Learners learn to communicate by engaging in the meaningful and purposeful activities and tasks.The tasks planned by teachers must be those that the learners might need in real life or those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom.A task-based syllabus should be sequenced according to difficulty.This approach is being tried at different levels in China.

1.4.5 Lexical Approach

It is based on the notion that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes,or “chunks,” and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceive patterns of language which was traditionally thought of as grammar—that language production is the piecing together of ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation.Lexical Approach concentrates on developing learners'proficiency with lexis,or words and word collocations.This method proposes that it isn't grammar but vocabulary/lexis that is the basis of language and that the mastery of the grammatical system is not a prerequisite for effective communication (Lewis,1993,p.95).In China,teachers attach more and more importance to the lexical approach to foreign language teaching in recent years as an alternative to the previous methods.They spend a great deal of precious time and energy in class in elaborating the “bricks”.And a tremendous part of vocabulary exercises are found in textbooks at tertiary level in our country.

1.5 Other Methods and Approaches

1.5.1 Whole Language

Whole Language is seen as an approach because it is based on the principle that language is whole and the four skills:reading,writing,listening and speaking should be integrated in the whole learning.Whole Language views language organization from what we have earlier called an interactional perspective,which views language as a vehicle for human communication and in which there is an interactional relationship between speakers and listeners,and between readers and writers.In Whole Language,great emphasis is placed on “authenticity,” on engagement with the authors of written texts and also on conversation.For example,in mastering the sociolinguistic signal for “thanks,” a whole language perspective requires an authentic,‘real'situation in which one truly needs to thank to another.This approach appeared in American in 1980's and yet it is not so familiar to Chinese educators.

1.5.2 Multiple Intelligences

It refers to a learner-based philosophy which regards intelligence as having multiple aspects that must be taken into account in the process of language learning.It focuses on developing the learners'strengths and avoiding the weakness to learn foreign or second language.Learners are assumed to own different intelligences such as:linguistic,spatial,intrapersonal,bodily/kinesthetic,logical/mathematical,interpersonal and musical intelligences.Learning materials,syllabuses and activities in the classrooms are supposed to be designed and conducted according to each individual's intelligence.The method works well if students can be streamed according to the different intelligences.

1.5.3 Reading Method

This method is selected for practical and academic reasons,for specific uses of the language in graduate or scientific studies.The approach is for people who do not have chance or need to travel abroad for whom reading is the one usable skill in a foreign language.The earlier method was evolved from the traditional Grammar-translation method,thus similar to it.It emphasizes the transference of linguistic understanding to the target language.Presently,the reading method focuses more on silent reading for comprehension purposes.It bases on the concept that improving reading ability of the learners is our priority in studying the target language.Reading skills and the necessary grammar are taught only for the correct comprehension and fluency.Good pronunciation and gaining conversational skills in the target language is not a must.From the very beginning,a great amount of reading is done both in and out of class.The vocabulary of the early reading passages and texts is strictly controlled for difficulty.Vocabulary should be expanded as quickly as possible,since the acquisition of vocabulary is considered more important than other skills.The correct understanding of the accurate meaning of words in the context is crucial.Translation reappears as a respectable classroom procedure related to comprehension of the written passage.College English teachers are found using this method consciously to do their job most of the time in China.

1.5.4 Technological Approach

This approach has been utilized since the 1920's in FL classrooms.?Access to audio visual equipment and materials such as tape or video recorders,short-wave radios,motion pictures and films,and computers enhances instruction as well as provides student opportunities for authentic exposure and interaction in the target language.Some linguists argue that this may not be a method,because just some equipment is used to aid learners in learning a language and it is not based on any principles.

1.5.5 Genre-based Teaching Approach

This method,as the name implies,is actually an empirical application of genre analysis based on genre theory.It was once popular in North American and Australia in 1980s.Since about the last decade,the notion of genre has been given a bit attention and its application has significant impact on the ways we see language use and teach English in China.Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2003,p.224)defines the word “genre” as: “A type of discourse that occurs in a particular setting,that has distinctive and recognizable patters and norms of organization and structure,and that has particular and distinctive communicative functions.”Martin(1984,p.16)mentions “…it involves people engaging in purposeful goal oriented activities(genre)”.

1.6 Ways Used in Teaching and Learning EFL in China

1.6.1 Four-in-one Approach

Four-in-one approach is a method formally set forth by Prof.Bao Tianren in 2003 for teaching English as a foreign language in our middle school on the mainland China.The four refers the four periodical steps or stages(4Ps):preparation,presentation,practice and production.In some way,it is similar to Task-based Approach.It only influenced TEFL in middle schools,seldom known to college or university teachers.

1.6.2 Crazy English Method

This method is developed and advocated by Li Yang who wants to reflect his belief that everything in life should be done with wholehearted passion and abandon.Crazy English employs two primary components:mental and physical engagement with movement with the learner's voice and body.It,in fact,has infused a large number of learners both in middle schools and universities all over China with more inspiration than learning method.It emphasizes more on motivation(a kind of spiritual force)rather on how learners learn.Some scholars do not think that it has developed into a method,but it has motivated or encouraged many learners at home and it has been known to other countries.

1.6.3 Sizhong Foreign Language Pedagogy

It is also known as 16 Chinese Characters Method advocated by Zhong Sizhong.The 16 words are put into English,meaning that:appropriate concentration,repetitive cycle,reading originals and teaching students in accordance with individual differences or aptitudes.It is a method emphasizing the comprehensive development in the four skills:listening,speaking,reading and writing.Like Four-in-one Approach,it is only limited in middle schools.

2 Epilogue

The paper has tried to cover all the methods or approaches at home and abroad,but failed to do so.Such methods as Content-based Method,Situational Method and Counseling Learning are excluded in this piece of writing because of the limited space.And also,for the same reason,the strong points(advantages)and weaknesses(disadvantages)of each method/approach are not discussed.What is intended to say is that every and each teacher does have his or her opinions and a critical thinking is greatly recommended for making a decision.In a real instruction,classroom activities do involve several methods/approaches/techniques being applied,needless to say that during the whole process of learning a foreign language.It is hoped that any language jobber reads this paper can get a bit revelation or inspiration to make improvement in their future teaching.As teachers,we should never stop to pat ourselves on our backs and this maxim is better to be kept in our mind,that is“Good teachers are those who know how little they know.Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they don't know.” — R.Verdi?

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