Language Ego in Second Language Teaching

【Abstract】Effective teaching is a goal that all English teachers pursue all the time. But teaching is an extremely difficult work to a certain extent， especially for English as a foreign language and its imperative for teachers to play emphasis on emotion of students， all second language learners must another ego and have no idea of words and structure， just like a babbling infant， which is also true for Chinese learners. Therefore， teachers should provide all the affective support and loving care as much as possible to them.

【Key words】Language ego; Inhibition

【作者简介】朱金裕（1995-），女，汉族，江西萍乡人，江西师范大学，学生，研究方向：二语习得。

Language Ego

1.The Definition of Language Ego

“Learning a language is earning another soul”. （Zukowski， 1997）. Its highly universal that anyone who has the experience of learning second language has a feeling that he is a strange person when speaking another language， totally different from speaking native language， thats the phenomenon second language ego. “As human beings learn to use a second language， they also develop a new mode of thinking， feeling， and acting——a second identity. The new language ego， intertwined with the second language， can easily create within the learner a sense of fragility， a defensiveness， and a raising of inhibitions.” （Brown， 1994）. Hinchey argued that the formation of second language is a long and complicated process， experiencing five stages in total， they are form， feeling， perception， concept and consciousness respectively. Second language ego will influence sense first language ego sense. Learners have to overcome inhibition before the formation of second language ego. Inhibition is a kind of psychological barrier which built up during the process of peoples understanding of themselves so as to protect their vulnerable ego. （Zukowski， 1997）. In my actual teaching experience， I taught an English class in a high school， although most of the students have a good performance in all kinds of examination， they were not willing to communicate with classmates in a practice of dialogue， and they read the passage quickly and had a lot of pause to avoid mistakes in pronunciation. As Brown （1994） said that highly intelligent adults can be reduce to babbling infants in second language， students do not know what difficulties in the process of learning English. Thus， they show fear， resistance， and avoidance to second language.

2. Ways to overcome language ego

Therefore， its urgent for teachers to get over negative influence of language ego， and foster   positive and efficient second language ego. From the angle of social constructivism， teachers should become mediation not a traditional knowledge. And overcome their own influence of language ego at the same time， and provide a lot of authentic opportunities and environment in target language to communicate. Besides， learners are supposed to be put the central focus in teaching. Social constructivism give much attention to this point， because language ego of one person has a great effect on his learning behavior， if his language ego is negative， he will flinch and be afraid of speaking because of shyness. So teachers should direct students to be aware of that all kinds of aspects integration of another culture and language must be involved. Positive ego is the reflection of positive and initiative constructivism of second language ego. From the perspective of humanistic teaching， teachers should use materials related to the individual experience of the students in the classroom is as much as possible. Secondly， reducing or avoiding criticism to encourage the confidence and self-esteem of the students to form a mature defense mechanism. In the end， increasing the opportunity for self-determination for students so as to provide a more convenient channel to cultivate language ego.

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