-
Principles of Language Learning and
Teaching
研究生入学考试编号
908
——语言学习与语言教学的
原则
Chapter One
1.
Language:
(1)Language is a system of arbitrary,
vocal symbols which permit all people in a
given
culture,
or
other
people
who
have
learned
the
system
of
the
culture,
to
communicate or to interact.
(2)A
consolidation
of
the
definitions
of
the
language
yields
the
following
composite
definition.
①
Language is
systematic and generative.
②
Language is a set of
arbitrary symbols.
③
The
symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be
visual.
④
The symbols
have conventionalized meanings to which they
refer.
⑤
Language is
used for communication.
⑥
Language operates in a
speech community or culture.
⑦
Language is essentially
human, although possibly not limited to humans.
⑧
Language
is
acquired
by
all
people
in
much
the
same
way---
Language
and
language
learning both have universal characteristics.
2. Learning
Breaking down the components of
learning,we can extract, domains of research
and inquiry:
(1)Leaning is
acquisition or
”
getting.
”
(2)Learning is
retention of information or skill.
(3)Retention implies storage systems,
memory, cognitive organization.
(4)Learning involves active, conscious
focus on and acting upon events outside
or inside the organism.
(5)Learning is relatively permanent but
subject to forgetting.
(6)Learning
involves some form of practice, perhaps reinforced
practice.
(7)Learning is a change in
behavior.
3.
Teaching
(1)Teaching cannot
be defined from learning.
(2)Your
understanding of how the learner learns will
determine your philosophy
of education,
your teaching style, your approach, methods, and
classroom techniques.
(3)A theory of
instruction should specify the following features:
①
The
experiences
which
most
effectively
implant
in
the
individual
a
predisposition toward
learning.
②
The ways in
which a body of knowledge should be structured so
that it can be
most readily grasped by
the learner.
③
The
most effective sequences in which to present the
materials to be learned.
④
The nature and pacing of
rewards and punishments in the process of learning
and teaching.
Parole refers to the realization of
langue in actual use; parole is the concrete use
of the set conventions and the
application of the rules; parole varies from
person to
person, and from situation to
situation.
Langue refers to the abstract
linguistic system shared by all the members of the
speech community; langue is the set of
conventions and rules which language users
all have to follow; langue is
relatively stable; it does not change frequently.
r-Translation Method
It is a way of studying
a language that approaches the language first
through
detailed analysis of its
grammar rules, followed by application of this
knowledge
to the task of
translating sentences and texts into or out of the
target language. Thus it
views language
learning as consisting of memorizing rules and
facts in order to
understand and
manipulate the morphology or syntax of the foreign
language.
Reading and writing are the
major focus, little or no systematic attention is
paid to
speaking or listening. Grammar
is taught deductively and the
student
’
s native
language is the medium of
instruction.
Chapter Two
1.
Behaviorist Theory
It thinks
that by the process of conditioning, we build an
array of
stimulus-response connections,
and more complex behaviors are learned by building
up series or chains of responses.
2. Verbal
Behavior / Operant Conditioning
(1)Skinner
’
s
theory of verbal behavior was an extension of his
general theory of
learning by operant
conditioning.
(2)Operant conditioning
refers to conditioning in which the organism (in
this
case,a human being) emits a
response, or operant (a sentence or utterance),
without
necessarily observable stimuli;
that operant is maintained (learned) by
reinforcement.
(3)According to Skinner,
verbal behavior, like other behavior, is
controlled by its
consequences. When
consequences are punishing, or when there is lack
of
reinforcement entirely, the behavior
is weakened and eventually extinguished.
3. Mediation
Theory
(
调节理论
)
(1)In an attempt to broaden
the base of behavioristic theory, some
psychologists
proposed modified
theoretical positions. One of these positions was
mediation theory.
(2)Its meaning was
accounted for by the claim that the linguistic
stimulus elicits
a
“
< br>mediating
”
response that
is self-stimulating. This self-stimulating process
is a
“
representational
mediation process
”
, a
process that is really covert and invisible,
acting within the learner.
(3)Mediation theories still left many
questions about language unanswered.
①
The abstract nature of
language and the integral relationship between
meaning
and utterance were unresolved.
②
Deep structures were
scarcely plumbed by mediation theory.
4. Innateness Hypothesis
(
先天主义理论
)
.
Language acquisition is innately
determined, that we are born with a built-in
device of some kind that predisposes us
to language acquisition---to a systematic
perception of language around us,
resulting in the construction of an internalized
system of language.
5. LAD
（语言习得机制）
（
1
）
Choms
ky claimed the existence of innate properties of
language to explain
the
child
’
s mastery of his
native language in such a short despite the highly
abstract
nature of the rules of
language. This innate knowledge, according to
Chomsky, is
embodied in a
“
little black
box
”
of sorts, a language
acquisition device(LAD).
(2) McNeill
described LAD as consisting of four innate
linguistic properties:
①
the
ability to distinguish speech sounds from other
sounds in the environment,
②
the ability to organize
linguistic events into various classes which can
later be
refined,
③
knowledge that only a
certain kind of linguistic system is possible and
that
other kinds are not,
④
the ability to engage in
constant evaluation of the developing linguistic
system
so as to construct the simplest
possible system out of the linguistic data that
are
encountered.
6. Universal Grammar
(1)Posting that all human beings are
genetically equipped with language-specific
abilities, researches are now expanding
the LAD notion into a system of universal
linguistic rules that go well beyond
what was originally proposed for the LAD.
(2)UG research is attempting to
discover what it is that all children, regardless
of
their environmental stimuli bring to
the language acquisition process.
(3)Such studies have looked at question
formation, negation, word order,
discontinuity of embedded clauses,
subject deletion, and a host of other grammatical
phenomena.
7.
Pivot Grammars
(
中枢语法
)
(1)The early grammars of child were
referred to as pivot grammars.
(2)It
was commonly observed that the
child
’
s first-two utterances
seemed to
manifest two separated word
classes. The first class of words was called
pivot, since
they could pivot around a
number of words in the second, open class.
(3)For example, my cap, that horsie.
(4)Thus the first rule of the
generative grammar of the child was described as
follows: Sentence
Pivot Word +
Open Word.
(5)As the
child
’
s language matures and
finally becomes adult-like, the number
and complexity of generative rules
accounting for language competence simply
boggles the mind.
8. Competence
(1)Competence
refers to one
’
s underlying
knowledge of a system, event, or fact.
It is the nonobservable ability to do
something, to perform something.
(2)In
reference to language, competence is your
underling knowledge of the
system of a
language---its rules of grammar, its vocabulary,
all the pieces of a
language and how
those pieces fit together.
9. Performance
(1)Performance
is the overtly observable and concrete
manifestation or
realization of
competence. It is the actual doing of something:
walking, singing,
dancing,
speaking.
(2)In reference to
language, performance is the actual production
(speaking,
writing) or the
comprehension (listening, reading) of linguistic
events.
10. Nature
Innately, in some sort of predetermined
biological timetable.
11.
Nurture
Environmental exposure, learn
and internalize by teaching.
Chapter Three
1.
Critical Period
(
关键期
)
“
Critical
period
”
for language
acquisition---a biologically determined period of
life when language can be acquired more
easily and beyond which time language is
increasingly
difficult
to
acquire.
The
critical
hypothesis
claims
that
there
is
such
a
biological timetable.
2.
Critical
Period Hypothesis
(
关键期假说
)
(1)Critical
period
的定义
(2)The
“
classic
”
< br> argument is that a critical point for second language acquisition
occurs
around
puberty,
beyond
which
people
seem
to
be
relatively
incapable
of
acquiring a nativelike accent of the
second language.