王蔷英语教学法重点.doc

Unit 1 Language and Learning
How do we learn language?
We learn language at different ages
People have different experiences
People learn languages for different reasons
People learn languages in different ways
People have different capabilities in language learning
Learning can be affected by the way how language is taught
Learning is affected by the degree of ess one is expect to achieve.
Thus the challenge confronting language teaching is how teaching methodology can ensure essful learning by all the learners who have more differences than monality.
1. 2 What are the major views of language?
1) Structural view:
Language is a linguistic system made up of various subsystems: phonology, morphology, lexicology and syntacx. To learn a language is to learn its vocabulary and structural rules.
2) Functional view:
Language is a linguistic system as well as a means for doing things. Learners learn a language in order to be able to do things with it (use it). To perform functions, learners need to know how bine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions.
3) Interactional view:
Language is municative tool to build up and maintain social relations between people. Learners need to know the rules of a language and where, when and how it is appropriate to use them.
Views on Language Learning
Two broad learning theories:
Process-oriented theories are concerned with how the anizes new information.
Condition-oriented theories emphasize the nature of human and physical context.
Behaviorist theory
B. F. Skinner
A stimulus-response theory of psychology
Audio-lingual method
The idea of this method is that language is learned by constant repetition and the reinforcement of the teacher. Mistakes were immediately corrected, and correct utterances were immediately praised.
Cognitive theory
Influenced by Noam Chomsky (revival of structural linguistics)
Language as an intricate rule-based system
A learner a