linguistics 9
TRANSCRIPT
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Linguistics andLanguage Teaching
Lecture 9
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Approaches to Language Teaching
Language teaching usually refers to the
teaching of any language, either as a first
language, second language or as a foreign
language. In order to improve the efficiencyof language teaching, many approaches have
been used.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
Language teaching has experienced great
changes in the world. The 20th century
witnessed a dramatic transformation of the
role of the English language in the world.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
Changes in language teaching methods throughout
history have reflected the development of linguistic
theories.
From the 17th to the 19th centuries, linguistics wascharacterized by traditional grammar.
Correspondingly, the grammar-translation method
was widely used in the teaching of Latin in
European schools. In the grammar-translationmethod, priority was given to reading and translation
of written language.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
Due to the political, economic and technical
changes, English has obtained a new role
and is widely taught as an official language in
the newly independent countries, as asecond language to new immigrants in
English-speaking countries, and as a foreign
language in many non-English-speakingcountries.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
The new role of the language teaching has
brought about different approaches to
language. While the traditional grammar-
translation method and its various variationsare still used in English-teaching classes,
applied linguists and teachers have
formulated many "new" approaches.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
The natural method (also called the directmethod) of language teaching was quitesuccessfully used in the various language
schools in the USA and Europe in the late19th century and the early 20th century. Inthe post-World War I decades, the directmethod was adopted into English language
teaching (ELT) and laid a solid intellectualand practical foundation for the developmentof ELT as an autonomous profession.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
In the decades during and after the Second World
War, a structural approach was formulated with
behaviorist psychology as its psychological basis
and structural linguistics as its linguistic basis.Behavioral psychology views language learning as
one of human behaviors that can be explained by
the Stimulus-Response model. Systematic
reinforcements can lead to the establishment of a
connection between a stimulus or stimulus situation
(s) and the organism's response (R).
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Approaches to Language Teaching
In the late 1950s and the 1960s Chomskyformulated the mentalistic approach tolanguage acquisition, which considered
human behavior much more complex thananimal behavior. According to Chomsky,everyone is born with a Language AcquisitionDevice (LAD), which enables the child to
make hypotheses about the structure oflanguage in general, and the structure of thelanguage being learned in particular.
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Approaches to Language Teaching
Later, applied linguists brought about the
situational approach and the
notional/functional method. Meanwhile,
based on a broader framework for thedescription of language use called
communicative competence proposed by
Hymes, the communicative approach tolanguage teaching came into being.
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The Relation of Linguistics to
Language Teaching Both linguistics and language teaching takes
language as their subject. Linguistics aims atexploring the general principles upon which
all languages are constructed and operate assystems of communication in the societies inwhich they are used. The achievements oflinguistic inquiry can be utilized for effective
language teaching. The bridge betweenlinguistics and language teaching is appliedlinguistics.
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The Relation of Linguistics to
Language Teaching In the broad sense, applied linguistics refers
to the application of linguistic knowledge to
the solution of various problems in other
domains of science from the invention oflanguage for a certain minority nationality to
machine translation. In the narrow sense, this
term is used to refer to language teaching,particularly the teaching of a second
language or a foreign language.
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Syllabus Design Syllabus refers to the description of the planning
and framework for a course of study, and may listthe learning goals, objectives, contents, processes,resources and means of evaluation planned forstudents.
Syllabus is fundamental to language teaching.Before any course is started, and before anymaterials are written, a decision has to be takenabout what the students are going to learn. Once a
syllabus exists, materials can be written andteachers can decide how long they need to spendon various parts of the syllabus and how long theywill need in class to complete it.
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Grammatical Syllabus
Grammatical syllabus takes grammar as the
basis for (foreign) language teaching. To the
advocates of this syllabus, grammar is
primary in the study of a foreign language,and the study of grammar is not only
beneficial to the learner's comprehension and
translation of the target language but also to
the development of the learner's intelligence.
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Grammatical Syllabus
In grammatical syllabus, units of learning are determined by thegrammatical categories of the language. The items to be learnedare labeled in grammatical terms such as the definite article,adjectives, past tense, conditionals, comparative and superlative,and so on. The grammatical rules and vocabulary are carefullyordered according to factors such as frequency, complexity and
usefulness. (a) Stress is laid on the written language rather than the spoken
language.
(b) The instruction of grammar not only focuses on what isregular but also on what is irregular.
(c) The classroom instructions are presented in the nativelanguage.
(d) The major teaching method is translation and the mastery ofthe learned grammatical rules is checked through large quantitiesof written translation and writing practice.
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Grammatical Syllabus
(a) Stress is laid on the written language rather than
the spoken language.
(b) The instruction of grammar not only focuses on
what is regular but also on what is irregular. (c) The classroom instructions are presented in the
native language.
(d) The major teaching method is translation and the
mastery of the learned grammatical rules is checkedthrough large quantities of written translation and
writing practice.
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Situational Syllabus Situational syllabus refers to a syllabus in which the
instruction of language teaching is planned around
the situations in which the linguistic forms to be
taught are normally used. Situational syllabus has
sociolinguistics as its theoretical basis. Its
assumption is that language always occurs in a
social context and should not be separated from its
context when it is being taught. In any case, our
choice of linguistic forms is frequently restricted by
the nature of the situation in which we are using
language.
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Situational Syllabus A lesson written in the situational syllabus generally
starts with a conversation in a certain situation (e.g.
at the airport, in a shop, or talking about the
weather). Then typical vocabulary and structures
used in this situation are presented for the learner to
bear in mind, and put into practice and, above all,
into application in future real communication. The
resulting materials will, of course, be linguistically
heterogeneous, since natural situations do not
contain language of the uniformity of structure which
characterizes the grammatical syllabus.
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Communicative Syllabus Communicative syllabus focuses language
teaching on the development of the learner's
communicative competence. The
communicative syllabus is based on theassumption that language is used for
communication, and that learning a language
is learning to communicate.
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Communicative Syllabus The communicative syllabus emphasizes the simultaneous
development of the learners' linguistic competence andpragmatic competence. The linguistic items to be studied aredependent upon the learners' purposes of the communication heexpects to participant in. Before designing a syllabus, the teacher
should try to find out the learner's needs and then may proceedto decide what vocabulary, structures and function the learnersshould master and to what degree they should master theseitems. These structures and functions form the basis for acommunicative syllabus, the teaching goal of which should bethe development of the learners' ability to use the structures andfunctions to realize their communicative goals.
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Language Testing a) The Feedback Function
Language tests can provide teachers and students
with feedback information so that they can improve
their teaching and learning. The results of the testcan help them to adapt their behaviors according to
the teaching goals. They can also help to foster the
students' motive to learn the language well. This
function lays stress on the process rather than theresult of teaching and thus is of greater pedagogical
significance.
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Language Testing b) The Assessment Function
Tests are often used to assess students'
achievements in language learning. Since
students are normally scored at the end of acourse, this function focuses on the result of
language teaching and is widely used by the
teachers and educational administers.
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Language Testing c) The Backwash Function
Language testing can function as a
"backwash" for the other aspects of language
teaching. The results of language testing canhelp us to assess whether the teaching goal
is appropriate, valid and to what degree it has
been achieved. Moreover, the results oflanguage testing also provide feedback for
the language teaching activities.
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validity
Validity refers to the degree to which a test
measures what it is intended to measure.
This is the most important index for thequality of a test. The notion of validity can be
approached from content validity, construct
validity, face validity, washback validity, andcriterion-related validity.
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Content validity refers to whether the testadequately covers the syllabus area to be tested, orin other words. Content relevance and contentcoverage are often taken into consideration.
Construct validity concerns what theoreticalconstruct on which the test is based. Face validitydeals with not what the test actually measures, butto what it appears superficially to measure. It is
determined by the impression of the testees whotakes the test, the administrative personnel whodecide on its use, and other technically untrainedobservers.
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Washback validity refers to whether the test
can reflect the result of the teaching and
learning that precedes it and throw light on
future teaching and learning. Criterion-related validity is also called the
"statistic validity". It refers to the validity
represented by the relation between the testscores and the criterion scores.
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Efficiency
The third important criterion for testassessment is efficiency. This involves
questions of economy, ease of administration,scoring, and interpretation of results. Thelonger it takes to construct, administer andscore, and the more skilled personnel and
equipment are involved. Today, many testsare administered online. Efficiency is alsorelated to financial viability.
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Types of Language Tests The discrete point test In a discrete point test, language is segmented into
many small linguistic points and the four languageskills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Test
questions are designed to test these skills andlinguistic points.
A discrete point test consists of many questions ona large number of linguistic points, but eachquestion tests only one linguistic point. Objective
questions are widely used in the discrete point test.Thus the scoring is objective and the results arequite reliable and easy to be analyzed statistically.TOEFL is a typical discrete point test.
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Types of Language Tests The Integrative Test
This kind of test is also called the "pragmatic
test". Contrary to the discrete point test, the
integrative test envisages human linguisticcompetence as an integrative whole and thus
emphasizes the simultaneous testing of the
testee's multiple linguistic competence fromvarious perspectives.
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Types of Language Tests a. Cloze dictation: This is a combination of cloze test and
dictation. The testees are required to fill in the blanks in apassage while they are listening to the same material. Thedeleted part may be a single word, or a sentence, or a larger unit.
b. Oral cloze test: The testees are required to provide what isdeleted in a passage orally during the pause while listening to thematerial. The blanks are usually at the end of a sentence.
c. Paraphrase recognition: The testees are required to read apassage and then choose from the given options the sentencewhich best summarizes the main idea of the passage. In anotherform, the testees are required to listen to a sentence and choosefrom the options provided the one that best retains the meaningof that sentence.
d. Questions & Answers: The testees are required to listen to adialogue first and then choose from the options provided the bestanswer to the question they hear.
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Types of Language Tests The Communicative Test
This kind of test takes the theory of sociolinguistics
and the communicative approach to language
teaching as its theoretical bases. Accordingly, thecommunicative test aims at testing the testee's
mastery of the target language through
accomplishing certain tasks in real or nearly-real
situation. In this sense, it is a "task-based test." The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing
are tested comprehensively.
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Types of Language Tests The Achievement Test
The Proficiency Test
The Aptitude Test
The Diagnosis Test
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Language Test Development Designing the test blueprint
the objectives of the test
the type of the test
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the contents of the test
the question types of the test
the proportion of each section in the test
paper
the specification form for the test
Writing the test paper
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Error Analysis Interlingual transfer
Intralingual transfer