语言学教学有感

It is necessary for a teacher to study the theory about learners and learning, classrooms and contexts. After reading the book “teaching and learning in the language classroom”, I have learned a lot from it. About the learners and learning, classrooms and contexts, it is a frame work for teaching and learning, which guide us to teach in a correct direction. The following text will be written from four aspects, how languages are learned, how do differences among learners affect learning processes and teaching procedures, what factors of context should teachers take into account and what roles can teachers and learners play in the learning.

The first need to know is how languages are learned. According to the linguistics? research on the second language acquisition, there are four areas which deserve special attention from English teachers: the nature of the input provided to learners; how learners process that input; the role of classroom interaction; and the role of error in language learning. Krashen?s input hypothesis posits that language is picked up, or acquired, when learner receive input from …message? which contain language a little above their existing understanding and from which they can infer meaning. It is through the process of hypothesis making and testing that learners make sense of language input and impose a structure on it. They create a developing system known as inter language, which passes through a number of stages until it eventually approximates to the rules of the target language or until it stabilizes, or fossilizes, in ways that deviate from these rules.

Therefore meaningful input is needed in the classroom. In terms of simulating the authentic texts and speaking situations students have to handle, This implies a need for various classroom materials, and many current textbooks demonstrate a motivating range of situations and of texts, for example, newspaper articles, and advertisements. Teachers should increase input opportunities, making use of out-of-class resources such as readers and listening materials and encourage students to make use of whatever resources might be available. Meanwhile, teachers also need to adjust their own classroom language, in line with students? degree to simpler and slower speech rate and quantity while keeping natural rhythm and intonation.

As to how learners process that input actually is the issue of intake. Intake refers to the ways in which learners process input and assimilate language. There is one point need to understand that students can not process all the input available to them. Some of what they hear or read may not be understood, and some parts of input will receive more attention because, for various reasons, they seem more important to them at a particular stage of development. But currently, there are many questions about what kind of input which is most in facilitating the process. However, as teachers, should pay attention to the input form and manage the classroom effectively.

Related to the notion of input is that of output. Learners need practice in producing comprehensible output using all the language resources they have already acquired (swan 1985). To some degree, output of students means the interaction between them. Interaction could include communication, negotiation, discussion, presentation etc, through these ways the students could refine and consolidate their intake knowledge, even more they could produce more accurate and appropriate language, which itself provides input for other students. That is why in the current language classroom, pairwork and group work have become common features. The independent thinking, working and interacting play a vital value in learning language. In the classroom, those students who could less depend on teacher and play a leader role in the group work are always good language learner. However, an important issue in the use of work is the students personality, some extrovert students are adapt to group work but those introvert students are not natural when performing or reluctant to attend to.

With a view of language learning as a creative construction process comes the view that error is an inevitable and positive part of that process. How to treat the student?s error is an important issue for a teacher. Firstly there is a distinction need to pay attention between error and mistake. Error which are evidence of a learner?s current stage of interlanguage and which are to do with incomplete or faulty knowledge of English, and mistake, which are caused through inability to perform that knowledge in production because of factors to do with carelessness, distraction or difficult circumstance. So the errors need to correct in a appropriate time. A careful policy of error treatment will require consistency in its application. According to the research, it suggests that an important role for the teacher might be to encourage self-correction. It certainly fit with contemporary ideas about building responsibility in learners and reducing dependency on the teacher. There are some useful techniques as followed. Noting down each individual?s main errors on separate cards and giving these to them for reflection. If students keep a cumulative record of these cards they can monitor them to see whether some of their errors are gradually being eradicated; recording the activity (on video or CD) and asking students to listen and see if they can identify and correct their own errors and those of peers; making a note of key errors, for example, those made by several students or those relating to a recent to a recent teac hing point, and going through these with the class afterwards; noting down examples of errors and using these for a game in the next class. Error correction is considered to be one of the most complex aspects of classroom management, requiring substantial judgment and skill on the part of teacher.

Secondly it is that the differences among learners affect learning processes and teaching procedures. Now the awareness has been slowly developing in relation to aptitude, learning style, and learning strategies, and the affective factors of personality and motivation. There is a body of research evidence to suggest that some people do indeed have an aptitude for language learning. Just like some people do indeed have aptitude in music, sports. Beside, the learning style is another deference which can be generally defined as a characteristic and preferred way of approaching learning and processing information. That culture, the family style, community, and school, has a strong influence on learning style.

A closely related orientation to researching language learning style has been to investigate the strategies that are used by successful language learners. These are techniques used by learners to deal with input, assimilate new language, store, retrieve and practice using it.

I think learning strategies play an important role and I will apply it into my teaching plan. Oxford said language learning strategies are behaviors or actions which learners use to make language learning more successful, self-directed and enjoyable. There are three major types of strategy In accordance with the information-processing model in O?Malley and Chamot?s framework: cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies and social/ affective strategies.

Cognitive strategies refer to …the steps or operations used in problem-solving that require direct analysis, transformation or synthesis of learning materials? (Rubin1987), for example repetition, note-taking, elaboration. In the classroom, most of the time students are required to use the cognitive strategies to learn. However cognitive strategies are far not insufficient to become a good language learner for students. Good language learner also should show active involvement in language learning, as well as awareness of the learning process.

I want to emphasize that metacognitive strategies play a unique function and role in learning SLA. Metacognitive strategies make use of knowledge about cognitive processes and constitute an attempt to regulate language learning by meaning of planning, monitoring, and evaluating.

Those good language learners are divided into two categories. One is those who use metacognitive strategies without knowing strategies themselves, and the other is consciously aware of why they use these strategies. The former easily fall behind when encountering more complex situations. The latter could better handle the complex situations by applying their metacognitive strategies.

I will do the following in my own teaching according to the theory of the learning strategies. There are three aspects I require students to work toward. The First one is planning strategies, which including setting learning goal, looking through reading materials, design questions to the materials. If the students could well do a planning of study, they could make progress fast. The successful students not only simply listen to the class, or take notes, and wait for assignments, but also they will estimate the how long they need to finish the tasks and get relevant information before doing. In other word, a successful student is an active learner.

Secondly, it is monitoring strategies. They could be used in the reading aspects, which including paying attention to the concentration degree on the materials, as well as putting forward questions when reading, or monitoring the rate and time when reading. In the process of reading, the following strategies can take into consideration namely changing the rate of reading. To those easy contents, students could scan them, but to those harder, students should read slowly on purpose. The second way is stopping judge when encounter complex problems when reading. Sometimes the write would offer much more information on the same issue in latter. The third way is guessing. The students should form a habit to guess the meaning when understanding not completely and keep on going. The last way is rereading the hard contents, sometimes the hardest parts need to use the simplest way.

Thirdly it is evaluating strategies. The students should consciously focus on their learning progress and conclude their effects of learning methods. Once they find their learning effects are not satisfied, they should adjust their learning method in time. No matter in grammar learning or vocabulary learning, comprehension, these strategies are important for them.

After talking about the metacognitive strategies, comes to social or affective strategies. They concern the ways in which learners elect to interact with other learners and native speakers. Communication is particularly important I would suggest students insist attending to the English corner where there are foreign teachers every week, and encourage them to go to English speaking countries for short study for economics allowed students. Actually I will tell them they could practice with their group members in the real situations in English as much as they can. There are many other specific strategies existed, I will continue to explore and discover them to apply into my teaching career.

In addition to learning style and learning strategies, affective factors also influence learning process and teaching procedures. For examples, the personality, there is a widely held view that extrovert learners are likely to be more successful than introvert learners, possibly because they are more assertive, more willing to experiment and take risks and more able to make the social contacts they need to practice language. In terms of emotional response t learning, a variable which has received much attention is anxiety. Anxiety is a response leaned through early experiences and that it can increase until the whole process of learning is badly affected, emphasizes the need for humanistic approaches in the widest sense of the word. It implies that teachers have both the power and the responsibility to counter the development of anxiety by building self-confidence through positive early experience, through providing reassuring feedback, and through promoting self-perception of developing proficiency.

Any individual may be influenced by a variety of motivations which will affects such things as anxiety, or attitude, or willingness to try new learning strategies. As usually there are two kinds of motivations for learning English: needing a language as an instrument to achieve other purposes such as doing a job effectively or studying successfully at an English-speaking institution, or wishing to integrate into the activities or culture of another group of people. The most useful perspective for teacher to take is to consider what aspects of motivation can be changed and to focus on creating successful experiences which enhance motivation. There are some ways t motivate students in the classroom: give some time to considering the group dynamics and how to build cohesiveness within the class; make sure that there is sufficient variety of input (listening, reading), of pace and intensity, of interaction, and of activity to allow learners to work in their own style and with their own strategies; show awareness of differences in motivation, in emotional response, in strategies, etc., and encourage learners to build awareness of their own preferences; acknowledge that language learning is a serous endeavor requiring perseverance and involving anxiety, and be sure to give reassurance.

There is little doubt that individual differences exist and they play a significant role in language learning. For the teacher the challenge must be how to enable each learner according to his or her individual characteristics and cultural background. It may be a question of flexibility in materials design, or variety in skills work or classroom interaction. There may well be value in raising awareness in learners of their own styles and strategies and in helping them to refine and apply these in more independent resource-based learning.

Thirdly the factors of context should take into account. It means teachers need to consider characteristics of the learning situation. Most of these are outside the teacher?s control but they will bear heavily on decisions about choice of resources and classroom procedures. The factors of context can be divided into social factors and educational factors. Social attitudes towards English language learning will partly determine how much effort teachers have to put into motivating students, but so will social exposure to the language. The Teachers need to think about sources of authentic input, about manageable out-of-class practice, and about creating a balance of skills work to make the most productive use of class and out-of-class time. The educational system will be influenced by cultural notions of authority which affect the potential roles of teachers and students. The examination system, for example, is usually a heavily constraining factor, especially where examination are gatekeeper to higher education or good employment prospects. It would be a matter of high risk for a teacher not to train students for these.

Lastly it is that what roles can teachers and learners play in the learning process. It is possible to identify the teacher in a number of roles in the class: as controller in elic iting nationality word; as assessor of accuracy as students try to pronounce the words; as corrector of pronunciation; as organizer in giving instructions for the group work, initiating it, monitoring it, and organizing feedback; as prompter while students are working together; and as resource if students need help with words and structures during the group work. There are some effective ways deserve to learn: try writing down your instructions for the activity in full in your lesson notes and make them clear and concise; when you plan your lesson, make decisions about group size and where groups can be located in the classroom; plan the composition of groups according to levels of proficiency, friendship, and mix of first language; prepare how to prepare to explain rationale of the activity to your students; ask one group to demonstrate part of the activity, if this is possible, before dividing the class; give students time to ask for clarification; ask students to repeat your instructions in the

class, and elicit from them the stages they will go through. That planning, managing interaction, monitoring learning, giving instructions, and giving feedback are the teacher?s main responsibilities.

As to the learner?s role, learner-centred is a concept which has been defined from several different perspectives. One perspective, which applies usefully to situations in which adult learners can specify discernible needs for learning English, is that of asking learners to contribute to the overall design of course content and the selection of learning procedures. A second perspective on learner-centredness is that of learners contributing to the design of language learning activities, an idea which would certainly ensure that the purposes of c lassroom activies were well understood. A third perspective is that of encouraging learners to take on a greater degree of responsibilities for their own successful learning, continuing their learning out side class, at home, or in self-access facilities. The last perspective is that of using a methodology which allows learners greater control over the learning process. Learner- centredness in the class is a potential and challenging model. As teachers have to consider the other factors, Contextual constraints, with perceived roles and responsibility of teacher, with learner disposition and cultural expectations, even learning style, and with motivations for learning English.

Closely related to the teacher and learner?s role is the role of the textbook material. Any textbook is based on assumptions about learning, and the design of its activities implies certain roles for teachers and learners. The teachers evaluate a book would see whether the picture it presents of the foreign language culture and gives an accurate reflection of the variety of people, life styles, settings, politics, and points of view that one culture? can encompass.

As a new teacher, it is useful and necessary for me to understand this frame of language teaching in the classroom. I will reflect on these theories and choose some of them to apply into my teaching, besides, I will observe the class continuously, conclude my own effective method and experience one day.