Linguistics 9

7/27/2019 Linguistics 9

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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(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

Linguistics 9

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