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Lecture OneThe College of Int’l Studies

Yangzhou UniversityYangzhou University

解读英语基础教育：理论与实践Some Issues on EEL Teaching &

Education in China

Dr. Hongliang YUhongliang_yu118@126.com

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0. Outline

1. Brainstorming: Humanistic requirements for a professional?

2. Problems: EFL teaching or education?

3. Solutions: Theoretical and practical4. Teacher professional development:

Intrinsically driven and extrinsically affected

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I. Brainstorming

人文素养 : 基本品质和基本态度人文素养教育 : 人生存目的的教育，即教会学生“如何做人”

人文精神 : 对人类生存意义和价值的关怀科学精神、艺术精神和道德精神

教育的人文要求：担当 ? 使命 ? 精神 ? 1+1≠2

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II. Problems identified关于外语教育理念关于教育的本质与外语教育的本质关于英语基础教育目标与英语教学目标

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问题一：关于外语教育理念

形而上和形而下：任何教育均隐含着一种哲学假设和价值取向。外语教学争论焦点似乎主要是途径和方法的问题，很少涉及英语教育目标与政治、文化、经济等问题的关系，很少讨论英语教育的基本理念。

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What is ideology, anyway?

Ideology: a set of concepts, doctrines and beliefs that forms the basis of a political, educational or economic system 《朗文语言教学与应用语言学词典》（第三版）。 Holliday (2009)：理念是决定人们行为选择的思想系统。

Tollefson (2007)：理念在语言教学中是指人们对于语言的本质、交际的本质与目的以及得体的交际表现等观念的共识。

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英语教育理念：两个视角 N-bound perspective

标准：本族语者的口头语言、价值观念、文化常模（ Sifakis , 2004）。如：教学目标：以英语为本族语者的能力水平为标准。教学内容：以核心英、美文化为参照的常模（ Stern, 199

2）。 Holliday （ 2005 ） : native-speakerism，反映的根深蒂固的思维定式。语言评价参照本族语的熟练程度。

误区： successful learners vs native speakers; native-like targeted, but who are the native speakers?

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C-bound perspective标准：以在国际交流的场合，双方相互理解为标准 , 不以英语国家文化为标准 ; 交流双方共同的理解基础 : 了解对方的背景和文化。 (Sifakis, 2004)

误区 1 ： Communicative functions ≠communicative effectiveness/success;

误区 2 ： English taken as international language, but a moving target (or a communication tool in the virtual community)

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英语课程理念强调学科内容固有价值理念（ academic

rationalism)注重服务社会经济发展理念（ social and economic

efficiency )以学习者为中心的理念（ learner-centeredness)“社会重建”理念（ social reconstructionism) 文化多元主义（ cultural pluralism) 。

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问题二：关于教育与外语教育的本质教育的本质

学文化、启心智、爱生命（刘润清、韩宝成， 2008）

Change in both teachers and students : morally, intellectually, psychologically

and physically into critical and independent thinkers

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外语教育的本质教师的观念体系（认知体系或信念体系）：一种心理定势，左右着教师的教学行为。

最核心的 : 外语教育性质观，统领着全局，决定着发展方向，

由此引出的 : 目的观、任务观、教材观、内容观、教学观、测试观等。 多元化、个性化和国际化的人才观。

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外语教育观念体系

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外语教育的性质Attributes ：“ What is language ？”

“语言是交流的工具。”“学外语就是为了和人进行交流”；“外语是一门工具性学科，实用性非常重要。”“语言是个符号系统。”“外语是了解与体验外国文化的桥梁。” 。。。

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语言的工具属性 ?语言的认知、社会文化和生物属性 ?

语言是交流的工具，但它绝不同于一般的生活工具或生产工具。

语言是人类才拥有的一套符号体系，是一个民族认识世界、阐释世界的意义体系和价值体系。

语言也不只是思维的工具，它还能让人的思维活跃起来，发达起来，让人变得更聪明、更智慧。

人区别于动物，是因为人不只有物质的语言，人还有情感语言、命题语言和精神语言。

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英语作为外语的属性工具性人文性思想性

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问题三：外语教育目标 Cook (2007): External goals and internal goals

外在目标：实用的语言运用目标。 内在目标：关注学生内心世界等自身的素质 (mental

development)。 7 internal goals: 培养不同的思维方式；理解不同的文化和宗教；发展优秀的公民素养；学会不同的学习语言方式；通过英语学习，学生从不同的角度思考、理解各国的文化；提高个人素质，成为既有民族特性，又有国际意识的公民等。

Multi-competence

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韩宝成、刘润请 (2008)：外语（英语）基础教育其目的应该是使学生通过外语（英语）来学习文化，认识世界，培养心智，为终身发展打下基础。

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《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》 ……适应国家经济社会对外开放的要求，培养大批具有国际视野、通晓国际规则、能够参与国际事务和国际竞争的国际化人才。

误区 1：外语能力≠国际视野 误区 2：仅从工具的意义来看语言及其教育是十分狭隘的观念。人在创造语言世界的同时创造了人的世界，创造了人的历史，创造了人自己。

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“取法乎上，仅得其中；取法乎中，仅得其下。”（《易经》）

认为英语教育只是教授一门外语的看法正受到国外学界的强烈质疑 (Pennycook, 1989 ； Holliday, 1994 ； McKay, S. 2003 ； Cummins & Davison, 2007）。

Ellis （ 2008 ） : 一种语言教学课程是以一系列社会与政治价值体系为基础的，任何课程的设置都要论述这些价值体系，达成共识，说明以何种价值体系引导课程的设计。

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中外各国基础教育课程改革的重要共同点是： 重视调整教育培养目标，努力使新一代国民具有适应 21世纪社会、科技、经济发展所必需的全面素质 ;

强调学生整体发展 (all-round development)，而不仅仅关注学业目标 (academic)。

注重多元化、个性化和国际化的人才观。

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America : ETS PPI ETS PPI ： Noncognitive measures for admissions in

higher education. Noncognitive or personal attributes — sometimes referred to as “soft skills” — are considered essential for academic success.

The 6 personal attributes captured by ETS PPI are Knowledge and Creativity; Communication Skills; Teamwork; Resilience; Planning and Organization; and Ethics and Integrity.

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China: Course objectives

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III. Solutions: Theoretical and practical

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Theoretical considerations Language learning: Nature vs. nurture

How much of human language learning derives from innate predispositions (genetic pre-programming) and how much of it derives from social and cultural experiences which influence us as we grow up? Skinner: Language could be learned primarily

by imitating caretakers’ speech. Chomsky: Human language is too complex to

be learned. We must have some innate predisposition to expect natural languages to be organized in particular ways.

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Communicative Competence The term ‘communicative competence’

was coined by Dell Hymes (1967), a sociolinguist who was convinced that Chomsky’s (1965) notion of competence was too limited.

In the 1970s, research on communicative competence distinguished between linguistic and communicative competence (Hymes 1967) to highlight the difference between knowledge ‘about’ language forms and knowledge that enables a person to communicate functionally and interactively.

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Michael Canale and Merrill Swain (1980) and later in Canale’s (1983) : communicative competence

The construct of communicative competence: four different components. Grammatical competence Discourse competence Sociolinguistic competence Strategic competence

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The first two subcategories reflect the use of the linguistic system itself. Grammatical competence is that aspect of

communicative competence that we associate with mastering the linguistic code of a language, the ‘linguistic’ competence of Hymes.

Discourse competence: it is the ability we have to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances. While grammatical competence focuses on

sentence-level grammar, discourse competence is concerned with intersentential relationship.

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The last two subcategories define the more functional aspects of communication. Sociolinguistic competence is the

knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and of discourse. This type of competence ‘requires an

understanding of the social context in which language is used: the roles of the participants, the information they share, and the function of the interaction.

Only in a full context of this kind can judgments be made on the appropriateness of a particular utterance’ (Savignon 1983).

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Strategic competence: “the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or due to insufficient competence” (Canale and Swain1980). It is the competence underlying our ability to

make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through ‘paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in register and style’ (Savignon 1983).

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Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) CLT: an approach not a method. Brown (1993) offers the following four

interconnected characteristics as a definition of CLT: Classroom goals are focused on all of the

components of communicative competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence.

Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes.

Organizational language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes.

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Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques. At times fluency may have to take on more importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in language use.

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In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts.

Students are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning.

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The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing bestower of knowledge.

In CLT we pay considerably less attention to the overt presentation and discussion of grammatical rules than we traditionally did.

CLT often makes it difficult for a nonnative speaking teacher who is not very proficient in the second language to teach effectively. Dialogues, drills, rehearsed exercises, and

discussions of grammatical rues are much simpler for the average nonnative speaking teacher to contend with.

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Socio-cultural Perspectives: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (语言与思维的关系 ) The idea that language shapes

(rather than reflect) one’s world view. The background linguistic system of

each language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity, for his analysis of impressions, for his synthesis of his mental stock in trade (Whorf, 1956).

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Schumann’s acculturation model Acculturation is defined by Brown

(1980) as ‘the process of becoming adapted to a new culture’.

Linton (1963) described the general process of acculturation as involving modification in attitude, knowledge, and behavior.

The overall process of acculturation demands both social and psychological adaptation.

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It is assumed that the more social and psychological distance there is between the second-language learner and the target-language group, the lower the learner’s degree of acculturation will be toward that group.

Social and psychological distance influence second-language acquisition by determining the amount of contact learners have with the target language and the degree to which they are open to the input that is available.

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In a negative social situation, the learner will receive little input in the second language.

In a negative psychological situation, the learner will fail to utilize available input.

The psychological factors are affective in nature. They include language shock; culture shock; motivation; and ego boundaries.

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In Schumann’s model, acculturation is the causal variable in the second language learning process.

He argued that the early stages of second language acquisition are characterized by the same processes that are responsible for the formation of pidgin languages.

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When there are hindrances to acculturation – when social and/or psychological distance is great – the learner will not progress beyond the early stages and the language will stay pidginized.

Pidginization is characteristic of all early second language acquisition.

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Practical implications

Language learner vs language user Skills or competence: receptive vs. productive

More productive than receptive? More receptive than productive?

Forms: linguistic competence (accuracy, fluency and complexity)

Meaning: sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence

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Comprehension vs production Comprehension and production are

the two themes for which various hypotheses are proposed in second language acquisition (SLA) research.

In either case of comprehension and production strategies, interlanguage development is seen to be the byproduct of engaging in meaning-processing.

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Form-focused or meaning-focused Instructional activities, whether

comprehension- or production-based, emphasize the role of meaning in facilitating second language learning. But meaning-focused instructional

activities may induce language learners to rely on communication strategies which result in a bypassing of the form of language.

Therefore, the question arises of whether instruction should be form-focused or meaning-focused .

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To sum up

Shift from Input to output; Receptive to productive Skill-based teaching to content-based, or

both Form-focused instruction to meaning-

focused instruction Speaking/writing to interpreting /translation Linguistic proficiency to communicative

successTeacher-centred to learner-centered Exam-driven to driven by quality education

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And still more…

把握语言输入与语言输出的关系把握语言形式与意义的关系把握语言学习与知识学习的关系把握语言的准确性、流利性和复杂性与表达能力的关系

把握教学内容与教学预期效果的关系 …

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语言教学内容与学习者不同的水平段

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Modeled after Wen (2011)

本族语变体

非本族语与本土化特征

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IV. Teacher professional development: Intrinsically driven and extrinsically affected

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Needs analysis

Intrinsic needs: Learners’ motivation Teachers’ professional development

Extrinsic needs: Adaptation to social needs Survival of English teachers

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Challenges: Craftsman vs professionals Tool of the tools Slaves to publications Small potatoes Institutional loners (face students

alone, solve all the problems by themselves)

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EFL Teaching or education?

What are the possible differences between teaching and education? And,

What are the things that can possibly be shared in common? Teaching focuses on textbooks

Vicious circle in ELT: text-oriented learning

Education focuses on students

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Just one question: How much do you know about learning and learners?

Diversity in learning and learners What is learned in acquiring a second

language, as well as how it is learned, is often influenced by whether the situation involves informal exposure, or formal instruction in school, and

These learning conditions are often profoundly influenced by powerful social, cultural, and economic factors affecting the status of both languages and learners.

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The intriguing question of why some L2 learners are more successful than others requires us to unpack the broad label “learners” for some dimensions of discussion. Linguists may distinguish categories

of learners defined by the identity and relationship of their L1 and L2;

Psycholinguists may make distinctions based on individual aptitude for L2 learning, personality factors, types and strength of motivation, and different learning strategies;

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Sociolinguists may distinguish among learners with regard to social, economic, and political differences and learner experiences in negotiated interaction; and

Social psychologists may categorize learners according to aspects of their group identity and attitudes toward target language speakers or toward L2 learning itself.

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教师发展：管理学定位 Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going?

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Personal planning

Teacher or educator? Where do you see yourself in 5 yrs? In

10 yrs? When to obtain the higher degree? When and how to get promoted? Your superiority or orientation in:

Course teaching or course building Academic research, and furthermore Disciplinary development and building

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Personal planning

It is never too late to pursue professional development. 学会“大气”：世界上 1%的人是吃小亏而占大便宜，而 99%的人是占小便宜吃大亏。大多数成功人士都源于那 1% 。

学会面对：人生的意义不在于拿一手好牌，而在于准备打好一手坏牌。

Stay hungry. Stay Foolish. (Steve. P. Jobs, 2005)

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The end

Thank you!