1、Unit 1 Language and learningUnit 1 Language and learningI.How do we learn language?1)How do we learn our own language?2)How do we learn foreign language?(1)People learn language for different reasons.(2)People learn language in different ways.(3)People have different understanding about language lea
2、rning.(4)People have different capabilities in language learning.1)What is language?Language is a system of arbitrary verbal symbols used for human communication.(Wardhaugh,1972:3)2)Different views on language:the structural view the functional viewthe interactional viewII.View on language.Functiona
3、l View:It sees language as a linguistic system but also as a means for doing things.Most of our day-to-day language use involves functional activities:offering,suggesting,advising,apologizing,etc.Therefore,learners learn a language in order to do things with it.To perform functions,learners need to
4、know how to combine the grammatical rules and the vocabulary to express notions that perform the functions.The research into the answers fall into process-oriented theories and condition-oriented theories.Process-oriented theories are concerned with how the mind processes new information,such as hab
5、it formation,induction,making inference,hypothesis testing and generalization.Condition-oriented theories emphasize the nature of the human and physical context in which language learning takes place,such as the number of students,what kind of input learners receive,and the learning atmosphere.If al
6、l language is a learned behaviour,how can a child produce a sentence that has never been said by others before?According to Chomskys theory,language is not a form of behaviour,it is an intricate rule-based system and a large part of language acquisition is the learning of this system.There are a fin
7、ite number of grammatical rules in the system and with a knowledge of these rules an infinite number of sentences can be produced.One influential idea of this theory is that students should be allowed to create their own sentences based on their understanding of certain rules.V.How can one become a
8、good language teacher?The most important and most difficult part of the making of a good language teacher is the development of professional competence,which is the state or quality of being qualified for the profession,and armed with a specific range of skills,strategies,knowledge and ability.Accor
9、ding to Paul Davis(2002:2),a successful teacher has the following qualities:(1)Have a practical command of English,not just knowledge of grammar rules.(2)Use English most of the time in every class,including beginners class.(3)Think mostly in term of learner practice,not teacher explanation.(4)Find
10、time for really communicative activities,not just practice of language forms.(5)Focus their teaching on learners needs,not just on finish the syllabus or course books.For the development of professional competence,we can use the“reflective model”by Wallace.From the model,we can know that the develop
11、ment involves stage I,stage II and the goal.Stage I:language training.All English teachers are supposed to have a good command of English.Stage II:The second stage is more complicated,for it can be divided into three sub-stages:learning;practice and reflection.The learning stage involves:(a)learn fr
12、om others experience(empirical knowledge(b)learn received knowledge(such as language theories,psycholinguistics;sociolinguistics;educational psycho-logy,etc.(c)learn from ones own experienceThe term“practice”can be used in two senses:(1)it is a short period of time assigned for students to do teachi
13、ng practice as part of their education,under the supervision of their instructors.(2)The other sense of practice is the real work that the teachers would undertake when they finish their education.Stanley(1999)pointed out that teachers benefit from practice if they keep on reflecting on what they ha
14、ve been doing.The teachers reflect on their work not only after they finish a certain period of practice,but while they are doing the practice.And the most difficult thing to do is to keep on reflecting on their work when teachers are doing practice in the real work sense.After some period of practice and reflection,a teacher matures and approaches the goal.But this goal is“a moving target or horizon,toward which professionals travel all their professional life but which is never finally attained.
