语言学与外语教学.docVIP

Chapter 11 Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching 11.1 The Relation between Linguistics and Language Teaching 1. Both linguistics and foreign language teaching take language as their subject. Linguistics is the scientific study of language, so it is clearly related with language teaching. However, linguistics and language teaching differ in their attitudes, goals and methods towards language. 2. Linguistics regards language as a system of forms, while the field of foreign language teaching considers it as a set of skills. Linguistics research is concerned with the establishment of theories which explain the phenomena of language use, whereas foreign language teaching aims at the learners’ mastery of language. 3. Applied linguistics serves to reconcile and combine linguistics and foreign language teaching: (1): Applied linguistics extends theoretical linguistics in the direction of language learning and teaching, so that the teacher is enabled to make better decisions on the goal and content of the teaching. (2): Applied linguistics states the insights and implications that linguistic theories have on the language teaching methodology. 11.2 Various Linguistic View and Their Significance in Language Learning and Teaching Traditional grammar Traditional grammar, as a pre-20th century language description and a pre-linguistic product of research, was based upon earlier grammars of Latin and Greek, and laid emphasis on correctness, literary excellence, the use of Latin models, and the priority of written language. Prescription was its key tone. The main teaching and learning activities are grammar and translation study. Structuralist linguistics Modern linguistics, in spite of the theoretical diversities, is primarily descriptive. Structuralist linguistics describes linguistics features in terms of structures and systems. It describes the current spoken language, which people use in daily communication. Its focus, however, is still on grammatical stru