OnAffective-HumanisticApproachesofForeignLanguageTeaching-2019年文档

1、On Affective-HumanisticApproaches ofForeignLanguage Teaching.IntroductionDuring the developing process of the approaches of foreign language teaching,scholars and teachers have paid more and more attention to the psychological and humanistic elements.There gradually appears a type of Affective-Human

2、istic Approach.Total Physical Response(TPR)and Community Language Learning(CLL)are two typical examples of this approach.TPR,which is developed by American psychologist James Asher in 1960s but gains its popularity a decade later,attempts to teach language through physical activities.Asher considers

3、 successful adult second language learning as a similar process to child first language acquisition,and children always respond to commands physically before producing verbal responses.Hence TPR emphasizes most the use and comprehension of physical actions.Asher also views the verb in the imperative

4、 as the central factor around which language use and learning are organized.Therefore,TPR alsoemphasizes the creation of imperative instructions.It has some connection with Katonastrace theoryof memory in psychology,which holds that themore intensively a memoryconnection is traced,the stronger the m

5、emory association will be recalled.Hence verbal rehearsal accompanied by motor activity,for instance,can increase the probability of successful recall.As for CLL,which is developed by Professor Charles.A.Curran and his associates in 1970s,represents the use of Counseling-Learning theory to teach lan

6、guages.Counseling means that the knower gives advice,assistance and support to the learner.CLL advises teachers to consider their students aswhole persons,therefore CLL is more distinctive in humanistic nature than TPR.In other words,it emphasizes more o emotions,feelings,linguistic knowledge and be

7、havioral skills.It is difficult to describe the procedures of CLL,generally speaking,however,the learners(can be called clients)usually sit in a circle with the teacher walking round the outside,and what the learners intend to learn will be translated by the teacher into the target language and then

8、 mastered by themselves through all kinds of methods.Although these two kinds of approaches are both members ofAffective-Humanistic Approachfamily,they differ a lot in various perspectives.This paper will discuss comparatively and generally on their theoriesof languageand learning as well as their d

9、esigns.The Detailed Analysis of the Two Approaches.The theory of language is the understanding of a language,and then,how to learn a language well? Let us come to the theory of learning.On the one hand,Asher holds a stimulus-response view in TPR,and he draws this conclusion on three very influential

10、 learning hypotheses based on views of other behavioral psychologists.First,there exists a specific innate nerve programfor children.Hencehis TPR is anatural methodwhich especially fits for children.Second,brain lateralization makes Asher insists that the adult learners should proceed to language ma

11、stery through right-hemisphere motor activities while the left hemisphere watches and learns.And the last,because stress can greatly affect and intervene the normal relationship between the learners and what they learn,Asher believes that language learning process should take place in an environment

12、 as stress-free and anxiety-free as that offirst language acquisition.On the other hand,because human learning in real life is both cognitive and affective,Curran holds a holistic point of view in language learning under CLL approach.In his theory of learning,consensual validationplays a crucial rol

13、e,in which mutual understanding and positive evaluation of the other persons value develops between the learner and knower.There are six important psychological requirements in the learning theory:security,attention,aggression,retention,discrimi nation.(Richards,2000:118)The learners in a TPR class

14、need to make more personal commitments before class than that made by those in a TPR class.Finish talking about the theories; it is necessary to compare the design of the two approaches to see which design is optimal or what are their advantages.Every design of a teaching approach is based on their

15、objectives and objectivesmust be translated into action verbs that describe the outcome of teaching as observable student behavior or performance.(Stern,1992:65)To TPR designers,there is an obvious goal that to teach the learners basic speaking skills at a beginning level through comprehension and a

16、ction-based drills in the imperative form; while in CLL class,there is no specific objectives.However,just like the goal of all FLT approaches,CLL learners also aim at attaining near-native like proficiency of the target language; that is,they are expected to learn how to use the target language com

17、municatively.The most commanding design,syllabus design,grasps the key link of an approach.Its contentisusually identifiedin terms of language elements and linguistic or behavioral skills.(Sinclair & Renouf,1988:140)We always,nonetheless,concern syllabus only as the formulation of pedagogic goals,in

18、 fact,it is important to recognize that the syllabus is also an instrument of educational policy.(Widdowson,1990:127)Therefore,it relates somehow to the state of a country.For example,in TPR classes,a sentence based on syllabus is used,with grammatical and lexical criteria being primary in selecting

19、 teaching items.Its nature is similar to that of the syllabus of grammar-translation method; hence,it may fit for the contemporary condition of China.While the method is quite different and interesting in syllabusdesign of CLL,because the syllabus develops as the teaching process goes along,and cour

20、se progression is actually topic based,with the learners intention on what they want to learn.There is no predetermined syllabus at the very beginning,but just an implicit one in skilled teachers mind.Therefore a CLL syllabusemerges from the interaction between the learners expressed communicative i

21、ntentions and the teachers reformulations of these into suitable target language utterances.(Richards,2000:119)It requires high academic and organizing skills of the teacher as well as strong participation willingness and cooperation spirits of the learners.In this sense,it cannot be popular in Chin

22、a in nowadays conditions or policies.As for the design of the types of learning and teaching activities,bothTPR and CLL classroom activitiesare highly livelily organized.In a TPR class,imperative drills,which are used to elicit physical actions and activity on the part of the learners,are the major

23、classroom activities.After about 120 hours of instruction,there will be conversational activities.There are also follow-ups,such as role plays,slidepresentations,reading and writing activities etc.which may be employed to further consolidate structures and vocabulary.However,the most fundamental act

24、ivities are well-organized imperative instructions.For example,asking the learners to act like a blind person and instructing him/her to walk according to the oral commandspared with TPR classroom,CLL classroom activities are more colorful and lively.CLL combines their innovative learning tasks and

25、activities with conventional ones.The CLL activities include translation,group work,recording,transcription,analysis,reflection,observ ation,listening and free conversation.For instance,transcription,which means taking notes,follows the process that students take down the utterances and conversation

26、s they have recorded for practice and analysis of linguistic forms.It can effectively improve the listening ability and shorthand of the learnersparatively speaking,CLL activities,which should be organized in multimedia classrooms,can more effectively arouse the learning interests of the students,wh

27、ile the TPR classrooms may relatively be monotonous.And furthermore,the learners in CLL may develop a kindcooperative spirit and affection,while the learners in TPR are more independent and competitive.Then the discussion turns to the roles of the participants of the class.The first is about learner

28、 roles.The learners in TPR have the essential roles of listener and performer.For example,in obeying instructions,they listen attentively,perform actions accordingly or draw shapes or picture in response the commands of their teacher.They are expected to recognize and respond to novel combinations o

29、f previously taught knowledge and also to produce that of their own.Besides,they monitor and evaluate their own progress in the process of learning.The learners in CLL play the role of members of a community.They are required to listen carefully,to freely provide meanings they want to express,to rep

30、eat target utterances,to support other learners,to express deep inner feelings and even to become counselor to other learners.Because CLL is awhole personprocess,the learners play different parts in each stage,namely,the stage of an infant,a child,the separate existence,an adolescent and then an ind

31、ependent personparatively speaking,TPR learners have littleinfluence over the content of learning,because the content is determined by the teacher.But CLL learners are more influential,because the content selection is based on their needs and intentions.Hence,itseems again CLL is morelearner-based.A

32、nd the second is about teacher roles.According to Widdowson,one important kind of classroom engagements involves the identifying roles which regards teacher as a master in some sort of social interaction with the learners.(Ur,1990:184)In TPR,the teacher roles are typically of this kind.The teacher p

33、lays an active and direct role as an instructor.S/He is a decision-maker who selects supporting materials,and is responsible of providing the best kind of exposure to language.S/He is also an important control over the language input that learners receive,and is accountable of providing the raw mate

34、rials play parental roles,with tolerance of the mistakes at the early learning stage and with more connection of the errors later.In this sense,s/he is like a monitor.In CLL,on the contrary,the teacher plays a part of a regular psychological counselor who is to respond patiently and non-judgmentally

35、 in a supportive manner.Like those of the students,the teacher roles are also keyed to different stages; viz.the teacher acts as a supporter at the beginning,a monitor later and at last becomes independent too.What is advanced and recommendable is that the teacher is responsible for providing enviro

36、nment in which clients can learn and grow.It seems that the teacher in TPR is more powerful while the teacher in CLL is more skillful,and both of them should be responsible and highly knowledgeable.At last,let us pay attention to the role of instructional materials.As approaches of teaching foreign

37、language,the process of deciding what to teach is based on consideration of what the learners should most usefully be able to communicate in the foreign language.(Wilkins,1976:19)Therefore,according to the theory of language and learning,it is not necessary for both TPR and CLL classrooms to have a

38、basic and fixed text book.In TPR,the teachers voice,actions and gestures may be sufficient at the beginning.Later,common classroom objects,such as books,pens,cups,furniture can be introduced to the classroom.And as the course develops,the teacher may collect more supporting materials,such aspictures

39、,realia,slides and word charts etc.Similarly,materials in CLL are also developed by the blackboard or overhead projector of some of the linguistic features of conversations generated.And learners themselves may also produce their own materials.This point is quite different from that in TPR,because t

40、he learner in TPR seldom participate the decision making on the material selection.Conclusion.After a general comparison and contrast of the two approaches,we have an overview on the features ofAffective-Humanistic Approachfamily.It can be seen that CLL is more representative of humanistic spirit.Ho

41、wever,both of them have their own advantages and disadvantages.As the analysis above,part of the rationale for TPRi s in a parallel with first language acquisition,in which a close relationship between word and action is developed.In terms of word,it emphasizes the role of comprehension in second la

42、nguage acquisition and provides comprehensible input to students.And in terms of action,it focuses on the reduction of stress of the learners.Nonetheless,the TPR syllabus is not quite sureabout the learner needs.And the teachers control and direction also shows that this approach fits more to the te

43、achers at the very beginning stages.Therefore,it should be better for TPR teachers to use other approaches and techniques,because it has been proved that it is strongly compatible.As for CLL,it is proposed on the assumption that learning can be effective only when the learners cognitive as well as a

44、ffective needs are met.Hence,it obviously centers on the learners and emphasizes more the humanistic side of language learning.It is sensitive to learner communicative intent,which is in accordance with the modern trend of foreign language learning.It is very scientific for CLL teachers to create a s