巧妙设计活动 优化课堂教学 培训2.docx

巧妙设计活动 优化课堂教学 培训2.docx

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巧妙设计活动优化课堂教学培训2

2Analysinglanguageskills

2.1Introduction

Beforeweproceed,inChapter3,toconsiderinmoredetailthecom-ponentsofalanguagelearningtask,weneedtodrawtogetherwhatweknowaboutlanguageuse.Weshalldothisbylookingatrecentresearchintothenatureofwhatwemaycallthefourmacroskillsoflistening,speaking,readingandwriting.

Wehavealreadynotedthataconventionalapproachtosyllabusdesignhasbeentoproducespecificationsorinventoriesofdiscretelinguisticitemstobuildintocompositeitemsinthelearningprogramme.Thesespecificationshavevariouslytakentheshapeoflistsofforms,orfunctions,ornotions,orparticularskills.Itisthelastofthesecategories,withitsemphasisonlanguagebehaviour,whichweshallfindmostusefulinhelpingustochartthoselanguageactivitieswhichwillhelpusmakeupourlanguagelearningtasks.

WheninChapter3weconstructaframeworkfordesigningandmonitoringtasks,weshallbeconsideringalltheskillsconjointlyastheyinteractwitheachotherinnaturalbehaviour.Inreallifeasintheclassroom,mosttasksofanycomplexityinvolvemorethanonemacroskill.Thereareoccasions,certainly,whenoneissimplylistening,speaking,readingorwritingtotheexclusionoftheotherskills:

examplesmightbewatchingasoapoperaontelevision,readinganovel,givingalecture,orwritingalettertoafriend.Buttherearemanyotherexampleswhereanumberofskillsareinterwovenintoacomplexlanguageactivity.Iwouldlikeusthereforetogetawayfromthenotionthatgenerallanguageprogrammescanbeconstructedfromseparatecomponentsconcentratingonseparatemacroskills.Wherepossibletheseskillsshouldbeintegrated,thoughthisisnottosaythattherecannotbespecialisedcomponentsfocusingononeortwooftheskillstotheexclusionofothers.

Nevertheless,forconvenienceourstartingpointinthischapteristhediscretemacroskillsandwhatresearchhasshownusabouteachoftheminturn.Wewillconsiderlaterinthechaptersuchissuesofsyllabusdesignaswhenforclassroompurposesweintegrateskillsandwhenwedealwiththemseparately,andhowwerelatethemtotheaimsofthelearnerandthegoalsoftheprogramme.

2.2Thenatureoflisteningcomprehension

Intheirbookonlistening,AndersonandLynch（1988）distinguishbetweenreciprocallisteningandnon-reciprocallistening.Reciprocallisteningreferstothoselisteningtaskswherethereistheopportunityforthelistenertointeractwiththespeaker,andtonegotiatethecontentoftheinteraction.Non-reciprocallisteningreferstotaskssuchaslisteningtotheradiooraformallecturewherethetransferofinformationisinonedirectiononly-fromthespeakertothelistener.AndersonandLynchunderlinethecomplexityoflisteningcomprehensionbypointingoutthatthelistenermustsimultaneouslyintegratethefollowingskills:

-identifyspokensignalsfromthemidstofsurroundingsounds;

-segmentthestreamofspeechintowords;

-graspthesyntaxoftheutterance（s）;

-（ininteractivelistening）formulateanappropriateresponse.

Theypointoutthatinadditiontotheselinguisticskills,thelistenermustalsocommandarangeofnon-linguisticknowledgeandskills.Theseincludehavinganappropriatepurposeforlistening;havingappropriatesocialandculturalknowledgeandskills;havingtheappropriatebackgroundknowledge.Theystresstheactivenatureoflistening,anddemonstratetheinadequatenatureofthe'listenerastape-recorder'viewoflisteningcomprehension.Wedonotsimplytakelanguageinlikeatape-recorder,butinterpretwhatwehearaccordingtoourpurposeinlisteningandourbackgroundknowledge.Wethenstorethemeaning（s）ofthemessageratherthantheformsinwhichtheseareencoded.Theactualgrammaticalstructuresthemselvesareoftenrapidlylost.Conversely,beingabletoremembertheactualwordsofaspokenmessagedoesnotnecessarilymeanthatthemessageitselfhasbeencomprehended.

AndersonandLynchrecordananecdotewhichillustratestheimportanceofbackgroundknowledge.Anoldwoman,passingoneoftheauthorsinthestreet,said'That'stheuniversity.It'sgoingtoraintomorrow.'Initially,thelistenerwasunabletointerprettheutterance.Itwasonlyafterthespeakerrepeatedherself,anddrewthelistener'sattentiontoabellringinginthedistance,thathewasabletogettothemeaningsbehindthewords.Indoingso,heneededtodrawonthefollowinginformation:

generalfactualinformation:

1.soundismoreaudibledownwindthanupwind

2.winddirectionmayaffectweatherconditions

localfactualknowledge:

3.theUniversityofGlasgowhasaclocktowerwithabell

socio-culturalknowledge:

4.strangersinBritainoccasionallyrefertotheweatherto'oilthewheels'ofsociallife.

5.apolitecommentfromastrangerusuallyrequiresaresponse

knowledgeofcontext:

6.theconversationtookplaceabouthalf-a-milefromtheUniversityofGlasgow

7.theclocktowerbellwasjuststrikingthehour

（AndersonandLynch1988:

12-13）

Bydrawingonthesevarioussourcesofknowledge,thelistenerwasabletoconcludethattheoldwomanwasdrawinghisattentiontothefactthatthewindwasblowingfromadirectionwhichbroughtwithitthethreatofrain.Thechangeinthewinddirectionwassignalledbythefactthattheuniversityclocktowerwasaudible.Thewomanwas,infact,makingasociallyacceptablecommenttoastranger,i.e.talkingabouttheweather,althoughshechosearatheridiosyncraticwayofdoingit.

Inhisanalysisoflisteningcomprehension,Richards（1987a）distinguishesbetweenconversationallistening（listeningtocasualspeech）andacademiclistening（listeningtolecturesandotheracademicpresentations）.（By'academic'listeningRichardsmeanslisteningtolecturesinanacademiccontext,notanEnglishlanguagelearningcontext.）

Conversationallisteninginvolvestheabilityto:

-retainchunksoflanguageofdifferentlengthsforshortperiods

-discriminateamongthedistinctivesoundsofthetargetlanguage

-recognisethestresspatternsofwords

-recognisetherhythmicstructureofEnglish

-recognisethefunctionsofstressandintonationtosignaltheinformationstructureofutterances

-identifywordsinstressedandunstressedpositions-recognisereducedformsofwords

-distinguishwordboundaries

-recognisetypicalwordorderpatternsinthetargetlanguage

-recognisevocabularyusedincoreconversationaltopics

-detectkeywords（i.e.thosewhichidentifytopicsandpropositions）

-guessthemeaningsofwordsfromthecontextsinwhichtheyoccur

-recognisegrammaticalwordclasses（partsofspeech）

-recognisemajorsyntacticpatternsanddevices

-recognisecohesivedevicesinspokendiscourse

-recogniseellipticalformsofgrammaticalunitsandsentences-detectsentenceconstituents.

Academiclisteninginvolvestheabilityto:

-identifypurposeandscopeoflecture

-identifytopicoflectureandfollowtopicdevelopment

-identifyrelationshipsamongunitswithindiscourse（forexamplemajoridea,generalisations,hypotheses,supportingideas,examples）

-identifyroleofdiscoursemarkersinsignallingstructureoflecture（forexampleconjunctions,adverbs,gambits,routines）

-inferrelationships（forexamplecause,effect,conclusion）

-recognisekeylexicalitemsrelatingtosubject/topic

-deducemeaningsofwordsfromcontext

-recognisemarkersofcohesion

-recognisefunctionofintonationtosignalinformationstructure（forexamplepitch,volume,pace,key）

-detectattitudeofspeakertowardsubjectmatter.

Studytheseanddecidewhicharelikelytobecarriedoutbythelearnerintheworldoutsidethelanguageclassroom,whichareonlylikelytooccurintheclassroom,andwhichmightoccurbothinsideandoutsidethelanguageclassroom.

Ratherthanseeingtheselistsasrelatingtoconversationalandacademiclisteningrespectively,IwouldprefertosuggestthatthefirstlistcontainsasetofenablingmicroskillswhichlearnersmightemployinanylisteningtaskregardlessofwhetheritisaconversationalOracademictask.Thesecondlistcontainswhatmightbecalledrhetoricalordiscoursecom-prehensionskills.Onceagain,thesemaybeneededforbothconver-sationalandacademiclistening.

Richardsalsoclassifieslisteningtasksaccordingtowhethertheyrequirethelearnertoengagein'bottom-up'or'top-down'processing.Bottom-upprocessesworkontheincomingmessageitself,decodingsounds,words,clausesandsentences.Bottom-upprocessesincludethefollowing

-scanningtheinputtoidentifyfamiliarlexicalitems;

-segmentingthestreamofspeechintoconstituents,forexampleinordertorecognisethat'abookofmine'consistsoffourwords;

-usingphonologicalcuestoidentifytheinformationfocusinanutterance;

-usinggrammaticalcuestoorganisetheinputintoconstituents,forexample,inordertorecognisethatin'thebookwhichIlentyou'[thebook]and[whichIlentyou]aremajorconstituents,ratherthan[thebookwhichI]and[lentyou].

Top-downprocessesusebackgroundknowledgetoassistincom-prehendingthemessage.（Wehavealreadyseen,throughtheexampleprovidedbyAndersonandLynch,theimportanceoftop-downprocessesinlisteningcomprehension.）Richardsprovidesthefollowingexamples:

-assigninganinteractiontopartofaparticularevent,suchasstorytelling,joking,praying,complaining;-assigningplaces,personsorthingstocategories;

-inferringcauseandeffectrelationships;

-anticipatingoutcomes;

-inferringthetopicofadiscourse;

-inferringthesequencebetweenevents;

-inferringmissingde