语言结构叠加假设Structure Overlappinga Hypothesis for Language Internalization 凌应强.docx

语言结构叠加假设Structure Overlappinga Hypothesis for Language Internalization 凌应强.docx

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语言结构叠加假设StructureOverlappingaHypothesisforLanguageInternalization凌应强

StructureOverlapping:

aHypothesisforLanguageInternalization

ABSTRACTS:

TheauthorusesSyntacticStructureOverlappingtoexplainthecognitiveprocessofsyntacticstructureschematainternalization.Throughthoroughcomparison,theauthorconcludesthat,liketheschemataofstructuredimagesandmusicmelodies,languagestructuresareinternalizedintothememoryasschematathroughtheprocessofoverlapping.Theanatomicdiscoveriesofthebrain,Broca’sareaandWernicke’sarea,supportthatcontentvocabularyarestoredlargelyinadifferentpartofthebrainforfunctionalvocabularyandstructures.Byusingaverystructuredartificiallanguage,---theroadsigns,theauthordemonstrateshowoverlappingworks.Also,theauthorresortstotwoEnglishcorporaofyoungchildrenandthelanguagelearningexperienceobservedofhislittledaughtertoprovethisoverlappingtheory.

KEYWORDS:

syntacticstructure,overlapping

CaseA:

Child:

WhereDaddy?

Mom:

Gonetowork.

Child:

Daddygonetowork.

Mom:

Yup,Daddy’sgonetowork.

CaseB:

（Note:

Thisisatranscriptionofarealclassinakindergarten.SothespeechesareinChinese,totrulyreflectthecharacteristicsofthelanguage.Andsomeirrelevantdetailssuchascommandsforclassroomdiscipliningareleftout.）

Ihavea5-year-oldpre-schooldaughter,Yangyang.Todayherkindergartenisopentoallparents.Isitinonecorneroftheclassroom,enjoyingastorytogetherwithmydaughterand31otherkids.

MsGuistellingthechildrenastory“世界上最大的动物是什么？

”

MsGu:

小朋友们，你们知道世界上最大的动物是什么吗？

Children:

大象。

MsGu:

先把小手举起来。

好，俞家豪，你来说说看。

世界上最大的动物是什么？

YuJiahao:

是大象。

MsGu:

要说完整。

世界上最大的动物是……

YuJiahao:

世界上最大的动物是大象。

MsGu:

还有其他答案吗？

李晓依，你来说说看？

LiXiaoyi:

大象。

MsGu:

除了大象还有什么呢？

WangWeitao:

还有老虎。

MsGu:

老虎是世界上最大的动物吗？

Children:

不是。

MsGu:

那世界上最大的动物是什么呢？

还有其他答案吗？

哦，田玲玲举手了。

田玲玲，你说。

TianLingling:

恐龙。

MsGu:

世界上最大的动物——

TianLingling:

世界上最大的动物是恐龙。

MsGu:

很好！

很久很久以前，有些恐龙是世界上最大的动物。

可是现在已经没有恐龙了。

Andsomechildrengiveotheranswers,likethegiraffe,andeventheUltraman.

MsGu:

看这是什么动物？

Children:

小鸡。

MsGu:

今天，小鸡也想知道世界上最大的动物是什么？

小朋友们，我们和小鸡一起去找一找，好不好？

Children:

好！

MsGunarratesthestorywithsomepictures.

Thestorygoeslikethis----

小鸡遇见了小猫，看到小猫比自己大。

她问：

“小猫，你是不是世界上最大的动物？

”小猫摇摇头，说：

“我不是。

大狗比我大。

”

小鸡遇见了大狗。

她问：

“大狗，你是不是世界上最大的动物？

”大狗摇摇头，说：

“我不是。

狗熊比我大。

”

小鸡遇见了狗熊。

她问：

“狗熊，你是不是世界上最大的动物？

”狗熊摇摇头，说：

“我不是。

狮子比我大。

”

小鸡遇见了狮子。

她问：

“狮子，你是不是世界上最大的动物？

”狮子摇摇头，说：

“我不是。

大象比我大。

”

小鸡遇见了大象。

她问：

“大象，你是不是世界上最大的动物？

”大象摇摇头，说：

“我不是。

世界上最大动物是蓝鲸。

”

MsGu:

小朋友们，世界上最大的动物是什么？

Children:

蓝鲸。

MsGu:

小朋友们一起说，世界上最大的动物是蓝鲸。

Children:

世界上最大的动物是蓝鲸。

MsGu:

小朋友们，和老师一起讲这个故事，好吗？

Thechildrenbeginto“tell”thestory.Infact,mostofthemonlysaythequestionsandanswersthataresupposedtobetheutterancesoftheanimals,whiletheteachergivesthecuesentences,like“她问---；小猫摇摇头，说---”.

Afterthat,MsGuorganizesthechildrentoactoutthestoryingroups.

InCaseA,forwhatpurposedoesthemothersay,“Yup,Daddy’sgonetowork”?

InCaseB,whyisn’tMsGusatisfiedwithsomeoftheanswersproducedbythekids?

Certainlynotbecausethattheanswersarewrong,butbecausetheanswersaretooshort.However,thecoreofthequestionisnotthelengthoftheanswers,butthestructureoftheanswers.WhatdoesMsGudemandofherchildren?

1Psycholinguisticperspectives

Thepurposesoflearningaforeignlanguagevary.Somepeoplehavetolearnittomeettheirimmediateneedssoastosurviveinanewsociety.Othersmaywanttousetheforeignlanguageasatoolforsearchinginternationalresources.Stillsomeothers,whohavealreadyhadaconsiderablegoodcommandofEnglish,suchasuniversitygraduates,mayfinditdeservingtolearnmoresoastobesuperiortootherjobcompetitors.Andpersonally,IfindEnglishlearningitselfinteresting,delightingandenriching!

However,mostyounglearnersinschooldon’thaveanimmediateurgetolearnaforeignlanguage.Whatspursthemisthelearningatmosphereandtheymayalsobeattractedbythefungainedinthelanguagelearningactivities.

Apartfromthesocialvalues,thefundamentalpurposeofEnglisheducationistohelplearnerstomasterthevocabularyandstructureofthetargetlanguage.Andfromthisstarting,studentslearnhowtocommunicateinappropriatemannersandhowtoundertaketasksusingEnglish.

Traditionally,foreignlanguageteachersfocusedmuchonhowthelanguageistaught,andmuchendeavorwasmadeonclassroomorganizationandmaterialdelivering.Asaresult,severalteachingmethodshavebeenadvocated,tonamesome,thegrammar-translationapproach,thedirectmethod,andtheaudio-lingualapproach.

WhenwediscussEnglishteachinginthisway,itmakesusfeelthatacertainwayworks,butwhyitworksisnotclearlyknown,ordifferentreasonscanbeprovidedforthesamepractice,reallysomewhatliketheuseofChineseherbalmedicine,whichworkslikemagictothosewhodon’tunderstandChinesemedicine.

Inthepastdecades（approximatelystartingfrom1960）,Englishteachingresearchershavedivedintovariousdomainsinordertofindouttheprinciplesoflanguagelearning.Theirstudiesinvolvenearlyallaspectsofhumanknowledge.Themostcommonistheactualteachingpractice,withteachingtechniquesinconsideration.Otherdomainsarepsychology,sociology,pedagogy,neurology,etc.Forinstance,sociolinguistsbroughtuswithinteractionism,pragmatics,andlanguagevariationisttheory（ZuoHuanqi,2002）.Andwiththedevelopmentofmodernscience,nowadays,computerengineeringhasalsofounditsroleinthiskindofresearch.“Electrolinguists”notonlyusecomputerstohelpwiththestatisticsbutalsotrytoverifythevariousmodelsoflanguageacquisition.Theyalsotrytosimulatelanguageacquisitionwithcomputersystems.

Yet,themostfruitfulresearchispsycholinguistics,somefindingsofwhichwillbeoutlinedinthecomingsectionofliteraturereview.

InChina,EnglishhasbeenarequiredcurriculumfordecadesandtheeducationadministrationsaswellastheEnglishteachershavedevotednumerouscapitals,time,andhumanforcestoEnglisheducation.Yettherearestillmanydissatisfactionsandcomplaintsoverit.Anumberofteachingmethodshavebeenemployedinpractice,likethegrammar-translationmethod,theaudio-lingualmethod,thesilentway,thecommutativeapproach,etc.Andrecently,techniquesandmethodslikeTPRandTBLhavebeenprevalent.Everyapproachandeverymethodabidesbycertainpsychologicalandeducationalprinciples.Forexample,grammar-translationmethodisbasedonbehaviorism.Whenthismethodisused,itisbelievedthatEnglishislearnedbyrememberingthegrammarrulesandtryingtomakesentenceswiththeserules,whichisquiteamechanicprocess.

ThemainconcernofEnglisheducationishowthisforeignlanguageisinternalizedaspartofthelearner’sownmentalframework.AccordingtoZuoHuanqi（2002）,thepsychologicalprocessthatleadstothesuccessorfailureoflanguageacquisitionisverycomplicated,andisstillinresearch.Thisessaywouldaddsomenewthoughtstotheprocessofsyntacticstructureinternalization,whichisgiventhename“Overlapping”.

2Briefliteraturereviews

ThereisquiteaquantityofliteraturethatwecanresorttocoveringL2acquisition.Forthisstudy,Idrawheavilyonworksofpsycholinguistics,thoughotherresourcesshouldalsoberememberedandrespected.

Aboomingfieldoflanguageacquisitionresearchispsycholinguistics,whichisfairlyinterestingandfruitful,especiallyintherecentyears.

Let’sstartfromtheprocessofcognition.Cognitionisthevariousmentalprocessesusedinthinking,remembering,perceiving,recognizing,classification（Richardsetal.,2002）.

Asforcognitionoftheworld,whatonenormalpersonperceivesvarieslittlefromwhatisperceivedbyanother.Andworkingmemory,usedintheprocessofunderstandingtheworld,basicallyholdsnogreatdifferenceamongcommonpeople.Thedifferenceslieinspeed,storagememoryaccessing,andthecapacityofrelationshipbuilding.Yet,thinkingisthecriticalprocessthatinfluencestheultimateinternalizationoftheworld.Forchildren,languageispartoftheoutsideworld,whichtheyaresofrequentlyexposedto.Childrenacquiretheirmothertongueseeminglyunconsciously,and,tome,itisinthisaspectthatlanguagecognitionisdoneinthesamewayastheycognizeotherthings.

Oneprominentcognitivelinguist,Langacher（inLuZhi,2006）,cameupwiththreehypothesesofcognitivegrammar:

A.Languageisnotaself-sufficientcognitivesystem.Itisnecessarytorefertothegeneralcognitiveruleswhenwedescribealanguage.

B.Syntaxisnotaself-sufficientformalsystem.Syntaxandvocabularyaresystemsofconventionalrepresentations.Syntaxanalysiscan’tgowithoutsemantics.

C.Semanticsdoesn’tequaltotrueconditions.Semanticsisrelatedtoknowledgesystem.Semanticsmeans“conceptualization”.

CognitivelinguisticsenjoysmorepopularityinChinathanabroad（LuZhi,2006）.GuiShichun（2000）,LuZhi（2006）,ChenYumin（1997）havestudiedthecognitiveproceduresoflanguageacquisitionfromdifferentperspectives.

GuiShichun（2000）mentionedthreekindsofgrammarprocesses:

two-wordutterances,connectivegrammarandrecursivegrammar,whichappearatdifferentstages.

Atthetwo-wordstage,childrenusetwowordsindifferentordertoshowtheirmeaningandrelationship.AccordingtoBowerman（1973）,8kindsofcase-grammarrelationshiparefoundintwo-wordutterances.Theseutterancessuggestthatchildrenareclearlyawareofthelogicrelationshipbetweenthetwowordstheyputtogether.Soonequestioniswhethertwo-wordgrammarismerelyaresultoflackof