Language Teaching Approaches an Overview.docx

1、Language Teaching Approaches an OverviewLanguage Teaching Approaches: An Overview1MARIANNE CELCE-MURCIAIn “Language Teaching Approaches: An Overview，” Celce-Murcia gives some historical background, then outlines the principal approaches to second and foreign language teaching that were used during t

2、he twentieth century. She previews（预审） the book as a whole and projects(阐明；预计，推断) some trends for language instruction in the new millennium.INTRODUCTIONThe field of second (or foreign) language teaching has undergone many fluctuations and shifts over the years. Different from physics or chemistry,

3、in which progress is more or less steady until a major discovery causes a radical（根本的；彻底的，激进的） theoretical revision (Kuhn 1970), language teaching is a field in which fads（风气；时尚；一时的流行） and heroes have come and gone in a manner fairly consistent with（与一致） the kinds of changes that occur in youth cult

4、ure. I believe that one reason for the frequent swings of the pendulum（钟摆；摇摆不定的事态或局面） that have been taking place until fairly recently is the fact that very few language teachers have a sense of history about their profession and are thus unaware of the historical bases of the many methodological o

5、ptions they have at their disposal（供他们使用；他们可以自由处理）. It is hoped that this brief and necessarily oversimplified survey（概论） will encourage many language teachers to learn more about the origins of their profession. Such knowledge will ensure some perspective（洞察力；眼力） when teachers evaluate any so-calle

6、d innovations or new approaches to methodology, which will surely continue to emerge（浮现；出现；问题等发生，显露） from time to time.Pre-twentieth-Century Trends: A Brief SurveyPrior to the twentieth century, language teaching methodology vacillated（动摇；波动） between two types of approaches: getting learners to use

7、a language (i.e., to speak and understand it) versus getting learners to analyze a language (i.e., to learn its grammatical rules).Both the classical Greek and medieval Latin periods were characterized by an emphasis on teaching people to use foreign languages. The classical languages, first Greek a

8、nd then Latin, were used as lingua franca（意大利混杂语；混合方言）. Higher learning was conducted primarily through these languages all over Europe. They were used widely in philosophy, religion, politics, and business. Thus the educated elite（精华；精英；优秀分子） became fluent speakers, readers, and writers of the appr

9、opriate classical language. We can assume that the teachers or tutors used informal and more or less direct approaches to convey（传达；传递；表达） the form and meaning of the language they were teaching and that they used aural-oral techniques with no language textbooks per se（本身；本来；本质）, but rather a small

10、stock of hand-copied written manuscripts （手稿）of some sort, perhaps a few texts in the target language, or crude（粗糙；粗陋） dictionaries that listed equivalent（相等；同义） words in two or more languages side by side.During the Renaissance, the formal study of the grammars of Greek and Latin became popular thr

11、ough the mass production of books made possible by the invention of the printing press. In the case of Latin being used as a lingua franca - the latter subsequently(随后的；继起的) being labeled vulgate（公认的文本的） Latin, i.e., Latin of the common people. Major differences had developed between the classical L

12、atin described in the Renaissance grammars, which became the formal object of instruction in schools, and the Latin being used for everyday purposes. This occurred at about the same time that Latin began to be abandoned as a lingua franca. (No one was speaking classical Latin anymore, and various Eu

13、ropean vernaculars（方言；本族语） had begun to rise in respectability and popularity.) thus, in retrospect（回顾）, strange as it may seem, the Renaissance preoccupation（先取；偏见） with the formal study of classical Latin may have contributed to the demise（死亡；终止） of Latin as a lingua franca in Western Europe.Since

14、 the European vernaculars （方言；本族语）had grown in prestige(名望;声望;威望) and utility(效用;实用), it is not surprising that people in one country or region began to find it necessary and useful to learn the language of another country or region. Thus the focus in language study shifted back to utility rather th

15、an analysis during the seventeenth century. Perhaps the most famous language teacher and methodologist of this period is Johann Amos Comenius, a Czech(捷克) scholar and teacher, who published books about his teaching techniques that Comenius(夸美纽斯) used and espoused(拥护;支持;信奉) were the following:Use imi

16、tation instead of rules to teach a language.Have your students repeat after you.Use a limited vocabulary initially(开始;最初).Help your students practice reading and speaking.Teach language through pictures to make it meaningful.Thus Comenius, perhaps for the first time, made explicit(详尽;明确;不含糊) an indu

17、ctive approach to learning a foreign language, the goal of which was to teach use rather than analysis of the language being taught.Comeniuss views held sway(统治;支配) for some time; however, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, the systematic study of the grammar of classical Latin and of class

18、ical texts had once again taken over(接管) in schools and universities throughout Europe. The analytical Grammar-Translation Approach became firmly entrenched(根深蒂固) as a method for teaching not only Latin but, by extension, modern languages as well. It was perhaps best codified(编纂;整理) in the work of K

19、arl Ploetz, a German scholar who had a tremendous influence on the language teaching profession during his lifetime and afterwards. (He died in 1881.)However, the swinging of the pendulum(钟摆;摇摆不定的事态) continued. By the end of the nineteenth century, the ability to use rather than to analyze a languag

20、e as the goal of language instruction, had begun to function as a viable(有生存的;能活的;可行的) alternative to Grammar-Translation. Francois Gouin, a Frenchman, began to publish in 1880 concerning his work with the Direct Method. He advocated exclusive(独占的) use of the target language in the classroom, having

21、 been influenced by an older friend, the German philosopher-scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who had espoused(拥护;支持;信奉) the notion that a language cannot be taught, that one can only create conditions for learning to take place (Kelly 1969)The Direct Method became very popular in France and Germany

22、, and has enthusiastic followers among language teachers even today (As does the Grammar-Translation Approach.)In 1886, during the same period that the Direct Method first became popular in Europe, the International Phonetic Association was established by scholars such as Henry Sweet, Wilhelm Vietor

23、, and Paul Passy. They developed the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and became part of Reform Movement in language teaching in the 1890s. These phoneticians made some of the first truly scientific contributions to language teaching when they advocated principles such as following:the spoken f

24、orm of a language is primary and should be taught first;the findings of phonetics should be applied to language teaching;language teachers must have solid training in phonetics;learners should be given phonetic training to establish good speech habits.The work of these phoneticians focused on the te

25、aching of pronunciation and oral skills, which they felt had been ignored in Grammar-Translation. Thus, although the Reform Movement is not necessarily considered a full-blown(充分发展的) pedagogical approach to language teaching, its adherents(支持者;拥护者) did have an influence on future approaches, as we s

26、hall see.Quite apart from(更何况;更不用说) the work of the Reform Movement, the influence of the Direct Method grew; it crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century when Emile de Sauze, a disciple of Gouin, came to Cleveland, Ohio, in order to see to it that(务必使;保证使see to it vi.注意做到;务必要) all foreign

27、 language instruction in the public schools there implemented(实施;执行) the Direct Method. De Sauzes endeavor(努力;尽力), however, was not completely successful (in Cleveland or elsewhere) since there were too few foreign language teachers in the United States who were fluent speakers of the language they

28、taught. Later, the Modern Language Association of America, based on the Coleman Report (Coleman 1929), endorsed(赞同;认可) the Reading Approach to language teaching, since given the skills and limitations of most language teachers, all that one could reasonably expect was that students would come away f

29、rom the study of a foreign language able to read the target language - with emphasis on some of the great works of literature and philosophy that had been produced in the language.The Reading Approach, as reflected in the work of Michael West (1941) and others, held sway in the United States until t

30、he late 1930s and early 1940s, when World War broke out and made it imperative(adj. 命令式的，急需的) for the U.S. military to quickly and efficiently teach foreign language learners how to speak and understand a language. At this time the U.S. government hired linguists to help teach languages and develop

31、materials: the Audiolingual Approach (Fries 1945), which drew heavily on structural linguistics (Bloomfield 1933) and behavioral psychology (Skinner 1957), was born. In Britain the same historical pressures gave rise to the Oral or Situational Approach (e.g., Pittman 1963), which drew on(vt. 吸收，利用)

32、Firthian Linguistics (codified in the works of Firths best-known student, M.A.K. Halliday 1973) as well as drawing on the experience of Britains language educators with oral approaches to foreign language teaching. Although somewhat (adv. 多少，几分) influenced by, but less dogmatic (adj. 教条的，武断的) than,

33、its American counterpart (the Audiolingual Approach), the Oral or Situational Approach advocated organizing structures around situations that would provide the learner with maximum opportunity to practice the target language, with “practice” nonetheless (adv. 尽管如此(仍然) being little more than choral (adj.合唱的，集体朗诵的) repetition.