Chapter 11 Linguistics and Foreign Language Teaching
Ⅰ. Directions: Read each of the following statements carefully. Decide which one of the four
choices best completes the statement and put the letter A, B, C, or D in the bracket.
1. __________ brought forward the concept of “i+1” principle.
A. Chomsky B. Krashen C. Nunan D. Bloomfield
2. In Chomsky’s view, a native speaker possesses a kind of __________ competence.
A. grammatical
B. discourse
C. strategic D. linguistic
3. The __________ syllabus is a grammar oriented syllabus based on a selection of language items
and structures.
A. structural
B. situational C. communicative
D. task-based
4. __________ analysis is a way of comparing languages (e.g., L1 and l2) in order to determine
potential errors for the ultimate purpose of isolating what need to be learned and what does not
need to be learnt in a second language leaning situation.
A. Contrastive
B. Error C. Discourse D. Grammar
5. ___________ corpora is a collection of a large number of short extracts randomly selected from
all kinds of genres.
A. General
B. Specialized
C. Sample D. monitor
Ⅱ. Directions: Fill in the blank in each of the following statements with one word, the first letter
of which is already given as a clue. Note that you are to fill in ONE word only, and you are not
allowed to change the letter given.
1. Two variables concerning the amenability of language elements to focus on form are the
relevance of U
Grammar and complexity of language structures.
2. P
input is material that is finely tuned in advance to the learner’s current level.
3. A constructivist view of language argues that language is s
constructed.
4. I
is often understood as a language system between the target language and the
learner’s native language.
5. The d
view of language teaching aims at developing discourse competence.
6. The process of s
design in foreign language teaching mainly includes selecting and
grading what is to be taught.
7. A
is always emphasized as a key feature of tasks.
8. A c
is a collection of texts input into a computer.
9. M
often occurs when learners fail to perform their competence. In other words, the
learner has already learned the knowledge or skill but simply fails to function correctly due to lack
of attention or other factors.
10. P
tasks are those activities that students do in the classroom but that may not take
place in real life.
Ⅲ. Directions: Judge whether each of the following statements is true or false. Put a T for true or
F for false in the bracket in front of each statement. If you think a statement is false, you must
explain why you think so and give the correct version.
1. English language teachers already know enough about the language and that learning more
about the language need not be something to consume too much of their valuable time.
2. A good knowledge of linguistic theories makes a good language teacher.
3. Although language learning should generally be meaning-focused and communication-oriented,
it is necessary and beneficial to focus on form occasionally.
4. Formally simple structures are functionally simple and formally complex items are functionally
complex.
5. Studies on interlanguage can be done in two ways: (1) investigating the psychological,
biological or neurological mechanisms involved in production of interlangauge; (2) investigating
the linguistic features of interlanguage.
6. The discourse-based view of language teaching overemphasizes the role of internal factors in
the process of language acquisition and gives little importance to external learning processes.
7. As for the construct of a sentence, Transformation-Generative grammar describes it as
composed of a deep structure, a surface structure and some transformational rules.
8. The most important part of syllabus design is selecting and sequencing language items.
9. Currently, the practice of adhering to one type of syllabus throughout the language program is
popular.
10. In terms of nature of errors, errors are often divided into interlingual errors and intralingual
errors.
Ⅳ. Explain the causes of the following errors.
1. Do you know where will Mike go?
2. The girl is comes from America.
3. She doesn’t likes English.
4. The boy enjoys to play computer games.
5. Li Ming goed to school yesterday.
6. They singing now.
Ⅴ. Directions: Explain the following terms.
1. Syllabus
2. curriculum
3. input hypothesis
4. communicative competence
5. task
6. task-based syllabus
7. error
Ⅵ. Answer the following questions.
1. What is the influence of linguistics to language teaching?
2. What is the process of syllabus design in foreign language teaching？
3. What are the principles of designing tasks?
4. How to design a syllabus?
5. How to use corpora in our English teaching?