Linguistics and
Language Teaching
Lecture 9
Approaches to Language Teaching
• In order to improve the efficiency of language
teaching, many approaches have been used.
• Language teaching has experienced great
changes in the world. The 20th century
witnessed a dramatic transformation of the
role of the English language in the world.
Approaches to Language Teaching
• Changes in language teaching methods throughout
history have reflected the development of linguistic
theories.
• From the 17th to the 19th centuries, linguistics was
characterized by traditional grammar. Correspondingly,
the grammar-translation method was widely used in the
teaching of Latin in European schools.
• In the grammar-translation method, priority was given to
reading and translation of written language.
Approaches to Language Teaching
• The natural method (also called the direct method)
of language teaching was adopted into English
language teaching (ELT) and laid a solid intellectual
and practical foundation for the development of ELT
as an autonomous profession.
Approaches to Language Teaching
• Applied linguists also brought about the
situational approach and the
notional/functional method.
• Meanwhile, based on a broader framework for
the description of language use called
communicative competence proposed by
Hymes, the communicative approach to
language teaching came into being.
The Relation of Linguistics to Language
Teaching
• Both linguistics and language teaching takes
language as their subject.
• The bridge between linguistics and language
teaching is applied linguistics.
Syllabus Design
• Syllabus is fundamental to language teaching.
• Syllabus refers to the description of the planning and
framework for a course of study, and may list the
learning goals, objectives, contents, processes, resources
and means of evaluation planned for students.
Grammatical Syllabus
• Grammatical syllabus takes grammar as the
basis for (foreign) language teaching. In this
syllabus, grammar is primary.
Grammatical Syllabus
• (a) Stress is laid on the written language rather than the
spoken language.
• (b) The instruction of grammar not only focuses on what
is regular but also on what is irregular.
• (c) The classroom instructions are presented in the native
language.
• (d) The major teaching method is translation and the
mastery of the learned grammatical rules is checked
through large quantities of written translation and
writing practice.
Situational Syllabus
• Situational syllabus refers to a syllabus in which the
instruction of language teaching is planned around the
situations in which the linguistic forms to be taught are
normally used.
Communicative Syllabus
• Communicative syllabus focuses language
teaching on the development of the learner's
communicative competence.
• Assumption: Language is used for communication;
learning a language is learning to communicate.
• The communicative syllabus emphasizes the
simultaneous development of the learners'
linguistic competence and pragmatic competence.
The linguistic items to be studied are dependent
upon the learners' purposes of the
communication he expects to participant in.
Language Testing
• a) The Feedback Function
• Language tests can provide teachers and students with
feedback information so that they can improve their
teaching and learning.
• b) The Assessment Function
• Tests are often used to assess students'
achievements in language learning.
Language Testing
• c) The Backwash Function
• The results of language testing can help us to assess
whether the teaching goal is appropriate, valid and
to what degree it has been achieved.
• validity
• Validity refers to the degree to which a test
measures what it is intended to measure.
• content validity, construct validity, face validity,
washback validity, criterion-related validity.
• Content validity refers to whether the test adequately
covers the syllabus area to be tested, or in other words.
• Construct validity concerns what theoretical construct on
which the test is based.
• Face validity deals with not what the test actually
measures, but to what it appears superficially to measure.
• Washback validity refers to whether the test can
reflect the result of the teaching and learning that
precedes it and throw light on future teaching and
learning.
• Criterion-related validity is also called the "statistic
validity". It refers to the validity represented by the
relation between the test scores and the criterion
scores.
• Reliability
• Reliability refers to whether a test produces
the consistent results when given to the same
candidates twice in succession or marked be
different people.
• Efficiency
• This involves questions of economy, ease of
administration, scoring, and interpretation of
results. Efficiency is also related to financial
viability.
Types of Language Tests
• The discrete point test
• A discrete point test consists of many questions on a
large number of linguistic points, but each question tests
only one linguistic point.
• Objective questions are widely used in the discrete point
test.
Types of Language Tests
• The Integrative Test
• This kind of test is also called the "pragmatic
test".
• simultaneous testing of the testee's multiple
linguistic competence from various
perspectives.
Types of Language Tests
• a. Cloze dictation
• b. Oral cloze test
• c. Paraphrase recognition
• d. Questions & Answers
Types of Language Tests
• The Communicative Test
• It aims at testing the testee's mastery of the target
language through accomplishing certain tasks in real or
nearly-real situations. In this sense, it is a "task-based
test."
• The skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are
tested comprehensively.
Types of Language Tests
•
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•
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The Achievement Test
The Proficiency Test
The Aptitude Test
The Diagnosis Test
Language Test Development
• Designing the test blueprint
• the objectives of the test
• the type of the test
• the contents of the test
• the question types of the test
• the proportion of each section in the test
paper
• the specification form for the test
• Writing the test paper
Error Analysis
• Interlingual transfer
• Intralingual transfer