发布时间 : 星期四 文章语言教学的流派第一章更新完毕开始阅读
changing climate of the times in which they worked. Educators recognized the need for speaking proficiency rather than reading comprehension, grammar, or literary appreciation as the goal for foreign language programs; there was an interest in how children learn language, which prompted attempts to develop teaching principles from observation of child language learning. But the ideas and methods of Marcel, Prendergast, Gouin, and other innovators were developed outside the context of established circles of education and hence lacked the means for wider dissemination, acceptance, and implementation. They were writing at a time when there was not sufficient organizational structure in the language teaching profession to enable new ideas to develop into an educational movement. This began to change toward the end of the nineteenth century, however, when a more concerted effort arose in which the interests of reform- minded language teachers, and linguists, coincided. Teachers and linguists began to write about the need for new approaches to language teaching, and through their pamphlets, books, speeches, and articles, the foundation for more widespread pedagogical reforms was laid. This effort became known as the Reform Movement in language teaching.
The Reform Movement
Language teaching specialists like Marcel, Prendergast, and Gouin
had done much to promote alternative approaches to language twaching, but their ideas failed to receive widespread support or attention. From the 1880s,however, practically minded linguists like Henry Sweet in England, Wilhelm Vietor in Germany, and Paul Passy in France began to provide the intellectual leadership needed to give reformist ideas greater credibility and acceptance. The discipline of linguistics was revitalized. Phonetic- the scientific analysis and description of the sound systems of language- was established, giving new insights into speech processes. Linguists emphasized that speech, rather than the written word, was the primary form of language. The International Phonetic Association was founded in 1886, and its International Alphabet was designed to enable the sounds of any language to be accurately transcribed. One of the earliest goals of the association was to improve the teaching of modern languages. It advocated.
Linguists too became interested in the controversies that emerged about the best way to teach foreign languages, and ideas were fiercely discussed and defended in books, articles, and pamphlets.
Henry
Sweet(1845-1912)
argued
that
sound
methodological principle should be based on a scientific analysis of language and a study of psychology. In his book The Practical Study of Languages(1899) he set forth principle for the development of
teaching method. These include:
Careful selection of what is to be taught. Imposing limits
In Germany the prominent scholar Wilhelm Vietor(1850-1918) used linguistic theory to justify his views on language teaching. He argued that training in phonetics would enable teachers to pronounce the language accurately. Speech pattern, rather than grammar, were the fundamental elements of language. In 1882 he published his views in an influential pamphlet, Language Teaching Must Start Afresh, in which he strongly criticized the inadequacies of Grammar Translation and stressed the value of training teachers in the new science of phonetics.
Vietor, Sweet, and other reformers in the late nineteenth century shared many beliefs about the principles on which a new approach to teaching foreign language should be based,although they often differed considerably in the specific procedures they advocated for teaching a language. In general the reformers believed that.
1The spoken language is primary and that this should be
reflected in an oral-based methodology.
2The findings of phonetics should be applied to teaching and to teacher training.
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These principles provided the theoretical foundations for a principled approach to language teaching, one based on a scientific approach to the study of language and of language learning. They refelt the beginnings of the discipline of applied linguistics-that branch of language study concerned with the scientific study of second and foreign language teaching and learning. The writings of such scholars as Sweet, Vietor, and Passy provided suggestions on how these applied linguistic principles could best be put into practice. None of these proposals assumed the status of a method, however, in the sense of a widely recognized and uniformly implemented design for teaching a language. But parallel to the ideas put forward by members of the Reform Movement was an interest in developing principles for language learning, such as are seen in first language acquisition. This led to what have been termed natural methods and ultimately led to the development of what came to be known as the Direct Method.
The Direct Method
Gouin had been one of the first of the nineteenth- century