两种教学法比较

A Review and Comparison between Two Teaching Approaches(TPR andCLT) Abstract This paper is a review of two teaching theories (TPR and CLT). From comparison, it is obvious that they both had adapted from the former ones and each has its pros and cons. Understanding these theories helps us as a teacher to better design an attractive class and achieve the teaching goals. 1 A Brief Literature Review of TPR TPR first proposed by Asher in 1964, is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action, which attempts to teach language through physical activity. Asher shares with the school of humanistic psychology a concern for the role of affective factors in language learning. 1.1Theory of language and learning In a developmental sense, Asher sees successful adult second language learning as a parallel process to child first language acquisition. It is linked to “trace theory” in psychology. In addition, he draws on three rather influential learning hypotheses: 1.there exists a specific innate bio-program for language learning, which defines an optimal path for first and second language development. 2.Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in the left- and right-brain hemispheres. 3.Stress (an affective filter) intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning. 1.2Objectives and Syllabus The objective of TPR is to teach oral proficiency to produce learners who can communicate uninhibitedly and intelligibly with native speakers. Asher advocates sentence-based syllabus. TPR requires initial attention to meaning, the grammatical features and vocabulary items are selected to be taught according to the situations in which they can be used in the classroom and the ease with which they can be learned. 1.3Activity types and role of materials Imperative drills are the major and mostly employed classroom activity. They are used to elicit young learners’physical actions and activities, while conversational dialogues are delayed until after about 120 hours of instruction. Some other activities in class include role plays and slide or picture presentation. One thing that should be noted is that according to Asher, there is generally no material in a TPR course at the beginning stage. With time going on, the materials and realia would play an increasingly important role. 1.4learner and teacher roles In TPR, leaners have two primary roles: listener and performer.Asher defines the teacher an active and direct role in English teaching. “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors” (Asher 1977:43). 2 A Brief Literature Review of CL T The origins of CLT are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. This approach focuses on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures in language teaching. 2.1 Theory of language At the level of language theory, CLT has a rich theoretical base. Some of the characteristics of this communicative view of language follow: 1.Language is a system for the expression of meaning. 2.The primary function of language is to allow interaction and communication. 3.The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses. 4.The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse. 2.2 Theory of learning Though little has been written about learning theory, three communication principles cannot be neglected: 1.Activities that involve real communication promote learning. 2.Task principle: Activities in which language is used for carrying out meaning ful tasks promote learning (Johnson 1982). 3.Meaningfulness principle: Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process. 2.3 Objectives and Syllabus The goal of language teaching is to develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as “communicative competence.”Discussions of the nature of the syllabus have been central in Communicative Language Teaching. Some have argued that the syllabus concept be abolished, others lean more toward the model proposed by Brumfit (1980), which favors a grammatically based syllabus around which notions, functions, and communicational activities are grouped. 2.4 Activity typesand role of materials The range of exercise types and activities is unlimited, provided that such exercises enable learners to attain the communicative objectives of the curriculum, engage learners in communication, and require the use of such communicative processes as information sharing, negotiation of meaning, and interaction. Materials have the primary role of promoting communicative language use. There are three kinds of materials currently: text-based, task-based, and realia. 2.5 learner and teacher roles Breen and Candlin describe the learner’s role as a negotiator- between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning.. They also describe several teacher roles: 1.The first role is to facilitate the communication process between al participants in the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts. 2.The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. 3. A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner. 3 Comments From the above literature review we can see that both of the approaches put an emphasis on communication, but with different means ofr its realization in the classroom. TPR owes much to structuralist or grammar-based views of language, whose general objectives are to teach oral proficiency at a beginning level only through the use of action-based drills in the imperative for. And its problem is that the experimental support for the effectiveness is sketchy and typically deals with only the very beginning stages of learning. On the contrary, CLT sees the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures. It is a method with a solid theoretical base and flexible application in teaching. Since language instruction has a complex relationship with the developments of philosophy, pedagogy, linguistics and teaching methodology, there is neither right teaching approaches nor wrong teaching approaches, but the proper ones for students of all levels and teachers respectively. Teachers, as a guide and director should improve their capability and professional skills, synthesize the strong points of different approaches and incorporated them in the teaching process and create a better learning environment for the students. References Jack C. Richards, Theodore S. Rodgers. 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