The Enlightenment of SLA Theory to Language Teaching1. The Enlightenment of SLA Theory to Language TeachingAs early as in the 1970 s many linguists and applied linguists had conducted extensive studies of second language acquisition (SLA). These linguists called the acquisition of the mother tongue first language acquisition and the acquisition of other languages beyond the mother tongue second language acquisition. The early SLA research was done for the purpose of improving language teaching, so people often classify these researches as the orientations of applied linguistics and foreign language teaching research. The researchers have been studying the cerebral surface features and the language acquisition mechanism of the second language since the 1980 s; therefore, SLA has grown rapidly as an independent subject.In the SLA field the researchers have offered various theoretic models to explain the process of second language acquisition. The most influential theory, also the best explained one, is the Monitor Model put forth by American linguist S.D. Krashen, who built this model on his five famous hypotheses, namely, input hypothesis, acquisition and learning hypothesis, monitor hypothesis, natural order hypothesis and affective filter hypothesis. These five hypotheses make unique and distinctive explanations of the process of second language acquisition. Input hypothesis, as the core of the Monitor Model, clearly tells us how language is acquired. As long as people understand the meaning of the words, they may acquire the language. This is the only way to learn language. Speaking and writing are of no help to language acquisition; only listening is.Krashensaid as long as learners come across words which contain“comprehensible input”, language acquisition happens. Progress in language learning is achieved when the“comprehensible input”is slightly higher than the learners present ability in understanding the language.Acquisition-learning hypothesis points out that“acquisition”and “learning”represent two distinct ways of language learning. In “acquisition” , an unconscious process of learning, such as children’s acquisition of their mother tongue, the meaning of words is usually understood in the course of communication and the use1山西师范大学学位论文of language is learned in an unconscious way,whereas“learning”is conscious and always acquires linguistic knowledge by means of learning the rules and forms of a language.If one acquires a language,they may not know the rules. However, if one learns a language,they must have a good command of rules.Langugae is at the center of human life. It is core of the most important ways of expressing ourselves. With the development of the society, it is not enough noly to be able to speak one’s own native language. In a world there are various languages. If you’d like to take part in the life of the whole world you need t know more languages. So language learning and teachig are vital to the everyday lives of millions.Being an english teacher, I do understand student’s trouble in learning a foreign language. Fifty-minute class sometimes seems to be an ordeal. The problem is that we do know “teaching” but do not know “learning”. That is an sqy we lack a theoy of language learining. So in the paper there are some concepts introduced such as learning and acquisition, foeign languae and second language and models of second language learning. I try to find out an appropriate way of teaching in my oral class. The aim of my class is to wake the entusiasm of the students’ study. So I try to do create a natural and relaxed calss atmosphere to make students learn foreign language through acquirig them.Only the linguistic knowledge through“acquisition”is helpful to the use of the language. The linguistic knowledge through learning, which is no help to the use of the language, can but monitor whether the words spoken are correct or not. As a result, the monitoring function of“learning”gives rise to the Monitor Hypothesis. The learners always gain language acquisition through“Comprehensible Input”which is higher than their present linguistic comprehension, so their process of acquisition must follow a certain predictable order to master the linguistic rules, thus producing“Natural Order Hypothesis”. The differences in the effect of language learning depends on learners and results from the psychological factors. The learners differences in motivation, attitude, confidence, etc., exert impact on the intake of“Comprehensible Input”and cause the differences in language acquisition.This is called the“Affective Filter Hypothesis”.2The Enlightenment of SLA Theory to Language TeachingAs we know, we master a language chiefly through two approaches: one is acquisition and the other is learning. We acquire as we are exposed to natural second language input that is comprehensible. It goes much the same way as a child acquires his first language—with no conscious attention to the language form. On the other hand, we learn in a conscious process of study and attention to form and rule learning. Krashen s Monitor Hypotheses holds the view that only acquired language is ready for natural and fluent communication. Native speakers rarely learn any rules but speak fluently while learnerswho focus on learning rules often fail to apply them in real nguage learning is suitable for linguistic monitor by way of using linguistic rules. Some people always check up the language they use with grammar so as to guarantee the correctness. This is called monitoring through learning. With continuing language progress, the use of the monitoring function becomes less and less frequent.Through the learning of a language,we find that a natural language environment is better than conscious learning and language acquisition is much more important than language learning.This is clearly seen in children s mother tongue acquisition.Conscious learning, while enabling learners to understand the structure and grammar of the language, may also inhibit language acquisition. This can be judged from examples of many adults failure to learn English. Krashen s theory gives us thehint that English should be acquired like children acquire their mother tongue. Then how can children succeed in using language? Although they are controlled to some extent in their language exposure, they are never consciously taught and they never learn consciously, either. But one thing we know is that they communicate a lot with adults (usually parents) in authentic, situational language. Their ability in using language comes from countless subconscious communications like this. Therefore, lots of language teaching experts attempt to teach English with the method with which children acquire mother tongue. In recent years, a lot of applied linguists with Ellis as the representative figure have paid more attention to language teaching. Expounding systematically the relationship between SLA studies and language teaching, they have proposed the input hypothesis, output hypothesis, intake hypothesis and internal3Interaction between Language Acquisition and Classroom Instructionsyllabus which are regarded as the theoretic bases that can revolutionize college English teaching.2. Interaction between Language Acquisition and Classroom InstructionTeaching practice without the guidance of theory is mostly blind and superficial. Learning, as a deep and reasonable scientific behavior, cannot do without the correct guidance of theory. Learning and teaching are closely interwoven, so are language acquisition and language teaching. Ellis calls it “an educational approach”to link language acquisition research closely with language teaching, it is clear that, such as the “interaction”between“language input”and SLA, the discrepancy between“naturalistic acquisition”and instructed learning, and so on.2.1 The Role of Classroom Instruction in Language Learning in SLAFirst of all, the classroom teaching conducted by teachers is closely linked with the two forms of SLA: the“natural acquisition”and“classroom learning”, which are interwoven and both exercise great influences on SLA. Although we cannot draw a clear distinction between“acquired language”and“instructed language”,we can easily understand the connotations of“language acquisition of classroom teac hing”and“language acquisition of non-classroom teaching”because the former is directly connected with classroom teaching. Ellis(1994) holds the view that the language acquisition through the second language teaching, whether by way of formal teaching or created conditions, will result in the increase of natural acquisition in classroom in an indirect way. Obviously, the influence of classroom teaching on language acquisition is positive. Secondly, as early as in 1984, the linguists represented by Long had conducted experiments on the influence of classroom teaching on the efficiency of language learning, the results of which support the viewpoint that classroom teaching benefits language acquisition.4山西师范大学学位论文2.2 The Theoretic Guidance of SLA Theory for Classroom TeachingAccording to my many years teaching practice, some theoretic models proposed in the SLA research field are really conducive to the improvement of classroom teaching quality, such as input hypothesis, output hypothesis and so on. Krashen (1982) proposes input hypothesis to explain the process of the birth of“acquisition”when learners receive language information input which are slightly deeper yet understandable. He takes the mentality that adults learning a second language will go through the same process of creative construction of language as children do acquiring their mother tongue. According to this hypothesis, the teacher should place students in the learning environment with the input and feedback of understandable information so as to let them“acquire”language. Furthermore, the teacher may apply this theory to the compilation of text-books and create diversified authentic language materials or establish a lively and realistic learning environment to augment comprehensible input so that learners may achieve better “acquisition”results.“Output”is a term relevant to input. The output theory proposed by Swain(1985)suggests that learners should use their acquired linguistic resources to practice producing the“comprehensible output” which is the output of their mind and to make“interactions”with“comprehensible output”.As we know, classroom interaction helps learners bridge the “input” and “output”.The language environment and learners internal mechanism, through classroom interaction, make learners acquire language in the course of “input”and“output”.Obviously, the information producer and information receiver together with the language environment are the key factors in both the classroom interaction and the improvement of classroom teaching quality. In other words, teachers produce information in which students are interested (information that leads to interaction) in classroom teaching and students collect, receive and reprocess the information so as to effectively acquire linguistic skills,5Interaction between Language Acquisition and Classroom Instructiongoing through the process of teacher—output of information—feed- back of information; students—receiving information—processing information—producing comprehensible output—acquiring language or skill. Teachers can use this theory to design their classes, adopt teaching activities with communication and task-based learning as the target and enable learners to practice producing“comprehensible output”to the maximum, thus making language acquisition happen.Ellis(1994)proposes the intake hypothesis that learners can momentarily “intake”in their brain a part of the input information, which will eventually be absorbed and become part of the information in the long-term memory. Teachers can improve their teaching if they know what information students are sensitive to and can easily“absorb”and how learners process and quicken the input they have received. In classroom teaching, teachers may select teaching materials, design class activities, and offer different teaching methods to learners according to this theory.SLA researchers hold that learners cannot expect the results overnight for language learning, which has different phases in its development, namely, the“internal syllabus”within learners. The“internal syllabus”theory holds that the phases in learning still receive the brain s phasic restraints on language acquisition in addition to learners own efforts. For example, when learners are learning the English present tense, they might progressively make the following sentences with the verb“read”:“Read the book”—I read the book.—She read the book.—She reads the book;Xiao Li read the book.—Xiao Li reads the book. ... This process, which shows learners internal acquisition schedule, is internal, natural and inevitable. Learners gain language acquisition through the“natural”development of“inter-language”and their own efforts. They may speed up the process, but cannot leap over it. Consequently, teachers should allow students to commit errors, finish their“internal acquisition schedule”and explain and correct these erro rs patiently. Mitchell&Myles observe, teachers found con-structions which were different in the two languages were not necessarily difficult, while constructions which were smiilar in them were notnecessarily easy, either. Further more, sometmies difficulty occurred in one direction but not in the other. Let me take Wh questions for example.In English we6Application of SLA in College English Teachingsay:What did you do yesterday? the corresponding Chinese order should be: you yesterday did what? In Englishwe put Wh at the beginningwhile in Chinese we just place itwhere it should be. In this sentence we should put Wh at the end. Contrastive Analysis would therefore predict that the placementofwhat would be difficult for both English learners of Chinese and Chinese learners ofEnglish. In fact, it isn t so. This kind of error never occurs on Chinese learners and at least they never put Wh wrongly. From the examplewe can see considering the great difference between Chinese and English syntaxes, there should have been more errors based on CA, but therewere not. Another example is I did nothing last nightbut to preparemy lessons. In this sentence, I wanted the students to tellme thewronguse of to , that is, we should omit it. However, they thought itwas rightand began to questionwhether itshould be prepare orprepare for Students had difficulty in whether a preposition should be used, but they did not commit an error in actual use. On the otherhand, theywere sure ofthe use to but in fact it was an error.3.Application of SLA in College English TeachingCollege English is a compulsory course for non-English major students at college or university set up by the Section of Higher Education of China s Ministry of Education. One of the important means to check college English teaching are the College English Tests band 4-6 (CET 4-6) conducted by the Ministry of Education since 1987. Yunnan, an undeveloped province in education, has adopted extra examinations of“YNTEC”and“YNCET-3”besides CET 4-6. For many years running because of insufficient educational funds, the shortage of qualified teachers, backward equipment and obsolete teaching methodology, the college English teaching in Yunnan province is faced with a lot of difficulties, seriously influencing the teaching quality. It is extremely urgent for teachers to apply the fruits of SLA research to the improvement of college English teaching.It s a well-known fact that the key to the improvement of teaching quality is to scientifically work out a teaching plan and select text-books, make definite the teachers function, responsibility and teaching attitude and select an appropriate7山西师范大学学位论文teaching methodology. The important role of SLA research is to help teachers determine these teaching decisions correctly. There exists a direct relationship between the property of language input, the learners learning process and the understanding of language acquisition patterns in the classroom and the guiding of the teaching plan because teachers understanding of language-teaching theory plays a significant and substantive role in the whole teaching process, concerning both important decisions such as syllabus design, text-book selection, and courses offered, and micro-techniques such as concrete classroom activities and homework. For example, the differences in choosing a teacher-centered or a learner-centered teaching mode will lead to differences in the choice of teaching plan, syllabus, text-book, teaching methodology and bring about different results and effects. Therefore, teachers who possess the knowledge of SLA theory will know how to avoid the wrong orientation in language teaching and how to lay down the teaching plan in accordance with the natural ways of language acquisition in teaching goals.The same case is found in the selection of text-book. According to SLA research, the content of courses should select authentic materials such as real communication recordings, TV clips, news broadcasts, signboards, pictures and schedules, instead of unfamiliar or politically-oriented language materials. If we review the teaching in the past, we will find out the reason why a college graduate or post-graduate student who has learned English for 15 or 16 years still fails to carry out daily English conversation or cope with the daily life using English. Besides providing teachers with the scientific guidance in their determination of role, responsibility and teaching attitude, SLA studies also help enable teachers to realize that they are not purely the source and tutor of professional knowledge and that they are not only the students controllers and learning evaluator but also the coach to students learning and the consultant, participant, cooperator and psychological supporter of the classroom activities. Teachers should accelerate learners learning process by encouraging them to adopt necessary learning strategies. SLA regards learning as a constructive building process and considers mistakes as an inevitable and positive part of the process. Therefore,teachers should have new awareness of8Effective Classroom Teaching Methodsstudents mistakes during their learning process, take new counter-measures and guidance and abandon some of the traditional inappropriate ways.Modern linguists take the view that teachers chief responsibility is to lay down plans, manage the interaction, monitor learning, explain the difficulties and offer timely feedback in learning. Therefore, teaching, I think, concerns the bilateral activities of both teachers teaching and students learning. As long as teachers know the function and responsibility in guiding learners learning, the learners will understand and participate in the design of courses and the selection of learning methods, take an active part in the design of language learning activities and shoulder the responsibility for their learning, thus effectively improving the teaching quality.Nowadays, it is very gratifying that through many linguists continuous research and practice and under the guidance of SLA theory, lots of scientific and effective teaching methods have been tried and found out, forming schools of teaching methodology. The representative teaching approaches now applied to classroom teaching include Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Method, Situational Methodand Communicative Approach.4.Effective Classroom Teaching MethodsThe Direct Method, an approach to design the English teaching process based on the psychological rocess of infants acquisition of their mother tongue, adopts visual aids and the teaching modes and methods which approximate real life and promotes teaching in a lively way. Like parents teaching their children to speak, the Direct Method requires teachers of English to directly teach English with material objects, pictures, gestures, facial expressions, actions, etc, and has achieved very good teaching results because of its rich language teaching environment.The Audio-Lingual Method, based on behaviorist theory, regards the process of language acquisition as a series of stimulus—reaction—copy—intensification. Viewing listening and speaking as the priority, the Audio-Lingual Method, can be seen as one part of the language acquisition process,and can effectively better reading and writing on the basis of listening and speaking. The Audio-Lingual Method9山西师范大学学位论文stresses the importance of students learning authentic phonetics and intonation, therefore requiring teaching material to exclusively use recordings of native speakers and classrooms to adopt a complete English environment by avoiding the use of the native tongue, so that learners will be able to use the correct language. It is obviously seen that the Audio-Lingual Method pays special attention to both the “quality” of the language input and the establishment of language environment.The Situational Method, also called the Audio-Visual Method, is a teaching approach developed on the basis of the Audio-Lingual Method. The Situational Method, besides stressing listening and speaking, also emphasizes“looking”, namely, the utilization of slide projector, projector, or teaching films during the teaching so as to provide students with pure and correct pronunciation and lively pictures as well. The students may look and speak while listening and they can also connect what they see with what they hear, so they are placed in an authentic language environment. It goes without saying that the teaching with the Situational Method tallies with the law of language acquisition, pays special attention to the“quality”of the language input, stresses the situational function of teaching and emphasizes the importance of language situation in language learning. The Direct Method and the Audio-Lingual Method both emphasize importance of natural acquisition of language and advocate teaching with the help of material objects. All the material objects are simple and concrete when applied in classroom teaching; therefore, the Situational Method, which pays more attention to the establishment of the real language environment, is very conducive to the promotion of learning and teaching, hence the better results.In the 1950 s the linguist Chomsky proposed the concept of linguistic competence. He held the view that once a person acquires language competence, he or she is then able to make innumerable sentences. Aiming at this theory, D. H. Hymes, an American social linguist, proposed the concept of“communicative competence”in the 1970 s. The Communicative Approach attaches importance to the cultivation of communicative competence, lays stress on students contact and use of rich authentic and natural language to form the ability to communicate in English and requires the arrangement of the authentic materials in a logical and reasonable situation in10Conclusionaccordance with social communication. The Communicative Approach stresses colloquial language practice and emphasizes the use of real and natural language, which resemble the process of natural language acquisition because spoken language holds the number one place and the process of communication always accompanies an authentic and natural situation.Obviously, the above-mentioned teaching methods value the imitation of the process of natural language acquisition and the creation of natural language environment in the course of teaching. If they can be authentically used in classroom instruction, then teaching quality can be greatly improved. What is worth noting is that the superiority of multi-media teaching technology has gradually emerged with the rapid development of computer technology. Auxiliary means of classroom teaching are not limited to slide shows, teaching films, videos and so on. Multi-media technology, convenient to operate, can access information at random, simulate and invent things, make up the deficiency of the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingual Method, the Situational Methodand the Communicative Approach in the creation of the language environment and offer richer images, A V, videos and words. Due to its combination of audio with vision and enhancement of the memory, Multi-media technology, which can achieve better teaching results, has become a comparatively ideal and effective teaching aid.5. ConclusionFrom the above mentioned, we can conclude that language teachers should strive to learn and master LA theory, ponder deeply over the relationship between SLA theory and language teaching, combine their own teaching practice, receive the scientific guidance of SLA theory, understand the orientation of language teaching in a correct way, make educational and teaching decisions, instill the new SLA theory into the teaching plan, the syllabus design, the selection of text-books and the choice of teaching methods, abandon the traditional old concept and practice which go against the law of language acquisition, re-determine the role, the position and the function of teachers in language teaching, establish teachers new image, responsibility,11山西师范大学学位论文and teaching attitude and choose the suitable teaching methods with multi-media teaching technology so as to greatly lift the efficiency of classroom language teaching and promote the steady growth of the college English teaching quality.12BibliographyBibliography[1]Brown, H. D. (2002).Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. ForeignLanguage Teaching and Research Press.[2]Cohen, A. D. (2000).Strategies in Learning and Using a Second Language.Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.[3]Cook, V. (2000).Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Foreign LanguageTeaching and Research Press, Macmillan Publishers Ltd.[4]Dubin, F. & E. Olshtain. (2002).Courses Design. Shanghai Foreign LanguageEducation Publishing House.[5]Gardner, D. & L. Miller.(2002).Establishing Self Access from Theory to Practice.Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.[6]Li, Jianfu. (2003). Interaction of background knowledge & common knowledge inforeign languages acquisition.Foreign Languages&Their Teaching,2.[7]Xiang, Maoying. (2003). Influences of affective factors on college Englishteaching.Foreign Languages&Their Teaching, 3.[8]Zhou, Ping & Zhang, Jisheng. (2003). On the interaction of SLA research &foreign languages teaching.Foreign Languages&Their Teaching, 2.13。
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