Language Context and English Teaching I. The meanings of la

Language Context and English Teaching
    Good morning, everyone, today my topic is language context and English teaching. After explaining the meanings of language context, I will talk about language context and the communicative competence, and then I’ll tell you how to set the language context in the English teaching.
    First, I’ll briefly introduce the meanings of language context. Generally speaking, the language context can be divided into two major types: situational context and sociocultural context.
     (1)Rivers suggests that items of language in total isolation have no function: they need a system and a setting to give them both function and meaning. Children often ask for the meaning of a word in isolation, without seeing the need to provide anything for it: too quick and too casual a reply can often have unexpected consequences. For example, when the child asks what cricket is and you say it is a game, and then discover that it was a "cricket" in the context of insects. Even if we know the strict linguistics, we still need to check further into the situation and even into the society and culture to be sure of what item of the language is appropriate or acceptable.
    In a narrow sense, the language context means the situational context.(2)In Halliday’s opinion, the situational contexts include the setting, the way of talking, and participants. But Hymes divides it into eight elements: setting, role, function, notion, style, stress and intonation, grammar, vocabulary and language aids. Those factors affect each other and decide which language form is appropriate.
     (3)The situational context and sociocultural context can’t be isolated from each other. In certain sociocultural context, people must obey the particular communicative rules when they use a certain language. And in a certain situational context, people should not only pay attention to the social communication rules but also adjust themselves according to the factors of the situational context.
    Second, I’ll talk about the language context and the communicative competence.
     (4)"Competence" is a central issue in linguistics, whether in terms of abstract syntactic theory(as with Noam Chomsky)or in terms of social interaction(as with Dell Hymes). And Hymes thinks the communicative competence should include four types: language competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence, and context competence. If we consider the language competence is the core of the language teaching, then the other three abilities must also be taken into consideration.
     (5)Wallwork suggests that " sociolinguistic competence is necessary to language study and to attempt to study language without society is like studying anatomy without a body. " For example, go to a country where you understand not a word of the language around you.(6)But by observing the social context and listening to the noises, you learn the meaning. So one can’t be said to know fully the meaning of any language without knowing the social context in which it may or does occur.
    The context competence and strategic competence can be realized in certain language context and have their effects on communication.(7)In a normal language context, we often communicate in discourse, not in a single phrase or sentence. A learner who can communicate with the correct language forms has a strong context competence and knows how to use the signals to convey the information and conform it to the meaning. And according to these signals, they can understand each other better.(8)In different language contexts, we can also make use of the strategic competence to start, end, maintain or extend a conversation. And the communication strategies we often use are avoidance, tolerance, suspense and accommodation, etc.
    Third, I’d like to say something about how to set the language context.
    1. Use all kinds of teaching aids.
    In the classroom, students should be provided with a chance to experience the language in meaningful ways and try out their skills, so we should not only be acquainted with the use of flash cards and wall pictures, but also we need to learn to collect and make visual aids, such as pictures from magazines, used objects like can and boxes. So with a piece of chalk, objects, people, animals, settings are created on the blackboard and the students’ interest and attention are aroused. Another technique is to use lantern slides, not to tell a story but to create situations when the students are asked to act out their dialogue or play their roles.
    2. Design all kinds of activities.
     (9)The role of the teacher in a communicative classroom is not an informer or a supervisor but a manager or helper. The teachers should try to design all kinds of activities to help the students perform or interact among themselves as much as possible. But designing a course which prepares students to interact in specific roles in real-life situations requires that the course designer first discovers that what part is played in these activities by the language of different kinds. He must find out what topics come up often enough to be worth discussing in class, and we must also bear in mind the kind of people the pupil will eventually have to deal with.
    3. Use paralinguistic features.
    Sometimes when we set the language context, using paralinguistic features such as gestures, facial expressions and some actions will be more convenient and vivid than using teaching aids such as pictures or slides. No matter when teachers present, demonstrate, drill, practice the teaching material, we should pay attention to using paralinguistic features flexibly and appropriately. And(10)paralinguistic features are complementary to the teaching aids in the English teaching.
    OK. Today, we’ve taken a brief look at language context and English teaching. I hope you’ve got some useful information. Next time, I will set some language learning context, and we will practice some real context language. That’s all for today. Thanks for your attention!