Input reading 2
Communicative language theories
Important contribution to the understanding of how language works in communication was made by psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics studies complex relationship between language and the language-user's mind. One of the issues that is studied by psycholinguistics consists in understanding how the language produces meaning. To answer this question it is necessary to study how the language is represented in the brain areas. There are brain areas that are “responsible” for the meaning, lexical semantics and syntax forms. These areas are shown below:
Exploratory tasks 2.1
Interpret the “deep meaning” of the following sentences. In what situations can they be used?
Sentences |
Deep meaning |
Situations |
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Speech and thought are a single process in the course of producing an utterance. Intended meaning is mapped with the help of words in the speaker’s or writer’s mind. this preliminary mapping is organised with the help of syntactical means and is given a finishing touch with morphology to encode the function and relationship of words in the sentence and phonology to represent the utterance with speech sounds or graphemes
Exploratory task 2.2
Give a standard representation of the following conversational phrases
Phrases |
Standard representation |
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Indications of thought are the pauses of hesitation, the length of which depends on the complexity of the task (Goldman-Eisler). Production of sentences whether vocal or written is not an automatic or smooth process. Its characteristic feature is “non-fluency”. A typical cycle of “hesitation phases” and “fluent phases” in sentence production is shown by the graph:
Hesitation
phase
Fluent phase
Hesitation
phase
Fluent phase
Hesitation phase
(Garman M.1990. Psycholinguistics. CUP. P. 121)
Exploratory task 2.3
Represent the following text in the standard way
Spoken text |
Standard representation |
… you know but … they used to go out in … they used to come … you know … the lovely sunsets you get at that time …there’s a nice new postcard … a nice … well I don’t know how new it is … it’s been a while since I’ve been here … of a sunset …you know… a new one … |
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(Adapted from Brown, G. and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. CUP. P. 11-12)
In the continuation of the mentalist ideas in linguistics and in the wake of promising psycholinguistic research a natural approach to language teaching was developed (Krashen, S., and T.Terrell. 1983. The Natural Approach. Oxford:Pergamon). The method sought the conformity with the naturalistic language learning by young children. The method exploited the concept of a "creative construction theory", according to which the learners construct internal representation of the language they learn. Part of the "creative construction theory" was the concept of the inter-language (Selinker, L. 1992. Rediscovering Inter-language. London:Longman), which means the learner's language in the process of acquisition and development. It appears that learners’ “inter-language”, has some typical characteristics and to a certain extent repeats the road s/he once travelled in acquiring the native tongue. Also, this process is very similar to acquiring different non-native languages spoken by humans.
Exploratory task 2.4
Recall the most typical English learner errors and rate them in order of frequency according to your own experience. Share your results with the peers and add to the list of errors from each other. Work out the group error rating together.
Errors |
Individual rating |
Group rating |
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As a result of studies into the inter-language development, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and advanced levels of language learning were introduced to meet the criteria of developmental approach to language teaching and learning.
Exploratory task 2.5
Read short excerpts from the easy reading books and match the levels of English language learners and the text excerpts
Text excerpts |
Level |
A. Charlie put the phone down and smiled for the first time in a week. Monday. And this was only Friday! He had the weekend to think of something to save his business (Fleischer, L. Rain Man. Penguin Readers) |
Level 1 |
B. We arrived at our hotel early on Saturday morning. The Hotel Vista. Susan and I always stay there. It is very quiet, very friendly and the food is good (Stewart, P. Brown Eyes. Penguin Readers) |
Level 2 |
C. School was finished and mark had four cigarettes in his pocket. Other boys drank beer, and some tried drugs, but Mark just liked cigarettes (Grisham, J. The Client. Penguin Readers) |
Level 3 |
In an attempt to understand how the language produces meaning, attention was focused on cognitive linguistics (Langacker, R. 1987. Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Stanford University Press). This trend in linguistics studies the language as the tool in the human cognitive processes. Language is described in cognitive linguistics through “concepts”, “language models of the world”, “frames”, “scripts” and “schemata”. Mental models of the world (Johnson-Laird, P. 1983. Mental Models. CUP) consist of the concepts that enable language users to encode the reality. Frames (Fillmore, C. 1982. Frame semantics. Linguistics in the Morning Calm. Seul) function as stereotypes of perceiving real-world situations, living beings, objects and processes. Scripts (Abelson, R. 1981. Psychological status of the script concept. American Psychologist. 36. 715-729) are successions of acts both lingual and extra-linguistic in situational settings. Another term to convey the same idea is scenario (outline of the linguistic or extra-linguistic activity in the process of real-world communication) Schemata (singular: schema) (Bartlett, F. 1932. Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. CUP) is an active organisation of prior knowledge and cognitive processes that makes a person ready to learn and to know. It consists of “slots and fillers” in the individual mind and the connections between them. This enables cognitive processes develop in a certain direction. E.g. due to the innate schemata human beings are “pre-wired” to perceive the world in three dimensions. Schemata are essential in language comprehension (Harley, T. 1997.The Psychology of Language. Psychology Press. P. 207-242)
Exploratory task 2.6
Brainstorm the concept of “nationalism” and produce a mind-map. After brainstorming, check the meaning of this concept in home and foreign dictionaries
