The Significance of Linguistics for the English Learning and Teaching

Abstract：Linguistics has the purpose of studying the language development and use. It helps teachers decide what to teach students and how to teach the language. As a result， English linguistics becomes an indispensable guide to both English learning and teaching.

Key Words: LinguisticsEnglish learning English teaching

I. The Significance of Linguistics for the English Study

1.1 Practical Use of Some Linguistics Theories in English Learning

Linguistics helps analyze the actual language， which plays a key role in language study. Thousands of the prescriptive grammar rules recited only by mechanical memorization can be analyzed and classified. For instance， compare the two sets of words: injustice/inefficient; imperfect/impossible. If someone has learned the assimilation effect， they will easily understand why the negative morpheme is realized as “in” or “im” in the above two sets respectively.

Moreover， there are many useful rules similar to it which can be used to facilitate one’s comprehensive understanding of different knowledge branches in their English study: the rule ordering of English nominal plural forms in Phonology， the inflection and word formation in Morphology， the use of immediate constituent analysis to analyze a sentence’s ambiguity in Syntax， and the cooperative principle in Pragmatics， etc..

1.2 The Importance of Linguistics for the English Study

English learning is not mechanical memorization but linguistic application based on systematic and scientific researches. In my opinion， inductive and deductive methods can both be used in our language study， that is to say， maybe we can have the course “English Linguistics” at senior high school since we have learned English for at least 3 years. At the very beginning we follow our teachers’ guide to recite many scattered segments; in the following we have the course linguistics， so we can verify the given theories by means of the scattered knowledge， and try to summarize what we have learned; later with the progress of theories’ study and knowledge’s accumulation， we can even try to deduce some our own theories suitable for our English learning. In this way， we can gradually develop an exploratory learning habit， which benefits us in our whole life.

Ⅱ. The Significance of Linguistics for the English Teaching

How is linguistics applied to foreign language teaching? In order to well fulfill the teaching task， first of all teachers should arm themselves with linguistic application.

2.1 What to Teach in the English Teaching

When facing to choose suitable language teaching materials， we first resort to linguistics since it helps us understand how languages work from biological， social， cultural and psychological perspectives. S. Pit Corder thinks that theoretical linguistics applies to language teaching from 3 grades:

Grade 1: Analyze language materials and describe them;

Grade 2: Decide to choose which language items; give a list by means of contrastive analysis and error analysis;

Grade 3: Make a syllabus.

The core of theoretical linguistics’ application is to describe language materials， and then decide to choose which language items to students. Considering the present teaching situation， the standpoint of the new curriculum reform is basing on students’ development， and the teaching objective emphasizes solidifying the relation between course content and students’ life， the relation between course content and modern society technological progress; paying close attention to students’ interest in learning; well-choosing basic knowledge and skills necessary for students’ whole life. During the process of choosing teaching materials， we should take both the theoretical and the practical situations into consideration.

2.2 How to Teach in the English Teaching

There have been many different approaches for teaching， for instance， the traditional grammar， Halliday’ s systemic-functional linguistics， and communicative approach， etc.. Which teaching approach among these approaches is the best way? In fact， psycholinguistics shows that a teacher should not believe in only one approach and seek after it; however， he or she should be familiar with various teaching methods， and make use of these different methods respectively according to different teaching objectives， participants， steps and contents.

Ⅲ．Conclusion

Linguistics gives a big push to language study， and language teachers should learn and work from these 3 aspects: linguistic theories， language teaching practice and some basic ways to put the theories into practice. Entering this field， one can either pursue academic research about a language， or become an accomplished teacher.

References：

[1]Vivian Cook.Second Language Learning and Language Teaching， 外語教學與研究出版社， 2008.

[2]戴煒棟.何兆熊. 新編簡明英語語言學教程(第2版). 上海外語教育出版社，2010.7.

[3]桂詩春. 應用語言學研究. 世界圖書出版公司， 2000.9.

[4]胡壯麟. 語言學教程（修訂版）. 北京大學出版社， ?2004.9.

作者簡介：余玲（1984-），女，陜西楊陵人，陜西師范大學外國語學院碩士研究生，研究方向：英語學科教學