A Study on Exemplification in English Teaching： Based on the Case Study of Lingshan Middle School

劉美藝

Abstract：In English teaching， exemplification is an essential teaching skill. However， researches on exemplification of teaching in recent years are few and there are still some problems. Therefore， this thesis taking 64 students and 30 teachers from Lingshan Middle School in Guangxi as respondents and employing methods of questionnaires and observation， does research on current situation and existing problems of exemplification in teaching， thus giving suggestions based on Cooperative Principle.

Key words： English classroom teaching， exemplification， Cooperative Principle

1.Introduction

In English dictionary， it is defined as “a particular situation， object or a person， etc. that illustrates a point you are making， or that support an argument， theory or opinion.”（Collins Cobuild English Dictionary， 2000）.

Exemplification is closely related to English teaching. In teaching practice， teachers often employ examples to achieve established purposes （Zhang Daozhen， 1994； Li Qinglong， 1993）. In 1950s， Martin Wagenschein and Geim pell， brought forward Example Teaching Mode proposing that teaching should process with good， clear and typical examples.

To guide teachers make up good examples， scholars proposed principals of exemplification in teaching including interesting principal， relative principal and educational principal （Zhang Shaoan， 1999； Lang Jie， 2014）.

Former studies on exemplification are theoretical researches， lack of empirical studies. To enrich the study on example teaching， the author continues to do a research on it from the perspective of Cooperative Principle employing observations， interview， and questionnaires for students and teachers. And research questions are：

1.What is the situation of application of exemplification in middle school English teaching？

2.Does exemplification have great influence on English teaching and learning？

3.In what way can teachers improve teaching effect by giving exemplification？

2. Findings

2.1 The Found Problems of Exemplification in Teaching

First， the source of example sentences is ready-made. Most examples teachers adopt are copied completely from textbooks， reference books， exercise books and dictionaries without adjustment.

Second， examples are meaningless. Examples are not authentic and pointless. Such examples are made to meet patterns or structures students have learned to consolidate newly-learned language points.endprint

Third， the way teachers present examples is improper and single. They just list examples， explain examples. They make students do translation only.

Fourth， some teachers excessively emphasize language points thus neglecting authentic context and imparting language knowledge rather than developing students language competence.

3. Suggestions

3.1 Maxim of Quantity and Exemplification

Under the guidance of maxim of quantity， exemplification should be moderate and representative. Teaching time is very limited. Teachers select the most reasonable and typical examples based on teaching purposes and difficulty of content. For example， when explaining “interest （v）”， “interested”， “interesting”， examples like this are better：

The book interests him.

He thinks the book is very interesting and he is much interested in it.

3.2 Maxim of Quality and Exemplification

According to the maxim of quality， realness proposes that content of exemplification must be authentic and reliable. Correctness means examples must obey grammar rules. Teachers can take well-known social news or events happened around students as exemplifications and employ examples from English originals to ensure its correctness. For example：

Where there is a will， there is a way.

Where there is water and sunshine， there are plants.

3.3 Maxim of Relevance and Exemplification

Maxim of relevance tells us exemplification should be pertinent to the point. Teachers should select examples closely related to teaching content and relevant to students. Teacher can make full use of things with which students are familiar most or about which students are concerned.

3.4 Maxim of Manner and Exemplification

According to the maxim of manner， exemplification must be straightaway in language， terse and interesting in content and well organized in logic. When listing examples， teachers should avoid adopting difficult and boring exemplifications， make examples orderly and decide when to cite an instance.

4. Conclusions

This study investigated existing problems of exemplification in English teaching and giving useful advice about it. Through one questionnaire for teachers and the other for students， the study demonstrated there were four problems when teachers employed it in teaching. This study suggests students prefer examples which are related to their life and although teachers understand examples closely related to students daily life can maximize teaching effect， they still copy examples from other sources rather than make examples by themselves because of great amount of work.

Reference

[1]Collins Cobuild English Dictionary [K]. Beijing： Foreign Language and Teaching and Research Press， 2000.

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[3]Timothy Taylor（1999）， 張紹安，邊艷俠，論英語教學三原則[J]， 河北師范大學學報：教育科學版，1999（2）：101-102.

[4]張道真（1994），現代英語用法詞典 [M].上海外語教育出版社，1994.

[5]趙桂芳（2003），中學英語教學中的教學舉例[MA]，廣西師范大學，2003.endprint