On the the Importance of Contextualization Towards College English Teaching

LiKun

Abstract：Contextualization is of great importance to College English teaching. By connecting to students prior knowledge， contextualization can provide a context with which students are familiar so as to make language teaching connect with students life experience， thereby fostering their learning interest and improving students cognitive ability.

Key words：Contextualization； English Teaching； Context； Cognitive Ability

中圖分類號：H319 文獻標識碼：A 文章編號：1672-1578（2017）10-0001-02

1 Introduction

According to Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary， contextualization means to place （a word，activity） in a context. Context refers to the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs.For English teaching， contextualiza-tion means putting different actions of speech or writing that occur in classrooms in different and varying situations， basically setting up a context for these communicative interactions to happen（Celce-Murcia & Olshtain， 2000）. So in an attempt to improve students learning interest and improve their cognitive ability， what teachers should do is to associate the vocabulary， words， and images with students prior knowledge and make a connection with students existing knowledge or experience， thus building language awareness within the context. This thesis will explore specific benefits contextualization can facilitate college English teaching in the following ways.

2 Contextualization and College English Teaching

With reference to English learning， contextualization is an effective way to make teaching more authentic and meaningful. It will provide a context or teach language in a context so as to make language teaching connect with real life.

Contextualization can assist students in acquiring appropriate use of language. Appropriate language use is learned through context. Now let us look at a textbook dialogue which is out-of-context. A：“How are you？”B：“Fine， thank you. And you？” This is a typical dialogue extracted from an English textbook in China. With its wide spread via textbook， it has been accepted and learned by millions of Chinese English learners who look up to it as a standardized dialogue pattern. So it is not surprising that most Chinese people would respond with it， spontaneously and subconsciou-sly， when they are greeted or greet others. Yet we ignore the fact that this is actually not the real-life language in the West and westerners seldom extend greetings to others in this way. In this case， it is thereby required that teachers should be very much aware of the difference between the artificially printed language and the natural real-life communication， then contextualize？the topic and make the drill more appropriate. Teachers can collect authentic materials concerning greeting language from foreign movie episodes or TV series and present them in class. Then teachers can set up a scene and let students participate in a role-play in context. Only in this way can English learning become more meaningful and useful to students who not only know what to greet but also command how to greet in an appropriate way by using real-world communicating language instead of the decontextualized textbook language. Students learning interest thereby can be greatly motivated and boosted as opposed to cramming repetition or drills they frequently encounter when taught from the textbook.endprint

For another， contextualization helps students understand and deepen what they are learning so as to arouse their interest and create harmonious learning atmosphere. By means of it， students can activate their own background knowledge so as to make the language learning more meaningful and productive. For example， Friendship is common theme in College English textbook. Before a text is explained， a popular song Friends with which students are quite familiar can be played as a reminder. As the music plays， students are getting emotional since this song connects them with their old memory of friends of their own. So not only can contextualization help student understand the theme more easily， but it also can evoke students memories and get them involved more personally and actively. In addition to music， other teaching scaffolds are of great help to which teachers can resort such as storyboard， pictures and videos， etc.Taking the text The Tail of Fame as another example. In order to assist students in understanding the main idea of the text （An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who， when he captures it， does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction）， teachers can employ contextualization as a necessary aid to make the abstract theme more understandable and accessible to students. In the warming-up stage， pictures and posters concerning celebrities can be presented on PPT. With the pictures shown， students can gain an insight into the theme involved. As the context deepens， theme-related questions can be adeptly proposed， such as：“Why do so many people seek fame？”“Does fame have a close relationship with happiness？” To answer the above questions， carefully-chosen movie clips will be shown， such as Notting Hill and the Dream Factory. And then such sequential questions derived from the movie as “What price should be paid to be a super star？”and “And what side effects does fame-seeking exert on one？” can be put forward with an aim to intensify students recognition about the theme. Up to now the contextualization of the theme has helped students activate their cognition ability and get themselves involved. As the topic is getting deepened， in the next step， teachers can resort to some quotations to further contextualize the side effects of fame. For instance， a famous remark from the novel Vanity Fair written by William Makepeace Thackeray， “Ah， Vanitas vanitatum！ Which of us is happy in this world？Which of us has his desire？ Or， having it， is satisfied？” or a saying from an ancient Chinese poet 蘇軾（Su Shi）—“蠅頭微利，蝸角虛名”（fame as vain as a snails horn， and profit as slight as a flys head）. In this example， contextualization can aid comprehension and deepen language learning.endprint

Additionally， contextualization can also provide students with enough contexts to link up with their prior association so as to strengthen their acquisition. For example， in order to stress the importance of first impression， teachers can use a famous psychological experiment to aid contextualization. First of all， a description about the personalities of two people A and B will be shown on the screen（A： Cold person， industrious，critical， practical， and determined； B：Warm person， industrious， critical， practical， and determined）， then students are required to choose the one they like best. In terms of personalities listed on the screen， it can be noticed that what distinguishes A from B is only the first character， apart from that， all of the remaining personalities are the same. When the present author made this experiment in class， all of the students without exception chose B to be a friend as predicted. The unanimously-made choice is a result of what first impression works， from which students will realize that the decisions they make are in effect affected by primacy effect which is the tendency for a person to be influenced by the first things they see or hear. With the help of the experiment to contextualize， students can understand the importance of first impression more easily.

In summary， contextualization contributes to college English teaching greatly. Teachers can employ all kinds of realia and methods， such as story-telling， music， movie， pictures， video， and storyboard， etc， to contextualize the language so as to awaken students earlier knowledge or to connect it with students existing knowledge or experience， thus building necessary association and connection and improving students comprehensive level and academic achievement.

Bibliography：

[1] Celce-Murcia， M. & Olshtain， E. Discourse and context in language teaching. New York： Cambridge University Press， 2000.

[2] Hadley， A. Teaching language in context（3rd ed.）. Boston： Heinle & Heinle，2001.

[3] Lightbrown， P. & Spada， N. How languages are learned. Oxford： Oxford University Press，2006.

[4] Zheng Shutang. New Horizon College English Book 4： Students Book （Second Edition）， Shanghai： Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2011.endprint