| Although senior high school (SHS) English teaching has made much progress,there are still a lot of problems in the teaching, especially in the spoken Englishteaching, which is overlooked. 'Dumb' English is still common among students inSHS as well as in college. The major reasons, the author thinks, are deficiencies oftraditional English teaching and lack of practical effective new teaching methodsbesides testing systems.At present new English curriculum reform (NECR) of SHS is gradually beingpopularized in our country. In new English Curriculum Standards (NECS) of SHS, theobjectives of spoken English teaching, teaching principles, teaching instructions,requests for oral tests and criteria for evaluation in oral tests are all defined, whereasthere is not much research on SHS spoken English teaching at present. Thereby it isan urgent matter to do research on SHS spoken English teaching in the NECR. Basedon this, this thesis proposes that Adaptation Theory—a new perspective of pragmaticsproposed by Verschueren—should be applied to it.The research and instructions on spoken English teaching which should beconducted within the framework of Adaptation Theory has practical significance: a)Adaptation Theory is a quite new outcome of the researches in the field of pragmaticsand defines pragmatics from a quite new perspective, which is different fromtraditional pragmatics;b) Adaptation Theory is applicable to the NECR and providesus with the new teaching principle and the teaching model.According to Adaptation Theory, language use is essentially the continuousmaking of linguistic choices. Choices are made at every possible level of structure,consciously or unconsciously. Language users choose not only linguistic forms butstrategies as well. What make it possible for language users to make choices are thethree properties of language, i.e., variability, negotiability and adaptability. Variabilityis the property of language that defines the range of possibilities from which choicescan be made. Negotiability is the property of language responsible for the fact thatchoices are not made mechanically or according to strict rules or fixed form-functionrelationships, but rather on the basis of highly flexible principles and strategies.Adaptability is the property of language that enables human beings to makenegotiable linguistic choices from a variable range of possibilities in such a way as toapproach points of satisfaction for communication needs. This property makeslanguage a most important tool for communication. And linguistic adaptation can bestudied from four inter-related aspects or angles, i.e., contextual correlates ofadaptation, structural objects of adaptation, dynamics of adaptation, and the salienceof the adaptation process. The first two aspects prescribe the range of adaptation, i.e.,linguistic and non-linguistic factors. As for the last two aspects, Verschueren thinksthat processing information by using language is a dynamic process, which affectscontextual correlates and structural objects of adaptation at various levels of salience.According to Adaptation Theory, this thesis proposes that spoken English teachingin SHS should follow the following principles:First, combine the communicative approach with the traditional teaching approach,i.e. emphasize fostering communicative competences, not neglecting language forms.Teaching should focus not only on language forms but also on meanings. Languageforms (within the categories of variability) make it possible to make adaptation incommunication. Only when the two categories are combined together can we attainadaptation in spoken English activities.Second, combine spoken English teaching with English thought training in orderto improve the mental world and the salience in oral communicative activities so thatadaptation can be implemented smoothly.Third, the role of the teacher will be that of a model, planner, organizer, resource,monitor, participant, and assessor to promote English adaptation in oralcommunicative activities and swell salience.Fourth, construct an authentic environment of English adaptation to promote thecommunicative context of adaptation.Fifth, employ authentic and practical materials in spoken English teaching toimprove the physical world and social world in the contextual correlates of adaptation.Based on the principles above, a new model of spoken English teaching in the oralclass of NECS should be conducted with appropriate activities of different types asthe dominant teaching form, language forms as teaching center and task-basedteaching. Then an experiment is made to verify it and the conclusion is drawn that thenew model is effective and suitable for the NECR.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one is concerned about why this thesis is written. It mainly introduces thesignificance of spoken English, issues in SHS spoken English teaching and theobjectives of spoken English teaching, teaching principles, teaching instructions,requests for oral tests and criteria for evaluation in oral tests in NECS to illustrate thenecessity and urgency of the research and teaching of spoken English.Chapter two mainly analyzes the properties, and rules of spoken English and theprocess of speaking as well as the status quo of research on SHS spoken Englishteaching.Chapter three is concerned with theory. It elaborates on Adaptation Theoryincluding its general functional perspective and key notions.Chapter four is the main part of this thesis, which discusses the principles of theapplication of Adaptation Theory in SHS spoken English teachingIn chapter five, a new teaching model based on the principles of application isproposed and followed by an experiment, which proves that the new model iseffective and suitable for the new English curriculum.The last part of this thesis is the conclusion of this thesis, which takes a retrospectat the whole thesis and points out the deficiency of the research on Adaptation Theoryand its application at present. And it also takes a prospect on the study of theapplication of Adaptation Theory. |
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