Functional Approach to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

1. Functional Approach to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Lening Liu Columbia University in the City of New York Univ. of NottinghamJuly 3-5, 2013

2. 语言和语法究竟为何物？ • What is language？What is grammar? • Nativism: Language is one of the results of human evolution. For modern mankind, it is something genetically “hard wared” in their brain. Chomsky sees it as a kind of “competence” that is governed by rules and linguistic rules are algebraic procedures for combining words and morphemes that do not themselves contribute to meaning. All human languages share a core, namely so-called “universal grammar.” The difference among human languages is only the result of parameter setting. • Functionalist: language is the means by which human societies organize their activities by communicating among their members. The difference among human languages is not the result of parameter setting, but different societies various communicative regularities which reflects the social and cultural conventions. “grammar is to be seen as the codification of socially and historically situated set of such (communicative) regularities, endorsed and hence fixed through institutions such as education and writing.” Hopper （1987）

3. This tradition sees grammar as the product of language use. As Wittgenstein observed: language is like a tool-box, an inventory of linguistic constructions. Language use is like a chess game, every move is negotiated between players. “The essence of language is its symbolic dimension, with grammar being derivative…the grammatical dimension of language is a product of a set of historical and ontogenetic process referred to collectively as grammarticalization. When human beings use symbols t communicate with one another, stringing them together into sequence, patterns of use emerge and become consolidated into grammatical constructions.

4. This approach conceives linguistic constructions as themselves meaningful linguistic symbols-----since they are nothing other than the patterns in which meaningful linguistic symbols are used in communication.” (Tomasello, 2003). Someone uses a piece of language with a certain communication intention, and so we may say that that piece of language has a certain function (meaning). One’s linguistic competence with a natural language consists of the mastery of all its items and structures. They include the highly canonical (core), the highly idiosyncratic (periphery ), and many things in between, such as ritualized greetings, idioms, metaphors, and non-canonical phrasal

5. collocations. In other words, the mature linguistic competence, then, is a structured inventory of constructions, some of which are similar to many others and so reside in a more core-like center, and others of which connect to very few other constructions and so reside more toward the periphery. Functionalism views language in terms of form-to-function and function-to-form mappings. It claims that language serves communication and form serves function. It, therefore, always work on multiple levels of language. There is no formal separation of the traditionally recognized subcomponents in language, i.e., morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics (Cooreman and Kilorn, 1991)

6. Grammar is the product of language use and grammaticalization: Grammaticalization: grammar arises from discourse and pragmatic motives. grammaticality: from ungrammatical to grammatical occurrence of individual grammatical structures: from pragmatic pattern to grammatical pattern diachronically：loose collocation to integrated structure Givon ( 1979, 1894) Lehmann (1982, 1991) Mary is going to New York. Mary is going to marry Peter. (be going as futurity marker)

7. History of 就, its evolution. Source meaning: motion verb, to approach 1. 婚姻 之 故, 言 就 爾 居。 marriage PRT reason PRT JIU you reside “Because of our affinity by marriage, I came to reside with you.” <Book of Songs> (600 B.C.) 2. 王 就 見 孟子。 king JIU visit Mencius “The king came to see Mencius.” <Mencius> (300 B.C.)

8. 3. 主人 晨 起, 見 赤 衣 人 master morning get up see red-clothes person 數 千 圍 其 家, several thousand surround POSS house 就 視 則 滅。 JIU look then disappear “The master got up in the morning and saw thousands of people in red clothes surrounding his house, once he got close to take a look, they all disappeared. <Journey of God Searching> (263-420, A.D.)

9. 4. 見 使者, 就 請 之。 see envoy JIU invite PRO “Upon seeing the envoy, (he) went over/immediately to invite him.” Figure 4. First structural reanalysis of JIU [Subj. vp[V1就 + V2 +Obj.]] [Subj. vp[就 [V + Obj]]]

10. 5. 是 夕 兒 忽 得 驚風 病, this evening son suddenly get infantileconvulsion 家 人 次 日置黃 幡 family member next day make yellow flag 一 合 於 彼 龛 兒 就脱然 平貼。 0ne-CL on that niche son JIU thoroughly recover “That evening, their son contracted infantile convulsion as a result of fright. The next day, the family members made a pair of yellow streams and put them in the niche. The child then recovered completely. ” <Records of Farces> (1123-1201 A.D.)

11. Figure 5. Further structure reanalysis of JIU [Subj. vp[就 [V + Obj]]] [Subj. + 就vp [ V + Obj.]] [Subj. + 就vp [ V ]] Figure 6. Human cognitive metaphor. space time cause condition

12. 6. 旦 昨 欲 出 謁, 曾 借 just yesterday want go-out visit ASP borrow 帽子, 既而 不 用 就 還。 cap afterward NEG use JIU return “(He) just borrowed a hat yesterday when he was going out to visit (someone), but since he found that he could not use it, he return it soon afterward.” <Records of Farces> (1123-1201.A.D.)

13. 7. 若 心 粗 只 從 事 皮膚 上 if heart careless only from thing skin upon 戳 過 若 此 行 權 便 就 錯 了。 sweep past like this use power then JIU wrong ASP “If (one) is careless and only makes superficial observations, and uses his power likewise, then that is wrong.” <Analects of Zhuzi> (1127-1279)

14. 8.　甲：昨天 晚上 我 看見 你 了 yesterday night I see you ASP 跟 一 個 男 的 with one-CL male NOM 乙：昨天　 晚上 我 就 沒　 出 門。 yesterday night I JIU NEG exit door “A: Last night, I saw you, with a man. B: I did not even walk out my door last night.” <Editing Office Story> (1989)

15. 汉语由synthetic language to analytical language? Language，轻动词的产生 Causative: 斫而小之春风又绿江南岸 Putative: 吾妻美我者，私我也 登泰山而小天下 Purposive：死国可乎？ Denominative: 君子不器 进行：Researchers studied the causes of the greenhouse effects. 研究人员对温室效应的成因进行了研究。 科研人员研究了温室效应的成因。

16. What has been said by masters of language use: 王安忆：一个特定的故事只有一个特定的、最合适的讲法，即结构。这就像一个特定的情况只有一个形容词能最准确地描述它的状况。小说家的本事高低就在于能否为一个特定的故事找到最适合讲述它的结构。 汪曾祺：语言是有内容的，写小说就是写语言。汉字（词 语）无一字无来历。 陈四益：但凡“无题”，其实都有题，无非是不宜题，不便题或无须题。因此，越是“无题”，越引人遐想。

21. 早期的SLA理论 • 行为主义的语言习得理论—基于行为主义的心理学理论和结构主义语言学，试图单纯从外部环境对动物和人类的行为给予解释，不涉及思维事件和内部过程（mental events or internal process）。 应用于语言教学：专注于教室内的语言教学。 “美国陆军法—听说法” “US Army Method —Audio-Lingual Method” 习惯的建立：刺激-反应，频率的重要性，行为条件（reinforcement and punishment)，第一语言的作用（迁移，对比分析）。

22. 教学要领: 提供正确的句型或模式，大量的重复，避免错误并提供合适的反馈。 对行为主义语言习得理论的批判：幼儿语言能力的习得不可能由模仿和重复获得，语言特征的习得有其自己内在的顺序。语言学习不同于其他知识的学习，它由与生俱来的语言机制引导。SLA在很大程度上与母语习得没有区别。（Creative Constructive Hypothesis. Dulay &Burt, 1975)

23. 2. 监控器理论（Monitor Theory, Stephen Krashen): 首个SLA理论。虽然Krashen本人从未明说，他的理论显然与乔姆斯基的普遍语法理论暗合。其结论是：SLA与孩童的母语习得没有大的区别。 a. 习得与学习理论（The Acquisition- Learning Hypothesis) b. 监控器理论(Monitor Hypothesis) c. 自然顺序理论(The Natural Order Hypothesis)

24. d. 输入理论 (The Input Hypothesis, i + 1) e. 效力过滤器理论 (The Affective Filter Hypothesis)

25. 功能主义的SLA理论：1. 概念取向的理论 功能主义者认为，语言是为交际而存在的，没有语言的使用者便没有语言。功能主义者关注于形式-功能和功能-形式之间的对应（mapping)。应用于SLA，功能主义者调查中介语中间的这种对应，以及随着时间的推移这种对应的变化。功能主义的基本立场是对意义和功能对语言结构和语言习得的核心地位的强调：语言服务于交际而结构服务于功能。功能主义者主张打破传统的句法、语义和语用之间的界限，在多个层面对语言进行描写。

26. 概念取向理论的出发点是学习者表达概念(如时间、空间、形态），或一个大概念下某个意义（如时间概念下的过去与未来）的需要。它调查学习者为表达这些概念或意义所使用的方法和手段（means)，专注于单向的形式-功能的对应，具体来说就是从功能到形式的对应。概念取向理论的出发点是学习者表达概念(如时间、空间、形态），或一个大概念下某个意义（如时间概念下的过去与未来）的需要。它调查学习者为表达这些概念或意义所使用的方法和手段（means)，专注于单向的形式-功能的对应，具体来说就是从功能到形式的对应。 应用于SLA，概念取向理论认为成人在学习第二语言时可以提取建立于以往语言经验和认知经验的全部语义概念，不必重新学习。因而，成人的二语学习不同于孩童的一语习得。他们只需学习对概念和意义的具体表达手段。而这些具体表达手段，也就是语言形式，正是概念取向理论的焦点。

27. 如对“将来”这个概念的不同表达手段：副词，形态，词汇特征（want, need to)等。概念取向理论关注这些语言手段在学习者中介语中的发展和平衡。 这样一种对习得过程的描写与语法化理论不谋而合，均遵循一个从语用、语篇到句法、词法的过程。 2. 技能习得理论： (DeKeyser, 2001, 2006; Carlson,2003; Anderson, Leliere &Q, 2004)。该理论的要点:

28. 语言教学的实质是语言技能的培养，而语言技能的获得与人类其他技能的获得并无区别：the learning of a wide variety of skills shows a remarkable similarity in development from initial representation of knowledge through initial changes in behavior to eventual fluent, spontaneous, largely effortless, and highly skilled behavior, and that this set of phenomena can be accounted for by a set of basic principles common to the acquisition of skills (DeKersy, 2007).

29. 一般来说，技能的获得需要经由三个阶段: 认知（cognitive）, 联系（associative）和自动化 （autonomous） (Fitts and Poster, 1967), 或称作陈述（ declarative）, 程序（procedural）和自动化（ automatic） (Anderson, 1993; Anderson, Bothell, Byrne, Douglass, Lebiere &Qin, 2004)。 体现在教学上就是所谓的三P教学法：导入、练习和产出（ presentation, practice and production） (Byrne, 1986).

31. 学习的力量法则：（Power law of learning): 成人由陈述性知识到程序性知识的或得过程极为快捷，而由程序性知识到自动化能力的形成则需长期的、大量的练习。

32. 学生的反应时间和错误率均随练习的增加而 递减。 教师应以抽象规则和明确例子的结合帮助学 生实现从陈述性知识到程序性知识的转变。

33. 技能习得理论的适用范围：由于它对学习初始阶段显性和陈述性知识的强调，技能习得理论最易于应用于：(a) high-aptitude adults learners engaged in (b) the learning of simple structures at (c) fairly early stages of learning in (d) instructional contexts. As learners enter more advanced stages of learning, the likelihood of implicit learning of frequent and relatively concrete patterns in the grammar increase substantially.

34. 3. Usage-based Language Acquisition If there is no clean break between the more rule-based and then more idiosyncratic items and structures of a language, then all constructions may be acquired with the same basic set of acquisitional processes----namely, those falling under the general headings of intention-reading and pattern- finding. If linguistic constructions are meaningful linguistic symbols in their own right, then children can use function or meaning to assist in their acquisition, just as they do in their acquisition of smaller linguistic constructions such as individual words. (Tomasello, 2003)

35. The usage-based acquisition theory may be summarized in three emphases: First, it is thoroughly functionalist---based explicitly in the expressions and comprehension of communicative intentions (intention-reading). Linguistic representation should contain information about how language used to direct people’s attention to events and entities in the current joint attentional frame. Second, it is construction-based. It means that, one, the focus is on whole utterances and constructions which are most direct embodiment of a speakers communicative intentions, not isolated words and morphemes; two, the focus is on use of

36. particular words, phrases, and expressions, as concrete linguistic entities. Third, it is usage-based: language structures emerge from language use, both historically and ontogenetically. 甲: 你好! 乙：你好！*我很好。 (greeting, unchangeable situation) 甲：你好吗？乙：我很好！ (questioning, changeable situation) What’s the difference among 门外有一棵树…, 门外种着一 棵树… and 门外种着树…?

37. 汉语语体及其语言形式的考察 语体错位：丈夫对太太说：今日晚饭需要调整。 语体和语法：胡适求学于哥伦比亚大学多年。 ？胡适学习在哥大很多年。 宏观考察：（张振生，2011） Multi-dimension, multi-feature analysis of register variation (Biber, 1988)frequency distribution of features in registerscorrelation between featuresextraction of a small number of dimensions Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese McEnery & Xiao (2004) 1,000,000 words (1988-1992)，balanced, 15 registers

38. 15Registers in Lancaster Corpus

39. 60 features： POS: N, V, ADJ, ADV, P, POST, CLAS, CON, NN, VV, etc.Sub-class of POS: ATTR, aV, vN, etc.Particles: le, zhe, guo,PART., etc.Construction markers: ba/jiang, bei, shi, deN/deV/Vde, etc.Individual pronouns: 1s, 1p, 2s, 2p, 3f, 3m, 3pIndividual lexical items: jx, etc.Word components: PRE, SUF, Semantic categories: TIME, PERS, PLACEPunctuations: ？、！、《》(<)、‘、(\)’‘；’‘）’Misc. : Idiom, ONO, ABBR, DESC,

40. Distribution of features on 2 dimensions

41. 把 vs. 将

42. The two dimensions in written ChineseDimension 1: ‘Literate’ (Biber), (正式度) narrative vs. expository concrete vs. abstract fragmentary vs. integrative unpolished vs. polished subjective vs. objective Dimension 2: ‘literary’ (典雅度)

43. Features related to literary Chinesemonosyllabic POS：n, v, adj, advindividual words：yi, suo, wei, zhi, yu_, yu/ construction marker：jiang (vs. ba)

44. Dimension 1:non-literateliterate

45. Dimension 2: Literarynon-literary

46. 微观的：Passive voice in Chinese Author: Feng Jicai 冯骥才 Title:《抬头老婆低头汉》 Genre Type: Narrative Total Characters: 10,650 Sentence Type Number of occurrences Ba 把 36 Jiang 将 2 Na 拿 1 Bei 被 3 Non-Syntactic Passive 3

47. Author: He Tian 何恬 Title:《世界主义和地方主义》 Genre Type: Expositive Total Characters: 7,289 Sentence Type Number of occurrences Ba 把 0 Jiang 将19 Bei 被 11 Shou 受 6 Zao 遭 1 Non-Syntactic Passive 2

48. 功能主义各家理论共享的教学原则: • 以学生为中心、意义驱动（meaning-driven)的语境化教学。以意义表达和完成交际迫使学生寻求所需的语言形式，实现语言形式和其功能的mapping. • 导入：从明确的语境和隐性的语言结构到明确的语言结构。学生在教师的引导下归纳(induction)。 • 练习：课内与课外多样化地练习，从明确的、显性的语言结构到下意识的、隐形的语言能力。学生在与教师及同学的互动中的推理(deduction) 4. 产出：学生产出能力的培养始终是教学的焦点，接受能力的培养主要在课堂外进行。要想方设法为学生创造语言使用的机会，提供更多的个别辅导。课堂教学要与“遭遇性学习”相结合

49. The Pedagogical Implications • Teaching grammar in concrete context. It means to re-create the contexts in which linguistic structures are formed so that the semantic and pragmatic functions (intentions) encoded in these structures could be read by students inductively or “noticed” by the instructor explicitly. 2. students map linguistic forms and their functions and enable themselves use the linguistic structures appropriately. To do so we have to pay attentions to the relationship between registers and grammar. Registers: 4W determines register and register determines the selection of linguistic forms, as result, we got different genres. This means we should practice so-called

50. “register-oriented teaching”: The purpose of language instruction is to enable learners use the target language APPROPRIATELY. This goal can’t be achieved if students can’t differentiate registers. The characteristics of different registers are reflected in the selections of linguistic forms, should it be vocabulary, sentence types or textural structures. When it comes to select teaching materials, we should follow a certain order, in terms of register. At the elementary and intermediate level we should use standard and literate registers, not the literary ones. At third year level, which serves as a transition from colloquial expression to the literate registers, we should choose relatively neutral registers and increase the degree of the formality gradually. At the superior level, the so-called literary genres could also be used.