大学生活的英语作文(精选8篇)
My life in the University of Education How time flies!It has been about two years since I came to the University of Education.Every coin has two sides.On the one hand, I am quite satisfied with my university life.On the other hand, life in my university is not as satisfactory as what we had expected.University is not only a place where you can learn something useful from textbooks, but also a place where you can improve your ability to communicate with others.During the year university study, I can not only acquire a lot of book learning, but also foster various abilities.All types of extracurricular activities such as sports meets, speech contests, different social gatherings and traveling provide opportunities to make friends, many of these friendships may last a long time.I like talking and playing with others, so I own many friends.Sometimes I feel lonely, angry and also homesick.But fortunately I own these good friends.They helped me spend these sad days.I find words cannot express my sincere thanks to them.But I know when they need help;I will do everything that I can do to help those who helped me before.I like going to the library where you can find these words on the wall: “Knowledge is power.” and “Keep silence!” after class every day.Because I know that we must learn every day.I think the life in university of Education is full of freedom, but I never waste time.Life is not easy for everybody, especially for those who hopes to lead a happy life”, a famous lady once said.That is to say, you have to try your best to learn and to pass exams in order to make your life become better and better with time going on.So I never give up learning even go to the college.Sometimes I also want to own more free time to do my own things.But we have too many classes.So I think life in my university is not as satisfactory as what we had expected.The teaching method is boring;instead of lecturing, some teachers just “read” lessons.I hate it.I want to more free time in class.During the time I spend at the University of Education, I not only develops my intellectual abilities, I also develop social skills as well as knowledge and wisdom necessary for choosing a future career.In short, we should value our life in the University of Education.Although there are many things lacking, the four years in the university is a worthwhile period in our whole lifetime.
(一) 传统法—教师反馈
目前在我国大学英语的写作过程中, 教师反馈占主导地位, 同伴反馈和计算机辅助反馈的使用相对较少。教师的书面反馈是指教师为了提高、改进学习者的作文水平而返回的信息。一般包含两方面的反馈, 一方面是表层错误的纠错反馈, 指的是教师对学生写作中的语法、词汇、拼写、大小写、标点符号, 进行纠错指正, 这同时也称之为语言形式反馈 (form-focused feedback) ;另一方面是语篇层面的反馈, 比如学生写作内容和组织结构的反馈。所以, 教师的评改要么过于宽泛;要么过于具体, 以致学生无法把有关建议运用到今后的写作中。
(二) 同伴互评
同伴互评指的是学习者通过面对面交流、协商和讨论, 以一种双向、主动的方式进行相互的评价和反馈。这种评价方式在一定程度上能增强学生的读者意识和提高学生学习和掌握英语写作技巧的积极性。与此同时, 也相对的提高了学生的文章质量意识, 在互帮互助的学习讨论氛围中能够帮助学生形成英语学习社群, 促进他们的写作交流。
(三) 在线作文自动评价—句酷批改网
目前国外研发成功并投入使用的自动评改系统有十余种, 其中最有代表性的是EG (Project Essay Grade) IEA (Intelligent Essay Assessor) 、E-rater、PEG。它们都是各具特色, PEG重语言形式, IEA重作文内容, E-rater既重形式又重内容。但是这些评价系统都是基于以英语为母语的评估和反馈, 对于中国学生的英语写作的适用性并不太强。
二、基于COCA语料库的学生作文反馈———学术词汇层面
本研究抽取了20篇 (按照分数高低进行编号) 重庆师范大学大二非英语专业大学生的以Happiness Needs Exercise为题作文, 放入句酷网进行评改, 得出的高中低分作文反馈情况。这里使用同样的20篇学生作文, 运用美国COCA语料库中Text Analyzer功能进行分析得到学生运用过多的简单词汇和口语化词汇, 学术词汇运用过少, 是导致作文分数较低的一大原因。同时, 编号为前五位的学生的作文, 由于学术词汇的应用相对较其他同学多些, 所以分数相对都是较高, 因此, 教师应该引导学生多使用同义词中的长词和更加“formal”的词汇, 例如:表示“巨大的”, 除了very big外还可以用“enormous”、“tremendous”等同义词。根据认知心理学容易优先原则, 学生在输出英语表达时, 越是简单的词汇和句型, 就越偏向于选用。而写作的评判标准中, 那些惯用法尤其是十分通俗的表达一般得不到加分, 因此在平时的英语写作教学中, 要遵循英语写作能力发展规律, 保证大量的语言输入, 并且充分利用母语写作技能, 此外更要加强学术词汇的学习和使用以及“>3000”这一范围的词汇使用。
三、几种主要反馈法的优势、不足及评价反馈的对策
句酷批改网 (http://www.pigai.org) 以语料库和云计算为技术支持, 为英语学习者提供作文在线自动批改服务。从信度上看, 批改网的评分偏高, 尚不能反映学生英语作文的真实水平 (何旭良2013) ;而且评语目前停留在词汇和基本语法层面, 即便是对学术词汇的强调也不具体, 缺乏对篇章结构的批改和建议, 以及内容是否应对作文主题, 尚不能全面评价学生英语作文。
从效度上看, 批改网对学生的评价主要集中在词汇和常见语法错误的分析上, 如单词拼写、词汇搭配等, 无法准确地评估作文的内在质量;不能评估学生作文的流畅性、句子结构的复杂程度、篇章的连贯性、文体修辞及其内部的逻辑性与关联性。
因此, 对于改进批改网的评估机制, 技术人员和语言教学研究者应协同合作, 提高自动评改系统的智能性, 从而提高其信度和效度。综上所述, 教学中应构建多元反馈机制, 有机结合教师反馈、同伴反馈及自动评改系统反馈。从而更加完善批改网的评估作文的功能。
四、结语
本研究通过运用语料库对大学生作文进行分析和总结, 指出了传统法教师反馈、同伴反馈和网络在线反馈对学生写作能力分别有不同的影响和启示。希望构建完善的评价反馈体系, 线上线下, 课里课外有机结合, 找到有效的作文教学方法, 以使英文写作教学更有针对性, 适用性, 从而充分挖掘学生语言的无限潜力与创造力, 写出地道老练的英语文章。
摘要:本文回顾了现今主要的几种大学生英语作文评价反馈法, 并利用重庆师范大学非英语专业的大学生英语作文作为例子, 展示了句酷批改网和美国COCA语料库对学生作文的评价反馈情况, 指出并讨论了几种反馈法的不足, 提出了相应的大学英语写作教学的评价反馈对策。
关键词:大学英语写作,评价反馈,不足,教学对策
参考文献
[1]Keh, C.l.Feedback in the Writing Process:A model and methods for implementation[J].ELT Journal, 1990, 44:294-304.
[2]Halliday, M.A.K.An Introduction to Functional Grammar[M].Edward Arnold (Publishers) Limited, 1985, 1994.
[3]蔡基刚.中国大学生英语写作在线同伴反馈和教师反馈对比研究[J].外语界, 2011, (1) .
一、引申义的反向使用
例1: Without much homework, the burden of examinations and hopes from parents and teachers, they will take a breath and enjoy themselves.
例2: I met people every day, but we have a deep friendship.
第一句话划线部分想要表达的意思是松口气,放松的意思,而英语中的take a breath却没有中文的这种引申义。我们可以替换成be relaxed或是relax oneself。同样地,第二句话想用deep表达的意思是感情深厚的。deep存在诸多义项,其中一项有指 “a deep feeling and belief is very strong and sincere.”(朗文当代英语词典P354),强调的是感觉而不是情感和关系的深厚。所以这里我们最好把deep替换成profound。
二、逻辑思维的不对等关系
例1: I believe if I do everything as perfectly as I can, sooner or later I will achieve my dream.
例2: My middle school life was filled with study.
我們一眼望过去似乎找不出两句中明显的错误,但是从逻辑关系的角度去分析句中的主谓宾搭配就显得Chinglish了。因为英语是一门逻辑性很强的语言,例句1如果想强调梦想成真的话,施动者即主语应该是dream,那么我们正确的表达应该是My dream will come true. 例句2作者强调的是中学阶段他就是学习了,几乎没做其他的事情。既然“学习”是谓语中心词,那么整句最好变换成I was just about engaged in study in my middle school days.
三、表达的缩减和累牍
例1: As long as the classes don??t conflict, I get to choose all the classes.
例2: I lost my sense of curiosity.
例句1中想要表达的意思是“只要课程之间不冲突的话,所有的课程我都会上。“conflict”一词如果用作“a situation in which you have to choose between two or more opposite needs or influences”的意思时只能作名词,所以例1中的“conflict”应该改为be in conflict with each other。例句2中的“curiosity”前面加了个“sense”表示感觉,因为英汉词语里面都有比如说幽默感,第六感这样的表达,所以作者想当然地把好奇感也翻译成了sense of “curiosity”。但是实际上“curiosity”本身就表达了这一层意思:“curiosity:a desire to know about something”.(朗文当代英语词典P332)。所以句中的“sense of ”就是多余的。显然这里用词的缩减和累牍是由于对词语的用法和意思缺乏精准的掌握。
四、there be句型的过度使用
例1: In the university, there is no longer forced to learn by teachers.
I used to imagine my college life while I was in senior high school.It was a tough period in my life that I studiedfor the College Entrance Exam.I have to stay up all night and complete heavy missions from time to time.In my opinion ,college life is loose , heartfree ,stress-free andcolourful.But I have different ideas now.These days, I have realized that university isn’t paradise, which is filled with laughter and games.Instead, weshouldwork hard and learn more knowledge.I think college is a platform, full of challenges and chance.Through it ,not only can we widen our horizen, communicate with various people, but also we have opportunities to read new books and experience different life.In a word ,it’s a whole new world for us to explore.Inside it ,we open our eyes and make the most of our potential.
减肥误区
For every girl, they chase to look beautiful all the time, even some of them take it as the lifetime career. What’s more, the commercial ads implant them the idea that only skinny girls can be charming, so some girls take the extreme ways to lose weight, which hurts their bodies badly.
对于每一个女孩来说,她们时刻追逐,甚至有些人把它当作一生的事业。而且,商业广告也灌输了她们这样的想法,只有纤瘦的女孩才有魅力,所以有些女孩们采取极端的方法减肥,这严重伤害了她们的身体。
The most common wrong way to lose weight is to refuse food. Most girls believe that if they bear the hunger, then their bodies will not grow fat, so they just eat little food and fight with food temptation. It is not worthy of hurting bodies to lose weight. If we don’t keep healthy, we may lose our lives. The suitable way is to go on a diet with doctor’s professional advice.
最常见的错误减肥方法是不吃东西。大多数女孩相信如果她们能够忍受饥饿,她们就不会发胖,所以她们只吃很少的食物,与食物的诱惑做抗争。伤害身体的减肥是不值得的。如果我们不保持健康,就有可能会失去生命。恰当的方法是听从医生的专业建议去进行节食。
The second wrong way is to take pills. Many commercial ads try to attract more females to buy the products, so they brag about the effect of taking pills. Actually, these pills have side effects, which damage the bodies. Many experts have told the truth that taking regular exercise is the best way to keep fit.
第二个错误的方法是吃药。许多商业广告试图通过吹嘘服药效果来吸引更多的女性去购买他们的产品。实际上,这些药有副作用,会损害身体。许多专家已经指出经常锻炼是保持健康最好的方法。
It is everybody’s right to chase looking beautiful, but they must do the wise things.
复合式听写原文
English is the leading international language. In different countries around the globe English is acquired as the mother tongue; in others it is used as a second language. Some nations use English as their official language, performing the function of administration; in others it is used as an international language for business, commerce and industry.
What factors and forces have led to the spread of English? Why is English now considered to be so prestigious that, across the globe, individuals and societies feel disadvantaged if they do not have competence in this language? How has English changed through 1,500 years? These are some of the questions that you investigate when you study English.
You also examine the immense variability of English and come to understand how it is used as a symbol of both individual identity and social connection. You develop in-depth knowledge of the intricate structure of the language. Why do some non-native speakers of English claim that it is a difficult language to learn, while infants born into English-speaking communities acquire their language before they learn to use forks and knives? At the university of Sussex, you are introduced to the nature and grammar of English in all its aspects. This involves the study of sound structures, the formation of words, the sequencing of words and the construction of meaning, as well as examination of the theories explaining these aspects of English usage. You are encouraged to develop your own individual responses to various practical and theoretical issues, which are raised by studying how speakers and writers employ English for a wide variety of purposes.
长对话原文
11. W: I forgot to tell you that Fred called last night to borrow your sleeping bag。
M: Oh, I saw him at the gym this morning, but he didn’t say anything. So he must have asked somebody else。
Q: What does the man imply?
12. W: These summer days are getting to be more than I can take. It was even too hot to go to the pool yesterday。
M: Hang in there. According to the weather report we should have some relief by the end of the week。
Q: What does the man mean?
13. W: Well, tonight we have Professor Brown in our studio to talk about the famous oil painting of Queen Victoria. Good evening, professor。
M: Good evening, madam, my pleasure to be here tonight。
Q: What is the woman doing?
14. M: The plants next to the window always look brown. You wouldn’t know by looking at them that I water them every week。
W: Maybe they don’t like direct sunlight. I had the same problem with some of my plants. And a little shade helps them immensely。
Q: What does the woman imply?
15. M: I’m really exhausted, Mary. But I don’t want to miss the Hollywood movie that comes on at 11。
W: If I were you, I’d skip it. We both have to get up early tomorrow. And anyway I’ve heard it’s not as exciting as advertised。
Q: What does the woman suggest the man do?
16. M: Those modern sculptures over there are really weird. Don’t you think so?
W:Well, I couldn’t stand them either at first. But now I’ve come to like modern art, particularly those sculptures carved by Italian artists。
Q: What does the woman mean?
17. M: I’m really glad our club decided to raise money for the children’s hospital. And most of the people we phoned seemed happy to contribute。
W: Yeah! I agree. Now that we’ve gone through all the numbers on our list, I guess we can call it a day。
Q: What do we learn about the speakers?
18. M: Have you heard of Professor Smith? I’m thinking of taking an advanced engineering course with him. What do you think?
W: Yeah! You really should. He’s published dozens of books so far, once been recommended as a textbook for postgraduates。
1 The Definition of Errors
An error is defined as“being an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author”(James,2001:78).Corder introduced the distinction between errors and mistakes.“Mistakes are akin to slip of tongue.That is,they are generally one-time-only events...An error,on the other hand,is systematic.That is,it is likely to occur repeatedly and is not recognized by the learner as an error”(as cited in Gass&Selinker,2001:78).Students’shortcomings in their compositions are not only individual.They reflect students’basic linguistic competence.“Corder associates errors with failures in competence and mistakes with failures in performance,making use of Chomsky’s distinction”(James,2001:78).
According to the distinction,the students’weak points in their composition would rather be considered as errors rather than mistakes.The errors show in many aspects.Here they are discussed from the perspectives of grammar,lexicon and text.
In the paper,the data are collected from college students’English compositions,whose English is below the level of CET4.They are given 45 minutes to write a composition on the topic of“time”.
1.1 The errors in grammar
Grammar has traditionally been discussed in terms of morphology and syntax,the former handling word structure,the latter handling structures“larger”than the word.At this time,the latter is the object of discussion and the former is put into the discussion of lexicon.The errors of phrase,clause sentence and even paragraphs are considered as syntax errors.The examples are as follows:
1.1.1 Using more than one predicate in a sentence
1)Talk time ways have many more.
2)There are so many students don’t realize the significant of the time.
1.1.2 Inappropriate collocations
1)Time is valuable and limit for everyone.
2)You must do the master of your life.
1.1.3 Confusing tense
1)We can not predicate what the result will be if they went on treating their college time by this way.
(2)One day,my watch broken and it stops working.
1.1.4 Misuse of complex sentences
1)The reason is they don’t know how to use time.
2)They will spend several midnights to study that belongs to a term learning.
1.1.5 Misuse of voice
1)Time is passed.
1.1.6 Incomplete sentences without a subject
1)Do more things what you want and useful.
2)And not kill time to do something is useless.
1.2 Errors in lexicon
Lexis and grammar are not clear cut morphological aspect of words,which used to be treated as part of grammar,can just as well be viewed as part of the word:vocabulary is very important in Language learning,sometimes equating a Language with its vocabulary Lexical errors are also the most frequent category of error.Richards(as cited in James,2001:144)suggested that there are seven things to know about a word:1)its morphology;2)its syntactic behavior;3)its functional or restrictions;4)its semantic value(s),or denotations;5)its secondary meanings or commutations;6)what other words it is associated with;7)Roughly,how likely the word is to be used,that is,its frequency.James divided the seven categories into two kinds,formals and semantic features.The errors in students’compositions are classified by James’s standard.
1.2.1 Formal errors
1)Misspelling
E.g.Optiutea(opportunity)bording(boring)exame(exam)
2)Malformations:These are errors that produce“word”that are won-existent in the foreign Language.The students coined them.
E.g.youngness(youngsters)loneness(loneliness)highness(height)
1.2.2 Semantic errors
Collocations are the other words any particular word normally keeps company with.There are some collocation errors:
increase my level(improve my level)to devote our power for(to)the world
1.3 Errors in texts
James(2001:141)holds that text is sometimes used to refer exclusively to a unit of written language larger than the sentence—for which paragraph might be a suitable term.The basic unit of text is a sentence(Zhang Delu&Liu Rushan,2003:170).Halliday and Husan(James,2001:142)make it clear that text may be spoken or written and is not limited to the larger units.Errors in texts influence the understanding of passages.So cohesion is quite important.Here are several kinds of errors appearing in students’composition.
1.3.1 Students make mistakes of reference
Reference is the set of grammatical resources,which allow the speaker to indicate whether something is being repeated from somewhere else in the text(i.e.we have already been told about it),or whether it has not yet appeared in the text(i.e.it is now to us)(Thompson,2000:148).The second category of reference is demonstratives,including“this”,“that”,“these”“those”,the exam papers show that students use fewer demonstrative pronouns.However,students who use it still make mistakes,e.g.,time is very important for us,the reason for this is that every one of us only has less than 100 years.“This”in the sentences should be replaced by“which”,referring to the former part of the sentence.
Some students use pronouns in their compositions,but they change the person arbitrarily.For instance:“In the whole,we should think about future for ourself.Once you lose your time,you would lose your life because time is life.So just value your time.”In the paragraph,the student changes the person from“we”to“you”.It makes readers alter their objects of attention.The change does not keep pace with their expectation.When readers read the first sentence,they expect it will tell the reason or something like that.In general,he will show something about“ours”.Once he changes the person,readers may think that he will talk another thing.The attention is irregular.So it is unnecessary.
1.3.2 Students are unaware of using substitution
They choose to repeat a word all the time.For instance“as a people,time is very important for us.Because if we have no time,it means that we will die.So we should make full use of the time,to do what we should do”.In this paragraph,the student uses the word“time”three times without any substitution.Actually,it refers to the same thing.So it can be used to substitute“time”in the several or third place to make the paragraph more cohesive.
1.3.3 Students ignore using conjunctive adjuncts
Conjunction refers broadly to the combining of any two textual elements into a potentially coherent complex semantic unit.There are basically two ways of approaching the investigation of conjunction.On the one hand,we can start from the clause constituents which we have already identical asserting a textual function in particular,conjunctions such as“but”and“because”and adjuncts such as“nevertheless”and“therefore”.We might also want to include preposition as textual linkers within the clause.Here only conjunctive adjuncts contribute to cohesion.Students ignore using conjunctive adjuncts or to be exact,they have no aware of using them.A student’s structure is as follows:
“There is an old saying...saying your life”.“Time is limited...take our time seriously.”“We can do some reading...or it is harmful to us.”“Being a student,I will spend it correctly.”The short passage is slack.Although we can understand its meaning,it does not give us a clear structure.We need to recognize its main points after reading.It does not give accord with the style of native writers.A few students use several marked words such as“but,however,and,firstly,secondly”.These words are commonly used.They seldom use other words such as furthermore,moreover.This kind of compositions is monotonous.
1.3.4 Few students use topic sentences
Topic sentences are like eyes.Few students use them.Sometimes,I cannot infer the main idea until I finish reading the whole paragraph.For example:“In my life,I had not many persons,some of them are waiting,waiting for the study end,the term end and so on I think this is not good because if you want to make your life better,you must do the master of your life and your time.You could spend time on doing something what you want to do,or do something quickly in order to save time to do more things.And not kill time to do something is useless,or pass the time in order to let it pass.”Such a long paragraph just wants to tell people to cherish time,control it and do things efficiently.If the student could give the topic sentence,it would help readers save lots of time and make the reading easy.
Too many sentences just express his/her subjective attitudes.There is no relevance among the sentences.
“In my life,I believe time works wonders.I want to make full use of my free time.For example:reading books,listening music and art.In college just have three years.It is very quickly so I must take this optiutea to tell ourselves what I mean to do.I should know about world news.I want to be a guide.But it should know much knowledge.So I must take my free time to increase my level...It is a language and a beautiful language.So I must work hard to study English.”
In this paragraph,we can see“I believe”,“I want”,“I must(4 times)”,“I should”and“it should”.Each sentence is not dependent on others.It does not matter if we delete several sentences from it.
The data above show students’errors in the writing.The errors in grammar,lexicon and texts reflect their low competence of English.No one in the whole class does not make mistakes.They have poor grammatical and lexical knowledge,no awareness of constructing texts.
2 Several Reasons for Errors
2.1 Influence of native language on foreign language writing
Although many scholars challenge the idea of behaviorists,who put out language transfer,the data clearly reflect the influence of native language on foreign language writing.They do not shake off native language’s interference.The errors of many sentences such as“to devote our power for the world”equals to Chinese“为世界贡献力量”.“For”is equivalent to Chinese“为”When the learner acquires the word‘devote’,he can not remember the phrase“devote...to...”.No lexical phrase is in this mind When he uses the word“devote”,Chinese thinking mode misleads him to use the preposition“for”.
2.2 Students make errors in basic knowledge
This reflects that they do not pay much attention to the learning of basic knowledge.This may arise from the ignorance of teaching and learning.Now communicative teaching methods are popular.Teachers and students overemphasize on the importance of communication.As a result,they focus on speaking and listening.Some students even think that a few errors are not important and the most important is to make them understood.
2.3 Students learn words separately
They neither practice words in appropriate context nor compare new words with what they have learnt synonyms.They have very small vocabulary size.They cannot use easy words with high frequency.Their frequency is far away from the standard of CET4and syllabus.In their memory,words are confusing and fuzzy.So there are so many errors in forms and grammars.Because they choose to express one thing in another way when they do not know the exact word,their expressions are so simple.Their words are loquacious because of their low English competence.They are incapable of taking into account of textual style.Writing is of oral characteristics.
2.4 Students do not acquire cultural differences between Eng-lish and Chinese
The differences reflect on their thinking mode.On the one hand,Chinese is paratactic.That is the arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them.In Chinese,the sentences such as the rain fell,the river flooded,the house washed away”are acceptable.Comparatively English is hypotactic.That is the dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses with connectives.Conjunctions are needed to combine single sentences.They are unaware of using cohesive strategies.On the other hand,the students seldom use topic sentences.The meaning of one paragraph is not clear.This causes readers to get into trouble.
2.5 Students and teachers take no notice of writing
Before entering college,students seldom write compositions.They have to write one in the exam.So no feedbacks are given to students.They do not know whether their writings have problems Naturally they have no chance to correct their errors.It is no useful for them to improve their English level.After entering college,few students are interested in English writing.They are unwilling to spend time on it because they think that writing skills’improvement cannot be achieved in one day.As a result,their writing skills stay in the period of fossilization.
2.6 Few students have the habit of writing an outline
After the exam,I asked them why they did not write outlines before writing.They told me time was limited.Writing an outline would waste much time.They did not know spending a few minutes in writing an outline would save a lot of time.What is worse,they did not have a clear structure of a passage and did not know what materials would be used in it.They thought about a sentence and wrote it down and then stopped to think another sentence.Certainly,this kind of passage doesn’t have a clear structure.The text is not cohesive.
3 Some Suggestions for Students and Teachers
3.1 Students need to accumulate basic knowledge
Students have low English competence,so they have to accumulate basic knowledge including grammar and lexicon.They need to pay more attention to the specific usage of high frequency words such as collocations and practice them in context.For purposes of description,as well as pedagogy,it is useful to classify them in terms of their structural and functional characteristics(Nattinger&DeCarrico,1992:37).Teachers may give a more detailed account of functions in discourse.
3.2 Teachers need to provide strategies
Teachers need to provide strategies to assist both reading and writing of students in synthesizing meaning in larger segments of text.These strategies must be based on elements that provide both cohesion and coherence in the discourse,and must divert students’attention,whether on the local or global level from individual lexical items to larger lexical phrase form/function composites.If their cognitive resources can be released from such time-consuming surface-level processes as individual word recognition,students would have more time for processing meaning and would find the organization of information in the discourse more obvious.Training would,therefore,essentially involve bringing these already possessed strategies into conscious awareness.Such strategies are of interest in themselves for what they read about the way readers and writers manage their interaction with written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension in general.
3.3 Teachers should be aware of teaching students to acquire western cultures
It is necessary for teachers to be aware of teaching students to acquire western cultures.Language is a mirror of thought.Thought is also a mirror of culture.The differences between English and Chinese are attributed to the differences of two cultures.“Language is inextricably bound up with culture.Cultural values are both reflected by and carried through language.It is perhaps inevitable,then,that representation of culture implicitly and explicitly enters into second language teaching.”“ESL writing instruction addresses cultural issues most explicitly in efforts to socialize L2 learners into expected cultural norms for academic texts in the target language”(Eli Hinkel,2001:109).To be efficient learners,students need to focus on the western cultures.It is easier to understand different thinking mode from the perspective of culture.Students are aware of acquiring cultures actively.They may try to read literary works.
3.4 Teachers should direct students to write a composition
It is helpful for teachers to direct students to write a composition.Practice makes perfect.So it is better for students to write a dairy or a composition every two days.Feedback is important for a composition.Richards(2003:178)says:“Despite increasing emphasis on the importance of oral response and the use of peers as sources of feedback,teacher written response continues to play a central role in the most L2 writing classes.”Teachers mark the mistakes and students correct them immediately.
4 Conclusion
Writing a good composition is a complex task.It is relatedto students’basic knowledge of syntax,lexicon and semantics.Even if every sentence is correct,the composition can not be con-sidered a good one.They must be connected closely by usingsome strategies such as reference,substitution,conjunctions andso on.Cultural factors influence SLA.The differences betweenEnglish and Chinese require students to give up the thinkingmode of mother tongue and be used to the style of English texts.The data collected from college students’compositions revealthat their basic knowledge is poor and they are not aware of mak-ing texts cohesive.Some suggestions given in Part 3 intend to bebeneficial to student’s learning and teachers’teaching.
参考文献
[1]James C.Errors in Language learning and Use:Exploring Error Analysis[M].Beijing:Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press,2001.
[2]Hinkel E.Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learn ing[M].Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2001.
[3]Thompson G.Introducing Functional Grammar[M].Beijing:For eign Language Teaching and Research Press,2000.
[4]Richards J C.Second Language Writing[M].Cambridge:Cam bridge University Press,2003.
[5]Nattinger J R,DeCarrico J S.Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching[M].Oxford:Oxford University Press,1992.
[6]Gass S M,Selinker L.Second Language Acquisition[M].New Jersey:Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,2001.
系统功能语言学兴起于20世纪下半叶,“系统语法”这个名称的使用始于60年代中期,而“系统功能语法”这个名称始于1980年。澳大利亚语言学家韩礼德(Halliday)是最早从事系统功能语法理论研究者,他的系统功能语法具有公认的代表性和权威性。韩礼德认为,语言具备三大纯理功能,即概念功能、人际功能及语言本身所具有的语篇功能(Halliday,1985)。本文基于系统功能语法中主位推进模式理论,希望提出大学英语四级作文教学的新思路。
二、理论梳理
大多数系统功能语言学家认为,语言三大功能中的语篇功能在系统功能语法中主要体现为篇章的主位选择。主位(theme)和述位(rheme)目的在于研究句子中不同成分在语言交际中发挥的作用有何不同。位于句首的成分在交际中有一种特殊的作用,这种论述的起点被称为主位,其他部分称为述位,分别表示已知信息和未知信息。韩礼德认为,在句子层面上,有两个位置最为重要——句首和句末。他把主位定义为:“信息开始的地方,也就是小句所关心的成分”(Halliday,1985),也就是句子开始的词。如:
Last year at Harvard John finished his graduation thesis.//John last year finished his graduation thesis at Harvard.//At Harvard last year John finished his graduation thesis
初读这些句子,他们的不同似乎只是体现在单词出现顺序的重组,表达的都是相同的意义。但是如果再进行仔细阅读,我们发现,虽然这些句子的措辞相同,但却不可以互相代替。这就是小句的不同主位选择——放在句首的不同成分会给小句带来不同。这种组织信息的语篇功能被韩礼德称做关联功能(Halliday,1974),认为主位的选择往往会暴露说话者的意图和目的。除了在小句中,语篇中的主位选择也极为重要,把语篇连接成为有机信息整体,如:
Last Sunday my parents and I went to visit my grandma. She was so happy. We played cards together for the whole afternoon.//Last Sunday my parents and I went to visit my grandma. Mrs. Brown was so happy. The Greens played cards together for the whole afternoon.
比较这两段话,我们不难发现虽然它们语法都正确,但是第二段话很难理解,因为很难找到“my parents and I ” “Mrs. Brown” 和“the Greens”之间的关系。这就是在语篇中主位的选择为语篇所带来的连贯性,前后句子的主位述位之间会发生各种联系和变化,这种联系和变化被定义为“主位推进——Thematic Progression” (TP)。TP建立起语篇之间的内部联系,是最重要的实现语篇衔接和连贯的工具之一(胡壮麟,1994)。
Fries(1983)和Danes(1974)等对貌似无章可循的语言素材中总结出主位变化的基本模式,主要有主位同一型(主位相同,述位不同)、述位同一型(主位不同,述位相同)、延续型(前一句的述位成为后一句的主位)、交叉型(前一句的主位是后一句的述位)等。大量的语言素材表明,只用单一模式的语篇很少,大多数都比较复杂,是多种模式的混合使用。
三、大学英语四级作文教学实践
在高职院校,能通过大学英语四级考试的同学都是学习的佼佼者,但是当中的作文部分一直是学生得分率较低的部分。如果在教学中引入主位和述位,以及主位推进的概念,可以极大地帮助学生学会理清自己的思路,清楚自己想表达的内容;从什么地方开始说起;从什么地方引入新的话题;到语篇结束时重点的信息在哪里。具体的教学实践体现在教会学生分析自己写的文章中的主位和述位,分析自己主要使用了哪些主位推进模式,学会单独和符合使用多种不同的主位推进模式来使自己的文章内容丰富、衔接严密、结构清晰;也可教会学生在主位推进的理论视角下来修改自己的文章,如以Looking for jobs为题:
I(主位) am a student(述位). Looking for a job(主位) is a must(述位). I(主位) must work harder and harder to create a better future. This can fulfill my life.
在这个学生的语篇中,主位述位各自孤立,没有体现任何主位推进模式,文章显得凌乱不连贯。如果在此篇章中复合使用主位同一型、延续型、交叉型等主位推进模式,可将其修改为:
I am a student, so I must look for jobs. Looking for jobs requires me to work harder and harder to create a better future, which will definitely fulfill my life.
修改后的句子在不同的主位推进模式下实现了更好的衔接和连贯,增强了语篇的表达力。
四、结语
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