How to guide students to use core vocabulary and improve discourse output ability

1. Introduction

Discourse refers to "the actual language unit used, which is the whole language composed of a series of continuous paragraphs or sentences in a communication process." Putting the target discourse in a certain language environment for grammatical analysis and training is the discourse analysis ability. McCarthy and Carter proposed that "the main goal of foreign language teaching is to improve students' discourse ability." However, the current focus of English classroom teaching is too much on the teaching of basic language knowledge such as vocabulary, sentence patterns, and grammar. The limited teaching time and learning energy are mostly used on teaching, strengthening, practicing, consolidating and reviewing knowledge points, resulting in Reading ability training centered on discourse ability, thinking ability and reading skills is insufficient, and students' reading ability has not been substantially improved. It is not difficult to see from the results of the analysis of reading questions in the 2011 high school entrance examination that students lost significantly more points in questions that aimed at text comprehension, such as reading comprehension and cloze, than in other question types that aimed at testing basic language knowledge. In view of this, the author believes that teachers should consciously cultivate and improve students' discourse analysis ability in English teaching. This is not only the specific requirement of the English curriculum objectives at the basic education stage proposed by the "English Curriculum Standards", but also the improvement of students' comprehensive language use. Objective needs for ability.

II. Qualitative analysis

The format of the 2011 Hangzhou English subject high school examination papers is based on the "English Curriculum Standards" and the "2011 Hangzhou Various High School Cultural Examination Implementation Rules" requirements, focusing on testing students’ comprehensive language application ability and language literacy.

The test questions that test students’ text reading comprehension ability, represented by cloze, reading comprehension and word fill-in-the-blank questions, show the following characteristics:

1. Highlight The new curriculum concept emphasizes subject ability and pragmatic literacy on the basis of focusing on science, rigor and basic core knowledge. The texts selected in the volume have life-like language and sincere emotions. They aim to praise the beauty and goodness of human nature and have strong ideological and social nature.

2. The test points are set for all students while taking into account the selection function of the test paper. The form of the test questions remains relatively stable, and the test objectives have been appropriately changed. They are mainly to test students' reading of texts, acquisition of information, and analysis. and problem-solving abilities as the focus, to maximize the comprehensiveness, diversity and scientific nature of the evaluation.

3. Discourse analysis and reading questions

The application of discourse analysis in reading questions.

1. Cloze

Most of the cloze questions are based on stories, as shown in the table below.

It can be seen that the genre of cloze questions is mostly narrative essays with narratives and discussions; the themes are mostly inspirational and emotional stories, with profound meanings and philosophical concepts; the language is authentic and concise, focusing on the storyline; the length is 300 Words left and right.

The cloze question in the 2011 Hangzhou High School Examination Paper is a short story related to dreams. It should be said that the story itself is similar to some of the candidates’ life experiences, which helps candidates understand the sentences and grasp the direction of solving the questions. Provides great convenience.

（2011-31）When he was in his ninth grade, he was asked to write a __31__ about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

31.A .speech B.paper C.notice D.diary

The answer to this question is hidden below. Candidates can find the corresponding sentence "Two days later he received his paper back." Through careful reading of the chapter, candidates can find the corresponding sentence. ..", and finally successfully locked the option. This question mainly tests students' ability to perceive and judge key words in the passage.

2. Reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is an important test content in the high school entrance examination. Generally speaking, there are at least three reading articles in the English test paper of the high school entrance examination, and the reading amount is more than 1,000 words. The articles cover a wide range of topics and genres. From the perspective of discourse analysis, the setting of reading questions can often be classified into four types: induction and summary questions, detailed comprehension questions, sentence comprehension questions and reasoning and judgment questions.

From the perspective of the distribution of test points, half of the reading questions in the 2001 high school entrance examination were detailed comprehension and summary questions, including the task-based reading in the second section. As long as you search carefully, it is not difficult to find the corresponding details, and it is not difficult. .

（2011-50）50.It can be learned from the passage that______.

A.one has to work hard to reach his goal

B.a friend in need is a friend in deed

C.watermelon is the healthiest fruit

D.one should keep work-life balance

This question focuses on testing Candidates' ability to grasp, analyze, integrate, and process information as a whole requires students to summarize the center of the full text, from special to general, and summarize the theme on the basis of reading the full text and understanding the logical relationship of the paragraphs.

3. Word selection to fill in the blanks

Word selection to fill in the blanks has a good degree of discrimination. The word selection and fill-in-the-blank part of the 2011 Hangzhou High School Examination focused on the examination of the usage of content words. The test points are reasonably distributed, which is the best embodiment of the combination of language knowledge and discourse.

There are three main types of errors in this question:

(1) Errors in word form changes. Question 64, the past tense of the verb; Question 67, the change of the reflexive pronoun; Question 70, the change of the past participle of the verb in the passive voice.

(2011-70) I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve 70) _grown_ all you are going to grow...

(2) Wrong understanding of meaning. There are not many errors caused by misunderstanding of meaning.

(3) Error in part-of-speech judgment. Question 68, adjectives.

The test purpose of this question type determines that the main skills assessed are: judgment of word form; understanding of word meaning; connection between sentences; and grasp of the passage. The focus is on word choice, word form changes, logic, cohesion and coherence at the micro-level of discourse.

4. An effective way to improve students’ discourse analysis ability. Reading teaching based on discourse theory should treat the target discourse as a whole, starting from the hierarchical structure and content of the discourse, and requiring students to master the discourse. Main message. On this basis, internal analysis at the discourse level is carried out in an orderly manner to realize the interpretation of the discourse in terms of semantics, cohesion, coherence means, rhetorical style and information structure, and actively create a language environment for students to participate, experience, communicate and share. Improve students' comprehensive language application ability and communicative ability.

1. Macroscopic perception, cultural penetration

Through the analysis of test papers, we observed that students lost more points in some questions that highlighted the role of cultural context and focused on the communicative function of language. This is because One aspect reflects the current problems in English teaching-the lack of English culture.

(1) English is not only a subject, but also a culture. Language teaching cannot just be a pile of words and an accumulation of grammar, but also requires the penetration of culture. A language lacking cultural connotation will never have vitality. The "New Curriculum Standards" for English clearly states that "One of the tasks of the English curriculum at the basic stage is to help students understand the world and the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and expand their horizons." Therefore, in the process of reading teaching, teachers should follow the teaching principles of "highlighting text, emphasizing application, and focusing on communication", strive to create communicative context, connect culture, increase the cultural connotation of reading teaching, and provide purposeful and preset information related to reading. Background cultural knowledge related to the target discourse helps students master and understand the discourse comprehensively and macroscopically.

(2) Cultural differences determine differences in customs, lifestyles, and expressions. From vocabulary to syntax, from discourse structure to communication environment, all contain cultural factors. In the process of reading teaching, timely introduction of culture is the guarantee for effective discourse learning. The creation of effective context is the prerequisite for cultural introduction.

2. Situation contrast, teaching aid text

Effective context setting can not only allow culture to penetrate into every aspect of reading teaching, but also serve as a foil for the language environment. The role of rational perception of semantics.

(1) Modern teaching incorporates high-tech means. Discourse teaching should give full play to the use of computer network information resources and the role of multimedia computer language courseware, so that situation creation meets the needs of discourse teaching and presents fresh content. , intuitive, vivid, diverse and full characteristics have become a strong basis for the development of discourse teaching activities. Pictures, slides, movies and video materials can help students experience the true meaning of English culture in a natural and real language environment, enhance their language comprehension and adaptability to text reading, and improve students' understanding of cross-cultural communication.

(2) English is a highly practical subject, and the communicative nature of language dictates that English teaching must be participatory teaching. Only when students participate in teaching activities can they have the opportunity to use language, perceive language, and develop language. Reading teaching classes should actively create a teaching situation that guides students to participate independently, so that students can truly become the objects of teaching services-the main body of the classroom. With the participation of students, classroom teaching can show the vitality of its dynamic communicative activities.

(3) Use the content of the teaching materials to create performance situations and comprehend and internalize language knowledge. Reading teaching must first be closely integrated with teaching materials, scientifically and fully explore teaching material resources, take the source as the source, and expand learning channels. This is not only a need for teaching, but also a need to improve students' comprehensive language use ability. The creation of performance situations provides students with a platform for cooperation, communication, and sharing, and provides students with opportunities to perceive language, analyze semantics, and refine structures in virtual situations; it develops and taps students' potential to use language; and stimulates students' creative use The vitality of language. It should be pointed out that during the activities, teachers should maintain an expectant attitude, strive to create a pleasant and relaxed teaching atmosphere, and actively guide and encourage students to make continuous progress.

3. Microscopic approach and strategic guidance

Discourse teaching emphasizes the connection between discourse and meaning from a macro perspective, but this does not negate the connection between keywords and vocabulary, Micro-analysis of discourse in terms of logical connectives and grammatical devices.

(1) Some discourse themes are directly revealed in the text, while others are hidden behind the text, which requires teachers to lead students to explore. The use of text titles can often intuitively and effectively limit the scope of the text. By searching for topics, students can accurately interpret the topic of the text. The title is the keyword of the entire article and an effective means of predicting the content of the article.

(2) Use the context of the text to guide students to pay attention to the realization of discourse cohesion and coherence. Cohesion mechanism is an important content of discourse analysis. It is the way to achieve discourse coherence. Analysis of discourse cohesion and coherence plays a key role in students mastering the text.

(3) Adopting different reading methods and strategies according to different reading purposes to help students overcome existing bad reading habits is not only an important task of discourse teaching, but also a course goal stipulated in the "English Curriculum Standards" one. Effective English reading strategies include: predicting reading content, guessing the development of the plot and possible endings, using context and word formation to infer the meaning of new words, understanding the logical relationship between sentences in a paragraph, being able to find the topic sentence in the article, and according to the title of the article Predict the content of the article with pictures, retell the main content of the article, and use dictionaries to learn and other reading strategies.

5. Conclusion

The 2011 Hangzhou English Subject High School Examination questions put forward higher requirements for candidates’ discourse analysis ability than before, which requires teachers to improve their classroom teaching in the future. Change the traditional teaching method, take the target text as the starting point, integrate the concept of holistic teaching throughout text teaching, actively create language use situations, encourage students to participate in and experience language communication activities independently, and guide students from both macro and micro levels Comprehend language, appreciate the cultural connotation of language use, overcome the shortcomings of traditional teaching that divides texts and isolates analysis, adheres to equal emphasis on language form and language function in teaching, and actively and effectively guides students to use scientific and reasonable reading strategies to carry out reading activities for different purposes. Deepen discourse understanding and comprehensively improve students' reading comprehension abilities.