Language and speech are the relationship between generality and individuality, and they are abstract and concrete. So, what is the relationship between language and speech, and its enlightenment to foreign language teaching?
Paper Keywords: the relationship between language and speech in foreign language teaching
Abstract: Language is the most important communication tool for human beings, and it is a vocabulary and grammar system combining sound and meaning. Speech is the use of language to accomplish a specific communicative task in a specific environment. Swiss linguist Ferdi Nan? De? Saussure, right? Language? And then what? Words? The theory of distinction has had an extremely important influence in the history of modern linguistics. This article discusses respectively? Language? And then what? Words? The definition, characteristics, the relationship between them and the division of categories are further explained on this basis. Language? And then what? Words? The important enlightenment and influence of theory on foreign language teaching.
I. Introduction
As early as the beginning of19th century, the German linguist Humboldt put forward the necessity of distinguishing between language and speech. ? Father of modern linguistics? Saussure, a Swiss linguist, initiated the study of general linguistics in Modern Linguistics. Language? then what Words? (parrot) made a comprehensive distinction and elaboration, and put forward it for the first time? Linguistics of language? And then what? Speech linguistics? Concepts such as. Since then, the relationship between language and speech has been widely concerned by linguists all over the world. Since the 1960s, there have been many discussions about …. Language? And then what? Words? The core of the discussion is whether it is necessary to distinguish between language and speech, and a series of problems caused by it. Many scholars express their opinions, but the fact that language and speech must be distinguished has been accepted by more and more people, and the application of this theory in foreign language teaching and its enlightenment and influence have also become the research object of language researchers.
Second, the relationship between language and speech
In A Course in General Linguistics, Saussure used many vivid metaphors to describe the phenomena and problems in language. Before discussing the relationship between language and speech, let's look at a strange mathematical formula:
1+ 1+ 1? = 1 (Saussure, 2003: 4 1)
This is the formula used by Saussure to describe the relationship between language and speech. From a mathematical point of view, we can completely overturn this formula, because in the field of mathematics, the sum of countless 1 can never be equal to 1. So what is the motivation of this linguist to establish this formula?
From a linguistic point of view, this mathematical formula can be? Translation? Cheng:
Speech+speech+speech+? = a certain language
It means that the sum of countless words equals language. Before the equal sign? 1? Represents a speech work, after the equal sign? 1? Represents a language, such as Chinese, English and French, but the relationship between language and pronunciation is far simpler than that described in the formula. Language is not a simple accumulation of speech works, but a manifestation of language in speech.
People compare the relationship between language and speech to the relationship between building materials, building rules and architecture, in which building materials are equivalent to the vocabulary of language, building rules are equivalent to the grammatical structure of language, and architecture is a concrete speech work; Language can also be compared to playing chess, where chess pieces are equivalent to vocabulary, chess rules are equivalent to grammar, and chess scores are equivalent to verbal works. From this, we can understand that limited vocabulary and grammar rules can create unlimited speech works. There are good and bad speech works, but there is no good or bad language. The relationship between language and speech is like the relationship between staff, scale symbols and music. The process of speech is similar to the process of composition, which requires materials and rules, and can create works that express certain ideological and emotional tendencies and have personal style; Because there are still qualitative and quantitative problems in the relationship between language and speech, we can also compare language to Arabic numerals and the combination rules of these numerals, and compare speech to specific numbers combined by these numerals. We can use 10 Arabic numerals from 0 to 9 to represent infinite numbers through certain combination rules. Words in a language, like Arabic numerals, are limited in a certain period of time, and the grammar of a language, like Arabic numerals, has certain combination rules; Finally, language can be compared to brushes and colors of painting, knives and raw materials of sculpture, and words can be compared to Chinese paintings and statues. This metaphor helps us to understand the rhetorical color of speech and the influence of language on speech rhetoric (Ji, 1983: 56).
From a formula put forward by Saussure and five metaphors that people often make, we can simply summarize the relationship between language and speech: the relationship between language and speech can be explained by the philosophical view of unity of opposites. ? Language and speech are interdependent. No matter from the perspective of holism or ontogeny, speech comes first and language exists in speech? (Cen, Shi Yanhua, 2007: 12), on the one hand, language and speech are essentially different, on the other hand, they are closely related. The difference between language and speech is obvious. Professor Cen believes that there are four criteria to distinguish between language and speech: meaning criterion (whether to express complete meaning), form criterion (whether there is a specific and fixed model), function criterion (whether it is out of context) and quantity criterion (whether it is limited or infinite).
In short, language and speech are general and individual, abstract and concrete. Therefore, the study of language must start from observing speech and pay attention to a large number of universal language facts shown in speech.
Thirdly, the application of language and speech theory in foreign language teaching.
Saussure's dichotomy of language and speech is widely used in the research of second language teaching. ? Language? And then what? Words? They are two aspects of the unity of opposites in foreign language teaching, which are different from each other and penetrate each other. ? In foreign language teaching? Language? Refers to the rules of language structure and usage, teaching? Language? Our practice is called language teaching, and the main goal of language teaching is to let learners master it? Language? Systematic knowledge, thus laying the foundation for the use of language. ? Words? Refers to the usual speech and teaching? Words? Our practice is called language teaching, and the goal of language teaching is to cultivate students' listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, so as to use language rules for language communication? Bi Yanhua, 2007: 123. Let's discuss the application of language and speech theory in foreign language teaching practice from three aspects.
(1) In foreign language teaching? Words? Language? Words? Model of
? Words? Language? Words? Language learning mode is the only way for every baby to learn his mother tongue and an effective way to learn a foreign language. When learning our mother tongue, we often start with a few words and imitate the outside voice, which is the speech stage; At the same time, in the continuous vocabulary accumulation, we consciously or unconsciously mastered the language system and reached the language stage; However, mastering a language system is not our goal. We will use this system to speak and write in the process of acquisition, which will return to the speech stage.
Of course, these stages cannot be completely separated. When learning and teaching a foreign language, we should try our best to make use of this model in the three stages of teaching, so that foreign language learners can better grasp the language rules and skillfully use the language in practice. Of course, learning a foreign language cannot have a language environment for learning the mother tongue, so there can be a short pure language teaching stage in the initial stage of foreign language teaching, such as teaching English letters or international phonetic symbols. At this stage, the amount of language teaching activities is greater than that of speech teaching activities, because students' language knowledge is still very limited, which is not enough for a large number of speech teaching to generate and understand new words. With the increase of time, the amount of Chinese teaching activities should be decreasing, on the contrary, the amount of Chinese teaching activities is increasing. Because at this stage, students gradually master the pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar rules of the language, and can generate sentences more freely, and the freedom of language teaching has increased. When entering the advanced foreign language learning stage, speech activities should greatly exceed language activities, so that students can use the language more flexibly.
(B) the cultivation of foreign language learners' language ability and speech ability
1. Language ability includes phonetic ability, lexical ability, semantic ability and grammatical ability. Phonetic ability includes phonemic ability, phonetic ability, intonation ability and oral English ability. To cultivate pronunciation ability, we should use linguistic methods, such as analyzing the acoustic properties of pronunciation, imitating pronunciation parts and methods, and comparing pronunciation. We should use oral methods, such as intensive methods to listen to a large number of foreign language texts and develop our phonetic ability in oral practice. Lexical semantic ability includes the ability to distinguish parts of speech, understand the meaning of words, distinguish synonyms, homographs and homophones. The cultivation of lexical semantic ability depends not only on vocabulary work in foreign language teaching, but also on making vocabulary appear repeatedly in different texts and understanding the subtle meaning and rhetorical color of vocabulary in texts. Grammatical ability includes the ability to analyze lexical features of words, the ability to analyze parts of speech and sentence components, the ability to identify collocation relations and the ability to make sentences. In addition to analyzing grammar, the cultivation of grammatical ability should also grasp the concretization of grammatical rules in speech and use them flexibly in discourse.
2. Language ability includes listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. It refers to students' ability to use language. The main purpose of learning a foreign language is social communication, so the cultivation of language ability is very important. Generally speaking, in the primary stage of foreign language teaching, the emphasis is on reading and speaking, but oral English can not be developed independently from written language, and listening, speaking, reading and writing should be closely coordinated with speech system teaching; The second stage of foreign language teaching focuses on reading and writing. On the one hand, it cultivates reading and writing ability, on the other hand, it continues to strengthen listening and speaking through reading and writing, and improves listening and speaking ability to an advanced stage; The third stage focuses on translation, which is solved on the basis of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and achieves greater development from translation practice.
(3)? Language? And then what? Words? Enlightenment of English-Chinese Relations on Foreign Language Textbooks
? Language? And then what? Words? This relationship shows that in the arrangement of teaching materials, we should pay attention to text and speech exercises and flexible application exercises, as well as practical application and language skills training. In the past, many textbooks focused on grammar translation, emphasizing written language while ignoring the importance of spoken language. Although there are texts and grammar contents, the theoretical knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and the weight of mechanical exercises can not be ignored. This kind of textbook focuses on teaching the language system, and the teaching of language is insignificant at this time. Without the rules of words, vocabulary and grammar, it is not easy to be remembered, and even if it is remembered, students can't relate to the specific context in practical application, and their only language knowledge is pale and powerless. Therefore, it is very important to correctly grasp the relationship between language and speech in teaching materials. Whenever a new language phenomenon appears, there should be a corresponding text to consolidate it, and the content of the text should be as close as possible to the actual language situation. In addition, when language phenomena appear, we should pay attention to the common use and repetition rate, so that students can deepen their impressions and apply what they have learned. After-class exercises should focus on flexible exercises, supplemented by mechanical exercises.
Four. conclusion
The relationship between language and speech is dialectical unity. They are both related and different, and they are the premise of each other. Speech is always based on the common rules of language; Language always generalizes and enriches rules from the use of speech, which is a constantly moving social phenomenon. Language exists in the public, in constant use and speech. It is of great significance to distinguish language from speech. First, in linguistic research, it is of great theoretical and practical significance to distinguish between language and speech, which is helpful to understand language scientifically; Secondly, it helps to determine the research object of linguistics; Third, it is helpful to understand the different nature and characteristics of language and speech, and to develop linguistic linguistics and verbal linguistics respectively; Fourthly, distinguishing between language and speech is also helpful to language teaching, especially the improvement of foreign language teaching methods. We should closely combine linguistic theory with foreign language teaching practice to maximize the development of foreign language teaching.
References:
[1] Bi Yanhua, Saussure. Language? And then what? Words? Theory of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and grammar teaching. Language Rhetoric, 2007,12:122-124.
[2] Cen, Shi Yanhua. A review of language and speech studies in the past twenty years. Journal of Jinggangshan University. 2007，9: 1 1- 16。
[3] Ferdi South? De? Saussure General linguistics course. Beijing Commercial Press, 2003.
[4] Ji Interesting linguistics. Beijing: Bibliographic Literature Publishing House, 1983.
[5] Lu. Language? And then what? Words? On the concept of "time" and its influence on teaching. Economic and Trade Times, 2007,5:181-183.
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