1. Dialectical Practice Approach 2012 年 4 月

2. Warmest Greetings from Your Faithful Servant Chen Lin

3. What is Dialectical Practice Approach （辨证实践途径） This is my personal conception of what should be an ideal English (or any foreign language) Learning approach for Chinese students in a Chinese context.

4. Dialecticism The 16 dialectical relationships 1. Theory v. practice Practice is primary and theory is secondary. Theory comes from practice and in turn serves and directs further practice.

5. We learn grammar through language and not language through grammar. —— Johann Herdor German Philosopher & Linguist

6. 2. Humanistic nature v. instrumental nature of language learning 3. LAD (Language Acquisition Device) v. Stimulus-Response 4. Language Input v. Language output

7. 5. Listening-speaking v. Reading- writing 6. Language-learning v. Language- -acquisition 7. Language v. Culture 8. Accuracy v. Fluency

8. 9. Mother tongue v. Target language 10. TBLL (Task-based language learning) v. Eclectic approach 11. Formative assessment v. Summative assessment

9. 12. Intensive study v. Extensive study 13. Teacher teaching v. IT devices 14. Local teaching material v. Imported teaching material

10. 15. Autonomous learning v. Cooperative learning 16. Student v. Teacher (“Man as the centre”)

11. Practice Primary Approach The Ten Points of Attention 1. Language itself is the product of practice. 2. Language remained only oral for a long time before written language was created, developed and formed. Naturally, languages should be learned orally first.

12. 3. Language input (reading & listening) before language output (speaking & writing)—— the former being the basis of the latter. 4. We should learn language itself first and then learn grammar from language by induction.

13. 5. In classroom teaching a good teacher should create every opportunity for the students to practice. 6. A good textbook should be full of meaningful activities and exercises for the students to practice language.

14. 7. Language learning (Classroom teaching) should always be supplemented with language acquisition (mainly outside reading). 8. The achievement of the students should be assessed by “CAN DO” — what the students CAN DO with the language (English) in and outside of the classroom; that is, what TASKS they can fulfill with the language.

15. 9. Students should be encouraged to use (mainly speak and write) English not only in class but also in their daily life outside of the classroom, because it is there that they are really using the language as a means of meaningful, real communication. All classroom activities, no matter how real the teachers try to make them, are artificial.

16. 10. The final evaluation or assessment of a man’s mastery of a foreign language is in their writing ability, which is connected with and based on their ample practice in reading, listening and speaking, of which READING is the main factor.

17. Thank you for your attention and questions are welcome.