论文部分内容阅读
【Abstract】Speaking and thinking are a set duel in the performance of oral language.The ability of English thinking is one of the essential elements，as pronunciation and grammar，influencing the flow of speech.In actual oral class practice，students should be trained to think in English before speaking in English，without which，the language monster Chinglish （the compounding of Chinese and English） is produced.In this essay，a new practical method of training English language thinking with the use of tongue twisters is discussed and analyzed so that students can have an improved way to practice their oral English.
【Keywords】Oral English； class teaching； second language acquisition； language thinking； situational method； tongue twister
I.Chinglish----the language monster
In actual oral English class teaching，both teachers and students tend to emphasize pronunciation skills and grammatical abilities.And the above two tasks can be fulfilled，with efforts，through traditional training process，such as imitation drills and contrastive drills for pronunciation improvement and reading exercise （intensive and extensive） and other controlled exercise for grammar correctness.Even wording is also taken care of in most classes through situational dialogues.But after all these preparations，when the time come for oral performance，the flow of speech is always hold back by a not-so-rusty barrier----first language thinking，namely，Chinese thinking.
Language thinking is the combination of language competence and the synthetically thinking ability.First language thinking or Chinese thinking is not to born with，but acquired by the speaker after many years of language using，during which the speaker’s brain and logic is developed.People brought up in different language environment have distinctly different preference in wording and phrasing，and even in thinking.Language thinking is like the blueprint，and speaking English with Chinese thinking is like building a house with western materials according to a Chinese style blue print.The outcome is bound to be in Chinese style，which，in the sense of language style，to be Chinglish （Chinese English）.In many cases，Chinglish is grammatically correct，but the phrasing，the coherence and the conciseness in these languages are problematic and，more often than not，misleading.There are some wide spread Chinglish phrases such as Good good study and day day up，No zuo no die，Long time no see，and No can do.Such languages are amusing and even acceptable internationally.But as educators of English，we should have a definite view on the issue and make sure that the learners are not wrongly informed. II.The constructive effect of tongue twisters in the forming of English Language thinking
To avoid Chinglish，Students can always work on their vocabulary，grammar and reading to enhance their language sense.Compared to oral practices，mental training plays a dominant role in the construction of English thinking.A proper method and appropriate material can accelerate the progress.Tongue twisters，being a popular language game in all cultures，can become an effective aid to exercise students both mentally and physically.In the history of our traditional art Chinese Crosstalk，or Xiangsheng，tongue twisters had always taken an important place，not only in performance，but also in basic skill training.Good performance of tongue twisters requires clear articulation as well as clear thinking.When practicing a Chinese tongue twister，the speaker exercises his Chinese thinking； while practicing an English tongue twister，the speaker exercises his English thinking.When the tongue twister is fluently performed，the language thinking ability is well constructed for the speaker.
Why are tongue twisters difficult？ Just as the name implies，tongue twisters twist the tongue with the large amount of words which sound similar.There lies a paradox that，if the speaker pays too much attention to the pronunciation，i.e.his tongue，he would lose control of his mind，thus forgets what to say next； if he focuses in the meaning of the whole sentence and pays little attention to the pronunciation，he may slip his tongue.But if the speaker ignores the similarity of the swords in one tongue twister，he may notice that in spite of all the similarity of the sound of the words，the meanings of the words are usually unrelated.And therefore break the setup of tongue twisters.
Take the following tongue twister as an example：Betty bought some butter to make a better batter.First，pronunciation difficulties of the twister include the two front vowels （[e]and[?]），one central vowel （[?]），one back vowel （[?]），one closing diphthongs （[ei]），which are the sounds that baffle Chinese students the most，and one repeated plosive sound[b].So as simple the sentence seems，students still find it difficult to say the tongue twister.Then think another way round，when analyzed from semantic perspective，it is easy to see that all the words in the sentences are unrelated in meaning.If ignoring the bafflement of the pronunciation，the sentence itself is an extremely simple one.That is to say，with a clear thinking and a clear pronunciation，the tongue twister is easy to be performed. III.Analysis on application examples in oral English class
Below is the operating procedure of applying tongue twisters in an Oral English class of 30 students to construct the students’ English thinking ability.
Step 1.Lead-in.
Task 1.Show the first tongue twister in slide 1 and ask some students to read the sentence aloud at normal speed.The sentence was：
Betty bought some butter to make a better batter
In the experiment，only 2 students of the 10 asked were able to fulfill the task，which made the success rate 20%.
Task 2.After a period of familiarization，ask 10 more students to recite the tongue twister.This time the success rate leveled down to 0%.Leaving out the emotional factors，a “tongue twisters are so hard” conclusion was widely reached.
Step 2.English thinking construction.
Task 1.Show Slide 2，which was improved with iconography.Lead the students to read the new material and guide them into the situation：a girl called Betty is good at making batter.Some day she wanted to improve the batter she makes，that is，a better batter.In order to make a better batter，she needed some butter.Then she bought some butter.
Task 2.When the situation is established in the Students’ minds，a grammatical and semantic analyze should be conducted.The purpose of the analyzing is to emphasize the thinking and distract the students’ minds from the disturbance of all the similar sounds.
Task 3.Lead a pronunciation drill focused on the vowels.The aim of this task is to help the students to get familiar with the sounds in question，thus release their stress occurs in utterance.When doing the pronouncing exercise，especially require the students to think about the meaning of each word while reading it，so that when the utterance is made，the meaning is concerned，and vice versa.
Task 4.Performance and feedback section.Ask 10 students to recite the Tongue twister with the thinking while speaking method.After the above prelude，nearly all students can recite the twister fluently and correctly，which made a success rate of 97%.Besides the high rate of success，students also built great confidence in their leaning ability and speaking ability through the exercises.
Step 3.Consolidation exercises.
The main task of this part is to encourage the students to apply the new method to other materials.In this part，new selected tongue twisters were shown to the students in Slide 3.It is essential that the materials used in this part should be moderate in difficulty level.Over-high difficulty level may kill the students’ confidence and interests and even the trust of the new method while low-difficulty materials would be insufficient to exercise the students in supposed aspects.Below there are the examples used in this part： 1.Sally sells seashells in a small seaside shop.
2.We eat what we can and can what we can’t.
3.How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood？
As a transition，Example 1 is similar to the tongue twister in the former part，but with extra grammatical difficulties including the singular form in third personal of the predicate verb sells，and the plural form of the object noun seashells，which is also the worst nerve-wracking problem to Chinese students.Besides，seashell and seaside are the two paronymous words appear in the short sentence； Example 2 is dominated by the different usages of the word can，which works as a notional verb and also a modal verb； Example 3 is a very popular tongue twister even in the United States，and it is of a higher difficulty level.
Satisfying result came out of this section.28 of the 30 students in class （93%） were able to perform the tongue twisters without difficulty.
Step 4.Extension exercises.
Reciting tongue twisters was merely an approach，rather than the aim，to exercise the students’ ability of thinking in English so that to improve their ability of speaking in English.After being understood and mastered，the method should be applied to everyday study and exercises by the students themselves voluntarily，on the condition that the students are fully confident in themselves as well as in the method.
IV.Conclusion.
As the saying goes---- A beard well lathered is half shaved.A proper method and sufficient prepare can speed up the process and optimize the outcome.The ideas and practice discussed in this essay was limited within class.Yet any language learning method should work through perseverance inside as well as outside class.
Reference：
[1]Dave Willis，Doing Task-Based Teaching （Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers）[M].Oxford University Press，2007.
[2]Thomas R.Garth，Educational Psychology[M].Literary Licensing，LLC，2013.
作者简介：
王兆辉 （1977.11），女，汉族，英语教育学士，内蒙古呼伦贝尔学院助教，多年从事英语口语、英语视听说、英语写作等课程教学。
【Keywords】Oral English； class teaching； second language acquisition； language thinking； situational method； tongue twister
I.Chinglish----the language monster
In actual oral English class teaching，both teachers and students tend to emphasize pronunciation skills and grammatical abilities.And the above two tasks can be fulfilled，with efforts，through traditional training process，such as imitation drills and contrastive drills for pronunciation improvement and reading exercise （intensive and extensive） and other controlled exercise for grammar correctness.Even wording is also taken care of in most classes through situational dialogues.But after all these preparations，when the time come for oral performance，the flow of speech is always hold back by a not-so-rusty barrier----first language thinking，namely，Chinese thinking.
Language thinking is the combination of language competence and the synthetically thinking ability.First language thinking or Chinese thinking is not to born with，but acquired by the speaker after many years of language using，during which the speaker’s brain and logic is developed.People brought up in different language environment have distinctly different preference in wording and phrasing，and even in thinking.Language thinking is like the blueprint，and speaking English with Chinese thinking is like building a house with western materials according to a Chinese style blue print.The outcome is bound to be in Chinese style，which，in the sense of language style，to be Chinglish （Chinese English）.In many cases，Chinglish is grammatically correct，but the phrasing，the coherence and the conciseness in these languages are problematic and，more often than not，misleading.There are some wide spread Chinglish phrases such as Good good study and day day up，No zuo no die，Long time no see，and No can do.Such languages are amusing and even acceptable internationally.But as educators of English，we should have a definite view on the issue and make sure that the learners are not wrongly informed. II.The constructive effect of tongue twisters in the forming of English Language thinking
To avoid Chinglish，Students can always work on their vocabulary，grammar and reading to enhance their language sense.Compared to oral practices，mental training plays a dominant role in the construction of English thinking.A proper method and appropriate material can accelerate the progress.Tongue twisters，being a popular language game in all cultures，can become an effective aid to exercise students both mentally and physically.In the history of our traditional art Chinese Crosstalk，or Xiangsheng，tongue twisters had always taken an important place，not only in performance，but also in basic skill training.Good performance of tongue twisters requires clear articulation as well as clear thinking.When practicing a Chinese tongue twister，the speaker exercises his Chinese thinking； while practicing an English tongue twister，the speaker exercises his English thinking.When the tongue twister is fluently performed，the language thinking ability is well constructed for the speaker.
Why are tongue twisters difficult？ Just as the name implies，tongue twisters twist the tongue with the large amount of words which sound similar.There lies a paradox that，if the speaker pays too much attention to the pronunciation，i.e.his tongue，he would lose control of his mind，thus forgets what to say next； if he focuses in the meaning of the whole sentence and pays little attention to the pronunciation，he may slip his tongue.But if the speaker ignores the similarity of the swords in one tongue twister，he may notice that in spite of all the similarity of the sound of the words，the meanings of the words are usually unrelated.And therefore break the setup of tongue twisters.
Take the following tongue twister as an example：Betty bought some butter to make a better batter.First，pronunciation difficulties of the twister include the two front vowels （[e]and[?]），one central vowel （[?]），one back vowel （[?]），one closing diphthongs （[ei]），which are the sounds that baffle Chinese students the most，and one repeated plosive sound[b].So as simple the sentence seems，students still find it difficult to say the tongue twister.Then think another way round，when analyzed from semantic perspective，it is easy to see that all the words in the sentences are unrelated in meaning.If ignoring the bafflement of the pronunciation，the sentence itself is an extremely simple one.That is to say，with a clear thinking and a clear pronunciation，the tongue twister is easy to be performed. III.Analysis on application examples in oral English class
Below is the operating procedure of applying tongue twisters in an Oral English class of 30 students to construct the students’ English thinking ability.
Step 1.Lead-in.
Task 1.Show the first tongue twister in slide 1 and ask some students to read the sentence aloud at normal speed.The sentence was：
Betty bought some butter to make a better batter
In the experiment，only 2 students of the 10 asked were able to fulfill the task，which made the success rate 20%.
Task 2.After a period of familiarization，ask 10 more students to recite the tongue twister.This time the success rate leveled down to 0%.Leaving out the emotional factors，a “tongue twisters are so hard” conclusion was widely reached.
Step 2.English thinking construction.
Task 1.Show Slide 2，which was improved with iconography.Lead the students to read the new material and guide them into the situation：a girl called Betty is good at making batter.Some day she wanted to improve the batter she makes，that is，a better batter.In order to make a better batter，she needed some butter.Then she bought some butter.
Task 2.When the situation is established in the Students’ minds，a grammatical and semantic analyze should be conducted.The purpose of the analyzing is to emphasize the thinking and distract the students’ minds from the disturbance of all the similar sounds.
Task 3.Lead a pronunciation drill focused on the vowels.The aim of this task is to help the students to get familiar with the sounds in question，thus release their stress occurs in utterance.When doing the pronouncing exercise，especially require the students to think about the meaning of each word while reading it，so that when the utterance is made，the meaning is concerned，and vice versa.
Task 4.Performance and feedback section.Ask 10 students to recite the Tongue twister with the thinking while speaking method.After the above prelude，nearly all students can recite the twister fluently and correctly，which made a success rate of 97%.Besides the high rate of success，students also built great confidence in their leaning ability and speaking ability through the exercises.
Step 3.Consolidation exercises.
The main task of this part is to encourage the students to apply the new method to other materials.In this part，new selected tongue twisters were shown to the students in Slide 3.It is essential that the materials used in this part should be moderate in difficulty level.Over-high difficulty level may kill the students’ confidence and interests and even the trust of the new method while low-difficulty materials would be insufficient to exercise the students in supposed aspects.Below there are the examples used in this part： 1.Sally sells seashells in a small seaside shop.
2.We eat what we can and can what we can’t.
3.How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood？
As a transition，Example 1 is similar to the tongue twister in the former part，but with extra grammatical difficulties including the singular form in third personal of the predicate verb sells，and the plural form of the object noun seashells，which is also the worst nerve-wracking problem to Chinese students.Besides，seashell and seaside are the two paronymous words appear in the short sentence； Example 2 is dominated by the different usages of the word can，which works as a notional verb and also a modal verb； Example 3 is a very popular tongue twister even in the United States，and it is of a higher difficulty level.
Satisfying result came out of this section.28 of the 30 students in class （93%） were able to perform the tongue twisters without difficulty.
Step 4.Extension exercises.
Reciting tongue twisters was merely an approach，rather than the aim，to exercise the students’ ability of thinking in English so that to improve their ability of speaking in English.After being understood and mastered，the method should be applied to everyday study and exercises by the students themselves voluntarily，on the condition that the students are fully confident in themselves as well as in the method.
IV.Conclusion.
As the saying goes---- A beard well lathered is half shaved.A proper method and sufficient prepare can speed up the process and optimize the outcome.The ideas and practice discussed in this essay was limited within class.Yet any language learning method should work through perseverance inside as well as outside class.
Reference：
[1]Dave Willis，Doing Task-Based Teaching （Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers）[M].Oxford University Press，2007.
[2]Thomas R.Garth，Educational Psychology[M].Literary Licensing，LLC，2013.
作者简介：
王兆辉 （1977.11），女，汉族，英语教育学士，内蒙古呼伦贝尔学院助教，多年从事英语口语、英语视听说、英语写作等课程教学。