A Comparison of L1 and L2 Reading: Cultural Differences and Schema　　摘要 母语阅读与第二语言或外语阅读尽管有许多共同点，但其过程却差异很大。本文着力探讨了第一和第二语言阅读的异同之处，在思考文化差异因素的基础上,重点讨论了认知结构的作用及其与第一、第二语言阅读理解的关系。　　READING in the L1 shares numerous important basic elements with reading in a second or foreign language, but the processes also differ greatly. Intriguing questions involve whether there are two parallel cognitive processes at work, or whether there are processing strategies that accommodate both first and second languages. This paper examines how reading in the L1 is different from and similar to reading in the L2. More specifically, factors of cultural differences: content (background knowledge) schema, formal (textual) schema, linguistic (language) schema are examined.　　Schema has been described as a cognitive construct which allows for the organization of information in long-term memory. It allows us to relate incoming information to already known information. In addition to allowing us to organize information and knowledge economically, schema also allows us to predict the continuation of both spoken and written discourse. It plays an important role in text comprehension, both in the L1 and L2 context.　　Content schema, which refers to a reader's background or world knowledge, provides readers with a foundation, a basis for comparison. It is also a factor that influences L2/FL reading. Studies have shown that prior cultural experience prepares readers for comprehension of familiar information. There is agreement that background knowledge is important, and that content schema plays an integral role in reading comprehension. Overall, readers appeared to have a higher level of comprehension when the content was familiar to them. Given this, second language readers do not possess the same degree of content schema as first language readers. Hence this can result in comprehension difficulties.　　Formal schema refers to the organizational forms and rhetorical structures of written texts. It can include knowledge of different text types and genres, as well as the understanding that different types of texts use text organization, language structures, vocabulary, grammar and levels of formality/register differently.　　While formal schema covers discourse level items, linguistic or language schema includes the decoding features needed to recognize words and how they fit together in a sentence. Studies have suggested that different types of text structure affected comprehension and recall. Some of them have also shown that there may be differences among language groups as to which text structures facilitated recall better. For example, Carrell's (1984) study showed that Arabs remembered best from expository texts with comparison structures, next best from problem-solution structures and collections of descriptions, and least well from causation structures.　　Schema plays an important role in reading comprehension. An L2 reader who is not familiar with culturally based knowledge or content schema, or a reader who does not possess the same linguistic base as the L1 reader will encounter difficulties. Such difficulties may be greater when there is a greater difference between the L1 and the L2.　　　　ESL Magazine　　Motivating the Teenage Brain　　摘要 随着人们的成长，大脑也会逐渐成熟。青少年一些不成熟的行为可以归结为他们大脑某些区域还没有发育完全。作为外语教师，了解这一阶段学生的心理和生理特点，采取相应的教学手段和措施，无疑会给课堂教学注入更多的活力，取得更好的教学效果。　　TEENAGERS learn differently from children and adults. They are sometimes moody, sleepy, rebellious, or hard to motivate, not just because they are going through their adolescence, but because the way their brain works influences the way they learn. During their teenage years, our students undergo much more than just the obvious physical and emotional changes.　　Because some areas of the brain have not reached maturation yet and tend to drive behaviour, teenagers find it difficult to engage in activities that will be profitable in the long term. When trying to learn a language, for instance, adults will probably participate in activities and exercises even when they may not like them so much. Teenagers, on the other hand, may just not participate at all. For this reason, if teachers want to draw teenage students乫 attention, they have to make it emotionally relevant for students by presenting and practising topics in new ways.　　A first step when starting ESL/EFL class should be to wake students up. Having the opportunity to move during the class, even if it is only stretching the legs or playing a game, can help students focus better and feel more at ease.　　Sometimes it is difficult for students to perceive they have control over their lives when they have to comply with so many things at school. In order to help teenagers, teachers can empower them by giving them some choices when giving assignments either inside or outside class. In addition, peer teaching can also help students build their self-image. Peer teaching requires learners to review concepts previously learned and gives them the chance to rehearse what they have learned. Helping others can help them discover how much they know and develop positive attitudes about their own learning processes.　　Though it is true that rewards help teachers have a better control of the class and may boost achievements in the short run, they eventually undermine the learning process in the long term. In order to motivate students, teachers need to provide them with activities that elicit intrinsic motivation and high levels of attention.　　Teaching teens will continue to be a challenge, but it can be a really exciting one. Teachers' task may not become easier, but being aware that teens are not the way they are just because "they couldn't care less" will surely help understand and teach them better.　　　　Classroom Language is Real Language, too: Providing a Support Structure for Learners　　摘要 英语课堂用语常被许多教师忽视。本文作者认为，英语课堂用语不仅为教师和学生之间搭建了沟通的桥梁，而且还关系到语言教学的成败。　　CLASSROOM language includes all the language items that students and teachers need to handle their L2 class in L2, plus strategies to enable students to become autonomous learners. It could be divided into 5 main types: 1.essential survival phrases, such as those used to ask for help and make polite requests or give responses, etc; 2. classroom-only language, which is usually confined to the classroom, such as What's the answer to Question 1? or Did you get what she/he said about..? and so on; 3. discussion language, which is used to ask for opinions, agree/ disagree or give suggestions and advice, etc; 4. grammar terminology; 5. teacher's classroom management language.　　Classroom language provides an essential support structure for learners, facilitating studentteacher interaction and engaging students more fully in classroom activities. Teachers need to incorporate activities into lessons so that students will acquire classroom language as easily as possible. Students left adrift without task-handling language input can end up producing interactions reminiscent of absurdist theatre. Moreover, teachers who efface themselves from the classroom to minimize teacher talking time are depriving students of comprehensible input. This is a pity, when teachers can so easily provide opportunities for students to pick up some authentic expressions.　　A classroom is not a static place where teacher and learner roles are fixed and intransmutable. Student needs and teacher demands will vary from lesson to lesson. The same principle applies to studentstudent interaction. Indeed, the group process has been shown to be one of the most important effective factors in student motivation. Classroom language is therefore a powerful tool for students to negotiate their role in the group, helping them to maximize their learning potential.　　Classroom language is a powerful support for teachers, ensuring that lessons run smoothly and that conditions for learning are optimized. Most important, in the long term, classroom language supports and empowers students, enabling them to handle a various situations in the classroom and beyond.　　　　Pronunciation and Adult English Language Learner　　摘要 许多人认为一旦过了青春期语言习得的能力就会滞后。本文不仅驳斥了这一观点，还逐次列举了语言学习的种种误区，并指出其实第二语言学习受许多因素的影响，年龄并不起决定性作用。　　MOST experts seemed to agree, regarding the acquisition of one's first language, that there exists a critical period that makes learning language after puberty more difficult. This critical period is frequently offered as an explanation for why many adults trying to learn a second language seem to have a hard time achieving native-like pronunciation and grammar. Indeed, some researchers indicate that as few as 5 per cent, or fewer, adult learners could ever achieve anything like native-like fluency in a second language. Although this conclusion wasn't the most positive news for a language teacher, it offered a plausible explanation for the difficulty students were having with English pronunciation.　　Authors, MarinovaTodd, Bradford Marshall, and Snow (2000) wrote an article dispelling as myth the idea that age is the primary factor in successful language learning. The authors focus on three misconceptions about the relationship between age and language learning. The first misconception is the widely held view that learning a second language at a young age is easier. Research shows that children learn much more slowly and with great effort than either adolescents or adults. The second misconception concerns research that indicates differences in brain activity for learners of a second language. But more evidence has shown that it is possible to achieve native-like performance, regardless of which part of the brain processes the second language. The third misconception grows out of the reality that most older learners who set out to learn a second language do not achieve native-like proficiency and fluency.　　In fact, there are a host of factors that affect learning a second language including aptitude, time available to study, and motivation, not to mention the critical importance of well trained language teachers and a supportive learning environment. Many of the learners may or may not have the requisite aptitude and motivation. However, time is often the most critical factor for adults, who are often working and raising families. Regarding the importance of teaching pronunciation, teachers should provide adults with information about the sound system of English. It is also important that pronunciation instruction be balanced and integrated with the other language skills, including the skills and strategies involved in negotiating meaning and repairing conversation breakdowns.　　　　Creating Placement Tests　　摘要 为了充分了解学生的实际情况，教师通常会在入学或开课前对他们进行分级测试。本文详细介绍了设计分级考试的方法和步骤，以及保证试卷具有信度、效度和区分度的必要手段。　　MANY ESL/EFL teachers face the task of creating placement tests despite their lack of experience with testing beyond the tests they give in their own classrooms. There are several important steps in creating good placement tests that yield reliable, valid and accurate results .　　*Assemble an assessment team　　The team should include administrators responsible for students and the curriculum, coordinators responsible for implementing the curriculum, teachers and the test-takers themselves.　　*Focus on the test-takers　　Characteristics taken into account should be those relevant to the test-takers' identity and cultural background: age, gender, place of residence, languages already learned, current stage of learning, etc.　　*Define the test objectives　　*Choose a test type　　The type is not always fixed and depends upon what is to be included in the test. For example, for tests involving grammar or listening, discrete point testing should be used, and for speaking or writing, integrative testing is best. Also, the placement test should be a norm-referenced test, because norm-referenced tests will allow you to define distinct levels of performance and to make distinctions between individual performances.　　*Choose test content　　Answering a number of questions can help determine what should be included in a placement test: How many sections should the test contain? How long should the sections be? How should the sections be differentiated? How many items should there be in each section? What is the target situation for the test and how could it be simulated? What text types (written and/or spoken) should be chosen? What language skills should be tested? What aspects of the language should be tested? What test methods should be used?　　*Create a test　　Test questions should be carefully crafted. The questions should be as easy as possible for test-takers to understand and process. In addition, tests should be relatively shortnot too long for the test-takers to answer nor too long for the scorers to mark.　　*Develop scoring guides　　Scoring guides are applicable to subjective or open-ended questions, such as those requiring short essay answers or oral interaction.　　*Test the test　　Before the test is implemented, it should be trialed with a set of students who are representative of the "real" test-takers. And the results of the trial should be analyzed. Analyzing the results should yield important information about the test items and the test itself.　　*Train the testers　　In conclusion, creating a placement test does not have to be an intimidating or overwhelming task for those instructors who have little or no experience in testing. By following the suggestions listed here, you should be able to create a placement test that is reliable, valid and accurate.　　　　From Writing to Speaking: Enhancing Conversation　　摘要 高质量的信息交流对语言习得有重要的促进作用，但是这一点在语言教学中却经常被忽视。本文认为，交际过程中最重要的就是信息传递，在语言学习的高级阶段，写作水平直接影响口语交际能力。　　IN the natural process of learning a language, speaking usually precedes writing. Furthermore, speaking and listening are often considered to be quite distinct from writing and reading. It may be surprising, therefore, to consider an instructional progression from writing to speaking.　　What is often overlooked in discussions of teaching foreign languages is that the quality of the message plays an important but often neglected part in the process of language acquisition. By quality we do not refer to the grammatical correctness of the message but to its meaning. We hold that the transmission of the content of the message is of greatest importance in the communication process.　　Writing, we have found, can play a determining role in the advanced students' progress toward learning quality conversation. The act of writing is necessary at this stage to improve speaking. Writing can temporarily "freeze" the message during the process of its transmission so that the writer is able to "refine" it and "sculpt" it until it reflects the intended meaning of the writer with a degree of precision far greater than that of the initial, more spontaneous utterance. In fact, most writers are aware that they often "discover" the intended meanings of their discourse in the process of composing. The "refining" and "sculpting" are an exploration that leads to meaning. The writing and the discovery of the meanings to be communicated occur simultaneously.　　Speaking, in contrast to writing, does not promote the same kind of exploration, discovery, and precise articulation that writing does for a number of reasons. Often, the social context of a conversation works against quality communication. The focus of a conversation frequently shifts so there is little chance of exploring ideas in any depth or with any degree of precision. Often speakers in conversation feel that it is more important to convey an impression of confidence and self-assurance than to express important thoughts in their complexity with grace and precision.　　Quality conversation is an art, one that can be learned through writing. Of the various modes of discourse, we find that narration and argumentation can be most helpful to the student who wants to improve the quality of her or his conversation. Everyone has stories to tell, opinions to share, and comments about life to make, but few people actually take the time or have the occasion to articulate their ideas effectively.　　　　Using Poems to Develop Productive Skills　　摘要 英语诗歌是一个包含丰富社会生活内容和艺术内涵的世界，选用适合的诗歌进行教学不仅能激发学生对语言本身的热爱，重要的是能为学生创造更多语言实践的机会，从而在全方面提高他们语言运用的能力。　　POEMS are authentic texts. They are often rich in cultural references, and present a wide range of learning opportunities. The aim is to teach English through poetry, not to teach the poetry itself, so teachers don't need to be literature experts.　　Most of the tried and tested activities used regularly by language teachers can be adapted easily to bring poetry into the classroom. Before doing any productive work, teachers can give students plenty of communicative speaking activities so that they are adequately prepared. For example, teachers play some background music to create the atmosphere, show some pictures to introduce the topic, and then get students to think about their personal knowledge or experience which relates to this topic; students then talk about the poem, first with a partner and then in small groups, perhaps coming together as a class at the end to share ideas; teachers monitor and feed in ideas and vocabulary if necessary, give brief feedback on language used and note any language problems to be dealt with at a later date; students might predict endings to verses, the whole poem, or events occurring after the end of the poem; afterwards, the students could talk about their personal response to the poem, discuss the characters and themes, or debate the moral issues.　　It can be fun to get students to rehearse and perform a poem. In the process of working on pronunciation, teachers can read the poem to students or play a recording, and they identify the stresses and pauses. Besides teachers can also help students do intensive phoneme work centred on the rhyming patterns in the poem.　　A poem can spark off some wonderful creative writing. Students can write a letter to a character in the poem, write about what happened before the beginning or after the ending of the poem and so on. Genre transfer presents a lot of opportunities for writing practice. Letters, diary entries, radio plays, newspaper articles, agony aunt columns are all based on the original text from a poem. Students could use the poem as a starting point and model for some parallel writing.　　For effective teaching results, teachers might need to spend a bit of time finding a poem that links thematically with the scheme of work. The wrong poem is worse than no poem at all. Poems that are too long, too archaic or too obscure should usually be rejected. Students who dislike studying literature in their own language may need extra motivation, and teachers sometimes need to explain pedagogical rationale and the aims of activities clearly.　　It's worth taking the risk and using poems though, because poems can foster a love of English, and they are so versatile. Poems can be involving, motivating and memorable, and can supplement and enrich just about any lesson. Besides, using poetry in the classroom can usually create lots of opportunities for personalization. This means that the students have plenty to say, and the communication is genuine because they are talking about their own experiences or hypotheses. They are engaged and motivated, which helps to make the lesson and the language (and sometimes even the poem) memorable.　　　　Seven Steps to Vocabulary Learning　　摘要 词汇积累是英语学习的基础，科学有序的学习方法则有利于积累、巩固和运用词汇。本文提供了一套高效的英语词汇学习七步法，强调指出了结合语境以及调动多种课堂活动对单词记忆和掌握起着重要的作用。　　WE cannot expect a learner to acquire difficult words in the same way as a young child acquires their first language, but, perhaps as teachers we can somehow help learners to arouse their "learning monitor" by, for example, providing rich contexts containing the target language and by giving our learners time to reflect on what the language item means. In this way teachers can use the EFL classroom to replicate the real world and nurture strategies to help students understand and produce difficult language items which often seem beyond their grasp. Here are some practical steps which can be used to help students to learn vocabulary.　　Step 1: getting students to listen to a specific word or phrase in authentic-sounding dialogues;　　Step 2: giving students plenty of time to study the word in these contexts, so that they can work out what the meaning / function is; getting them to study the contexts individually and then getting them to compare their thoughts in pairs or groups, or getting them to discuss in pairs / groups straight away;　　Step 3: discussing the meaning in plenary;　　Step 4: providing a phonological model (including pronunciation, stress, and intonation) in a surrounding sentence;　　Step 5: providing a prompt to elicit use of the word in a natural way;　　Step 6: setting up a simulation, and providing students with the chance to say the word in a natural situation;　　Step 7: setting up a review schedule, in which words are elicited and practised.　　Students who are living in an English speaking country are often happy learning what difficult words and phrases mean through their everyday study or work lives, but for the majority of students, learning a language is a slow and painful process, and we must try to do something to accelerate the pace of learning. Students should benefit from the teaching procedures described in this article. If they learn words and phrases in this systematic way in class, they are not only likely to achieve more communicative success in class but also become more aware of the way they learn and the knowledge they need to acquire to learn words more successfully.