The Cognitive-Functional Approach:Method, Design And Procedure

The idea of the Cognitive-Functional Approach was proposed by Lixin Jin and Jing Shao in2001. The rationale of the approach is as follows:We believe that human brain is equipped at birth with a Universal Grammar. Second language or foreign language learners have already established the system of principles, conditions, and rules of their native language. And L2/FL learning is a process of learners’setting parameters of target language. That is to say we accept Chomsky’s theory and take an i’nnatist position. Assuming that L2/FL learners have i’nnate language competence, second language or foreign language instructors’ responsibility is to help L2/FL learners set parameters of target language in an effective way and help them give play to their language competence in constructing the system of rules of target language.On the other hand, we believe that learning a second or foreign language is not only to acquire the grammatical system of the language but also to have the skills of choosing appropriate language forms according to the context. However, as we know that linguistic competence in Chomsky’s theory is acontextual (i.e., context is not considered). Therefore, we intend to offset the weakness by integrating with a functional approach. Our attempt is to combine the contributions to language learning both by formal linguistics and functional linguistics.Language teaching profession had been searching for "methods" since19th century. The concept of method had not been sophisticatedly defined up until1963when Anthony gave us an admirable definition. His concept of method was of three hierarchical elements, namely, approach, method, and technique. A couple of decades later, Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers specified the necessary elements of language teaching "method". Using Anthony’s definition and Richards&Rodgers’s framework, this dissertation established a new foreign language teaching model-the Cognitive-Functional Approach.In Part Ⅰ (Chapter1-Chaper2) of the dissertation, ideological assumptions about the nature of language pedagogy inherent in the Cognitive-Functional Approach(CFA) are discussed. The relationship between CFA and other language teaching approaches is also discussed. The final section of Chapter2illustrates how a cognitive way and a functional way can be integrated in language teaching practice.Part Ⅱ (Chapter3-Chapter7) is the overall plan of the Cognitive-Functional Approach. The objectives and principles, syllabuses, course design, teaching materials, learner&teacher roles, testing&evaluation are devised based upon theories discussed in the first part.In Part Ⅲ (Chapter8), the classroom practices and techniques derived from the Cognitive-Functional Approach are illustrated and exemplified.Part VI (Chapter9) reports on two experiments on teaching Chinese synonyms and personal anaphor by the Cognitive-Functional Approach to examine the effectiveness of the approach. In Experiment1, five classes of about70students were assigned to two groups:(a) teaching Chinese synonyms by CFA (b) no specific teaching method is required. The results don’t prove that the Cognitive-Functional Approach is more effective than other methods as the two experiments we once did in2002indicated. A longer period of applying the approach is suggested. Experiment2explored the effects of instruction in Chinese personal anaphora analysis (select rules) by CFA. Four classes of about52students were assigned to an experimental group or an uninstructed control group. Following five20-25-minute lessons, students were tested to comprehend the Chinese personal anaphora, to judge whether it is the correct form of the Chinese personal anaphora in the sentence and to correct the form if it is wrong, and to fill in the blanks with the appropriate form of the personal anaphora. The results indicated that (a) there was an immediate and delayed effect of personal anaphora analysis instruction for form-correction and production;(b) students without explicit instruction in Chinese personal anaphora did not demonstrate pretest to posttest gains during14-week experimental time;(c) there was no evidence that the instruction enhanced students’ personal anaphora comprehension.