| This thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of the thesis, in which three questions concerning learning /teaching English as a foreign language are raised. They are:(1) What knowledge is to be learnt or taught in learning/teaching English as a foreign language?(2) How to learn/teach this knowledge?(3) How to put the knowledge to use?Question (1) is logically prior to Question (2) and (3), for without knowing the answer to Question (1), there is no point in doing too much to answer the other two questions. But the fact is that although much research has been done in an effort to find answers to Question (2) and (3), little attention has been paid to Question (1). In fact it is not too much to say that Question (1) has been largely neglected.The reason for the neglect may be that Question (1) seems to be simple and straightforward. But the fact that Question (1) has never been successfully clarified and answered may show that it isnot as simple and as straightforward as it has been commonly assumed.The writer believes that the first question is important and deserves to be carefully studied. She finds that although students make various mistakes, they never make mistakes which violate certain principles, the principles that students can use unconsciously to judge whether some English sentences are grammatical or not and that do not seem to have been taught by teachers or learnt by students.As these principles sound like those in Chomsky's UG theory, she proposes that the explanation of her findings may lie in Chomsky's UG theory.Chapter 2 therefore gives a brief account of Chomsky's UG theory, perhaps too brief and too simplified, since it does not include the latest developments of the theory like "minimalism". But as the majority of innovations in minimalism do not depart from the basic concept of principles and parameters, and they do not have much effect on the main idea of the present thesis, the writer is content to confine herself in principles and parameters in the UG theory in explaining her findings and trying to answer the first question.The writer takes the position that the task of students of learning English as a foreign language is to learn the parameters settings on which their mother tongue varies from English and the parts of English that do not have to be learnt are the principles that all languages have in common: learning the grammar of a foreign language is not so much learning completely new structures, rules and so on as discovering how to set the parameters for the new language.Chapter 3 goes on to illuminate the relation between UG theory and teaching/learning English as a foreign language by giving an example of linguistic principles, i.e. structure-dependency and examples of parameters, i.e. pro-drop parameter and non-pro-drop parameter, to show that why it is the case that principles needn't be learned and how parameters are set in learning/teaching English as a foreign language.The writer then mentions the concept of IQ in the traditional sense. She believes that if her position is correct that in learning English as a foreign language what is to be learnt are parameters settings, then IQ in the traditional sense must play an important role in the success of learning English as a foreign language. Some studies of the relation between IQ and the success inlearning English as a foreign language are in conformity with the writer's hypothesis, which may indicate that she is right.Based on the hypothesis she proposes, the writer offers certain pieces of advice on how to teach or learn English as a foreign language, although she claims that this is not within the scope of her paper. These pieces of advice include those on how to expose students to as much input as possible, how to emphasize grammatical aspects of English, how to give exercises for students to do and how to enhance the awareness of the importance of narrowing the gap between knowledge/competence and use/performance.Chapter 4 is the conclusion of...
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