Register Theory And College English Teaching

One major objective of college English teaching is to develop the students'ability to express themselves in the appropriate language according to different contexts. While there are various college English teaching approaches and modes, it's much scientific and practical to treat it as a situational language teaching embodying different register characters with the register theory as guidance. The findings of the investigation and analysis of the conditions of the college English teachers and non-English majors show that part teachers and the vast majority of students lack register knowledge and haven't register awareness. The present English learning situation of the students is a vicious circle of "studying English mechanically like a bookworm and being bound to fail in the end". Therefore, it's a very urgent task of the college English teaching at present to actively develop the students'register awareness to express properly and appropriately.Applying the register theory to all the sections of the college English teaching practice such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation teaching tests and proves that the register theory has special characters and functions. It can deepen students'understanding of the textual connotation, leads them to make simple literary appreciation. The register analysis can help students to predict the listening discourse to increase the listening validity, and acquire the ability to express themselves in appropriate speech according to different discourse fields, tenors and modes. It develops the learners'language ability and communicative competence. In writing, it helps students to select appropriate words, sentence structures and moods according to different registers. In translation, to achieve the equivalence in content and style, it can help students to choose the translation corresponding to the original register according to context, choose flexibly the expressions and patterns to recreate the original register, to make the appropriate and natural effect. In the long run, applying the register theory to college English teaching can inspire the students'mind, arouse their enthusiasm for learning English, improve their integral reading comprehension level, enrich their knowledge, and develop their register consciousness to know how to use different language to express the same idea in different situations. In other words, when a student speaks, he not only needs to know how the use the language correctly, but also pays attention to the appropriateness of language use. It promotes their initiative in exploratory study and deepen their apperception and reflection of the foreign culture on the basis of the superficial language learning, so as to develop their "semantic potential" and improve the college students'intercultural communicative competence and the practicality of using English language.