在英语教学中力求学习与研究的相互促进.doc

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Promoting Dynamic Interplay between Study
and Research in ELT Practice
1. Introduction
Study and research are two of the most confusing terms used in educational settings because they can sometimes use quite interchangeably while on other occasions they may refer to something remarkably different. When we say, “We’re doing a study into how much time middle school students spend learning English”, we mean that we are doing research into this issue. However, in the sentence “After six years of study in school, he successfully entered Zhejiang University at the age of 17”, the “study” used here is generally not interpreted as “research”.
Nowadays, it is reasonably acceptable to say that students can not only study but also research. Researchers need to study in the course of research. To be teachers, they should do some research while continuing their study of what they are teaching in further education. In order to promote English language teaching (ELT) in schools and colleges in China, this paper will first discuss the role of research in the acquisition of knowledge, then examine the kinds of study, and finally explore the dynamic interaction between study and research in terms of educational theory and practice in ELT settings.
2. Three sources of knowledge
Research is one of the three major means for human beings to acquire knowledge of the environment including the natural world and our human society. The other two are “experience” and “reasoning”(Cohen and Manion 1). The role of research in the acquisition of human knowledge can hardly be understood fully without being studied in connection to that of experience and reasoning. For the purpose of achieving a better understanding of research, the role of experience and reasoning will be considered before that of research.
2.1 Experience
Experience is a kind of development of personal knowledge of the world. It is regarded as an individually accumulated body of knowledge (Cohen and Manion 1). In a problem-solving situation, people tend to resort to personal experience first. However, where solutions to problems clearly lie beyond this body of personal experience, it is often helpless to resort to personal experience.
In the case of foreign language learning, the learner’s native language often interferes with or facilitates the learning of the target language. This can be considered as a clear indication of the learner’s reliance on the personal experience in his or her first language. It is arguable that the personal experience is by no means reliable although it is sometimes helpful because it cannot guarantee smooth progress and success in foreign language learning.
As for English language teaching, our experience of English examinations can be resorted to when we help our students prepare for the college entrance examination of English. However, it is difficult for us to resort to our previous personal experience when we are facing the problem of how to motivate middle school students in communicative language teaching as many of them can hardly see any chance to communicate directly with native speakers of English.
2.2 Reasoning
Reasoning is the act of forming conclusions, judgements or inferences by thinking in a logical manner. There are two basic types of reasoning: one is inductive reasoning and the other is deductive reasoning.
Inductive reasoning begins with observations and evidence of empirical regularities or empirical relationships (Howard 8). This is a mental process from a number of specific cases to a general idea underlying them. When a learner of English comes across expressions such as “three books”, “many ships”, “two minutes”, he or she may form a hypothesis that “-s” is used to indicate the idea of “two or more”. It is not difficult to see that inductive reasoning in foreign language learning often leads to hypothesis formation.
Deductive reasoning begins with basic beliefs, theories, assumptions, propositions, and so on, the validity of which is assumed and untested (Howard 8). This is a mental activity from a general idea to specific cases. In foreign language learning, if we learn a grammatical rule or a word-formation rule first, then we apply it to make a sentence or to coin a new word. For example, according to the English word-formation rule that the prefix “un-” and an adjective may combine to form another adjective with negative or opposite force in it: “un-” and “happy” go together to form “unhappy” with the meaning of “not happy”.
There is an obvious limitation in reasoning as an activity. According to Cohen and Manion, “it [reasoning] was no longer related to observation and experience and became merely a mental exercise” (3). That is to say, the credibility of reasoning, whether inductive or deductive, will be questionable once reasoning is not connected to the reality. Now consider the hypothesis that “-s” used with a countable noun indicates the idea of “two or more” again. As noted by Quirk and his co-authors, “unlike some languages where plural implies ‘two or more’, English makes the division after ‘more than one’: one half day, one day But: one and a half days, two days, one or two days” (297). Here, it is clear that reasoning itself cannot guarantee its self-correction. Similarly, the application of the word-formation rule in the previous paragraph cannot prevent learners from making unacceptable adjectives such as “*unhonest”, “*unactive”. When such errors occur, they are considered as cases of overgeneralization reflecting the limitation of inductive reasoning.
Although reasoning has its weaknesses, its contributions to the human knowledge are enormous. As Cohen and Manion state, the role of reasoning in the acquisition of human knowledge is threefold: 1) the suggestion of hypotheses; 2) the logical development of these hypotheses; and 3) the clarification and interpretation of scientific findings and their synthesis into a conceptual framework (4). The implication of their remarks hints that reasoning not only directs but also constructs the development of human knowledge, including our knowledge of language and language learning and teaching.
2.3 Research
Research can be defined from different perspectives. From the view of information processing, research refers to the process of obtaining and analysing information (Hitchcock and Hughes 5). Considering its design features, research “has been defined by Kerlinger as the systematic, controlled, empirical and critical investigation of hypothetical propositions about the presumed relations among natural phenomena (Cohen and Manion 4).
Cohen and Manion elaborate the three advantages of research in comparison to experience and reasoning: First, research is systematic and controlled because its operations are based on reasoning whereas experience cannot be systematic and self-correcting because of its haphazard manner in dealing with a problem. Second, research is empirical because it resorts to experience for validation whereas reasoning is not empirical because of its subjective nature. Third, only research is self-corrective. This self-corrective functioning is guaranteed in two ways. On the one hand, the scientific method of research has built-in mechanisms to protect researchers from error. On the other hand, the researcher’s procedures and results are open to public examination by fellow professionals (Cohen and Manion 4). (See Table 1)
Cohen and Manion’s elaboration reveals that research combines the strengths of both experience and reasoning while avoiding their weaknesses. Therefore, research can be regarded as the most powerful means to acquire new knowledge. It is beneficial for both teachers and students to integrate research into their study and teaching of English.

Experience
Reasoning
Research
Systematic and controlled
×
√
√
Empirical
√
×
√
Self-correcting
×
×
√
Table 1. A Comparison between Experience, Reasoning and Research
When we combine experience and reasoning through research, we can reflect on experience to form hypotheses through reasoning and, at the same time, obtain empirical evidence through experience to test and modify the hypotheses derived from reasoning. For example, when a learner first resorts to inductive reasoning to form the hypothesis that “-s” indicates the idea of “two or more”. Later, the learner may happen to produce output such as “*one and a half hour” through deductive reasoning on the basis of the existing hypothesis and get the corrective feedback from the teacher. With such feedback as negative empirical evidence, he or she would modify the existing hypothesis to reach the conclusion that “English makes the division after ‘more than one’” (Quirk et al. 297).
3. Four types of study
In a generally accepted sense, study refers to the mental activities in acquiring knowledge. According to The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, “study” means “application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection” (“Study,” def. 1888). From this definition, we can identify two kinds of study: one is receptive study mainly through reading and the other is critical study through investigation or reflection.
More types of study can be recognised when we make reference to different educational theoretical sources. “Productive study” is proposed here to develop the educational idea “Use what you have just read to learn what you have just read” (Biehler and Snowman 438). “Creative study” can be a potential direction in education when we accept Sternberg and Williams’s advice “You can learn and teach creative thinking” and “develop creativity in yourself, in your students, and in your colleagues and staff members” (1).
In this section, these ideas will be tentatively developed in the ELT context.
3.1 Receptive study
Receptive study occurs when you receive information from the outside world. In the case of foreign language learning, successful receptive study is expected to be based on Krashen’s “more comprehensible input” (39) and Ausubel’s “meaningful reception learning” (Hohn 224). Here, meaningful communication is the key to success. In receptive study, you select and take in what is new and meaningful to you.
3.2 Productive study
Productive study occurs when you use what you have learned. This is more demanding because it results from your recalling what you have learned. For example, if you want to retell a story in English, you have to memorise enough words and sentence patterns as well as the plot of the story. In receptive study, you may try some informed wise guesses with the help of the context of communication. However, guessing techniques are of little use in language production.
In foreign language learning, there is a kind of special production for memorisation rather than for communication: it occurs when you recite a new text by repeating it again and again silently or aloud to yourself or when you write it for several times.
Productive study can help learners consolidate the knowledge of the target language and develop fluency and accuracy. However, it is not very helpful for the development of learners’ analytical skills and creative potentials if the learners are satisfied with such reproductive fluency and accuracy. In the classrooms of many middle schools, it is not difficult to see a student flip through the pages to find out the answer to the teacher’s question and read it aloud.

Components of a study plan
Successful learners (5)
Unsuccessful learners (5)
What
5
5
When
4
2
How
5
1
Why
5
1
Answer:

Difference between them
specific/concrete/clear
general/abstract/vague
Table 2 Comparing the Components of Study Plans between Successful and Unsuccessful Learners of English

3.3 Critical study
Critical study comes from your analysis of what you have learned. Your analysis is essentially characterised by critical thinking. As elaborated by Wood, critical thinking does not mean to criticise or find fault. It means “to use a variety of mental activities to acquire greater understanding and insight” and “these mental activities include asking why, making comparisons and contrasts, analyzing causes and effects, or looking for problems and solutions” (Wood 305). In a class of study skill training, the teacher presented the research findings as shown in Table 2 and then asked the students to use a pair of adjectives opposite in meaning to describe the major difference between the successful learners’ study plans and those of unsuccessful learners. It was difficult for the students to indicate the difference with antonymous adjectives. So the teacher had to give one adjective to elicit the other from the students. This shows the demanding nature of critical thinking.
3.4 Creative study
Creative study leads you from the stage of receiving and using knowledge to the stage of discovering new knowledge by research started from critical thinking. It is characterised by creative thinking, a combination of divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, divergent thinking is “an activity that leads to new information, or previously undiscovered solutions, rather than to a predetermined, correct solution” (“Divergent Thinking”). It is a kind of mental activity considering different perspectives and discovering the underlying implicit relationships between the factors involved. In foreign language learning, when the learner wants to find out the relationship between forms and function of the target language, he or she will be engaged in discovering how a linguistic form can be used to perform different communicative functions or how a communicative function can be performed with different linguistic forms.
Convergent thinking is an activity which resorts to “one’s abilities to assemble and organize information” and tries to reach “a defined goal in the achievement of an effective solution to a problem” by making use of “the components of one’s past and present experience in organizing or directing one’s response” (“Convergent Thinking”). In the case of using the target language, the learner may select the most appropriate linguistic means from his or her interlinguistic repertoire to perform a certain communication task such as organising his or her arguments in a challenging debate.

Receptive study
Productive study
Critical study
Creative study
Junior 1

Junior 2

Junior 3

Senior 1

Senior 2

Senior 3

College 1

College 2

Figure 1. The Ever-advancing Integration of Different Types of Study

In the problem-solving situation, divergent thinking will result in new information and a number of previously undiscovered solutions. And subsequently, convergent thinking will play its role to analyze and synthesize such newly-acquired information in the context of the existing knowledge