Section 4 Realistic Principle

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I.Thinking

【Case Reflection】

Junior middle school English teacher Ms M carries out a large number of activities in order to enable students to remember the teaching content. First, she lets the students recite the dialogues in pairs, and then fill in the blanks in important dialogue and sentence patterns. After that, students substitute words in the dialogues with learned vocabulary and finally they take a dictation. The students can fluently recite every word of this lesson, but in the test the next day, they cannot use learnt words and sentence patterns flexibly. Please find out what the problem is.

II.Content of the Realistic Principle

Discussion about the authenticity of language and teaching materials for English teaching began in the 1970s. Subsequently, through the promotion and application of the communicative approach, the notion of authenticity has been further expanded. In addition to language materials, the study of authenticity also includes classroom activities, communication scenarios, and social and cultural factors. With regard to this, Breen proposed that “authenticity” should cover the following: the authenticity of input; the authenticity of learners' understanding; the authenticity of activities; and the authenticity of the social context reproduced in the classroom.

In general, realness refers to teachers designing teaching content, teaching process, and teaching methods based on English used by native speakers. According to Lu Ziwen (2001) , the realistic principle means that in order to improve the efficiency and quality of education, English teachers should grasp the true meaning of educational factors, in particular the real purpose for which learners learn, their real motivation, real interest, real difficulties in learning, and what is for learners an authentic learning mechanism. This principle also includes a real context, real teaching materials, teaching process, teaching strategies, teaching methods, and teaching techniques. In teaching, to uphold the realistic principle means to do what is “real”, and to cultivate students' comprehensive ability by using task-based teaching methods in a real context.

III.Methods to implement the realistic principle

The realistic principle is the primary principle in English teaching. Implementing the realistic principle can help us understand the substance of English teaching, so that students' linguistic and communicative competence can be improved. If we want to set the cultivating of linguistic and communicative competence as the goal, we need to take pragmatics into account. Pragmatics here refers to the use of English in accordance with its norms and customs, and to understand the use of appropriate language to express meaning of pragmatic significance. The following is what we need to do to achieve pragmatic truth:

1.Grasp the purpose of using language

Firstly, we should grasp the real purpose of the teaching content and materials. The ultimate goal of English teaching is to train not only grammatical competence, but also pragmatic competence. The goal here, in the context of teaching, is to develop understanding of the purpose of pragmatic functions of statements, dialogue, discourse and essays. The purpose of the pragmatic function of language can be divided into functional goals and learning goals. For example, in Standing Room Only, Class 78 of Junior English for China, the pragmatic purpose is to express the author's point of view that “The population problem may be the greatest problem in the world today.” The learning goal is to allow students to learn how to accurately understand the author's point of view, and how to appropriately express those views. In Letter to a Pen Friend, Class 2 of Senior English for China, the learning goal is to learn how to understand the exchange of information as well as to learn how to properly give, request and exchange information.

2.Use real teaching content

Here, the teaching content does not only mean the text book, but also sample sentences, from inside and outside class practice materials and exercises. English teachers should analyse the texts from a pragmatic viewpoint, not only to analyse the structure, but also to gain the pragmatic meaning in the real context. Analyzing the emotions, attitudes, tones, intentions and so on, can help students accurately grasp the pragmatic meanings. Composing or choosing pragmatically real teaching content and exercise from existing textbooks also helps to cultivate competence in understanding the pragmatic truth of a particular context. For example, realistic teaching materials in listening training could include the following characteristics: repentance, overlap, indecision, self-correction, etc. Listening materials in the textbooks therefore should reflect the characteristics of these real speaking contexts.

3.Design pragmatically real activities

Teaching is conducted through a series of teaching and learning activities. In English teaching of elementary and middle school, activities such as presentation, explanation, interpretation, training and consolidation should be connected with capacity-building. In these teaching activities, English teachers should design teaching activities based on the guiding ideology of pragmatic realness. While explaining, they should not only present the semantics of the teaching content, but also the context meaning. All the sample sentences should be realistic. While reviewing, teachers should pay attention to how to express language in a real and appropriate context. All teaching activities should take full account of pragmatical realness. Through class learning, teacher explanation and student practice, students gain knowledge and pragmatic competence.

4.Design teaching appraisal

Evaluation has a great effect on teaching and students. By designing pragmatically real lessons, we can discover the lesson's strengths and disadvantages, then make adjustments and improvements. It is necessary for teaching evaluation to comply with the basic principles of testing and the emphasis on actual language proficiency. Otherwise, it will mislead the teaching and weaken the cultivation of student ability. Pragmatically real language will guide students to grasp the content, and thus further strengthen the students' ability to use English appropriately. Pragmatically real language is the core of the realistic principle.