| 标题 | A Teaching Case of Subject Clause Based on Implicit Learning |
| 范文 | 黎海英 The New English curriculum criteria suggest teaching English grammar based on the students cognitive characteristics and emotional needs， helping them discover the rules and encouraging them to master the grammar by using it. But due to the limited time in a lesson， many English teachers adopt a simple approach to teach grammar， in which students are required to memorize the rules first and then practice a lot. This approach is effective but may bore the students. In this thesis， the author attempts to apply implicit learning in grammar teaching， which provides some insights into the application of implicit learning in senior English teaching. 1. Background It has long been a controversy as to whether it is necessary to weaken grammar teaching in English learning. And as a result of the influence of some teaching methods， some senior schools and colleges have a tendency to minimize grammar teaching. However， although many researchers have been trying to weaken grammar teaching， it has never been out of English class. That is because English is learned as a foreign language in our country， rather than a second language， thus lacking an environment for the learners as those in English-speaking countries. Also， grammar is an essential part of the present college entrance examination. Moreover， the students in the mountainous area has different learning conditions from the students who live in big cities， so some successful teaching methods applied in big cities may not work as well here. In a word， as an English teacher， finding a better way for our own students is a vital task. 2. Implicit learning Implicit learning， put forward by A. S. Reber in his Artificial Grammar in 1967， refers to the learning of complex information in an incidental manner， without awareness of what has been learned（Sun， Ron 2008）. In Rebers research， subjects were asked to memorize a series of letter strings and try to find a logic rule from the strings. It turned out that the subjects did not have a clear knowledge of the rules as those who applied explicit learning， but they were still able to clarify the new strings using the strategies that they could not actually verbalize. Later researches have found that the subjects should finish the task based on knowledge of abstract rules and superficial similarity to the training strings （Matthew D， 2004）. Rebers research has been replicated and investigated in a wide range by many other researchers. Some researchers found it more effective than explicit learning as it is a process regarded to activate both consciousness and unconsciousness（刘耀中，1998）. But some considered explicit learning more efficient or actually there were no significant difference between two learning methods （Millard， 1981）. More people suppose that combining implicit learning and explicit learning should be the best way for learning， for “people do not learn about their daily environment in either implicit or explicit ways， but rather there is a blending of the two （Reber， Kassin， Lewis， & Cantor， 1980）.” Nowadays， implicit learning is most commonly practiced in three tasks： artificial grammar learning， control of complex systems and serial response time. But to Chinese senior students， they are more used to explicit learning， in which they learn the rules first and then do lots of practice. Here in this lesson， the author was to apply implicit learning in grammar teaching and tried to get some implication on the practice of implicit learning in senior English lessons. 3. A teaching case and analysis 3.1 Teaching analysis This is the fourth teaching period of unit 4 in Book 3. In this period， the students should learn a new grammar item – noun clauses as the subject， based on their previous knowledge of noun clauses as the object and as the predicative. This meets the two conditions for applying implicit learning. Firstly， subjects must acquire knowledge about a certain stimulus environment in order to respond effectively during testing. Secondly， neither of the structural systems being used is part of the contents of the typical subjects long term memory. 3.2 Teaching aims For knowledge aims， the students should know more about noun clauses and master the structure of subject clause. And for ability aims， the students should be enabled to use subject clauses correctly according to the context. Finally， for emotional aims， the students can become interested in grammar learning. 3.3 Teaching methods Implicit learning， cooperative learning. 3.4 Teaching procedures Step 1： The students were given a task of dictation. Here is the passage： That cat like catching mice is known to all. But why cats do that is quite a mystery to many people. It is believed by some people that cats like eating mice. However， we do know that many cats dont eat mice at all. Also， how cats catch mice draw many childrens interest. It is quite usual that kids stay up late with the purpose to see how their cat catches a mouse. At that time， what the parents can do is only to stay with the kid and wait. The students were asked to listen twice， write down the passage while listening， then check the answer and finally read the passage twice and try to retell it. Step 2： The students were offered a reading passage and asked to finish some comprehensive questions. After that， they were required to write a summary of the whole passage and translate some important sentences into Chinese. Those sentences include the target structure of this unit， that is， noun clauses as subject. Analysis： These two steps fulfill the demand of implicit learning that the subjects should have chance to meet the target language knowledge as much as possible. Since dictation and reading comprehension are routine job to the students， they were not informed that a new grammar item appeared a lot in those two passages. Step 3： Combine the sentences， without using conjunctions like and， but， although， because， so， etc. ① What was it to become？ It was uncertain. ② Would the shape last or not？ It was not clear. ③ The continued presence of water allowed the earth to dissolve harmful gases and acids into the oceans and seas. Many scientists believe so. ④ Why did they suddenly disappear？ It still remains a mystery. Analysis： This step works as the bridge between the input of knowledge and the output. This step is easily completed because the sentences are from the reading text of unit 4， which they learned in the previous lessons. Step 4： Judge the following sentences and correct the mistakes. ① When shall we leave is still a question. ② It is said that he has joined the army. ③ The whale is not a fish is a fact. ④ Whether he will accept the gift does not matter. ⑤ Why is the floor so wet is not known. Analysis： In this step， most of the students could tell the mistakes from the sentences and correct them， while a few of the students failed to find out any mistakes. And for sentence 1 and 5， half of the students were able to tell that the order of the sentences was wrong. But for sentence 2 and 3， most of the students were able to put “that” into the sentences， but few of them could tell why “that” couldnt be omitted there. Step 5： Translate the following sentences into English. ① 她的离开使他很伤心。 ② 还没弄清楚这条路什么时候将开始通车。 ③ 大家都认为他是最好的选手 ④ 他想要的是这本书。 ⑤ 怎样去桂林取决于天气。 Analysis： The students made more mistakes in this step than in the last two steps. Some did well enough， though. Most of the mistakes were made because the students didnt pay attention to either the sentence order or the connectors. And some students didnt use a noun clause as the subject in the translation. For example， sentence 1 was translated into “Her leaving cut him to the heart.” I asked the student why he used such a pattern so different from the pattern we practiced a lot in this lesson. He gave me an answer that he avoided using the new pattern because he was not quite clear how to use it. 4. Reflection After giving this lesson， the author had a profound consideration and got such reflection： Firstly， implicit learning offers a real context for the students to learn a grammar item. In the process， consideration， analysis and imitation are involved. The students are unconsciously influenced by the new knowledge points， which is natural and spontaneous. However， the students in this lesson also prove that knowledge resulted from implicit learning， or “tacit knowledge” defined by Reber （1993）， is not as clear in the mind as knowledge resulted from explicit learning， just as Dienes and Berry claimed in their article： implicit knowledge should be inaccessible in some way because it was not easily expressed， that is， people do not seem to have the ability to describe what they know， nor are they able to answer question about it（Dienes and Berry， 1997a）. Secondly， applying implicit learning in senior English class needs more organization and preparation， because some students who are poor in English may lose interest when they find it difficult to pick up or analyze the new knowledge item. Thirdly， to an extent， what contributed to the success of this lesson lies in the students solid knowledge of noun clauses as object and as predicative. At last， to be critical， spot checking was not enough in this lesson and some of the students were not activated enough. How to explore their activeness is a major task for the teacher. References [1] Dienes， Z.， & Berry， D. Implicit learning： Below the subjective threshold. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review， 1997a（04）. [2] Matthew D， Grace Y， Joan event-related fMRI study artificial grammar learning balanced chunk strength design， 2004（03）. [3] Reber， A， S. Implicit learning and tacit knowledge： An essay on the cognitive unconscious （Oxford Psychology Series No.19）. New York： Oxford University Press， 1993. [4] Sun， Ron. The Cambridge handbook of computational psychology. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 2008. [5] 刘耀中. 论内隐学习的本质特征[J]. 湛江师范学院学报（哲社版）， 1998（02）. [6] 杨治良. 记忆心理学[M]. 上海：华东师范大学出版社， 1994. [6] 张卫. 序列位置内隐学习机制和影响因素的实验研究[D]. 华南师范大学博士学位论文，1999. （作者单位：广东高州中学） |
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