Teaching Lexicon Integrating Focus on Form with Formulacity Considering Italian and Chinese contrastively, it clearly emerges how some meanings are coded differently in the two languages and how the Grammar Translation Method proves to be inadequate to teach these semantic differences. It is the case, for example, of ‘felice’ (‘happy’) which can correspond to at least three different lexemes in Chinese, such as ‘kuàile’ 快乐, ‘gāoxìng’ 高兴or ‘yúkuài’ 愉快, depending on the context, or likewise ‘cānguān’ 参观 and ‘yóulǎn’ 游览 that can both translate the Italian ‘visitare’ ('to visit'). This different meaning segmentation reveals to be a so big challenge in CFL learning context to require particular attention in classroom teaching. Recalling Long’s distinction (1991) between ‘focus on form’ and ‘focus on formS’, according to which the former refers to drawing students’ attention to a particular linguistic form arose incidentally during a lesson whose prevalent focus is on communication and meaning, and the latter is more linked to the traditional grammatical teaching emphasizing more on formal aspects than on meaning activities, we analyzed which kind of instruction was more effective on learning some couples of words. Moreover the recovered interest of SLA in formulas with their fundamental role in vocabulary learning, and the importance of lexis in dragging and pulling grammar structures (Lewis, 1993, 1997), following Wood’s (2010) suggestion, we emphasized the meaning and collocational aspect, drawing students’ attention not only primarily to meaning, and then to form, but also on collocational patterns and on formulas. To this aim we divided a group of pre-intermediate (A2+) 26 Italian learners of Chinese as a foreign language at university level (Roma Tre University) in three groups, treating them differently, respectively with ‘focus on formS’ instruction, ‘focus on form’ instruction and no instruction (control group) and then we observed and analyzed the results of a test given after the treatment period.
Romagnoli, C., Luzi, E. (2012). Teaching Lexicon Integrating Focus on Form with Formulaicity. In Innovations in Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language (pp.172-183). London : Sinolingua.
Teaching Lexicon Integrating Focus on Form with Formulaicity
ROMAGNOLI, Chiara;
2012-01-01
Abstract
Teaching Lexicon Integrating Focus on Form with Formulacity Considering Italian and Chinese contrastively, it clearly emerges how some meanings are coded differently in the two languages and how the Grammar Translation Method proves to be inadequate to teach these semantic differences. It is the case, for example, of ‘felice’ (‘happy’) which can correspond to at least three different lexemes in Chinese, such as ‘kuàile’ 快乐, ‘gāoxìng’ 高兴or ‘yúkuài’ 愉快, depending on the context, or likewise ‘cānguān’ 参观 and ‘yóulǎn’ 游览 that can both translate the Italian ‘visitare’ ('to visit'). This different meaning segmentation reveals to be a so big challenge in CFL learning context to require particular attention in classroom teaching. Recalling Long’s distinction (1991) between ‘focus on form’ and ‘focus on formS’, according to which the former refers to drawing students’ attention to a particular linguistic form arose incidentally during a lesson whose prevalent focus is on communication and meaning, and the latter is more linked to the traditional grammatical teaching emphasizing more on formal aspects than on meaning activities, we analyzed which kind of instruction was more effective on learning some couples of words. Moreover the recovered interest of SLA in formulas with their fundamental role in vocabulary learning, and the importance of lexis in dragging and pulling grammar structures (Lewis, 1993, 1997), following Wood’s (2010) suggestion, we emphasized the meaning and collocational aspect, drawing students’ attention not only primarily to meaning, and then to form, but also on collocational patterns and on formulas. To this aim we divided a group of pre-intermediate (A2+) 26 Italian learners of Chinese as a foreign language at university level (Roma Tre University) in three groups, treating them differently, respectively with ‘focus on formS’ instruction, ‘focus on form’ instruction and no instruction (control group) and then we observed and analyzed the results of a test given after the treatment period.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
