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一、Essay-question

1． What , in your view , makes a text a text , rather than a series of unconnected utterances? What are the implications of your answer for second language teaching?

【答案】 The factor to distinguish connected texts which make sense from those which do not is usually described as coherence. Coherence is traditionally described as the relationships that link the ideas in a text to create meaning for the readers, apart from cohesive devices. It should be noticed that cohesion by itself would not be sufficient to enable us to make sense of what read or hear; it is quite easy to create a highly cohesive text which has a lot of connections between the sentences, but which remains difficult to interpret. And coherence , as the invisible net of a text , performs a function of “connectedness” which makes the text interpretable to people.

Regarding the importance of coherence to a whole text, it seems necessary for a teacher of SFL to help students develop coherence in writing. Research has found that in their writing, ESL/EFL students focus almost exclusively on the word and sentence levels rather than the level of the whole discourse, that is , textual coherence. A pedagogical focus on coherence can shift students' attention from sentence-level grammar to discourse features such as textual structuring and propositional unity, which are crucial to creating meaning in texts. Indeed, helping students improve the coherence of their writing ought to be a significant aspect of L2 writing instruction.

To help students focus on coherence in writing , it is essential that teachers have a thorough understanding of what makes a text coherent. As is shown in the composition text books , it seems common to regard coherence simply as connectedness between sentences , use of explicit cohesive devices at the paragraph level, and use of connective devices such as pronouns, repetitive structures, and transitional markers. However , coherence should not be narrowed in terms of sentence-level connectedness and paragraph unity rather than discourse unity.

Thus , to help students create coherence in their writing, it is necessary for teachers to pay more attention in the broader sense of coherence.

2． Explain one of the teaching approaches that you’re familiar with and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.

【答案】 The functional language teaching, which emerged during the 70s, is a reaction against both the structurally and situationally based approaches to language teaching. Its main feature is that we should teach people what functions the various linguistic forms fulfill. We should teach people not only what the language is but what the language does. Linguistic forms should not be presented as abstract structures but should always be presented as fulfilling a particular language function. For example, if the simple present tense is to be taught, it should not just be a matter of learning to accurately repeat the structure , but also a matter of knowing what the structure is actually used for.

Organizing language teaching functionally emphasizes what we can do with language. The basic units of language are seen as short exchanges. Linguistic forms are presented and learned in close relation to their function. Such teaching encourages appropriateness of language in terms of the respective roles of speaker and hearer and also in terms of the topic of conversation. Fluency is stressed and developed.

The teaching of language functions also presents problems. For example , what is exactly a

language function? How many functions are there? In what order should they be taught?

While functions are a very significant aspect of language use, too great an emphasis on them may ignore other aspects of language, not least its structure. There is also no rigid correspondence between function and form, so some people object that we lose too much control over grammatical complexity if the syllabus is entirely organized on the basis of functions. What?s more, some argue that fluency and appropriate use of language may be encouraged but this should not be achieved at the cost of formal accuracy.

3． In the history of modem linguistic study of language, various schools have been founded.What are they?

【答案】 （1） The traditional grammar school attempt to lay down universally valid rules to show how a language ought to be used. It is prescriptive rather than descriptive.

（1）An important outgrowth of descriptive linguistics was a theory known as structuralism developed by American Structuralist School. The influential figure in this school is American linguist Leonard Bloomfield （1887 〜 1949 ） , who was strongly influenced by behaviourism.

（2）The Transformational-Generative School is developed by Noam Chomsky in the middle of 1950s with the publication of his book Syntactic Structures. Chomsky was strongly against Bloomfield‟s behaviourist psychology and empiricism and adopted cognitive psychology and rationalism.

（3）The Prague School is well-known, for its contribution to phonology and its functional analysis to language. The approach that Prague School linguists use is based on a combined theory between structuralism and functionalism. The most influential scholar is Trubetzkoy , who distinguished the concepts between the phonetic and phonological analysis of sounds , the analysis of phonemes into distinctive features.

（4）The London School was founded by John Firth （1890 〜1960） . Central to his work is his contextual theory of meaning.

（5）Influenced by Firth‟s ideas, M.A.K. Halliday distinguished linguistic behavior potential from actual linguistic behavior. Halliday developed Systemic Linguistics or Functional Grammar which is concerned with language as an instrument of social interaction rather than as a system that is viewed in isolation.

二、Short-answer-questions

4． What are the differences between simile and metaphor?

【答案】 Simile is a way of comparing one thing with another, of explaining what one thing is like by showing how it is similar to another thing , and it explicitly signals itself in a text, with the words as or like. For example, the phrase as cold as ice is a common simile.

Although metaphor also makes a comparison between two unlike elements , this comparison is implied rather than stated. That is , it differs from simile in that the words such as like or as do not appear. For example, uThe life is a stage” is a metaphor.

5． Linguists have taken an internal and/or external focus to the study of language acquisition. What is the difference between the two?

【答案】 The difference between internal and/or external focus to the study of language acquisition.

（1） The internal focus seeks to account for speakers9 internalized , underlying knowledge of

language. The

external focus emphasizes language use, including the functions of language which are realized in learners production at different stages of development.

（2）According to the above difference, the linguist Noam Chomsky claims that human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking. Originally Chomsky referred to this innate ability as Language Acquisition Device ，also known as LAD. Later Chomsky prefers this innate endowment as Universal Grammar （UG ） and holds that if children are pre-equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the ways in which their own language makes use of these principles and the variations on those principles which may exist in the particular language they are learning.

The interaetionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops. Integrated with the innatist view, the interaetionist further claims that the modified language which is suitable for the child‟s capability is crucial in his language acquisition.

6． What is the relationship between tree diagrams and structural ambiguity?

【答案】 In a theory of syntax using tree diagrams （phrase markers ） to represent syntactic structure , the explanation of the phenomenon of structural ambiguity is straightforward : whereas an unambiguous sentence is associated with just one basic tree diagram, a structurally ambiguous sentence is associated with more than one basic tree diagram.

7． Why do we say language is primarily vocal?

Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Language 【答案】

is primarily vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages, developed or 6'new, 5. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak （and listen ） before they write （and read） also indicates that language is primarily vocal , rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.

三、Synthesis

8． Identify the type of trope employed in the following examples.

1）The boy was as cunning as a fox.

2）...the innocent sleep the death of each day‟s life, ... （Shakespeare ）

3）Buckingham Palace has already been told the train may be axed when the rail network has been privatised. （Daily Mirror, 2 February 1993）

4）Ted Dexter confessed last night that England are in a right old spin as to how they can beat India this winter. （Daily Mirror, 2 February 1993）

【答案】 1） simile 2） metaphor 3） metonymy 4） synecdoche

9． Are there any affixes that attach （relatively ） productively to verbs, contribute no or very specific meaning, and do not change category?

【答案】 -ing , He is walking home, of progressive aspect