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摘 要：the richness of theories in the scope of second language acquisition，playing an important role in the language teaching activities.Among them，especially the critical period hypotheses，the“i+1 theory” as well as the inter language theory，on one hand，they would give some heuristic to the arrangement of teaching activities，on the another hand，the cohesion between the primary and middle school can be more reasonable.Through the exploration of these three assumptions in SLA，this article aims at synthesized effect of teaching activities through English teaching in primary school to those in the middle school.
關键词：critical period hypotheses; i+1 theory; inter-language theory; synthesized effect; primary and middle school
中图分类号：H31 文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-0118（2012）09-0389-02
1.Introduction
From the autumn in 2002，the primary schools start to open the English classes all over the country.Generally the starting point of primary school English is from Grade three，and from these recent years，a large number of schools，especially the urban schools begin the primary school English education from the first year.（Li，2005）accordingly，the parents take the idea that the starting point of primary school English education should be the earlier and the better，thus join in the army of receiving guidance of English education even in the after school time.
2.Grasping the Essence of Language by the SLA Theory
2.1 The Critical Period Theory and Its Application in the Instruction
Studies show that the brain lateralization starts around two years old.(Deng，2007)This would last a long period that from the two years old to the adolescent period.As a human being，the biological genes would be expressed step by step，so does the cognitive competence that go along with it.At the same time，due to Vygotsky’s research that the development of language undergoes three phrases：the external speech，the egocentric speech and the internal speech.(Lu,2006)In view of Vygotsky，the external language provides the language environment in form of input to the language learners，and which would transfer to internal language.And the egocentric speech is the medical state in-between.As to the functions of them，the internal speech is the form that human being thinking，and the calculation of which in the brain can be transferred into external speech as output to the audience.Thus，the communication between the communicator and the audience can be realized.As to when this process would be started，this has a close relation to the cognitive competence of the language acquisitioned.Generally speaking，the language acquisition period was divided into three stages：the holophrastic stage，the two-word stage，the stage of three-word utterances and the fluent grammatical conversation stage .(Hu，2008) For the language learners，it is not an easy job to crackle the language gap between the second language and the mother tongue.While the internal speech is in form of the target language，it is the result of language acquisition.Contrast to this，while we thinking with our mother tongue，though we are conducting the language learning process，the gap of current learning state and the result of language study were not narrowed then.
2.2 Krashen‘s“i+1”Theory and Its Application in Teaching Instruction
Based on the acquisition and learning hypothesis，the natural order hypothesis，the affective filter hypothesis，the monitor hypothesis and the input hypothesis，Krashen proposed out his famous language input hypothesis.He proposed that the language acquisition was realized through the understandable information.The learners should contact an abundant of real languages，and through the context and the situation as well to understand the meaning of the stimuli，thus，in this way the syntactic structure and grammatical regularity in the communicative language would be acquired naturally.(Krashen，1982)As to the “i+1” theory，the “i” stands for the current state of the language knowledge of the learners，and the “1” stands for the part that beyond the learners’ current state.(Xu，2011 )This tells us that in the second language acquisition，the teaching material should be more difficult than the learners’ current language competence.At another hand，as Piaget pointed out that，the language development should be the combination and interaction of the innate competence and the objective experiences.During the procedure of language acquisition，the innate psychology of human beings set up the fundament and bold structure of the whole psychology for the postnatal experiences.(Han，2007)But just as has said above，the development of one’s cognitive ability and the language are interactivities.This is to say，at one hand，the cognitive competence would benefit to the language acquisition and at another hand，that once the external language transfers into internal language，which would greatly advanced the development the cognitive competence as well.This can be seen as the picture illustrated below.
From the figure above，we know that there is not a clear-cut line between the acquisition and learning.At the primary level，the learning takes a heavy portion，and at this period，the cognitive ability is not so advanced as the it is later.In the middle level stage，the factor of acquisition and learning entangle with each other，and at this time，the cognitive ability which would benefit the language development would be advanced as the time goes by.At the last level，for the high development of the cognitive competence，the learners of the target language can almost conduct the language development unconsciously. 2.3 Interlanguage Hypothesis and Its Application in the Teaching Instruction
In the procedure of second language acquisition，there exists a “middle stage” in which，the learners of the second language would built a special language system which relays on the mother tongue and quite different from the mother tongue and the target language as well.(Selinker,1972)The three main characteristics of it are：systematic，permeable and dynamic.And these three features are the basic features that were shared by all the nature languages.(Dong，2011)Interlanguage is a systemic language which was dominated by the regularity，the formation of which was the integrated efforts of the all kinds of assumptions on the new language inputs and the proof-tests of them in the language contacts and usages in the daily communication.That is to say，the inter-language can be produced through the teaching instruction.
3.The Synthesis of the Three Theories Above and It Application in the Teaching
It is one of the core issues for the English teachers to find the way to make the English teaching a more effective process.As Ellis proposed that，the main content of second language acquisition is to describe how to acquire the second language and why can the language learners can acquire it.Which emphasizes the students- centered，and having a in-depth study to the internal and external factors of the learners through the omnibearing and multi-dimensional studies.(Li&Huang，2010)The three main theories in second language acquisition that has been illustrated above can form a general description of the whole picture of the procedure of language acquisition.For the critical period in language acquisition do exists but it is not the same to the individuals.For different people are different in their biological foundations，socio-cultural environments and so on.As to the “i+1” theory，it is suggested that the educators should mind the teaching materials and the input no matter in what forms that beyond the learners’ current language ability and proper to it at the same time.The whole procedure of second language acquisition forms a continuum，from the crude stage to the cultivated stages.
4.Conclusion
In this paper，based on the theoretical studies of the second language acquisition，the writer holds the idea that language as a complex entity is not suitable to have a finite “rules” to guarantee the effectiveness of the language teaching activities.Just similar to the artifact around the language learners，to some extent，the language itself can also be regarded as a kind of it.And playing the role of input to the language learners，the language teachers should qualified their own language output to the learners.
參考文献：
［1］邓愉联.外语学习关键期假说理论及启示［J］.当代教育论坛,2007,(7).
［2］董媛媛.中介语研究对中国外语教学的启示［J］.海外英语,2011,(1).
［3］桂诗春.心理语言学［M］.上海：上海外语教育出版社,1995.
［4］韩明友.先验心理学［M］.北京：科学出版社,2007.
［5］胡壮麟.语言学教程(第三版)［M］.北京：北京大学出版社,2008.
［6］李蘅.中小学英语教学的衔接问题［J］.教师观点,2005.
［7］李蓉,黄微微.二语习得理论与外语教学［J］.哈尔滨职业技术学院学报,2010,(3).
［8］卢植.认知与语言［M］.上海：上海外语教育出版社,2007.
［9］徐珊.近二十年国内学者对克拉申输入假说研究综述［J］.边疆经济与文化，2011,(5).
［10］徐中锋.试论二语习得中的“低龄优势”［J］.沙洋师范高等专科学校学报，2010,(4).
［11］岳瑞玲.新课标下中小学课程衔接之探讨［J］.外语教育教学,2010,(6).
關键词：critical period hypotheses; i+1 theory; inter-language theory; synthesized effect; primary and middle school
中图分类号：H31 文献标识码：A
文章编号：1009-0118（2012）09-0389-02
1.Introduction
From the autumn in 2002，the primary schools start to open the English classes all over the country.Generally the starting point of primary school English is from Grade three，and from these recent years，a large number of schools，especially the urban schools begin the primary school English education from the first year.（Li，2005）accordingly，the parents take the idea that the starting point of primary school English education should be the earlier and the better，thus join in the army of receiving guidance of English education even in the after school time.
2.Grasping the Essence of Language by the SLA Theory
2.1 The Critical Period Theory and Its Application in the Instruction
Studies show that the brain lateralization starts around two years old.(Deng，2007)This would last a long period that from the two years old to the adolescent period.As a human being，the biological genes would be expressed step by step，so does the cognitive competence that go along with it.At the same time，due to Vygotsky’s research that the development of language undergoes three phrases：the external speech，the egocentric speech and the internal speech.(Lu,2006)In view of Vygotsky，the external language provides the language environment in form of input to the language learners，and which would transfer to internal language.And the egocentric speech is the medical state in-between.As to the functions of them，the internal speech is the form that human being thinking，and the calculation of which in the brain can be transferred into external speech as output to the audience.Thus，the communication between the communicator and the audience can be realized.As to when this process would be started，this has a close relation to the cognitive competence of the language acquisitioned.Generally speaking，the language acquisition period was divided into three stages：the holophrastic stage，the two-word stage，the stage of three-word utterances and the fluent grammatical conversation stage .(Hu，2008) For the language learners，it is not an easy job to crackle the language gap between the second language and the mother tongue.While the internal speech is in form of the target language，it is the result of language acquisition.Contrast to this，while we thinking with our mother tongue，though we are conducting the language learning process，the gap of current learning state and the result of language study were not narrowed then.
2.2 Krashen‘s“i+1”Theory and Its Application in Teaching Instruction
Based on the acquisition and learning hypothesis，the natural order hypothesis，the affective filter hypothesis，the monitor hypothesis and the input hypothesis，Krashen proposed out his famous language input hypothesis.He proposed that the language acquisition was realized through the understandable information.The learners should contact an abundant of real languages，and through the context and the situation as well to understand the meaning of the stimuli，thus，in this way the syntactic structure and grammatical regularity in the communicative language would be acquired naturally.(Krashen，1982)As to the “i+1” theory，the “i” stands for the current state of the language knowledge of the learners，and the “1” stands for the part that beyond the learners’ current state.(Xu，2011 )This tells us that in the second language acquisition，the teaching material should be more difficult than the learners’ current language competence.At another hand，as Piaget pointed out that，the language development should be the combination and interaction of the innate competence and the objective experiences.During the procedure of language acquisition，the innate psychology of human beings set up the fundament and bold structure of the whole psychology for the postnatal experiences.(Han，2007)But just as has said above，the development of one’s cognitive ability and the language are interactivities.This is to say，at one hand，the cognitive competence would benefit to the language acquisition and at another hand，that once the external language transfers into internal language，which would greatly advanced the development the cognitive competence as well.This can be seen as the picture illustrated below.
From the figure above，we know that there is not a clear-cut line between the acquisition and learning.At the primary level，the learning takes a heavy portion，and at this period，the cognitive ability is not so advanced as the it is later.In the middle level stage，the factor of acquisition and learning entangle with each other，and at this time，the cognitive ability which would benefit the language development would be advanced as the time goes by.At the last level，for the high development of the cognitive competence，the learners of the target language can almost conduct the language development unconsciously. 2.3 Interlanguage Hypothesis and Its Application in the Teaching Instruction
In the procedure of second language acquisition，there exists a “middle stage” in which，the learners of the second language would built a special language system which relays on the mother tongue and quite different from the mother tongue and the target language as well.(Selinker,1972)The three main characteristics of it are：systematic，permeable and dynamic.And these three features are the basic features that were shared by all the nature languages.(Dong，2011)Interlanguage is a systemic language which was dominated by the regularity，the formation of which was the integrated efforts of the all kinds of assumptions on the new language inputs and the proof-tests of them in the language contacts and usages in the daily communication.That is to say，the inter-language can be produced through the teaching instruction.
3.The Synthesis of the Three Theories Above and It Application in the Teaching
It is one of the core issues for the English teachers to find the way to make the English teaching a more effective process.As Ellis proposed that，the main content of second language acquisition is to describe how to acquire the second language and why can the language learners can acquire it.Which emphasizes the students- centered，and having a in-depth study to the internal and external factors of the learners through the omnibearing and multi-dimensional studies.(Li&Huang，2010)The three main theories in second language acquisition that has been illustrated above can form a general description of the whole picture of the procedure of language acquisition.For the critical period in language acquisition do exists but it is not the same to the individuals.For different people are different in their biological foundations，socio-cultural environments and so on.As to the “i+1” theory，it is suggested that the educators should mind the teaching materials and the input no matter in what forms that beyond the learners’ current language ability and proper to it at the same time.The whole procedure of second language acquisition forms a continuum，from the crude stage to the cultivated stages.
4.Conclusion
In this paper，based on the theoretical studies of the second language acquisition，the writer holds the idea that language as a complex entity is not suitable to have a finite “rules” to guarantee the effectiveness of the language teaching activities.Just similar to the artifact around the language learners，to some extent，the language itself can also be regarded as a kind of it.And playing the role of input to the language learners，the language teachers should qualified their own language output to the learners.
參考文献：
［1］邓愉联.外语学习关键期假说理论及启示［J］.当代教育论坛,2007,(7).
［2］董媛媛.中介语研究对中国外语教学的启示［J］.海外英语,2011,(1).
［3］桂诗春.心理语言学［M］.上海：上海外语教育出版社,1995.
［4］韩明友.先验心理学［M］.北京：科学出版社,2007.
［5］胡壮麟.语言学教程(第三版)［M］.北京：北京大学出版社,2008.
［6］李蘅.中小学英语教学的衔接问题［J］.教师观点,2005.
［7］李蓉,黄微微.二语习得理论与外语教学［J］.哈尔滨职业技术学院学报,2010,(3).
［8］卢植.认知与语言［M］.上海：上海外语教育出版社,2007.
［9］徐珊.近二十年国内学者对克拉申输入假说研究综述［J］.边疆经济与文化，2011,(5).
［10］徐中锋.试论二语习得中的“低龄优势”［J］.沙洋师范高等专科学校学报，2010,(4).
［11］岳瑞玲.新课标下中小学课程衔接之探讨［J］.外语教育教学,2010,(6).