摘 要

目前, 众多的国内外语言专家在实践和研究中证实了背诵在英语学习中的重要作用, 但未见有对背诵具体有哪些益处的系统研究。背诵的确是学习英语有效的方法，但是仍有很多人采用了这种方法却依然没有取得理想的成果，很多语言专家都忽略了这一部分英语学习者。本文对七十七位南京林业大学英语专业的学生做了问卷调查，通过对他们的反馈的分析， 探讨背诵在英语专业学生第二语言习得过程中的作用。结果发现:1.背诵有利于习得大量短语，加深语法和词汇的理解，提高口语和写作能力。2. 通过背诵可以培养学生学习英语的语感，英语语感是人们对英语语言的感觉，语感一旦形成在以后的学习中可以受益匪浅。3.背诵可以有助于改善语音语调，增加学生讲英语的自信心。此外，本文还提出了三个影响背诵成果的重要因素：背诵的强度，材料的选择，不断地回顾巩固，旨在帮助暂时失败的英语学习者调整背诵策略，重新出发。

关键词：背诵的益处，影响背诵的因素，语言输入

Contents

1. Introduction 1
2. Demonstration 2
   1. Literature Review 2
      1. Behaviorism Theory 2
      2. Krashen's Second Language Acquisition Theory 3
   2. Methodology 3
      1. The purpose of survey 3
      2. The process of survey 3
      3. The results and analysis of survey 4
   3. The Benefits of Reciting 8
      1. The Improvement of Speaking and Writing 8
      2. The Improvement of Sense of English Language 8
      3. The Improvement of Pronunciation and Intonation 9
   4. The Factors in Successful Reciting 9
3. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

Bibliography 13

A Study of the Effects of Reciting in English Learning

Introduction

From the first day we study English, we began to recite. At the very beginning, we recite the simplest and the most basic words such as "hello" and "bye". In the process, we gradually accumulate knowledge and gradually progress. As the proverb goes "How much knowledge you can get depends on how many books you can recite". For a long time, the English teachers often require the students to recite the texts and memorize phrases in English learning. They ask the students to recite the texts over and over again until students are word-perfect. However, some foreign language experts are against the traditional method of learning English in China, for example, Olson (1988) pointed out the practice of reciting texts is caused by the blind worship of book knowledge. But there are many foreign experts, such as Lewis (1993) and Widdowson (1989) have stressed the importance of learning phrases in English learning. What’s more, Nesselhauf (2003) also proposed that recitation is of extremely importance to study phrases in English learning. In conclusion, recitation is beneficial to study phrases, which can help us to improve English. Domestic scholars also think reciting is a significant and effective method to learn English, such as professor Chen Lin. She pointed out that in case of lacking language environment, learning a foreign language must make a lot of efforts, which means we must persist in reciting .（Chen Lin, 1999:1）Also, there are an ocean of scholars have done the research about the correlation between reciting and effects in English learning, such as Ding Yanren and Qi Yan. They conducted a study testing 84 students from English majors of Nanjing University to explore the functions of reciting in the process of learners' second language acquisition. They came to the following conclusion: recitation is beneficial for students to master more vocabulary; by reciting, the learners master a large number of vocabulary and language patterns, thus improving the fluency and accuracy in speaking and writing. Therefore, reciting really benefits a lot to language learners, however, there are still a large part of students failed despite trying reciting, which is overlooked by most of the scholars. So, the thesis not only demonstrated the advantages of reciting, but also proposed the factors which should be pay attention to in the process of reciting to encourage more English learners to persist in reciting.

Demonstration

• 1. Literature Review
     1. Behaviorism Theory

Recitation is considered as an important way of second language acquisition in the behaviorism theory of language learning. There are two main points supporting reciting in the behaviorism theory. The first one is that language learning is a kind of mechanical habit formation. Foreign language learning is a process of forming the habit of using foreign language by repeatedly using the mode of stimulus - response, and finally reaching the degree to blurt out. Therefore, behaviorism believes repeatedly imitating and reciting the model essays is the main way for students to learn a foreign language. When students begin to learn a foreign language, they master some materials of language by mechanically repeated imitation, recitation and memory. The language materials get enriched gradually over time, and then students can connect the old materials to the new ones and combine them to use.

The second one is language learning is the process of inductive analogy rather than analysis, which means language learning is unlike learning science that needs us to ask a series of problems, inversely it needs us to read more and recite more, to be furthest familiar with the language system to find out the regularity of the target language, and to achieve the language sense finally. (Li Weiying, 2008) Language sense is a kind of recessive knowledge, and oral imitation and reciting are important ways through the right side of the brain to turn dominant knowledge into recessive one. Qi Tianzhen, the famous master of right brain's development, has said: "reciting every day can improve the quality of the brain and open the entirely different memory circuit. Reciting can develop the faculty of memory of right brain." The right brain is the subconscious one, and the memory is the image memory. Language imitation and reciting about behaviorism do not rely on the left brain and are not based on understanding. Instead, they are based on the memory mechanism of right brain. This way is conducive to turn the dominant knowledge into recessive knowledge, which can also be called the language sense. The sense of language is beneficial to the fluency and automation of language output.

• • 1. Krashen's Second Language Acquisition Theory

Linguist Krashen's second language acquisition theory also provides the theoretical basis for reciting input. In his theory, he proposed five hypotheses, among which input hypothesis is more than important. His input hypothesis believes that to achieve language acquisition, learners must be in contact with a lot of comprehensible language input, which is the premise for learners to use language. The input of language can be obtained in several ways, and reciting model essays is one of the ways. Learners gain enough amount of comprehensible language input through reciting, which lays a solid foundation for language acquisition. (Tian Xia, 2015)

• 1. Methodology
     1. The purpose of survey

There are quite an army of students succeeding to improve their English by reciting, but still a large part of students failed. Most of them can’t insist on reciting and often give up halfway .They begin to suspect whether reciting is an effective method to learn English. Therefore, I did the questionnaire to find out the advantages of reciting to encourage them.

• • 1. The process of survey

I conducted a questionnaire survey of 77 English majors in Nanjing Forestry University. With their assistance, I completed the survey. Here is the questionnaire.

• • 1. The results and analysis of survey

Through the feedback information of 77 English majors in Nanjing Forestry University, I did the following pie charts and analysis.

Q1: What's your attitude to reciting?

The pie chart shows that 94 percent of the students are in favor of recting,and there are only 6 percent of the students hold the view that reciting is useless for their study. Because the experience of failure made them not believe reciting is an important and effective way any more. From the chart, we can know that most students hold a positive attitude towards the effects of reciting, which means reciting does benefit a lot to us. As for those failure cases, it is the wrong ways of reciting that lead to their failure.Because in the process of recting, we must pay attention to some factors, such as the intensity of reciting, the choice of materials, constantly reviewing and consolidating.