“补缺假说”的语境观

"补缺假说"是我国学者提出的一个解释二语习得中母语迁移的新颖观点,它认为语言的使用依赖语境,所以要流利、准确、恰当地使用外语,外语知识必须与正确的语境知识结合。由于母语环境中缺乏跟外语表达式配套的真实语境,学习者不得不借助于大脑中存在的母语语境知识去补缺。由此可能激活母语表达式,造成迁移。语境知识是"补偿假说"的核心概念。本文通过分析"补缺假说"对语境这一概念的使用,认为"补缺假说"在论证过程中对语境的考辨仍处于借用状态,在外语教学分析中对语境的界定过窄,需要进一步探究。

"Context" in the Compensation Hypothesis in L2 Learning

The Compensation Hypothesis in L2 learning, propounded by a Chinese scholar in accounting for the cause of language transfer, states that fluent and accurate use of language presupposes that linguistic knowledge is properly welded into contextual knowledge. The lack of authentic contexts in a FLA setting leads to the compensation effect of L1 contextual knowledge which activates those L1 linguistic forms in concomitance with it, thus resulting L1 transfer. Context is the core in this hypothesis. This paper has analyzed the use of the term of context and found that it is used in a wider sense simply as a borrowed term from pragmatics whereas in dealing with the FLA setting the meaning of it is reduced to the equivalent of context of situation. The paper concludes that the hypothesis needs strengthening with regard to proper defining of the term context.