On the afternoon of November 19, 2019, Professor Liu Zhenqian of Shandong Universitygave a lecture entitled “The Whole Language Theory andIts Implications for Foreign Language Teaching”at School of Foreign Languages.It was presided overJiangling, the Vice Dean of School of Foreign Languages. About 50 professors, doctoral students, and postgraduates attended the lecture with enthusiasm and interest.
At the beginning of the lecture, Professor Liu Zhenqian pointed out twochallenges inforeign language teaching: so-called “dumb English”and the “ low-efficiencyphenomena” . Then, he elaborated the definition,and theoretical sources, applications and implications of Whole Language theory, asserting that whole languageis an educational philosophy or theory . In order to promote language learning, it is advisable to adhere to the learner-centered concept to arouse students’ enthusiasm. In addition, he showed a lot of common errors in teaching to explain theories and thoughts that affect Whole Language Theory, demonstrating that language learning is the content of learning rather than the purpose of learning, and learning in practice is themost effective and rewarding one.
At the end of the lecture, Professor Liu advocated that teacher-centered teaching style in language teaching should be revolutionized into learner-centered style, encouraging students to participate in the whole teaching process as decision-makers and to acquirelistening, speaking, reading and writing skills as a whole. A series of further questions were also proposed for students to ponder after the lecture.(Author: Zhang Jie, Li Pandeng)
