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Context is a complex element around language teaching and learning since the application of language is always influenced by the context. It is well known that the same sentence in different contexts may have quite different meanings， so to correctly understand what others said， context matters a lot. Context is certainly seen as a core in the organisation of language so that plenty of researchers devote to the research of context in language.

Malinowski（1923） puts forwards the conception of ‘context and divides the context into situation and practice. Afterwards， Duranti and Godwin（1992） defined the context as ‘a(chǎn)n frame that surrounds the event being examined and provides resources for its appropriate interpretation and detailed the context to become setting， behavioural environment， language as context and extra-situational context. This is a more comprehensive definition and classifications to context. But in terms of the event of language teaching， it involves not only the discourse itself but also the overall context contributes to communication （Celce-Murcia， 2001）. For the purpose of teaching， the context will be discussed from more specific aspects， which are situational context， cultural context and language as context.

Classification of context

Situational context

Situational context generally includes ‘the physical context， the social context and the mental worlds and roles of people involved in the interaction（Paltridge， 2006）. Physical context is an abstract notion so it is clearer to put an example for this. A mother said to her child， ‘the chalk is over there（Widdowson， 2007）. It means the book is on that table by the window. In this situation， people have to depend on the physical context to build a connection with the language. That is the phrase of ‘over there does not have any special meaning if it is found in no situation， despite of that， it seems to a part of pragmatics. Social context and mental worlds stand for the base of background knowledge about the conversations or articles， such as cultural knowledge， shared attitude of groups and personal recognition. ‘Roles of people means the identity of participants in a discourse. As to the difference of roles， what they said is relevant to the characteristics for the identity. It may point to both occupations in community and position during discourse （listeners or speakers， writers or readers）.

Cultural context

Cultural context is viewed as the background of language that covers in discourse. It is required individuals know the background of culture as to some specific discourse context， as without the culture background concerning target language， they may do not comprehend the exact meaning of speakers even if they hear every word that listeners said. Considering the example， ‘Marys new boyfriend is a real Don Juan（Dunkel， 1991）. In this sentence， if people never hear ‘Don Juan， they may not work out the meaning of this sentence. In contrast， listeners who learned or heard the cultural background are clear that ‘Don Juan stands for ‘play boy. Thus compared with situational context， the cultural background is unnecessary to emphasise on every context.

Language as context

Another crucial factor that has to be discussed is language as context accounts for large number of forms of the context. They are a link process for different discourse， which is also called co-text. For instance， ‘When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence... In the speech by Martin Luther King， ‘I have a dream， the personal pronouns ‘our means ‘American， but if I do not listen the former parts of speech， I will never know what the ‘our points.

Context in language teaching and learning

Listening skill will be taken as an example because it happens all the time as an indispensable component in an English class. Here may not discuss other skills owing to the complexity

Applying context to eliminate sound ambiguity

There are a considerable number of words to share the same pronunciation in English that cannot be distinguished if just hearing a single sound rather than a sentence. In the listening process， these homophones tend to result in sound ambiguity and finally students fail to understand the real meaning（Kramsch， 1993）. Hence， teachers ought to apply the knowledge about context to give students some hints so that they can grasp the real meaning of the listening material. For example， ‘Joe， add some ['flau?] to thicken the soup. On hearing this sentence， some elementary students may misunderstand the word ‘flour as the word ‘flower. Since listening is a fast process， students cannot spend much time on one certain word and ignore the other ones. So students usually choose the word that is familiar to them， but it may be the false one. At this moment， teachers can apply co-textual context to explain ‘soup should be more likely to link with ‘flour rather than ‘flower. Through the understanding of co-text， the listening skill that is helpful to eliminate sound ambiguity rapidly will be developed， which should be noticed during teaching.

Applying context to confirm the word meaning

A word covers more than one meaning in most cases due to it is used by different situation. When listening a conversation， determining a meaning of word depend on the context of both situation and co-text. Two examples by the word of ‘last are given， 1）The last question is how many people want to attend the lecture？2）Joe didnt hand in the homework last weekend. In the first situation， ‘last is modified by ‘the that is a rule of grammar being regarded as co-textual context. So ‘last here means ‘a(chǎn)fter any others. For the second example is talking about the time. Time is continuously going and never stop that has not the last one. This is situational context either with co-text. In this case， teaching word meaning is not only to teach the meaning individually but also to make a reasonable interpretation for a certain context.

Applying context to understanding the real sentence meaning

Its generally acknowledged that the real meaning of a sentence may not be the total sum of the word meaning of the whole sentence. The intonation， pause and stress which all belong to situation context will probably change the sentence meaning. In the teaching process， listening to the sentence as an example：‘Those who went there quickly made a fortune. In order to grasp the real meaning of the sentence， the teacher should tell students to pay attention to the intonation contour， explaining that if the intonation contour falls on ‘there， then the sentence means that those who went there made a fortune in a very short time；while if the intonation contour falls on the ‘quickly， then the real meaning of this sentence is that those who went quickly to there made a fortune. In terms of the example， knowing the information about intonation relates to social context. If students do not mention what the habit of speaking is for their surrounding， they may neglect the intonation for the need of special context. So when students exercise listening skill， they should pay more attention to the change of sentence meaning followed by the intonation， stress and pause.

Applying context to implement background information

In many cases， the listening materials involve cultures and customs of other countries. Its easy for the listeners to predict the results if they are familiar with the culture even when the listening materials are a little bit difficult. On the contrary， if listeners are not familiar with it， even when the materials are very easy， they still cant understand the real meaning. The example derives from personal learning experience. Nixons visit of China was described in a Chinese listening material as “Nixons Odyssey of China”. The teacher introduced the cultural background before listening. But if the teacher doesnt have a pre-teaching about cultural context of Odyssey that appeared in Homers epic meaning a long and hard journey， maybe few of the students are able to understand the real meaning of it. Under this condition， teachers should introduce the concerning background knowledge to the students at the beginning of the class in order to facilitate their listening comprehension.

Conclusion

In language teaching and learning， context penetrates into every portion that is complicated to interpret for a specific field. Teachers have to consider the context as much as possible to have a lesson that aim to create a more appropriate teaching atmosphere. In teaching process， it should be realized that ‘the culture is construed by systems of language choice； the situation is construed by patterns of language use（Halliday， 1999）. That is he application of language attaches the context and the context needs to implement by language. Therefore， it is admitted that context accounts for a fundamental and essential place in language teaching and learning.

References：

[1]Celce-Murcia，M.and Olshtain E.（2001）.Discourse and Context in Language Teaching，New York：Cambridge University Press.

[2]Dunkel，P.（1991）.‘Listening in the Native and Second/Foreign Language：Toward an Integration of Research and Practice，TESOL Quarterly，25，3：156.

[3]Duranti，A.and Godwin，C.（1992）Rethinking Context：Language as an Interactive Phenomenon，Cambridge：Cambridge University Press.

[4]Halliday，M.A.K.（1999）Text and Context in Functional Linguistics，Netherlands：John Benjamnins Publishing.

[5]Kramsch，C（1993）Context and Culture in Language.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[6]Malinowski，B.K.（1923）‘The Problem of Meaning in Primitive Languages，The Meaning of Meaning，ed.C.K.Ogden and I.A.Richards，296-336.New York：Harcourt，Brace and World，Inc.

[7]Paltridge，B.（2006）Discourse Analysis，New York：Continuum.

[8]Widdowson，H.G.（2007）Discourse Analysis，Oxford：Oxford University Press.

作者簡介：張肖冀（1991.2.18-），女，貴州六盤水人，畢業(yè)于英國埃塞克斯大學(xué)，專業(yè)為英語語言教學(xué)，研究方向?yàn)橛⒄Z語言教學(xué)。