ICM and Its Implications of College English Reading Teaching.doc

1、1ICM and Its Implications of College English Reading TeachingAbstract： Through the idealized cognitive model（ICM） ， we can effectively fill the default values in the discourse， and construct a deep structural link between the information in the discourse context in order to interpret a coherent disc

2、ourse. In addition， the idealized cognitive model has a strong explanatory power to explain the coherence of grammatical structure formation. Besides， idealized cognitive model theory， through its implication in the deep structure can be applied to the college English reading teaching which gives an

3、 amendment to the traditional reading teaching to stress the coherence of discourse analysis based on the cognition and to understand the complex meaning of discourse better to pass the writers true intentions. Key words： idealized cognitive model； implication； coherence； college English reading 中国分

4、类号：H31 Idealized Cognitive Model（ICM） was first Proposed by Lakoff （1987 ）. As its name suggests， it is both cognitive 2and idealized. It means that （a） it is characterized by the relation to experiential aspects of human psychology and （b） it does not necessarily fit the external world “correctly“.

5、 Xiong Xueliang （2003） notes that ICM is based on the human experiences and constitutes the most part of experientialism. The question is what ICM actually is. ICM refers to a comprehensive cognitive structure， or gestalt， that involves background knowledge in various relevant cognitive domains and

6、reflects peoples experiential， unified and idealized understanding about certain domains. Lakoff maintains that ICM is the basic way for our knowledge construction. Its approach to the human categorization has been widely accepted. But further research is still needed to explore the potential signif

7、icance of this approach. There are a few papers in professional journals or some analysis on the theoretical introduction. However， ICM is still rarely used in the large-scale study of discourse. 1. Interpretation of Discourse Coherence by Using ICM 1.1 Interpretation of Filling Default Values In th

8、e process of language use， there are a number of elliptical forms. Peoples thinking often makes the speaker syntactically simplify and even omit the known and familiar 3concepts in the process of coding information. This is the principle of economy in language use. At the same time， when understandi

9、ng the discourse with some information omitted， the readers ICM knowledge plays a vital role. After a word activates a cognitive microscopic world， of which the relevant information can be extracted to obtain the overall meaning of the discourse through filling the relevant default values. （王寅 2005）

10、 A： What happened to Mark？ B： Sick. Here， Mark is the subject. In the latter sentence， there is no subject （Mark） ， but this does not affect the coherence of the discourse. The reason is that this default information has been put in peoples mental schema， just through the activation of cognitive inf

11、erence so as to understand the discourse. 1.2 Interpretation of Grammatical Coherence In Halliday and Hasans study on cohesion， coherence created by grammatical relation is one of the most important subjects. However， there are many practical issues that cannot be explained by the traditional gramma

12、tical rules. For example： “Marys bus crashed into a guard-rail. When the ambulance 4came， it took her to the hospital.” In this discourse， the word “crashed” can bring about an ICM about an accident， and naturally the concept of “ambulance” and “hospital” will be drawn into our cognitive domain. Thu

13、s， a semantic coherence is constructed. In addition to this semantic coherence embedded in the deep structure of the discourse， the definite article “the” is the signal for coherence in the surface structure. “The + noun” is used to refer to something that has been mentioned before. However， “ambula

14、nce” does not appear in the first sentence， so it should not be modified by a definite article according to traditional grammatical rules and theories. By applying ICM here， we can get a satisfactory solution to this problem. As is mentioned above， the word “crash” brings about an ICM that will invo

15、lve the concept “ambulance”. Then “ambulance” in the second sentence is a given concept for us. It is the one that came to take Mary to the hospital， instead of a random one， which means it is reasonable to use “the” as its modifier. In the same way， we can also explain the definite article before “

16、hospital” in the last sentence. From the above example， we can see that ICM can not only be used to construct the semantic coherence， but also 5interpret the surface coherence that is hard to understand with traditional rules. Additionally， ICM is especially helpful in determining the signified info

17、rmation of pronouns. 2. Implications of College English Reading Teaching by Using ICM College English reading is a complex interactive process between language and thought. The degree of reading comprehension depends largely on how ICM knowledge is mastered and how the reading skills are used. There

18、fore， ICM knowledge plays an important role in reading comprehension and reading teaching. 2.1 Improvement of Students Understanding College English reading is not just the process of translation， but a complex psychological interactive process between the readers ICM knowledge and the contents of d

19、iscourse. Language itself has a rich cultural sense. And the readers need to understand， guess， analyse and synthesize， try to figure out the original discourse and resonate with the author to understand the authors true intentions. The richer ICM knowledge is， the faster and more accurate the reade

20、rs understand the discourse. For example， in “College English Integrated Course“ （Volume III， Unit 3） ， there is such a sentence： “Who is 6going to make the psychic payment for the transformation of American from the Land of the Free to the Land of Lock？“ From the phrase “from the Land of the Free t

21、o the Land of Lock“， we can see that the U.S. used to be “the Land of the Free“， but now is “the Land of Lock“. Through this， readers can activate an ICM knowledge： Now the American people are more and more lack of sense of security， especially after the 9.11 incident. The governments and the people

22、 have to use a variety of “locks“ to protect themselves and their properties， such as security locks， security chains， electronic alarm systems. “lock“ becomes a new symbol of U.S. Described by means of the ICM with the knowledge， the readers can understand the meaning of the author. 2.2 Improvement

23、 of Students Interest and Enthusiasm in College English Reading Interest is a major driving force to promote students to learn， which is essential for students to master new knowledge. In college English reading teaching， it is not difficult to find that the more students interest in those topics， t

24、he faster and the more accurate they remember. Hence， teachers in their lectures can intersperse the appropriate ICM knowledge or allow students to positively search the relevant background 7material， which will undoubtedly and efficiently improve students interest in learning. For example， in Unit

25、5 “Writing Three Thank-you Letter“， “I got to thinking about Thanksgiving， of the Pilgrims， Indians， wild turkeys， pumpkins， corn on the cob， and the rest.“ （李荫华， 王德明 2002） Teachers can ask students to find out the relevant information titled “the source of Thanksgiving Day“， understand how Thanksgi

26、ving is linked with Pilgrims， Indians， wild turkeys， pumpkins， corn on the cob before class. Thus， it is helpful for students to understand the writing background and the theme. The most important thing is that the students can have fun and improve the learning initiative in the process of “learning

27、 in doing， doing in learning“. 2.3 Encouragement of Students to Broaden Their Knowledge According to ICMs propositional structure theory， the knowledge structure of the brain is linked with each other， and is stored by the different categories in the brain. The learning of new knowledge constantly o

28、rganizes， summarizes the existing knowledge and accepts new knowledge thus to create the new concepts. This step is called comprehension， consolidation and unity by the psychologists. In other words， only after 8integrated and idealized， the fragmentary knowledge of the brain can be used in the futu

29、re. If students have the richer cognitive world knowledge， they can easily accept the new information which is together with the existing knowledge， through the “assimilation“ and the “expansion“， to memory deeply in the brain. Therefore， the more ICM knowledge students have， the easier they can gra

30、sp the phenomenon of new vocabulary and grammar and broaden their knowledge. （祁宗海， 1998） Such as， Unit 1 “By then， Shawn and Amy， our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank.“ （李荫华， 王德明 2002） Teachers can introduce the “Ivy League“

31、to the students， which represents the eight leading high institutions， such as， Harvard University， Yale University， Columbia University， etc. After as long as the students see the phrase “Ivy League“， the relevant ICM knowledge in their minds will be immediately transferred out to understand the co

32、herent discourse. 3. Conclusion The ICM approach has been proved useful for college English reading comprehension teaching. The ICM view for discourse 9coherence can further be applied for other linguistic studies. For example， discourse analysis has been proved useful for language teaching， stylist

33、ic studies and translation studies. A cognitive research into discourse coherence will undoubtedly provide important reference for these linguistic studies. Bibliography 1Halliday， M. A. K. & R. Hasan. Cohesion in English. London： Longman， 1976. 2Halliday， M. A. K. & R. Hasan. Language， Context and

34、Text： Aspects of Language in a Social-semiotic Perspective. Victoria： Deakin University， 1985. 3Lakoff， G. Women， Fire， and Dangerous Things： What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago： The University of Chicago Press， 1987. 4李荫华， 王德明. 大学英语综合教程. 上海外语教育出版社， 2002. 5祁宗海. “背景知识与阅读教学 .“ 绿兴文理学院学报， 12 （1998）： 73. 6王寅. 认知语言学. 上海：上海外语教育出版社， 2007. 7熊学亮.“语言的 ICM和语言研究的 ICM.“ 复旦学报， 2 （2003）.