互动The Exploration of the Interactive English Teaching in the Junior Middle Schools 初中英语课堂互动教学的探索.doc

初中英语课堂互动教学的探索

The Exploration of the Interactive English Teaching in the Junior

Middle Schools

Abstrac t

The traditional English teaching lays more emphasis on English knowledge rather than practicalability,on grammar rather than communication,on writing rather than oral English. So it is hardto foster the students‘enthusiasm, initiative and creativity. On the basis of analyzing thosedefects of the traditional English teaching, this thesis advocates a new model for English teachingand leaning,namely, the Interactive English Teaching. The Interactive English Teachingemphasizes application rather than usage,advocates demonstration rather than monotonousgrammar or vocabulary exercise, launches activity or appoints task rather than assigning dullhomework,and underlines c ommunic ation rather than instruction. Compared with the traditionalEnglish teaching, the Interactive English Teaching has a series of advantages. In addition,atpresent,most Chinese students begin to learn English systematically from the junior middleschools. Therefore, this thesis lays more emphasis on elaborating measures of carrying out theInteractive English Teaching in the classroom of the junior middle schools, such as creatingfavorable physical environment and harmonious socio-psychological atmosphere,qualifying theteacher for the Interactive English Teaching,and developing the students‘active,autonomous,andcollaborative attitude and so on.

Key Wordsthe Interactive English Teaching; the junior middle schools;psychological atmosphere;collaborative attitude

摘 要

传统的英语教学重知识轻能力重语法轻交际重书面能力轻口头表达。因此很难培养学生的学习热情积极性和创造性。本文正是在分析了传统英语教学的这些弊端的基础上倡导实行一种新的英语教学方式 即 ―互动英语教学‖。互动英语教学强调运用而不是用法注重演练而不是单调的语法练习开展活动或指派任务而不是布置乏味的家庭作业强调交流而不是单纯的讲授。相对传统英语教学互动英语教学有一系列的优势加之目前国内学

生大多是从初中开始较为系统地学习英语知识因此本文重在阐述实施初中英语课堂互动教学的具体措施创建有利的物理环境营造和谐的社会心理氛围培养合格的教师培养学生积极、 自主、合作的学习态度等。

关键词

英语互动教学;初中;心理氛围;合作态度

Introduc tion

It is urgent to reform curriculum and teaching methodology because the present education cannotmeet the need of society. One of the major tasks is to restructure the classroom,which calls forreconsideration of pedagogy according to the new thoughts and conceptions of curriculum reform,and the teacher must alter his or her former improper points of view about teaching and establishnew proper teaching philosophies. And more importantly, the classroom teaching is required tochange a lot,which has a close relation to concrete classroom circumstances and the teacher‘steaching behaviors as well as the students‘ learning behaviors. On the basis of what has beenmentioned above, this thesis aims at exploring how to effectively carry out the Interactive EnglishTeaching in the classroom of the junior middle schools through analyzing the factors which have agreat impact on its implementation, in order to find out away which can really realizequality-oriented educ ation.

I.The Importance of Carrying Out the Interactive English Teaching

Nowadays,attributing to the world multipo larization, economic globalization, educationinternationalization, the inkling of information times,and entrance into WTO and boomingdevelopment of advanc ed scienc e and technology, it is urgent to drive ahead quality-orientededucation,which is the main rhythm of Chinese basic education reform and development in thetw enty-fir s t c entury.

A.The Traditional English Teaching and Its Defects

When talking about pedagogy, two stories are usually be recalled, namely, once upon a time adonkey was crossing a river with a bag of salt on its back,and when it arrived at the bank of theriver, it slipped into the river by accident. At this moment, the salt on its back was dissolvingand became lighter and lighter,when the donkey stood up it felt relaxed and happy for gainingsuch experience. Therefore, the following time when it crossed the river with a bag of cotton

on its back, it recalled its last experience, so it slipped intentionally,but this time it did not fellrelaxed but lost its life for the cotton absorbed a great deal of water and became heavier andheavier,and finally the donkey was drowned.

Another goes like this, long long ago there was a man who sold hat, and everyday he tried hisbest to sell his hats. One day he peddled exhaustedly, so when he passed along a big tree,hedecided to have a rest under the tree.Thus, he put his hats beside him and dozed. But afters everal minutes he woke up,he found all his hats disappeared. To his surpris e, there were manymonkeys on the tree and each monkey with a hat on its head. The man was anxious for he wouldnot support his family if he lost these hats. Suddenly, a good idea came into his mind thatmonkey likes to imitate, so he tried to lift his left hand, and all these monkeys raised their leftpaws, too. Then he clapped, and all the monkeys followed suit. The man felt excited, thus hediscarded his hats on the ground, and so did the monkeys. Then the man picked up all hats andwent home happily. When he got home, he told his son and grandson about his peculiarexperience. As time went on his grandson inherited his family property. One day when hisgrandson was on his way of selling hats,he also napped under a big tree and all hats were takenaway by monkeys, too,but he wasn‘t worried for he remembered what his grandpa had told him.Thus,he raised his left hand,as expected the monkeys raised their left paws,and then he clapped,so did the monkeys. After that, he thought his grandfather‘s way was really effective, so hediscarded his hats on the ground, but to his disappointment, this time these monkeys did notfollowed suit but stared at him. He felt puzzled,but suddenly the king of these monkeys turnedup and picked up the hat. It patted his head heavily and spoke out a line:―You must be joking!Do you think only you have grandpa?‖

Why was the donkey drowned? And why could not the grandson take back his hats like hisgrandfather? Everyone c an rec ognize the crucial reason for that is that they did not deal with theexperience properly, they just used experience mechanically and did not remodel their oldexperience. It is clear that in the changing world, usually the successful experience of pastdirectly causes present failure. That reminds people of Chinese traditional teaching method,which has many malpractices or defects. Especially, the traditional English teaching attractsmore attention,which is teacher-centered, and the students just receive knowledge passively. Itlacks various skillful and focal methods,which was given a vivid name―cramming‖. So it is hardto muster the students‘ enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, also hard to attract the students‘interest. Meanwhile, it lays more emphasis on knowledge, grammar, and literacy than ability,communication and drill of spoken English. That causes the learners lacking capacity of usinglanguage and communic ation in real life,and educates persons with high marks but low ability.

B.The Interactive English Teaching and Its Importance

It is true that the future society will be the society of talent c ompetition. In the light of domesticpresent educational situation, it turns to be more and more significant and urgent to changeeducation concept and teaching methodology, to learn and comprehend new teaching concept,andto educate people adapting themselves to the changing world with innovation and practical ability.So this thesis advocates a new model for English teaching and learning,namely, the InteractiveEnglish Teaching which emphasizes the value of collaborative learning,classroom-group-centeredness,autonomy and shared decision-making in the classroom.

The thought of the Interactive Teaching originates from sociological interactive theory.

Dialogues and c ommunic ations c ontinuously occur between individuals,and society. Andhuman communication takes place through meaningful activities,which distinguishes itself frominhuman self-c onsc iousnes s(Zheng Jinzhou, 12). Soc ial-pedagogic interactive theory underlineshuman interaction and individual activities in the school. In the English as a second language(ESL) literature, theorists present a variety of approaches, strategies,and techniques for the ESLparticipants. Underlying these approaches are theoretical assumptions conc erning the nature oflanguage and perspectives on how second languages are most effectively taught and successfullylearned. However, little research has been conducted concerning the assumptions and beliefsabout language learning and instruction that ESL teachers hold and how these inform theirdecision-making.These have necessarily identified two major perspectives in language teaching.The first view is that learning should be contextualized in a wider society in which the students‘responsibility and co-operation during learning can be seen as expressing and enablingparticipation as a citizen in democratic processes,and learning should be located in social andcultural action wherein what is learned and how it is learned are collaboratively shaped. Theother view is that learning as emancipation, in c ontrast to‗c onventional‘educ ation may be sociallydivisive and requires compliance to the hegemony of a dominating minority(Littlejohn, 19). Themotivation for study in this area has come from many sources but a strong element in this is desireto create forms of classroom interaction which give voices to the students in the management oftheir learning. Through making explic it the typic ally‗hidden‘view s of the students, the teacherintends to arrive at more effective, efficient and democratic models of classroom work. On thisbase, Interactive English Teaching came into being.

Since the Interactive English Teaching emphasizes application rather than usage,advocatesdemonstration rather than monotonous grammar or voc abulary exercise, launches activity orappoints task or allots assignment rather than assigning dull homework,and underlinesc ommunic ation rather than instruction, therefore, the implementation of the Interactive Eng lishTeac hing is invalu ab ly s ignific ant.

II.The Advantages of Implementation of the Interactive English Teaching

Compared with the Traditional English Teaching, the Interactive English Teaching has a series ofadvantages .Those advantages are list as follows:

A.A Means for Responsible Membership of the Classroom Community

As a number of feminist and post-modernist thinkers in education have argued, the present socialand political conditions signal an urgent need for classroom pedagogies that enable learners touncover the relationship of knowledge to power and vested interests(Breen,M.P. ,2002). In this

sense, learning a language may be seen as a means of access to greater personal adaptability andinfluenc e. It has the potential to provide the students with cultural and intellectual resourc es and,thereby, the practical means and strategies to seek further knowledge and to challenge structures insociety that operate in an oppressive way. In this way,collaboration and democracy between theteacher and the learners and among the learners in the Interactive English Teaching entailslearners‘capabilities to participate in a responsible and self-empowering manner in the worldbeyond the classroom and,crucially,as a member of a new speech community and culture.

B.Activating the Social and Cultural Resources of the Classroom Group

The knowledge is constructed in a classroom,because it evolves through acollectiveproc ess-through the texts, the clas sroom disc ourse and the social practic e of the group–which isgreater than any single individual could create, including the teacher.As a group, the teacher andthe learners work towards new understandings,what is learned, investigated and shaped through ashared process,which become knowledge that is diversified,dynamic and open to newpossibilities. In this way, the Interactive English Teaching enables exploration and trying out ofalternative interpretations as well as uses of the new language and alternative ways of working.The latter can provide opportunities for the individual to extend a repertoire of learning strategiesin addition to discovering and refining ways of learning in a group that may have life-longrelevanc e. Therefore, the Interactive English Teaching contributes towards extricating languag elearning from the more commonly constrained and relatively predictable discourse of theclassroom. It can anticipate and provide the foundations for the student‘s participation throughthe new language in other disc ourse c ontexts beyond the clas sroom.

C.Enabling Learners to Exercise Their Active Agency in Learning

Much of the research on language classrooms reveals that many learners are placed in aresponsive and seemingly passive role. In such circumstances, learners are positioned likechildren who may seek to conform to a teacher‘s expectations and may even underachieve in orderto do this(Nunan,D. ,2002). This passive c onformity c an be misinterpreted by the teacher as alack of sufficient background knowledge,an unformed learning agenda or a lack of capacity toparticipate in decision-making. However,all learners bring prior knowledge and capability tolearning and further understanding sought on the basis ofwhat is already known and not merelygiven. Whereas Interactive English Teaching provides a context in which opportunities exist forlearners to articulate and, thereby,refine their prior understandings,purposes and intentions asreference points for new learning.

D. Informing and Extending a Teacher‘s Pedagogic Strategies

In the Interactive English Teaching, the teacher has the opportunity to act as a role model for

active learning. He or she can welcome the learners‘alternative interpretations and proposals asequal but also identify them as open to the group‘s judgment, s election and agreement. Theteacher can encourage the learners‘own gradual explicitness and greater precision in theidentification of preferred learning purposes,content,ways ofworking and ways of evaluatingoutcomes so that such preferences become available for everyone as reference points andalternatives for action. Moreover, the Interactive English Teaching also has the potential to freeup the teacher to rely on the learning group to help in a methodical way in creating a specific andongoing language curriculum as an enriching teaching-learning experienc e.

III.The Implementation of the Interactive English Teaching in the Classroom of the Junior MiddleS c hools

Owing to the fact that at present,most Chinese students begin to learn English systematically fromthe junior middle schools, thus this section lays more emphasis on elaborating measures ofcarrying out the Interactive English Teaching in the classroom of the junior middle schools.

A.Creating Favorab le Physic al Environment

Teaching should be a process of sharing ideas,and classroom should be a place for sharing ideas.In addition, the interaction between the teacher and the students takes plac e in the classroom.Therefore,all facilities including color, lamplight, temperature, scene, etc. in the classroom have agreat impact on their interactions and activities.On one hand, these facilities can evolve differentphysiological senses of the teacher as well as the students. On the other hand, they make theteacher and the students develop different emotions and form different feelings which furtheraffect the launching of activities and the development of students‘ intelligenc e,motivations andclassroom behaviors, even have significant influence on the psychological atmosphere of thewhole classroom. In reality, the teacher often pays little attention to physical environment in theclassroom. He or she takes the distribution of the clas sroom for granted rather than rearrange itaccording to the need of learning ignoring the fact that it has great effect on the class behaviorsof the teacher and the students.Consequently, the present main task is to make physic alenvironment in the clas sroom beneficial for the interaction between the teacher and the students.Let‘s take the structure of the classroom for example to demonstrate it. The structure ofclassroom is usually achieved through the arrangement of classroom desks, therefore, thearrangement of classroom desks should be beneficial for communication and collaborativelearning,and teacher should readjust the arrangement of classroom desks according to teachingobjectives and teaching tasks. Furthermore, the teacher should try his or her best to givewell-distributed c onc ern to each student and enhanc e the intimate relationship between them.

What has been mentioned above is just one aspect of the physical environment in theclas sroom. Lamplight, line of vis ion, sound, temperature, sc ene, etc. are also needed to take intoconsideration in terms of carrying out the Interactive English Teaching in the classroom of thejunior middle schools. Specifically speaking,when structuring physical environment,moreattention should be paid to the following aspects:

Firstly, the physical environment should meet both physiological and psychological needs ofthe practitioners. The founding of physical environment should be on the basis of generalregulars about students‘physiological and psychological development and attach more importanceto color collocation in the classroom, setting the scene, class patterns as well as controlling forventilation, temperature, etc. so that the students are in optimum state for learning. Sec ondly, inorder to develop students‘ intelligence,more colorful suitable stimulations should be provided.Thirdly, be sure that the stimulations given to the students can delight them, so that they canmaintain an active attitude towards learning. Finally, the teac her should not only properly dealwith the controllable physical conditions, such as sound, lamplight, scene, etc. but also masterproper teaching concept,namely, students‘behaviors in the classroom are related to the physicalenvironment, so the teacher should be lenient to some violative behaviors caused byunc ontrollab le physic al factors.

One more thing needs to be mentioned is that the structure of physical environment in theclassroom should be readjusted during the process of teaching. For example,different teachingcontent calls for different luminosity, but in real teaching, sometimes this kind of adjustment isunnecessary. Another example is that the arrangement of classroom desks may vary according tothe content or lesson patterns,but if the seats are shifted each lesson, obviously, that will deprivethe students of having a rest between lessons,and even causes disorder. In that case, it hampersthe process of carrying out the Interactive English Teaching rather than promote it as expected.

B.Creating Harmonious Socio-psychological Atmosphere

Socio-psychological conditions are artificial factors for the Interactive English Teaching,whichembody on human relationships in the classroom. As what has been discussed before,physicalenvironment just provides material conditions for the implementation of the Interactive EnglishTeaching. To some extent, the students‘behaviors rely more on the impact ofsocio-psychological atmosphere. Thus,how to form profitable socio-psychological atmosphereturns to be significant. Among all the socio-psychological conditions in the classroom,classatmosphere is one of the most important components for it defines the context in which thestudents can(or can not)concentrate on learning and feel safe taking risks. Many researchershave given proposals of building interactive atmosphere in the classroom:―Promote collaborativec ommunic ation,put democratic leadership into practic e,pay more attention to teaching art, laystress on the adjustment of psychology of both the teacher and the students,and deal with conflictsproperly‖(Zheng Jinzhou, 87). And there are other issues that need to be taken notice of in termsof building interactive atmosphere in the classroom.

First of all, it is significant to take the circumstances in the classroom seriously and strive torealize the human-c entered thought in the Interactive English Teaching. That needs to fac e allstudents, to improve competitions and co-operations between them,and c ontinuously expand the

space of psychological environment in the classroom when setting the scene. Furthermore, it isimportant for the teacher to establish right concept for classroom behaviors. As an organizer andleader, the teacher plays a decisive role in forming class atmosphere during the process of carryingout the Interactive English Teaching. In order to form enjoyable classroom atmosphere andattract the students to take part in learning, the teacher should democratic ally supervise thestudents. Therefore,one cruc ial princip le for the teacher is to understand the students‘needs andfeelings so that they are willing to be close to him or her. Thirdly, the teacher should attract thestudents to participate in the Interactive English Teaching procedure. As a matter of fact, theInteractive English Teaching can be regarded as a process of mutual effect on each other betweenthe teacher and the students in a period of time,and teaching achievement is mainly determined bythe spirit and effort of the teacher and the students. Consequently,both the teacher and thestudents should be in high spirit. The positive participation of the students improves theteacher‘s confidence and impels the teacher to restructure his or her behaviors to meet the needs ofthe students, and yet the teacher employs various means to attract the students‘ interests,as tomake the students be willing to take part in the teaching procedure more.As the participatingdegree of students is decided by various factors,one is how democratic the teacher is,another ishow difficult the teaching task is and what about the students‘present ability, therefore, in additionto great efforts made to attract the students to join the teaching procedure, the teacher should payclose attention to the development of the students‘abilities to enable them to have some basicknowledge about their learning behaviors and related abilities. Meanwhile,when determiningteaching tasks, the students‘present abilities should be taken into consideration. Last but not theleast, the teacher should comprehend the students‘feelings including positive,passive, satisfied,joyful exper ienc e or disc ontent,unhappy feeling about the teacher or the c las s,and it is importantfor the teacher to give his or her enc ouragement and appreciation to the students. Therefore, theteacher needs to have a good command of using some expressions, such as well-done, that‘s right,well,have a try and so on,and also the teacher should be adept in listening attentively to thestudents and accepting their ideas.The teacher does not only express his or her ideas or the pointsof view in teaching materials, they should also be able to acc ept the students‘points of view in theInteractive English Teaching. When the students express their ideas, the teacher shouldc onc entrate on listening and have eye contacts with the students,and if nec es sary, the teacher c anrepeat the students‘ ideas in a proper way. In addition, the teacher should be good at askingquestions. Because as an important form in the Interactive English Teaching,asking questionscan arose a series of interactive activities.

C.Qualifying the Teacher for the Interactive English Teaching

As an organizer,participator,prompter,and assessor, the teacher plays an indispensable role in theInteractive English Teaching. On this base, this part aims at analyzing a variety of factors thatinfluence the teacher‘s behaviors to enhance the implementation of the Interactive English

Teaching in the classroom of the junior middle schools.

Firstly, the teacher should have a right teaching conception. How does a teacher teach? Toanswer this question, researchers have studied teachers and their classes in numerous ways.Some, looking for effective teaching practices,have conducted empirical research that identifiesisolated teaching behaviors and correlates them with the students‘achievement measures. Theypropose a view of teaching that is rational and technical and that can be synthesized into a set ofprinciples that define expert knowledge within the profession. In contrast with this defineexpert technical-rational definition of the knowledge base of teaching, an alternative view hasemerged. This alternative view maintains that a teaching event is a constant mediation betweenenacting planned activities and addressing the students‘understanding,abilities,and motivation tocarry out the activity. The basic units of teaching are how a teacher decides which activities toengage the class in,and how he or she assesses the students‘participation in the task. Therefore,the teacher in the Interactive English Teaching in the classroom of the junior middle schoolsshould hold the following teaching beliefs:

—Students learn best by engaging in content-based instruction rather than by focusing on isolatedlanguag e exerc is es.

—Authentic drills are better than simplified texts because they give students an experience ofpracticing that is closer to real life.

—Students need encouragement, understanding, and nurturing in order to succeed in themainstream. They do not need to be told what they are not doing, as much as what they aredoing well.

—Attention must be paid to all learners in the class,not just the ones who understand and seem tofollow the lesson. The lowest-level students serve as the barometer of where to engage the classin. This may not, however, serve the needs of the more advanced students. Thus,moreadvanced students need adequate time to talk in order to stay interested in the class and to bepatient with the weaker students‘progress(Nunan,D.,2002).

Secondly, the teacher needs to own two fundamental principles. One is called the ―ownershipprinciple‖meaning that by giving the students rights to express their opinions in the classroom,the teacher fosters a feeling of joint control and personal involvement. For instance,one teacherin the Interactive English Teaching in the classroom of the junior middle schools said:―I want togive my students a say in what they learn to make them feel they have something invested in theclass.‖ Another said:―I think that the most exciting teachers and the most inspiring classes arethose where the students are treated as a part of a learning growing process.‖ The other is called―modeling‖. This is the idea that an effec tive way to teach is through consistently and repeatedlydemonstrating the behaviors (attitudes) a teacher (educator)wishes to impart. Here the idea ofmodeling does not refer to an individual demonstration of a technique. Instead, by adoptingmodeling as a principle, it refers to the consistent enactment of teaching philosophy over time, inessence to―practice what people preach.

Thirdly, teacher‘s personality and style, the methods and/or materials adopted in teaching,teacher‘s high expectations for students‘ success, and/or teacher‘s friendly, supportive attitude,teacher‘s respect for learners,and teacher‘s responsibilities for supporting the student‘s motivationare crucial factors during the Interactive English Teaching proc edure. Consequently, the teachershould try hard to make all these factors advantageous for teaching. He or she should setdemocratic learning atmosphere, improve language learning opportunities by reducing anxiety and