Application of English Communicative Teaching in Middle School.doc

交际教学法在中学英语教学中的应用application of english communicative teaching in middle schoolcontentsabstract.1key words.1i. introduction.2ii. background and literature review.31. communication is eternal.32. clt in china.3iii. teaching material and teaching methods in communicative classroom.41. teaching goal.42. teacher-centered classroom and the student-centered classroom.43. dimensions of classroom management.54. teaching activities and teacher behavior for effective classroom management7iv. application of communicative language teaching91. computer-assisted language teaching.102. mutual-supplement of classroom teaching and extracurricular teaching activities.11v. conclusion.12references.12application of english communicative teaching in middle schoolapplication of english communicative teaching in middle schoolabstract: communicative language teaching (clt) has in recent years become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and, to a less extent, in the methodology of teaching foreign languages. the thesis investigates and analyzes some problems in the application of clt in middle school in china. teaching and learning are a series of communicative processes between instructors teaching and students learning. a good teacher knows how to stimulate the interest of students in learning english by means of communicative skills as well as her professional knowledge in his or her major. it is not only what the teacher says in the classroom, but also how she says it that can make difference to students. according to some basic clt theories the thesis puts forward some suggestions for clts application in middle school, such as multiple roles of teacher, interaction between teachers and students, to implement the application of clt, dealing with a large class, stimulating students communicative motivation, and making communicative testing, etc.key words: communicative language teaching (clt); application of clt; foreign language teaching; effective teaching摘 要：近几年来，交际法语言教学已成为一个流行的词语，它包括了对各种大纲的设计以及在小范围内外语教学法的发展。本文客观地追溯了交际法的来源和发展，阐述了交际法的特征，以及应用中的一些原则和所要避免的误区。教学是教师传授和学生学习的一系列交流过程，英语教学是教与学相互作用的交际统一体。没有师生之间的交流，英语教学也就不存在了，一位好的英语教师不仅应该拥有较高的专业水平，还应善于运用交际技巧激发学生学习的积极性。在课堂上重要的不仅仅是讲什么，更重要的是怎么讲才能带来不同凡响的效果。本文针对交际法在中学英语教学中的应用提出了一些建议，包括教师在交际课堂上所扮演的角色，如何解决大班人数多的问题，以及如何激发学生交际动机，在测试中融入交际能力测试等。关键词：交际语言教学法；交际语言教学法的应用；外语教学；有效的教学i. introductionit is not easy to learn a foreign language, and it is more difficult to teach a foreign language. the teacher has not only to make her students understand the language, namely the pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and so on, she (“she” is used to refer to teachers, and “he” refers to learners.) must also help develop their communicative competence so that they can use the language they have learned correctly, appropriately and expressively in real situations. in order to do this complicated job well, the teacher needs to be acquainted with, apart from possessing a comprehensive knowledge of the language and the ability to use it, as many teaching methods and techniques as possible, and understand the underlying theories and principles, so that she not only knows what to teach and how to do it, but also why she should do it in a certain way and how to solve problems when they arise. in this way she will have full confidence in doing her job well. as foreign language teachers, they understand that knowing a language well does not necessarily mean that can teach the language well. teaching is an art as well as a science. if a teacher does not know the theories, principles, methods or techniques of teaching, she might as well be able to teach a foreign language based on her experience, but she can not hope to achieve good results, not can she give her or her colleagues teaching a rational evaluation or a critical appraisal. there are surely limitations in teaching by drawing only on experience, though experience is important. the theories teachers learn from the methodology course can guide, support and conceptualize the teachers teaching practice competence. according to pedagogy, teaching process is made up of many factors, including the teacher, students, content of course, teaching methods, teaching environment and teaching aims. among these factors, teaching environment, especially the class atmosphere of it is one of the most important factors. it is challengeable. whether the class atmosphere is good or not can directly influence the teaching quality, even influence the students ability of creation. just as people can work efficiently on a free, active atmosphere, students can learn efficiently in an encouraging communicative class atmosphere. compared with the traditional teaching methodology, the communicative teaching methodology is more efficient and more acceptable. under the guidance of this methodology, the “teacher-centered” classroom has been changed into “student-centered” one. it can maintain a high level of students interest. if students interest in learning the language is not maintained, naturally they will have no motivation which derives them to learn. so in such kind of classroom, students are really active. they can do a great part of the work and focus all their minds on language study. ii. background and literature review1. communication is eternalthere are two kinds of communicationverbal and nonverbal. one is with words, and the other has been called the language of emotion. teachers are senders and receivers of both types of communication when they deliver lessons. both types of communication reinforce, complement, and help each other. verbal and nonverbal communication may also conflict with each other when the receiver usually accepts the nonverbal message and rejects the verbal. this fact is vital to teachers. it gives them important clues of how to communicative with students and how students make efforts to communicate with teachers. 2. clt in chinain china, foreign language teaching methods are influenced by the language teaching methods abroad, and on the other hand, governed by the social needs. they fall into two schools, the traditional school and the reform school. the traditional school mainly refers to the grammar translation method which emphasizes developing students grammatical competence while the reform school mainly refers to the communicative approach. clt was introduced into china in the early 1980s and has become popular since then. particular attention has been paid in recent years to the cultural appropriateness of the communicative approach as its goals and procedures have been imported into the non-western cultures. “cultural appropriateness” is a term which is relevant to both institutions such as schools and the wider society which forms their context. in china, for example, the school culture of teacher-centered classrooms with a focus on the transmission of knowledge has been influenced partly by wider cultural notions of the teachers authority as expert and leader. there seems to be no denying nowadays that language is for communication. and clt may be a better way to achieve this purpose. therefore, a special chapter is given to the discussion of this approach, from its historical and theoretical background, the development of its key concept “communicative competence” to its interpretations and implications for teaching. although the initial wave of enthusiasm for this clt has passed, it is still a popular approach in many parts of the world. the adoption of clt in china in the past decades have raised quite a few important issues such as teacher training, materials development, class size, understanding of authenticity, and testing and evaluation. of course the hottest issue is whether clt is appropriate to local contexts and cultures, and how it might be adapted and used by teachers and learners in different teaching situations. iii. teaching material and teaching methods in communicative classroom1. teaching goalthe goal of communicative language teaching is to have students become communicatively competent. communicative competence involves being able to use the language appropriately in a given social context. one of the base assumptions of the communicative approach is that students will be more motivated to study a foreign language if they feel they are learning to do something useful with the language they study. also the teacher gives students an opportunity to express their individuality by having them share their ideas and opinions on a regular basis. this helps students to integrate the foreign language with own personality and thus feel more emotionally secure with it. since communication is a process, it is insufficient for students to simply have knowledge of the target language forms, meanings and functions. students must be able to apply this knowledge in negotiating meaning. it is through this interaction between speaker and listener that meaning becomes clear. finally, students security is enhanced by the many opportunities for cooperative interactions with their fellow students and the teacher. as the quality education develops, english teaching is confronting many challenges. it demands people who study foreign language possess a good command of language ability rather than a good command of language forms and rules. the goal of english teaching is to help students grasp how to use target language to communicate effectively and appropriately. 2. teacher-centered classroom and the student-centered classroom as to different roles of the teacher and students in the classroom, the focus has gone through several stages. teacher-centered classroom management has dominated the stage for a long time in china, and then comes the student-centered classroom management. for a long time in the past century, foreign language teachers in china adopted the grammar-translation method. their major focus was reading and writing whereas listening and speaking was given little concern to. the teacher was the main source of knowledge that presented and analyzed grammar rules. later on came the audio-lingual method, which was warmly embraced by the majority of foreign language teachers. the teachers role in audiolingualism was central and active. it was the teacher who controlled the direction and pace of teaching, and monitored and corrected the learners performance. both of these methods are teacher-dominated, in which the teacher manipulates the class and does the largest share of talking. it is known that a language is learnt rather than taught. the priority of a language classroom is to make the students learn the language. to achieve this goal, both the teacher and the students have their unique roles to perform. the relationship between teacher and learner are valuable contribution to establish a broader view of the language teaching and learning process. to ensure it happens smoothly, a proper environment needs to be established. language teaching researchers have used different terms to refer to the overall situation in which language teaching takes place. classroom setting, classroom context and classroom environment are just a few of them. different terms reflect different learning theories that language-teaching researchers believe in. setting refers to the time and place of a speech act and, in general, to the physical circumstances (hymes, 1972). context has something more to do with discourse analysis. the concept of classroom environment is founded upon one learning theory, which is what takes place in the learners mind and what can make him/her learn better. in the classroom, what is placed at the top of the agenda is the roles of teachers and learners. effective language learning can be best achieved by striking harmonious balance between teacher authority and learner autonomy in china. the learning process is best understood as threefold involving the learner intellectually or cognitively, socially and affectively. classroom environment is not a term popped into the writers mind idly. accordingly, a language classroom environment consists of three domains: physical environment, social environment and psychological environment. 3. dimensions of classroom management several dimensions of teaching have been found to account for differences between effective and ineffective instruction. these include classroom management, structuring, tasks and grouping. 1) classroom management classroom management refers to the ways in which student behavior, movement and interaction during a lesson are organized and controlled by the teacher to enable teaching to take place most effectively. good managerial skills on the part of the teacher are an essential component of good teaching. in a well-managed class, discipline problems are few, and learners are actively engaged in learning tasks and activities; this contributes to high motivation and expectation for success. 2) structuring a lesson reflects the concept of structuring when the teachers intentions are clear and instructional activities are sequenced according to a logic that students can perceive. in a well-structured classroom, both the teacher and students understand what the intentions of an activity are, why an activity occurs when it does, what directions they are supposed to follow, and what is the relationship between one activity and another. classroom observations suggest that students pay more attention when the teacher spends time discussing the goal or structure of the lesson and giving directions about what students are to do. 3) taskstasks refer to activities that teachers assign to attain particular learning objectives. teachers have to make decisions not only about the appropriate kinds of tasks to assign to learners, but also about the order of tasks (the sequence in which tasks should be introduced); pacing (how much time learners should spend on each task); products (whether the product or result of a task is expected to be the same for all students); learning strategies (what learning strategies will be recommended for a particular task); and materials (what sources and materials to use in completing a task). the concept of tasks has been central to studies of effective teaching. the amount of time students spend actively engaged in learning tasks is directly related to learning. studies of time-on-task have found that the more time students spend studying content, the better they learn it. therefore good teaching is said to be task-oriented. effective teachers also monitor performance on tasks, providing feedback on how well each task has been completed. 4) grouping a related dimension of effective teaching is the grouping of learners to carry out instructional tasks, and the relation between grouping arrangement and achievement. different kinds of grouping (such as group work, pair work, discussion, reading circle or lecture) can impede or promote learning. experiential learning was based on a constructivist approach to education. such a philosophy is realized at a classroom level by cooperative, task-based learning, with learners working in small groups and pairs. students become skilled at cooperating with others, and at expressing their opinions, ideas, and feelings, guided by the teacher. they learn how to solve language problems in a systematic way and learn to decide what language to use in different situations that the teacher presents in the classroom. role playing and simulations help to make the task-based classroom a lively and rich language environment for learners of all abilities. 4. teaching activities and teacher behavior for effective classroom management1) teaching activitiesin addition, teachers need to establish a relationship that is built on trust and respect, and that leads to students feeling capable, competent and creative. the teacher can set up such a connection with students by: (1) showing interest in each student as a person; (2) giving feedback on each persons progress; (3) openly asking for students ideas and feelings; (4) valuing and respecting what students think and say; (5) communicate with the students, not always blame them; (6) working with them, not against them; (7) developing a genuine sense of vicarious joy when they have learnt something or otherwise succeeded. 2) teacher behavior for effective classroom managementteacher modeling: a good classroom manager sets an excellent example and should be a model for students. the teacher should set a good example for students.in the classroom a whole group of students can be influenced by teacher behavior. they may be influenced not only by the teachers positive behavior, but also the negative behavior. if the model performs an act in a certain way but instructs others to do it differently, the models performance will be imitated, not the instruction. if students observe that their teacher is disrespectful to or uncooperative with others, they are not likely to imitate cooperative and respectful behavior. teachers acceptance and respect: in order to procedure an effective classroom management, the teacher should also show enough acceptance and respect to students. in fact, most students physiological needs are adequately met in schools. because schools provide shelter, heating and food that is certainly adequate and is more substantial than many children receive at home. to show acceptance and respect to students, the teacher should treat stud