论中学英语教学中的情景教学法--毕业论文.doc

【标题】论中学英语教学中的情景教学法 【作者】胡润东 【关键词】情景教学法中学英语教学应用学生 【指导老师】杨 波 【专业】英语教育 【正文】1. IntroductionSituations are lifes occasion. Situational teaching method can motivate the students learning interests and thirst for knowledge, arouse the study passion and also develop their language practical ability in middle school. Thereby, it improves the teaching effect. If you are an English teacher in middle school and you use situational teaching method in class, and adopt vivid props, students are more interested in English, besides, you will obtain unexpected results. Traditional English teaching methods must be improved. It has put too much emphasis on grammatical knowledge while ability cultivation of students is highly ignored. Situational teaching method is such a new teaching method. By creating lively and vivid situational settings, it can promote the intercommunication between teachers and students. In this way, students interesting in English is kindled and it is more likely that they will use English more creatively.2. Theoretical Base of Situational Teaching Method in Middle School English TeachingAll human behaviors happen in a certain time and space environment. The subject of those behaviors, a human being, is also a creature of emotions. So whenever one thing happens, it must happen in a situation, which is composed by two fields, namely the field of subjectivity, such as cognition, emotion, will, behavior, and personality, and the field of objectivity, for example, teaching and learning surroundings.Learning and teaching processes are no exceptions to this situational theory. A good situation will create a harmonious atmosphere between the teachers and students. Thus, it achieves a satisfactory effect. Situational teaching method also has solid theoretical grounds in physiology, psychology, and linguistics. Current neurology research shows that the left hemisphere of the human brain is in charge of logical and analytical activities(including language) while the right hemisphere controls intuition, creation and imagination. Traditional teaching method mainly activates the left hemisphere, which functions logically. But the right hemisphere is left unused. Greeting potential in human brain is still a dark continent. How to explore this dark field fully? And this has become a study subject for many educational researchers. Situational Teaching method aims to activate the two hemispheres simultaneously so that better effects can be achieved in English teaching. Moreover, language itself is a tool of communication. Since no communication can happen without a situation, it is crystal clear that languages have inseparable connections with situations. Therefore, main tasks of elementary English teaching are the following.1. To help students form a good study habit and master an effective study method by kindling their learning desire and cultivating their confidence in language acquisition;2. To help students grasp a certain amount of basic English knowledge and make them fairly competent in listening, speaking, reading, and writing;3. To train students to develop observational, memorial, analytical, imaginative, and innovative abilities.If situational teaching method is adopted in a class, students will receive English knowledge in a more vivid, lively and immediate process and much more chances will be created for them to participate and perform. In this way, students can learn to use a foreign language in a real situation to communicate with others. So situational teaching method is feasible. Now let us know something about present condition of it.3. The Present Condition of Situational Teaching Method in Middle School English TeachingTraditional method of English teaching must be improved. It has put too much emphasis on grammatical knowledge while ability cultivation of students is highly ignored. In this educational system English teachers play the major role while students are only passively involved. The teachers take students for containers of getting knowledge, and imbue students with knowledge simply.1 As a consequence of this, conformity to one particular method is often required of students. They have no chance to participate actively in English learning and gradually lose their learning enthusiasm. Acquiring linguistic data is not sufficient because the scene is not a linguistic one. We will meet different objects and events, which are present at the moment of communication. In this respect Halliday remarks“when we acquire our primary language, we do so by learning how to behave in situations, not by learning rules about what to say.”2 So the situational teaching method just follows this rule.Nowadays, a lot of English teachers in middle schools use these ways. According to the lessons, they let students make dialogues or make stories. Then students can remember the lessons deeply. The teachers also let their students watch some English films in order to arouse their English emotion. With the rapid development of science and technology, more and more middle schools are using the multimedia equipment in English teaching. Students who graduated from schools are expected to have good abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing in their daily work. All make the middle school English teachers try their best to use new teaching models, and Computer-Assisted Language Learning becomes a trend in English teaching.3 Some country middle schools have no such equipment. They cannot afford the equipments. So they use the simple situational teaching method, for example, making dialogues.But there have been some English teachers, they dont use situational teaching method in their class. They only explain the grammatical knowledge and do exercises, in order to deal with the exams. They neglect the effect of situational teaching method, and the function of it.4. The Function of Situational Teaching Method in Middle School English TeachingAs well known, English is an important basic course in our country. The intention of English teaching is that cultivating the student using English to communicative ability. So the main problem for the Chinese students, who study English as the second language and cultivate“the ability of use English to communicate”, is lacking the linguistic environment. So, situational teaching method takes an important role in classroom teaching, and it is the key to solve this problem. We must create a comfortable language environment, then, the means of creating this language environment is situational teaching method. Therefore, the function of situational teaching method is obvious. The main functions of the situational English teaching are expressed on following areas.4.1 To Build a Good Language Environment Advantageously.Most of Chinese students learning English have a sane feeling that we are lack a comfortable environment, add the teaching methods and means fall behind, so many students feel learning English are boring, and thus, lose the interest of learning English, resulting in overall English level is not high. As Vice Premier Li Lanqing pointed out“after eight years or twelve years studying foreign language, most of students can not use this language in reading, especially, can not understand what the foreigner say, can not read the English novels and can not speak more. That makes them consider communicating with foreigner is difficult”(Li Lanqing 1996) So, creating a good language environment, and enabling students to be exposure English is necessary.Situational teaching method can strengthen students the English sense, and improve the capabilities of reading, listening, speaking and writing of students. It let students go into a real condition. They could remember the things, which happened in the condition, and communicate with each other like common situation. Then they can also study knowledge quickly and deeply.4.2 To lead Students to Receive the Emotional Materials.The basic requirement of the situational teaching method is that letting students see something, or hearing something even though, touching the content of study, mobilizing students to use all sensory to feel the targets of learning fully. English as a course, it requests students to use their mouths, ears, eyes, and brains to feel it. An American application linguist called S?Krashen in his theory, the Second Language Learning Acquisition expounds Input Hypothesis theory. He considers that acquisition is basis on Comprehensible Input. Because of the context, the input can be comprehended. So that,about the Second Language Acquisition, S?Krashen emphasizes the external language environment.4 From the development relation between the language and cognitive, the language apparatus of human and the development degree of human brains provide the learning language physiological basis. The social cultural environment provides a good condition for the language learners(Fang Junming 1992). Undoubtedly, situational teaching method can create the comfortable environment. Just like S?Krashen proposed that the input of language learning must be abundant. Its purpose is that the learner can exert an edifying influence on the abundant language environment.When the teachers use situational teaching method in the middle school, one important principle, which the rhythm must be quick and the contents must be abundant, they must obey. They can show the pictures and the real objects. Sometimes they can use films and slide shows. Then, students can use their eyes, ears and mouths to feel and understand the knowledge, and get a great quantity of information. At last, students can deepen the impression of learning contents, and link lesson contents with practice. The actual situation can help students form the correctly profound concept.4.3 To Turn the Non-intellectual Factors of Students into Focusing Their Attention in the Class. Then, the Student Can Grasp the Acquired Knowledge Easily.S?Krashen considered that a good teacher who can provide the information and knowledge that can be understood by his students. That is a standard of outstanding teachers. It involves the psychological factors of students. And it is also built on the basis of students. Using any kinds of teaching methods, the teachers should pay attention to mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of students. Thus, in English learning, interest, attention, psychological factors, and other non-intellectual factors also play a very important role. Non-intellectual factors are necessary and indispensable complement in the process of learning English.For instance, there are many families that are founded by Chinese and foreigners, and their children can speak two languages in the process of growth. It verifies that the interest, the environment, the family, and other non-intellectual factors are the important in learning languages. So the teacher should mobilize students the latent non- intelligence factors fully in the teaching. Therefore, situational teaching method is just the means that merging the listening, speaking and writing into integration. It uses the students non- intelligence factors in study, and then makes their attention and interest to the study. Furthermore, it let students understand the contents profoundly, and they can consolidate the contents easily.Above all, situational teaching method plays an important part in English teaching methods in middle schools. Its functions are very important. It can make good language conditions. Students can get more emotional materials, and study English well. But, as an English teacher, how to design the situational teaching method in middle schools is also important and necessary.5. The Design of Situational Teaching Method in Middle School English TeachingTo make English classes appealing to students, the teachers should try to create interesting situations. Only in this way can students get interested in the class and then use English creatively.5.1 Creating Real Life Situations in English Teaching to Cultivate a Sense of CommunicationA real life situation comes into being the moment the teacher enters the classroom. This situation continues until he or she leaves. This situation, natural and lively, is indeed a situation of communication via language. The teacher should make the best use of it and try to transform it into a student-centered place where language is acquired more naturally. For instance, when the teacher awards students stickers, they should not hand stickers out. Instead, they should give students a chance to choose their favorites.For example, the teacher says,“There are so many stickers. Which one do you like?” the student A says,“I like the yellow one.” The student B says,“Please give me the green sticker. Thank you.” In this way, students have another chance to practice English. This kind of interactions between the teacher and students turn the English class into a situation of real communication. Long period of such practice will enhance students sense of language.5.2 Creating Psychological Situations through the Teachers Body Language to Generate a Harmonious Atmosphere in Class(霍姆林斯基) says,“The efficiency of students in class depends tremendously on the language mastery of the teacher.”5 It is only natural that students are timid when using a second language. They are afraid of making mistakes. So any kind of encouragements from the teacher will be of vital importance to them.An equal and good relationship between the teachers and students will result in a good class atmosphere. It will help to generate students enthusiasm and creativity in English study. That is why all experienced teachers begin to smile as soon as they enter the classroom. They aim to create a jovial psychological situation in which students study efficiency will be greatly increased. Teachers should always remember to encourage and praise students. When students have difficulty understanding something, he/she should be able to think of various ways(for example, through drawing a picture) to help them. When a student makes a mistake or even fails to say anything, the teacher should remain kind and speak softly,“It doesnt matter. Please say it after me.” If interactions between the teacher and students are satisfactory, students will gain more confidence and they will be willing, happy, and able to speak English.5.3 Creating Situations with the Help of Multimedia Technology to Enrich the Contents of English ApplicationMultimedia can bring both visual functions and acoustical functions into play by providing colorful pictures, interesting flashes, and sounds. With the help of multimedia, students can get better acquainted with standard English.The English class is much more attractive if multimedia is properly used. Students will enjoy more freedom in observation and imagination. For example, when teaching the“Food and Drinks”, the teacher produces some situations in media player, such as ordering, eating, and paying. By creating a live show, the media player helps students understand the meaning and application of the language better. This way of teaching will also save the teacher from toilsome lecturing.Using multimedia technology, the teacher should try to work out more situations in which students can use language creatively. A case in point is the teaching of the“Animal” unit in New Standard English. The teacher collects some materials of four animals mentioned in the textbook and turns them into a courseware. By doing so, the teacher brings students into direct contact with the animal world. First the teacher asks students to exercise their imagination and speak freely. Students will try to say something like“There be”or“I can see” They can also describe some physical features of different animals. After that, the teacher may raise the question,“Which animal is the heaviest? Which animal is the tallest?” This question will undoubtedly make students compare these animals and therefore better understand the usage of comparative degrees and superlative degrees. The courseware also provides some other information about those animals. The teacher tells students that they can study that information by themselves if they are interested in a certain animal. This will make students study voluntarily and thus strengthen their subject status in learning.Multimedia should be properly ushered into the English class according to the characteristics of primary school students. Research shows that fifteen minutes in class, from five minutes after the beginning of the class to twenty minutes, are the golden time for teaching because it is during that period of time that students think the most actively. When it is time to check the teaching effect, students may well be absent-minded then. So the teacher can turn to the multimedia. Let students watch the mime-like situations and ask them to fill in the sentences. Or present examining exercises through multimedia. These adoptions of multimedia aim to enliven the class atmosphere and help students assimilate new knowledge by means of vivid situations.5.4 Creating Performing Situations to Increase Opportunities of English PracticePerforming situations, and putting emphasis on dialogues, provide students with more chances of interacting with one another. It can fully explore students potentials of English creativity. Performing situations blurs the boundaries of English acquisition and English application. Students will have an enduring impression of the language acquired in this way. Performing situations may begin with simple greetings. Take Unit One of SEFC 1A as an example.6This unit is comparatively easy for students of senior grade one. However, very few students pay attention to emotional connotations of the dialogues. Their tones are flat and