Rationale(TESOL硕士作业lessonplan).doc

Rationale（lesson plan）This article will analyse the rationales of three lessons which cover listening, speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar instructions, focusing on the topic of rules and laws. The analyses will be demonstrated one by one first, and then some general methods and approaches throughout all lessons will be illustrated. Lesson 1 is an instruction combining listening skills and grammatical rules of modal verbs. The typical use of modal verbs in the listening materials have decided on the teaching method of learners consciousness-raising of grammatical rules during the listening procedure. In the pre- task phase, authentic materials are displayed to give the students a general concept of how modal verbs construct the language of expressing rules. This step is setting the background information and making the learners familiar with the topic to be performed (Shehadeh, 2005, p.27). Right before listening, learners are given the task of predicting the contexts where the language takes place. To this extent, in the process of listening and dictating, the students are not only checking their spelling accuracy but also picking up the meaning of the language (Shehadeh, 2005, p.27). Thompson (1996, p.11) has suggested that “learners should first be exposed to new language in a comprehensible context” to understand its function and meaning, and then be led to notice the grammatical forms used to convey the meanings. As lesson 1 shows, learners are asked to underline modal verbs and pay attention to the stress, incorporating weak forms and linking at either phonological or syntax level in the third-time listening. After the forms are noticed and drilled, students are asked to interpret the relationship between form and meaning, that is, to clarify the function of modal verbs in describing rules. By performing this step, learners analyse the meanings, reason out how the forms fit into the sentences, and intake the knowledge for the future output. Throughout the whole lesson, learners are doing most of the discovery of grammatical rules, with guidance from the teacher. If lesson 1 is a process of noticing and presentation, lesson 2 is a procedure of practicing and producing. It is a complete speaking lesson, focusing mainly on the practice on modal verbs learnt in the last class to describe rules. Firstly students perform a free talk about their family rules. In this step, teacher listens and checks whether they can produce the language accurately in a comprehensible context. A further check of the accuracy is conducted by putting learners into a real situation. Provided with signs and notices, students are asked to describe the rules using modal verbs learnt in the last class. Following this, a game is designed to test learners fluency of using the language. By describing to the partners the rules of a specific place, the learners are improving their fluency of using the forms. This step matches Richards and Lockharts (1994, p.118) suggestion that “accuracy-focused activities should precede fluency-focused ones”. Finally, a competition among the learners is carried out in order to make the best class rules for themselves. This activity motivates learners to cooperate and negotiate with each other in order to be the winner (Fotos and Ellis,1999, p.206). By conducting this activity, the teacher is trying to improve learners ability of using the language, and to set up a foundation for their writing performance. It is not difficult to see that spoken language is frequently used to involve a knowledge of target forms and functions and to generate the interaction between speakers and listeners to make meanings and negotiation of meanings clear (Mcdonough and Shaw, 2003, p.135). Compared with the previous 2 lessons, lesson 3 is more concentrating on meanings. It is an integrative instruction of reading, vocabulary and an argument writing. In terms of improving reading skills, students are given different tasks to achieve efficient reading strategies. By finding the appropriate heading for each paragraph, students practice scanning the articles quickly. By matching the meanings with the words, learners are improving their ability of reading between lines. Drilling is also performed to make learners familiar with the pronunciation of new vocabulary. Following this, the task of summarising the statements of items is provoking learners critical thinking of the laws. As Mcdonough and Shaw (2003, p.159) suggests, the answers to the questions on a text can be used as the basis for a piece of writing. Therefore, a bridge is built between reading tasks and writing in this lesson. Students are asked to pick up a topic in the exercise and conduct a group discussion and writing. Formats are provided to guide student to expressing opinions and write an argument passage. Finally, the homework of detailed writing not only functions as a consolidation of learners writing ability but also a path for teacher to give feedback.Except for the strategies for the macro teaching, some methods and approaches are conducted throughout the whole procedure of teaching. For example, group work is frequently used for negotiating meanings, as Allwright (2003, p.114) mentions that group work creates a productive and encouraging atmosphere and leads to the “Exploratory Practice” by bringing people together. Also, group work gives the instructor an opportunity to observe students learning as a stand-by (Allwright, 2003, p. 114). However, “the input learners receive from peers may be less grammatically correct than what they obtain from the teacher” (Fotos and Ellis, 1999, p.194). In order to make up for this disadvantage, students are asked to perform “public demonstrations”, which, according to Diaz-Rico (2004, p.43), can make learners keep longer memory of new knowledge by experiencing “anticipation, concern, excitement, and suspense”. Teacher can recast the language or give explicit feedback appropriately during public demonstrations. As claimed by Richards and Rodgers (2003, p.156), even in communicative language teaching context, drilling may still occur though peripherally. Therefore, drillings of the words and sentences is performed to consolidate the knowledge.To sum up, the three lesson plans are an integrative conduction of many methods and approaches for EFL learners second language acquisition.ReferencesAllwright, D. (2003). Exploratory practice: rethinking practitioner research in Language Teaching. In Language Teaching Research, 7(2):113-41.Diaz-Rico, L.T. (2004). Teaching English Learners: Strategies and Methods. Boston: Pearson Education.Fotos, S & R. Ellis. (1999). Communicating About Grammar. In Ellis, R. Learning a Second Language Through Interaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.McDonough, J & Shaw, C. (2003).Speaking skills. I