ArouseStudent’sInterest.doc

An Outline of How to Arouse Students Interest of English Study in Junior English Teaching临高中学 王少娟Part IIntroductionPart II Methods of arousing students Interest of English study in Junior English Teaching.1.teaching in situation2.playing games:(1)guessing game(2)words filling(3)composing stories(4)Bingo3.English Competitions:(1)English handwriting competition(2)English speech competition(3)English reading competition(4)English knowledge competition4.the “three skills”:(1)role-playing(2)English songs(3)drawings5.two minutes of English report before class:(1)choosing materials by oneself(2)wrting stories by oneself(3)talking with ones classmate6.rewards7.encouraging students“self-expression”and participation8.teachers training9.a harmonious relation between teacher and studentsPart IIIConclusionAbstract(内容摘要)The famous physicist,Dr.Yang Zhenning has said:“lnterest is the secret of success. ”If he is not deeply interested in physics,he will not succeed.Yes,if students are not interested in English,they will not learn it well or they will feel very hard to learn it. But interest is postnatal,not innate. So, the key to the problem for our English teachers is to arouse students interest.Different teachers have different ideas of arousing studentsinterest. This article offers some approaches to arouse students interest in Junior English teaching, such as teaching in situation, playing games, holding English competitions, and so on. I think these methods are effctive to arouse students interest of English study.How to Arouse Students Interest of English Study in Junior English TeachingMost of us are aware of the disadvantages of the traditional teaching method, which aims at the grammatical rules. Before teaching a new lesson, teachers lead to read the new words one by one and explain them in mother tongue, then paraphrase or translate the texts sentence by sentence. This grammatical explanation makes students feel very bored. Although the new English textbooks have been widely used and the new teaching methods have been adopted, students are deeply impressed by the traditional teaching method that English lessons are uninteresting and still learn in low spirits. So, its necessary and important to arouse studnets interest of English study.How to arouse students interest? Many English teachers have been making efforts and have raised lots of suitable approaches. Based on their opinions, Id like to express my own. There are some effective ways, such as teaching in situation, playing games, holding English competitions, English reports before class and so on. These approaches are according to the aims of the New English Syllabus and the characteristics of the new texthooks of Junior English for China. These approaches can liven up the classroom, arouse students interest and improve their communication competence. Now well discuss these effective approaches.The new teaching method aims at the communiation function of language. In order to cultivate students communication competence, that is to improve their “four skills” which are listening, speaking, reading and writing competence, teaching in situation is required. As an English teacher , if you are only satisfied with the text and grammar explanation, but the description and influence of situation, the classroom language will be dull and students will feel bored. Thus, in order to create a vivid, real situation, English teachers should prepare for teaching aids, such as realia, pictures and so on before class. Teaching in situation can make students feel that they are in the real situation and teachers should encourage them to communicate with others in English. For example (from lesson 25 in Book I), when I was a student teacher, I would teach lesson 25. I took a students pencil-box and asked:T: Excuse me ! Is this your pencil-box?S:Yes, it is.T:Here you are!S:Thank you.And then I took the second students eraser and asked the third one.T:Is this your eraser?S1:No, it isnt. I think its her (his) eraser.T:Xxx, is this your eraser?S2:Yes, it is. Thanks!T:Thats OK.After practicing several times, I divided the students into several groups, each of which consists of models. Students used their stationery and practiced. The classroom was soon livened up.Sometimes to teach a new word, we need not tell students the Chinese meaning and then lead them to read as is often carried out in the traditional way. We can design a situation. Students can learn it easier by this way. Now lets look at an example (quoted from A New Training Course For TEFL韩刚), to teach “thin”, “fat”, and “tired”. Drawing a very thin man “MR THIN” and a very fat woman “MRS FAT” on the blackboard.T: Whos that man? (point to “MR THN” )Ss: Mr Thin.T: Yes, hes Mr Thin. Do you want to be a man like Mr Thin?Ss: No.T: Why not?Ss: Hes tooT：Hes too thin (use gestures), right? Now, say it after me:“thin”.Ss: T：Now, look at this woman. (Point to “MRS FAT”) Whos she?(Present the new word “fat in the same way)T: Yes, Mrs Fat is too fat to move. Shes too fat to work. When she works in her garden, she feels tired. When she goes shopping, she feels tired. When she does cooking or washing, she feels tired. She always stops for a rest, she has to sit down and rest a lot. She often feels tired. What does “tired” mean?Ss:（疲劳累）T: Thats it. Now, say it again, tired.Ss:Junior students power of concentration is transient. How to make the fourty minutes effective? Many English teachers have been making effort. A vivid teaching can reduce students tiredness, enhance their memory. So teachers must make the classroom vivid and arouse their interest. Teaching by playing games is a kind of “happy teaching”. It can not only change something dull into something interesting, but also change students passive attitudes into active ones. Here, Id like to introduce some interesting games.“Guessing Game” In my teaching practice, when I taught the “There be” drill, I asked the students to bring fruits and stationery which were not seen by others. Then I put them in my bag and asked: “What is/are in the bag?” Looking at the full bag, every student was interested in what others had brought. Almost everyone spoke up: “I think there is/are in the bag”. “I cant guess it. Miss Wang, can you tell me?” The classroom was livened up. And students learned the “There be” drill quickly and unforgettably.“Word Filling” The game of “word filling” can help students review the words they have learned and distinguish some synonyms and antonyms. After teaching the following words, aggressive, blissfull, envious, horrified, idiotic, undecided, miserable, optimistic, etc, I show them a picture as follow and ask them to find out the best faces to match the words.aggressive:好斗的，咄咄逼人的 idiotic:白痴的，愚蠢的blissful:祥和的，安乐的 undecided:迟疑的，犹豫不决的envious:忌妒的 miserable:悲惨的，痛苦的horrified:震惊的，恐怖的 optimistic:乐观的，向上的“Composing Stories” This game fit for both junior and senior students. It can be played by the whole class or in groups. The purpose of this game is to cultivate students reading comprehension, memory and speaking competence . For example, delivering ten disordered sentences of a paragraph from a text which students have learned. The championship will be the group who can rearange it correctly and fastestly.“Bingo” Bingo is a popular game in westdrn countries. We can use it in class to help students review the words they have learned. For example, there are some words on the blackboard, such sa popular, America, beautitul, stamp, happen, church, Christian, etc. Ask students to draw a form like this:When teacher reads the words on the blackboard, students write them in their forms. If anyone who has three words in one line no matter it is in horizontal or vertical or oblique line, and if he is the first one who calls out “Bingo” and reads out his words and gives the Chinese meaning correctly, he is “Bingo” or he wins this turn. He will be rewarded and the reward can be a candy or a pencil, etc. In order to express it clearly, lets look at the three forms. If your form likes any one of them, youll be “Bingo”.AmericaStampchurchpopularWordWordAmericaWordWordWordWordWordorStampWordWordorWordChurchWordWordWordWordhappenWordWordWordWordstampIf necessary , the form will be larger than the one above, to incrsease the games difficulty. Consequently, students will be full of enthusiasm.Teenagers love to excel others. They have strong desire to self-express, to surpass others. So teachers should provide them chances to express themselves and to develop their wisdom and abilities. Thus, English competitions are needed such as English speech, handwriting ,reading and knowledge competitions.For junior students, the form of English speech competitions can be story telling or dialogue. The competition can be held in class or in the same grade. After the competition, the first, the secomd and the third prize will be selected. This requires good intonation, correct and standard phonetics and they should have rich expressions. English speech competition can arouse students desire to learn English .Some students may not be good at speaking, performing but handwriting. Teachers should hold English handwriting competition to find out students sparkling points and encourage their English study. Some students may major in this aspect-after teachers proper guidance in future.English reading competition can not only improve students reading comprehension but also their interest in English study. Dividing the students into several groups with five in each group. Each group must subscribe to at least two kinds of English newspapers or magazines. Each group must be responsible for a term of wall newspaper or hand-written newspaper in English each week. Teachers hold two or three English reading competitions among the “reading groups” each term. I believe that in this spirit of emulation, students will study English with high enthusiasm.Sometimes we can hold an English knowledge competition including western social customs, knowledge about students textbook, etc. Thus students can not only consolidate what they have learned but also widen their knowledge. We can imitate the form of the knowledge competition from TV. Each group selects a delegate team and others are audience. There are elementary questions and “grabing answer ”. If a delegates answer is right, his or her team will get ten marks. Otherwise, ten marks will be deducted. And there are also questions for the audience in the same form, but if their answers are right, they will get some souvenirs. This activity will arouse students interest and help them broaden their vision.The new teaching method has changed the history of teaching. In form, it provides with vivid pictures. Its readable, scientifis and interesting. On teaching approaches, the communicative teaching has taken the place of the traditional teaching by “listening, speaking, reading , writing, performing ,singing and drawing.” Many teachers have paid much attention to the “four skills” but ignore the others. Because students like vivid, exciting ways of teaching and “performing, singing and drawing ” can play this role, teachers should also pay attention to these “three skills ” for the sake of the students interest. For example (form Lesson 16 in Book I ), in my teaching practice, after students learned the lesson, I asked two of them to the blackboard to act out the dialogue. One acted as the lovely girl ,Ma Lily; the other was the old woman, Mrs Read. I required them to act it with emotion. Their performance was excellent. The girl who acted as Mrs Read was absolutely lifelike. When they were performing, other students langhed and admired them. The classroom livened up. From then on, many students volunteered to come to the biackboard to act out dialogues.Children like singing and the songs in the new teaching books are related to the texts. For example,the spelling song in Lesson 31 in Book I. This song can help students consolidate the drill “Can you spell its /her his name?” When students are tired, English song is a mean for relaxation. I remembered one afternoon in my teaching practice , the students looked sleepy in the hot afternoon. So I said: “Class, lets sing an English song, OK?” All the students cheered up. “But at the same time, well play a game.” I continude. The students concentrated on me with much interest. “Well sing the ABC song. But during singing, when you meet the first vowel letter, you must stand up, and then sit down at the second vowel ,and stand up again at the third vowel so you must pay attention to the vowels.” I wrote down the vowel letters on the blackboard. The students sang with much interest and concentration. After singing, the students laughed and were not sleepy. And at the same time, they consolidate the vowels by singing.Children are interested in things which are vivid and close to their lives. When I taught words such as “cat” , “bike”, “bus” and so on. I drew abbreviated drawings. Students laughed after my drawing and had much interest. I seized the chance to teach the words. They lesrned them quickly.Thus, teachers can not ignore object teaching. When we teach the word frootball ”, show the students a footdall or a football toy. Its simple and clear and easy to understand for students. When we teach “A Telephone Call ”, we can bring a telephone toy and make a situational dialogue. The teaching aids we often use are biackboard, moving blackboard or overhead projector, picture, flashcards, realia, tape recorder, videocorder ,chart, etc. They are playing an important role in our English teaching.Teachers are trying every mean to arouse students interest of English study. They think hard to make “real” situation, to play games, to hold competitions, to perform, to sing, to draw and so on. But there is a way, which many teachers may have ignored that is two minutes English report before class. Two mintes English report before class has the large power that we cant underestimate. It can both arouse students interest and improve students competence of speaking and listening. Although it costs only two minutes before class, it can build an atmosphere of speaking English, each student must give an English report each day according to their school numbers order. There are three periods of English report. These three periods can help students fit for the English report and improve their speaking competence gradually. The first period is choosing materials by students themselves. Student can prepare for a short story or a laughing material or a piece of news before hand according to his or her interest, but the material can not be as the same as others. In order to attract other students concentration, before giving the report, the student must ask one or two questions and other students must answer them afrer the specch.The second period is writing stories or some other things they have seen or heard by students themselves. When they are giving speech, they can not look at their reference materials. And as the first period, students must ask one or two questions before the speech and the audience must answer after it.The third period is making a dialogue with ones deskmate. Two students must come to the blackboard and act out a dialogue. The dialogue should close to their lives.In order to guarantee the quality of the speech and encourage students participation, teacher stould give his or her remarks on the speech according to students pronunciation, fluency, materials attraction, etc. Thus, after years, I believe most students will be improved.In order to arouse students interest of English study, educators should not ignore a positive discipline, that is the use of reward. A reward is something desirable that students receive in return for accomplishment, effort, or other appropriate behavior. Every student needs ample rewards in order to behave and to achievi well in school. There are three factors in the use of reward. They are the frequency of reward, the timing of reward, and the type of reward. How often should a teacher give a reward? In actual practice, it is not always possible to reward a behavior every time it occurs. Rewards too easily earned or too difficult to achieve lose their motivational effect. The best way to maintain a given behavior at a high level is to reward it on a random or nonsystematic basis. For example, I remember when I was in middle school, my teacher worked around the class in a fixed order, first asked questions through number one and then the next one by school numbers. So we quickly learned that when we would be called on. Thus we lost incentive and engage in inattentive behavior. If the teacher varied the question order, and called on us in an unpredictable way then we would never knows when we might be called on. Hence we would have to pay close attention. When should a teacher give the reward? Teachers can reward students after a set or fixed period of time or after a variable length of time. It is probaly better to surprise students with rewards rather than to let then know that they will be reintorced after a given number of minutes or days. Varying the time interval helps to keep students working productively. What type of reward should a teacher use? We cant count on a single type of reward to remain as a strong motivator for five months. So teachers sh