浅谈情境教学法在初中英语口语教学中的运用

 2023-09-04 08:09

论文总字数:27324字

摘 要

随着社会的发展,英语成为全世界使用范围最广的语言,特别是中国加入了世界贸易组织之后,英语口语的重要性日渐凸显。但是在中国,中学生的英语口语能力却普遍较差,情况不容乐观。

情景教学法已经不是一个新名词。近年来,许多教育工作学者对于如何将情景教学法融入到初中英语口语教学当中都做了积极的研究和探索。本文作者详细地总结了英语口语教学和情景教学法的理论基础和各项研究,并对如何把情景教学法运用到初中英语口语教学中提出了有效的措施和方法以及应该注意的问题。最后,本研究分析了情景教学法对提升学生英语综合能力以及教师水平这两方面发挥的巨大作用,不仅可以增强学生的英语学习兴趣,还可以提升学生英语口语水平。

关键词:情景教学法;英语口语教学;中学

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the study..............................................................................1

1.2 Purpose and significance of the study .........................................................1

1.3 Layout of the thesis......................................................................................2

2. Literature review 2

2.1 Definition of situational teaching approach and oral English teaching.......2

2.1.1 Definition of situational teaching approach 2

2.1.2 Definition and theoretical basis of oral English teaching 2

2.2 Researchers on application of situational teaching approach in oral English teaching at home and abroad.............................................................................3

2.2.1 Studies at home 3

2.2.2 Studies abroad 3

3. Present Situation and Existing Problems of Oral English Teaching 4

3.1 Present situation of oral English teaching in middle school 4

3.2 Problems of oral English teaching in middle school 5

3.2.1 Problems existing in students 5

3.2.2 Problems existing in Teachers 5

4. Application of Situational Teaching Approach in Oral English

Teaching 6

4.1 Advantages of situational teaching approach 6

4.2 Principles of situational teaching approach in oral English class 7

4.3 Measures of applying situational teaching approach in oral English class 8

5. Conclusion 10

Works Cited………………………………………………………………….12

  1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

In China, cases are that English is still being taught in a traditional way, the English level of students has not been actually improved, and the professional level of teachers has stagnated for a long time. Under such circumstances, many teachers focus on textbook when teaching English, paying more attention to vocabulary and grammar but less to oral practice. By doing so, however, the students’ comprehensive English proficiency has hardly been improved, for most teachers ignore the cultivation of students’ oral skills.

Although students can memorize the vocabulary and grammar well, they are not good at using them in real life. When they are admitted to their dream university, most of them still have difficulty in expressing themselves in English. When they work, they would find that they can’t apply English as a useful tool freely to solve real problems. This is called “high marks but low skills”. The English they learned turns into “dumb English”, which seems to be of no use in communication at all. Therefore, it is important to find out some methods to improve students’ oral English through the research on situational teaching method.

1.2 Purpose and significance of the study

The oral English level of Chinese middle school students is generally low. In this case, improvement of the students’ spoken English becomes an urgent task, which can be a big headache for many teachers and scholars.

Situational teaching is no longer a new word. In recent years, many scholars have made active researches on how to integrate the situational teaching method into the oral English teaching in junior middle school. The author summarizes the theoretical basis and various researches of oral English teaching and situational teaching in detail, and puts forward effective measures and methods about how to apply the situational teaching method to junior middle school oral English teaching. Finally, this paper aims at improving students’ language use ability and teachers’ teaching quality through the application of situational teaching method, and effectively cultivating students’ interest in oral English learning.

1.3 Layout of the thesis

The paper is composed of five parts. The first part is an introduction, which includes background, purpose and significance of the study. Part two is literature review. Part three is about the current situation and existing problems in oral English teaching. The fourth part focuses on the application of situational teaching methods of oral English education in most junior middle schools and its advantages. The last part is the conclusion.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of situational teaching approach and oral English teaching

2.1.1 Definition of situational teaching approach

The situational teaching method is a combination of visual and auditory teaching method. With the help of pictures and slides, students can speak freely according to the contents displayed and better feel the charm of oral English. In this process, teachers can also effectively train students with their oral skills, help them apply the knowledge to skills, and thus improve their oral English.

According to English scholar Hornby (Hornby 104-108), situational teaching approach means that teachers create some concrete and vivid teaching situations in class to help the students better gain knowledge and enhance their skills. He insists that teachers should first present students new words and sentence structures to prepare them for further understanding of the article and then deal with it with the situational teaching method.

2.1.2 Definition and theoretical basis of oral English teaching

Oral English teaching is a course in which students learn the knowledge and skills they want to learn. Oral English education is the main part of English education. Through this teaching method, students can communicate with others in English (Guan 52-60).

There are some relevant theories of oral English teaching.

First of all, the second language learning theory is the foundation of oral English teaching. Krashen’s (Krashen 115-125) language theory has a constructive influence on the study of second language acquisition. Secondly, collocation theory plays a guiding role in oral English teaching. Thirdly, the basic principles of cognitive learning theory can enhance the interest in learning. Constructivism is a branch of cognitive psychology school. Fourthly, the theory of success education also influences oral English teaching. It aims at changing “loser” to “winner” and acquiring success. It is a kind of novel education concept and pattern.

2.2. Researches on application of situational teaching approach in oral English teaching at home and abroad

2.2.1 Studies at home

In China, the method of situational teaching originated from English Language Teaching published by Zhang Shiyi in 1948. Zhang Jianzhong focuses on the study of situational teaching methods. Zhang Jianzhong and Yu (Zhangamp;Yu 46-51) believe that situational teaching method can promote the improvement of English education quality, which will also become the tendency of English learning in the future. And Zhang (Zhang 25-27) conducted a survey on situational teaching methods.

With the development of science and technology and the wide application of multimedia, Li (2007) suggested that the teachers should make full use of multimedia. He said that the application of multimedia in English education can mobilize students’ enthusiasm and dominance, so that the overall level of students has been improved. Li Jilin (Li 87-90) wrote the Experiment and Research on Situational Teaching which launches a specific elaboration to the situational teaching methods.

2.2.2 Studies abroad

In foreign countries, linguists and educators have researched the effect of situational teaching approach on teaching extensively and deeply.

In the 1950s, Bulgarian psychologist, G. Lozano (Lozano 107-115), came up with a suggestion which originated from the situational teaching approach. He said that when teachers were teaching, they should start from students’ interest as well as the actual situation. As early as the 1960s, George Pittman (Pittman 67-72) and his team began to study the application of situational teaching methods with some success. with the application of the situational education method edited by L. G. Alexander, the New Concept English is now widely used.

At the beginning of 1960s, Believe created self-motive method of foreign language teaching. Self-motive method means to understand language materials and pay attention to the content of a foreign language not the form in communicative activities. One of its features is function-situation. In concrete situations, students communicate with each other according to the function, which is useful to foster students’ communicative ability.

3. Present Situation and Existing Problems of Oral English Teaching

3.1. Present situation of oral English teaching in middle school

The current situation of oral English teaching in junior middle school is very worrying. In some schools, these methods are usually adopted when the teacher has oral English lessons. The first type is that the teacher reads and the student reads behind the teacher. Teachers often hear most of the pronunciation. Moreover, the teacher’s attention is whether the students read correctly. Second, the teacher plays the audio, allowing the students to listen to the tone of the voice in the audio while allowing the students to imitate. But no matter which way, the teacher hears the tone of most people, and the teacher often lets the students read. Therefore, the problems of each student are difficult to find.

Oral language training requires a certain language environment. However, in the actual teaching, in addition to the oral English learning environment in the classroom, there is very little English-speaking environment. This requires teachers to create an open and free English language environment, and to place students in a context that requires oral communication in which students’ ability to understand the context and express themselves can get improved.

3.2 Problems of oral English teaching in middle school

Oral English education in junior high school has two major problems. One is student-related and the other is teacher-related.

3.2.1 Problems existing in students

After entering the middle school, teachers’ requirements on students have changed significantly. These requirements are stricter than those in elementary schools. Due to the gaps in their learning ability, it becomes more difficult for the junior middle school students to meet new requirements made by the teacher. Some students still have a low level of English knowledge due to their poor basic academic performance. Not only in oral expression, but also these students often have problems in vocabulary, grammar and other aspects. Some lack interest in practising oral English. No matter what the teacher requires these students are hardly always enthusiastic about getting it done. In addition, some can be too shy to express themselves due to their introvert personality, which also hinders their improvement of oral ability. They are always worried about their pronunciation or expression, afraid of making mistakes and afraid that others will laugh at them. Many students are afraid to speak English because they do not have systematic oral training and lack the ability to express themselves. They are afraid of public speaking, afraid of mistakes, and even more afraid of other people’s ridicule. This kind of psychology leads students to be nervous when speaking in English..

3.2.2 Problems existing in teachers

Teachers do not pay attention to students’ oral training. In the face of the college entrance examination system, many teachers put students’ test-taking ability in a prominent position while put the oral ability aside. The oral training class was changed into a knowledge point training class. Even if they are not trained, they could still pass a simple oral test. Although the oral English test scores are included in the senior high school entrance examination scores, the test content is simple and the form is single, which can be passed by the average students. This kind of situation has led students into almost “dumb” English. The quality of oral English teaching in junior middle school will also be directly affected by teachers’ classroom teaching methods and teaching abilities. Some teachers have the problem of carrying out oral English teaching activities in a single “infusing” classroom teaching mode. In this kind of classroom teaching mode, it is difficult for students to really feel the pleasure of learning oral English knowledge, which is not conducive to the in-depth study of oral English. Some teachers still adopt the “cramming” teaching method. When imparting knowledge, the teacher sees himself as the subject in the classroom instead of the students. However, a truly successful lesson should be that students not only master the knowledge taught by the teacher, but at the same time, students learn how to learn.

The class-based teaching system is widely adopted in China. There are much more students in a class in China compared with foreign countries. This also puts more pressure on the teacher. Every student is different, which requires that the learning situation of each student will be different too. However, in reality, teachers often start teaching according to the learning situation of most students in the class, which may ignore some of the students.

  1. Application of Situational Teaching Approach in Oral English Teaching

4.1 Advantages of situational teaching approach

Situational teaching, with its intuitive, interesting and dynamic features, stimulates students’ desire to participate in learning. It can positively change the old cramming teaching method, help the boring language points appear in the lively environment, and make the grammar learning lively and easy, which is also in line with the psychological characteristics of students.

The main content is as follows:

  1. . Situational teaching solves the problem of weak relevance between theory and reality. This kind of teaching method greatly enriches the teaching method, and overcomes the problems such as the traditional teaching which is disconnected from the reality as well as the poor pertinence.
  2. . It can arouses the students’ enthusiasm for learning. In practice, we found that the students were much more enthusiastic about this approach than we had expected and so were they about the practice. The combination of theoretical learning system and theoretical learning system works well.
  3. . It has strong pertinence. This way is more helpful for teachers to discover the problems existing in teaching, to master the teaching effect in time, and to make corresponding adjustments to the teaching content.
  4. . The timeliness is strong. This kind of teaching method needs teachers to renew the teaching content constantly, overcome the negative influence of the traditional teaching mode. The teacher must try their best to answer the new question that occurs in the student"s study process and make their teaching content more timely.
  5. . It is beneficial to develop students’ hands-on ability. This teaching method improves the practical ability and overcomes the shortcomings of students’ enriched theoretical knowledge but insufficient practical ability under the traditional teaching mode so that the students’ practical ability can be greatly improved.

4.2 Principles of situational teaching approach in oral English class

The first principle is to follow in order and advance step by step. In the process of oral English teaching in junior middle school, the creation of students’ oral environment must be based on students’ ability. it can give students full play in the situation and study in a relaxing and happy atmosphere.

The second principle is to be realistic.This principle is the basic principle of oral English teaching in middle school which can be viewed as a whole. When implementing situational teaching method, teachers should consider the actual level of students and create a reasonable learning environment for students. In the process of teaching, teachers’ expectations should also be appropriate so as to match most students.

The third principle is to use performance to create story scenes. Through the use of modern multimedia technology, teachers can better show useful information about the background and students can also enjoy learning from their personal exploration. For example, when teaching the sentence patterns like: Can you come to my party? The answer is “Yes, I do like...” or “sorry, I can’t do this”. Teachers can use some interesting photos to simulate the situational dialogues in class to help students better understand the usage of the pattern and thus learn to speak out to further improve their oral skills.

The fourth principle is to set up suspense and create meaningful questions. Teachers should create the atmosphere of the scene according to the specific situation of the students and set up suspense to stimulate students’ curiosity in this way, let them experience the fun of learning, and thus enhance the focus of learning.

The fifth principle is ingenious introduction of teaching knowledge. Before the class, teachers can use modern electronic equipment to attract students’ attention and cheer them up, and then lead to the teaching objectives and content. For example, in the teaching process, there are three pictures in a row: Hawaii, Mexico, Niagara Falls. Then the teacher can ask the students a question, “What is this place?” Some of them who can recognize the pictures would say, “Hawaii, Mexico, Niagara Falls”Then teachers can continue to ask questions according to the answers to lead in today’s teaching content. With these methods to draw out the knowledge, it can improve the students’ basic knowledge and their oral ability gets enhanced.

4.3 Measures of applying situational teaching approach in oral English class

The purpose of situational teaching is to make language knowledge more vivid. Through real situations, teachers can provide a rich paradigm for language functions. The more vivid the situation is, the better students will understand this knowledge. Therefore, in the teaching process, it is very important and necessary to create situations using material objects, pictures, gestures and actions.

Measure one: Teachers should use real things to reflect the scene as the reality is always a resource full of useful things to create a lively situation.

Example:

The content of the oral English class is centered on food. Teachers can provide props for students. Students can make sandwich in the light of the props provided by the teacher. Students should show the process of making a sandwich and explain the steps of making a sandwich. In this lesson, explaining the steps to make a sandwich is the point.

In this lesson, through the props provided by the teacher, the book knowledge can be more directly and clearly displayed in front of the students, so that the students have an immersive feeling and can guide the students into the English thinking mode.

Measure two: Teachers should make full use of multimedia. The rapid development of information technology has brought huge convenience to oral English education.

On the one hand, multimedia technology can establish flexible, interesting, intuitive and dynamic learning environment. On the other hand, the method of game teaching can also be of help. As a form of learning, it is earlier to absorb new things in class. Teachers can combine multimedia with situational teaching methods to create an interesting situation for students to practice their speaking skills in this situation. First of all, the teacher plays the video for students. After the students watch the video, the teacher can let the students simulate the scene and make conversations in English. After students finish it, the teacher can lay their finger on the students’ problems and revise the students’ pronunciation and intonation. After this, the teacher can then ask the students to talk about what they have learned by speaking in English. In this kind of oral English class, the teacher can train the students’ oral English and improve the students’ ideological realm.

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