A Brief Analysis of english teaching in senior high school

时间:2008-11-25 06:27:58

(单词翻译:单击)

Abstract: Classroom teaching is the main way for students to learn English. But in senior high school, a lots of probelms still exsit in the English teaching especially in the teaching of reading and writing. In this paper, the importance and methods of reading and writing  will be further discussed. Key words: reading   writing   techniques
Introduction: Classes should be learner-centered, with meaningful, functional2 activities, often, classes begin by finding out what the students don’t know. These classes operate on the assumption that there is a great deal of information that students lack and that the teacher and textbooks will impact that information to the students. Teachers who hold this assumption view students as plants waiting passively to be fed and watered. But I think the students should be regarded as explorers, active learners who bring a great deal to the learning process and at the same time, draw from their environment as they develop new understandings. The basic principle will be used in the teaching of reading and writing. 
 
Section One------ How to teach reading
I. Why teach reading
There are many reasons why getting students to read English texts is an important part of the teacher’s job. In the first place, many of them want to be able to read texts in English either for their careers, for study purposes or simply for pleasure. Anything we can do to make reading easier for them must be a good idea.
  Reading texts provide good models for English writing, provide opportunities to study language vocabulary, grammar, punctuation3, and the way to construct sentences, paragraphs and texts. Lastly, good reading texts can introduce interesting topics, stimulate4 discussion, excite imaginative responses and be the springboard for well-rounded, fascinating lessons.
  The last but not the least, students must read widely because only a fraction of knowledge about the world can come from other experiences in their short lives.
II. What kind of reading should students do?
  When the teachers give reading class to students, they should notice a balance----a balance to be struck between real English on the one hand and the students’ capabilities5 and interests on the other. There is some authentic6 written material which beginner students can understand to some degree: menus, timetables, signs and basic instructions, for example, and, where appropriate, teachers can use these. But for longer prose, teachers can offer their students texts, which, while being like English, are nevertheless written or adapted especially for their level. Anyway, the materials to be read should be interesting and meaningful. Teachers should become better acquainted with books written specially1 for teenagers and dealing7 with their problems.
III. What are the principles behind the teaching of reading?
i) Permit Students To Read 
No one has learned to swim by practicing the skills of backstrokes, flutter kicks or treading water while staying on the edge of the swimming pool. Yet, in the teaching of reading teachers often do just that. Rather than let the students into “the water”, teachers keep them in skills books learning rules about letters, syllables8 or definitions of words rather than letting them into the book itself, permitting them to be   immersed in the language which comes from the authors as the readers try to reconstruct the written message.

ii) Encourage students to respond to the content of a reading text, not just to the language
Of course, it is important to study reading texts for the way they use language, how many paragraphs they contain and how many times they use relative clauses. But the meaning, the message of the text, is much more important. Teachers should help students understand that the main reason to read is for them. They have to have their own purpose to read and reading must make sense, they have to find ways of doing something about it. They should be encouraged either to reread or to continue reading to gain meaning. But they must realize that the meaning is not in the teacher, but in the interaction between the reader and author. Students should be encouraged to ask themselves repeatedly, “Does this make sense to me?” Students should be encouraged to reject and to be intolerant of reading materials that do not make sense.
  iii) Encourage students to guess or predict
  Readers’ guesses or predictions are based on the cumulative9 information and syntactic structure they have been learning as they have been reading. Therefore, their guesses are more often than not appropriate to the materials. Students have to realize that risk taking in reading is appropriate; that using context to decide what words mean is a proficient10 reading strategy and that they have the language sense to make appropriate guesses which can fit both the grammatical and semantic sense of what they are reading.
  iv) Match the task to the topic
  Once a decision has been taken about what kind of reading text the students are going to read, teachers need to choose good reading tasks—the right kind of questions and useful puzzles, etc. Asking boring and inappropriate questions can undermine the most interesting text; the most commonplace passage can be made really exciting with imaginative and challenging tasks. Working in groups, the English teacher and students take turns asking each other questions following the reading. The teacher may ask, “ What is the significance of the character’s age?” These questions require inferences based on details from the reading text.


Section Two------How to teach writing (Developing correctness in students’ writing)
   “Students learn to write by writing, and they learn to write correctly by writing, revising, and proofreading11 their own work”---with some help or direction from the teacher when it is necessary. They do not learn to write correctly by studying about writing or doing isolated12 workbook exercises unrelated to their own writing. So, the most important technique a teacher can use to guide students toward grammatically correct writing is to let them write, let them write things related to their own experiences. There is no limit to the kinds of text the teacher can ask students to write. Teachers’ decisions, though, should based on how much language the students know, what their interests are.
  “Do I read a paper and ignore all punctuation, what good is that for students?

   We spend hours at night with papers---I’m not sure the students get as much from it as the time I spend on it.”
   These comments by senior high school English teachers discussing the process of marking student papers reflect the dissatisfaction and frustration13 of many teachers over the problem of dealing with the errors in student writing-----the obvious mistakes in spelling, punctuation----Traditionally, teachers have worked to correct errors in two ways: by teaching grammatically correctness through exercise in grammar texts; by pointing out all errors when making student papers.
   Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it is covered in red ink, underlings and crossing-out. It is a powerful visual statement of the fact that their written English is terrible. Of course, some pieces of written work are completely full of mistakes, but even in these cases, the teacher has to achieve a balance between being accurate and truthful14 on the one hand and treating students sensitively and sympathetically on the other.
   Some techniques can be used in dealing with the errors in student papers:
   i) Selectivity 
Rather than engage in intensive error-correction when responding to student writing, teachers are encouraged to adopt a more moderate approach to error. If the teacher over-corrects the students’ mistakes, the students would be likely to focus on errors instead of ideas. Students are more likely to grow as writers when the teacher’s primary purpose in reading student papers is to respond to content. However, if attention to content and correctness are combined when making papers, it is more helpful to select one or two kinds of errors the individual student is making than to point out every error in the paper. The teacher can identify a selected error, show an example or two on the student paper, and either explain the correct form or direct the student to a handbook for further explanation. It is always worth writing a comment at the end of a piece of written work -----anything from “Well done” to “This is a good story, but you must look again at your use of past tenses---see X grammar book page xx.”
  ii) Error-analysis 
Another method for working with student error, one that can be especially fruitful for teachers, is to approach it from an analytic15 perspective. Teachers, as error-analyst, look for patterns in the errors of an individual student, tries to discover how the mistake arrived at the mistakes by analyzing16 the error (Lack of knowledge about a certain grammatical point; A careless one or a mis-learned rule?), and plans strategies accordingly.
  iii) Publish Student Writing 
The final basic strategy is publishing. Students need a reason for laboring17 over a draft until it is perfect; the urge to see oneself in print can be a powerful drive toward revision and proofreading.
  Conclusion: As teachers to the students who are in senior high school, they should learn to turn students’ hard work toward supporting the language strengths students already have, proving students with a feeling of success, finding materials and planning classroom experiences will turn students on to reading and writing, the reading and writing will develop with much greater ease than it does at the present time.

Reference:
Gu Xueliang, The Basic Technical Training in English Teaching, Hangzhou University Press, 1998.
Wilga M.Rivers & Mary S. Temperley, A practical guide to the teaching of English as a second or foreign Language, New York: Oxford18 University Press, 1978
Smith F.  Understanding Reading (2d ed), New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978
David Freeman&Yvome S. Freeman, A Road to Success for Language, New York: Oxford University Press
龚雅芳&张连忠&李静军(编辑),英语教学基本讲座,北京师范学院出版社,1991


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1 specially Hviwq     
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地
参考例句:
  • They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
  • The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。
2 functional 5hMxa     
adj.为实用而设计的,具备功能的,起作用的
参考例句:
  • The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了,但现在可以用了。
  • The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的,只是为了实用。
3 punctuation 3Sbxk     
n.标点符号,标点法
参考例句:
  • My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
  • A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。
4 stimulate wuSwL     
vt.刺激,使兴奋;激励,使…振奋
参考例句:
  • Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
  • Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。
5 capabilities f7b11037f2050959293aafb493b7653c     
n.能力( capability的名词复数 );可能;容量;[复数]潜在能力
参考例句:
  • He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大,自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
  • Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为,标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
6 authentic ZuZzs     
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的
参考例句:
  • This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
  • Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
7 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
8 syllables d36567f1b826504dbd698bd28ac3e747     
n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • a word with two syllables 双音节单词
  • 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓,它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
9 cumulative LyYxo     
adj.累积的,渐增的
参考例句:
  • This drug has a cumulative effect.这种药有渐增的效力。
  • The benefits from eating fish are cumulative.吃鱼的好处要长期才能显现。
10 proficient Q1EzU     
adj.熟练的,精通的;n.能手,专家
参考例句:
  • She is proficient at swimming.她精通游泳。
  • I think I'm quite proficient in both written and spoken English.我认为我在英语读写方面相当熟练。
11 proofreading dbf4e2729ffc7098a6c478afffebd64e     
校对,校勘( proofread的现在分词 ); 做校对工作; 校读
参考例句:
  • Martha, when can you finish proofreading the script? 玛莎,你什么时候可以校对完剧本? 来自轻松英语会话---联想3000词(上)
  • Attention, an important factor in editing and proofreading, affects editing quality directly. 注意力是编校过程中重要的心理因素,直接影响编辑质量。
12 isolated bqmzTd     
adj.与世隔绝的
参考例句:
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
13 frustration 4hTxj     
n.挫折,失败,失效,落空
参考例句:
  • He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
  • He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
14 truthful OmpwN     
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的
参考例句:
  • You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心,他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
  • I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。
15 analytic NwVzn     
adj.分析的,用分析方法的
参考例句:
  • The boy has an analytic mind. 这男孩有分析的头脑。
  • Latin is a synthetic language,while English is analytic.拉丁文是一种综合性语言,而英语是一种分析性语言。
16 analyzing be408cc8d92ec310bb6260bc127c162b     
v.分析;分析( analyze的现在分词 );分解;解释;对…进行心理分析n.分析
参考例句:
  • Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据,暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
  • He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然,他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句
17 laboring 2749babc1b2a966d228f9122be56f4cb     
n.劳动,操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转
参考例句:
  • The young man who said laboring was beneath his dignity finally put his pride in his pocket and got a job as a kitchen porter. 那个说过干活儿有失其身份的年轻人最终只能忍辱,做了厨房搬运工的工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • But this knowledge did not keep them from laboring to save him. 然而,这并不妨碍她们尽力挽救他。 来自飘(部分)
18 Oxford Wmmz0a     
n.牛津(英国城市)
参考例句:
  • At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
  • This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

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