At present with the performance of the national new Curriculum, the teachers and students are facing the new challenges. We made a survey and found out the problems as follows:
1. Too hard a course book
2. Severe lack of professional English teachers
3. Scarce of the atmosphere of English learning
4. Short of necessities of English teaching
5. Too many students in a class
How can we go out of such poor teaching conditions and how can we improve our students’ English achievements? Some measures have been taken as follows after our careful analysis and further research.
1. Strengthen the young teacher training.
Teaching competence is the key to a teacher. So the teachers training should be enhanced. We organized all the fresh English teachers to learn the textbooks and teaching methodology during summer holidays under the leadership of the local Education Bureau. We employed some experienced teachers and instructed them how to teach each unit , how to play a game , how to attract the students in class and how to organize pair work or group work so that they are skilled with the English teaching before they go to their posts.
2. Form the regulation of lesson preparation in groups
In order to develop all the teachers’ intelligence and wisdom, we offered the requirement that each school should hold a preparing-lesson meeting once a week. And each time a host speaker must make a good preparation for the speech. The following should be included in his or her speech: a) Brief introduction to the content in each unit; b) The teaching objectives, the focal and difficult points and some other requirements for the students; c) The suggestions for teaching and adjusted tips in Teacher’s Book; d) The detailed use about the Student’s Practice Book; e) The selected teaching methodology; f) The media to be chosen; g) The problems to be discussed or solved; h) The tasks or projects to be held; i) The situations tested in the last unit.
After that every teacher immediately begin to revise this lesson plan based on his or her own class. Thus the usage for the new teaching materials can greatly be ensured in the heart of each teacher.
3. Teach the students how to learn.
Learn to know is very important to a student. Therefore, plenty of learning ways like Hermann Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve have been introduced to the students through our efforts. New knowledge should be repeated once in a day or four times in a week before forgotten. According to this rule, the students cannot throw away the newly-learnt knowledge but review it over and over again till it deeply impressed on their minds. The students should not only use their brains but also write by hand when they learn the vocabulary. Meanwhile, worries and fears in leaning the language should be smoothed away. Learn to play and play to learn ought to be carried out in or after class as often as possible in order that the students might enjoy English.
4. Establish the Helping each other Group.
The interest in learning a language can be produced in a special circumstance. And also it can be kept and developed in the condition that the starters should be encouraged continuously. So we asked each student must find one or two partners in learning English so that they can help each other and learn from each other out of class. Even on the way to school and back home they can ask and answer questions in English together. As a result, they get into the contest before they know. Naturally, their level in English can be improved.
5. Organize activities to communicate.
As we know, English teaching is of communication, for communication and by communication. And yet communication can be realized in English activities. So the teachers are required to organize many kinds of interesting and colorful activities for the students to use this language. The students are asked to have a dialogue or a report in each class, participate in the English corner each day, learn to sing an English song each week and join in the English contest every two weeks. Furthermore, the classroom must be decorated with English cards, pictures, wall chats, stick drawings, etc. to make sure there’s an English atmosphere and the students can feel and smell English.
江苏省新沂市教师进修学校 卓夫琳
江苏省新沂市教育局教研室 陆绍银 |