英语课堂教学中的互动策略 英语毕业论文.doc

英语课堂教学中的互动策略abstractthe ultimate aim of english teaching is to cultivate students ability of using english. and in china, the realization of the english teaching goal depends mainly on classroom instruction. english classroom has special features, because it is the most important place for many students to learn english. language course is a course which is more practical, so good classroom interaction is the best opportunity for students to practice using language, that is to say, classroom interaction is the real process of language classroom teaching. in the process of teaching, a good teacher-learner relationship and a comfortable interactive environment are helpful to the language learning. however, the present language teaching is far from realizing this goal, the effect of classroom interaction is not so ideal. therefore, how to make the classroom interaction function effectively is a very big problem that needs to be solved. in this essay, the author analyzes the improper interact phenomenon and gives some suggestions on the strategies for the significant classroom interaction.key wordsenglish language teaching; classroom interaction; strategies摘要英语教学的最终目的是培养学生使用英语的能力，然而在中国，英语教学目标的实现主要依靠课堂教学。英语课堂具有特殊性,因为它是学生学习英语的主要阵地。语言课是一门实践性很强的课，良好的课堂互动是学生语言实践的极好机会。也就是说，课堂互动就是语言教学的实际过程。在教学过程中，良好的师生关系和适宜的互动环境对学生的语言学习起着积极的促进作用。然而,现在英语课堂教学互动的效果不太理想,有意义的互动活动尚未得到有效的进行。因此,在英语课堂中如何实现良性互动成为英语教学需要解决的重要问题。本文中，笔者从分析现存的低效的互动出发,就英语课堂互动策略作初步的探讨。关键词英语教学；课堂互动；策略introductionas a communicative tool, language plays a very important role almost in all situations. in the 21st century, with the rapid development of society, science and technology, china and other countries throughout the world will have more cooperation. in addition, china has entered wto and the 2008 olympic games will be held in beijing. all these situations require our country to have more highly qualified persons. among these requirements, language communicative ability is the basic element. so english, the widely used language, is becoming more and more important in china.then how to let the students learn english well is to become one of the most important jobs in our country at present. as far as most of chinese students are concerned, classroom learning is still the main channel for them to receive language input, so how to improve classroom teaching quality becomes so important. as is known, the function of language can be realized only by the information- passing among people, and the final goal of foreign language learning is to use language in work and life. thus teachers should teach the language in the way it is used in the real world (wang qiang, 2006) and try their best to create the conditions in which learning can take place. and it is true that learning is a partnership between teacher and students (jeremy harmer, 2000). besides, language classroom instruction has special features that the interaction in it is the best opportunity for students to practice language as a language communicative activity. the classroom interactive activity is the carrier of the whole teaching activity (wang duqin, 2002), and it is even the real procedure of the classroom instruction. above all, the special features of language and language classroom decide that it is least possible to help students to learn a language in a classroom setting without making any contact with them. consequently, the function of classroom interaction is very obvious.i. the improper classroom interaction in present english teachingas everybody knows, foreign language classroom instruction is composed of the teachers teaching and the students learning. unfortunately, in the present english instruction, the importance of classroom interactions is far from being realized; the significant interactions have not been practiced effectively, and very often teachers misunderstand the conception of interactions, then the effect is not so ideal, and it cannot meet the needs of the new situation and challenge. there are two kinds of inefficient teaching models in the present english teaching. one is that they still insist on the teacher-centered model; the other is that they misunderstand the interactive activities as the uncontrolled and freely activities. in these two kinds of teaching models, teaching and learning work separately, thus these improper teaching methods cause the classroom teaching inefficient: sometimes, the learners have not participated the learning activities completely, even they just pay little attention to the classroom teaching; sometimes, they cannot really understand the meaning of the language knowledge, so after class, they do not know how to use them in real life, and do not know how to study by themselves. here are some specific improper classroom interactions:a. the influence of teacher-centered modelinfluenced by the notion of teacher-centered teaching, many junior school teachers still teach language in the traditional ways. firstly, the imbalanced talking time between teacher and students. the teacher still shares a special right and in an upper position, in which he or she still dominates the whole class. in such kind of teaching classroom, there is too much ttt (teacher talking time) and not enough stt (student talking time)(jeremy harmer, 2000) , and the whole class time is taken up by the teachers presentation and explanations, there is still a” speech supremacy” phenomenon, while the students are just given few chances to answer the nominated questions. getting students to speak or to use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teachers job because students are the people who need practice. a good teacher should maximize the stt and minimize the ttt. secondly, students psychological barriers. teachers still pay too much attention to the language contents rather than the students pragmatic competence. they always point out the language mistakes and even scold the speakers when they misuse the words or grammar. in other words, students often are not allowed to use language as a means of intellectual and social exchange. they are expected to respond primarily to the teachers demands, and their speaking activities are often intervened by the teachers “only one answer”. therefore, the students are afraid of being blamed by the teacher or being laughed at by other peers, and this psychological barrier will prevent them from participating to the interactive activity.thirdly, the imbalanced stt. in the classroom, some learners seem to take advantage of what is going on more than others. it looks as if they are engaged with the process of learning than their classmates. (jeremy harmer, 2000). in a language classroom, some know how to attract the attention of the teacher; and some others know how to make others speak out their ideas and get help, while the others are keeping silence. by comparison, the first group of students is easy to be the main parts of the class, and their talking time is usually much longer than the ones who keep silence. experienced teachers said the class is easy to be captivated by the bright, witty, loud, extrovert students (jeremy harmer, 2000). under such situation, the interaction is often carried out just between teacher and the advantaged students, while the weak students have rare chances to practice. fourthly, the long social distance between speakers and listeners. a survey shows that 75.6% teachers said they have few chances to communicate with their students; even 93% foreign language teachers have few chances to contact with their students after class. (xiang maoying, 2004). lacking of necessary communication caused the relationship between the teacher and students is no longer so close, they feel that they have no common topic, then the classroom interactions will be hindered. b. aimless classroom interaction some teachers disregard the interaction as a constantly speaking activity. in order to let their classroom teaching embody the interaction features, they often make great effort to manage and ask many questions, so that an “active” environment is formed: the teacher raises the questions constantly, and students answer the questions constantly without any thinking. and among these questions, many questions are valueless for learning, while some questions are unfit for the learners level. in such teaching model, the teacher just focus on the interaction forms rather than the interaction contents; they just pay attention to the answer forms, while neglecting where the answers come from? this kind of interaction is lack of clear goals, so the ideation of students cannot really be aroused.c. the disordered classroom interactiondiscipline is a code of conduct which binds the teacher and students together so that learning can be more effective (wang qiang, 2006). many examples indicate that an ordered classroom interaction is the necessary condition that can ensure the classroom teaching undergo smoothly. however, in some language classroom, students walk around the classroom freely and often make some noise, while the teacher is just to be an audience to watch the students “free performance” without offering any implication. so the classroom is like a noisy free market. in such an environment, the meaningful interaction cannot work, and the students still cannot obtain the significant language input.d. imbalanced teacher-students interaction and student-student interactionas is known, the teacher-students interaction and student-student interaction are the main forms and channels of the classroom interaction, and the main roles of the interaction are teacher as well as students. however, in many language classrooms, the teacher-students interaction is much more than student-student interaction, and there is even no effective student-student interaction. so the students still cannot experience the learning process as one of interaction and discovery, and their initiative and creativity are confined.e. disintegrated and unsystematic classroom activitiesin order to achieve the teaching task and the teaching aim, teachers always manage and raise many questions. with the increasing of the questions, the learners mind become widely open, and they can provide and produce more and more information. however, at the same time, the speaking content strays from the point, and the teacher often does not do a summary. therefore, after class, students often feel that they obtained much knowledge, but when they are asked to raise them out, they become “mute”.ii. introduction about language features and classroom interactiona. the characteristics of language first of all, the interactional view considers language to be a communicative tool, whose main use is to build up and maintain social relations between people. therefore, the final goal of language teaching is to enable students to use the foreign language in their real life, and the learners not only need to know the vocabulary and grammar of the language but also as importantly they need to know the rules for using them in a whole range of communicative contexts(wang qiang, 2006).in addition, language is a language learning tool, its main function is to help learners produce and acquire more language information. relevantly, the aim of language learning is not just to cope with the examination, but should stretch it to a higher degree. so obtaining some specific language points is still not the final goal of language learning, and it is improper for the teacher and students to pay much more attention to the grammar or sentence fragments than pragmatic competence.as mentioned above, language is not only the contents of teaching but also the means to teach, which requires teachers ought to know how to teach language by using language. in fact, the interactive activities in language classroom are language-practicing activities. so if the students take part in the classroom interactions actively, they will gain the best chances to learn and practice language, and their passive positions will be changed into active positions.in one word, languages special features decide that language classroom should be filled with interactions.b. the role of classroom interaction there is always so big a gap between classroom language teaching and real-life language use that the final aim of foreign language learning can not be realized. now that the procedure of language teaching is a process of bilateral activity between teacher and students, a successful language teaching depends on a new good bilateral relation between teaching and learning. thus it is necessary to create a language environment that every learner can join in it. classroom interaction is a process that teacher and students exchange ideas, transmit information, help each other and give impetus to each other. in an interaction classroom, the teacher is a guide, and students are learning subjects. in such a case, teaching undergoes by teachers leading and students discovery. in other words, a classroom interaction is a good cooperation between teachers teaching and learners learning. during the interaction, they can discuss the topics together, probe into the problems together, and when the students meet challenges, the teacher ought to be the prompter and resource-provider to help the students achieve their learning tasks. generally speaking, there are two kinds of interaction forms in classroom language teaching. they are teacher-students interactions and student-student interactions. the new requirement of the classroom instruction requires that the cooperative work between teaching and learning ought to be an interactive process between teacher and learners. led by this new teaching notion, classroom interaction ought to be the core of the whole teaching process. in such an interaction-oriented classroom, the connection and cooperation between two sides or among several sides should be emphasized. this teaching model can not only meet the demands of the language input and output but also improve the teaching quality. the main functions of classroom interaction are based on the following aspects.1. developing the intrinsic motivation of the studentsmany people agree that the best motivation for study is interest. so in the english classroom teaching, teachers must try their best to stimulate the students interest. in an interaction classroom, the students study in an atmosphere, in which they can contact actively with their teacher and other peers, and they can get help from the teacher or their classmates when they meet challenge.in addition, in an interactive classroom, language learning becomes variety and authentic because there are many authentic materials such as vivid objects, audio-visuals aids and lifelike situations. here is a useful teaching situation: when teacher wants to let the students acquire the fruit names, he or she can regard ppt (power point technology) as the teaching aids, show the fruits on the screen and present the words like this way:t: do you like apples?s1: yes, i do. t: can you spell it?s2: a-p-p-l-e.t: very good. i like apples, too. now follow me, please.ss: apple, a-p-p-l-e. i like apple.when finishing this word, the teacher shows the students another picture, and presents it in a similar way. in such teaching model, the teaching content is very vivid and authentic, which makes learners feel interested and relaxed. 2. changing the traditional rolesin an interaction-oriented classroom, the teachers role undergoes a significant shift from a knowledge giver to a facilitator and helper, while students role changes from a passive one into an active one.according to traditional beliefs, the teacher should be a dominator who imparts knowledge to students, while the students are only sitting there passively, keeping silence and waiting to receive, because they have been used to being led instead of taking the lead (wang qiang, 1998). by comparison, in an interactive classroom, the relationship between teacher and learners is the same as the director and actors: the teacher is only a guide or a facilitator who helps the learner to learn, rather than an authority who is supposed to know everything and be able to explain everything. in other words, the teacher helps students to clear away roadblocks, to find shortcuts, to negotiate rough terrain, and the learners can actively interact with the teacher or their classmates.3. improving the teaching efficiencymany studies show that if learners want to master english very well, there are two indispensable conditions they should have. one is the collection of language knowledge; the other is the quantity and quality of language-practicing. as we know, the participants of classroom interaction are the teacher and students. when students learn english, a studying environment for students to transmit information, apply to information, and communicate information should be needed. as above mentioned the interaction classroom is a democratic and equal platform for teacher and learners, so that the students are willing to take part in the learning activities without any hesitation, and they dare to speak in public and dare to ask for help about puzzling questions. besides these, there are a lot of group-work and pair-work in an interaction classroom. so the learners can share their companions opinions and ideas, which will enlarge their knowledge as well as offer them many chances to use language. when the learners get enough language input and output, their pragmatic competence is formed naturally, and the aim of teaching is reached.iii. possible strategies for meaningful classroom interactionhow to enable the classroom interaction to perform functions effectively is a hard job. some possible ways to promote meaningful interaction are based on the following points.a. equal-dialogue