The Interactive English Teaching Method Based on Constructivism in Junior Middle School英语专业毕业论文

1、the interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school abstract with the promotion of teaching reforms, many scientific and efficient teaching methods are strongly advocated in classroom teaching. among these, interactive teaching method is an effective and popular m

2、ethod. in recent years, constructivist theory which emphasizes students initiative learning has been widely applied into education in all parts of the world. however, the traditional “teacher-centered” method has dominated english teaching for a long time, which makes students bored and accept knowl

3、edge passively. for the sake of inadequate interaction, students communicative competence and second language acquisition are not well developed. neither is their initiative learning. constructivism holds that students are an essential part in classroom teaching. they construct knowledge and meaning

4、 from an interaction between their own experiences and ideas. therefore, it is quite essential that teachers should provide more interactions with students to communicate. this thesis combines these two theories, trying to show their importance and to find an effective way to learn english. key word

5、s: constructivism; interactive teaching method; classroom teaching 摘要摘要 随着教学改革的推进，很多科学而有效的教学方法展现在课堂中。其中，互 动教学法就是一种有效而受欢迎的教学方法。近些年来，注重学生主动学习的 建构主义理论也被广泛运用到全世界的教学中。 然而，传统的以教师为中心的教学方法一直在英语教学中处于领导地位。这 种教学模式使学生感到厌烦并且被动地接受知识。由于缺少足够的互动，学生 的交际能力和第二语言习得能力没有得到很好的发展。学生的主动学习能力同 样没有提高。建构主义认为学生是课堂教学的主体，他们对自己的经验和思

6、想 进行互动从而达到知识和意义的建构。因此，教师给学生提供更多的互动机会 进行交流是非常必要的。本文结合建构主义理论和互动式教学，体现两者对学 习英语的重要意义并尝试探求学习英语的有效途径。 关键词关键词：建构主义；互动教学法；课堂教学 contents acknowledgements.i abstract.ii 摘要 .iii 1. introduction.1 2. the overview of constructivist theory.2 2.1 constructivist learning theory .3 2.2 constructivist-based teaching

7、theory.4 3. basic concepts of interaction and classroom interaction .5 3.1 teacher-student interaction .6 3.2 student-student interaction.7 4. the relationship between constructivism and interactive teaching method.8 4.1 the similarity in theoretic foundation .9 4.2 the similarity in teaching approa

8、ches.9 5. the application of interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school.11 5.1 creation of a constructivist environment.11 5.2 enhancement of interactive patterns.12 5.3 improvement of an awareness of questioning.13 5.4 assessment of students performance .14

9、6. conclusion.16 works cited .18 the interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school 1. introduction english as a foreign language has existed for a long time in china. a growing number of people have paid much attention to english teaching due to the practice of

10、the opening and reform policy. besides, english has been considered as one of the fundamental subjects in the curriculum of middle school since the early 1990s. however, it cannot be neglected that english teaching still has a long way to reach the national english level on account of chinese tradit

11、ional teaching method. therefore, how to change the traditional “cramming method of english teaching” and fostering students interests in learning english is the issue that all the countries encounter nowadays. although there are many teaching approaches available, it is still difficult to find an e

12、ffective and satisfactory approach in english teaching of junior middle school. as constructivism gets more concerns from the researchers in teaching, some constructivists have put forward a series of reforms which attempt to shape “student- centered” model in classroom teaching, trying to cultivate

13、 students motivation and initiation of learning, interaction with teachers. furthermore, teachers serving as guiders can stimulate students interests and encourage them to have enough interaction both in and out of class. junior middle school students are in the second important period of acquiring

14、a foreign language. however, in chinese traditional classroom, the students just listen to teachers, take notes and take in knowledge passively. there is little or no exchange of information and interactions with teachers. it is safe to conclude that this teaching method is not consistent with stude

15、nts psychological characteristics; it just makes the students acquire english passively rather than helps them have a desire to learn. as for the teacher, he or she only plays as a transmitter. so take the quality of english teaching into consideration, optimizing english teaching method in junior m

16、iddle school is fairly necessary. constructivism holds that teaching should be built based on what learners have already known and teachers should guide them to different kinds of activities. this idea has fully illustrated the importance of interactive activities which can help students to stimulat

17、e their interest and consolidate the knowledge they have learnt. the traditional teaching method not only depresses the atmosphere of the classroom, but also erases students initiation of learning and self-construction learning. 2. the overview of constructivist theory constructivism is a fairly adv

18、anced theory system，which develops further from behaviorism to cognitivism. it refers to the idea that the learner constructs knowledge from experience. in other words, the acquisition of knowledge happens in the process of self-construction. knowing is a process of self-construction, learners need

19、to transform the knowledge provided by teachers or books and comprehend it by themselves. in terms of constructivism, there are many historical scholars making contribution to its development. first, it is generally put forward by jean piaget, who articulates mechanisms by which knowledge is interna

20、lized by learners. he suggests that through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences. whats more, he argues knowledge is constructed through social collaboration, and learning arises from interactions with others. (郑勇, 陶三发，2007) piagets

21、theory of constructivist learning has had wide ranging impact on learning theories and teaching methods in education and is an underlying theme of many education reform movements. john dewey has provided a foundation for constructivism. he believes that learning occurs when children are experiencing

22、 something. teachers need to design environments and interact with learners to foster inventive, creative, critical learners. (archambault, 1964) therefore, teachers should have an understanding of learners characteristics as well as personalities. and another understanding of arousing learners inte

23、rest and curiosity for learning also need teachers attention. as teachers, they must balance these two understandings. psychologist vygotsky represents socio-constructivist theory which holds learning is best achieved through the dynamic interaction between teacher and learner and between learners.

24、(vygotsky, 1978) with the help of the teacher or another learner, the learner can move to a new level of understanding. modern constructivists pay much attention to vygotskys theories, which have been used to support classroom instructional methods that emphasize cooperative learning, project-based

25、learning, and discovery. (holliday, 1994) it can be concluded that the development of constructivism theory is closely connected with interactions and it attaches great importance to learners self- exploration, self-discovery and self-construction of knowledge. the term knowledge can be seen as a pr

26、oduct of humans and it is socially and culturally constructed by human themselves. today, there is much pedagogy related to constructivist theory. most teaching approaches developing from constructivism advocate that knowledge is constructed by learners themselves. moreover, constructivist learning

27、theory and constructivist-based teaching theory which will be discussed in the following sections also have captured great attention nowadays. 2.1 constructivist learning theory according to constructivism, it points out that knowledge is not acquired from teachers; instead, its acquisition depends

28、on learners themselves, teachers are just viewed as guiders and promoters from whom learners can get some help. through making good use of materials under a certain circumstance, they can construct meanings finally. the constructivist learning theory involves four factors. they are circumstance, coo

29、peration, discussion and meaning construction. constructivism plays an important role in learning; it aims at consolidating meaning construction. therefore, lesson planning should not only pay attention to teaching goals, but also to circumstance which is helpful for learners to construct meanings.

30、cooperation which focuses on interactions between learners functions greatly in the whole process of learning; it can improve students ability of communicating. furthermore, it concerns about material collecting and analysis, questions and discovery, assessment and meaning construction. as for discu

31、ssion, it is an indispensable part in cooperation, including group discussion and group communication. in accordance with students characteristics of psychology, discussion can give students some chances to show themselves. to some extent, it strengthens students communicative competence. last but n

32、ot least, meaning construction is the final purpose of learning. it consists of the nature, regularity and inner connections of leaning. (何克抗，2009) constructivist defines that learning is a process of learners self-construction instead of teachers controlling. in other words, what a learner gets is

33、proportional to his ability of meaning construction. so take the features of constructivist learning theory into account, a constructivist classroom should be managed by teachers who can help students to construct meanings in an appropriate environment. 2.2 constructivist-based teaching theory const

34、ructivism which develops from cognitive theory of children has formed a new learning theory and a new teaching theory as well. according to constructivism mentioned above, this learning theory stresses the importance of individuals. it advocates students initiation of constructing meaning. although

35、constructivism maintains students are the main part in classroom teaching, it does not mean that teachers can be neglected. by contrary, it puts emphasis on teachers roles in helping students to love learning. additionally, the new curriculum also stipulates that the teacher should function as a fac

36、ilitator of students learning rather than simply transmitting knowledge. this means that the teacher needs to create a positive learning environment to motivate learners and interact with them, guide them to acquire knowledge by themselves. the learning environment should also be designed to support

37、 and challenge the learners thinking. this reform is consistent with constructivism, the teacher is considered as an organizer, a guider and a promoter in learners self-construction. (付春玲，2010) as a result, to learn english well does not only depend on learners themselves, but also depend on teacher

38、s. teachers roles involve helping students to develop their ability of self-construction, activate their motivation in learning and shape an appropriate learning environment. thus, teachers need to have a better understanding of constructivism and bring it into classroom teaching. in addition to the

39、 constructivist learning and teaching theory, constructivism also pours attention into the teaching models. at present, there have been three mature and popular teaching approaches influenced by constructivism. they are scaffolding instruction; anchored instruction and random access instruction.（张其云

40、，2003） although there are some differences among them, the core idea is the same. that is, learners complete meaning construction by themselves through interactions. 3. basic concepts of interaction and classroom interaction the concepts of interaction vary from scholars to scholars. as for the “int

41、eraction”, it refers to a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. in terms of interactive teaching method, it is seen as a branch of clt (communicative language teaching) that was developed in early 1970s in europe. it focuses on speaking and listening skil

42、ls, with which learners can communicate easily. ellis defines interaction from the perspective of language acquisition: “interaction consists of the discourse jointly constructed by the learner and his interlocutors; input, therefore, is the result of interaction”. (ellis, 1999) however, such skills

43、 have not made any progress through the traditional way of teaching where the emphasis was on the learning of grammar rules and translation. in the traditional classroom, students could not have enough chances to apply the language, although clt promotes that people use language to fulfill functiona

44、l purposes - to interact with people. in other words, the purpose of language learning is not to learn its grammatical structures but to be able to use the structures for communication. as for classroom teaching, interaction is a collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or

45、more students in classroom teaching from the point of pedagogy. through interactions, learners can get some improvement of their ideas. english is learnt not taught, it can not arouse students interest as a language; instead, teachers imagination and teaching approach have an affect on it. therefore

46、, the application of interaction is an important faction in a successful classroom teaching. students can interact with each other; they can show their ideas and share their ideas. generally speaking, interactions reflect a teaching statement “learning by doing.” furthermore, classroom interaction i

47、nvolves many activities, such as discussion, pair work, games, role-play and group work. learners can enhance the comprehension of knowledge through these kinds of activities. littlewood introduced a classification of social interaction activities: role-playing through cued dialogues role-playing th

48、rough cues and information role-playing through situation and goals role-playing through debate or discussion large-scale simulation activities improvisation (littlewood, 1981) with regard to what littlewood put forward, these social interaction activities can be applied in classroom teaching. vario

49、us interactions can help both students and teachers to achieve the aim of courses. whats more, they can cultivate learners communicative competence and show learners the way to study by themselves, in other words, self-construction. 3.1 teacher-student interaction as for teacher-student interaction,

50、 it is different from traditional teaching pedagogy. in a traditional language classroom, the teaching focus is often on forms rather than functions. the teacher occupies most of the time to read and translate texts which makes the atmosphere dull. without enough opportunities to speak english, the

51、students just listen to the teachers, take notes, and learn english in a passive way. what needs to be pointed out is students are spending a long time in classroom every day, if the organization of teaching is under teachers control without any students participance, students will feel bored and lo

52、se interest in learning. on the contrary, if teachers adopt interactions in classroom teaching and invite students to participate in them, they will be more interested in pursuing english studying. different teaching methods will work differently. in an interactive classroom, students are dominant;

53、they can have a lot of interactive activities with teachers. besides, the goal of teaching is not just delivering grammatical structures to students any more; instead, teachers are giving students some ways to help them construct knowledge by themselves. from this point of view, a harmonious relatio

54、nship between teachers and students is built up. furthermore group discussion, role play, pair work, games, asking questions, etc. are feasible ways that teachers design for students to arouse their interest and ability to construct meanings, and help them have a good understanding of what they have

55、 learnt. students participation can make the classroom active. more importantly, students can concentrate easily when they interact with teachers. this teaching approach reflects “student-centered” model and constructivist learning theory. 3.2 student-student interaction when it comes to student-stu

56、dent interaction, students characteristics of psychology in junior middle school can not be ignored. students are energetic and talkative in this period; they need more communications to move to a high level of self-learning to the fullest potential. however, the traditional teaching pedagogy preven

57、ts students from presenting their psychological characteristics. in the traditional classroom, teachers just treat students as individuals rather than a whole class, and students are separated from each other. seldom do they interact with each other. this kind of learning situation will cause studen

58、ts to be lack of cooperation and become silent learners. however, with interactive teaching method adopted in classroom, the atmosphere of studying english has been changed. students are encouraged to give their own ideas in classroom and share them with their classmates. after expressing their own

59、opinions, they will understand how to respect others and become a good listener. moreover, it can be seen as a common phenomenon that students have a desire to speak in an interactive classroom. they tend to become a speaker rather than an obedient audience. additionally, they are not working alone

60、any more. instead, they can cooperate with their classmates to deal with difficult tasks. for instance, discussions, debates, games, role plays and group works can foster students willingness of communicating because students are regarded as a pair or a group instead of an individual. they will not