课堂活动在初中英语语法教学活动中的运用

课堂活动在初中英语语法教学活动中的运用

The Application of Classroom Activities

in English Grammar Teaching of Junior Middle School

BA Candidate: Supervisor: Major: English

2011届英语专业学士学位论文 Abstract

Table of Contents

摘 要 ....................................................................................................................................... I Abstract .................................................................................................................................. II 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 2 The Five Basic Characteristics of Classroom Activities ..................................... 1

2.1 Diversity in Classroom Activities ..................................................................................................... 1 2.2 Operation And Feasibility ................................................................................................................. 2 2.3 Clear Target ....................................................................................................................................... 2 2.4 Open And Real Activities .................................................................................................................. 2 2.5 Time Concept ..................................................................................................................................... 3

3 Practical Cases of Classroom Activities ................................................................... 3

3.1 The Significance of Using Classroom Activities in Grammar Teaching ....................................... 3 3.1.1 Classroom Activities Can Stimulate Students' Interest in English ................................................ 3 3.1.2 Classroom Activities Can Cultivate Students' Observation .......................................................... 4 3.1.3 Classroom Activities Can Develop Their Minds. ......................................................................... 4 3.2 Functional Communicative Activities .............................................................................................. 4 3.2.1Game Name: Who Is Your Best Friend? ........................................................................................ 4 3.2.2 Game Name: Find The Right Person ............................................................................................ 5 3.2.3 Game Name: Chain Story ............................................................................................................. 5 3.3 The Guided Discovery of Classroom Activities ............................................................................... 6

4 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 7 References .............................................................................................................................. 8 Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................. 9

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文 中文摘要

摘 要

随着新课程改革的推广，强调课程要以创新精神和实践为重点，促进学生身心健康发展，培养学生终身学习的愿望和能力。而英语教师的任务就是不断激发和强化学生兴趣、引导他们逐渐将兴趣转化成稳定的学习动机，使他们树立学好英语的自信心，锻炼克服困难的意志，乐于与他人合作，培养健康向上的品格。本文介绍了课堂活动在初中英语语法教学中的运用。主要讨论了课堂活动的五个基本特征：形式多样性、操作可行性、目标明确性、活动真实开放性和时间概念性来具体说明课堂活动在初中英语语法课堂的实际运用。结合四个实际英语语法教学案例，进一步体现了在初中英语语法课堂当中，有更好的方式教授学生语法知识。英语在中国作为第二外语，很多学生缺乏经常锻炼的机会。初中生在小学接触 语法很少，甚至大部分学生根本没有接触过语法，而在初中英语学习中，语法又是不可或缺的部分。在大多数人都认为教授和学习英语语法是一件很枯燥的事情时，本文将通过丰富多彩的课堂活动来探究初中英语语法的学习，从而进一步研究课堂活动在初中英语语法教学活动中的运用。 关键字：课堂活动; 五个特征；课堂活动实际案例；初中生

I

2011届英语专业学士学位论文 Abstract

Abstract

With the New Curriculum Standards developing, to teach English grammar is becoming more and more important in China. Many students argue that leaning English is so boring that they cannot concentrate on grammar study. And also this is a big problem for our English teacher, especially our junior middle school English teachers. Most of them learned little English in primary school. As English is their second language, they have little time and fewer chances to communicate with others in English. Lacking of background culture, they may have difficulty in understanding grammar. Therefore, this is a common challenge for English teachers. In order to cultivate students' interesting, many teachers have tried many ways to present their English grammar classes. Actually, learning English is not just for examinations but using in their daily life. So holding different kinds of classroom activities is proved to be a better way to teach English grammar in junior middle school. This paper introduces the classroom activities in grammar teaching in junior middle school. It mainly discusses the five basic characteristics of classroom activities, and the four kinds of activity cases. In the traditional English grammar teaching process, students don‟t grasp English grammar well, and they have little interesting in English. Through the four cases，it introduces that classroom activities are popular among students. Many students who are taught English grammar by this way reflect that they feel better than before in learning English grammar. Arousing students' learning enthusiasm and initiative, teachers may have more confidence in their teaching.

Key words: classroom activities, five basic characteristics, practical classroom activity

cases, junior middle school students

II

2011届英语专业学士学位论文

The Application of Classroom Activities in English Grammar Teaching of Junior High School

1 Introduction

Vasyl Oloxandrovych Sukhcmlynsky, an education expert, says: “if teachers don‟t try to produce mood and mental state of mind, it will bring fatigue (2003.9).”Not just a mental labor without feeling. The essence of classroom activities is to achieve the teaching goals, which combines the dull learning to the mechanical practicing to become different kinds of interesting activities effectively. The English language learning and English language skills training combine organically in classroom activities, which can change the dull situation and develop the students‟ intelligence and no-intelligent factors. Only following the New Curriculum Standards and the Task-based language teaching basic concepts, considering premise of students themselves, and grasping the nature of grammar, the English teacher can develop the students‟ abilities of understanding and teach English grammar better. When teaching junior middle school English, the teacher adopt the principle of communication, the principle of situation authenticity, the principle of interest, the principle of stimulation in designing classroom activities.

2 The Five Basic Characteristics of Classroom Activities

2.1 Diversity in Classroom Activities

If an English teacher‟s class design is lack of change, the students may be bored. If interesting games are played over times by students and it is difficult for the students to cultivate their interests. There is no perfect teaching, but it is important to find out the adaptive teaching methods. If only teachers stay in the same stages and always imitate other teachers, it will bring much hurt to students and teachers themselves. Because it cannot arouse the students enthusiasm and the students may have interesting to study English. And it may also damage their wisdom and creativities. Any activity and the game design can expand much more the space. If only teachers designed by their hearts, it can create different kinds of ways to improve English classes. The teachers‟ professional development is one of the best ways to reflect their classroom activity designs and teachers should often

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陈任凤 课堂活动在初中英语语法教学中的运用

record their sudden wonderful design inspiration.

2.2 Operation and Feasibility

The fact is the sole criterion for testing truth. Many games may be designed perfectly by teachers before English classes, but it will be more difficult for teachers to use them in real English classes, such as more difficult, not following up, apart away from teaching plans and so on. So the teachers should give full consideration to the students‟knowledge and experience of their life. Generally speaking, following the arrangement of events from simple to complex, from easy to difficulty, by using the principle of understanding, it can make the student activity and feel progress of achievement. Finally, it can ensure the learning process proceeds smoothly under the teachers‟ good organization, guidance and controlling function. And it can make the classroom activities operable.

2.3 Clear Target

The goal is the starting point and result of teaching activity, which controls and regulates the whole teaching procedure. In order to consolidate the students‟ knowledge and make classroom activities vivid, interesting and fascinating, any game design must be followed by the teaching goals. Therefore, in the English teaching, teachers can not only let students play just relaxes, but also avoid more teaching forms. Teachers should design all kinds of games according to the different teaching contents and teaching goals. In the rules of the games also must be reflected on the practice of teaching content, not making the game for just playing, but also making the games for language study and application of knowledge service. Otherwise it will lose the significance of English classroom activities.

2.4 Open and Real Activities

The New Curriculum Standards point out: the activity should be based on the student‟s life experience and interest .The content and methods should be true. Promoting English grammar in classroom, it can make the students' thinking and imagination logically. The students can apply English grammar in their daily life. Classroom teaching is not a closed system, so the teacher can‟t teach material only according to the English book. The teacher should learn to create the use of teaching materials, and guide the students to experience and enjoy their life, encourage them to use English to solve problems, which meet in their real life. In addition, the teacher design of classroom activities should be familiar with the students‟ life. So that cant hitting students‟ inspiration, and make the students' thinking space get better development.

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文

2.5 Time Concept

\"Use of time is an extremely high rule - Engels.\" If the teacher cannot foresee the activities required time, he can often appear an unmanageable situation. Though there is no effect, but not efficiently. Teachers must have good control of classroom activities of time, and then can let students in effective time learn more English grammar knowledge.

The students I teach are second-year junior middle school students. All of them are learned English only one year. Most of them are highly motivated in English learning because they feel that having classroom activities in English grammar study is very interesting. Also there are different kinds of classroom activities attracting students. I will set four different kinds of classroom activities to prove it.

3 Practical Cases of Classroom Activities

3.1 The Significance of Using Classroom Activities in Grammar Teaching

Using classroom activities in grammar teaching has much significance. To understand how to grasp significance is hard for our teachers. There are three kinds of significance of using classroom activity in grammar teaching. First, classroom activities can stimulate students' interest in English. Second, classroom activities can cultivate students' observation. Third, classroom activities can develop their minds.

3.1.1 Classroom Activities Can Stimulate Students' Interest in English

It is very dull and boring to learn English grammar for most middle school students. Moreover, the ability of acceptance is prior to the ability of expression, when students learn English. The ability of spoken can only be improved by amount of hearing practice. If the teacher always adopt traditional methods to teach students, students may lose their interest in learning English .Even the teacher cannot teach English grammar smoothly. There is an old saying said like this: the interest is the best teacher in the world. It is a big problem for teachers how to keep students' interest in English. Therefore, it is a challenge for teachers to find out better methods .So, classroom activities can be a suitable method to be adopted in teaching English grammar in junior middle school. Students can learn English grammar through playing classroom activities. It also can help them develop their good habits of study. And different kinds of classroom activities let students keep their enthusiasm. So, classroom activities in English grammar teaching are not bad for teaching in junior middle

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陈任凤 课堂活动在初中英语语法教学中的运用

school.

3.1.2 Classroom Activities Can Cultivate Students' Observation

Observation is the main way for students to recognize the world, is the important way to gain the knowledge and the foundation of intelligence. Especially cultivating their observation appears more important in junior middle school. Without observation does not have profound knowledge accumulation or their widen minds. Therefore, there are many chances to improve their observation in classroom activities. Students can play games and gain observation together.

3.1.3 Classroom Activities Can Develop Their Minds.

The ability of developing minds is the core of training students' intelligence. However, the minds quality is the core of developing minds. And the accuracy, agility, flexibility and creativity are the characters of minds. Therefore, classroom activities afford many related training materials. In the teaching procedure, there are many different kinds of classroom activities to broaden their eyes and stimulate their interest to find out many ways to study.

3.2 Functional Communicative Activities

From the names of these activities, it is clear that most of them are aimed at developing listening and speaking. Learning English is not only for examination, the most important aspect is that students can communicate with others in their daily life. And there are listed six criteria for evaluating how communicative classroom activities: communicative purpose; communicative desire; content, not form; variety of language; no teacher intervention; no materials control. Learning English grammar is so boring that many students may lose their interesting on English. As an English teacher, the first important task is to create new classroom activities to cultivate students interesting. Because interesting is the best teacher in the world. Therefore, using these classroom activities are better ways to teach English grammar in junior middle school. There are given three cases:

3.2.1Game Name: Who Is Your Best Friend?

Teaching goals: grasp \"My favorite subject is .......\"sentence pattern.

Procedure: First, before the English class, the teacher let students make a survey about their best friend‟s favorite subject, then write down on a piece of paper. Second, give students some sentence patterns they have learned: what do you like? What do you want to have? And Let students use these sentence patterns to talk with their classmates. Second, the teacher let students hand up their work and makes a questionnaire .when the class begins, the teacher asks one of them to answer the questions:

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文

T: What do you like?

S1: I like eating apples. (Writing on the blackboard) T: What do you like?

S2: I like playing table tennis. (Writing on the blackboard) ……

After several examples, the teacher gives a new sentence pattern on the blackboard: what is your favorite subject? And the teacher gives an example to students, so the students understand the meaning of this sentence pattern. And then the classmates talk with their friends with this sentence pattern. After students practice it over times, the teacher lets one student draw one of their questionnaires and ask him/her to answer these questions .If these questions are complete right, it proves that they know each other very well and they are really good friends. The activity lasts about twenty minutes. The best friend is who answers the most questions correctly.

This classroom activity is related with text book closely. At the same time, the students can use this sentence pattern not only in their class, but also in their daily life. The most important thing is that they can better understand each other. When the English teacher teaches English grammar in this way, this classroom activity is better adopted.

3.2.2 Game Name: Find the Right Person

Teaching goals: grasp the What does she/he do? sentence pattern.

Procedure: This is a classroom activity that all students can join in. First, the time is limited. The students can walk freely in the classroom to find the right person whose parents jobs are the same. Second, students must not speak Chinese or speak loudly. They can only use English, especially what does she/he do? The student who is asked may answer her/his questions. So the student can find the right person. Finally, the winner is one who uses the least time to find the right person.

This classroom activity is open and real. In order to control the whole, the teacher must shrink some teaching steps. Therefore, the teacher should arrange time adaptively. Do remember not just to play; the most important thing is to learn something from the class. If you have a classroom of students from the same background, you can adopt this game in your English grammar class that they will bring unexpected achievement for you and your students. In order to strengthen student‟s English grammar, the English teacher also can create the situation as real as possible. But in China, the classroom is so limited that students cannot often have enough room for their activity. So this is a big problem for English teachers in China.

3.2.3 Game Name: Chain Story

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陈任凤 课堂活动在初中英语语法教学中的运用

Teaching goals: grasp the Simple Past Tense

Procedure: Give each student a single past form („thought‟ or „spoke‟ or „went‟). Begin improvising a story-for example: Once upon a time where was a very old fisherman who lived in a cave near the sea. Every day he went out in his little boat to catch fish. One day there was a terrible storm…

When you stop, a student has to continue, bringing his or her past form into the story. For example, if it was „thought‟, he or she might say:

…and he could not go out to sea in his little boat. „What can I do?‟ he thought,‟ if I don‟t catch any fish, I won‟t have any money, or any food…‟

And on to the next student, until all have contributed, and all past forms have been woven in. Unlike the previous activity, students do not have to repeat what the one before them has said, and their contributions can be much longer and more elaborate. The teacher may write the whole story on the blackboard. This slows things down, but focuses attention on correct forms, and adds the written dimension.

Variations: Students may be given simple base forms of the verb, and derive the past forms themselves for putting into their „installments‟. Or they may get (or choose themselves) other kinds of words, not necessary past forms-a good way of practicing recently –learnt vocabulary. Or they may be given pictures which they have to use as illustrations to their contributions. The same activity can be done in class in writing. Each student prepares a personal list of about 15 verbs, and keeps it by him or her throughout the activity. On a separate piece of paper each student writes the opening sentence of a story, using the first verb on his or her list; and then passes the paper to neighbor. On the papers they have just received, students write a continuation of the story (one sentence), using the second verb on their list-and so on, until all the verbs are used up. Stories are then read out.

After leaning one year English, many students can use some words and phrases to express their ideas. At this moment, the teacher should provide more times to practice their English. Actually, the classroom activity sometimes is simple to be used. For example, having chain story is good to help students not only practice their oral English, but also consolidate their English grammar. This classroom activity can stimulate students' vivid imagination. They have more chances to practice their English both in class and out of class. And this activity also can be presented in different ways.

3.3 The Guided Discovery of Classroom Activities

The guided discovery of classroom activities which adopt the guided discovery method is similar to inductive method in that the students are induced o discover rules by

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文

themselves but different in that the process of the discovery is carefully guided and assisted by the teacher the rules are elicited and taught explicitly. There are two key theoretical issues related to this method: the role of explicit knowledge in language learning and the value of discovery as a general method of learning (Ellis, 2002a).There is a practical case as follow:

Game name: How things used to be

Teaching goals: grasp the used to do sentence pattern

Procedure: Ask students to brainstorm a list of manufactured products they possess or often use; suggest things connected with transport, instant food, clothes, entertainment, the media, their studies. The teacher might get things like: a car, a tin of sardines, jeans, a newspaper and so on. Then ask the students to go back in their imaginations to the 19th century-or even to the Middle-Ages when these things did not exist, and describe what people used to do instead of using them. They can do this orally; the teacher gives some examples first:

People used to travel by horse. People used to keep food by salting it. Women used to wear dresses all the time. ...... (Writing on the blackboard)

Then, let students talk about a few minutes, and share their ideas. The teacher writes up their suggestions on the blackboard, and then let students find the similarity.

4 Conclusion

Nowadays, there are many researches on English classroom activity. But most of them focus on language, discourse and so on. This paper mainly introduces how to use classroom activities in English grammar teaching in junior middle school. Using classroom activities in English grammar teaching can better arouse students' interesting, and they have more confidence in learning English. The most important thing must be pointed that: Although this paper only analyses four practical classroom activities, there should be more classroom activities to be created in our English grammar teaching. As an English teacher, our responsibility is not only how to teach students English well, but also they can have interest in their future English study. At last, this paper is only the beginning of this research; we believe that there will be more successful cases to be researched.

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文 References

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Li Hongjun.(2000). Interest and English language teaching Natalie Hess(2005).Teaching large multilevel classes. Penny Ur(2006).A practical guide for teachers.

Ruth, Gaims&Stuart,Redman(2003).A guide to teaching and learning vocabulary. Seth,L.S.(2004).Activities for the language classroom. Xiao Zhuang.(2000). English learning strategies

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左焕琪,（2000），英语课堂教学的新发展，上海：华东师范大学出版社。 周淳，（2008），英语课堂用语手册，北京：科学出版社。

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2011届英语专业学士学位论文 Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The present paper is the result of my tutor Supervisor Liu Junling‟s enthusiastic instruction and the warm-hearted help given by many other professors, teachers, persons, etc. I am sincerely indebted to Supervisor Liu Junling, for her insightful instructions and detailed comments and suggestions on this dissertation. She has assisted considerably in sharpening and strengthening the focus and in pointing out errors and inaccuracies. Responsibility for the final version is, of course, mine alone.

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