试论中学英语教学中的素质教育

试论中学英语教学中的素质教育

试论中学英语教学中的素质教育 I Abstract. This paper deals with some aspects of quality-oriented education in the  TEFL context: the cultivation of ideal qualities, psychological qualities,  linguistic competence and communicative competence. The writer holds that  English teaching should be quality-oriented and in the TEFL context,  teachers should develop not only the learners’linguistic competence, but  also their ideal qualities and psychological qualities as well as their  communicative competence. TEFL in China should lay more emphasis on  improving the students’ ability to communicate. Teachers should make good  use of the learners’ non-intellectual capabilities, fully enlarge their  scope of knowledge and help them construct their own models of learning.

II Key words. TEFL, Quality-Oriented Education, Ideal Qualities, Psychological  Qualities, Linguistic Competence and Communicative Competence.

III Introduction. The quality of human beings refers to the established physical and  psychological attributes formed on the bases of inherited and acquired  characteristics through the influence of environment and education. It’s a  delicate combination of intellectual civilization and material  civilization that impacts on human beings. It includes ideal qualities,  intellectual qualities, physical qualities and psychological qualities.  The aim of quality-oriented education is to cultivate, perfect and improve  these five qualities for the nation, especially in the young. (Li Guoqing)

IV Ideal qualities. English teaching should include ideal quality teaching so as to influence  the learners’ ideals and improve their morality while they learn the  language.

i Using the texts. The texts in JEFC and SEFC have many materials concerning history,  geography, culture, science, biology and so on. Some of these have  valuable ideological contents. The teacher should explore them in the  textbooks. Such texts as “Body Language”, “Queue Jumper”, “Thomas Edison”  and “Karl Marx” are all good texts for ideological education. We can teach  the students to help others and be polite in “Body Language”; to observe  the public order in “Queue Jumper”; to work hard and love science in  “Thomas Edison” and to cultivate their interest and confidence in foreign  language learning by reading the text about Karl Marx.

Let’s take as an example - SEFC, BOOK 2A, Unit 3: Body Language. Lesson 9. A. Introduction. The teacher asks the students - T: “If you ask for a Sony Walkman in a shop and the shop assistant tells  you that they’ve got no Sony Walkman, what will you say to the assistant?”

The student replies - S: “It doesn’t matter. But could you tell me where I can get one?” Here the quality of teaching could enhance the students’ quality of ideals  by making suggestions to the students for pursuing the purchase of a Sony  Walkman.

B. Explanation of the text. Mr. Black - “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Can I carry those boxes for  you?” Tom - “Thanks a lot. It’s very kind of you.” Mr. Black - “What about your bag? Would you like me to carry it for you?” Tom - “No, thanks. I can manage it myself.”

C. The inferring. Students do pair work. After an analysis of the characters and their  psychological activity in the above text, the students now have had some  idea of the essence of the text. So the teacher can use the overhead  projector to explain the difficult problems in the text. While analyzing  the overhead, the teacher should point out the essence of the text, which  is, helping others and demonstrating independence. So the inferences are  as follows: S1: “Can I help you with your difficult problem?” S2: “No, thanks. I prefer to work it out by myself.”

S3: “Shall I wait for you?” S4: “That’s very nice of you.”

D. The exploration of the text. The teacher instructs the students - 1. “It’s necessary to do as the host does.” 2. “It’s good manners to offer help to others.” 3. “It’s good morality to refuse help when you can manage yourself.” The above three sentences are all the exploration of the deep essence of  the text which can be used to carry out ideal education. (JEFC and SEFC)

ii Using sample words and sentences. 1. - matter- : The thing that ‘matters’ is not whether you succeed or  not, but whether you try or not. 2. - compare - : Our teacher often ‘compares’ books to friends. Shakespeare ‘compared’ the word to a stage 3. - come to - : The foreigners ‘have come to’ realize that China is  nolonger what it used to be. Through the teaching of the above sentences, the students can learn not  only the essential language points, but also something about life and  patriotism.

V Psychological qualities. Learners are the substance of learning and development. They can only get  their knowledge efficiently when the teaching-learning system is in  accordance with their learning regularities. The teachers’ teaching is  only an external influence. During the operation of quality-oriented  education, great attention should be paid to the exploration, molding and  perfection of the learners’ psychological development and their  non-intellectual factors. Non-intellectual factors, which include recognition, motivation interest,  determination and personality, are the reflectors of objectivity. These  can modify and promote the learners’ intellectual factors. (Li Hongyu, Yin  Guo’en)

i Cultivating the students’ interest in study. Motivation and interest are very important factors in learning. These two  aspects of learning should cover the whole process of English teaching. We  should try to change the learners’ attitude from “I have to study” to “I  want to study”. (Xu Shaozhong). Many investigations and researches suggest  that the result of learning depend on the learners’ Intrinsic Motivation.  (Brown). Once they are interested, the learners will work harder, more  actively and positively.

From the writer’s own learning and teaching experience, the learners seem  to have greater interest in the anecdotal and cultural background of the  texts. There are some interesting dramas in SEFC such as “The Necklace”,  The Merchant of Venice” and “At the Tailor’s Shop”. The teacher can  prepare definite material concerning the text, also the anecdotal and  cultural intentions of the author. For example, the character of the hero  or heroine, or perhaps the unexpected ending of the drama or the play  itself. The students will surely be more attracted to the material and  learn more efficiently, no matter what you ask them to do. Just explaining  some language points is not sufficient. It is essential for the teacher to  study and be familiar with the text so that the lesson is interesting and  attractive to the learners.

ii Strengthening the students’ determination and emotion in learning. A good frame of mind speeds up learning. Learning efficiency can be  enhanced if the learners’ intellectual activities are transformed from  delight and interest into careful thought and reason. The teacher should  create this kind of pleasant learning atmosphere by his own movements,  gestures and expressions that suggest to the learners that they are being  cared for, trusted and expected to do well. Great attention must be given  to protect the learning enthusiasm of the low-leveled learners and lead  them to understand that they really have the ability to overcome their  learning difficulties. Further more, the teacher should be modest and  strict with himself. Modesty-humility, an active work attitude and  nthusiasm will stimulate the learners’ interest and increase their  enthusiasm and determination to learn.

VI Linguistic competence. i Listening and speaking.  Many theories of modern English teaching methodology as “Total Physical  Response” and “The Natural Approach” aim mainly at listening  comprehension. (Ma Yinchu). “The Silent Way” especially emphasizes that  during a rather long period of silent time for listening, the learner has  a sense of security and he doesn’t have to worry about being forced to  speak if without enough preparation. (Brown)

Speaking of his “Input Hypothesis”, S. Krashen points out that when one  learns a language, he first pays attention to the meaning rather than the  language structure. Structure acquisition can be obtained if one tries to  understand the information that is going to be absorbed. The teacher  should input a correspondent amount (i+1) of comprehensible input in the  listening class. The more the learner inputs information (listening), the  more likely he will be able to output (speaking). (Krashen)

English listening and speaking classes in high school are of great  importance to the cultivation of the learners’ ability to listen and  speak. Listening texts in the high school English textbooks are usually  brief and the topics are very simple. This gives the learners more time to  prepare and discuss among themselves some of the topics relating to the  material they are going to use. If they can do this before they list

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en,  they can then undertake some oral composition or even continue debating if  possible. This is beneficial to the expansion of their range of knowledge  and the improvement of their ability of thinking and reasoning in English.

ii Reading. Reading includes personal reading and reading aloud as well as listening  and reading. For most learners, the main purpose in learning English is to  read--to get information. In the past, reading was thought to be the main  or even the only purpose for learning English. Now this is not necessarily  the case, however, reading still takes the greater part of examinations.  So it has maintained its importance.

Reading competence should be based on the level of linguistic knowledge of  the learners. They often have some difficulty in improving their reading  ability. This difficulty results not only from their method of learning,  but mostly from their lack of basic knowledge about grammar, sentence  structures, parts of speech, tense, voice, non-predicating verbs and so  on. Also they are lacking in vocabulary and some background knowledge of  the English-speaking countries.

Cultural background knowledge is a very important basis on which the  learners can improve their reading ability. As the high school period is  the elementary period (Junior High School) and the period from elementary  to middle level (Senior High School) for teaching, the introduction of  cultural background knowledge is of great importance. (Ge Bingfang)

During the course of reading, the reader does not get the information he  wants passively, but forecasts and understands the meaning of the text  with the help of this background knowledge. Cultural background knowledge  can be gained through classroom teaching, extracurricular books,  extracurricular activities, conversations and lectures given by foreign  teachers, movies, televisions and so on.

The “Schema Theory” holds that people can’t understand newly emerging  concepts and ideas without connecting to known concepts and personal  experiences, which are the two essentials of background knowledge. Our  understanding and explanation of newly emerging information depends much  on the existing schema. The inputting information must be in coherence  with them. (Wang Chuming)

Intensive reading and extensive reading are the two aspects of reading.  The former should focus on the linguistic knowledge (syntax, vocabulary,  rhetoric, etc.) and it can lay some foundation for the latter. The latter  should focus on expanding the learners’ scope of knowledge, enlarging  their vocabulary and cultivating their reading skills. The teacher should  train the learners in the skills of skimming, scanning and global reading.  The real sense of reading is a delicate unity of intensive reading and  extensive reading.

Cloze test, error correction and writing training are some necessary  supplements of reading. These kinds of discourse training relate much to  comprehension and are quite beneficial to the improvement of the learners’  reading ability. It is necessary to lead, instruct and supervise the  learners while reading texts. Further reading exercises can be given as  homework for them to finish independently after school. Reading  comprehension then means the ability to fully apply and use the language.

There are some other factors that influence reading ability, such as the  type of material, the reading quantity, the level of ability in one’s  mother tongue, the individual learner’s personality, reading skill and  strategy, etc. The teacher should attach much importance to the everyday  training and test the result timely.

iii Writing. Like reading, writing belongs to the discourse level but they function  differently. Reading is inputting and writing belongs to outputting. The  writer holds that writing can be described as productive. Writing ability  should include writing of all types: letters, telegrams, diaries or even  poetry and novels. But high school writing should begin from such very  basic forms as sentence-combining and sentence-making and then gradually  transit to the discourse level with connections to different writing  styles. During this period, the teacher may encourage some guided writing,  note-making, outlining, or even cloze test.

The importance of comprehensible input should be greatly emphasized.  Grammar can be taught very well but perhaps not writing. Maybe somebody  will ask why some learners can’t write at all, some write incomprehensibly  and some write simple but why others can write pretty well. Perhaps the  psycholinguist Eric Lenneberg can give a satisfactory answer. He compared  this phenomenon in writing to that in swimming: Somebody can’t swim at  all, some can only swim badly but some can swim quite well. (Brown)

In the writing classes, teachers can divide the students into different  groups according to their language levels and have them do group work. In  this way, they can help each other with structure and word choice before  they really begin to write. While commenting on their work, the teacher  may pay special attention to “pidgin mistakes”.

Every language is a tool to help a nation explore and perfect his own  world. The system of a particular language reflects the way in which a  people explore their world, the history of their nation, and the way they  trace their cultural development. For a foreign language learner, the  knowledge that he has of his mother tongue will greatly influence his  understanding and acceptance of another language. (Dai Weidong, Shu  Dingfang) We must try to help the learners weaken the influence of their  mother tongue in foreign language learning. Besides choosing some good  topics for writing, we can also choose suitable background knowledge and  reading exercises as supplements to improve the learners’ writing ability.

iv Translating. Many teachers in high schools consider translation a very important way of  teaching English. But the writer doesn’t agree. Perhaps it can be done as  a supplementary exercise, because there is so much difference in  interpreting English from/to Chinese. The writer holds that while learning  a foreign language, one must try his best to forget his own language.  Depending too much on translating will make the learners rely too much on  their mother tongue. This is very harmful to foreign language learning.

Ultimately translation can be considered as an excellent method of  enhancing the learners’ ability to apply and interpret the foreign  language but not before a high level of English competency is achieved.

VII Communicative competence. In order to keep up with the development of our improving national economy  and our entry into the WTO, we need to improve the learners’ ability to  communicate. The “Pendulum Phenomenon” in English teaching and learning in  China suggests that we should lay stronger emphasis on improving the  learners’ communicative competence. (Ma Tao)

The teacher has the responsibility to teach the learners how to use  English through the Internet because the learners’ purpose in taking  English is as a tool to know the world, to get all kinds of information  and to better express themselves. And this kind of method should  necessarily be based not only on English culture but that of other  English-speaking nations. IE, the U.S.A, Canada, Australia and New  Zealand.

English teaching must emphasize the practicality of the language and the  learner is the main practitioner of this learning. The learners acquire  linguistic and communicative competence through practice that is then  transformed into communicative competence. During this period, the teacher  can study the psychological characteristics of the learners’ learning to  decide the way of teaching.

The best way to develop the learners’ interest in learning and to create  good learning habits is to help them construct their own models of  learning through listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating  together. This will construct a good learning atmosphere. Further more,  teaching can make good use of the advanced mixed media that will expand  the learners’ range of knowledge. Practicing the skills of watching,  listening and speaking within a productive environment will stimulate the  learners’ interest and enthusiasm.

Real communication activities should be completed by the learners  themselves. While organizing pair/group work, we can let the groups  practice together and then ask various pairs/groups to model their  competence in the front of the class. One point to be emphasized is the  need to prevent the learners from relying too much on teacher involvement.

The teacher could try to do as follows: 1. Strengthen the learners’ confidence in learning and cultivate their  independence. 2. Make the task of the activity clear to the learners at the very  beginning. 3. Adjust the degree of difficulty: it should suit the level of the  learners’ ability. 4. Offer reasonable and encouraging comments on the learners’ activity.

Even if the task is somewhat difficult, the teacher should interfere as  little as possible, for the teacher’s interference may confuse the  learners’ enthu

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siasm. But this doesn’t mean that the teacher should just  stand by and do nothing. If the learners meet some difficulty or have  differing opinions, the teacher can help them resolve their dispute. At  this time, the teacher is a psychological support for the learners,  especially for those who are not so independent. And while commenting on  their results, the teacher should pay attention to the strengths and  weakness for later analysis and improvement.

In a word, the teacher is not a judge, but an organizer, a co-operator and  a supervisor. A language teacher should mainly try to stimulate the  learners’ non-intellectual factors and their interest in the process of  English learning and encourage timely reflection from the learners. But  the question remains is that requirements can’t be too high, for their  linguistic knowledge is limited. If the requirements are suitable, the  learners could make good progress step by step. And at first, progress or  success, even if it is very little in English learning, can stimulate  great interest, enthusiasm and motivation. (Liu Daoyi).

Let’s take as an example - SEFC BOOK 3B, Lesson90 In preparation for the lesson, we can try to find pictures of some ancient  sights like the picture in the textbook, which is a place called Lascause  in France. We can then make good course ware appropriate to the text and  as well, use some material from the Internet. Also we can talk some local  (Chinese) places of interest and make a revision of the previous lesson to  create an easy, harmonious environment suitable for communicative  practice.

Then comes listening, reading and comprehension of the whole text. During  a discussion of comprehensive problems, we can have the students do  pair/group work. Some keywords, details and discourse markers from the  text can help the students easily comprehend the text.

In the paraphrasing period, we can use interesting pictures or/and music  for the 11 phrases and sentences in the text. Now the students will feel a  real atmosphere of English.

During the practicing period, the teacher can walk through the classroom  and guide the students’ communication. The students watch, listen, read,  speak and think throughout the entire process, so they will have a greater  involvement in the lesson. The students’ participation takes the greater  part of the lesson time and in this way, the students’ communicative  ability of the language can be strengthened and widened.

VIII Conclusion. In a word, adapting and improving the existing quality-oriented education  is urgent within the TEFL context. It should be based on the learners’  present physical and psychological condition. The school and the teacher  should have an accurate concept of quality-oriented education. Thus  allowing the learners to develop their English linguistic competence and  to develop their ideal and psychological qualities. Communicative  competence will develop through the practice of listening, speaking,  reading, writing and translating. Further more, the teacher should make  good use of advanced teaching means and methods to create a good  communicative atmosphere, thus helping the learners broaden their  knowledge and in this way, the learners can develop towards a sound  English language competency. 

     

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