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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