论文部分内容阅读
【Abstract】Teachers have been familiar with communicative activities for many years, but the idea of making good use of them is not widely known and probably even less widely applied. This essay highlighted role-play approach from different points of view and gave more practical facts to support it.
【Key words】 Role-playEnglish teachingEnglish learningVocational school students
Surveying the landscape of English language teaching in China, one is reminded of a heavy-loaded coach rumbling on a pitted road. The going is anything but smooth, but the vehicle keeps moving ahead.1 Actually, “much more input, but less output” goes along with English language teaching for many a year. It really deserves our more attention.
Chapter One: Communicative approach deserves our more attention.
Communicative approaches regard the classroom as a place where communications of various kinds take place, affording students opportunities to acquire English as a foreign language. In this interpretation of communicative language teaching, the heart of the language lesson is the communicative activity itself, could be described as “using English to learn it”.2 In reality, communicative activities in English language class open channels of communication to the target community at a personal level of contact and provide life experiences mediated through the second language.3In other words, well-designed
language activities can usually motivate students
to learn English. Through the activities, students picture themselves as capable because they can do something with their own knowledge. Little by little, the more chances the students get to use English, the more their ability to communicate in English will be improved.
Chapter Two: The Theoretical Basis for the Role-play Approach
Role-play, as one of all kinds of communicative activities is good for both English language teaching and learning. The idea of role-play is to create a seemingly real-life situation in the classroom. The teacher acts as a guide and a model for learning instead of only a source of knowledge. He or she leads the students into a certain communicative environment, and let them use English to express themselves in a simulated real world.
2.1 The role-play approach is in accordance with psychological basis.
Everything is done in a certain state of psychology. Students’ acquiring knowledge is not an exception. When the students appear themselves happy, attentive and quick-minded, they are more apt at acquiring knowledge. While the students feeling gloomy, inattentive or slow in thought, that is not the proper condition to teach them anything. “Dumping Knowledge” has no possibility to be well digested.
2.2 The role-play approach is in conformity with neurological basis.
Study of man’s brain has obvious evidence that brain’s function is divided into four sections: feeling section, storage section, and imagination section and judgement section. Acquisition of knowledge is a process gone through the above-mentioned four sections in one’s brain. In common sense, the full spring in use of one of the four sections will bring down the function of the remains. As we can see, imagination section is in its full play at the preparatory stage of role-plays. A group of students try to borne their plays different from others, certainly in a given context. Then feeling section and judgement section work together well enough to finish the performance and storage section is working through the whole course. During the performance of a role-play, there is no section being overloaded or free of any pressure. That is to say, the four separate section work together harmoniously so as to consolidate newly gained knowledge in one’s brain.
2.3 The role-play approach guarantees the combination of receptive skills and productive skills.
A foreign language learner’s competence in using the language is actually the combination of the learner’s “receptive skills”(listening and reading) and “productive skills”(speaking and writing). As language acquisition is in fact a process in which input and output affect and influence each other. Under the role-play approach, students’ language competence is comprehensively fostered from different sides by converting teaching contents into concrete learning activities, which will intensify input and facilitate productivity so as to promote both students’ receptive and productive skills.4
2.4 Role-play exerts a gradual influence on art education for vocational school students.
Role-play is a kind of comprehensive art, which gradually cultivates the awareness of students toward beauty. It requires of actors and actresses that they should convey the main information and express emotional feeling through their own words, facial expressions, body language, ready-made stage properties, appropriate setting and music as well.
Chapter Three: More Practical Facts to Support the Role-play Approach
Under the role-play approach, teachers win a success to cultivate the students’ impulse for engaging in communicative interaction. Little by little, they act as active participants in English class instead of passive recipients of knowledge. Here, I will cite an example—lesson 119: “A True Story” from New Concept English (New Edition, Book 1) to get more practical facts. This lesson is for vocational school students (Grade Three, Practical Oral English Course) in Shanghai Commercial Accounting School this March .
3.1 Preparatory Stage (20-30 minutes)
This stage aims at making good preparation for role-playing performance. The teachers can introduce the topic and necessary background information to arouse students’ interest to the text.
Introduction of the new lesson: In foreign countries as well as in China, parrot is a lovely pet popularly raised in a family. As we all know, a parrot is clever enough to imitate your words one by one which often amused you very much. (Ask the students whether they have a parrot in their family? If yes, welcome the students to the front of the classroom and say something interesting about his parrot.) Today we will learn a true story about a bright parrot. Now let’s see what happened to the parrot, OK? Please listen to the tape carefully, at the same time, try to find out who called out to the thieves in the dark?
They are fascinated in reading through the text. After listening to the tape, the students can be encouraged to use their own words to retell the text to the class. Then it is time to give assignment. That is, the students are divided into nine simultaneous groups to work in fives. (There are totally forty-five students in the class.) Please pay attention that each group will be given three minutes to finish their performance.
3.2 Role-playing Stage (a lesson period of 40 minutes)
As to create the environment for students’ role-playing, I suggest that students move their desks and chairs to seat themselves in one or two circles before class. During the wonderful performances, the students performed their stories willingly and attentively. One of groups highlighted itself with not only a brief prologue and behind-the-scenes words, but also filling the characters’ words into some popular songs. A very clever parrot was portrayed lively in their performance, and the two students acted as burglars were covered over their eyes with a strip of black paper with two holes on, incidentally revealing their shifty-eyed expression. The two thieves walked into the room on tiptoe, which perfectly coincides with the negative characters. In fact, the five students in this group immersed themselves in the role-playing, communicated with the audiences so harmonious that finally won the other groups in the performance. For the rest time of this lesson period, the teacher could make commentary on students’ performances. He or she could highly praise the best actor and actress, and explain the reasons for students to take an example for learning next time.
3.3 Consolidating Stage (10-20 minutes)
During the consolidating stage, the teacher should give some correction on students’ mistakes, and guide students through the exercises in the textbook to reinforce what has been learned during above two stages. The exercises can consolidate the students’ newly learned grammar points and develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.
3.4 The Feedback from the Students
After teaching the new lesson “A True Story” in this class, I carried out questionnaire among students. There are totally forty-five students in the class, all questionnaires were returned. The result is that thirty-five students agree the text-based role-play teaching approach better than old ones, the five regard it common, the rest three prefer the traditional way and the last two have no ideas at all . Most students preferred to learn English by productive activities like the text-based role-play rather than only through receptive activities, such as sitting quietly, listening to the teacher and taking notes carefully.
Chapter Four: Conclusion
Vocational school students are very young, they are talkative and active, and they also have good memories, all which are of much benefit to English language learning. Using the role-play teaching approach appropriately, English teachers are sure to carry out English language teaching in a livelier and more meaningful way.
Reference
[1]Allen Patrick and Harley, Bingit. Issues and Options in Language Teaching. Ed. W.H.Stern.
[2]Li Qiong. Pattern Drills Teaching in a Communicative Way for Junior Students [A]. 郑宗杜、郑声滔主编.
[3]Wang Zongyan. Trends of ELT in China [J].
[4]许葵花. 外语教学中过程戏剧表演的科学性[J].
【Key words】 Role-playEnglish teachingEnglish learningVocational school students
Surveying the landscape of English language teaching in China, one is reminded of a heavy-loaded coach rumbling on a pitted road. The going is anything but smooth, but the vehicle keeps moving ahead.1 Actually, “much more input, but less output” goes along with English language teaching for many a year. It really deserves our more attention.
Chapter One: Communicative approach deserves our more attention.
Communicative approaches regard the classroom as a place where communications of various kinds take place, affording students opportunities to acquire English as a foreign language. In this interpretation of communicative language teaching, the heart of the language lesson is the communicative activity itself, could be described as “using English to learn it”.2 In reality, communicative activities in English language class open channels of communication to the target community at a personal level of contact and provide life experiences mediated through the second language.3In other words, well-designed
language activities can usually motivate students
to learn English. Through the activities, students picture themselves as capable because they can do something with their own knowledge. Little by little, the more chances the students get to use English, the more their ability to communicate in English will be improved.
Chapter Two: The Theoretical Basis for the Role-play Approach
Role-play, as one of all kinds of communicative activities is good for both English language teaching and learning. The idea of role-play is to create a seemingly real-life situation in the classroom. The teacher acts as a guide and a model for learning instead of only a source of knowledge. He or she leads the students into a certain communicative environment, and let them use English to express themselves in a simulated real world.
2.1 The role-play approach is in accordance with psychological basis.
Everything is done in a certain state of psychology. Students’ acquiring knowledge is not an exception. When the students appear themselves happy, attentive and quick-minded, they are more apt at acquiring knowledge. While the students feeling gloomy, inattentive or slow in thought, that is not the proper condition to teach them anything. “Dumping Knowledge” has no possibility to be well digested.
2.2 The role-play approach is in conformity with neurological basis.
Study of man’s brain has obvious evidence that brain’s function is divided into four sections: feeling section, storage section, and imagination section and judgement section. Acquisition of knowledge is a process gone through the above-mentioned four sections in one’s brain. In common sense, the full spring in use of one of the four sections will bring down the function of the remains. As we can see, imagination section is in its full play at the preparatory stage of role-plays. A group of students try to borne their plays different from others, certainly in a given context. Then feeling section and judgement section work together well enough to finish the performance and storage section is working through the whole course. During the performance of a role-play, there is no section being overloaded or free of any pressure. That is to say, the four separate section work together harmoniously so as to consolidate newly gained knowledge in one’s brain.
2.3 The role-play approach guarantees the combination of receptive skills and productive skills.
A foreign language learner’s competence in using the language is actually the combination of the learner’s “receptive skills”(listening and reading) and “productive skills”(speaking and writing). As language acquisition is in fact a process in which input and output affect and influence each other. Under the role-play approach, students’ language competence is comprehensively fostered from different sides by converting teaching contents into concrete learning activities, which will intensify input and facilitate productivity so as to promote both students’ receptive and productive skills.4
2.4 Role-play exerts a gradual influence on art education for vocational school students.
Role-play is a kind of comprehensive art, which gradually cultivates the awareness of students toward beauty. It requires of actors and actresses that they should convey the main information and express emotional feeling through their own words, facial expressions, body language, ready-made stage properties, appropriate setting and music as well.
Chapter Three: More Practical Facts to Support the Role-play Approach
Under the role-play approach, teachers win a success to cultivate the students’ impulse for engaging in communicative interaction. Little by little, they act as active participants in English class instead of passive recipients of knowledge. Here, I will cite an example—lesson 119: “A True Story” from New Concept English (New Edition, Book 1) to get more practical facts. This lesson is for vocational school students (Grade Three, Practical Oral English Course) in Shanghai Commercial Accounting School this March .
3.1 Preparatory Stage (20-30 minutes)
This stage aims at making good preparation for role-playing performance. The teachers can introduce the topic and necessary background information to arouse students’ interest to the text.
Introduction of the new lesson: In foreign countries as well as in China, parrot is a lovely pet popularly raised in a family. As we all know, a parrot is clever enough to imitate your words one by one which often amused you very much. (Ask the students whether they have a parrot in their family? If yes, welcome the students to the front of the classroom and say something interesting about his parrot.) Today we will learn a true story about a bright parrot. Now let’s see what happened to the parrot, OK? Please listen to the tape carefully, at the same time, try to find out who called out to the thieves in the dark?
They are fascinated in reading through the text. After listening to the tape, the students can be encouraged to use their own words to retell the text to the class. Then it is time to give assignment. That is, the students are divided into nine simultaneous groups to work in fives. (There are totally forty-five students in the class.) Please pay attention that each group will be given three minutes to finish their performance.
3.2 Role-playing Stage (a lesson period of 40 minutes)
As to create the environment for students’ role-playing, I suggest that students move their desks and chairs to seat themselves in one or two circles before class. During the wonderful performances, the students performed their stories willingly and attentively. One of groups highlighted itself with not only a brief prologue and behind-the-scenes words, but also filling the characters’ words into some popular songs. A very clever parrot was portrayed lively in their performance, and the two students acted as burglars were covered over their eyes with a strip of black paper with two holes on, incidentally revealing their shifty-eyed expression. The two thieves walked into the room on tiptoe, which perfectly coincides with the negative characters. In fact, the five students in this group immersed themselves in the role-playing, communicated with the audiences so harmonious that finally won the other groups in the performance. For the rest time of this lesson period, the teacher could make commentary on students’ performances. He or she could highly praise the best actor and actress, and explain the reasons for students to take an example for learning next time.
3.3 Consolidating Stage (10-20 minutes)
During the consolidating stage, the teacher should give some correction on students’ mistakes, and guide students through the exercises in the textbook to reinforce what has been learned during above two stages. The exercises can consolidate the students’ newly learned grammar points and develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.
3.4 The Feedback from the Students
After teaching the new lesson “A True Story” in this class, I carried out questionnaire among students. There are totally forty-five students in the class, all questionnaires were returned. The result is that thirty-five students agree the text-based role-play teaching approach better than old ones, the five regard it common, the rest three prefer the traditional way and the last two have no ideas at all . Most students preferred to learn English by productive activities like the text-based role-play rather than only through receptive activities, such as sitting quietly, listening to the teacher and taking notes carefully.
Chapter Four: Conclusion
Vocational school students are very young, they are talkative and active, and they also have good memories, all which are of much benefit to English language learning. Using the role-play teaching approach appropriately, English teachers are sure to carry out English language teaching in a livelier and more meaningful way.
Reference
[1]Allen Patrick and Harley, Bingit. Issues and Options in Language Teaching. Ed. W.H.Stern.
[2]Li Qiong. Pattern Drills Teaching in a Communicative Way for Junior Students [A]. 郑宗杜、郑声滔主编.
[3]Wang Zongyan. Trends of ELT in China [J].
[4]许葵花. 外语教学中过程戏剧表演的科学性[J].