发布时间:2023-03-16 15:53:47
序言:写作是分享个人见解和探索未知领域的桥梁,我们为您精选了8篇的英语文学硕士论文样本,期待这些样本能够为您提供丰富的参考和启发,请尽情阅读。
英语新闻视听说是英语专业的一门基础课程,具有很强的实用性,能够提高学生的综合应用能力和实践能力。将建构主义理论引入英语新闻视听说教学,是对该课程教师实践的创新和发展,具有重要意义。
一、建构主义理论分析
建构主义理论是认知心理学的重要组成部分,该理论认为知识不是通过教师传授得到,而是学生在一定的情境即社会文化背景下,借助其他人(包括教师和学习伙伴)的帮助,利用必要的学习资料,通过意义建构的方式而获得。学习是在一定的情境即社会文化背景下,借助其他人的帮助即通过人际间的协作活动而实现的意义建构过程,因此建构主义学习理论认为“情境”、“协作”、“会话”和“意义建构”是学习环境中的四大要素或四大属性。
二、建构主义下英语新闻视听说教学的实践原则
1.以学生为中心
建构主义理论认为知识是由认知主体主动建构的结果,强调学生作为认知的主体,而教学则为学生主动进行意义建构提供了促进、指导和合作。学生应该转换态度,从原来知识被动的接受者转变为知识主动的构建者。该理论要求教师要以学生为中心,培养他们对知识的主动获取和探索能力以及对知识的意义建构能力,教师也应更新观念,从传授知识的角度转变为引导、支持学生主动建构知识的角度,激发学生学习兴趣和积极性。学生在学习过程中发挥主体作用,主动搜集分析相关学习资料,提出问题和假设,将所学内容与已知事物联系起来并加以认真思考,提高学习效率和质量。
2.以掌握视听说为目的
建构主义主张“为理解而学习”,这就要求英语新闻视听说教学要使学生在学习英语的过程中获得系统化的知识,不仅仅能解决书本和课堂上的问题,学生要主动对知识进行意义建构,突破英语学习的基本层次,把握英语新闻中想要真正传达的信息和意义,提高英语新闻理解能力和表达能力。通过英语新闻的视听说课程,学生能够充分掌握基本英语知识,例如一些单词句子,同时理解英语新闻中的信息和含义,并能够用英语表达自己的想法提出建议。
3.以协作为方式
语言的学习只有在于他人的交流中才能充分掌握,所以进行语言意义的建构,要通过学生与教师、学生之间的多方交流,而且教师和学生需要进行学习资料的交换和探讨。协作方式在英语新闻学习的过程中有着重要的作用,能够更大程度地促进整个学习团队共同目标的达成,并能够激起学习团队的合作和进步精神。在英语新闻视听说教学中,学生在教师的引导或自行组织下,组成学习小组,相互交流讨论,分享学习经验和相关知识,共同达成学习目标并形成一定的激励机制,激发学习的动力和热情。
4.以情境创设为手段
建构主义认为学生是与一定的“情境”相联系的,在实际的情境中,学生可以利用原有知识和经验获取新的知识并赋予其某种意义,或者对原有知识体系进行重建,达成新的知识的意义建构过程。英语新闻视听说教学中的情境创设,能够提高课堂学习的生动性和丰富性,使学生熟悉现实生活中可能遇到的问题,掌握常见的表达方式,以适应现实中多变的语言环境。所以,教师需要精心创设教学情境,选择真实的符合现实情况的任务,以提高学生的基本功和知识面,支持帮助学生意义建构的达成,提高学生的应用能力。
三、建构主义理论下的英语新闻视听说教学实践策略
1.科学安排教学实践过程
英语新闻视听说的教学过程包括课程前的准备,课程中的操作和课程后的扩展三方面,下面对这三方面进行具体分析。
第一,课程前准备的程序是,首先教师选择合适的教材交给学生,学生自己查找相关背景资料和媒体信息,整理相关词汇句子,提前做好知识准备。其次教师在播放视听说材料之前提出问题,播放自己整理的学习资料让学生进行思考。再次教师让学生分组进行讨论,并与学生互相交流,根据他们自己的学习材料对背景进行分析。
第二,具体的课堂教学过程中,教师要把握播放时的技巧,让学生能够在安静专注的环境中进行视听,减除外在干扰,让学生能够掌握材料所要传达的信息,并找出自己不理解的内容和听不懂的语句。在重复进行播放视听材料时,教师要为其设置的问题提供线索,引导学生积极思考并提出疑问。在精听环节,教师要针对问题进行具体必要讲解,补充视听材料和更多背景知识,帮助学生更加深入地学习视听材料的内涵和所要传达的真正信息,并为他们传授视听技巧。最后,教师再次让学生分组讨论并鼓励他们表达自己的观点。经过一系列的视听过程,使学生掌握基本英语新闻知识并培养学生发现问题解决问题的能力。
第三,视听说教学结束后,首先,教师要督促学生在课下对英语新闻材料进行认真聆听跟读,学习英语表达语调和语气;其次,教师还应该为学生提供广泛的视听内容,让他们在课下进行泛听以提高听力能力和理解能力;再次,教师可以组织一系列有趣的活动或比赛,或者鼓励学生自己组织竞赛,激发他们的学习热情,提高他们学习的参与性和积极性。
2.英语新闻的导入形式多样化,合理使用视听材料
英语新闻进入英语专业学习课堂,可以采用多种形式,体现学生差异性,将听、写、译、说多种方式结合。报纸、广播和网络英语新闻有其不同的特点和差异,又有基本的结构和模式。所以,学生首先要整体掌握英语新闻的构成和布局,在分析不同形式的英语新闻的区别和联系,再进行视听说时就相对简单易于理解。同时,教师也要考虑学生的学习进度,将慢速与快速英语结合,针对不同学生进行教学。在选取视听教材时,教师要精挑细选,尽量选取具有真实语言环境并涉及社会生活多方面的教学内容,扩展英语新闻的内容层面,满足学生的不同需求。
关键词:高中语文教学;探究性学习;策略
中图分类号:G633.3 文献标识码:B文章编号:1672-1578(2016)10-0072-02
新课改主要是为了改变以往的教学过于强调接受学习、死记硬背、机械训练的现状,倡导学生主动参与、乐于探究、勤于动手、敢于质疑。高中语文的探究性学习注重培养学生的独立性和自主性,引导学生质疑、调查、探究,让学生在实践中学习。
1.高中语文教学中存在的问题
传统的高中语文教学主要采用"灌输式"的教学方法。教师只是一味地讲知识,学生只能被动地被灌输知识。有时候,学生对一些问题只是一知半解,但是教师为了赶课程进度没有顾虑到学生理解的问题。这就造成了学生对上课没有兴趣,缺乏学习的主动性。久而久之,形成了一种恶性循环。
应试教育在我国已经"流行"了很多年。语文学习的目的就是应付高考,在学习过程中,学生学到的更多的是应试技巧,而非语文真正的内涵。在应试教育的环境下,语文这门人文性、思想性很强的学科"沦落"为分数的奴隶。另外学生们不能真正地感受到语文的内涵,更是因为考试使得他们仅仅从功利的角度来对待这门课程。
2.探究性学习
探究性学习即是探究式科学教育,是指学生在学科领域内或现实生活情境中选取某个问题作为突破点,通过质疑、发现问题、调查研究、分析研讨、解决问题、表达与交流等探究性学习活动。在这个过程中,学生们可以获得知识,激发兴趣,掌握程序与方法。
高中语文的探究性教学是新课改的重要内容。在高中语文的探究性学习过程中,学生是教学活动的主体,教师仅仅作为一个引导人,将学生带向正确的方向。因此,在探究性学习过程中,学生一定要充分发挥其主观能动性,要有独立解决问题的意识。切忌盲目跟随,在问题解决过程中一定要有主见,不能随波逐流。
3.高中语文探究性学习的意义
3.1 激发学生的学习兴趣。传统的高中语文教学是"灌输式"教学,在这种教学模式下,学生们被迫接受知识。加之教学内容枯燥无味,注重对语文书本知识的深入解读,不联系实际,更是使得学生对语文学习提不起兴趣。乌申斯基曾说过,强制一个对学习没有丝毫兴趣的学生去学习将会扼杀他对探究真理的欲望。毕竟,兴趣是最好的老师。
然而,在新课改下的高中语文探究性学习弥补了传统语文教学的不足。在探究性学习中教师不再是仅仅教授知识,硕士论文而是努力激发学生的学习兴趣,引导学生进行探究性学习。当枯燥的被动学习变为了主动学习时,学生享受到了学习带来的乐趣。
3.2 训练学生的思维能力。高中生已经具有了一定的思维能力,但是这些思维能力还不够成熟,需要实践的检验。新课改条件下的语文课堂,无疑是他们实践的最佳场所。探究性学习并非是停留在口头上的口号,它需要切身的实践。探究性学习是围绕文本而进行的过程,在这个过程中,学生的思维空间不断被拓展,眼界不断被拓宽。为了能够在探究性的学习过程中取得更加优异的成绩,学生们会寻求各种途径获得知识,从课堂内到课堂外,从国内到国外。
3.3 减轻教师的负担。在以往的高中语文教学过程中,学生知识的获得都是通过教师的讲解。为了可以解决学生提出来的问题,教师必须做好各方面的准备。在这种情况下,教师的工作压力特别大,因为他们不但要深入了解课本上的知识,还要知道相关的知识。然而,探究性学习可以有效地减轻教师的负担。因为在探究性学习过程中学生是学习的主体,教师的很多工作都会被学生分担。
4.高中语文探究性学习的策略
4.1 把握高中语文学科特点。我们从上小学开始,就一直学习语文,作为一门基础的人文学科,它自然要运用到实际的生活中。高中语文并不是一门独立的学科,它与其他各学科都有着密不可分的联系。
首先,它是一门语言学科。就像英语这种语言学科一样,多读多看自然有利于成绩的提高。不要说"我是中国人,学习语文就是多余"这样的话。因为无论我们学习了多长时间,都不可能在这个日新月异的时代真正地将语言运用到炉火纯青的地步。其次,它是一门文化学科。就像历史,地理等人文学科一样,我们只有经过深入的探究与广泛的实践才能对其有一个较为清楚的了解。最后,它是一门思维学科。就像数学,物理等自然学科一样,语文并不是我们以为的纯文学,它也需要缜密的思维作为基础。
4.2 营造师生共同参与参与的学习氛围。在探究性学习这种新型的教学模式下,学生和教师的关系发生了一些变化。学习不再是教师一味地讲解,学生一味地听讲,而是师生共同参与,相互协作,共同进步。在这种轻松的学习环境下,学生的学习兴趣极大的提高,并且学习的主观能动性被极大地激发出来。
5.结语
高中语文的探究性学习以学生为主体,将学生的学习主人翁意识充分发挥出来。高中语文的探究性学习不但能够体现当代对于素质教育的要求,而且有利于提高学生的主观能动性。在探究性学习的过程中,学生之间相互合作,互相交流,对他们以后进入社会工作非常有利。最关键的是,他们在探究性学习的过程中会锻炼他们的组织和管理能力,对他们以后进入社会应对各种考验打下基础。
参考文献:
[1] 应素芬.浅析高中语文教学中的探究性学习策略[J].课外语文,2015,24:59.
关于课题研究申请书1
xx区课题规划办:
我校承担的“创建书香校园”小学国学经典诵读的研究”课题,因课题负责人原校长田雪芬同志调离本校,需要变更课题负责人为现本校校长武截斌并重新整理课题研究内容“小学经典诵读的研究”,特提出变更申请:结题时间由20xx年6月改为20xx年12月。
当否,请批示。
xx小课题组
20xx年6月21日
关于课题研究申请书2
课题名称: 聚焦购物的计算教与学模式研究
课题负责人: 林川
申请单位: 成都市实验小学西区
填表日期: 20xx年11月
研究问题
如何把生活中各种购物问题与计算教学有机地结合起来,从而让学生真实地感受、理解、掌握计算策略、计算技能的形成过程,促进学生的计算能力与生活能力协同发展。
研究目标
1、学生方面:
(1)通过研究,调动学生的学习热情,引导其能够深刻理解计算学习对于生活的重要意义,感受拥有及利用知识的力量和学习的快乐。
(2)通过研究,让学生成为计算思想和方法的明智使用者, 提高计算的速度与准确,从而促进学生的计算能力与生活能力的协同发展。
2、教师方面:
(1)通过研究,促进教师不断改善教学方法,形成计算教学独有的个人风格,人人都能上好计算课,并能推广到其他类型的课堂。
(2)通过研究,使计算教学在算理、算法、技能这三方面得到和谐的发展与提高,从而提高教学质量。
3、家长、学校、社会方面:
(1)通过研究,让家长和社会感受到学生在实际生活中运用所学所发生的显著变化,让家长满意,让社会满意,从而提高我校的知名度。
(2)通过研究,逐步体现社会对数学赋予的效益、创新、价值取向、情感态度等涵义,从而实现二十一世纪教育对人才培养的目标。
研究内容
低段——购物中简单的计算:如市场购物(只涉及整数的计算);购买门票,乘车方案等。
中段——购物中较复杂的计算:如市场购物(涉及整数、小数的混合计算);乘车方案、购买门票、住宿安排、旅游费用等的最优化设计。
高段——购物中复杂的计算:如商场购物的折扣及送券、省现金等相关计算(涉及整数、小数、分数的混合计算);有关储蓄的相关问题,如利息的计算;个人收入所得税的计算;能用百分数解决的实际问题(包括成数的计算);股票交易等的计算。
研究方法
1、观察法:观察相关课例,及时获得并积累感性材料、验证假说的必要手段。
2、问卷调查法:将所要研究的事项,制成问卷,发给学生和家长填写,再进行分析研究,以获取全面的`研究资料。
3、个案法:运用对个体的发展进行跟踪调查,及时改进研究措施。
4、经验总结法:通过活动过程反映的情况运用测量和统计对研究的数据进行定量分析,从而得出科学的结论。
研究计划
第一阶段:查新、制定研究计划、立项。(20xx.11—20xx.12)这一阶段主要收集相关研究资料,学习有关理论,在此基础上讨论并确立课题,做好课题实施方案,邀请专家对课题进行论证,修改完善课题方案。召开开题会议,确定人员分工,向区教科室申请立项。
第二阶段:实施阶段。(20xx.1—20xx.6)
这一阶段的任务是根据拟定的课题和研究方案实施研究。研究过程应重视活动方案撰写、学生活动、案例分析、资料收集、总结反思。
第三阶段:结题。(20xx.7—20xx.12)
这一阶段的任务是整理研究资料,对课题进行全面、科学的总结,撰写研究报告,召开成果汇报会。
研究成果形式
1、实物资料:学生制作小报、数学日记,学生调查报告,计算比赛成果,家长调查表、反馈表
2、文字资料:研究报告,研究文集,教师论文,教学随笔,案例或课例、计算学习读本。
3、图片及音像资料:购物节、计算比赛等活动的照片或影像、课例的照片或影像。
课题组单位意见
(包括提供所需条件等)
单位负责人(签字) (公章)
年 月 日
专家组审核意见(至少两名区学科带头人以上人员组成)
成员(签字):
年 月 日
区学科教研组
审批意见
负责人(签字) 年 月 日
区教师学习与资源中心科研室
审核意见
负责人(签字)
年 月 日
备注:表填好后直接交到区学科教研员(组),一式三份。
关于课题研究申请书3
导读:这些选修课与大学开设的课程紧密联系,山东师范大学的杨旭东在硕士论文《高中选修课的历史比较与现实思考》中将现行选修制度,浙江师范大学教育学院的徐才根和平湖市乍浦中学的曹跃平、孙晓峰在《教学月刊(中学版,东北师范大学王文娟在硕士论文《高中语文新课程教学改革活动中实施选修课(人教版)的,扬州大学教育科学学院的潘洪建、吕玉、邹双武发表在《调查与分析》上的《高中选修课学,有利于他们进行更为深入的科研调查。
一、课题设计论证
同类课题国内外研究状况;本课题拟研究的主要问题、重点和难点;研究方法;学术价值;理论意义和实践意义;预期效益。
一、国内外研究现状分析
(一)国外母语选修课课程设置现状:
早在上个世纪80年代,亚、非、欧、美等各洲60个国家中,普通高中开设选修课的国家就占76。7%,20年后的今天,这个比例只会更高。由此看出,普通高中设置选修课已成为基础教育的发展趋势。外国母语选修课比中国课程改革时间早,创新性强,实施状况良好,选修课分类明晰,有条不紊,代表国家有美、英、日,详细情况如下:
美国实行指定选修和任意选修相结合,根据课程的内容,分为语言和文学两大类,语言类有的称为“英语”,包括语言技能、实用写作、有效交流等课程;文学类包括当代文学、英国文学、美国文学、欧洲文学等。对选修课设置不作统一规定,由各州和学校自行安排,学校对此没有强行选课的规定;英国则是将组合选修和任意选修相结合,与语文有关的有英语、古典语文、戏剧研究、艺术史、拉丁语、西班牙语、俄语、印地语、英国文学、希腊语、汉语、意大利语等,绝大多数学校都把选修科目分成5~6组,供学生选择;日本于1999年制订并于20XX全面实施的高中课程,实行普通教育的学科有10科,国语科列在首位,包含6个科目:国语表达Ⅰ(2学分)、国语表达Ⅱ(4学分)、国语综合(4学分)、现代文(4学分)、古典(4学分)和古典讲读(2学分)。其中只有“国语表达Ⅰ”为必修科目,其他均为选修。
(二)我国语文选修课课程设置与教学现状研究:
我国高中选修课程设置及实施的时间较短,对于选修课的课程设置及实际教学已有的研究有:
1.关于新课标选修课课程设置的研究:
《普通高中语文课程标准(实验)》共设置了“诗歌与散文”、“小说与戏剧”、“新闻与传记”、“语言文字应用”、“文化论著研读”等五个系列,每个系列又可开设若干模块,这些选修课与大学开设的课程紧密联系,模块设置各具特色。北京教育科学研究院基础教育教学研究中心主任王云峰发表于《中学语文教学》20XX年第8期上的《把握好高中选修课的特点》,对高中选修课的特点进行了分析。
但新课标对选修课的一些概念阐述不清,如“对于希望进一步学习的学生,建议从五个系列的选修课程中任意选修4个模块,获得8学分……对语文学习兴趣浓厚并希望进一步深造的学生,建议在此基础上,再从这五个系列里任意选修3个模块”。进一步学习和进一步深造的标准是什么?课标对此没有提出更详细的说明,造成的实际情况是全国开设选修课的学校,几乎所有参加高考的学生都修满7个模块,没有因学生学习兴趣与想报考学校不同而选择不同的模块。
山东师范大学的杨旭东在硕士论文《高中选修课的历史比较与现实思考》中将现行选修制度分为三类:限定性选修课、任意选修课和定向选修课。
2.关于高中语文选修课教学现状的研究:
高中语文选修课教学这块也引起了国内学者、高中教师的广泛关注,其研究主要体现在教学理念、教学方式,教学内容选取以及教学评价反思几个方面,具体阐释如下:
(1)教学理念与教学方式的相关研究:
北京教育科学研究院基础教育教学研究中心主任王云峰发表在《中小学信息技术教育》20XX年第6期上的《积极建设网络课程学xxx台,有效推进高中选修课实验》提出了信息共享在选修课中的重要性。
山东省枣庄市第八中学的教师孙晋诺发表在《语文建设》20XX年第2期上的《高中选修课教学的"三多"与"三少"》一文,对高中语文选修课教学提出了三点意见:多整合归纳少逐篇讲析、多训练语言少依靠活动、多具体指导少空口说教。
江苏省常州市田家炳实验中学的韩旭东发表在《现代语文(教学研究)》20XX年第10期上的《高中语文选修课程的教学策略初探》对语文选修课授课方式进行了讨论。
浙江师范大学教育学院的徐才根和平湖市乍浦中学的曹跃平、孙晓峰在《教学月刊(中学版)》20XX年第10期上发表的《关于高中选修课中校长角色的思考》提出了校长角色的转换问题。
江苏靖江市季市中学的刘晓红发表在《考试周刊》20XX年第26期上的《精准高考目标,体悟审美愉悦——例证现代散文选修课的一种教法》将选修课与高考进行了联系,并对散文选修课教学提出了看法。
(2)教学内容的相关研究:
部分省市教育部门以及教育学者针对部分学校选修课走过场,形同虚设的问题进行了相关讨论:
安徽省铜陵市教育局教研室的刘志胜的《高中语文选修课开设时间的思考》对必修课与选修课开设时间进行了讨论。
广东东莞市玉兰中学的李园香发表在《中学语文(上旬·教学大参考)》20XX年第9期上的《高中话文选修课"同质化"现象及对其的反思》对学校将选修课当作必修课上的问题进行了分析。
(3)教学评价体系的相关研究;
东北师范大学王文娟在硕士论文《高中语文新课程教学改革活动中实施选修课(人教版)的思考》中针对课程设置、授课方式及评价制度进行了分析,并提出了几种可行性比较高的评价方式:测验法、调查法、自我评价法、学生成长记录袋、问卷法等。
扬州大学教育科学学院的潘洪建、吕玉、邹双武发表在《调查与分析》上的《高中选修课学习的成绩、问题与对策》中对选修课给学生带来的收获与不足之处进行了分析,通过调查发现现行考核制度无法体现选修课价值。
二、课堂研究的主要问题、重点和难点
(一)主要问题:
本课题主要研究高中语文选修课的课程设置和具体教学存在的问题及解决策略。通过把握新课标对语文选修课的相关规定,参考国内外学者对选修课的设置及教学研究,在有一定理论研究的基础上,深入到昆明市重点高中语文教学中去,观察并记录一线语文教师对于选修课的教学实况,采访一线语文教师、学校高层领导,了解这些基层教育者对人教版语文选修教材的看法,听取他们对选修课的设置和实施的意见和建议;同时,以问卷调查的形式,了解目前学生对于选修课的学习状况,从中揭示出选修课在当前语文教学中存在的问题,分析问题产生的影响因素。整理访谈资料,总结一线教师对选修课的教学的经验教训,学校领导对选修课设置与教学的期望和预期,从而建立一套科学、有效的选修课教学理论,为立志从事高中语文教育教学的师范生在选修课教学方面提供可行性意见和建议。具体而言,关于昆明市高中语文选修课的课程设置与教学分析研究主要包括:
1.实践学校选修课的课程选择和教学进度(课时)安排;
2.一线教师在选修课教学中的教学表现记录和分析;
3.教师、学生对选修课教材、教学等的看法;
4.相对于必修课,学生在学习选修课中存在的问题;
5.实践学校教师、领导对于选修课教学的意见和建议;
(二)重点和难点:
本课题研究的重点应放在昆明市部分高中选修课的教学状况上。昆明实施选修课是最近两年的事,起步比其他省市晚,不可避免地存在着一些问题。通过实地考察研究,揭示一线教师在选修课教学过程中存在的问题,分析问题产生的原因,引起社会广泛关注和重视。另外,从一线教师选修课的教学过程中吸取经验教训,积极思考,开拓创新,试着结合教育学理论和一线教师的实践经验,总结归纳出一些高中语文选修课的教学理论,从而为新一轮的高中语文教师选修课教学指明方向。
本课题的研究难点在于教学问题原因分析、选修课理论与一线教师实施的内在联系总结等几个方面。教学过程中问题产生的原因可能很多,不仅仅是教师单方面的原因,而是学校、家长、社会等多方面的因素的综合作用。因此,想要试图解决选修课教学中存在的本质的、固有的问题,是有难度的。另外,通过新课标选修课设置和一线教师的实际教学之间的联系、差距,反观理论可能具有的缺陷或,在实际教学中对理论的灵活掌握,这些都是本次研究的难点。需要在实践学校认真观察,客观有效的记录,认真归纳总结所得的一手材料,从资料中得出理论,用事实说话。
三、研究方法
(一)观察法:
1.采取非结构式观察法对教师教学进行观察,对一线语文教师在选修课教学过程中所运用的教学方法以及教学过程中的典型事件进行轶事记录,如新颖的导入、有创意的提问等等,与必修课教学进行对比,总结选修课在实际教学中的特点、问题等。
2.采取实况详录法,观察记录教师在选修课集体备课中的表现,从中总结教师选修课教学经验、教学方法等。
3.采用结构式观察法,对学生在选修课学习中的反应进行时间抽样,每十分钟记录一次,看学生在这段时间内积极听讲,注意力集中的情况,从而反观教师的选修课教学。
(二)问卷调查法:
1.对实践学校的一线语文教师进行问卷调查。问卷内容主要包括教师对选修课教学的重视程度,对选修课教材的熟悉程度,对选修课教学目标的把握情况等等。
2.对实践学校高二下学期学生进行随机抽样调查。调查学生对选修课的重视程度,对选修课知识的掌握情况,对目前所选课程的感兴趣程度等等。
(三)访谈法:
1.对实践学校高层领导进行访谈;
结合该校现实情况,向相关领导了解该校选修课课程设置的过程,选修课实施过程中遇到过哪些问题,现在该校选修课的实施状况等相关问题。并让学校领导对选修课的设置和实施提出意见和建议。
2.对一线语文教师进行访谈;
在观察教师的课堂教学表现后,结合学生课堂表现,对教师进行访谈。访谈主要内容包括:教师对该课有哪些新的教学理念,该课教学目标的设计;教学过程中出彩的地方,要询问设计背后的理念和方法;同时,询问教师对选修课设置的看法,对现行选修课教材分析与讲解中存在的问题,以及选修课的集体备课方式等等。
四、学术价值
(一)弥补相关课题研究的不足;
1.昆明市高中选修课政策实行时间较短,相关课题研究较少。本课题的研究能起到一个补充作用。
2.其他省市相关课题研究过于理论化、理想化。本课题深入一线教育,收集一手文献资料,理论与实际相结合,从实际教学中获得理论,避免了主观推断造成的理想化。
(二)丰富和完善相关课题的研究;
1.进一步完善新课标的实施理论;
2.为其他学者的进一步研究提供有效性的数据和结论,为其撰写相关论文提供条件,有利于他们进行更为深入的科研调查。
五、理论意义和实践意义
目前对于语文选修课实施状况的研究还处于起步阶段,现在着眼于这一课题的研究具有很大的拓荒、原创价值。它所开发出的持续的、系列的普通高中任意选修课教材和在实验过程中建立起来的普通高中任意选修课实施的有效机制,从而形成一线教学、在校免费师范生的`双赢局面。
首先,对于在职语文教师而言,可以监督其对新课标相关规定的贯彻落实,完成自身教学的总结和反思,在一定程度上提高了教师的教学水平。
其次,在校师范生是最大收益者。通过研究成果的推广,使准教师们了解一线教师选修课的教学概况,从中吸取经验教学,为将来的选修课教学奠定基础,争取在就业后能够很快适应新课改,上好选修课,防止刚毕业生就培训的尴尬局面。
最后,对参与实践的学生来说,本次实践培养了小组成员的组织协调能力,团队合作能力,资料整理、分析能力,提高了科研实践能力。
六、预期效益
(一)研究论文:
整理访谈记录、观察记录、分析调查问卷,针对选修课在实际教学中的不同问题,选取侧重点,写一至两篇研究论文,要求真实可信,有学术价值和实用价值。引起学术界、教育界对高中语文选修课的设置和实施现实问题的广泛关注。同时,对在校师范生未来选修课教学起到指引作用。
(二)预期成果推广:
1.召开成果交流会,向更多的人介绍我们的课题研究。
2.请优秀一线语文教师来到师范院校进行选修课教学培训,构建在校师范生与一线教师沟通交流的平台。
3.把一线选修课教学中存在的问题反馈给学校教育部,为其研究提供依据。
市、县教育科学规划领导小组:
xx市“十一五”立项课题《小学数学有效合作学习与学生创造行为训练研究》,在课题主持人与课题组成员的共同努力下,在相关学科的专家指导下,大胆进行课堂改革,积极开展教研活动,大量撰写教研论文,现已完成课题的基本内容,达到了预期的效果。
1、实践成果
(1)对广大教师的课堂教学实践产生了广泛的影响。这种影响实出表现在以下五个方面:一是教师的教育教学观念发生了重大变化,形成了适应学生、促进学生发展的课堂教学。二是教师的合作意识和创造意识不断增强,合作技能与创造能力不断提高。三是教师掌握了科研方法,科研能力增强,提升了实施素质教育和参与课改的本领。四是引领教师的专业成长,提高了教师驾驭课堂教学的能力。
五是培养了教师读书的习惯,提高了教师的专业理论水平。理想的教育是从读书开始的,教师良好的读书习惯也为学生树立了榜样,为课题的有效开展厚实了理论基础。课题组成员先后在市县优课评比中获一、二等奖,在县数学中心组活动中、镇数学教研活动中所上公开课、示范课均受好评。
(2)锻炼和培养了参与研究的教师。“为培养学生创造性而教”已成为广大教师的共识。通过研究,我们认为:
1.树立正确的教育理念。只有树立新时代正确的人才观、质量观,才能走出应试教育的怪圈,使学生创造天赋得以施展。
2.具备合理的知识结构。只有不断求知、求新,广泛涉猎知识信息,才能适应创造教育的时代需要。
3.具有一定的创造能力。教师应具有敢为人先的精神,并且勇于探索、乐于创造,努力实现自身的价值。
4.养成良好的心理品质。教师不但兴趣广泛、乐观自信、意志坚强,而且能战胜挫折、超越自我。
5.掌握科学的方法规律。从培养学生的合作意识到训练学生的创造行为,都要遵循科学规律和方法。
教师的研究意识、研究能力、教育智慧、人格风范伴随着整个课题的研究过程,在研究中得到了锻炼与提高,增强教书育人的本领。课题主持人09年被评为“全国优秀班主任”、市、县教育博客大赛一、二等奖,获“市教育博客之星”称号,被县委、县政府授予“学习创新好家庭”称号;两次获县“优秀教师指导奖”,数学教研组获县“优秀教师集体”称号,撰写的教学设计、研究论文先后在《教学与管理》、《教学月刊》、《教育家》、《渐江中小学教师培训》、《名师之路》等杂志上发表了二十多篇,获奖十余篇。
(3)学生的学习能力不断增强,综合素质得到发展。新课程标准反对过分的选拔和甄别功能,因为我们的教育不是少数人的精英教育,尤其义务教育应是面向全体的、人人都能接受的普及性教育。因此教材中新选的内容将适合所有学生的口味,其中有不少闪烁着编者创造性思维光辉的思想,教师在实践研究过程中要适时捕捉体现有效合作学习与创造行为训练的知识点、情感点、操作点、能力点,将这些合作性因素和创造性因素略加提示,使之成为活跃学生思维的触发点,为最终实现学生有效合作学习与创造行为训练的正向迁移奠定良好基础。
学校有了一个良好的育人环境,课堂有了一个适宜合作与创造的氛围,学生也就有了浓厚的学习兴趣,较持久的学习动力和较好的合作和创造心态,其潜在的合作意识和创造欲望获得释放,创造智慧得以激发。研究中,我校两年有40多名学生的作品在全国少儿读物上发表;在市、县“小巧手”比赛中有多人次获得等级奖,有40多人在县数学小论文评比中获等奖。学生综合素质的形成也促进了学生学习成绩的提高;有效合作学习与学生创造行为训练也为学生成绩的上升发挥了积极作用,实验后学生的能力水平明显高于实验前。
(4)教育教学质量不断提高。在数学课堂教学中,教师根据学生实际精心挑选和设计教学内容,学生一旦对教学内容产生了好奇心,或怀疑度,那么生动活泼的民主教学氛围,会使学生在自由而安全的气氛中善于表现自己,乐于再现个性,会使他们的创造性思维因教师的鼓励和赞许而始终处于探索和质疑的亢奋状态,使他们在尊重和理解的前提下更加大胆想象,多向思维,勇于标新,敢于立异。
这样能有效防止学生两级分化,优秀生得到进一步发展,同时也带动了“后进生”的进步,不仅如此,师生教学的积极性也有了很大提高,师生、生生之间的关系得到积极改善,为全面提高学生的素质提供了的保证。自开展课题研究以来,无论是期末还是毕业考试,高分云集教学实验班,实验班明显高于对照班。为高一级学校输送了一批又一批的优秀新生,彰显了学校的办学特色。
(5)促进了评价的标准化和科学化。在有效合作学习与创造行为训练评价过程中,我们既要关注学生知识与技能的理解和掌握,更要关注学生情感与态度的形成和发展;既要关注学生学习的结果,更要关注学生在学习过程中的变化和发展。评价手段和形式应多样化,过程评价与结果评价相结合,定性评价与定量评价相结合,关注学生个性差异,发挥评价激励作用,保护学生的自尊心和自信心。
2、理论成果
在研究过程中,我们不仅让学生学到有利于学生自身发展的知识、技能,获得为今后的发展而有价值的知识和学习方法,还充分关注学生发展的需求,让课堂成为培养学生终生发展的肥沃土壤和广阔天地。在有效合作学习与创造行为训练评价过程中,做到:
[Key Words] English videos; situation; advantages and disadvantages; teaching methods and activities
【摘 要】 近年来随着科技的发展和素质教育越来越受社会的重视,英语教学的改革也不断受到重视,其目的是使学生更有效地运用英语。而通过英文原版影视剧进行英语教学作为一种新的教学方法,已在许多高校得到开展。这种教学方式可以在语音、用词、会话、思维和文化等进一步提高学生的英语应用能力。如今英语影视不仅是一种娱乐方式,更是人们学习外语的好帮手,它具有广大的发展空间。本文根据影视英语教学现状及优缺点的分析,着重强调了教师在影视教学中的作用及要求、影片选择和时间安排的重要性。最后本文在对英语影视教学中如何更有效地使用英语影片分别从课前、课时、课后三方面来提出一些教学方法和活动类型。本文的目的是为了使影视片在英语教学中发挥最大的效用。
【关键词】 英语影视、教学现状、优缺点、教学方法和活动类型
1. Introduction
Since the open-up in China these decades and the development of science, the video is widely used in English class. A shift of emphasis in foreign language teaching and learning from Grammar-Translation Approach to Communicative Approach has taken place in recent years. Now the communicative competence of English is essential for English learners. Meanwhile, there have been remarkable developments in English language teaching and learning. Teachers have been employing various ways to develop students’ abilities and improve the quality of ELT. Although various methods and techniques have been used to try to improve students’ ability to communicate in English, studies have proved that videos are quite an effective medium for English teaching and learning. “Harmer (1983:21) thinks that ‘the idea of simulation is to create the pretence of a real life situation in the classroom where students simulate the real world.’” [1] The videos just have this effect as it can offer us a real life world. Teaching and learning English through videos makes the process natural, educational and enjoyable. This article reveals the situations of using videos in English teaching and learning, advantages and disadvantages. This paper also discusses how to improve English teaching and learning with this effective media.
2. The present situations of using videos
In recent years, the use of videos in English classes has grown rapidly in China as a result of the increasing emphasis on communicative teaching techniques. Being a rich and valuable resource, videos are popular with both students and teachers in China, now videos not only provide a form of entertainment to people, but also are used as a way to learn English language. “The video course offered to college and university students of a conversation class is called shitingshuo. In Chinese shiting means ‘watching and listening’ and shuo means ‘speaking’. As listening and speaking are the two major skills students should acquire, the video course not only teaches English through video but also gets students to use the English they have learnt in talking about the video.”[2]
Some students like video course, because they can learn a lot from people about their personality, their attitudes towards life, and cultural background in different countries besides language. They can also enjoy many activities such as role-play, group discussion, debates and so on. While other students who are used to spoon-feeding teaching method are worried about the video, they think watching videos will waste their limited learning time and large class size brings about great difficulties in oral practice activities. Teachers also have their opinions on it, some think that videos can help them motivate their students’ activity, encourage them to practice their oral English and provide a lot of cultural information. However, there are also some teachers not good at using machines and are uncomfortable with using new equipments. They just play the video from beginning to the end in class.
Therefore, in video course, if the students just take watching video for fun or entertainment; if the students lack in due attention or anxiety; if the time of watching is so little that they cannot thoroughly understand the plot; if there is even no activity or exercise after a video sequence and teachers let it go at that, video becomes totally an entertainment rather than serving as a teaching aid for certain purposes, whichever will cause a great waste to the basic modern appliances or equipments in the facility, and teachers should pay more attention to English teaching through videos, as they are not only widely used in English teaching but also their advantages out weight their disadvantages.
3. Advantages and disadvantages of using videos
3.1 Advantages of using videos
Even though a great number of media have tried to improve students’ English especially their speaking and listening ability, there are few that can be compared to videos. This effective media can be seen in the following reasons:
3.1.1 Videos provide motivating materials to both students and teachers
“Motivation and attitudes are important factors, which help to determine the level of proficiency achieved by different learners.”[3] An original video can be very motivating and interesting if it describes real-life situations, real-life people and real-life language. During the learning process, if we employ films as the teaching material, language learning will become enjoyable.
The materials that films provide are both audio and visual, which help students learn English more easily. That’s because while students are watching a film, students not only listen to the characters’ speech but also watch their movements, beautiful heroines and handsome heroes, appreciate beautiful scenery and listen to pleasant songs and fluent dialogues. These can really motivate students’ initiative and enable them to learn in a relaxing and cheerful atmosphere. In addition, the scenes, the lines or other aspects that films bring will probably influence learners’ capacity as they do in real life. When they finish the film and return to the real life, they may think of some topics related to the film and speak out the language more spontaneously. For example, when they watch Kramer vs. Kramer, they may think of the women problems in present society: Should a woman’s place be limited to her own home or not? After they watch Saving Private Ryan, they may think about the problem between war and humanist: Is it worthy of risking eight soldiers’ lives to save Ryan for the purpose of booting morale on the homefront? [4] The teachers can also ask students to discuss these questions after seeing the film. Films are the motivating materials of learning English for students and teachers.
3.1.2 Videos show real-life situations in which characters speak their own language
For most Chinese learners, they lack the authentic English language-learning environment. So in most cases, they always speak English in their own ways and don’t consider whether it’s accurate or not. As time goes by, they get used to expressing “Chinese English”, which is full of mistakes and feels so strange to foreigners. On one hand, they are also amused in some sentences. Because the language in a book they usually learn has been polished again and again by the writer, and even the communication in it is polished. Thus it is unreal and not suitable for being used in films. [5] What’s more, there are many calumnies, slangs, idioms in videos, so it is hard enough to become proficient in different styles of the language. However, learning to speak depends upon hearing someone else speak,so English films do have positive effects in this respect. For example:
(1) You don’t say.
(2) Cops, freeze.
The first sentence is wrong if you understand it in this way “You’d better not speak more”. The real meaning is “Really?” The second sentence is often heard in some action films. “Freeze” here not means cold storage. In America, it means “Don’t move” The whole sentence means “We are polices, don’t move.” Sometime the same sentence has different meanings, such as “take care of him” (from the film Graduation), surface meaning is “look after”, while the deep meaning is “deal with”. It also has different meanings in different situations. The police said it with his teeth gnashed means “kill him”. [6]
In a word, the language that characters speak is original; therefore, students can use English in more appropriate way through videos.
3.1.3 Videos are also a good source of classroom activity
The source of classroom activity is a concern for most English teachers. Because of the difficulties in looking for suitable video materials, teachers often cancel classroom activity. Then teachers actually become speech deliverers and students play the part of listeners instead of active participants in this teaching and learning process. But films provide a good source of classroom activity and motivate students to join in it. While watching the video, teachers can pause the film to let the students think about some certain questions in the film, for example answer some questions, and act out the play and so on. In a word, during watching the video the teacher can provide more opportunities for students to take part in it, as videos are a good source of classroom activity.
3.1.4 Videos are a good source of information about culture
“Compared with any other kind of teaching aid, video has quite a unique advantage in introducing foreign culture. Video works could show the actual situation of a town, a city, or a country and the real structure of culture, things like geographic features, national customs and citizen characteristics and so on.” [7] Culture is the necessary context for language learning. Videos just can be used as vehicles for teaching different culture, like literature videos are rich in the cultural background of those English-speaking countries; they consciously or unconsciously transmit the views, values, beliefs, attitudes and feelings of English-speaking society, which can help students to know that culture from various angles. For example, the film Gone with the Wind provides a great deal of information about American Civil War. In the film Forrest Gump, we can learn not only some history events, such as the Ku Klux Klan, Civil War, sexual liberation, the assassination of American president, the Blackman movement, Vietnam War, Watergate scandal and so on, but also learn some local customs and practices like the school bus, single parent family, the rugby match, the students’ life in kindergarten, primary school and university. Just the sentence in the beginning of the film “My momma always said life was a box of chocolates. You never know what you get” puzzles us a lot, and it refers to the different packages and contents between America and China.[8] So watching videos is an effective teaching method in learning foreign culture, they help students have a better understanding of the cultural knowledge in foreign countries, and to some extent avoid leading to cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Due to these advantages, films have become more and more popular with English learners. But is it perfect to be employed totally to conduct through the whole English teaching and learning? Are there any problems that will be encountered in a video course? What difficulties will the students have? These years, in order to create an authentic language-learning environment, many colleges and universities have provided students an opportunity to watch movies once or twice a week. However, to most students, this weekly event is more like an entertainment than a learning activity. Without any guidance or instruction from teachers, students just enjoy the experience of watching, they are unlikely to benefit from movies.
3.2 Disadvantages of using videos
Although there are many advantages of using videos through English teaching and learning, the problems raised during practical teaching and learning cannot be ignored.
3.2.1 Only some videos can be adopted as teaching and learning materials
On one hand, class teaching is based on textbook; teachers only can choose some videos that are fit for the content in the textbook. “On the other hand due to different cultural background and social value, some of the video from the West World contain some certain kind of content, which is not appropriate for the unprepared and immature minds, such as films with some scenes of violence, despair, drugs, pornography and so on.” [9] And though the English videos are related to our life, they more or less create some unreal, heroic images that often appear unruly and without discipline. What’s more, in some videos their language is vulgar; words like “shit, fuck, damn, a son of bitch …”have appeared more and more frequently in youngsters’ lips. Imitation is important for language study, but it is not wise to imitate the language of bad impacts on students’ morality. Some films even have some false ideas against the history. [10] What’s more, the time for class teaching is limited, but the films chosen for textbook teaching always take long time to be finished. So it is hard to select a suitable film for teaching.
3.2.2 Videos cannot satisfy different levels of students
Certainly, there are different levels of students’ proficiency in class. Generally, according to their level of proficiency of English, students can be pided into three groups: elementary (students who usually have small vocabulary and cultural knowledge of English, [11] limited in listening and speaking), intermediate (students who are reasonable at listening and speaking), advanced (students who have both developed their linguistic and communicative competence).[12] For those advanced and intermediate students, a video course is good for them to better improve and even consolidate their listening and speaking ability. But it’s not so reasonable for those elementary students, because the video language is spoken too fast or naturally to understand. There are few they can catch or understand, so it’s harder for them to get the whole idea of the video and the purpose for teaching the textbook through a related video fails.
3.2.3 Videos can be a distractive thing during the learning
As we know, videos gather the text, mark, animation, sound and image, which provide the lifelike seeing and hearing effect for English teaching. The combination of sound vision is dynamic, immediate and quite easily accessible. It is much more attractive, interesting and impressive than common material printed in books or audible material in tape. It could greatly increase the students’ enthusiasm and imagination. [13] However, just because of these wonderful abilities of video, the students pay less attention to what they actually heard. When watching the video, they are often distracted by the lively visual senses. Some also worry students might treat it as they treat watching television, lazily, uncritically. So Jack Wang thinks that video is less useful for teaching listening and speaking than audiotape. [14]
Although these weaknesses of using videos have been an obstacle during the teaching and learning process, people still persist in employing it as an important medium. If there will be more and more videos chosen to fit the textbook, and if the video course could be satisfactorily carried out with both the help of students and teachers, the advantages of using videos will ultimately outweigh its disadvantages. What’s more in order to make the video class effective, we should know the teachers’ role and requirement. There must be some methods to be used and some activities to be prepared and to be best utilized for English teaching and learning. As mentioned above, one problem of using films is the difficulty in serving different levels of students. So the methods used and the activities designed must target different levels of students’ proficiency in class, otherwise, those advanced students will learn English better and better, but those elementary will lose interest in English. Then both teachers and learners won’t achieve their desired goals.
转贴于 4. Some points worthy of attention in teaching through videos
4.1 The teacher’s role and requirement
In order to have an efficient video class, we should well know the teacher’s role first. Because whether the students can achieve a good memory and high efficiency of what they have learned depends on the scientific design and careful implementation, without them the gain cannot be satisfactorily obtained. The teacher is an organizer, controller, participant, facilitator and evaluators as well as researcher or investigator, he /she plays a very important role in video class. [15] So the teacher’s main responsibility is to design tasks that can be carried out in class. Before the activity the teacher should give instruction clearly and concisely. In order to make the activity run smoothly and efficiently, the teacher also has to control the pace. During the role-play, the teacher can join one or two groups as an ordinary participant. As far as the video is concerned the teacher should help students by designing handouts and guiding them to watch. “According to Harmer (1997:237), as an assessor or evaluator, the teacher does two things that are correcting mistakes and organizing feedback. Harmer insists that correcting should be gentle.”, “Organizing feedback is an effective way to assess student’s performances so that they see how well they are doing.” [16] Here the teacher should focus on student’s success or progress so that a success-oriented learning atmosphere can be created. What’s more, surveys and interviews are indispensable steps for the teacher. Through the research or investigation, the teacher can get to know the perception of his /her students about videos, what activities they like much and what videos are their favorites. Then the teacher will adopt the material and teaching method according to the need and interests of students. By these ways his/her teaching will be more motivating and effective.
In a word, in video course teacher’s role is not only on playing the films but also on transmitting this material in to students’ real acquired experience.
4.2 Criteria for video option
Films are available on VCD, DVD, tape, disc or TV. There are also many kinds of films, comedy, tragedy, science fiction, thriller, documentary, etc. Although there are various kinds of video materials, few can be adopted as teaching and learning material in a video course, and what kind of films is suitable for a video course is the key question for teachers. Selecting a suitable film is very important for a teacher to organize a good class, teachers should be careful in choosing films to use in video courses. Teachers should apply different methods to design some activities in different types of films. For example, documentaries often include large information such as news, commentary, and the development of them is always based on an event. When watching this kind of film, the teacher should lead students’ attention on what, who, where, when, how, why questions on the film. [17]
The video materials’ selection is significant in English teaching and learning, but the same material cannot meet the whole students’ need. What’s more, they are in different levels and abilities. Look at following table:
The Students’ Perceptions of the Selection of Films [18]
Items A B C D E
1 28.67% 8.29% 15% 28.71% 18.33%
2 11.25% 18.85% 28.75% 5% 37.15%
3 5% 18.75% 37.5% 5% 27.5%
4 0% 5% 42.64% 33.62% 18.7%
5 2.5% 11.25% 13.75% 60% 12.5%
6 3.75% 38.93% 38.57% 10% 8.75%
(See Appendix1 for the wording of the items)
Item1 in table displays the learners’ perceptions or opinions of the selection of films. Nearly 30% learners like films about love; also nearly 30% learners like watching videos about life. Only nearly 9% learners like watching videos about war. This indicates that most learners love life and treasure the most beautiful affection. When they watch videos, they want to be in a relaxing stage. Item2 in table show that nearly 40% of learners prefer that the film be connected with what they have learned. It suggests that the learners want to decode the plots using their existing knowledge and prior experience. It also illustrates nearly 30% of learners like to watch films that are thought provoking. This indicates that students like thinking about life, the theme and value of viewers’ thinking and imagination. Item3 in table shows that nearly 40% learners prefer the ideological content within their understanding. As is shows in Item4 in table, 42.64% learners prefer that the selection of films should be of variety. This maybe shows that learners want to enrich their knowledge since authentic materials are clear and essential source and an important trigger of comprehensible output as well. As is illustrated in Item5 in table, 60% learners prefer videos/films a little above their linguistic competence. If a video is too difficult or easy, then the language acquisition will not occur spontaneously.
From the above analyses we can get some principles of selecting a suitable film for teaching and learning. First, films chosen for video course should be based on the students’ interests and also helpful for learning and teaching rather than entertainment. They must be good for teaching purpose, for example, to provide an opportunity for students to improve their listening or speaking ability. If students are especially weak in picking up daily conversations, it is better that the film should include enough dialogues. In addition, the film shouldn’t be too easy or too hard for students according to students’ different levels of proficiency of English. If the film is too easy, the advanced students can benefit little from it. On the contrary, the elementary students will probably lose interest in it if the film is too difficult to understand. Last but not least, young people can be easily influenced by movies. The films worldwide are both good and bad, so teachers should consider the ideological content of films. Teachers should be patient and careful enough to choose films. If the film is consisted of violence or sex, etc, it is a bad source for teaching and learning.
4.3 Time arrangement
Another problem for teachers is time arrangement. As for the duration of the video, Item6 in table shows that “the length of a video should be between one and half hours and two hours. It will appear to students’ psychological characteristics as far as their span of attention is concerned.”[19] Normally, it takes 2 to 3 hours to finish playing a whole film, so we need at least 4-class time (45 minutes per class). However, as we have many activities designed to conduct during each stage, it is essential to arrange time as reasonable as possible. It requires teachers’ full preparation before video course and puts time arrangement into consideration. In addition, a film is pided into several class-times to finish, so when it is to be continued, students should memorize the scene of the film played in previous classes. Therefore, how to properly arrange time not only depends on the performance of students and teachers, but also depends on how much time the film takes. In this perspective of time, we’d better not choose those films which take too long to finish.
5. Some methods and activities to be used in video course
The book English Through Movies intends to help learners go through the journey of learning English through movies in 4 stages. It has 4 units. Each unit is a movie. There are 4 parts in every unit. Part one: understanding of the movie, which includes the cultural background of the movie, the genre of the movie and the summary of the movie. Part two: close study of the movie, which contains excerpts from the movie. Part three: reflection of the movie, which includes recordings of interview. Part four: act out the movie. [20] Learning from the design of this book, we know something must be done before we start a video course. On one hand, we can conduct a questionnaire to know students’ specific needs. Questions can be raised in the questionnaire like this: Do they really like watching a movie in class? If they do, in what ways can it motivate students? On the other hand, teachers should check up whether the teaching facilities are available or not. A film class needs certain facilities like a TV set, a videocassette recorder (VCR) or a videodisc player, videotapes or discs. Now, it is time to consider how to fully use films to teach. There are three stages for preparing and teaching a video course.
5.1 Pre-watching [21]
The first stage is preparation. Both teachers and students should well prepare. For the part of teachers, all the equipments and other facilities should be checked to be in a good state. Teachers also need to get all the teaching materials (the textbook, pictures, or poster etc.) prepared to help students get to know anything about the movie. Then teachers can design some exercises to be presented and activities to be worked out in class. As for students, they should read the reference materials or they can look for other related materials to understand the film better.
Pre-watching activities:
If the students have already known something about the film, they will not be so tense, so activities also should not be neglected in pre-watching stage. They can be designed as following:
(1) Introduce the topic and cultural background of the video.
(2) Vocabulary guessing: Give students a list of words and let them guess which word will be appeared in what context. If there are some words they don’t know, ask them to look up in a dictionary immediately or turn to the teacher for help.
(3) Set one or two general questions to meet the main content points in the film.
(4) Discussion: Discuss what the film will be about according to the title of the film.
These activities serve as a warming-up exercise before watching the movie. It is a good previewing activity for different levels of students in class, and it aims to help students have a better understanding of the film.
5.2 While-watching [22]
The second stage is watching the film. When students have a basic idea of the film, it is time to view the movie. The film can be played twice or more to strengthen their impression of the movie. Students watch the film straight through at the first time to strengthen their understanding from their preparation. The second time, teachers only choose certain episode of the film. During this process, teachers can suddenly stop and ask students to do the exercise given in advance. As for the third time or more, students can completely appreciate the film without any exercises.
While-watching activities: (the first time)
(1) Gap-filling.
Provide some key sentences and paragraphs based on the video with blanks. This exercise requires students remember key words, slang, phrases or important information to fill the gaps. This activity can be easy for some advanced students. However, it can help those elementary and intermediate students to practice their spoken English.
(2) Multiple-choice
List words with four explanations. Among these explanations, certain or all could be possible for answers. Students are asked to choose those, which are fit to the meaning appears in the video.
(3) True or false
Give students worksheets with some statements. Ask students to decide whether it is true or false according to the film (with information available in the video).
(4) Check the answers and give explanations as well.
In these activities, students are given a worksheet while viewing at the first time. This activity needs a little writing, so the film will not be interrupted.
While-watching activities: (the second time)
(1) Complete a sentence or a paragraph dictation.
When it comes to a sentence dictation, teachers play the disc twice. For the first time, students are asked to watch only. When playing the second time, students must write down what they have heard to complete the whole sentence. When it comes to a paragraph dictation, teachers play the video three times. For the first time, students must watch and listen only to get the general idea. For the second time, students take down the notes. The last time, students must write down the whole paragraph as much as possible based on the notes they’ve taken.
(2) Sound off
Play the video through once with the sound turned off. Ask students to watch the screen only to predict the verbal content of the film. This prediction may include who the characters are, what they are talking about, etc. [23]
(3) Play the video again and check the answers.
In these activities, teachers just choose a part of the film (3 to 4 minutes) and present it to the class. The purpose of a sentence or a paragraph is to help students focus on key words and phrases. It is particularly effective with both elementary and intermediate students. And the sound off exercise is to help students to use extra linguistic clues to understand what is being said.
5.3 Post-watching [24]
The final stage is the advanced stage. To have a comprehensive review of the advanced students, teachers must adopt various methods.
Post-watching activities:
(1) Group discussion
Students are pided into 4 or 5 groups, and then each group selects one leader to present their group members’ idea after discussion. Each group is given different tasks (such as the summary of the story, the comments on the film, the performance of the characters, etc). When the discussion is over, every representative of each group is asked to share and exchange their ideas to the whole class.
(2) Role playing
When students have a clear understanding of the presentation, teachers select certain part of the scene, and ask students to act out in front of class by using as much of the original version as they can remember.
(3) Writing
Ask students to write a short summary or comments on any issues or characters they like in the film. These activities aim to check whether students have understood the film and also provide feedbacks to teachers. From this stage, teachers can see where still needs to be improved.
6. Conclusion
English teaching and learning through films has both positive and negative parts, in terms of providing material source. Compared to other media, it’s ultimately good for conducting classroom activity, practicing students’ speaking and listening ability, etc. Even though there are also many methods proved to be efficient for English teaching and learning, videos are still worth trying to put into teaching practice. Apart from its advantages introduced above, video itself has its own characteristics, which combine nature and society, culture and history, science and art, religion and morality, dream and reality. Although its advantages outweigh its disadvantages, we still should be aware of its limitations during teaching. We also have suggested some activities in each stage, it is obvious that activities aim to help students have a better understanding of the film; however, they still need to be improved as more and more video courses are put into practice. The video class makes language teaching more attractive and interesting, and it requires both the effort of teachers and students.
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