语境教学在初中英语口语教学中的应用

论文总字数：26052字

摘 要

社会对英语应用能力需求在逐步提升,但是口语作为语言的重要输出环节却没受到师生足够的重视,久而久之口语能力的培养被忽视,而且传统的教学方法难以满足英语口语的教学,部分学生甚至达不到课程标准,于是改良口语教学方法以提高学生英语口语素养显得越来越重要.

本文基于国内外学者对语境教学的研究,立足于中国初中英语教学,初步探讨语境教学在初中英语口语教学中的应用,旨在帮助教师合理运用语境教学法在初中英语课堂中展开教学.

关键词 : 语境教学; 英语口语教学; 初中英语教学

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Backgrounds of study 1

1.2 Significance of study 2

1.3 Purpose of study 2

1. Literature Review 2

2.1 The definition of contextual teaching 2

2.2 The previous study of contextual Teaching 2

1. Current Problems in Oral English Teaching of Junior Middle school 6

3.1 Lack of atmosphere of contextual communication 6

3.2 Lack of originality in contextual design 7

1. Strategies for Implementing Contextual English Teaching Method 8

4.1 Use visual aids to create context 8

4.2 Use multimedia to create context 8

4.3 Use activities to create context 8

1. Conclusion 8

Works Cited 9

1. Introduction

To meet the needs of the society, especially in the 21st century when global cultural exchanging is familiar to our daily life. The young generation has the responsibility to develop their English ability. However, it is always a difficulty to teach oral English in junior middle school. The traditional class seems to stick in the mire, this kind of class emphasizes vocabulary and grammar teaching but speaking. Even there are oral English courses, they are in the form of monotony. We may find it hard to create a proper English context in junior middle school though there are so many media we can apply for English teaching.

Oral English teaching, a key point and a difficulty to deal with in junior English teaching, more and more schools has raised attention to speaking ability, but not all the schools provide desirable results for lacking proper methods in creating an environment where students are eager to develop their English ability. When it comes to context, many teachers get vexed when preparing for lessons. Even worse, some teachers will not create a proper atmosphere for students to study oral English because it is more difficult to correct oral homework than paper homework. And many schools do not have oral English tests or homework.

1.1 Backgrounds of study

There is no doubt that exam-oriented education dominates. It is unrealistic to spend a lot of time in class to practice oral English, but we have to face this situation and continue to help students to practise their English. As international exchanges become more and more extensive, English has become an increasingly important tool for the exchange of ideas, feelings and scientific culture. The oral English teaching mode which is copied from the textbook is unable to adapt to the developing needs of the new era. As the author has mentioned above, creating context for students to learn English has great significance in today’s English teaching. Because English to us is a second language,we may find all kinds of hinders when finding a good environment to practise English. Teachers must improve the efficiency and quality of oral English teaching in a limited time. This is not only the need to reach the curriculum standards, but also the need to further promote English teaching.

1.2 Significance of study

The society calls for comprehensive and diversified English learning, Whether for teachers or students, the standards were raised, so it is more and more important to study the significance of contextual teaching.

Studying how to establish an environment that suits for students to learn English has great significance in reality since that English is not a native language to us and it is not so easy to find a good place to practice oral English in our daily lives. Helping students develop their oral English is a way to develop their communicating skills in some degree, especially for junior students,who have great potentials in learning new knowledge.

1.3 Purpose of study

This paper aims to explore the application of contextual teaching in junior middle school English oral teaching under the teaching environment in China. It aims to provide strategies for teachers to implement contextual teaching, putting forward feasible methods for students’ oral English learning.

1. Literature Review

In order to make the article more persuasive and credible, the author reviewed and analyzed the materials on contextual teaching from home and abroad. Through in-depth analysis of past and present research results, the author points out current research status, issues what should be further solved, summarizing various research results based on relevant scientific theories, combined with specific research conditions and actual needs.

2.1 The definition of contextual teaching

Context is the speech environment, and the contextual teaching is the teaching method based on context theory. It refers to teachers’ intentional introduction or creation of vivid and specific scenes with a certain emotional color and image as the subject in the teaching process, so as to arouse students’ certain attitude and experience, thereby helping students understand the teaching materials. The psychological function can be developed as a teaching method. The core of contextual teaching is to set up a context for students to experience English.

2.2 The previous study of contextual teaching

2.2.1 Study at home

The study of context in China began in the early 1930s. In his book Rhetoric Beginnings, Mr. Chen Wangdao put forward the famous “six rhetoric”, namely “why,when, who, what, where, how is it?” He regards this “six-hits” issue as a scenario issue. These “six-hits” are the six elements that make up the “context.”

Following Chen Wangdao, many people in the linguistic field in China have explored and discussed the issue of context in varying degrees. Wang Dechun proposed the “use of language environment" in the early 1960s. He said: “Context is an environment in which language, such as time, place, occasion, object, and other subjective factors, such as identity, thought, character, occupation, cultivation, and mood, are used in language.”

In the book“Modern Chinese” published in 1985, Mr. Zhang Zhigong also mentioned the problem of context. He pointed out: “The so-called linguistic environment, from a small scope, the most direct influence on semantics is the practical language environment”, that is to say, the occasions of speaking and obedience, and the prefaces of words. The nature and characteristics of the communication are as small as the personal circumstances of the communication parties such as cultural cultivation, knowledge level, social experience, language style, and dialect foundation. It is also a kind of language environment. It is symmetric with the practical language environment. These two language environments can be called “It is a generalized language environment.” To sum up, linguists generally interpret contexts in two ways: one that interprets context as abstraction from specific contexts and the other has some influence on participants in linguistic activities. The factors systematically determine the form of the discourse, the implementation, and the meaning of the discourse. This is Lyons’s definition of the context:the one interprets the context as the cultural knowledge shared by participants of language activity. Knowledge enables listeners to understand the meaning expressed by a talker through a certain utterance.

Any text is produced under certain context conditions. Each component in the context set of the discourse affects the choice and interpretation of the language structure. Therefore, the research of context theory has an inestimable effect on teaching practice. It can contribute to the three-dimensional understanding of the context itself, that is, context is not only the context we often say, but also the elements which are both internal and external to each other.

Liao Chuanfeng (2000) clearly put forward the concrete measures of how to use the contextual teaching method in English teaching in the “Context and Context Teaching”. He summarized the three characteristics of the contextual teaching method. The first is the triple context: discourse context, situational context, and cultural context. The three are vertical relationships from top to bottom. The purpose of the triple teaching is to divide the operation process into introduction, practice, and use. Stages, respectively, to develop students’ language knowledge, listening, speaking, reading, writing skills and communication skills; three are threefold: (1) vividness, classroom socialization and communicative authenticity; (2) associative, clues such as scenes, tasks, plots, etc. in the communicative environment to enable students to generate memory associations and thus maintain long-term memory. (3) Constraints, that is, the context of a specific context on language activities and vocabulary, sentence structure, etc. The choice has a restrictive effect. In addition, he also proposed viewpoints that can combine real life with the context contained in the textbooks to conduct vocabulary teaching, predict and guess the meaning of chapters based on the context within the text, and use the context to cultivate communicative competence.

Kong Fancheng (2009) defined the concept of contextual teaching in the“Contextual Teaching Research”, and elaborated on the distinction, connection and respective theoretical basis of contextual teaching.In addition, he also subdivides contextual teaching into five categories: contextual teaching, situational contextual teaching, sociocultural contextual teaching, cognitive contextual teaching, and virtual contextual teaching. The basic practice and application requirements of the contextual teaching method are described one by one.

Lu Yuan (2011) described the role of contextual teaching in the promotion of students’ interest in teaching in the “Thinking about the Teaching of English Contextual Approaches” and proposed three principles to be noted when creating contexts in teaching: (1) Principle of authenticity; (2) Principle of relevance; (3) Expanding the principle of education.

2.2.2 Study abroad

With the transformation of English teaching from traditional modes to modern modes, contextual teaching gradually shows its own advantages in listening, speaking, reading and writing, which also makes foreign scholars begin to pay attention to the study of context teaching.

Halliday (1964) has closely associated context with foreign language teaching in the “Descriptive Linguistics in Literary Study”. He pointed out that foreign language teaching must grasp two substantive things. First, “learners must experience language, verbal or written, in a meaningful context.” Second, “learners must show performance.” , test your skills and make mistakes and get the opportunity to correct." In his view, the development of foreign language ability is not only about being able to know, but also being more expensive, and language learning is a process of contextualization. Only in this process can a learner develop the ability to make reasonable guesses in the context of communication.

Richard amp; Rodgers (1986) pointed out in the “Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching” that most teachers should be aware of the importance of context in foreign language teaching because language is produced in context, understanding and producing discourse. Specific contexts are closely related.

Claire Kramsch (1999) mentioned in “Contextual Teaching and Learning” that context and the development of the important relationship between listening, speaking, reading, and writing traditional skills and cultural transmission. Through the failure of communication in cross-cultural context, he explained the core position of cultural context and inspired the application of context in foreign language teaching.

Marian amp; Neisser (2000) mentioned in “Language Dependent Recall: Autobiographical Memories”: Languages are generated in context and applied in contexts. Contexts are closely related to English teaching, contexts in the classroom should receive the attention of teachers and students.

In Contextualized Language Instruction, Shrum and Glisan (2003) first summed up the realization of contextualized input and output theories, interaction theories, and related socialinguistic theories in language learning, using five C’ s, namely (1)Communication (2) Culture (3) Connection (4) Comparison (5) Community to summarize the social environment that constitutes foreign language teaching. The five basic elements of real contextual communication, Bragger’ s (1985) three-term behavioral characteristics of teachers in communication classrooms, and Hall’ s (1999) theory of the seven major characteristics of the teaching conversational model, and based on these theories design the oral teaching classroom organization. They explored how to develop students’ communicative and performance oral skills in context.

Hadley (2003) proposed an important principle of contextual teaching in the “Teaching Language in Context” that Foreign language teaching must provide students with the opportunity to practise language used in various practical situations that they may encounter when using target language in the future. Examples are given to explain the importance of the coherence in the context of understanding and learning. In addition, he also provided a model for the teaching of listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the teaching of foreign language teaching in context. At the same time, he also emphasized the important position of “communicative competence”in the current era. Through the analysis of the "transitional language" in the context to explore how to develop students’ ability to speak and write in foreign languages, and put forward a teaching suggestion worthy of reference: In oral teaching activities, the degree of complexity of appropriate control of content helps students to improve their fluency.

In summary, scholars at home and abroad attach great importance to the role of contextual factors in language teaching and advocate the cultivation of students’ verbal communication skills through teaching activities that are contextualized. However, most of the studies in China focus on vocabulary and reading rather than speaking. This also makes the research content of this article meaningful.

1. Current Problems in Oral English Teaching of Junior Middle School

To improve contextual teaching in oral English, we should firstly know the current situation in oral English teaching in junior middle school.The face is upset that there are quite a few problems during teaching process, whether teachers or students, or even schools,they all have some problems that we should deal with. Here the author lists several problems which are commonly seen during the process of contextual teaching, from which we can have a look at the current situation of contextual teaching in China.

3.1 Lack an atmosphere of English contextual communication

English is a foreign language to Chinese students. Unlike native language, foreign words cannot thrive in natural language environment. On the contrary, there are often negative translations from the native language. Students’ opportunities for oral training are often killed. First of all, it should be the easiest to create an oral atmosphere in the classroom, but unfortunately, in many schools, many teachers forget the cultivation of spoken language ability while they are moving around the scores. To this day, the phenomenon of using Chinese in English classes still exists, and it is not an isolated phenomenon. For students, they lose their main place of learning oral English. In ordinary life, whether it is family or friends, seldom students will practise English with their friends and families. Well, it seems that the language environment that students need is really very poor, which is very unfavorable for the cultivation of spoken language ability.

3.2 Lack of originality in contextual design

In the traditional teaching mode, teachers are the center of teaching activities, the main body of teaching activities, the imparting of knowledge, students are the recipients of knowledge, the media is the teaching tool, the teaching materials are the contents of teaching. The main environment for classroom teaching is to provide teachers with a stage for performances. In a word, the entire teaching activities and teaching structure are around the teacher. Obviously, the teacher’ s teaching level, teaching skills, and teaching arts determine the student’ s learning effect. This type of classroom teaching has long been the mainstream model of school teaching in China.

In the long-term teaching practice,teachers are already familiar with the knowledge they have gained and are accustomed to their own teaching methods. Even on the basis of preparing lessons, they do not need to spend too much time on designing teaching. They can easily use a piece of chalk to finish a lesson. Second, the main role of teachers is due to the differences between regions, schools, and teachers. There are individual differences. This individual difference will result in differences in professionalism, responsibility, and teaching efficiency. Teachers’ own moral cultivation, interests, thinking, etc. will also have a direct or indirect impact on students. In classroom teaching, teachers continue to engage in face-to-face emotional exchanges with students. In this way, the teacher’s words and deeds, personal charisma will play an important role in the growth of students. Thirdly, due to the limitation of the national examination system, teachers’ teaching materials are subject to the background of exam-oriented education. The society and the school mainly evaluate the teachers based on the students’ achievements. Teachers must complete their own achievements if they want to produce results. The task of teaching is to systematically complete the content stipulated in textbooks and syllabuses, and intensify the training of relevant knowledge around the examinations. As a result, many teachers use the book as the center to impart knowledge and teach. Fourth, due to the influence of traditional teaching methods, many teachers’ teaching methods are rigid and unitary. Today,with the rapid development of science and technology, the increasing need of developing speaking ability and updating knowledge is also challenging traditional teaching methods.

1. Strategies for Implementing Contextual English Teaching Method

After discussing the problems exist in oral English of junior middle schools. The author wants to provide some feasible strategies to implement contextual teaching. In this section, the author will list several strategies based on the contextual teaching theories and the problems mentioned above.

4.1 Use visual aids to create context

Intuitive teaching makes English teaching vivid. It provides various teaching scenarios and real communication situations for English teaching, which helps to create English communication situations and atmosphere. Junior middle school students are still relatively naive in their thinking and behavior, therefore we have to catch their attention. Using some physical objects, pictures, and other teaching aids to give students a sense of freshness, attention is attracted, and they are willing to speak up.

4.2 Use multimedia to create context

Multimedia includes many elements such as text, images, animations, sounds, and video images. It has features such as high efficiency, interactivity, and presence. Based on these characteristics, teachers can use multimedia to create realistic contexts in specific topics. For modern teaching, it is a basic need to know how to use powerpoint to assist teaching. It is far from enough that just puts some images on the powerpoint but also adds some flashes or sound to catch students attention. And a teacher should always remember that the powerpoint is an assistance for creating context but a succedaneum of blackboard.

4.3 Use activities to create context

Oral classes should be conducted in a relaxed, pleasant and harmonious atmosphere. Through the addition of classroom activities, the classroom atmosphere can become active and the motivation of English learning for junior middle school students can be improved. In the current teaching environment, teachers can use situational dialogues, English songs, role-play games, imitating speech tones and other activities to train students’ oral English ability. For teaching junior middle school students, you have to raise their interests in learning English. So having a proper design of teaching process before class is vital for the effectiveness of oral teaching.

5. Conclusion

The so-called context in the English class mainly refers to a special atmosphere created by the setting of some kind of emotional activities. It is also a means to arouse students’ learning emotions in a vivid context. Specifically, the application of context in the classroom means that in the teaching process, teachers intentionally introduce or create vivid and concrete scenes with a certain emotional color and image as the main body. This can cause students to experience certain attitudes, help students understand the teaching materials, and enable students to develop corresponding psychological functions in the environment and experience relevant cultural backgrounds. Context must be provided to students after further refinement and processing of society and life. Students must also feel the experience after experiencing this experience. The context is various, such as language description, games, painting, role-playing, poetry recitation, film appreciation, tourism, etc., all of which can contain teaching content in the context of specific images. In the English class, the use of these forms can make the class more lively, and the English culture can provide students with a more intuitive understanding with the presentation of these situations and contexts.

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