浅析以学生为中心的雅思口语课堂 | 教学法漫谈

It is distinct that traditional English teaching in China was mainly teacher-centered, examination-oriented, and grammar-and-vocabulary-based. Emphasis was laid on teaching instead of learning. This will naturally cause poor teacher-student interactive relation and unsatisfactory effect of language teaching. The traditional teaching methods have “crippled” the students due to the lack of communicative ability. They only have the ability to memorize thousands of words, to analyze sentence structures, to read moderately difficult articles and make correct choice in reading comprehension exercises.Therefore, it is necessary to call for an innovation of foreign language teaching.

The new teaching concept is agreed that the teaching activities must enable students to become active by the education. Training students to acquire English in the teaching situation is the urgent requirement of the modern language teaching theory; Teachers should strengthen the training of English learning strategies to make full use of multimedia, network resources, and guide students' independent study measures gradually so that it shows the main role of the students in the English classroom.

English classroom should be student-centered. Teachers and students interact actively and develop together, which is a major breakthrough in the traditional concept of "teachers teach the students". English teaching should adapt to develop students' initial application of English communicative ability, and students can obtain a certain degree of self-learning ability through class learning. English teachers should have the awareness to fully embody the role of teacher-led and student-centered in the classroom.

This essay mainly focuses on the hypothesis that whether anyguiding principles of teaching for teachers, and relevant teaching methods should be applied to foster students' sense of being their own learning center.

The international English language testing system (IELTS) is the world’s most popular English language proficiency test for higher education and global migration, with over 2 million tests taken in the last year.(www.cambridgeenglish.org). IELTS is widely accepted for these purposes, which is designed to test the language ability of people who want to study or work where English is used as the language of communication. The CEFR describes language ability on a scale of levels from A1 for beginners up to C2 for those who have mastered a language.  This makes it easy for anyone involved in language teaching and testing, such as teachers or learners, to see the level of different qualifications.The Speaking module consists of a one-to-one interview with a specially trained examiner. 

The interview is recorded and has three separate parts:

• An introduction and interview

• An individual long turn where the candidate speaks for one or two minutes on a particular topic

• A two-way discussion thematically linked to the individual long turn

This interview will last for approximately 11-14 minutes.The Speaking module assesses whether candidates can communicate effectively in English.The assessment takes into account Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.  

A wide range of speaking skills are assessed:

• The ability to communicate opinions and information on everyday topics and common experiences and situations by answering a range of questions.

• The ability to speak at length on a given topic using appropriate language and organizing ideas coherently

• The ability to express and justify opinions and to analyze, discuss and speculate about issues.（www.cambridgeenglish.org）

According to Widdowson (1987), “The increase in learner-centered activity and collaborative work in the classroom does not mean that the teacher becomes less authoritative. Actually, along with the shift of teaching pattern from teacher-centered to students-centered, the requirements on the teacher are greater, paradoxically, not less. teacher’s function becomes less dominant than before, but not less important, and the role of the teacher should be emphasized instead of being neglected. Teachers are still the leading of classroom teaching to decide the student what to do, when to do, and how to do. To some extent, Teachers play a leading role in the teaching process. 

There are of course plenty of roles for teachers, though those with the most influential ones explainedin this essay should be the these points:

In my two of my IELTS speaking lessons, I realized that instead of giving students what they want and imposing some rigid reasons with vocabulary to certain topic, the guiding principles of teaching for teachers, and some relevant teaching methods were generated to foster students' sense of being their own learning center.I conclude three ways I applied to these two classes with a purpose to testify weather these teaching modes could make the speaking classes more active and whether it could be more constructive for the speaking module. 

After the class, some I tried to summarize the feedback through students’ interviews and some data collections.

Cooperative learning as an engager

Since the IELTS Speaking module takes the form of a one-on-one interview, it’s best to stick to this pattern in practice. Avoid whole-class interactions as much as possible and maximize time for pair practice instead. It’s a common myth in language teaching that learner pairs simply replicate each other’s’ mistakes. Research shows that they actually develop more advanced negotiation and explanation strategies with another learner than they would with a native speaker.

After the class, some I tried to summarize the feedback through students’ interviews and some data collections.

Active learning and teaching as an inspirer

Students who have more interests in English learning are often ready to take greater effort in their study and thus get a better understanding of the language they learn. For example, when I teach them the topic of the Olympic Game, I usually ask them to do much background research on things like the origin of Olympic Games; the cities used to hold the Olympics Games; The sports in the Olympics Games. Study shows that those who have more clear structure and set of goals to guide their learning in class often get better results than their fellow classmate.

After the class, some I tried to summarize the feedback through students’ interviews and some data collections.

以上我谈了上好以学生为中心的外语课的有效方法。当然在实际运用中还会有困难，这就要求我们多下功夫，向有经验的教师求教，共同探讨有效的方式。但有一点是不变的，即：在教学中，我们应该有目的地为学生创造交流的机会，使学生成为课堂教学的中心，鼓励他们使用英语，为第二语言的习得人为地创造条件。

所以，作为年轻教师，我们应努力专研、探索更有效的英语教学法，克服传统英语教学中的一些弊病，使中国的英语学习者摆脱只理解不会交流的尴尬境地。总之，好课能使学生学习。（A good lesson is one in which students learn.）好课关注学生，真正满足学生知识与情感的需求。

一位应用语言学家曾说过：“学习的效果是教学的证明。”（A proof of teaching is in the learning.）教师的任务就是给学生提供恰当的学习材料、有效的活动方式、学习的时间和良好的学习环境。这样教师才能成为教学的组织者、设计者、帮助者和指导者，真正使学生在和谐的课堂氛围中成为学习的主体，课堂的中心。 

1. http://t.cn/R8yaE4P

2. http://t.cn/R8yaumd

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