中央广播电视大学人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点
英语专业本科（教育方向）集中实践环节
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
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甘肃电大开放教育 2010 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计报告
甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计教师指导记录与成绩评定表
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甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
答辩记录表
分校： 武威分校 班级代号： [**************] 姓名： 梁仓林 学号 ：
甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
答辩记录表
分校： 武威分校 班级代号： [**************] 姓名： 梁仓林 学号 ：
Project title :
How to teach the English vocabulary better
Investigator :Liang cangling
Gansu Radio &Television University
Wuwei Branch
Submitted on 12th November,2012 In fulfillment of the course Practical Project Design
Acknowledgement:
First of all,I am mostly grateful to my supervisor Mr. He zhengquan without whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.
I am also grateful to my colleagues Zhao xuLin、Li ZhongMei and Gong Yun for their time spent on brainstorming and panel discussions with me.
No amounts of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper.
Last but not the least; big thanks go to my parents who have shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this project.
Abstract
Vocabulary is an important component of foreign language. Vocabulary memorial strategies used by advanced lerrners have been widely studied for many years in china. But research about how junior middle school students use memorial strategies is little.It is very common to hear complaints from junior middle school students that they often forget the meaning and spelling of the new words .This thesis intends to investigate the effective vocabulary memorial strategies.At the same time,they can help teachers to improve their vocabulary teaching methods.The subjects of this study are 60 MaLian school students from XinHua County.
Methodologically, four methods are used, and they are analytic method, cause analysis, questionnaire survey, and brainstorming activation.
Key words: Vocabulary 、Method、Interest、Ability
Main Heading of the Project Report
1. Introduction
2. Summary of the Preliminary Research
2.1 Problem identification 2.2 Project objective 2.3 Project hypothesis
3. Project Rationale
4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for Activity
5. Data Analysis 6. Conclusion
7．References
a.Questionnaire on Vocabulary Practice b.The Timetable of the Project c.Teaching Notes d.Teaching Diaries e. Students’ Handouts f.Audio-Recording
1．Introduction
I am an English teacher in MaLian primary school.It located in a small county Xinhua.My students are peasants children . Many research articles on English vocabulary memorization have been published. Most of the experimental studies focused on advanced students and university students, but memorial strategies for junior middle school students are rare. A lot of students in junior middle school feel it is too hard to memorize English words, and often forget the words quickly. Teachers always implement class activities in a hurry, therefore, teachers often ask students to recite English words as homework after class, after some time, the students feel bored to learn English. As a result, many students give up English learning. It is necessary to study how to help students develop their vocabulary memorial strategies to help them access to English words.
As one of the three elements (phonology, grammar and vocabulary) of a language, vocabulary is fundamental to the development of foreign language learning. Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Vocabulary plays an important role in language communication. How to help junior middle school students in china to learn English words effectively and efficiently has been an issue which the junior middle school English teachers are concerned about. To learn English well, the students need to learn how to memorize the vocabulary. Many students have difficulties in English vocabulary memorization, and they always complain that they could not memorize the words they have learned. Teachers have to help the students to remember English vocabulary more effectively. The research intended to explore how to help students memorize vocabulary more effectively and English vocabulary memorial strategies they used.
The investigation of the use of vocabulary memorial strategies is important in terms of improving vocabulary teaching and learning in junior
middle school. It is hoped that the study will help students to grasp vocabulary memorial strategies and memorize English vocabulary more effectively; and help teachers to make more effective teaching methods to motivate the students to learn English as well.
2. Summary of the preliminary research
2.1 problems Identification
The problem that I have of my teaching is that the accounted .
For students reluctance to English vocabulary memorization in class. Firstly: Although the teacher deals with problems through marginal and comments and footnotes. The students are rather passive. Some students are scared of English vocabulary .They are afraid of making the same mistakes and being laughed at by their teacher and other students.
Secondly: Some students had some difficulties in a very simple conversation. Because they could not speak the key words by themselves, they often use a lot of wrong words or language during their conversation. Some common problems appeared many times, but the students often ignore these problems. They hope that their teacher and the classmates help them and give them faiths.
Thirdly: The help of their teacher and classmates is delayed by the heavy teaching-loads sometimes. Without their help , they are probably missed the key words. His limited knowledge of English prevents him from gaining understanding.
2.2 Project objective
My objective is to help the students smooth away some difficulties in English vocabulary memorization and to improve learners’ skill in memorizing English vocabulary.
2.3 Project hypothesis
My hypothesis is that learner’s skill in listening can be improved by the pair response help-correction techniques.
3. Project Rationale
There are more and more researches on language learning methods since late 1960s. People come up with a lot of research about people whose mother tongue is English use English vocabulary memorial strategies. By then, more attention was paid to how to memorize English vocabulary and other foreign language vocabulary memorial strategies. For example, Joan Rubin (1987) and Rebecca Oxford (1990) had the opinion that memorial strategies belong to the cognitive strategies. O’malley and Chamot (2001) and Wenden and Rubin (1987) in their academic studies proposed the training methods of vocabulary memorial strategies. Such as keyword strategy and word chain strategy. The other researchers focused on the repetition of vocabulary memorial strategies and relating of vocabulary. Those researches proved that memory skills are helpful tools of learning vocabulary and contributed to how we understand and memorize vocabulary.
The research for vocabulary memorial strategies started in the middle of 1980s. Although the researches started lately, the researches developed very quickly and the content became more and more widely, deeper and deeper. It turned out to be that vocabulary memorial strategies play an important role in people’s cognitive activities. Articles and works from Chinese authors on discussing vocabulary memorial methods mostly talk about experience (Wu Qianguang, 1982) or introduction of foreign theories (Zhao Wei, 1995), while research was rare. In 1992, Pu Yuan investigated the three components influencing the effect of English vocabulary memorization, which intends to learning methods. Gu Yongqi (1994) researched the vocabulary learning methods completely. Wang Wenyu’s (1998) research concerned the relation between vocabulary learning strategies and test performance. However, the subjects of the research were university students (Wu Xia and Wang Qiang, 1998;Wang Wenyu, 1998).
It has become an issue not being resolved so far that how to improve
the current situation of junior middle school English vocabulary teaching and help students to grasp effective vocabulary memorial methods and memorize English vocabulary more effectively. This study tries to investigate the methods used Yu Cai Middle School students from Shan Dan County and probe into the results of their vocabulary memorial methods. For many years, the English teaching in junior middle school is on the
stage of simply teaching the words and the meaning of the words because of the influence of traditional English teaching. The students’ vocabulary memorial method is still recitation. They feel that learning English is boring and show no interest in it. They also feel that English words are too hard to remember and too easy to forget. It is difficult to widen vocabulary size that affects listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.
There are two typical problems when students learn English vocabulary. First of all, the students memorize words quickly and forget words quickly. With the influence of mother tongue Chinese, it is still difficult for students to use the words spelling rules, pronunciation rules and word-building rules to grasp word and its meaning. So many students spend plenty of time in memorizing vocabulary but the result is not satisfied. The students can still not use those learned words efficiently and they remember words vaguely. Secondly Students grasp simple vocabulary memorial methods. The students always memorize words mechanically because of the limited condition and the lack of memorial strategies.
Among the one hundred students, forty percent of them enjoy learning English. They believe English is interesting, they could learn some new things and sing English songs. The other students did not like English, and they felt bored to learn it. Compared with other subjects, English is harder to learn. Most of the students had difficulties in memorizing English words. Some of them had trouble in spelling English words and others in
pronunciation. Sometimes they tend to be confused about some words which had similar spelling. It is hard to speak and remember the English words because they are quite different from Chinese characters. Most of the students use repetition memorial strategy. And they only knew to use one memorial strategies, such as repetition, imaging, Chinese pin yin and grouping. The results show that the students only used limited memorial strategies. It is obvious that the students have a lot of difficulties in memorizing English words.
4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for Activity
I have designed five activates to be tried out in three weeks.
Week1:
Activity1. Reciting the Words Mechanically
This activity is based as in Junior English for Grade Eight student Book 3, unit1
Purpose: Let the students know the mechanical memory defects
Instructions: Let students recite the vocabulary in unit 1, and then have a check in class
Procedures: Before reciting, the teacher asks students to look at the vocabulary, Then the teacher says: today, we are going to learn some new words contained in the context. We should pay attention to some homophones and homonyms. Homophones are some words with different meanings, which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. Example: “sun” and “son”, “fifteen” and “fifty” are homophones. Homonyms are some words, which have the same sound and usually the same spelling as another, though different in meaning or origin. After that, let them read and repeat the new words .
For students: You are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 1,but their spelling is different. You should read by your heart. They could read their words in pairs and ask easy questions about the weather, the date,
invitation, offering help, making telephone calls. Then use the key words to retell the report in pairs.
Activity 2: Using Repetition
Purpose: to use repetition to reinforce memorization.
Instructions: Let students master more words with limited time by repeating them
Procedures: Let student open the bookon page 101, then tell them we are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 2. there are a lot of vocabulary in this unit.Now, please read them after the tape. After that, the teacher read and the students repeat again, then the students read the new vocabulary together
For students: You are given three times to repeat the new vocabulary,I’m sure you can read them by yourselves, now please recite the new vocabulary as possible as you can.
Week 2:
Activity3: Focusing on the Spelling and Pronunciation of Words
Purpose: to help the students find an effective way to memorize the
vocabulary. The aim of the students studying the spelling or pronunciation of a word is to facilitate recalling.
Instructions: before the class, ask the students to get all the vocabulary that are difficult for them to memorize in the four units, then tell them we are going to have a check about them. Now, please repeat them after the tape. When you read the vocabulary, you must spell them according to the syllable. After that, the teacher ask the students to remember them
according to the syllable for 20 minutes, then the teacher have a check. Procedures: The teacher reminds students have a high frequency of the use of memorial strategies focusing on the target words’ spelling or pronunciation also shows that vocabulary memorial strategies can be trained.
For students: you are going to listen and repeat the vocabulary again. You have grasped some basic spelling rules. Next I will guide you to grasp the relationship between the sound and form of words, which will undoubtedly help you memorize words in an effective way. Then you remember these vocabularies, and finally I will check you. You can use pencils or color pens to divide the long vocabulary into several parts according to the syllable of the word. Some students did very well, but others can not do them .
Activity 4: Using Imaging Picture or Subject
Purpose: to make it is easier and more interesting to memorize the vocabulary
Instructions: I know only a few of the students used using imaging picture or subject strategy to help them to recall English words by the
investigation. So I show the students some real objects and vivid picture. Let them talk about what they can see. Then I ask them to learn the new vocabulary with the real objects and vivid pictures.
Procedure: Firstly, the teacher shows some pictures on the blackboard and let them know their Chinese meaning. Secondly, the teacher tells students how to say them in English. And then ask students to repeat, the teacher also helps students speak out some sentences with the new vocabulary they learnt just now. Then let students practice by asking and answering correctly.
For the students: Using imaging picture or object is very useful for English learning beginners. The students have to associate a new word with relevant information they already have and as a result make the later recall of the word easier. real objects
are better than pictures for helping students understand the meaning of a word Students can create their own mental images of a word’s meaning. Week 3:
Activity 5 Signing with Chinese Pin Yin
Purpose: To help the students remember English words by signing the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin
Instructions: The students often sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin. They do not like to speak both Chinese and English. They seldom open their mouth to read English loudly. So their English pronunciation is not good.
Procedures: First, learn some new vocabulary; second, let the students sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin; third, read the vocabulary with the Chinese pin yin ; fourth check and correct. But the result of using Chinese pinyin is not satisfied. Because the pronunciation of Chinese Pinyin and the pronunciation of English are not perfectly matched.
For students: you are going to sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese Pin yin that you can’t read. you will read and remember them by yourselves. You can check with the radio. Then be asked to repeat the correct pronunciation.
5. Data Analysis
These days it is generally recognized that both bottom-up and top-down theories are applicable in explaining how learners can memorize what they learned. Since English vocabulary memorization is a complex psychological process, it would be risky to survey it from a partial point of
view .Therefore in English vocabulary memorization class teachers should develop their teaching techniques s with consideration of both theoretic models. Either in the designation of vocabulary memorization course or in the practice of vocabulary class not only is it necessary to improve students' ability to discriminate between minimal pairs, but also it is important to help them use what they already know to understand what they learn Thus when a teacher sees gaps in students' knowledge, the vocabulary
task can be preceded by designed activities to prepare learners for it.. After three weeks’ action research, I designed two questionnaires, the second questionnaire was partly based on questionnaire one in the preliminary research so that comparisons could be made to see the
improvement, in designing this new questionnaire, I also used feedback information from my solutions to the problems discussed so that their effectiveness could be reflected by the results.
Table 1 Students preference to improve their English vocabulary
memorization
Methods No of Ss percentage
Focusing on the Spelling and Pronunciation of Words 40 18 6
Reciting the Words Mechanically 40 89
Using Repetition 40 45.6
Using Imaging Picture or Subject 40 30
Signing with Chinese Pin Yin 40 85
Table 2 checking students’ habits in English vocabulary memorization
1. 你认为在英语学习中词汇重要吗？ A. 重要 B. 不重要
2.你对词汇的学习与积累重视吗？ A. 重视 B. 不重视
3. 你每天花多少时间记忆词汇？
4. 如果你的单词默写是满分，你认为你已经掌握了这些词汇吗？ A. 是 B. 不是 C. 不知道
5. 你现在词汇学习最苦恼的是： A. 记不住单词的拼写
B. 不能正确运用所学的词汇
6. 你有词汇本吗？
如果有词汇本，再请回答以下列问题：你的词汇本包括下列内容吗？ A. 有 B. 没有
A. 音标 B. 词义 C. 例句
7. 你会使用下列哪种方法记忆单词？ A. 死记硬背 B. 根据拼读规则 C. 根据合成词的规律 D. 根据词缀法 E. 根据同义词反义词法 F. 根据词义归类法G. 其它
8. 你在课外是如何巩固积累词汇的？ A. 不断在词汇本中加入生词并翻阅
B. 通过背诵教材文章来记忆词汇
C.广泛阅读各类文章
D. 听歌学词汇
E. 看电影积累语汇
F. 上网浏览英语网站
G. 与外国网友以e-mail形式交流获得新词汇
H. 其它______
下面是有关学生自觉学习的数据
List 训练前 训练后 训练总评
pronunciation 20 35 good
Intonation 24 45 better
Incomplete sentences 33 42 better
False start 18 28 good
Speaking 15 36 better
Changing topic 22 28 good
As I mentioned above, students' comprehension is closely connected with their psychological situation. If we want our students to get good results in English vocabulary memorization, we should pay great attention to developing their psychological qualities. As we know, English vocabulary memorization is a psychological process in which the learner gains
information actively. Only when the information is necessary or interesting will the students concentrate on it. A psychological research shows junior high school students can concentrate for 25 minutes while senior high school students 40 minutes. If the students are made to remember vocabularies
without preparation or guidance, it's certain that they will be nervous
and may go loose easily. If they are often asked to recite the vocabulary
in such a poor psychological situation, it will have bad effects on their
confidence. We better adopt all kinds of ways to help them develop their
psychological qualities.
6. Conclusion
The study provides some information about memorial strategies used by
MaLian primary school from XinHua county.Ss often made many mistakes and
had difficulties in memorizing English words. They tended to use repetition
more often though they did not tend to use the other strategies such as
grouping, linking pictures or subjects, imaging and word building. They
still regarded spelling as a main way to learn new words.
Perhaps this is the result of the traditional teaching and testing. The
aim of students is to get a high score in examinations. As teachers and
students pay more attention to test scores, mechanical memorization seems
to be a quick and an easy way to enlarge vocabulary size. But they did not
seem to have the faint idea of efficient ways to learn English words, which
results in their difficulties in effective vocabulary memorization.
Certainly, students are not all the same. Some students do well in the school,
others have great difficulty. That is everyone has the same form of
attention and memory structures. This does not mean that there might not
be quantitative differences among the students. One’s short-term memory
span might be lager than another’s, and someone’s rate of rehearsal might
be higher, etc. There are two major ways in which students might be differ.
One way concerns mental strategies. It is possible to use this distinction
to characterize different processing styles of individual students.
Because the learning of new information depends critically on what has been
previously acquired, one major source of differences among individuals is
simply the differences in their exposure to information. Their basic
knowledge and style and worldview are the overwhelming variables
determining how well a student can perform on study. The implication for
teaching is that teachers should notice the differences of learners and
design vocabulary teaching accordingly.
Memorial strategies play important roles in learning foreign words for
junior middle school students. The investigation reflects the learning
habits of the students in their studies. Under the influence of Chinese
traditional school practice, students believe that memory is significant
to language learning, especially to English vocabulary learning. The
students prefer to memorize English words mechanically. They have many
difficulties in recalling words and after sometime they usually lost their
interest in learning English gradually. Due to the lack of training and
guidance, they naturally hardly use other unfamiliar memorial strategies.
Therefore, it is necessary to help students to learn and form different
kinds of vocabulary memorial strategies in addition to their usual practice
of mechanical memorizing. The low frequency or the use of the effective
aids for vocabulary learning suggests the need to raise the students’
awareness to learn English words in more effective ways. It is important
to pay more attention to vocabulary memorial strategies used by junior
middle school students.
References
1. Cohen, A.D. & Aphek, E.1980. Retention of second language vocabulary
over time: Investigating the role of mnemonic association [M]. London:
Longman System 8(3): 221-35.
2. Joan Rubin. Learner Strategies in Language Learning [M]. 1987. New York.
Preentice Hall.
3. O’Malley, J. & A.Chamot (eds). 1990. Learning Strategies in Second
Language Acquisition [M]. Cambridge: CUP.
4. Rebecca Oxford. 1990. Language Learning Strategies Around the World [M].
Wadsworth Publishing Company.
5. Schmitt，N.(1997). Vocabulary leaming strategies. In N.Seblnitt & M.
MeCarthy (Eds). Vocabulary: Description，acquisition，and Pedagogy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Wenden, A. L. & J. Rubin (Eds) .1987. Learner Strategies in Language
Learning[M]. New York. Preentice Hall.
7 (卜元. 影响英文单词记忆效果的三因素 [J]. 外语教学与研究 1992 )
8. (常丽. 外语词汇记忆中的遗忘与复述 [J]. 黑龙江高教研究)
9. (高越，张卓娟. 词汇学习策略与词汇学习 [J]. 北方工业大学学报，2004)
10. (胡春洞. 英语学习论 [M]. 南宁: 广西教育出版社, 2001)
11. (贾砚萍. 对英语词汇教学的几点思考 [J]. 中小学外语教学，2003)
12. (姜英杰，李广. 初一学生英语单词记忆策略的训练研究[J]. 心理学探新，
2003)
13.（ 蒋争. 英语词汇的奥妙 [M]. 北京：中国国际广播出版社，1988.）
14 （王文宇.观念、策略与英语词汇记忆 [J].外语教学与研究）
15.（文秋芳.英语学习成功者与不成功者在方法上的差异 [J].外语教学与研究）
16.（伍谦光.英语单词科学记忆法 [M].广州光华出版社，1982.）
17. （吴霞，王蔷. 非英语专业本科学生词汇学习策略[J].外语教学与研究，1988）
18. （赵蔚. 提高学生主动阅读能力的途径[J].北京第二外国语学院学报，1995）
Appendix A:
The timetable of the project
Stage Week Calendar dates Task
I
1
September 6-12
Identify problem
II
2
September 13-19
Analyze the problem using scientific methods of investigation
1. analyzing the teaching situation
2. analyzing the teaching objectives/teacher’s roles/tasks, ect.
3. analyzing the possible causes of the identified problem
III
3
September 20-26
Design a problem-solving project
1 formulating the project objectives and hypothesis
2 Making a lesson plan
3 Preparing materials and resources needed
IV
4,5,6
September 27-October 18
Implement the project
1. report of the classroom implementation of the lesson plan
2. report of the data collection
V
7
October 19-26
Evaluate the project against a checklist
1. critical comment on my own teaching by checking my subjective comments
against the collected data
2.suggestion for future teaching
VI
8,9
November8-21
Write the project report
Appendix B: The methods of problem analysis
1 .The analysis method:
Many students ask me how to remember the English vocabulary .when they
recite the English vocabulary without the teachers’ help, they could not
master the words or understand the meaning of them. So they always make
the mistakes again and again. So I think of the following questions.
1) Why do some students make the same mistakes again and again?
2) What should I do to help them reduce the mistakes?
This made me make a chain of reflections. If students make the more
mistakes again and again in my English class, I think the problem is actually
caused by me, not by my students. Perhaps my explanation is not clearly
or my examples are not very typical or my lesson plan is poorly designed,
maybe my teaching method is so boring that it couldn’t arouse the students’
interest.
Through the above analysis I realized that my problem is probably caused
by my pair response.
2．Cause analysis
The teacher’s side Are the teacher’s requirements cleat? Is it because the teaching step is poorly designed? Is it because my teaching methods are not effective? Maybe the teacher doesn’t arouse the students’ interest. The students’ side
At first, the students do not know how to master the vocabulary
correctily. When they speak English, they worry most is their limited
vocabulary. If they come across a new word, they stop to think about its
meaning and miss the next part of the information. Brainstorming discusses
the problem with my students in the first week .By this way I get a lot
of the useful information.
Interview
I interviewed several students and find out my points: Students should
make fulluse of the short time give before listening to skim through the
questions and the choices. From the choices, students can make predictions
of the listening material and guess which may be correct answers. Then they
can choose the correct one easily through listening carefully with a clear
purpose.
When the students listen to a person speaking their own language in
many situations, they can be one step ahead of the speaker. They can very
often predict what the person is going to say next, perhaps not always the
exact words but at least the main ideas. Sometimes they even found
themselves finishing other people’s sentences for them. This is something
they do without even thinking about it. The more they can predict, the
easier it becomes to understand in a foreign language, too. The students
should train themselves to predict as much as possible.
Appendix C: Teaching No
Week1: Activity1 Date : Wednesday, Sept 14th 2011
Today’s objectives: to consolidate the vocabulary and warms students up
and course their interest in the listening.
teaching methods: predict and listen
Steps of doing things:
Step one :
1)Practice speaking everyday English that they are related to the listening
materials .Such as: what’s the temperature outside? what’s the season
now? which
season do you like best ?why?
2)correct their pronunciation, for example: thirteen and thirty.
3)Tell them we are going to listen a postcard from Lucy to her Chinese friend named LiLei, they talked about the season ----spring. You will listen the postcard and choose the best words .But you should know the following methods.
4)Tell them the methods: when we listen to a dialogue or an article ,we should pay more attention to some easily confuse sounds, especially, the similar sounds ; We should also pay attention to some homophones and homonyms. Homophones are some words with different meanings, which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. Example: “sun” and “son”, “fifteen” and “fifty” are homophones. Homonyms are some words, which have the same sound and usually the same spelling as another, though different in meaning or origin. After that, let them read through the exercise and predict what they will.
Step two: Ask the students to read the postcard on the paper and predict the content
and then listen by themselves, follow the tape.
Step three: check their answers and summary up the listening lesson. Step four: Homework: listen to lesson 9 and write down the words that you hear.
Activity2:
Date: Tuesday, Sept 27th 2012
Today’s objective: to practice and master the methods.
Teaching methods: Analysis, predict and make answers.
Steps of doing things:
Step 1:
1 )Listen to an English report about pets by our classmates, then ask three questions from the report
2)The teacher oral the aims and task.
3)Write down the title of listening text on the blackboard; introducing background knowledge related to listening text; reviewing and previewing key words ,which will be used in the listening text. And going over questions to be done while listening.
4)The teacher reminds the methods that knew.
Step 2:
1)Listen and understand the text, find out the wrong words.
2)Write down them on the blackboard by students.
3)Teacher and students help each other and correct the answers . Step 3: Listen again and read following the tape.
Step 4: Summarizing the lesson
Homework: talk about your favorite pet with your partner
Week2: Activity 3
Date: Friday, Oct 7th 2012
Today’s objectives: to practice students’ listening skills and make response
Teaching methods: correcting and practicing
Step 1: pratiseoral English about date, weather, and meeting friends Step 2: viewing and previewing key words and expression, which will be used in listening dialogue.
Step 3:
1) Discussing some topics, situation, question between teacher and students.
2) Reading through while-listening tasks of several short. dialogues, which are easier than listening dialogue.
Step 4:
1) Carrying out various activities such as problem solving making-decisions
2) Completing dialogue and identifying relationships between speakers. Step 5: Summarizing the main ideas and according to the information from
the dialogue to choose the answers.
Homework: Listen to the texts which we have learned lesson 21 and write down the signs.
Activity 4:
Date: Monday, Oct17th 2012
Today’s objectives: to activate the students’ prior knowledge about shopping .
Step 1: Reviewing key words about food, vegetables
Step 2: Discuss with partners, predicting what Kate will possibly buy and then write the items out on the paper.
Step 3: Filling in the worksheet based on the students’ practical knowledge and experience in real life or study.
Step 4: Listen to the tape to check whether any of their predicted items are on Kate’s list.
Step 5: Check and summary
Homework: Note down your classmates’ shopping list through talking Week 3:
Date: Friday, Oct 28th 2012
Teaching objectives: Understand and master the steps of this experiment Teaching methods: Playing and listening
Step 1: Writing down the title of listening text on the blackboard. Step 2: Give some background knowledge about the listening text.
Step 3: Do the experiment with teacher and some of them try to write down the steps in English or in Chinese. After experiment, let one of them describe the steps .Sequencing and grading based on the students’ practical knowledge.
Step 4: Listen to the recorder twice and correct their choices.
Step 5: Summarize the methods of teaching listening.
Homework: Listen their activity books on page 37
Appendix D: Diaries
Week 1
Date: Friday, Sept 23rd 2012
After I have taught this lesson, I found my students getting more experienced and all of them follow the rules of memorize the vocabularies in our textbook.
It was a good and interesting way to make students aware of what they were going to remember; I designed the questions were related to each other, it was good for students to comprehend the English materials. I thought the new ways were good for students to remember the new vocabulary. I found the students knew what they should do and what they should focus on .So I thought the vocabulary teaching was well-prepared and interesting. Week 2
Date: Tuesday, Sept 27th 2012
All the students did a good job in this lesson. Though teaching new vocabulary is difficult, I should also choose different methods for
different students. To design the stages of teaching listening clearly, and have different activities. So the different students had different gains. Use this way to arouse the students’ interest and let them feel learning English is happy, especially listening lesson.
Week 3
Date: Friday, Oct 14th 2012
This period of time, I dealt with the problem in the listening skills. Like the steps of the last two weeks, I told them first to analysis the type of the listening, because different types used different methods. But in the listening, these skills might be listening for pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. They remembered these ways. To my surprise, their listening skills improved more quickly than I thought. I
am more than happy.
中央广播电视大学人才培养模式改革和开放教育试点
英语专业本科（教育方向）集中实践环节
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
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甘肃电大开放教育 2010 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计报告
甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
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甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
答辩记录表
分校： 武威分校 班级代号： [**************] 姓名： 梁仓林 学号 ：
甘肃电大开放教育 10 级（春）英语专业（本科）
英语课堂教学行为研究项目设计
答辩记录表
分校： 武威分校 班级代号： [**************] 姓名： 梁仓林 学号 ：
Project title :
How to teach the English vocabulary better
Investigator :Liang cangling
Gansu Radio &Television University
Wuwei Branch
Submitted on 12th November,2012 In fulfillment of the course Practical Project Design
Acknowledgement:
First of all,I am mostly grateful to my supervisor Mr. He zhengquan without whose support and patience this project would not even have got off the ground.
I am also grateful to my colleagues Zhao xuLin、Li ZhongMei and Gong Yun for their time spent on brainstorming and panel discussions with me.
No amounts of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper.
Last but not the least; big thanks go to my parents who have shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in eventually finishing this project.
Abstract
Vocabulary is an important component of foreign language. Vocabulary memorial strategies used by advanced lerrners have been widely studied for many years in china. But research about how junior middle school students use memorial strategies is little.It is very common to hear complaints from junior middle school students that they often forget the meaning and spelling of the new words .This thesis intends to investigate the effective vocabulary memorial strategies.At the same time,they can help teachers to improve their vocabulary teaching methods.The subjects of this study are 60 MaLian school students from XinHua County.
Methodologically, four methods are used, and they are analytic method, cause analysis, questionnaire survey, and brainstorming activation.
Key words: Vocabulary 、Method、Interest、Ability
Main Heading of the Project Report
1. Introduction
2. Summary of the Preliminary Research
2.1 Problem identification 2.2 Project objective 2.3 Project hypothesis
3. Project Rationale
4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for Activity
5. Data Analysis 6. Conclusion
7．References
a.Questionnaire on Vocabulary Practice b.The Timetable of the Project c.Teaching Notes d.Teaching Diaries e. Students’ Handouts f.Audio-Recording
1．Introduction
I am an English teacher in MaLian primary school.It located in a small county Xinhua.My students are peasants children . Many research articles on English vocabulary memorization have been published. Most of the experimental studies focused on advanced students and university students, but memorial strategies for junior middle school students are rare. A lot of students in junior middle school feel it is too hard to memorize English words, and often forget the words quickly. Teachers always implement class activities in a hurry, therefore, teachers often ask students to recite English words as homework after class, after some time, the students feel bored to learn English. As a result, many students give up English learning. It is necessary to study how to help students develop their vocabulary memorial strategies to help them access to English words.
As one of the three elements (phonology, grammar and vocabulary) of a language, vocabulary is fundamental to the development of foreign language learning. Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Vocabulary plays an important role in language communication. How to help junior middle school students in china to learn English words effectively and efficiently has been an issue which the junior middle school English teachers are concerned about. To learn English well, the students need to learn how to memorize the vocabulary. Many students have difficulties in English vocabulary memorization, and they always complain that they could not memorize the words they have learned. Teachers have to help the students to remember English vocabulary more effectively. The research intended to explore how to help students memorize vocabulary more effectively and English vocabulary memorial strategies they used.
The investigation of the use of vocabulary memorial strategies is important in terms of improving vocabulary teaching and learning in junior
middle school. It is hoped that the study will help students to grasp vocabulary memorial strategies and memorize English vocabulary more effectively; and help teachers to make more effective teaching methods to motivate the students to learn English as well.
2. Summary of the preliminary research
2.1 problems Identification
The problem that I have of my teaching is that the accounted .
For students reluctance to English vocabulary memorization in class. Firstly: Although the teacher deals with problems through marginal and comments and footnotes. The students are rather passive. Some students are scared of English vocabulary .They are afraid of making the same mistakes and being laughed at by their teacher and other students.
Secondly: Some students had some difficulties in a very simple conversation. Because they could not speak the key words by themselves, they often use a lot of wrong words or language during their conversation. Some common problems appeared many times, but the students often ignore these problems. They hope that their teacher and the classmates help them and give them faiths.
Thirdly: The help of their teacher and classmates is delayed by the heavy teaching-loads sometimes. Without their help , they are probably missed the key words. His limited knowledge of English prevents him from gaining understanding.
2.2 Project objective
My objective is to help the students smooth away some difficulties in English vocabulary memorization and to improve learners’ skill in memorizing English vocabulary.
2.3 Project hypothesis
My hypothesis is that learner’s skill in listening can be improved by the pair response help-correction techniques.
3. Project Rationale
There are more and more researches on language learning methods since late 1960s. People come up with a lot of research about people whose mother tongue is English use English vocabulary memorial strategies. By then, more attention was paid to how to memorize English vocabulary and other foreign language vocabulary memorial strategies. For example, Joan Rubin (1987) and Rebecca Oxford (1990) had the opinion that memorial strategies belong to the cognitive strategies. O’malley and Chamot (2001) and Wenden and Rubin (1987) in their academic studies proposed the training methods of vocabulary memorial strategies. Such as keyword strategy and word chain strategy. The other researchers focused on the repetition of vocabulary memorial strategies and relating of vocabulary. Those researches proved that memory skills are helpful tools of learning vocabulary and contributed to how we understand and memorize vocabulary.
The research for vocabulary memorial strategies started in the middle of 1980s. Although the researches started lately, the researches developed very quickly and the content became more and more widely, deeper and deeper. It turned out to be that vocabulary memorial strategies play an important role in people’s cognitive activities. Articles and works from Chinese authors on discussing vocabulary memorial methods mostly talk about experience (Wu Qianguang, 1982) or introduction of foreign theories (Zhao Wei, 1995), while research was rare. In 1992, Pu Yuan investigated the three components influencing the effect of English vocabulary memorization, which intends to learning methods. Gu Yongqi (1994) researched the vocabulary learning methods completely. Wang Wenyu’s (1998) research concerned the relation between vocabulary learning strategies and test performance. However, the subjects of the research were university students (Wu Xia and Wang Qiang, 1998;Wang Wenyu, 1998).
It has become an issue not being resolved so far that how to improve
the current situation of junior middle school English vocabulary teaching and help students to grasp effective vocabulary memorial methods and memorize English vocabulary more effectively. This study tries to investigate the methods used Yu Cai Middle School students from Shan Dan County and probe into the results of their vocabulary memorial methods. For many years, the English teaching in junior middle school is on the
stage of simply teaching the words and the meaning of the words because of the influence of traditional English teaching. The students’ vocabulary memorial method is still recitation. They feel that learning English is boring and show no interest in it. They also feel that English words are too hard to remember and too easy to forget. It is difficult to widen vocabulary size that affects listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.
There are two typical problems when students learn English vocabulary. First of all, the students memorize words quickly and forget words quickly. With the influence of mother tongue Chinese, it is still difficult for students to use the words spelling rules, pronunciation rules and word-building rules to grasp word and its meaning. So many students spend plenty of time in memorizing vocabulary but the result is not satisfied. The students can still not use those learned words efficiently and they remember words vaguely. Secondly Students grasp simple vocabulary memorial methods. The students always memorize words mechanically because of the limited condition and the lack of memorial strategies.
Among the one hundred students, forty percent of them enjoy learning English. They believe English is interesting, they could learn some new things and sing English songs. The other students did not like English, and they felt bored to learn it. Compared with other subjects, English is harder to learn. Most of the students had difficulties in memorizing English words. Some of them had trouble in spelling English words and others in
pronunciation. Sometimes they tend to be confused about some words which had similar spelling. It is hard to speak and remember the English words because they are quite different from Chinese characters. Most of the students use repetition memorial strategy. And they only knew to use one memorial strategies, such as repetition, imaging, Chinese pin yin and grouping. The results show that the students only used limited memorial strategies. It is obvious that the students have a lot of difficulties in memorizing English words.
4. Vocabulary Memorial Methods Designed for Activity
I have designed five activates to be tried out in three weeks.
Week1:
Activity1. Reciting the Words Mechanically
This activity is based as in Junior English for Grade Eight student Book 3, unit1
Purpose: Let the students know the mechanical memory defects
Instructions: Let students recite the vocabulary in unit 1, and then have a check in class
Procedures: Before reciting, the teacher asks students to look at the vocabulary, Then the teacher says: today, we are going to learn some new words contained in the context. We should pay attention to some homophones and homonyms. Homophones are some words with different meanings, which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. Example: “sun” and “son”, “fifteen” and “fifty” are homophones. Homonyms are some words, which have the same sound and usually the same spelling as another, though different in meaning or origin. After that, let them read and repeat the new words .
For students: You are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 1,but their spelling is different. You should read by your heart. They could read their words in pairs and ask easy questions about the weather, the date,
invitation, offering help, making telephone calls. Then use the key words to retell the report in pairs.
Activity 2: Using Repetition
Purpose: to use repetition to reinforce memorization.
Instructions: Let students master more words with limited time by repeating them
Procedures: Let student open the bookon page 101, then tell them we are going to learn the vocabulary in unit 2. there are a lot of vocabulary in this unit.Now, please read them after the tape. After that, the teacher read and the students repeat again, then the students read the new vocabulary together
For students: You are given three times to repeat the new vocabulary,I’m sure you can read them by yourselves, now please recite the new vocabulary as possible as you can.
Week 2:
Activity3: Focusing on the Spelling and Pronunciation of Words
Purpose: to help the students find an effective way to memorize the
vocabulary. The aim of the students studying the spelling or pronunciation of a word is to facilitate recalling.
Instructions: before the class, ask the students to get all the vocabulary that are difficult for them to memorize in the four units, then tell them we are going to have a check about them. Now, please repeat them after the tape. When you read the vocabulary, you must spell them according to the syllable. After that, the teacher ask the students to remember them
according to the syllable for 20 minutes, then the teacher have a check. Procedures: The teacher reminds students have a high frequency of the use of memorial strategies focusing on the target words’ spelling or pronunciation also shows that vocabulary memorial strategies can be trained.
For students: you are going to listen and repeat the vocabulary again. You have grasped some basic spelling rules. Next I will guide you to grasp the relationship between the sound and form of words, which will undoubtedly help you memorize words in an effective way. Then you remember these vocabularies, and finally I will check you. You can use pencils or color pens to divide the long vocabulary into several parts according to the syllable of the word. Some students did very well, but others can not do them .
Activity 4: Using Imaging Picture or Subject
Purpose: to make it is easier and more interesting to memorize the vocabulary
Instructions: I know only a few of the students used using imaging picture or subject strategy to help them to recall English words by the
investigation. So I show the students some real objects and vivid picture. Let them talk about what they can see. Then I ask them to learn the new vocabulary with the real objects and vivid pictures.
Procedure: Firstly, the teacher shows some pictures on the blackboard and let them know their Chinese meaning. Secondly, the teacher tells students how to say them in English. And then ask students to repeat, the teacher also helps students speak out some sentences with the new vocabulary they learnt just now. Then let students practice by asking and answering correctly.
For the students: Using imaging picture or object is very useful for English learning beginners. The students have to associate a new word with relevant information they already have and as a result make the later recall of the word easier. real objects
are better than pictures for helping students understand the meaning of a word Students can create their own mental images of a word’s meaning. Week 3:
Activity 5 Signing with Chinese Pin Yin
Purpose: To help the students remember English words by signing the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin
Instructions: The students often sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin. They do not like to speak both Chinese and English. They seldom open their mouth to read English loudly. So their English pronunciation is not good.
Procedures: First, learn some new vocabulary; second, let the students sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese pin yin; third, read the vocabulary with the Chinese pin yin ; fourth check and correct. But the result of using Chinese pinyin is not satisfied. Because the pronunciation of Chinese Pinyin and the pronunciation of English are not perfectly matched.
For students: you are going to sign the pronunciation of English word with Chinese Pin yin that you can’t read. you will read and remember them by yourselves. You can check with the radio. Then be asked to repeat the correct pronunciation.
5. Data Analysis
These days it is generally recognized that both bottom-up and top-down theories are applicable in explaining how learners can memorize what they learned. Since English vocabulary memorization is a complex psychological process, it would be risky to survey it from a partial point of
view .Therefore in English vocabulary memorization class teachers should develop their teaching techniques s with consideration of both theoretic models. Either in the designation of vocabulary memorization course or in the practice of vocabulary class not only is it necessary to improve students' ability to discriminate between minimal pairs, but also it is important to help them use what they already know to understand what they learn Thus when a teacher sees gaps in students' knowledge, the vocabulary
task can be preceded by designed activities to prepare learners for it.. After three weeks’ action research, I designed two questionnaires, the second questionnaire was partly based on questionnaire one in the preliminary research so that comparisons could be made to see the
improvement, in designing this new questionnaire, I also used feedback information from my solutions to the problems discussed so that their effectiveness could be reflected by the results.
Table 1 Students preference to improve their English vocabulary
memorization
Methods No of Ss percentage
Focusing on the Spelling and Pronunciation of Words 40 18 6
Reciting the Words Mechanically 40 89
Using Repetition 40 45.6
Using Imaging Picture or Subject 40 30
Signing with Chinese Pin Yin 40 85
Table 2 checking students’ habits in English vocabulary memorization
1. 你认为在英语学习中词汇重要吗？ A. 重要 B. 不重要
2.你对词汇的学习与积累重视吗？ A. 重视 B. 不重视
3. 你每天花多少时间记忆词汇？
4. 如果你的单词默写是满分，你认为你已经掌握了这些词汇吗？ A. 是 B. 不是 C. 不知道
5. 你现在词汇学习最苦恼的是： A. 记不住单词的拼写
B. 不能正确运用所学的词汇
6. 你有词汇本吗？
如果有词汇本，再请回答以下列问题：你的词汇本包括下列内容吗？ A. 有 B. 没有
A. 音标 B. 词义 C. 例句
7. 你会使用下列哪种方法记忆单词？ A. 死记硬背 B. 根据拼读规则 C. 根据合成词的规律 D. 根据词缀法 E. 根据同义词反义词法 F. 根据词义归类法G. 其它
8. 你在课外是如何巩固积累词汇的？ A. 不断在词汇本中加入生词并翻阅
B. 通过背诵教材文章来记忆词汇
C.广泛阅读各类文章
D. 听歌学词汇
E. 看电影积累语汇
F. 上网浏览英语网站
G. 与外国网友以e-mail形式交流获得新词汇
H. 其它______
下面是有关学生自觉学习的数据
List 训练前 训练后 训练总评
pronunciation 20 35 good
Intonation 24 45 better
Incomplete sentences 33 42 better
False start 18 28 good
Speaking 15 36 better
Changing topic 22 28 good
As I mentioned above, students' comprehension is closely connected with their psychological situation. If we want our students to get good results in English vocabulary memorization, we should pay great attention to developing their psychological qualities. As we know, English vocabulary memorization is a psychological process in which the learner gains
information actively. Only when the information is necessary or interesting will the students concentrate on it. A psychological research shows junior high school students can concentrate for 25 minutes while senior high school students 40 minutes. If the students are made to remember vocabularies
without preparation or guidance, it's certain that they will be nervous
and may go loose easily. If they are often asked to recite the vocabulary
in such a poor psychological situation, it will have bad effects on their
confidence. We better adopt all kinds of ways to help them develop their
psychological qualities.
6. Conclusion
The study provides some information about memorial strategies used by
MaLian primary school from XinHua county.Ss often made many mistakes and
had difficulties in memorizing English words. They tended to use repetition
more often though they did not tend to use the other strategies such as
grouping, linking pictures or subjects, imaging and word building. They
still regarded spelling as a main way to learn new words.
Perhaps this is the result of the traditional teaching and testing. The
aim of students is to get a high score in examinations. As teachers and
students pay more attention to test scores, mechanical memorization seems
to be a quick and an easy way to enlarge vocabulary size. But they did not
seem to have the faint idea of efficient ways to learn English words, which
results in their difficulties in effective vocabulary memorization.
Certainly, students are not all the same. Some students do well in the school,
others have great difficulty. That is everyone has the same form of
attention and memory structures. This does not mean that there might not
be quantitative differences among the students. One’s short-term memory
span might be lager than another’s, and someone’s rate of rehearsal might
be higher, etc. There are two major ways in which students might be differ.
One way concerns mental strategies. It is possible to use this distinction
to characterize different processing styles of individual students.
Because the learning of new information depends critically on what has been
previously acquired, one major source of differences among individuals is
simply the differences in their exposure to information. Their basic
knowledge and style and worldview are the overwhelming variables
determining how well a student can perform on study. The implication for
teaching is that teachers should notice the differences of learners and
design vocabulary teaching accordingly.
Memorial strategies play important roles in learning foreign words for
junior middle school students. The investigation reflects the learning
habits of the students in their studies. Under the influence of Chinese
traditional school practice, students believe that memory is significant
to language learning, especially to English vocabulary learning. The
students prefer to memorize English words mechanically. They have many
difficulties in recalling words and after sometime they usually lost their
interest in learning English gradually. Due to the lack of training and
guidance, they naturally hardly use other unfamiliar memorial strategies.
Therefore, it is necessary to help students to learn and form different
kinds of vocabulary memorial strategies in addition to their usual practice
of mechanical memorizing. The low frequency or the use of the effective
aids for vocabulary learning suggests the need to raise the students’
awareness to learn English words in more effective ways. It is important
to pay more attention to vocabulary memorial strategies used by junior
middle school students.
References
1. Cohen, A.D. & Aphek, E.1980. Retention of second language vocabulary
over time: Investigating the role of mnemonic association [M]. London:
Longman System 8(3): 221-35.
2. Joan Rubin. Learner Strategies in Language Learning [M]. 1987. New York.
Preentice Hall.
3. O’Malley, J. & A.Chamot (eds). 1990. Learning Strategies in Second
Language Acquisition [M]. Cambridge: CUP.
4. Rebecca Oxford. 1990. Language Learning Strategies Around the World [M].
Wadsworth Publishing Company.
5. Schmitt，N.(1997). Vocabulary leaming strategies. In N.Seblnitt & M.
MeCarthy (Eds). Vocabulary: Description，acquisition，and Pedagogy.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Wenden, A. L. & J. Rubin (Eds) .1987. Learner Strategies in Language
Learning[M]. New York. Preentice Hall.
7 (卜元. 影响英文单词记忆效果的三因素 [J]. 外语教学与研究 1992 )
8. (常丽. 外语词汇记忆中的遗忘与复述 [J]. 黑龙江高教研究)
9. (高越，张卓娟. 词汇学习策略与词汇学习 [J]. 北方工业大学学报，2004)
10. (胡春洞. 英语学习论 [M]. 南宁: 广西教育出版社, 2001)
11. (贾砚萍. 对英语词汇教学的几点思考 [J]. 中小学外语教学，2003)
12. (姜英杰，李广. 初一学生英语单词记忆策略的训练研究[J]. 心理学探新，
2003)
13.（ 蒋争. 英语词汇的奥妙 [M]. 北京：中国国际广播出版社，1988.）
14 （王文宇.观念、策略与英语词汇记忆 [J].外语教学与研究）
15.（文秋芳.英语学习成功者与不成功者在方法上的差异 [J].外语教学与研究）
16.（伍谦光.英语单词科学记忆法 [M].广州光华出版社，1982.）
17. （吴霞，王蔷. 非英语专业本科学生词汇学习策略[J].外语教学与研究，1988）
18. （赵蔚. 提高学生主动阅读能力的途径[J].北京第二外国语学院学报，1995）
Appendix A:
The timetable of the project
Stage Week Calendar dates Task
I
1
September 6-12
Identify problem
II
2
September 13-19
Analyze the problem using scientific methods of investigation
1. analyzing the teaching situation
2. analyzing the teaching objectives/teacher’s roles/tasks, ect.
3. analyzing the possible causes of the identified problem
III
3
September 20-26
Design a problem-solving project
1 formulating the project objectives and hypothesis
2 Making a lesson plan
3 Preparing materials and resources needed
IV
4,5,6
September 27-October 18
Implement the project
1. report of the classroom implementation of the lesson plan
2. report of the data collection
V
7
October 19-26
Evaluate the project against a checklist
1. critical comment on my own teaching by checking my subjective comments
against the collected data
2.suggestion for future teaching
VI
8,9
November8-21
Write the project report
Appendix B: The methods of problem analysis
1 .The analysis method:
Many students ask me how to remember the English vocabulary .when they
recite the English vocabulary without the teachers’ help, they could not
master the words or understand the meaning of them. So they always make
the mistakes again and again. So I think of the following questions.
1) Why do some students make the same mistakes again and again?
2) What should I do to help them reduce the mistakes?
This made me make a chain of reflections. If students make the more
mistakes again and again in my English class, I think the problem is actually
caused by me, not by my students. Perhaps my explanation is not clearly
or my examples are not very typical or my lesson plan is poorly designed,
maybe my teaching method is so boring that it couldn’t arouse the students’
interest.
Through the above analysis I realized that my problem is probably caused
by my pair response.
2．Cause analysis
The teacher’s side Are the teacher’s requirements cleat? Is it because the teaching step is poorly designed? Is it because my teaching methods are not effective? Maybe the teacher doesn’t arouse the students’ interest. The students’ side
At first, the students do not know how to master the vocabulary
correctily. When they speak English, they worry most is their limited
vocabulary. If they come across a new word, they stop to think about its
meaning and miss the next part of the information. Brainstorming discusses
the problem with my students in the first week .By this way I get a lot
of the useful information.
Interview
I interviewed several students and find out my points: Students should
make fulluse of the short time give before listening to skim through the
questions and the choices. From the choices, students can make predictions
of the listening material and guess which may be correct answers. Then they
can choose the correct one easily through listening carefully with a clear
purpose.
When the students listen to a person speaking their own language in
many situations, they can be one step ahead of the speaker. They can very
often predict what the person is going to say next, perhaps not always the
exact words but at least the main ideas. Sometimes they even found
themselves finishing other people’s sentences for them. This is something
they do without even thinking about it. The more they can predict, the
easier it becomes to understand in a foreign language, too. The students
should train themselves to predict as much as possible.
Appendix C: Teaching No
Week1: Activity1 Date : Wednesday, Sept 14th 2011
Today’s objectives: to consolidate the vocabulary and warms students up
and course their interest in the listening.
teaching methods: predict and listen
Steps of doing things:
Step one :
1)Practice speaking everyday English that they are related to the listening
materials .Such as: what’s the temperature outside? what’s the season
now? which
season do you like best ?why?
2)correct their pronunciation, for example: thirteen and thirty.
3)Tell them we are going to listen a postcard from Lucy to her Chinese friend named LiLei, they talked about the season ----spring. You will listen the postcard and choose the best words .But you should know the following methods.
4)Tell them the methods: when we listen to a dialogue or an article ,we should pay more attention to some easily confuse sounds, especially, the similar sounds ; We should also pay attention to some homophones and homonyms. Homophones are some words with different meanings, which are pronounced in the same way but are spelt differently. Example: “sun” and “son”, “fifteen” and “fifty” are homophones. Homonyms are some words, which have the same sound and usually the same spelling as another, though different in meaning or origin. After that, let them read through the exercise and predict what they will.
Step two: Ask the students to read the postcard on the paper and predict the content
and then listen by themselves, follow the tape.
Step three: check their answers and summary up the listening lesson. Step four: Homework: listen to lesson 9 and write down the words that you hear.
Activity2:
Date: Tuesday, Sept 27th 2012
Today’s objective: to practice and master the methods.
Teaching methods: Analysis, predict and make answers.
Steps of doing things:
Step 1:
1 )Listen to an English report about pets by our classmates, then ask three questions from the report
2)The teacher oral the aims and task.
3)Write down the title of listening text on the blackboard; introducing background knowledge related to listening text; reviewing and previewing key words ,which will be used in the listening text. And going over questions to be done while listening.
4)The teacher reminds the methods that knew.
Step 2:
1)Listen and understand the text, find out the wrong words.
2)Write down them on the blackboard by students.
3)Teacher and students help each other and correct the answers . Step 3: Listen again and read following the tape.
Step 4: Summarizing the lesson
Homework: talk about your favorite pet with your partner
Week2: Activity 3
Date: Friday, Oct 7th 2012
Today’s objectives: to practice students’ listening skills and make response
Teaching methods: correcting and practicing
Step 1: pratiseoral English about date, weather, and meeting friends Step 2: viewing and previewing key words and expression, which will be used in listening dialogue.
Step 3:
1) Discussing some topics, situation, question between teacher and students.
2) Reading through while-listening tasks of several short. dialogues, which are easier than listening dialogue.
Step 4:
1) Carrying out various activities such as problem solving making-decisions
2) Completing dialogue and identifying relationships between speakers. Step 5: Summarizing the main ideas and according to the information from
the dialogue to choose the answers.
Homework: Listen to the texts which we have learned lesson 21 and write down the signs.
Activity 4:
Date: Monday, Oct17th 2012
Today’s objectives: to activate the students’ prior knowledge about shopping .
Step 1: Reviewing key words about food, vegetables
Step 2: Discuss with partners, predicting what Kate will possibly buy and then write the items out on the paper.
Step 3: Filling in the worksheet based on the students’ practical knowledge and experience in real life or study.
Step 4: Listen to the tape to check whether any of their predicted items are on Kate’s list.
Step 5: Check and summary
Homework: Note down your classmates’ shopping list through talking Week 3:
Date: Friday, Oct 28th 2012
Teaching objectives: Understand and master the steps of this experiment Teaching methods: Playing and listening
Step 1: Writing down the title of listening text on the blackboard. Step 2: Give some background knowledge about the listening text.
Step 3: Do the experiment with teacher and some of them try to write down the steps in English or in Chinese. After experiment, let one of them describe the steps .Sequencing and grading based on the students’ practical knowledge.
Step 4: Listen to the recorder twice and correct their choices.
Step 5: Summarize the methods of teaching listening.
Homework: Listen their activity books on page 37
Appendix D: Diaries
Week 1
Date: Friday, Sept 23rd 2012
After I have taught this lesson, I found my students getting more experienced and all of them follow the rules of memorize the vocabularies in our textbook.
It was a good and interesting way to make students aware of what they were going to remember; I designed the questions were related to each other, it was good for students to comprehend the English materials. I thought the new ways were good for students to remember the new vocabulary. I found the students knew what they should do and what they should focus on .So I thought the vocabulary teaching was well-prepared and interesting. Week 2
Date: Tuesday, Sept 27th 2012
All the students did a good job in this lesson. Though teaching new vocabulary is difficult, I should also choose different methods for
different students. To design the stages of teaching listening clearly, and have different activities. So the different students had different gains. Use this way to arouse the students’ interest and let them feel learning English is happy, especially listening lesson.
Week 3
Date: Friday, Oct 14th 2012
This period of time, I dealt with the problem in the listening skills. Like the steps of the last two weeks, I told them first to analysis the type of the listening, because different types used different methods. But in the listening, these skills might be listening for pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. They remembered these ways. To my surprise, their listening skills improved more quickly than I thought. I
am more than happy.