English teaching methodologyChapter one An introduction to this courseTeaching aims:1.Introduce the course.2.Setting the demands.3.Introduce the textbookTeaching procedures:The opening of this courseAs learners of English, and as teachers-to-be, we are members of an established worldwide profession. As Richards (1985:1) reminds us, "the current status of English has turned a significant percentage of the world's population into part-time users or learners of English". Now we are learners of English, in the near future, willingly or unwillingly, we'll be English teachers.What's the aim of this courseEnglish teaching methodology is a course aiming at developing future English teachers. This aim is clear enough. You may say you don't want to be a teacher for various reasons, but that doesn't mean you need not to take this course. This is a required course for your major. You can not change it with you will. So if the mountain doesn't walk to you, why not walk to the mountain If you can't change the environment, why not change yourself Besides, I'm sure this course will help you a lot in your future career life. You can not decide that something is not useful to you just because you don't like it. I remember I have told you that the distance between a student and a teacher is not just the few steps between you and me. You are facing your teachers everyday, but that does not mean you can be a qualified teacher naturally. You need to learn a lot about teaching. There are so many regular jobs a teacher has to do before and after he or she stands here. A teacher has to know some teaching and learning theory, some teaching methods to base his teaching on. He has to know how to plan a lesson, how manage his classroom, how to teach various language skills, how to do research besides teaching, how to evaluate his teaching and his teaching materials. This course will also help you to become a better learner by helping you to be a teacher. We will learn a lot about teaching as well as about learning. Most important of all, all these will help you to become a useful person. Teachers' education is the way to help you. But as the proverbs goes, you can lead a horse to the river, but you can not force it to drink. So the most important is you need to learn. So in this class, you need to bring your head to think, your hand to do things like teaching actives, and your textbook to rely on.Two assumptionsOne fundamental assumption behind this course is that people learn moreby doing things themselves rather than by being told about it. So in this class, there will be a lot of time for you to try, especially in the later part of the course. I'll divide you into 8 groups and each group will do something different before the whole class. You will learn to cooperate, to stand out bravely and to give lessons standing here.A second assumption is that learners are intelligent, fully-functioning humans, learning is not simply a one dimensional intellectual activity, but involve the whole person. In this course, we will also learn something about learning; this will help you in the rest of your college life. And it can influence your future teaching. So you are supposed to take part in this course, not just to take this course, and listen to it. You need to do it, to discuss, to think, to try, and to teach.About the textbookOur textbook is a most suitable one for us to use. It is published by the Beijing Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. The author is Jeremy Harmer, who is a British expert in language teaching. Let's look at the contents of the book and I'll show you how we shall use the book. First, there are prefaces written by Halliday and Professor Wang Zongyan. These are the scholars who are recognized as leading authorities in language study. From these we can see it is one of the up-to-date writings on the most important branches of linguistic studies. It "offers insights into the nature of language, whether from a theoretical point of view or in application to their professional activities as language teachers." ( Halliday: F9) From the guided reading, which is in Chinese, we can easily get a general idea of the whole book. Then there goes the introduction. It tells us: who is this book for and what is it about. Now comes the body part. There are thirteen chapters in all and each chapter deals with one aspect of language teaching. We will learn most chapters of them. And while we're learning, we will refer to the task file (P136) of each chapter. Of course we'll not do all of them. I'll decide which the most appropriate ones to use in the classroom are and which are to be left to do after class. Finally are the appendix (Page 177): equipment in the classroom; (page 185) Notes and further reading; (page191) phonetic symbols. The last is index. It is to serve as an index when you want to find certain information. About our designWe will learn this course together. We will rely on this book to learn the basic teaching methods. Also, we'll have chances to practice what we are learning. Each week, some of you have to do practice teaching in front of the whole class. Besides these, I'll teach you with my own experience and my knowledge. I'll change some of the contents to give you a better idea of language teaching, including language teaching history and the present English language teaching reform in our country. If possible, we will have chances to go to a middle school to observe teaching. And we'll watch a film about teaching.You are required to:Come to this course on time. It will be part of your final score. I'll call on your names sometimes.Come to this class well prepared. You are required to read the contents ahead of time, so that we can discuss and develop our own idea. Think and be active learners in this classWrite and read about teaching.Work in groups and develop your teaching projects.Reference books:For further reading, you can go to appendix B (page 185) and the following: (英) McDonough, J. & Christopher Shaw 《英语教学中的教材和方法(教师手册)》北京:北京大学出版社,2004,9(英)戴维斯(Davies, E.), (英)皮尔斯 (Pearse, E.) 英语教学成功之道=Success in English Teaching 上海:上海外语教育出版社,2002(英) 郝奇 (Hedge, T.),语言课堂中的教与学=Teaching and learning in the Language Classroom 上海:上海外语教育出版社, 2002(英) 斯克里温纳 (Scrivener, J.), 英语教师指南=Learning teaching上海:上海外语教育出版社, 2002(英) 理查兹 (Richards, J. C.),(英) 洛克哈特(Lockhart, C.),第二语言课堂的反思性教学=Reflective Teaching in Second Language Classroom 北京:人民教育出版社,2000(英) 理查兹 (Richards, J. C.),(英) 罗杰斯 (Rodgers, T. S.), 语言教学的流派=Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching 北京:外语教学与研究出版社,2000(英)韦得尔 (Wedell, M.) &刘润清《外语教学与学习:理论与实践》北京:高等教育出版社,1995 (2001重印)隋铭才,《英语教学论》南宁:广西教育出版社,2001王立非,《现代外语教学论》上海:上海教育出版社,2000(2001重印)杨连瑞,《英语教学艺术论》南宁:广西教育出版社,2003张庆宗,《英语教学法》长沙:湖南人民出版社,2004Some useful websites (中国基础教育网) (中国教育和科研计算机网) (中国中小学教育教学网) (中国教育在线) (中国教育发展网) (浩然考试网) (小草教学资源网) (搜狐教育) (中国英语教研网)Chapter two A brief history of foreign language teachingTeaching aims:1.get the students to know some language teaching history2.introduce some main teaching methodsDifficult points:The introduction of the teaching methodsTeaching procedures:Why do we need to know about itToday we will briefly review the history of language teaching methods. This will provide a background for our later discussion of various teaching methods. From this historical view, we are also able to see the concerns that have always been at the center of discussions on how to teach foreign languages. "Changes in language teaching methods throughout history have reflected recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency learners need."(Richards 1986:1).600 years agoThe most important foreign language taught and learned in Western Europe was Latin.Due to its long history and its connection with the culture of the classical period, Latin had a high prestige and many practical uses. It was widely used in most part of Europe in schools and in government; it was the international language of religion, politics and business. How it was taught is uncertain, but we can infer that both written and spoken forms must be learned.During the 15th and 16th centuriesNew powerful nations aroused, first Portugal and Spain, then France and Britain. These powerful nations travel and settled around the world, and together with them were their languages. The practical use of Latin declined, but it retained as the language of religion, literature, and philosophy, so in most cases, only the ability to read was considered necessary. The way Latin was taught was an early form of the Grammar Translation. The aim was to teach the students to understand the written language.Between the 17th and the early 19th centuriesGrammar TranslationModern languages such as English, French, and German begin to be taught in schools and universities, the main teaching method was the one used to teach Latin. The grammatical rules were explained and modal sentences and vocabulary lists were given. The grammatical rules were practiced by exercises, first in sentences, then in texts. They are translated into and out of the foreign language. These sentences were constructed to practice using the grammatical rules, not to use the language in a meaningful way.Eg. The pen of my aunt is in the garden.Of course, there were always people who attempted to learn foreign languages in order to speak them as well as to read them. They tried to design teaching materials which presented foreign languages in dialogues set in situational contexts appropriate to the times. But it was only afterthe development of the railways and the telegraph that the demand for oral as well as reading proficiency in foreign languages increased rapidly. As a result, linguists and language teachers in the second half of the 19th century began to cooperate to develop a methodology for foreign language teaching that would be based on a scientific study of language and a study of how people learned. This lead to the design of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). And in France, the Direct Method was developed. It believed the second language (L2) learning is similar to first language (L1) learning. The focus should be on spoken form, only L2 is allowed to be used in the class. The language introduced should be everyday language and the learners should practice it by actively using it in the classroom. By the early 20th century the Direct Method had been adopted in French and German schools. But in Britain and the USA, they continued to emphasize learning to read the written language only. Mid 20th centuryWhen the USA entered the Second World War,it suddenly became clear that oral skills in foreign languages were necessary ( for whom, which languages, why ) for American soldiers. So the government turned to the structural linguists to provide a scientific description of the language. And the behaviorist psychologists helped to set out a scientific description of learning. The result of their cooperation is the Audiolingual Method.This method saw the spoken language as the fundamental from of language and insisted only L2 should be used in the classroom. It believes learning is the result of habit formation through conditioning. As a result, it divided up language into parts, each representing an item within the system of L2 structures. Learners learn the language items by items, never moving on from one item until they can reproduce it perfectly. Errors were not tolerated. The use of drills and pattern practice is a distinctive feature of the Audiolingual Method.eg. I used to know him. ----I used to know him.I used to know him years ago. ---- I used to know him years ago when we were in school.For at least 20 years this method was widely used in the USA and many part of the world. But soon people began to realize structure rules were not enough for actually using the language in real situation.At the same time, in Britain in the 1950s and 60s, Oral and Situational Methods were popular. These methods also emphasized the spoken language and stress structural accuracy. The difference lied in that they stressed the need to present language in natural situational contexts. Communicative MethodDeveloping from these methods and the Audiolingual Method, came the Communicative Method. This method recognizes the learners need to know the grammatical rules, but stresses that the purpose of learning suchrules is to be able to do things, to perform functions in the language. It also recognizes different learners have different language needs and therefore should have different syllabuses. Errors were a natural part of learning. It encourages learners to use the language to communicate meaningfully as much as possible. It aims to make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and it also tries to teach the four language skills. Littlewood (1981:1) states, "One of the most characteristic features of the communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language." The teacher has two roles: one is to facilitate the communication process the other is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. And for the learner, he should contribute as much as he gains. Most recently in the 1970s and 80sWhen learners were viewed as individuals who have different needs, different personalities and different learning styles, small-scale introduction of a variety of other methods such as the Natural Approach, The Silent Way, Total Physical Response and Community Language Learning. These methods, mostly developed in the USA, stress the idea of the learner centered classroom. The learners are expected to take part in the designing of the syllabuses; the learners are also expected to take responsibility for their own learning. The role of the teacher is more of an advisor, syllabus negotiator and language resource. But on the whole, these methods have never spread very widely.The above are the history of foreign language teaching. From the history we know language has a lot to do with the development of the society. The need of the society pushed the development of new teaching methods. No wonder the faster our society develops the better our teaching methods become.language learning.What do we know about language learning1. How do babies learn their mother language (Think and discuss)Get endless exposure, emotional support, (motivated) try and feedback 2. How do adult in a foreign world learn a second languageExposure to the language, be motivated, have opportunities to use it 3. How do we learn a second language in the classroomDon't get the same kind of exposure, but need to be motivated, exposed to the language, given chances to use it.Elements necessary for language learning in classroom (ESA)Engage: this is the point where teachers try to arouse the students' interest and involving their emotions. If we are bored, we will "switch off" to what is being taught to us. But if we are amused, moved, or challenged, we will find it fun and better learning.How to engage students Activities and materials: games, music, discussion, pictures, stories teacher's unusual behaviorStudy: study activities are those where the students are asked to focus in on language (or information) and how it is constructed. The study of vowel sound, the study of third person singular of the present tense, the study of a writer's intention, the study of the grammarActivate: these are the exercises and activities designed to get the students using the language as freely as they can. The objective is not to focus on language construction or language points, but to use the language appropriately for a given situation or topic. It is a kind of rehearsal for the real world.Typical activate exercises: role-plays, advertisement design, debates and discussion of a planHomework:How would you describe the following lesson sequences in terms of ESA 1. ( ) the teacher stands in front of the class and starts to look unhappy. The students are clearly interested / concerned.2. ( ) the teacher mimes feeling ill. The students look like they understand what's going on.3. ( ) the teacher says, "I'm feeling ill". The students repeat, " I'm feeling ill".4. ( ) the teacher mimes feeling sad / angry / depressed etc., and say " I'm feeling sad" etc., and the students repeat the sentences.5. ( ) the teacher models the question " what's the matter " the students repeat the question.6. ( ) the students practice questions and answers, e.g. "what's the matter " " I'm feeling depressed" etc.7. ( ) the students do a role-play in which two neighbors meet and one has just had their car stolen.Chapter three Teaching reform and curriculaTeaching aims:1. Get the students to know something about curriculum and syllabus2. Introduce the new curriculumFocus:New curriculum for secondary schoolTeaching procedureSocial backgroundSchool education in China is now undergoing rapid changes. The Chinese government attaches great importance to the reform and development of education. More and more schools and institutes are built, more and more students of various levels enrolled to get educated. English language teaching makes an important part of school education. The population of English learners, which is the largest in the world, will become even larger with the universalisation of compulsory education, the increase in regular upper secondary school, senior secondary vocational schools and ever-rising enrollment in higher education institutes. Along with theincrease of quantity are the pressing requirements of the improvement by the Program on Quality Education. As a result, innovation has become a strong focus of English program of which curriculum receives most attention.Curriculum & syllabusCurriculum refers to "all the factors which contribute to the teaching and learning situation" (Johnson, 1996), including "not only what pupil learn, but how they learn it, and how teachers help them learn, using what supporting materials styles and methods of assessment, and in what kind of facilities" while syllabus prescribes the content to be covered by a given course, forming only a small part of school program (Rodgers, 1996). Dubin and Alshtain (Gong & Li, 2004) make the point even clearer by suggesting that curriculum is defined as being in the description of general goals and more reflective of national and political trends, while the syllabus is defined as more detailed and operational in stating teaching and learning elements and reflective of the curriculum through the series of planed steps and more narrowly defined objectives. Stern (1999) sums up curriculum as a question about what can and should be taught to whom, when and how.However, as basis for school programs, curriculum and syllabus are often taken as synonymous. In the past in China, as in British, people have used the term syllabus similar in sense to that of curriculum since the syllabi there are usually "official" or national published documents, issued by the Ministry of Education, with identification of the general goals and detailed objectives, selection of content and teaching methodology, and descriptions of the outcome and assessment to evaluate the outcome of teaching and learning.In the past two decades, English language teaching curricula for secondary and higher education have been the subject of questioning, experimenting and reviewing. The curricula for secondary schools have been revised eight times. (1986, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2001) There are two major reasons: first, ELT has widely been realized as more than just a subject matter or classroom procedures. In a fast developing country like China, great social and economic progresses have made a lot of impact on ELT and called for its innovation. Since curriculum is the prop on which the whole course of ELT is based in term of guidelines, directing and planning, as well as producing textbooks and monitoring teaching quality, any social and economic change will affect the government language policy and school teaching, and will bring about some changes to curriculum which is supposed to be designed to meet the needs of the country. The second reason comes from the conventional approach to curriculum development. It tended to be prescriptive, top-down. Thus it is often inappropriate for the classroom teaching. There seems to be a gap between daily teaching and the curriculum's implementation. This mismatch leads to some new versionof curricula with "draft", "pilot", or "trial", hoping to better the last curriculum.Do teachers need to study curriculum theoryThe answer is absolutely yes. In his book Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching (1999) Stern pointed out that "it is very important for teachers to shed some attention to curriculum theory because changes in thought on language and language learning and changes in educational policy constantly impinge on language pedagogy. A good understanding and a full use of curriculum theory will help teachers to cop with curriculum decisions in an economical and effective way.Essential components of curriculumpurpose and contentCurriculum is designed to answer the questions: what is to be learnt What does the curriculum plan to achieve Modern curriculum theory has laid a great deal of emphasis on the definition of goals and the clarification of content.instructionThe second centers around the process of teaching and learning to reach these objectives. Teaching methods, time allocation, the selection and arrangement of content, the modes of presentation, the classroom, the media used, can also be considered part of curriculum.evaluationEvaluation refers to the assessment of whether teaching achieves its object. It is inseparable to the process of teaching because it serves to make judgments about the progress and performance of individuals exposed to the curriculum in question.ELT in China and the new curriculumDespite the frequent changes in syllabi, the ELT still could not keep up with the pace of the development of the country. Problems such as repetitive curriculum offered, dull teaching environments and little attention to developing the ability to use English still exist. There is a large gap between using English as the media and the learning situations where English is taught and learned. To bridge the gap and to meet the need of the country, curriculum as guiding documents for the whole teaching processes must be changed.The new curriculum for secondary educationEnglish language education is mandatory in the junior and secondary schools in China. All students are required to complete the six-year course. In the yearly university entrance examination, it is one of the subjects to be tested. The latest curriculum innovation took place in 2001 with the national-unified document curriculum standards for teaching English in Secondary Schools.The new curriculum is composed of four sections. The first section is preface which discusses the nature of the curriculum, its fundamentalconcepts and the design of the framework. The second section presents the objectives of the curriculum. The third section deals with the standards/requirements including the specifications of linguistic skills, language knowledge, affect and attitudes of students, learning strategies and cultural awareness. The last section makes some recommendations for implementation. There are also seven inventories of language pronunciation, grammar, functions and notions, topics, skills, classroom English and vocabulary.Compared with the previous curricula/syllabi, curriculum standards for teaching English in Secondary Schools has the following features: Quality education in natureThe document by Ministry of Education "survey of the Educational Reform and Development in China (2004)" holds, "We will implement the Program on Quality Education in the new century to develop quality education at all levels so that the overall development of the students can be promoted and a solid foundation for their life long sustainable development can be established." English education is one of the significant components of quality development in the foundation stage of education for the people. English education is not only a language course, but also a process of steeling wills, molding characters, broadening visions, enriching life experiences, developing mental ability, etc. the mission of the course is to promote students' learning interest, make them build upself-confidence, form into good leaning habits, develop the autonomous and collaborative learning ability. To carry out the mission the curriculum highlights students' practice and experience in the process of language learning. Among a variety of teaching methods, it recommends task-based approach. This is an approach makes learning by doing, makes language learning through communication.The humanistic approach to education as fundamental conceptHumanistic approach is one of the prominent features of the new curriculum. This approach emphasizes the importance of the inner world of the learner and places the individual's thought, feelings and emotions at the forefront of all human learning. (William & Burden: 2000) As fundamental concepts under which the curriculum is designed, the new curriculum highlights generality of the course. It emphasizes the importance of individuals' emotions, learning interest, self-confidence. The curriculum also encourages self-development and self-actualization, by making students involved in all learning tasks and activities so as to let students feel, experience and practice for success. It puts stress on students' needs and wants and attaches importance to students' variables such as motivation, interest, attitudes, personalities, learning styles and strategies. To certain extent, it can be taken as a learner-centered curriculum. The humanistic concept underlying the curriculum is also manifested in its general objective which claims thatEFL course aims at whole-person development with comprehensive communicative competence of students as ultimate goal centered around by cultural awareness, linguistic knowledge, language skills, learning strategies and affective factors and attitudes.Thorough, accountable, objective, progressive and quality assurance The curriculum sets different levels of requirements on five dimensions: cultural awareness, linguistic knowledge, language skills, learning strategies and affective factors and attitudes. Language skills are divided into nine progressive bands (from Band 1 to Band 9) with other four dimensions divided into three bands (Band 2, Band 5 and Band 8). Qualitative and quantitative specifications are described for each band. The organization and structure of the contents provide the curriculum with thorough, accountable, objective, progressive and quality assurance. Previously, when language curriculum was designed, linguistic knowledge and skills are usually the focus to discuss. But this curriculum also includes other factors contributing ELT. This thoroughness is supported by the accountability with specifications, which makes the mental and physical performance of language teaching and learning easy to be observed and assessed. The bands from low to high levels provide a progressive continuum starting in primary schools and ending in senior high schools. The band system is especially important in terms of suitability for the teaching and learning contexts in China, as it is a large country with an enormous population, a lot of different between schools, teachers, students, regions, resources, etc.Homework:Try to get a copy of the new curriculum and study it.Chapter four Teachers and learnersTeaching aims:To know teacher's language, rolesTo know student's responsibility and motivationTo know how motivate the studentsTo know different levels of learnersFocus:The two basic elements in teaching and learningTeaching procedureLast term, we discussed what kind of teachers are good teachers, their qualities and competences. Remember A good teacher should be strict, kind, learned, respectable, responsible and so on; a good teacher should also be able to teach his/her students in a artful way so that his students can learn something from him easily and happily. We also discussed teacher's language. As English teachers, we are supposed to be able to use two kinds of languages---Chinese and English. Do you still remember the principle I taught you Yes, that is use English when possible, use Chinese when necessary.。
