高中英语阅读情景教学_毕业论文

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本科毕业论文（设计）题目高中英语阅读情景教学

院（系）外国语学院

专业英语语言文学

二〇一三年四月

Situational English Reading Teaching

in Senior High School

A thesis submitted to the School of Foreign Languages CCNU

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for BA degree

In English Language and Literature

by Huang Yu

Supervisor: Yu Bo

Academic Title: Lecturer

Signature:

April 2013

华中师范大学

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Contents

Abstract in Chinese (i)

Abstract in English (ii)

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….

2. Literature Review………….……….…………………………….....….……

2.1 Definition of situational teaching….………………………………….......

2.2 Features of situational teaching…………………………………………...

2.3 Studies of situational teaching…………………………………………….

2.3.1 Studies of situational teaching abroad………………………………..

2.3.2 Studies of situational teaching in China……………………………...

3. English Reading Teaching…………………………………….....................

3.1 Definition of reading teaching …………………………….......................

3.2 Models of reading teaching ……………………………............................

3.2.1 Bottom-up model…………………………………………………….

3.2.2 Top-down model……………………………………………………..

3.2.3 Interactive model…………………………………………………….

3.3 Problems of English reading teaching in senior high school……………..

4. Situational English Reading Teaching in Senior High School……………

4.1 Pre-reading stage.…………………………………………………………

4.2 While-reading stage……………………………........................................

4.3 Post-reading stage………………………………………………………...

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………..………….. Bibliography………………………………………………………...…………. 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7 8 8

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内容摘要

目前我国许多高中英语教师受传统的应试教育观的影响，英语阅读教学课堂上只重视语言知识的讲解，而忽视了对学生的信息获取能力和阅读技巧的训练，教学模式单一，使学生丧失对英语阅读课的兴趣。随着我国近年来对情景教学法研究的不断深入，情景教学法以其生动性和形象性也逐渐被一些老师运用到课堂上，起到了激活英语课堂、调动学生学习热情的作用。

本文依据国内外专家学者对情景教学法的研究及笔者的教学实习经历，采用文献资料法、教学案例分析等方法对情景教学法对我国高中英语阅读教学的作用做了深入的探讨。本文旨在为我国高中英语课堂教学的改革提供一些参考，并且为笔者将来的英语教学提供一些借鉴。

关键词：情景教学法；英语阅读教学；高中

Abstract

At present most high school teachers in our country are deeply influenced by traditional exam-oriented concept. They attach great importance to language knowledge and conduct cramming teaching method but ignore the development of students’ ability of getting information and reading skills. The boring teaching model makes students lose interest in English reading. With further studies on situational teaching in recent years in our country, it is gradually used in class by many teachers for its vividness and figurativeness, playing an important role in activating English class and mobilizing students’ study enthusiasm.

The thesis, based on the studies of situational teaching abroad and home and the author’s teaching internship experience, mainly discusses the effects of situational teaching on English reading teaching in senior high school through consulting literature and analyzing teaching cases. It aims at providing some references for the reform in English teaching in senior high school and helping improve the author’s future English teaching career.

Key words: situational teaching; English reading teaching;senior high school

ii

1.Introduction

Reading teaching is a very important part in English teaching for reading ability reflects one’s capacity of getting information. As is a major skill in the process of learning English, reading is vital for students because it accounts for nearly 27% in the English paper of the college entrance examination. However, in China the situation of English reading teaching is not very good. There are many problems in both students’ reading ability and teachers’ teaching methods. Many teachers have adopted the cramming method of teaching under the influence of traditional exam-oriented education for a long time. They regard language knowledge teaching as the key point of English reading teaching, during which they mainly teach vocabulary and grammar and translate the whole text sentence by sentence, but ignore the development of students’ reading skills and ability. It results in the boring classroom atmosphere and low teaching efficiency, which is not good for the integrated development of students.

Therefore, the current English reading teaching must be improved and reformed. With better understanding of the law and essence of foreign language teaching in recent years, more and more people advocate mobilizing the enthusiasm and initiative of students. Situational teaching, as an effective way t o arouse students’ learning interest, is more and more widely used in teaching. It can not only activate the conventionally boring English class, but also promote the reform in education and transform the traditional teacher-centered teaching model to student-centered model. Teachers create various situations to interest students in reading and improve their English reading capacity and turns students to the main body of classroom activities. Applying the situational teaching to English reading teaching is significant. It’s necessary to optimize teaching process and develop students’ comprehensive language application ability.

This thesis mainly introduces situational teaching and its application in English reading teaching in Senior High School. It presents the definition, features and current studies of situational teaching, analyzes the current English reading models and the problems of English reading teaching in senior high school of our country.Moreover, the fourth part combines situational teaching with English reading teaching. It points out the purposes of reading teaching and the functions of situational teaching in English reading teaching to fulfill those aims, and gives some teaching situations to embody how situational teaching help to promote English reading teaching and solve

the problems of English reading teaching in senior high school.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of situational teaching

Psychologists think that situation is a concrete environment which can stimulate people directly with biological and social meanings. It plays a certain role in activating people’s affection (Yu Aihua, 2011).Situational teaching is a teaching method that with the aim at achieving good teaching efficiency, teachers employ and cre ate vivid and specific situations to arouse students’ emotional experience while teaching in order to help students understand teaching materials and develop their mental function (Zhong Xinyue, 2005). It breaks through the traditional teaching model and is in line with the law of language teaching and the development of thinking, which indicates that teaching is not only to impart knowledge, but also a process to exchange and share emotions with students. Situational teaching includes real situation, associational situation, graphic situation and so on (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). The core of situational teaching is to stimulate students’ interest (Wang Jimao, 2004). It can activate students’ study motivation and create relaxing classroom climate. It’s an effectiv e method to teach language.

2.2 Features of situational teaching

Situational teaching is more and more valued by educators and teachers for it has some distinguished features compared with traditional teaching method. It can provide visual teaching aids, keep students interested and get them actively involved in class (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011). The three features do not exist in isolation but influence and promote each other. They will be introduced as follows.

1) Providing visual teaching aids

Providing visual teaching in situational teaching makes it vivid and figurative. The reason why traditional teaching can’t draw students’ attention is that teachers always use mechanical rigid teaching method, which may eventually make students lose interest in study (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011). Visual aids are regarded as the most direct and effective means used in situational teaching (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). Teachers can show students real objects. Powerpoint presenting is another frequently-used means in situational teaching. Teachers can present pictures and sound through PPT. Many other things such as students’ stationery, scenery outside the classroom or things familiar to people can also serve the situational teaching to

help students understand and make classes attractive.

2) Keeping students interested

Situational teaching should keep students interested in study. Most students are passive receiver in class now partly because classes are too boring to attract them. Being interesting in situational teaching is very important as it can make students participate in teaching process actively (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011). Teachers should design teaching situations according to students’ psychological characteristics, that’s to say, taking pleasure in teaching. Playing games is an effective way to mobilize students’ subjective initiative and creativity and draw their attention and it’s loved by them. They can get not only knowledge but also happiness from situational teaching. Teachers can also design other forms of activities like competition of memorizing words, idioms solitaire and English speech contest to make students become active in class (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011).

3) Getting students actively involved

The aim of learning is to communicate with the world, especially in language study (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011). Teaching is an interactive process that teachers exchange with students so teachers should train students’ communicative ability and skills while teaching. Situational teachin g is to activate students’ enthusiasm and initiative to be active in class so getting students actively involved is a very important feature. Teachers should encourage students learn to cooperate with others and express themselves in class. Activities such as group discussion and role playing are very common in situational teaching and more than one sense of students are involved and mobilized. Real and vivid situations give students an immersive feeling and make them participate in class actively (Xue Ning, Zhu Yingyu, 2011).

2.3 Studies on situational teaching

2.3.1 Studies of situational teaching abroad

Situational teaching emerged and became popular in England from 1930s to 1960s, and then has been valued in the educational world (Wen Jialing, 2008). Linguists and educators have conducted further studies about the function of situational teaching. The distinguished American educator Dewey attached great importance to situational teaching. He thought teachers should create situations and then set te aching aims and made plans to stimulate students’ learning motivation and interest and inspire them through creating teaching situations, which greatly boosted the practice of situational teaching (quoted in Yu Aihua, 2011). In 1950s, based on situational teaching, the famous Bulgarian philosopher George Lozanov put forward

the Suggestive Method, which suggested using some teaching situation to activate students’ learning motivation and interest (quoted in Wen Jialing, 2008). In 1960s, the former Soviet Union educator Sukhomlinskii, who also made great contribution to the development of situational teaching, often used the colorful nature as a real situation to inspire students’ thinking and train their imagination and creativity (quoted in Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). In 1960s, L.G.Alexander compiled the famous New Concept English, which used situational teaching and has been widely used so far. Swiss philosopher Jean Piaget emphasized the overall teaching method and thought teaching should be laid in meaningful situations and that the knowledge learnt previously can be applied was the most ideal condition (quoted in Qian Zhaoxia, 2011).

2.3.2 Studies of situational teaching in China

The exploration of situational teaching in China originated from the English Teaching started by Zhang Shiyi in 1948 (quoted in Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). The studies started with Li Jilin’s experiments of situational teaching. Li Jilin, the author of Experiments and Studies of Situational Teaching, Theory and Practice of Situational Teaching,advocated teachers creating situations to help students acquire knowledge in practice. With his leading, the theory and practice of situational teaching in China made great achievements. Zhong Xinyue (2005) published an article named The Research and Practice of Situational Teaching in Senior High School, in which he researched and discussed situational teaching and its application in senior high school in detail according to his own teaching experience. He Xiaohua (2009) said that situational teaching could activate linguistic knowledge and the vividness and figurativeness of situations could arouse students’ interest and change the former dull situation in his paper The Application and Thinking on Situational English Teaching. Xue Ning and Zhu Yingyu (2011) thought that teachers should use various methods to create interactive situations to activate students’ study initiative and communicative ability. Sun Chunqin (2011) said that the application of situational teaching can effectively reflect the i nteractive feature of language study and stimulate students’ affection. According to the principles of situational teaching, situational educator Han Zhongliang put forward the model of situational education and combined theory with practice, which had profound guiding significance for English teaching in China (quoted in Qian Zhaoxia, 2011).

3. English Reading Teaching

3.1 Definition of reading teaching

Reading is a complex intellectual activity to get knowledge from various written materials (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). It’s a very crucial way to learn English, and the foundation of acquiring linguistic knowledge, getting information and improving language application ability (Li Hui, 1999). Reading ability reflects one’s integrated language application ability and is very important among the four abilities (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in the process of second language acquisition (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). Reading teaching is a process that teachers direct students to achieve self-construction and learn how to read (Li Huizhen, Zhao Ping, 2006). The purposes of reading teaching are to make students understand the written text and get information, build up vocabulary, improve their reading ability and get some enlightenment.

3.2 Models of reading teaching

Reading comprehension is a process that readers exchange with reading materials. Authors encode the information in their mind to form discourses and readers decode them to get information (Deng Shangshang, 2009). There are three types of models in reading ---- bottom-up reading model, top-down reading model and interactive reading model (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). Therefore, there are also three models of reading teaching correspondingly. They will be listed as follows.

3.2.1 Bottom-up model

In 1970s, some experts and scholars in linguistics put forward the bottom-up reading model (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). According to bottom-up reading model, reading is primarily a decoding process of reconstructing the author’s intended meaning by recognizing the printed letters and words, working out sentence structure and building up a meaning for a text from the smallest textual units at the “bottom” (letters and words) to larger units at the “top” (phrases, clauses, etc.) (Xu Quan, Wang Ting, 2010). It’s in gene ral a part-to-whole process of reading.

Many teachers use this model while teaching reading. In this model, teachers emphasize vocabulary and grammar and analyze the grammatical structure and reading materials carefully, but ignore the context and the dev elopment of students’ logical and cognitive capacity (Deng Shangshang, 2009). Students, under the influence of this teaching model, often know the internal sentence structure and the meaning of the whole sentence but lack understanding of the whole text and context. It may result in the low reading efficiency and accuracy in reading comprehension

exercises. Therefore, the bottom-up model is not good to improve students’ ability of analyzing and solving problems.

3.2.2 Top-down model

To avoid those disadvantages in the bottom-up reading model, American psychologist Goodman proposed the top-down reading model (Deng Shangshang, 2009). In this model readers can be more active. They draw on their own intelligence and experience to understand the text (Xu Quan, Wang Ting, 2010). Goodman (1967) said it’s unnecessary for readers to read every letters and words. They just need select necessary information to predict the meaning and content of text, and then confirm their assumptions through matching what they already know (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011). This model proceeds from whole to part and focuses on the rough idea of the text the readers construct through reading (Xu Quan, Wang Ting, 2010). It’s in higher level than the first one and it’s thought that readers’ cultural b ackground knowledge is more important than words and sentence structure (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011).

Some teachers may use this model to train students to find clues and make correct predictions while reading. It emphasizes students’ thinking process of deducing and predicting. Students’ reading speed can also be improved. But there also exist some limitations in this teaching model. It ignores detailed information of the text and may lead to subjective judge about the text.

3.2.3 Interactive model

To find a better model that contains the advantages both in the bottom-up reading model and the top-down reading model, famous American artificial intelligence expert Rumelhart founded the interactive reading model based on summing up the experience of others and latest achievement in the field of artificial intelligence (Deng Shangshang, 2009). In practice, readers often shift from different models to deal with information, which not only guarantees readers’ accurate predictions of the text, but also makes readers analyze and deal with problems from different perspective and avoid one-sidedness (Qian Zhaoxia, 2011).

According to studies on the three reading models above, efficient reading model is the interactive model. However, teachers seldom employ the interactive model while teaching reading. This model attempts to take into account the strong points of the first two models, and tries to avoid the criticisms leveled against each, making it one of the most promising approaches to the theory today (Xu Quan, Wang Ting, 2010). Reading is neither bottom-up nor top-down. It’s actually a combination of the two. Readers not only need to know letters and words in the text but also use their

own cultural background knowledge and experience to get information. Teachers should use this model to teach reading, not only teaching them to get information but also train their reading ability.

3.3 Problems of English reading teaching in senior high school

The National English Teaching Syllabus(2003) clearly said that the English tea ching aims in senior high school stage is to develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, and it emphasizes that teachers should pay more attention to fostering the reading ability of students. But in our country, there exist many problems in English reading teaching.

For most teachers, they are greatly influenced by traditional behindhand teaching beliefs. They use the bottom-up model in English reading teaching. They usually emphasize the vocabulary and grammar, and translate texts sentence by sentence, but pay little attention to training students’ reading skills and ignore the understanding of the whole passage. Reading strategies and skills are seldom taught in class and lots of after-class exercises are left for students to consolidate linguistic knowledge. Students may lose interest in reading. The reading teaching model is boring which results in the inefficient teaching.

For students, they also have many problems in English reading study. The first one is the shortage of vocabulary. It will be difficult for readers to understand the meaning of the text and the real intension of the author if readers don’t know little vocabulary, so knowing more vocabulary is very important to improve reading speed and comprehension. Secondly, many students lack enough English cultural background knowledge for they have little spare time under the heavy study burden. Thirdly, students’ reading skills are not very good, so teachers should train students’ reading skills in English reading class. Besides, the lack of study interest is also a factor that affects students’ reading efficiency. Many students think reading class is boring and few of them spend other time on reading. As is known to all, interest is the best teacher. Therefore, teachers should adjust their teaching methods and try their best to keep students interested in English reading.

All of these make English reading classes boring and results in inefficient teaching effect. Therefore, English reading teaching need to be improved immediately. Teachers should adopt the interactive reading teaching model while teaching and take measures to train students’ reading skills and arouse their reading interest. Situational

teaching is helpful to solve these problems by creating situations or language environment for teachers to conduct interactive reading teaching model. As an effective method, it’s being applied in English reading teaching by more and more teachers.

4. Situational English Reading Teaching

in Senior High School

The former part of the thesis pointed out that the traditional reading teaching method is boring and students have the problems of lack of interest, background knowledge, vocabulary and reading skills. Situational teaching has the features of providing visual teaching aids, keeping students interested and getting students actively involved. It is good to help students understand reading materials better, keep them interested, stimulate their thinking and improve their language application ability and reading ability.It also can help teachers optimize their reading teaching and improve teaching efficiency.Situational English reading teaching is to set certain situations or create related language environment to interest students, introduce background knowledge of the text, help them understand texts better, develop their reading skills and communicative ability. It will make the reading class more interesting and get students actively involved in class. Therefore, situational teaching in English reading teaching is an effective way to solve these problems.

Reading teaching usually consists of three parts: pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and post-reading stage. In the pre-reading stage, teachers can create situations to arouse students’ interest and provide backg round knowledge; in the while-reading stage, teachers can create related language environment to help students learn vocabulary and get information or train their reading skills; in the post-reading stage, teachers can create situations for students to consolidate their knowledge and reading comprehension, stimulate their thinking and further interest.

The following will tell how situations can be created in each stage of reading teaching and give some teaching cases in detail.

4.1 Pre-reading stage

Pre-reading part of reading teaching is the first part of the reading teaching process. It leads in the text and paves way for the reading teaching. It doesn’t take too much time but is very important. The aims of reading teaching in pre-reading stage are to ar ouse students’ interest in the topic and introduce some background knowledge

to help them better understanding the text. To achieve the aims, teachers can create situations by presenting pictures, asking questions and so on.

1) Creating situations to arous e students’ interest in the topic

Many students think reading is boring so they are passive in reading class. As is known to all, interest is the best teacher. To improve the teaching efficiency, it’s very important for teachers to arouse students’ intere st in the topic. As is mentioned before, Situational teaching has the feature of keeping students interested, so teachers can use situational teaching method. Common situations created in the leading-in part are picture situation.

Presenting pictures is a very figurative way to convey information. Providing pictures is an effective way to draw students’ attention and at most time it’s easier to understand than written words for students. Teachers often introduce the topic and keep students interested by giving pictures. For instance, the topic of Unit 1 in the Textbook 6 in senior high school is Art. Art is very abstract and difficult for student to understand and students may have no interest. Teachers can create a situation through presenting pictures of things belonging to art to make students familiar with art and interested in it. Sculpture, buildings, paper cutting, calligraphy, handicraft, painting, music and dance are all art. Students may be unfamiliar to the single word art, but they know those things. Teachers can provide pictures of buildings, paintings, statues, paper cuttings etc one by one for students to recognize, and then sum up what they share in common is that they all belong to art. After those pictures and teachers’ guiding, students may feel art is not so abstract and hard to understand as expected. And it’s also helpful to draw students’ attention and make the classroom atmosphere relaxing.

2)Creating situations to introduce background knowledge of the text

Background knowledge is very important in reading, and lack of background knowledge can affect students’ correct understanding of the text. But many students have little knowledge about things outside textbook because of heavy study load and the exam-oriented concept. So teachers should introduce background knowledge in the pre-reading stage. Situational teaching is helpful to make students receive information better in a certain situation. Question situation is a good way for teachers to introduce background knowledge, it’s a good metho d to stimulate students’thinking and impart knowledge.

Asking students questions about the topic to make them think, inviting them share ideas and then providing answers to make them know is the common procedure

of question. Teachers should design a series of questions related to the topic to introduce background knowledge to students step by step. For instance, Unit 4 in the Textbook 2 is about wildlife protection. Teachers can firstly ask students “what animals do you know?” to introduce animals, then ask “which are endangered animals?” to lead in endangered animals. Next teachers can encourage them to think about “why are they in danger?” Students can be directed to associate it with human activity. They may realize that our humans have done many bad things to animals and threat their survival. At last teachers give them some time to thinks about “what can we do to protect endangered animals?” according to what they already know and invite them to share opinions, then gives examples as feedback. It’s good for students to learn something about wildlife and wildlife protection. It will arouse students’ thinking and enrich their background knowledge.

4.2 While-reading stage

While-reading part is the major part in the reading teaching process. In this stage, students can get information of the text and develop their reading strategies and skills. Making students get information and teaching reading strategies to improve their reading skills are the major aims of reading teaching. And many students participate in class passively. Situational teaching has a feature of getting students actively involved. It can help students understand the text better and train their reading skills with various methods. Therefore, it’s very important for teachers to create appropr iate language situations to assist their comprehension, help them form good reading habits and to develop their reading ability.

1)Creating situations to help students get information

Getting information from reading materials is the basic aim of reading teaching.

A good reader should be clear about information mentioned in the text and know the author’s intension. Situational teaching can help students understand the text better. Teachers can create a situation according to the content of the text for students to act.

Role playing can give students a feeling of actually being there. It helps students understand the characters better and get emotional experience. It’s also very interesting. For example, the text of Unit 4 in Textbook 2 is a narration, which mainly tells the wonderful experience of a girl called Daisy and how she learned to protect wildlife. She went to three places and met three animals in total by a flying carpet. Teachers can design four scenes—Daisy’s home, Tibet, Zimbabwe, the rainforest and five characters—Daisy, the flying carpet, the antelope, the elephant and the monkey according to the text, then ask five students to act these roles. It can make students

clearer about the content of the text. Next teachers request students to feel the characters’ emotions and act them through vivid face expression, action and language. It will help students further understand the characters, get emotional experience and know better about the author’ purpose s of writing. It also can activate students and get them actively involved in class.

2)Creating situations to teach vocabulary

V ocabulary teaching is a part of reading teaching in the while-reading stage. Reading text is formed based on vocabulary. Knowing enough vocabulary is very important for good reading comprehension. One of factors that result in difficult in the process of reading for students is that they don’t know the words. And most students complain that the efficiency of memorizing words is low. They always forget the words they just memorized. V ocabulary teaching should be in certain context. Situational teaching can create language environment for students to learn words effectively. Teachers can create certain situations for students to help them memorize and acquire words.

Teachers can design a short passage to create a context for students to use the words appearing in the text. For example, new words mentioned in the text of Unit 1 in Textbook 6 are evident, adopt, possess, superb, a great deal, ridiculous, controversial, on the other hand and predict. The topic of the text is the short history of western painting. Teachers can select these words from the text and use them as key words to create a short passage with a new topic about the discussion on the effects of Internet. And students are asked to fill blanks in the passage using these given words. The short passage is presented as follows:

The effects of the Internet are controversial. On the one hand, some people think it’s superb because it helps people solve many problems for its great resource sharing. People can find information they want by searching on the Internet. As computers are so widely used now that some people predict that in the future computers will replace human brain. On the other hand, however, many people think the prediction is ridiculous for it’s evident that the popularization of computers also leads to many bad effects, especially for youngsters. Most families possess computers nowadays. Children spend a great deal of time playing computer games. Therefore, people should learn to use computers reasonably. Parents should adopt measures to help their children develop good habit of using computers.

Each word is put into the passage and it can help students learn the meanings and usage better in certain context and improve students’ learning efficiency of acquiring

words.

4.3 Post-reading stage

Post-reading part is easily ignored by teachers for it’s the ending part of reading teaching. Many people think it’s not important. However, Good post-reading activities can consolidate students’ comprehension, stimulate further interest, integrate language skills or raise awareness of reading strategies. Common post-reading activities are perform a part of the story, writing a summary of the text, holding a discussion about the topic in the text, recomposing the end of the story, retelling the story, writing a response paper and so on. Below are some detailed examples of post-reading activities in senior high school.

1)Creating situations to consolidate knowledge

The main task of reading teaching in the post-reading stage is to consolidate knowledge taught in the pre-reading and while-reading stage. Teachers often consolidate students’ reading comprehension in this stage. Asking students to retell the text, recompose the ending, write a response paper and acting a story are widely used to achieve this aim. Situational teaching is helpful to improve students’ comprehensive language application ability. Teachers can create situations to consolidate students’ reading com prehension.

Creating a scene related with the content of the text to act is an effective method. It means that teachers create a context for the text. It will help students recall the reading in certain context and consolidate their reading comprehension. For instance, the text of Unit 5 in Textbook 5 is First Aid for Burns. It’s a n expository writing to tell the causes, types, characteristics and first aid treatment of burns. Because in the text there are three types of burns, the first, second and third degree burns, teachers can create a scene in a doctor’s office. When the doctor is sitting in the office, there come three patients by turns: the first one is Lily, who spent much time outdoors without a sun umbrella in a fine summer day and now her face tu rns red and it’s mildly painful. The second one is Tom who broke a bottle filled with boiled water and the boiled water burnt his left hand. Now there are many blisters in his hand. The third one is Jack who got burned in a car accident. The car got fired and his right leg was seriously burned and charred. He was immediately sent to hospital by others. Teachers should ask students to act this scene. One student acts as the doctor and some students act as patients. The doctor should diagnose the patients and treat them according to the conditions of their burns. The rest of students are as audience and they can judge whether the doctor’s diagnosis and treatment is right. If not, they are encouraged to

offer the right ones according to the knowledge of the text. Afterwards, teachers should analyze the three cases for students in detail from the cause, type, characteristic and first aid treatment to help them recall and consolidate their comprehension. It can also activate the classroom atmosphere and improve st udents’ language application ability.

2) Creating situations to enlighten students

The teaching aims of the New Curriculum Standard consist of three parts: knowledge objective, ability objective and moral objective. Knowledge objective and ability objective are usually fulfilled in pre-reading and while-reading stage, and moral objective is often achieved in post-reading stage. Teachers often encourage students think and get enlightenment from the text. Situational teaching is helpful to simulate students’ thinking. So teachers can create situations to achieve it. Discussion situation is widely used by teachers in this stage.

Holding a discussion on the topic in the text or a related topic is a common and easy way to fulfill the moral aim and it may enable students really learn something from the text except for linguistic knowledge. For example, Unit 5 in the Textbook 2 is about music. There are two passages in this unit. The first one is The Band that wasn’t, which chiefly tells about the development of a band named Monkee. The second text is Freddy the Frog, whose main idea is the advantages and disadvantages after Freddy and the band became famous. Teachers firstly put forward the discussion topic: “What can you learn from the Monkees’ success?”, then divi de students into several parts. Students are asked to discuss with his or her partners in limited time and then give their answers. Teachers should give feedback in time according to students’ speaking and direct them if necessary. For instance, the first question is educational so teachers can offer students a reference answer like “No pains, no gains” or “Work hard to achieve your goal”. Students may learn they should work hard to achieve success. It’s also a good chance for students to practice their spo ken English and learn to cooperate with others.

5. Conclusion

This thesis mainly studies the situational English reading teaching in senior high school through researching the situational teaching and the current English reading teaching in China. Abundant studies abroad and home have proved that situational teaching is feasible. In China English reading teaching has many problems at present. Applying situational teaching to English reading teaching is an effective way to improve teaching effic iency. Situational teaching can greatly arouse students’ interest and activate the English reading class, and keep them actively involved in class. It can also help to make them understand the reading materials better, stimulate students’ thinking and improve their reading skills.

What English teachers need to do is to learn how to use situational teaching properly in class. Situational teaching provides visual teaching aids, keeps students interested and gets them actively involved. So English teachers should create situations and design activities that fully show those features. Students’ individual difference, limited teaching time, heavy learning tasks all need to be considered in the application of situational teaching. Teachers should use various teaching method and enable students to be active in their study. And they should adjust their teaching method timely according to students’ reaction. Moreover, the teacher should take the class time into consideration. Arranging those activities properly in a class and highlighting the main part of the class are also very important. The ultimate aim of situational reading teaching is to make students get knowledge and improve their ability, so the teacher should combine activities with knowledge teaching properly. And the teacher can spend more time on the careful reading part to explain some difficult sentences for students to help them understand better. In a word, situational teaching will greatly optimize Chinese English reading teaching if used properly.