How_to_arouse_the_Students’_interest_in_English_class

Summary of the thesis:

Since the 21st century, the importance of oral English has been realized along with the extension of the communication with other countries. Spoken English has become an absolutely necessary communication tool, specially when Beijing will hold the Olympic Games this year. More and more people learn English. But many students have studied English for a few years, they can’t use it fluently. So the English teaching efficiency in China needs to be improved. Nothing can be formed in short time. The first thing that we must do is to arouse the students’ interest in English class. These are some ways about it.

Key words:stimulate,interest,curiosity,environment,praise,class climate,charm,audio-visual aids

How to Arouse the Students’ Interest in English Class 1.Introduction

As we all know, English is becoming more and more popular in China. The reform and opening policy requires us to master English since it is the worldwidely used language. Especially, Beijing will hold the Olympic Games this year. More and more people learn English. Although many students have learned English for a few years, they can’t use it fluently. So the English teaching efficiency in China needs to be improved. In some schools, especially village schools, teachers have been using the grammar-translation method, going over the text sentence by sentence, explaining text by word -for-word, spending more time and energy illustrating the grammatical rules. In this way, the students are passive and seldom have a chance to practise or talk except listening to the teacher. Teaching is done in such a boring way, it tends to be so boring and tedious in learning the usages of language that the students do not want to learn it, or even dislike learning it. As a teacher of Lucheng Middle School majoring in English, I am very worried about the situation of teaching at school. In my thesis, I will write something about how to experience English teaching methodologies in my teaching practice.

2.Doing a survey about the interest in English learning.

In order to survey and study the interest of middle-school students, in the Mid-ninetieth in the last century, Xiao Jiongfang and her colleagues, who were in a university of Guangdong, investigated the students in twelve middle schools that were distributed over Hunan, Guangdong and Shanghai .The result of it is that only 53.2％of students were interested in English, which makes it clear that the level of the middle school students’interest in learning English is not high.

3.The importance of interest in English learning.

English teaching is a course full of practice and communication .The teacher must attach great importance to develop students’interest in learning English in order to succeed in English teaching. The teachers’main work is to develop the language

abilities of the students, change the approaches in teaching to meet the students’demands and interest, and give full play to the students’initiative and creativeness.

Einstein said that interest was the best teacher. From ancient times to the present age, the wellknown figures all have one thing in common-a strong interest in their own undertakings. And we all know, once a student is interested in something, he will be completely absorbed in it. That is to say, interest is the driving force of seeking knowledge, is an important factor in leading to success. It has a great impact on students’learning. Psychologists said, stimulating one’s interest could concentrate his effort and attention, could make one who is in a merry mood with better memories to be more active, sensitive, imaginative which is good for developing students’ English learning ability.

Interest consists direct interest and indirect one. Direct interest refers to the one in action itself. Indirect interest means someone doesn’t think something interesting, but by the influence of outer surroundings or some other elements related to it, he becomes to like something. Once a student becomes interested in learning English, he can reach the goal with less time and energy. In accordance with the characteristic of youth, to arouse their direct interest in English is the main work in English teaching.

Middle-school students are impetuous without stable learning motives or a strong will. So interest, like a catalyst, plays a great role in students’ learning. If students are interested in learning, they take an active part in it and be more attentive to study. If they feel that they have learned something and seen the progress they have made, they will be more interested in learning, more willing to make conscious efforts to do better. Thus, interest becomes a motivating force. The key to raise teaching efficiency is to develop students’interest.

Therefore, how to simulate student s’interest in learning English is a major problem that demands prompt solutions. As a teacher, how to lead the students to realize it? Here are some suggestions.

4.Giving some suggestions that improve students’interest in English learning.

4.1 Guiding students to feel interested in English learning.

4.1.1 letting students know the purpose of learning English.

Teacher should give full play on their positive influence upon the students,

letting them know the purpose of learning English to develop their indirect interest in English. However, as there is always something that is tedious, monotonous, it is impossible to ask students to be interested in all the things they should learn. Therefore, there are two kinds of students whose different needs we must see to. The majority learn English for a utilitarian purpose,” as an auxiliary to academic or professional skills”[Mackey＆Mountford 1978,p21] whatever their specific areas of interest. These in our terms are “future users of the target language”On the other hand, there are also small number of students to whom the English language is the primary tool in their future careers. That is to say they are going to be teachers of English, professional translators or secretaries mediating between Chinese businesses and English-speaking foreign entrepreneurs.Whatever your purpose is, to reach the goal you must be good at English.

4.1.2 The teaching material can stimulate the students’ interest.

Generally speaking, the teaching material can stimulate their interest; can meet the needs of theirs. There is now among us an increased awareness that the starting point of our English teaching program must be the needs of the students. So the teacher should adopt the rich ,interesting teaching material, create an interesting learning environment to arouse and satisfy their curiosity to foster their stable and long lasting interest.

At my practising place-No.8 Middle-School, they have adopted a new material 3L-Look,Listen and Learn for 2 years which is different from any other school in Yueyang. There is no table for new words and expressions, those will be learned in the sentences together, similar to the learning of our native language-Chinese. Each lesson contains an interesting story telling about what happens very often in school life. For example, in class when the teacher is writing on the blackboard, as soon as he turns back to face the students, he sees a boy eating an apple. Another, two children made paper boat and tried them in the bathtub, but forgot to turn off the tap, of course they couldn’t avoid being scolded for making the room full of water. Those things no doubt will remind the students of their past experience or can prevent them from making the same mistakes.

So the teachers must use teaching material that is of real interest to students, can fit their level of understanding(such as 3L). In addition, improve the method of conducting the lesson and create an interesting learning environment.

4.1.3 Arousing students’interest in English by taking advantage of their curiosity.

Psychologists think interest stems from one’s curiosity which is aroused by

environmental incentive. And the research accomplishment of psychologist declared that young adolescents, whose senior nerve-centre is excited and thought is quick, active, vivid, curious and is eager to learn. Teacher should manage to arouse, protect and foster of students’interest, make the interest become the motivating force.

In each lesson we can organize various classroom activities and motivate the students’ interest of speaking English. We do a debate of some controversial problems, role play some melodramatic stories, discuss some questions they are interested in, which keep the students in long-term happy mood and help them form active learning attitude and stimulate their learning interest.

During my teaching, I took advantage of students’curiosity and create situations to make teaching and learning interesting. For example, when I taught sentence patterns: What are these/they? They are …

I prepared some fruits and put them into different boxes. In class, I told students that there were some fruits in the boxes. Then I called students to ask questions with the patterns “what are they/these ?”to guess what kind of fruits were in the boxes, and answer them with the pattern-They are…, which had just been taught. The drill was repeated with change of students and objects. Having been curious to know what on earth they were in it, students were all eager to take part in the activity. In this way, I not only drilled students on sentence pattern, but also made them feel they now had the basic knowledge of expressing what they wanted to know in English, which stimulated all the students to be active to use in a communicative way of language they have learned.

Meanwhile, lead students to learn English in the thought and discussion. The teacher should constantly ask students questions or instigate students to make requests. When I taught sentences like “It’s easy, of course, I can. Let me try ”

I just give them encouragement to ask me “Can you jump /fly/swim etc?” to make the students to be in an active state of learning. As time passes, the temporary interest of students in English will be changed into permanent one through energetic thought.

4.1.4 Raising students interest in English by means of audio-visual aids. Psychological studies indicated that human beings mainly depend on eyes and ears to obtain information. Experiments indicate that the information received by ear, especially adolescents’accepting knowledge and thinking questions, is mainly based on concrete images which can be represented by lively teaching property and audio –visual aids. For physical and psychological reasons, teacher should take an

elastic teaching vivid and interesting. Findings of studies typically indicate that the more senses involved in the learning process, the greater obtaining of knowledge. An increasing evidence shows only 15% of the knowledge got by sight can be memorized, 25% of the knowledge got by hearing can be memorized, by means of vision and sense of hearing, what people can memorize is above 65%.

Visual aids not only draw the attention of the students, but also help the students understand the situation easily, make deeper impression on them. So using audio-visual aids in English teaching is effective.

Taking account of the learning needs、purpose、learners、characteristic and teaching resources, teachers should take a flexible teaching approach such as wall charts、real objects、slides、tapes、recorders、pictures、drawings, etc. Properly adopt and improve various sorts of visual aids and use useful and effective devise of teaching which hold the attention of students and can stimulate more senses and interest of them so as to increase teaching efficiently.

4.1.5 Stimulating students’ interest in English by enlivening an environment. As an English learner, language environment makes great influence on improving oral English ability. A lively harmonious teaching situation awakes a lively interest in the mind of students. It directs all class activities. The “spoon feeding” or “duck-stuffing” method hinder students participating and make the situation tedious. As a result, the students take no interest in learning English. So how to create a relaxing surrounding?

The teacher should give the students opportunities and encouragement to practise in class.

First of all, according to the textbook, teachers create practical meaningful situation by means of visual aids, such as story-telling, game-playing situation or dialogues. The teacher instructs students to perform actions in turn, asking questions for each other to answer,then guides the students to make dialogues by substitution, transformation, controversy, etc. The teachers can take the way of teaching by playing games as well. Games are welcomed by most school students. Applying games to English teaching can create vivid and communicative language situation and provide interesting ways of practising language and fulfill students’strong desire for knowledge. Games can help capture the attention of learners. Although games will make up a small portion of teachers’total instructional time, they are valuable assets when they can be matched to learner’s interest、needs and aspirations. One of my students told me that she and most of her classmates liked playing English games in class. There are many types of games: structure games、

vocabulary games、spelling games、 pronunciation games、listen-and do games, read-and do games、 role-play 、intelligence game、riddle, etc. With the development of science and technology, computers are becoming a part of classroom. With the large scale availability of computers in schools, games have taken on added importance on instructional technique. Computer program typically provide pictures of real life situation that promote the direct involvement of learners in the learning process. Many software programs motivate learners through traditional boring and repetitive task.

In addition, many ways that we can do, such as, do a daily report, tell a story, a joke, make a puzzle, introduce a person, a film, a book, and sing a song. In all, they can do anything they are fond of, we can ask students take turns to do it. In this way, they can use English to communicate with each other in and after class, making them imagine they indeed live in an English speaking surrounding.

4.1.6 Using praise and encouragement.

The most efficient means for stimulating students’ interest in the learning process is the use of praise and encouragement. Praise is the cheapest, the easiest, and the most effective method to motivate students’ learn ing motion because confidence is the first important step of their success. We must try our best to create a free, open, relaxed and equal atmosphere side and make the students and teachers breathe freely in the class. By doing this, we can learn from each other and let the students know they are the best.

A simple reply, such as “Well done”“That’s good ”“Great”“Excellent” “Good job ”“Keep it up ”tells them that the reward is contingent upon appropriate performance in English class. These praises tell them that by producing the correct response, he or she can control the flow of reward. There is little doubt among behavioral psychologist that a reward which is contingent upon an appropriate behavior increases the frequency of that behavior. Praise and encouragement can be the frequency of that behavior. Praise and encouragement can be the most effective means of stimulating students’interest when it is applied consistently and immediately after an acceptable response.

Language is communication, so is English .It is the need of language learner to master a foreign language and use it for communication .This kind of need can be reached in a short period of time or a probably long time .Li Yang is a powerful example. His principle “Enjoy losing face ”makes him succeed in a relatively short time. As a teacher, we should make students understand the importance of learning a foreign language and stimulate the learner’s motivation which is crucial to

English teaching. Since middle school students are good at imitation, teachers can give them the opportunity and encourage them to speak more in class after tape or the teacher. For example, teachers can help student rehearsal English play, using sentence patterns learned in their book. Before class, ask them to make a duty report. If possible, we can invite English native speakers to take part in teaching procedure.

4.1.7 Establishing good class climate.

Classroom climate refers to the atmosphere or mood in which interactions between teachers and students. Good classroom climate can arouse the interest and motivate human intrinsic. It can change teaching activity into teaching-learning effective intelligence activity. So the students are in high spirit that can improve teaching efficiency. Most important of all is teachers’warmth、support、understanding, etc. Here are some ways to create effective classroom climate:

(a)Establishing good relationship with students and causing them to like you .The teacher should not become the “enemy” of them.

(b)The teacher must prepare lessons carefully and design effective teaching technique.

(c)The teacher should be good at accumulation of experience and keep on learning.

(d)The teacher should be creative and think out some good ways to make classroom and teaching material attractive to students

(e)Founding studying groups, require them to help each other so as to make progress and be more confident. The more confident they are, the better they will learn.

4.1.8 Harmonious relationship between teachers and students.

Harmonious relationship between teachers and students also plays an important role in English learning. The teacher is the organizer, instructor of knowledge. He/she plays a leading part in teaching process. On the other hand the students have the main role in class, thus it is very important to develop students’initiative, raise their enthusiasm, while teaching, the teacher should make a direct effort to make students become interested in learning English. Students get help and guidance from the teachers in their study, life and other sides. We can share their happiness and sadness, blessedness and unhappiness. We care for and love them. We communicate with each other as friends in mentality, sensibility and personality.

https://www.wendangku.net/doc/df16574427.html,ing more ways which can help students remember the words easily.

4.2.1 According to the pronunciation to remember the English words.

In order to remember the English words easily, we must control the pronunciation of the words. A few students like to write some Chinese next to the words. For example,

English (应给利息),party (趴体) and so on.If they do it like this,they will never learn it well.

4.2.2 Putting the words in the sentences to remember them.

Some students prefer to remember the single words rather than remember them in articles.Some students like using word cards.They write some English words on it and read them sometimes.These are good ways,but I don’t think it is the best way to do it.Psychologists think that people remember the significance material better than insignificant material.So when you remember words,you’d better put them in the sentences or articles.For example,when I taught the words like fireman,doctor,nurse and so on.I asked my students to put them in the sentences. Fireman,fireman.My father is a fireman.

Farmer,farmer.My mother is a farmer.

Doctor,doctor.My uncle is a doctor.

Nurse,nurse.My aunt is a nurse.…

In addition,when I taught the words about the clothes and colors in Unit 7,I made some sentences using them.

Shirt,shirt.I have a white shirt.

Sweater,sweater.I have a red sweater.

Cap,cap.I am wearing a black cap.

…

Or How much is the red sweater?

How much is that white bag?

How much are these black pants?

How much are those blue socks?

…

Obviously,put the words in the sentences not only can help the students to understand the meaning of the words but also can train their ability of using English.

4.2.3 Remembering the words in life.

If we relate the words with life,we will control them faster.We can put up the words that we learnt on the furniture,computer,sofa,and dresser and the like.When we saw something,we can also think about how to speak in English.

4.2.4 Summing up the pattern to remember the words.

Every word has its pattern and system.The more we observe,the more we will find out.When we learn the following words:Monday,green,pen,teacher,subway,panda,era ser,tiger,doctor,train,America,red,Friday,maths,ruler,China,music,banana,pengui n,milk shake and so on,we can classified as color:red green,study tools:pen,era

ser,ruler,transport:train,subway,animals:panda,penguin,tiger,careers:teacher,do ctor,weeks:Monday,Friday,countries:China,America,subjects:maths,music,food:bana na,milk shake.

During my practice, for the two confused words “ear” and “eye”, I compared the letter “Y” of the word “eye” to a nose, the letter “e” of it to an eye help them realize the dissimilarities between the two words, and give them deeper impression. Another example, in teaching sentence patterns and grammar, I used lively pithy formulas to present old or new material. When instructing the usage of the verb “be”, I taught them like this “我(I)用am,你(you)用are ,is连着他(he)和她(she)，它(it)，单数名词用is，复数人称都用 are”. Being in a suggestive, positive atmosphere, they have learned how to use the verb “be”. Consequently, the interest of learning English is enhanced.

4.3 Teachers’charm.

It includes behaviour and attitude. A lively,friendly manner of a teacher makes the class thoroughly relaxed, make the relations between students and teacher amiable. A beautiful handwriting, a clean and tidy address, a charming tone, all of the elegant aspects will be a magnet to attract students to learn automatically. Another which can not to be ignored is the teacher’s basic knowledge. He or she should be qualified, with a certain training for the noble job.

5.Conclusion

the approach to language teaching in China should take into account the advice from Premier Zhou Enlai in the “Talks” quoted as follows:[Translation] requires both a political sense and a comparatively high level of learning. Without basic training and sufficient knowledge there is no translation to speak of. Basic training should cover the following three areas: political ideology、language itself and various kinds of cultural information. That’s good advice.

Reference Books:

Brown, H.D Principle of Language Learning and Teaching《Prentice Hall Regents》 1994

张正东外语教学技巧新论《北京:科学出版社》 1999

文卫平外语学习积极情绪的培养《长春:吉林教育出版社》 1998