黄菊珍 云南省大理州永平县第一中学 652600
The aim of learning English is to communicate. “Doing things through language” is the latest proposition about the Communication Approach, so in English teaching, I use the Communicative Approach to develop students’ communicative competence. How do I try my best to use the Communicative Approach to develop students’ communicative competence ?
1. Preparing lessons
I think lesson preparation is the most important. A good lesson preparation is the basis of teaching a lesson well. Not only teachers but also students should join in the preparation. It is a common sense that learners are the main body and teachers play a leading role in education and teaching. We must be aware of the fact that it is the students who play the main role in learning. Success or failure in teaching is only determined by the students’ language proficiency. Only when we care about the students’ needs, learning goals, motivation, personal characteristics and their roles in learning, can we manage the teaching work successfully. Whenever and wherever, teachers must adhere to the principle of students-centeredness, let students join in the lesson preparation. Of course, teachers should help them when it’s necessary. The purpose of doing these is to let students form good habits of previewing before class and reviewing after class. Then, according to the teaching content and students personal characteristics, teachers create a circumstance, combine the teaching content with the circumstance and write the lesson plan. Teachers are a mere medium of teaching. It is teachers’ responsibility to organize the classroom as a setting for classroom activities. During an activity the teacher monitors, encourages and organizes the students and provides them with information of each particular course and strategy of learning. By means of these series of activities, when we teach the lesson, we can find students show full enthusiasm for learning and are very interested in learning.
2. Developing students’ interest of learning
“ Interest is the best teacher.” In English classroom teaching, developing students’ interest in learning is the first step about the reform of English teaching. Only when students join in the learning activities actively and consciously, can teachers realize the expected aims. Because “ The need of the successful teaching and learning is not to force students to learn, but arouse students’ interest.” In teaching and learning practice, I feel that not because English is difficult to learn, students lose interest; but because students lose interest, so that they feel English is hard to learn. So developing students’ interest is very important for teachers to teach English well.
3. Creating circumstances to teach English
Creating circumstances to teach English can make students keep deep interest from beginning to end. Circumstance is the most important element of language communication. Accordingly, teachers should create situations, use English and many different kinds of intuitional methods to teach English, contact the form of language with the reality of living as much as possible, and make the classroom a natural communicative environment, then teachers can use the environment to develop students’ communicative ability.
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3.1 Using real scene
First, teachers can use and create real scene sufficiently, combine knowledge with the real life, make students be personally on the scene and feel the knowledge useful. For example, to use scene to teach the present continuous tense, the teacher may arrange several students to cooperate to preview the teaching and learning process before class. In class, I asked: T: Can you sing a song ? S: Yes, I can. T: Can you sing a song in Chinese or English? S: In Chinese. T: Who’d like to sing an English song for us. S: I’d like to.
While the student was singing, I pointed to the student and said: “ He/She is singing.” And wrote the sentence down on the blackboard, then used colorful chalk to tick out the part of the present continuous tense. In order to make the new grammar understood by the students, the teacher can let students do some other things ( for instance, whisper to each other, play with their pencils on the desk. etc) to draw the other students’ attention. At this moment, the teacher can use this situation to ask some questions. eg: T: What are you doing? S: I am talking with him. T: Don’t do it in class while I am teaching. S: I am sorry, I’m listening to you now. The purpose of doing these is to let students understand the grammar personally, so teachers can avoid explaining too much. By doing this, students can learn this grammar in a lively and joyful atmosphere.
3.2 Using imitative scene
Using real circumstance to teach English is good, but it is limited. We can’t move all the real scenes into classroom, so we can practise the language in an imitative scene. For example, when I taught Book 1, Unit 12, Lesson 47, I hung a map of China on the blackboard as a teaching tool to teach the sentence : “ where……?” With the map, I pointed at “ Beijing” and asked: “Where is Beijing?” “ It’s here.” In the same way, I asked: “ Where is the Yellow River/Chang Jiang River/Himalayas……?” “It’s here.” The students looked at the map and listened to me. After several times, I asked one student: T: Where is your English book ? S: It’s on my desk.
It’s clear that the students have already understood the sentence “ Where…?” then with the map again, I introduced: our country owns wide Yellow River called “ Mother River”; possesses the Chang Jiang River, one of the longest rivers in the world. The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world; Himalayas is the highest mountain in the world, symbolizing the firm and unyielding quality of the Chinese nation. Our country’s magnificent mountains and rivers arouse every student’s patriotic enthusiasm, strengthen students’ national sense of pride, encourage them to study harder and make progress. By doing this, I not only taught the sentence “Where…?” but also helped the students revise geography knowledge and had a patriotism education lesson.
3.3 Using simple drawings to create circumstance
In addition, teachers can use simple drawings to create environment. In teaching and learning, I use simple drawings to teach new words, sentences, and dialogues. I also use simple drawings to teach a text. That is : one emotion one scene; three or five sentences; key words; looking at the drawings and retelling the text. By using the method, the text teaching takes on a new look. My concrete ways are: first, divide the text into six or eight parts, and every part includes only one message. According to the message, give a simple drawing. Use three to five sentences to express every part, even a long text can also be shortened to three to five sentences. Then find out the key words among those sentences, write them down below on the drawings. With the drawings and key words, students can imagine the content of the text without troubles. Then let students look at the drawings and retell the text. The concrete methods are: let students look at the drawings and listen to me, and I tell them the content two or three times. Second, let the students repeat sentence by sentence after me. After that, I give them one minute to practise by themselves. Third, let the whole class practice once, then ask four or five students to retell the text individually.
All in all, using simple drawings to teach English can not only arouse students’ enthusiasm of study, improve their interests of learning, but also develop students’ communicative competence.
3.4 Using the scene outside classroom
The methods above are used in classroom teaching. However, compared with them, the situational teaching and learning outside classroom is more intuitional and more direct. It can let
students find themselves in a special communicative environment. In the real environment, students can understand English more easily. In the activity, the teacher plays a series of roles from beginning to end: organizer- commander- demonstrator-participant-superintendent- observer. At the same time, when teacher’s role changes, students improve their communicative ability in the practice activities. The teaching and learning practice prove: environment needs language, and language should be taught in circumstances so as to realize the communicative aim of English teaching.
4.Three basic principles of using the Communicative Approach
However, if we only use the new textbooks to teach English, we still can’t develop students’
communicative competence very well. We, teachers, should some basic teaching principles of the
Communicative Approach, and create a new teaching and learning circumstance to help students
improve their communicative competence.
4.1 Confidence and sincerity
Confidence and sincerity are like two islands or wharves. Language, gesture
expression, behaviour etc. are the bridge or boat which links the two shores. The Communicative Approach is the technique and patterns of building the bridge. To Grade one students of Junior or Senior schools, if teachers treat them frankly and sincerely, they would clear up fear and doubts about teachers immediately. When teachers and students both have confidence in each other, the teaching in or outside the classroom will go on smoothly. Confidence and sincerity are the basis of using the Communicative Approach to teach English, especially, in remote and poor regions.
4.2 Respect and equality
Respect and equality are the most important principle of using the Communicative Approach to teach English. Teachers should respect students. Under the premise, it won’t bring barriers for teachers to teach students, solve problems and communicate with students. Teachers should regard students as friends, so the gap between them can become shorter and students will not be afraid of teachers. Accordingly, when I have the first English lesson, I always tell students that teachers and students should respect each other and treat each other equally, no matter in class or outside class.
4.3 Giving directions and guidance
In my class, there was a clever and naughty boy, who was always scolded by teachers. Because he had a lot of bad behaviours in the dormitory after class, his headmaster wanted to send him away. But in my class, I found he was very interested in English. So in class, I always kept an eye him especially. Sometimes I glanced at him consciously; sometimes I went towards him, stood beside him, looked at him and spoke to him quietly:
“Oh, dear, you are very bright and clever.” Then I bent and said: “I love you.” He understood me and smiled at me happily. I said: “ I hope you study hard！”He answered happily: “ Yes, Miss Huang.” One day, I found that he looked out of the window attentively. I didn’t say angrily: “ Don’t’ look out of the window, xxx!” Instead, I went up to him quietly and stood next to him. Then I looked out of the window, “ Ah, what a beautiful butterfly! Do you like it ?” “ Yes, Miss Huang, it’s very beautiful！”He stood up
immediately and answered me fluently. Without missing the chance, I said: “ Would you like to see me this afternoon? I have a small garden, I think you will like!” That afternoon, he came. First, I let him enjoy many kinds of beautiful flowers and butterfly specimens. He seemed to become close to me. He told me that his parents had divorced and he lived with his mother. His mother was a doctor and she was so busy all day that she could not tale good care of him. The boy seemed to have lost both of his father’s and mother’s love, so, every day, except going to school, he often stayed with some bad kids in the street. After knowing these things, I exchanged my views with his headmaster and the other teachers. I maintained that we should give the student more care rather than punishment, praise him for his progress, let him feel the teachers’ and classmates’ love. At the same time, the teachers should point out his shortcomings, encourage him to learn from excellent students. Now he has made great progress in his study.