英语教学法原著选读7：利用并抓住机会进行交流活动

本篇选自《英语教学成功之道（Success in English Teaching）》（Paul Davies，Frank Pearse），上海外语教育出版社出版，第9、10页。

如同此前篇目，“教学金点子”（Teaching ideas）部分没有翻译，请老师们多看两遍。

本书当当网、亚马逊、京东等主要电商平台均有售。如需观看全文电子版，请加入“初中英语教研交流群”（199731479），下载群文件中的PRCReader.exe与相应电子书下载种子并点击下载即可。上海地区老师如需批量购买，可与我联系，有优惠。

看到本篇日志的朋友，如您觉得有价值，请帮我转发，惠及更多朋友，感谢！

------------------------

原文

Routine communicative activities

If you take all the natural opportunities to use English for communication in the classroom, you remind the learners of the main goal of the course. If you create additional opportunities, you send an even stronger message. If you do not take and make such opportunities, you send them the message that the purpose of the course is just to learn information about the language and pass tests. This means that many learners are likely to lose motivation and see English as just another compulsory subject in the academic curriculum.

One regular opportunity for an extra communicative activity is the ‘warm-up’ at the beginning of each lesson. Some teachers begin most lessons with a review of the language items practised in the previous lesson. This approach -- almost always starting lessons with a focus on language -- tends to make learners see the learning of language forms, structures, and rules as the main purpose of the course. The teaching seems to be directed towards short-term objectives only -- learning one item after another for the next test. Instead, you can start lessons with real communication in English.

Without focusing obviously on any specific language forms, engage the learners in a simple communicative activity, using language they already know. Here are some examples of communicative warm-ups. They are all suitable for elementary-level classes, but the last ones require more English than the first ones. They should each take from five to ten minutes.

Teaching ideas

--Go through a flexible conversational routine with the group, for example:

TeacherGood morning. How are you today?

LearnersFine, thank you. And you?

TSo-so. You’re happy this morning, Ana.

Ln1Yes...er...my birthday.

TAh, it’s your birthday! How old are you?

Ln1Fourteen.

TCongratulations! Is there another birthday this week? No? Just Ana? Well...what’s the date today?

Ln2It’s Thursday, March 14th.

TRight. Who can write that on the board?

--Tell the group about a pet -- for example, the kind of animal, its name, size, color, age, and what it eats. Then say you -- or a relative -- have another pet, and invite the learners to ask questions, for example, ‘What kind of animal is it?’; ‘What is its name?’ Then write the start of a conversation on the board:

AHave you got a pet?

BYes, I have./No, I haven’t.

AHas one of your relatives got one?

BYes, my () has one.

Get the learners to talk about pets in pairs using the conversation on the board as a guide. Afterwards, ask about the most unusual pets.

The same basic idea can be used with other topics, for example, a neighbor, or a relative living in another city -- but asking about where they work or study, not what they eat! It can even be used abut a bicycle or car.

--Ask one or two learners about something they did last weekend using question-words like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who with’, and ‘why’. Then get learners to ask you about something you did last weekend. Finally, get the learners to talk in pairs, starting: “What was the most interesting thing you did last weekend?” The same idea can be used about other topics such as ‘on your last holiday’ and ‘last year’ -- or plans for next weekend.

--Distribute pictures cut out from recent magazines to pairs of learners. Get pairs to discuss questions such as who the people are, where they are, what they are doing, why they are in the news, and anything else the learners know about them.

A third way of emphasizing the communicative goal of a course is to include at least one communicative skills activity in every lesson. This may require a special effort on your part. The presentation, practice, and review of language items take up a lot of time in many courses, and your syllabus, course materials, and tests may make little or no provision for skills work. In that case, you will have to find activities yourself. It is important to respond to this challenge if your teaching is to be really effective.

------------------------

译文

常规交流活动

如果能够在课堂教学中抓住所有自然而然出现的机会实用英语进行交流，这就是在提醒学生不要忘了课程的主要目标。如果还能够创造出更多的机会，那就给了学生更强劲的信息。如果不抓住机会，更不创造机会，那就是告诉学生这门课的目的也就是学点语言信息、通过考试罢了。这意味着许多学生可能会失去动力，把英语看作只是教学大纲中一门普通的必修课。

常规可用的“更多”交流活动就是每节课开始前的“热身”。一些老师每堂课开始就是对前一节课学过的语言项目进行复习。这种方法——几乎总是在对语言的关注中开始新课——会使学生把语言形式、结构、规则看作课程的主要目的。教学看来仅仅是为短期目标而努力——一项一项学习语言项目，为下一场考试做准备。相反，可以用英语进行实际交流，从而开始一节课。不必关注特定的语言项目，就是让学生进行交流活动，使用已经掌握的语言。下面就列举一些交流性质的热身活动。对于起始阶段的课堂这些活动都很合适，而后面几项要比前几项对语言水平要求高些。每一项活动需要五到十分钟。

（教学金点子：略）

另一种强调英语课程交际性质的方式是每节课至少设置一项交流技能的练习活动。这可能需要老师做出特别的努力。在很多课程中，语言项目的新授、练习与复习占据大量的时间，而大纲、课程材料和考试可能没有提供技能训练项目。在这种情况下，教师必须自行寻找技能训练。如果教学要真正有效，那就必须面对这一挑战。

------------------------

如果您有微信，请添加公众账号“武太白金星人”（点击微信主界面右上角加号——添加朋友——公众号——搜索框中输入“武太白”即可搜索到），即可获得每日更新，除了本篇以外还有亲子故事、教学研讨、英文欣赏等原创内容，多篇一次性推送，方便快捷。微信号shanrenwutaibai，二维码如下：



（手机观看的朋友如不方便扫描，可到QQ空间http://37081321.qzone.qq.com观看相关日志。我微信号wuzeming，欢迎大家加我微信。）