abstract
circumstance is very important in influencing people’s life and personality. and also, it is important in learning language. as a compulsory course for junior and primary students in china, english is becoming more and more important. but the problem is how to learn english efficiently. learners at home usually have little time to listen to or speak english. except that they can speak english in their english classes for 40 or 45 minutes only, they have no chance to speak english, no chance to listen to english, even no chance to feel the existence of english. so, as teachers, the most impotent thing to do is to solve the problem, by creating a language circumstance, stimulating their initiative in learning english.
the paper will try to describe about how to create a circumstance for english learners at home. there are many ways, for example, creating the classroom circumstance, which including setting the scene for the students, giving them more chance to speak and listen , in order to improve the ability of listening and speaking. and also we can use english corner, english broadcast or letting them listen to english songs, watching e movies and so on.
key words: english language circumstance create interest
class circumstance english corner english movie
摘 要
环境对影响人的个性和生活非常重要，同样对学习语言也很重要。Www.11665.com在中国，作为中小学的一门必修课，英语已显得越来越重要。所以我们很关注怎样才能有效地学好英语。国内的学习者通常很少有机会听或者说英语。除了课堂上短短的 40 或 45 分钟之外，他们几乎没有机会接触英语了。所以作为英语老师，我们的首要任务就是为学生创设一个英语语言环境，激发他们学习英语的兴趣。
笔者将在本文中论述如何创设一个良好的英语语言环境。创设英语语言环境的方法很多，比如说创设课堂环境，其中包括创设对话情境，让学生多说多听，以提高他们的口语和听力能力。同样，我们还可以通过英语角、英语广播、听英文歌曲、看英语原声电影以及开展各类英语竞赛，如书法、手抄报、讲故事、演讲及英语小短剧表演比赛等等。我们以此来营造一个良好的语言环境，以供我们的学生学习，在一个轻松、愉快的环境下学习，效果远胜于死读书，远胜于没有这样的环境。
关键词：英语语言环境 课堂环境 兴趣
英语原声电影 英语角 创设
1. introduction
as a compulsory course for junior and primary students in china, english is becoming more and more important. some people say that english is one of the three keys of 21st century （with other two are computer and car）. but the problem is how to learn english efficiently. learners at home usually have little time to listen to or speak english. except that they can speak english in their english classes for 40 or 45 minutes only, they have no chance to speak english, no chance to listen to english, even no chance to feel the existence of english.
but as we all know, according to the scientific theory, if we don’t use what we have learned, we will forget them quickly, especially language. then learning will be interrupted, and the initiative will be weakened. so, as teachers, the most important thing to do is to solve the problem, by creating a language circumstance, stimulating their initiative in learning english.
i will discuss about how to create a language circumstance for the students.
as we all know, circumstance is very important in influencing people’s life and personality. and also, it is important in learning language. many scholars, experts and teachers hold the same view. we learn our mother language mostly by feeling, imitating and using. first, we feel the existence of the mother language, and then imitate the pronunciation and intonation from our parents or other people. we imitate how to use different sentences in different situations. the ultimate goal of language teaching is to enable the students to use the foreign language in work or life when necessary. so after imitating we learned, then we begin to use it in real life. we communicate with others in our mother tongue; we use it to express ourselves, to understand others. thus, we control the language. it is obvious that, language circumstance is very important. learning second language is not exceptive. so some people think that to learn foreign language must go abroad. stay at the foreign country for one or half-year, you can sure speak their language. of course that’s right. but practically, we find it unfeasible, at least cannot become common. because there is only a few people have the chance to go aboard. so the most important thing to do is to create a language circumstance for the learners at home.
in china, most of the foreign language learners are students in primary or middle school. therefore，as teachers we should create a good english language circumstance for the students. it becomes the most important thing.
in light of many research works and a lot of books and documents, there are many scholars and teachers who have started to work over on the subject, among which some acquired achievements.
the creation of english language circumstance is very useful to the learners of second language. though the second language is different with their mother tongues, they will certainly learn it easily if they can read, listen to or speak it more. and yet, the way to creating a language circumstance is various but not static.
2. the creation of class circumstance
as we just said, the only time for the students to contact english is the 40 or 45 minutes in their english class. so the classroom management is very important. the efficiency of a class will decide the students’ english level someway or other. consequently, a good teacher will try his /her best to improve the efficiency of his/her class. then, how to create the circumstance in the class? many people think the best way to learn english is to speak english as often as one can. but we don't have such english circumstance, what shall we do? some listen to english radios every day to improve their listening ability. and sometimes they watch american films that they are interested in. in the class, we also try our best to give them a good circumstance to improve their speaking and listening to english, so that they can communicate fluently.
2.1 communicative functions of language.
“the ultimate goal of language teaching is to enable the students to use the foreign language in work or life when necessary.”1 the purpose of learning a language is to communicate with others. it is to say the main function of a language is to communicate. so we should always put this function in the important position. and in our teaching we should let our students know how to use the language to express their own feelings and to understand others. that’s important.
“one possible solution to bridge the gap between classroom language teaching and real life language use is the adoption of communicative language teaching, which has in recent years become a fashionable term to cover a variety of developments in syllabus design and in the methodology of foreign language teaching.”2 the goal of teaching is to develop students’ communicative competence, which includes both the knowledge about the language and the knowledge about how to use the language appropriately in communicative situations.
“communicative competence includes four aspects:
1) knowing whether or not something is formally possible (grammatically acceptable)
2) knowing whether something is understandable to human beings
3) knowing whether something is in tine with social norms
4) knowing whether or not something is in fact done: do people actually use language this way?”3
in other words, communicative competence entails knowing not only the language code or the form of language, but also what to say to whom and how to say it appropriately in any given situation. communication competence includes knowledge of what to say, when, how, where, and to whom.
2.2 “setting the scene”4
make a real or similar situation for the students to help them to understand. we can use body language、pictures、real objects and so on.
for example, listening to passages in the classroom can be more difficult than listening in real life, because of the lack of context. so the teacher can help provide the background information to activate learners’ schema, so they will be better prepared to understand what they hear.
also, while teaching new words, new phrases, new sentences or new texts, we can set the scene for them, so they can easy to understand and remember.
example:
when i teach the new words: tomato, new sentences: how much is /are……, please? and that’s cheap/expensive.
before the class i prepare some objects like tomatoes, apples, some bags of milk and so on. and i ask my students to take something, too.
in the class, i first take out an apple, then ask:
t: what’ this?
s: it’s an apple.
then i show them the tomato.
t: what is this? do you know?
s: sorry, i don’t know. / i think it’s a tomato.
t: good! it is a tomato.
then i take out two or more tomatoes.
t: how many tomatoes do i have? (write down tomatoes on the blackboard and red “es”)
s: two.
t: good. please don’t forget “es” when you use plural number.
at last, i put all of my things on the teacher’s desk and write down the prices on the objects. i tell them this is a shop; it sells many kinds of things. then ask some students individually:
t: what’s this?
s: it’s a tomato.
t: how much are the tomatoes?
s: they are one yuan a kilo.
t: is it cheap or expensive?
s: it is cheap.
t: what are those?
s: they are apples.
t: how much are they?
s: they are ten dollars a kilo.
t: is it cheap, too?
s: no, they are expensive.
finally, i ask them to make up a similar dialogue by using the things they take, suppose they are sellers or buyers. because of the real objects, they can be easy to understand.
while teaching some verbs we can use body language to help their understanding.
for example, when we teach “run”, we can pretend to run, and ask the students: “what am i doing?” “you are running.”
and also, when we teach “jump”, we can jump and ask: “what am i doing?” “you are jumping.” “yes, you are right. can you jump?” “yes.”
2.3 give them more chance to speak and listen.
the greek philosopher epictetus ever wittily said: “nature has given man one tongue and two ears that he may hear twice as much as he speaks.” from the saying we can learn how important the listening is in our daily life. about 45% of time of an adult concerns to listening to other people, to the radio, to the music. in linguistic, giving the students a lot of listening activities is a good way of enlarging their vocabulary. on the other hand, it also helps the students improve their listening comprehension.
so in the class, we should give more chance and time to let the students listen. there are many ways:
2.3.1 listen and sequence
show them many pictures. the students should find out the right order of the pictures based on what they hear. students can successfully complete this type of task even when they do not understand every word they hear. this builds up their confidence and helps prepare them for the real world where they certainly will not be able to understand everything they hear.
example:
1 2 3 4 5 6
there are six pictures; you should give the right order after your listening to the tape.
1、chinese people like to eat rice for lunch.
2、do you like potato chips?
3、every morning i drink milk.
4、my favorite food is hamburger.
5、i’m thirsty. please give me a bottle of apple juice.
6、the meat looks delicious. do you want to eat?
the answer is 6, 2, 4, 1, 5, 3
2.3.2 listen and act
there is a whole method of teaching called total physical response, which concentrates on learning language by listening and responding physically to commands or directions. there are many variations of how this can be carried out in a classroom. with beginners, it is easy to start with simple commands such as “stand up”, ”sit down”, “walk to the door”, “open/close the door”, “point to the window”, “hold up your pencil box”, “put your right hand on your left ear.” etc. at intermediate levels, the commands can become more complex. for example, “pretend you are walking through mud.” “pretend you are walking through sand.” “pretend you are washing your face.” “pretend you are tying your shoes.” “pretend you are eating watermelon.”
2.3.3 listen and draw
a whole range of activities can be designed around this way. make some orders, like “draw a hill on the paper, draw some trees on the hill, draw a bird on the tree, draw a house near the trees, draw a river near the hill……”
the spoken language is one of the important ways to communicate, too. so we should try to develop the students’ ability of speaking.
2.3.4free talk
give them five minutes to give a duty report every class. example: “hello, everybody. i’m on duty today. today is monday, may 15th. everyone is here today.”
when learn something new, give them some time to talk about the subject.
t: “today we will learn something about food. can you tell me something what you knew about food? for example, what kind of food do you know?”
s: “ coke, hamburger……”
t: “what do you like?”
s: “i like noodles and milk.”
2.3.5“change the story”
students work in small groups of 3~5. each writes a short story or description and then under lines all the verbs in the story. the group together then makes a list of about 20 random verbs. each group member reads his/her story but pauses at every verb. the group then supplies one of the random verbs into that slot. the results can be funny.”5
3. english broadcast
without question, it is difficult of a middle school student to understand the listening material, if he hasn't enough vocabulary and the ability of telling the grammar construction. in my investigation, about 35% of the students with low listening comprehension thing this is because they don't understand or know the knowledge about linguistic，they are not able to tell the means of what they have heard. in another investigation, students were asked to listen to a dialogue of 244 words, in which the words and grammar have already been learned. but 80% of them thought it was too difficult. then, using the same dialogue as a reading comprehension material, i found only 5% of them thought it was a little difficult, on the other hand the response ability is also another reason.
it is clear that the reading speed of a material also affects. about 43% of the students thought that the material was read too fast and they couldn't follow.
a lot of students have their own listening habits. some students often try to understand each word or each sentence. they will think hard when they meet some difficult words or sentences, and a great many students could understand the material directly. they often translate the english into chinese in their heart, thinking that only in this way can the sentence be understood. this is also a reason, trying to understand each word is difficult, and it is not necessary at all. you should catch the most important points.
then how to improve the students' listening skill? listen more is very important.
we can spend 20 or 30 minutes at noon everyday in broadcasting some news, stories or articles, which measure up to the standards of the students on campus broadcast. that will make the students listen more. and if broadcast some news about the singer stars or movie stars, like zhoujielun or f.i.r, the students will be happy and interesting. and ask them to take notes while listening and to tell the main idea of what they have just listened.
there is a piece of short news:
yesterday, we held the sports meeting. at 9 o’clock tom won the 100m race. he ran very fast. jack can jump very high, so he won the high jump race. do you know who swam fast? of course she was ann. congratulations!
after listening, the students should take some short notes like “who won the 100m race?”
by doing this, the students’ listening ability will improve.
4. english corner
found english corner at school. make more students to join in and speak out loudly. if the students can take part in the english corner constantly, they will be sure to reap a lot and sure to become successful.
in our school we organized english corner. divide into two large groups: grade one and grade two. we organized every monday noon. we arrange many different proceedings.
4.1 topic talking
give them a topic, let them talk in small group of 3~5. they can make up a story or a dialogue, then tell or act it before the group of 20~30 students.
for example, the topic is “my sunday”. some students tell a short passage:
my sunday
it's sunday today. after breakfast i do my homework. then i help my father work in the garden. i'm tired, but i feel happy. in the afternoon i go to visit one of my classmates. we play football until 5:00. we have a good time together. i watch tv for an hour in the evening. at about 8:30 i do some reading. i go to bed at about 10 o'clock. i have a happy sunday
some makes up dialogues about ask each other “what do you often do on your sundays.
4.2 story telling
ask each of the students to prepare a short story and tell it to the members of the english corner. other students should listen carefully. when the story is finished, the teller should ask some questions, other members should answer them.
what do animals eat?
the rat smells the cheese on the table.
he will eat it in his hole.
the dog buries the bone in the yard.
he will eat it later.
the bird pulls the worm from the soil.
she will feed it to her babies.
the rabbit pulls the carrot from the ground.
he will share it with his friend.
the squirrel stores the nuts in the tree trunk.
she will eat them this winter.
the bear catches the fish in the stream.
she will take them to her cub.
the frog eats the fly in the air.
the frog is still hungry.
yummy!
what will you eat now?
questions: what does the dog eat?
what does the bear eat?
4.3 guessing riddles
each student prepares 3~5 riddles and ask his / her partner or group members to guess. examples:
what is the smallest room in the world? the answer is a mushroom。
what table is in the field? the answer is vegetable
what is the only thing you can break when you say its name? the answer is silence.
what is that, which you have never seen, heard or felt which never existed and still has a name? the answer is nothing.
what changes a pear into a pearl? the answer is “l”
what question can never be answered by 'yes'? the answer is “are you sleeping?”
4.4 others
besides, we sometimes give them more chance to read. we teach them english stories, like:
the man, his son and their donkey
a man and his son were driving their donkey along a country road. they saw some girls drawing water at a well.
one of the girls said, “oh, look! how silly they are! a man and a boy are walking along beside their donkey, and nobody is riding it.”
the man heard this and said to his son, “you had better ride our donkey. you are light, so you will not tire our donkey.” in a little while they met three old men. one of them said, “look here! the boy is riding a donkey and his old father is walking by his side. the young boy does not take care of his old father.”
and the man got on the donkey and his son walked along beside it. now they were very happy. but soon afterward they met three women. fastened it to a pole. they lifted it to their shoulders and carried it along to the town. when they came to a bridge, everyone laughed at them. and the donkey did not like the noise and began to kick. it broke the rope, fell into the water and was drowned. so the old man had to take his son and go home, “he who tries to please everybody pleases nobody after all.”
after reading ask them some questions to see if they understand like “who rode the donkey at first?”” who rode the donkey at last?” ”what do you think about the story?”
we sometimes teach them english poems, like:
life
life can be good,
life can be bad;
life is mostly cheerful,
but sometimes sad.
life can be dreams,
life can be great thoughts;
life can mean a person,
sitting in court.
life can be dirty,
life can even be painful;
but life is what you make it,
so try to make it beautiful.
after reading the poem, do you think what life is?
we also use other ways like watching english movie, teaching english songs and so on. we create a good language circumstance for them, so they are willing to join in the english corner.
5. songs and movie
in english corner we often let the students watch english movie and teach them english songs. because learning while playing, this is the best way to learn and the most popular way to the students. we can do this by watching some english movies, especially cartoons and english songs. sterling spoken english is important and useful to educate the students’ pronunciation and intonation.
5.1 english songs
most of people like music. music has superb melody; it is euphonic and easy to remember. so when teaching some new vocabulary or sentences, we teach some pertinent english songs. the students will be happy and easy to remember.
while teaching the name of the fingers, we teach the song called “finger family”
while teaching the name from sunday to monday, we teach them the song “sunday”.
on christmas day, we teach them “jingle bells”, the words are not very difficult:
jingle bells
dashing through the snow
on a one-horse open sleigh
over the fields we go
laughing all the way
bells on bob-tail ring
making spirits bright
what fun it is to ride and sing
a sleighing song tonight
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh
a day or two ago
i thought i 'd take a ride
and soon miss fanny bright
was seated by my side
the horse was lean and lank
misfortune seemed his lot
he got into a drifted bank
and we, we got up sot
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh
5.2 english movies
the students like watching tv. they also like watching movies, especially cartoons. there are many english movies, and they are interesting and useful. maybe the students cannot understand every sentence, but i only ask them to listen carefully. they need not catch every word, but only the words or sentences they have learned in class. that’s what i want.
there is a lesson in junior english for china students’ book 2b (pep) called miss evans. it’s a story about the accident of titanic. when they learn this lesson, i let them watching the movie titanic.
i ask them to write down at least ten sentences they heard in the movie. this stimulates them to listen intently. and this is also not very hard. most of them can write down more than ten sentences. so it can make them more confident.
most of the time, we let them watch cartoons. because they are children, cartoons are more suitable for them. we have watched “snow white”, “beauty and beast”, “the incredibles”, “shark tells” and so on. through those movies, we increased the students’ english levels, fostered their interest, and perfected their intonation.
6. organization of various of competitions
we learn english, and then we must use it. so we must give the students the chance to represent their english. competition is a good way. we can hold some competitions like handwriting, speech story telling, short play performance and handwriting newspaper and so on.
6.1 handwriting and handwriting newspaper
copying, writing is the first step of learning english, and the handwriting newspaper will cultivate their gift of design. we held this kind of competition in grade one. their designed genius satisfied us very much.
6.2 speech competition.
spoken english is important in communication. so we should improve the students’ spoken english. speech competition is a good way. in the course of the competition, the students will try their best to show themselves. so they can improve their spoken english easier than in the class.
furthermore, since it is a competition, there must be many rivals, so the students will work harder and learn more.
6.3 short play performance
every child is a born actor. their natural performance, innocent language and rich imagination are all precious treasure. thorough competition, they cannot only use the language they learned, but also improve it. and it can enhance their interest.
i still remember when we held the performance match last term. the students performed many short plays: the hare and the tortoise, frog prince, romeo and juliet, wusong and the tiger and so on.
some of these are according to the plays or stories in the books, like the hare and the tortoise; some of them are adapted by themselves, like frog prince. others are created by themselves, like wusong and the tiger.
we all know the story in “shuihu”. it says wusong beat the tiger in drunken. but our students tell the revenge of the tiger. wusong was in drink again and lost in a forest. then he met the tiger, which was beaten by him. of course he was not afraid of it. but the tiger has a gun in its hand. it killed wusong with the gun at last. the theme of the story is “scientific is power.” by this play, they are surprised all of the teachers for their originality.
and also other plays are very good, too. fox example, romeo and juliet. it tells a love story between a cleaner and a pretty girl. at the very beginning, the girl didn’t know the boy was a cleaner. so she agreed to have dinner with him. when they were waiting for the dinner, they talked. at last, the girl knew that the boy was a cleaner, so she left him soon. the story satirized many people only love the money. and in the story they also add something about ordering the food and asking jobs, what they have just learned.
by those kinds of competitions, we train their courage, foster their interest, and improve their ability.
there are many other ways to create a good english language circumstance. like “disposal of the classroom and school”
if you want to let the students know the using of english language and enlarge their vocabulary. some english banners, sayings, or mottos will work. you can stick them on the wall of the classroom or somewhere else in the school. you can also write them on the blackboard and change it everyday or every week in order to let the students see english words and feel the existence of english whenever they raise their head.
i did it in my class. every day i write a phrase or idiom on the corner of the blackboard. just like” the apple of one’s eye” “black sheep” “hot potato” “small potato” “where there is a will, there is a way.” the students are interested in them. in this way, we can not only initiate their interest, but also enlarge their vocabulary.
7.conclusion
we know the largest difference between mother language learning and foreign language learning is the environment. a child can soon learn his mother language well. he has heard a lot before he can say something and walk. then after he is able to walk and say, he has a chance of listening to more. before he goes to school, he has already good listener and speaker. he has spoken and communicated with his parents or friends for many years.
but for a foreign language, we can meet only in formal places, classes, for example; otherwise, we can hardly have a chance to meet it. so we should try to let the students be in a language circumstance.
creating the classroom circumstance, building up english corner, watching english films, listening to english songs and so on are just part of the ways. we have to insist to do this, to let the students in a good language circumstance, to learn english well.
above all, we must create a good english language circumstance for the students in china. only in a good circumstance, that they can learn english well.
notes:
1、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，p13
2、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，p15
3、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，p16
4、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，p87
5、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，p109
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