摘 要

在应试教育的影响下，“填鸭式”的教学方法在中国英语教学占据着主导地位。但事实上，这种教学方法在一定程度上会限制中国学生的英语能力发展。而情境教学法通过创设教学情境激发学生的学习兴趣和热情，并从内在动力出发来提升学生的英语能力。一旦学生的学习和真实或构建的生活情境相结合，并通过练习、演练等方式呈现出来，学生对知识的理解必将更加深入。

情景教学法被广泛应用于第二语言课堂，尤其是英语课堂。基于对情境教学原则的简要分析，本文主要从五个方面简要介绍情境教学法。第一部分对情境教学法作简要的介绍，并引入本文的主要话题；第二部分主要对情境教学法的定义、历史以及在中外的发展情况作简要的概述；第三部分分析情境教学法在英语课堂中的积极作用；第四部分是介绍三种主要教学手段—提问，游戏和多媒体运用，并结合具体的案例进行分析；第五部分则是对全文进行的总结。本文旨在对情境创设策略在中学英语课堂的应用提出一些设想和建议，并希望能在未来的教学中加以运用。

关键词: 中学英语教学；情境教学；情境创设策略

Abstract

English has become an indispensable component of Chinese middle school educational system. However, under the influence of exam-oriented education, cramming method of teaching dominates the teaching process. And in fact, it does harm to the English competence of Chinese students in a certain degree. Under this circumstance, several efforts should be put on the reform of traditional English teaching patterns. After comprehensive consideration, Situational Language Teaching (SLT) is recommended in this paper. SLT is a kind of teaching method, which focuses on creating situations related to real life in the process of teaching and simulating students’ passion for learning so as to promote their competence. Students’ learning is put in imaginary or real situation and they are engaged in the situation.

Currently, SLT is commonly applied in middle school second language classes, especially in English classes. But not many teachers are capable enough of using the method properly and wisely. Based on the simple analysis of SLT principals, this paper will introduce SLT from five perspectives, brief introduction, definition, history and development worldwide, significance of conducting SLT in Chinese English classes, case study and finally a conclusion. This paper aims at giving some suggestions to the application of situational language teaching in English class in Chinese middle school and SLT may be used in future teaching as well.

Key words: middle school English teaching; Situational Language Teaching; teaching strategies

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 3

3 SLT and English Teaching 4

3.1 Promoting the Educational Reform 4

3.2 Enhancing Students’ Participation and Interest 4

3.3 Improving Students’ Efficiency in English Learning 5

4 SLT and English Teaching in Chinese Middle School: Case Study 7

4.1 Preparations for Conducting SLT 7

4.2 Situational Language Teaching—Case Study 8

5. Conclusion 17

References 18

Acknowledgments 19

Situation-simulating Strategies in Middle School English Teaching

1 Introduction

Under the influence of exam-oriented education, English class in Chinese middle school is dominated by cramming method which is mainly realized through classroom instruction. Little practice and communication is done during the class time and few chance and platform is provided for outdoor study after class. Admittedly, this makes no contribution to students’ English study. In this case, SLT is recommended to improve teaching and learning efficiency.

SLT has its advantages in Chinese middle school English class because of the outstanding superiority of stimulate and maintain learning interest and emphasis of vocabulary and sentence construction. Students in middle school are in the initial stage of English learning. They are neither interested in learning English consciously nor capable enough to construct their knowledge. But SLT emphasizes situations, and students are engaged in situations. Thus, it changes the role of students from listeners to participants. They no longer study passively, but actively. It enhances the study interest. There is a saying that interest is the best teacher. In SLT class, self-motivation comes to be the major reason for learning. On the other hand, SLT simplifies the key points in textbooks. Teachers introduce or create situations related to the content in purpose of helping students master the knowledge. What’s more, situational teaching in the given situation provides certain clues to motivate the original cognitive structure. And after thinking of internal integration function, students will have a new insight or cognitive structure.

This paper will concentrate on the strategies of creating certain teaching situations, which are helpful to inspire students’ emotional experience, improve interest, and enhance initiative in the interaction of classroom activities in learning English. But before putting forward the strategies, simple analysis of SLT in English class in Chinese middle school is provided. In addition to introduce SLT to Chinese English class, this paper will give instructions to those who crave for further teaching career as well as teachers who are dedicated in improving English teaching efficiency.

2 Literature Review

According to the encyclopedia, Situational Language Teaching (SLT) is an approach of language teaching focusing on purposely introducing or creating emotional and vivid situations to help students comprehend textbooks and develop mental function. It is an effective English teaching pattern in terms by providing students with vocabularies and sentence patterns related to their frequent situations through learning materials. In other words, students’ learning is put in imaginary or real situation and they are engaged in the situation. By practicing in the situation, students are hoped to form a positive learning attitude and improve the ability of language application.

SLT is developed by British applied linguists from the 1930s to 1960s. The impact of this approach has been long lasting and Situation-simulating Strategies have been updating with the development of middle school English teaching in recent years, and the fields of situations have extended from the real one to the multimedia-based one. Streamline English (Hartley and Viney 1979), Access to English (Coles and Lord, 1975), New Concept English (Alexander, 1967) are all successful textbooks that reflect the classic principles of Situational Language Teaching. Many foreign schools have conducted SLT in different classes. And they have been sparing no efforts to improve SLT in practical teaching.

In fact Chinese teachers and scholars pay attention to SLT later than foreign experts. But they have already published articles about their researches on SLT, especially in recent years, such as The Application of Situational Language Teaching in Chinese Middle School English Class (Chen Jianlin, 2009), The Application of Situational Language Teaching in Primary English Classroom of China's Rural Areas ( Zhang, 2011), and The Application of Situational Teaching Method in China’s Middle School English Teaching ( Dong, 2015). In China, situational teaching is widely used in Chinese, math, art, medical and other classes. But situational (second) language teaching is not mature and many English teachers haven't recognized the significance of SLT in terms of improving learning and teaching efficiency. Hope there can be more researches and work on this topic so as to fully realize the value of SLT in English class in Chinese middle school.

3 SLT and English Teaching

3.1 Promoting the Educational Reform

The superiority of SLT can inspire learning motivations and maintain the passion for learning. And this will undoubtedly promote the development of new educational reform in China. It’s widely known that Chinese students are receiving a kind of exam-oriented education. Once a child enters the kindergarten, thousands of exams are standing in lines waiting for him on the road to finish education. Naturally, cramming method of teaching dominates the teaching process. Teachers continuously explain everything in the textbook regardless of students’ ability to digest the knowledge. And English teaching in middle schools is mainly realized through classroom instruction, while English is a language, which needs practice and communication. Most students are learning English, but a kind of dumb English. Thus, this makes limited contribution to students’ English study. In this case, educators and teachers are sparing no efforts to explore the suitable and effective ways in the hope of improving Chinese English teaching and students’ English competence.

And now, according to the new English Curriculum Standard, the new teaching concept requires teachers to be student-oriented and reflects the mainstream of the modern human values (Zhang, 2014). And the target of basic education is to develop students’ language skills, language knowledge, emotional attitudes, learning strategies and cultural awareness. More attention is put on the ability to use language rather than the mastery of knowledge. Consequently, listening and speaking activities constitutes the major part of English class. Teachers create real situations in and after class so that students can have more chances and platforms to practice English, which will push Chinese English education to a new stage.

3.2 Enhancing Students’ Participation and Interest

SLT is able to guarantee students’ class participation as well as stimulate learning interest. In traditional Chinese English classes, the teacher strictly gives instructions all the time and little attention is payed to students’ role in teaching process. Moreover, English is thought to be a tedious and complex subject due to the limitation of classroom English. However, owing to the lack of practice and communication, it’s damn hard to learn it well without extracurricular activities.

Indeed, the teacher is just a helper, and the main body of learning is the student himself. In SLT learning situations, students participate in the whole learning process actively and vigorously. Besides, when knowledge is taught in situations, it is much easier for students to know how to use it in real life occasions. What’s more, chances and platforms to speak English are accessible to learners. All of above are beneficial to the promotion of English competence.