中学英语课堂师生互动模式探究

黄明晶

【摘 要】互动教学模式是一种很好的以学习者为中心的教学方式，学生能在不断表现、吸收、反思和自我调整中获得成功的机会，并能在原有基础上得到发展。这种教学模式在教学活动中使教、学双方都发挥自身主观能动性，以创造和谐的互动氛围。针对中学英语课堂教学中存在的现实问题以及初中学生的心理发展特点，本文在充分理解第二语言学习策略和心理学互动理论的基础上，在实践中进行探索中学英语课堂的互动教学模式，以期促进中学生英语学习能力的全面提高。

【关键词】互动教学模式；中学英语课堂；学习能力

1. Introduction

Since the communicative method has been widely accepted and practiced， many studies have concentrated on the study of interaction in language education. David Nunan， who claims on the importance of classroom interaction in language learning， holds that classroom discourse is the distinctive type of interaction that occurs between teachers and students， and also among students during the lessons. It has a privileged place in the discourse analysis literature because it is one of the first genres to be exhaustively researched by linguists. （David Nunan， 2009： 340）

Most of these studies have proved that interaction facilitates second language learning. Negotiation of meaning in verbal interactions contributes to the generation of input favorable for second language development. Teacher talk is generally recognized as a potentially valuable source of comprehensible input for the students， and therefore essential for language acquisition. However， recent studies tend to suggest that good teacher talk means little teacher talk. The idea is that too much teacher talking time will deprive students opportunities to speak. Classroom discourse has been analyzed from different research perspectives with diversified research focuses. Although the studies of classroom discourse are numerous in recent years， it is relatively a new perspective to study the classroom interaction on the part of teachers behavior and students participation under the interaction patterns. This study aims to find out the unique characteristics of the ESL classroom interaction patterns， teachers turn-allocation techniques in classroom discourse as well as the possible effects on students participation in. The term Classroom Interaction refers to the events that teachers and students talk， communicate or negotiate with each other in the classroom. Dialogue， or conversation， is the medium through which most classroom interaction takes place， so the study of classroom discourse is the study of the process of face-to face classroom teaching. （Shen Canghong， etc， 2010： 179）

China has now widely started to adopt ESL teaching （English as a Second Language） from the kindergartens to colleges， but students only learn certain number of new words every day， reciting as much of the book as possible， without showing any evident and more obviously communicative intention in their feedback. Most Chinese students are good at writing and reading but remain at a loss in hearing and speaking when facing native speakers of English.

2. Understanding interaction

2.1 Definition of interaction

For teachers， it is of great importance to know well about interaction. Interaction is an exchange of ideas， thought or feelings between two or among people resulting in an interactive impact on each other. It is actually the main part of communication in the language teaching； it is what communication is all about. In daily life， we send letters； we receive them； we understand them in a passage； we negotiate meanings； and we come to a common meaning to reach certain aims. As a result， whether the interaction between teacher and student is properly managed exerts passive or positive impact on the output and intercommunication of the learners. In a narrow definition of Zuo Bin， interaction refers to the interactive effect between the teacher and students in the educational situation. （Zuo Bin， 2002： 76）

2.2 Its theoretical basis

Nunans research focuses on the communication and non-communication during class interaction. He points out that certain class interaction is not communicative at all， for example， improper questions will prevent any feedback from the students. After recording and analyzing everything happening during five ESL classes， Nunan stresses that teacher should keep following what is going on in the class， and then change the questioning way accordingly. He insists that more frequent use of referential questions than demonstrative questions is more contributive to a friendly interactive atmosphere. （Nunan， 2009： 259） There are many ways of documenting classroom life， whether you are working as a participant of a non-participant observer. For example， you can use a range of manual data collection procedures， including field notes， observation systems， maps， and seating charts.

2.3 Chief principles to be followed

Since we have known the bases for the classroom interaction， we should now pay close attention to another important factor， the application of the interaction in classroom teaching of English. Zhu Yilin in his thesis emphasized some points as follows：

In the middle school English teaching， we must follow such the basic principles of creating meaningful language with practical activities. We must stick on the new teaching processes of the center of learning and practicing. We must reach the goal of making the students express their thoughts without hesitating by elicitation， language input and much language expressing practice. （Zhu Yilin， 2002： 8）

If we want to perfect the middle school English teaching， we must follow such the basic principles of building up significant language with applied activities. We have to persist on the modern teaching processes of the main part of learning and using language. We have to get the goal to improve the students ability of expressing their thoughts without hesitating in language output.

3. Advantages and significance of classroom interaction

3.1 Advantages of classroom interaction

First of all， EFL classroom interaction， which has been student-centered， is no longer teacher-centered. Once in traditional approach classroom performance is guided only by the teacher. However， at present teachers just take only one part of the performance. It should be highly recognized that teachers are regularly as only teachers， being the leading authority in the classroom. Interaction encourages teachers to give some rights and opportunities to students and facilitate the active process of learning in the classroom. Students need to be able to talk in sentence form， yet a question-answer format does not always lend itself to responses in complete sentences without making the conversation seem unnatural. （David Nunan， 2004： 18） It is all the students responsibility to communicate directly to each other， and examine and evaluate each others devotion. In the process the teacher is no longer the main part of class focus， and the interaction pattern alters from teacher-student to student-student.

What is more， EFL classroom interaction is usually everything that is done with an interactive attention. There are a variety of activities， such as dialogues， role-plays， games， simulations， and task-based communication activities which make students have a chance to perform communicating in different social background and in different cultures. We all know that we Chinese commonly learn English by connecting our cultural basis so that some of the students are not able to achieve native-like English knowledge well. Therefore， as the interaction activities are both recreational and educational， it can make students achieve the communicative goals. During the show of these activities， the students native language （Chinese） can be avoided. Strictly speaking， the language learned in the classroom is the target language. It is applied during communicative activities and also in introducing the principles of the activities to the students or in evaluating their homework. If students carelessly make some mistakes， instead of stopping the activities to correct the errors， the teacher may put it off or neglect it until the end of the activities so that students are not discouraged from taking part in the classroom interaction. It is usually heard of the complaining about grammar rule lessons， so， the teacher also pay much attention to avoid explaining the grammar rules to the students directly which may turn out to be boring and discouraging. In another way， the teacher might ask the students to understand the grammar rules after practicing them.

3.2 Significance of the research

We are in a rapid pace of economic and social development with which China are getting its own unique status in the whole world. It is undoubted that China has becoming more and more important. Allwright （1984） argues that communicative practice in the classroom is pedagogically useful because it represents a necessary and productive stage in the transfer of classroom learning to the outside world. （Zhu Yilin， 2002： 2） Compared with the former time， the 21s century witnesses that China achieves other countries approval as it is a permanent member of UN Security Council， a country with the biggest foreign reserve and 3rd GDP， a member of WTO （World Trade Organization）， SCO （Shanghai Cooperation Organization）， APEC （Asian-pacific Economic Cooperation） and other key IGOs （inter-governmental organizations） and NGOs.

Now that China has such an important status and any country whether it is rich or poor， big or small can not ignore Chinese people， we should show our special and kind way to the international world. It is very essential for us to build up a more successful image to other countries. Consequently， because English is one worldwide language used by a large number of people all around the world and， moreover， it has becoming more and more important for communication， students in Chinese middle schools must pay much attention to learning this second language. From now on， if the students want to make a bright future， or further study abroad， or are eager to work in the government， it is a high time to introduce classroom interaction for effective English teaching and learning.

Absolutists view in teacher-student relationship has existed in Chinese classroom for a long period of time. People who believe in absolutism in teacher-student relationship blindly exaggerate the authoritative function of the teacher and ignore students physical and psychological development， as well as their subjective initiative， which is radically wrong. （Zuo Bin， 2002： 24） In this situation， students are frequently passive in learning as they only get what teacher has taught. Provided that no one is concerned with it， nothing can change this problem and students interest will die out gradually.

The whole society should find an ideal teaching pattern which is not only unilateral or bilateral communication， but a kind of multilateral interaction. The interests of junior middle school students in learning English can be stimulated when they are in a more complex game by teaching how students benefit by themselves， making more chances for students to communicate with each other， and next， to learn in accordance with these interactions and examining their understandings； the experience of learning a foreign language through various interaction patterns make junior middle school students feel that the ideas and conceptions are their own.

4. Principal interaction patterns

There are three principal interaction patterns outstanding from various kinds of interaction， which are interaction patterns between teacher and students， between students and students， and between human and computers.

4.1 Teacher-students interaction

In traditional language teaching， the teacher is considered as a leader full of authority. It is usually believed that the teacher obviously manage all parts of teaching process， as well as in situation that students do not know the meaning of the words so that they are only supposed to play minor and passive role in a language classroom. In fact， the students major work is just to be familiar with the knowledge itself and to frequently employ the grammatical rules. As a common phenomenon， the teacher and students have no exchange of information but only the teacher pour the knowledge to students and students are engaged in taking notes while listening to the teachers passively.

On the contrary， what a teacher in classroom interaction should attempt to do is not to throw the knowledge of the language into the students but to guide the students how to learn and how to practice the language. Liu Yuan pointed in his thesis：

The practical teacher： the class or the community is a powerful context for the transmission， by the English teacher， of information directly relevant to the practice of English. Good teachers can share with the student their thoughts as a friend， helping to illuminate， for the student， the process of decision making and even their life. （Liu Yuan， 2007： 35）

The main aim of providing students with enough explanations is， first， to make them know how the grammar rules function and next step is to supply them with proper situations to practice the rules so that the students can fully apply them to real communication. In the teaching process， the teacher turns to be a leading factor while the students become the subjectivities. Gradually the students principle skills， understanding of language and English sense in classroom are developed. A teachers work is first of all to encourage students to think by themselves， to use， to practice， and only in this way can they gain knowledge. A teacher must try to stimulate the students interest and initiative in learning the language.

4.2 Student-student interaction

Student-student interaction helps learners make comparisons with what they know about language from their own mother tongue，as well as building on what they have already learned in the new language，both in terms of formal rules and conventions for language use. （Liu Yuan， 2007： 34）

No matter how long we learn a language and how hard we achieve it， we all know that we should pay much attention to the interaction between students insomuch that it is necessary for students. Teachers cheer up students active mood to encourage them to take part in the class activities so that they can get the goal of student-student interaction. In order to make most use of the importance of the interaction which is good for students creativity， the teacher， the leader and trainer， must make a good preparation consist of affluent information and texts to benefit the students.

Moreover， it is time for teacher to separate students into pairs， groups or teams to benefit them. It is usually advised that the teacher should come to use a more free style which can best achieve the effect of student-student interaction and make students feel more independent. At the same time， students are able to know what they lack of and what they are good at. In this way， their enthusiasm can be promoted very well. As a result， there will be more and more phrases， idioms and new knowledge input into students mind. Showing what the students have learned and thought is a better way for students judgment for themselves， and this way is also called presentation. If students apply this in pair or group work， it can be made perfect. Not only the response but also the creativity can be surprisingly improved， while their oral English grows obviously better and better.

参考文献：

[1]Liu，Yuan[刘源]，2007，《对高中英语教学中课堂互动的研究》[D]，辽宁师范大学。

[2]Wu，Manlei[吴曼蕾]，2007，《课堂互动与英语学习和教学》[D]

[3]Sun，Qinghong[孙庆红]，2005，《“新课程”背景下中学英语课堂教学互动初探》[D]。 江西师范大学。