What kind of role should English teachers play in the intensive reading class

【Abstract】The traditional teaching mode of intensive reading has so many shortcomings. So many college students have difficulties in reading foreign books and communicating with foreigners directly after 8 or 12 years of foreign language learning. English teachers can help students to learn more effectively in intensive reading class through three parts， these parts are before reading， in reading and after reading. Using the right teaching methods， teachers can effectively improve the students' reading abilities.

【Key words】intensive reading class； teaching mode； reading abilities

The discussion on the problems in College English teaching has been carried out for a long time in the English teaching field. So many people thought that at present in our country， the foreign language learning was waste too much time and ineffective. Many students cant read the foreign language books. Most of them can not speak foreign language and have so many difficulties in communicating with foreigners directly after 8 or 12 years of foreign language learning. Until now， the problem is still there. The freshmen and sophomores in colleges have spent a lot of time and energy on English study， but the study result is not ideal. The reason for this problem is various. Now I will talk about my understanding of the problems in intensive reading in college English teaching.

The traditional teaching mode of intensive reading is： before the beginning of reading， the teachers explain words and phrases one by one， teach students the usage of each word and synonyms in details. In the teaching of text reading， teachers read the text loudly from the very beginning to the end， along with the explanation of some of the vocabulary， sentence structures and discourse interpretation. Then， teachers help the students to finish the exercises. The disadvantage of this kind of teaching model is that teaching activities are mainly restricted to the communication， explanation and description of language knowledge. Teachers only play the role of knowledge carriers. When the textbooks become more and more difficult， the teaching length becomes longer too. The more the teacher speaks， the more detailed as they explain， the burden of their teaching is more heavier. Because of the lack of language practice opportunities and correct guidance， students receive knowledge passively in there intensive reading class， and ultimately become more and more dependent on their teachers. It is difficult to achieve the goal to develop students reading abilities. They are familiar with articles on books， but they may completely at a loss when they face a strange article. We should know that all the students abilities to learn foreign language are as strong as to learn other subjects. The teacher-centered teaching mode can only weak the teaching practice of intensive reading， denied the students' learning enthusiasm. The result is not satisfactory.

The goal of College English teaching is to cultivate students' ability of reading， so that students can use English as their tool to obtain the information they needed. It has made clear instructions that in the reading class， teachers should cultivate of students' reading skills， not to emphasize the new words and grammar structures. In his book called “Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language”， the famous British linguist Christine Nuttall has pointed out that the teaching goal of the course is “let the student read an unfamiliar article at the appropriate speed and understand it without any help”. Students will encounter all kinds of articles in their daily lives， most of these articles are completely new. In reading these articles， they should complete the reading task without any help. In terms of reading speed， there is a requirement. They should finish reading as quickly as possible under understanding premise， the sooner the better. For readers， they only want to get the main information or some details they care about ， so the content of this article only need to be understood to a certain extend， they dont need to understand it thoroughly. Otherwise， it becomes a waste of time to get information from reading. This is not true to the real life.

As we have talked before， the teaching aims completely base on the reality of life. The majority of the English teachers should start to reconsider and examine what kind of role they should play in the English class.

Teachers as the organizer， designer and facilitator in the classroom， should provide language skills training to students. In order to build this atmosphere， teachers should update teaching ideas， change from the leading role of the class to minor role， that is， to be the supporter of the students， that is what an English teacher should do in class. So， how can teachers help students in the intensive reading class？ So many people believe that it can be carried out in three parts： Firstly， before reading.

Before reading is a preparation activity. As a supporter， teachers should eliminate some vocabulary obstacles， reduce difficulties in reading. As a real helper， teachers should try to reduce the burden on the memory of the students before reading. Therefore， we neednt explain every new word thoroughly. For new words， they can be left to the students to guess their meaning when students finish the article. These preparation activities can not only reduce the students' memory burden， but also help students to focus their attention on the reading process， and can effectively improve the students' reading abilities. Therefore， it is important to introduce the topic of the text briefly before reading. Teachers can introduce background knowledge of the text and then begin to read the text. In addition， in the introduction of topics， the teacher shouldnt say too much too fine about the text， otherwise students will lost their interest in reading. Before reading， teachers can also give the students some “guiding questions”， which use as the road sign to show the students the right direction. Such kind of questions are also very helpful to definite the reading purpose， so these questions should be designed focus on the most important effect of the article， not all the minor details， so they will not mislead the students.

Secondly， in reading.

When the preparatory activities are finished， the students begin to read the text solely. At this time， the biggest help teachers can provide is to maintain quiet reading environment. Teachers should know the overall reading progress of the students in order to predict the time to complete the reading， so that they can get ready for the reading practice arrangements.

Thirdly， after reading.

When students finish the article， teachers will ask some questions according to text， inspire and help students to understand the text correctly. In order to do this， it is best to ask some short questions. It helps to divide the text into several parts and reduce the difficulty of understanding. When students answer these questions， they can keep their books open so that they can refer to the text at any time. In the process of asking questions， the teacher should make a flexible adjustment or change according to the feedback of the students. Teachers can guide students to browse through the text from the beginning to the end， check some details and some difficult sentences when they are sure that most students can understand the text. At this time teachers can also emphasize the key words or some new words in the sentence and how to use them， especially some new words which havent explained before. In this way， the students can have deep impression of the new words.

With the changes of the present time， all the English teachers are facing great challenge. In our teaching， we should gain respect and recognition of students by using a flexible teaching methods and good teaching effect. With hard work and scientific methods， teachers can help our students become qualified talents and realize their dreams.

作者簡介：李解人（1970-），女，汉族，山东淄博人，副教授，英语教学教法。