“Double-subjects” at PWP Stages in English Class at Junior Stage

【Abstract】Responding to the New National English Curriculum， more communications and interactions are required in English teaching at junior stage. Based on constructivism and the communicative teaching theory， the writer puts forward the notion of “double-subjects”， which integrates the advantages of the “teacher-centered” with the “student-centered”pedagogies. This article will discuss the practical application at PWP stage.

【Key words】English teaching; double-subjects; PWP stage

【作者簡介】吴茜，厦门市第九中学。

There are three stages in English teaching class， the pre-learning， while-learning and post-learning stage （PWP）. In every stage， students learn English in the communication and bilateral interaction with teachers. New National English Curriculum advocates “double- subject” in the practical English teaching.

1. Pre-learning stage

In pre-learning stage， also called “lead in” process， teachers actualize the subject by playing an leading role， introducing the background and motivating interest.And it is commonly thought of as an inner drive， impulse， emotion， or desire that moves one to particular action.There are the concrete activities to motivate students interest as follow.

1.1 Background leading in

Students may have limited general knowledge about a topic. Providing knowledge input will build their confidence for dealing with learning. This could be done by giving a related text to read， or a little more fun quiz about the topic.

1.2 New vocabulary learning and prediction

For students， large numbers of unknown words will hinder comprehension and lower confidence. Selecting some vocabulary to study， matching words to definitions and filling the gaps in sentences can help. Present the new words in a direct and vivid way. Whats more， giving students plenty of time to understand the main comprehension tasks， teachers allow students to get mian idea of the content and try to predict content or answers before learining.

2. While-learning stage

While-learning may be the most important stage in English teaching. Teachers should encourage the students to develop the autonomous learining ability by using a variety of instructional methods：

2.1 Group discussion

“Group activities in both teaching and testing can be used to provided an opportunity for meaningful and active involvement”. Group discussion is related with actual communicative occasions and contexts. Thus it can sufficiently reflect the interaction in their life in English.

2.2 Information-gap activities

Students have different information and they need to obtain information from each other in order to finish a task.  Let the students answer questions by themselves， and then check their answers in group with each reason.

2.3 Games

Junior school students are， in principle， curious about everything around them. Various stimulating games designed by the teacher according to the teaching content might well arouse the learners great interest in it; inspire students motivation to use English.

2.4 Role play

Teachers choose an appropriate situation or problem; define the roles the general characteristics to be represented by each player. Students act out small scenes using their own ideas. In role playing， the group leader must be skilled so that actors will play their roles seriously without self-consciousness.

3. Post-learning stage

Post-learning stage can be considered as the examinations and assessments， which as the essential parts of the English teaching can help students to find out what they are lack of， and review the former knowledge.

3.1 Mutual-examination

Students are divided into groups and discuss to make the examination paper to test others group. For saving time in class， students can make the paper after class， and every group member should participate in the process and screen out the best questions. While students are making their test paper， teachers should offer help， inspect and amend the last script of the test paper， which aims to ensure the validity of the examination paper.

3.2 Peer-assessment

With peer-assessment students are involved in assessing each others work. This will give them a sense of responsibility in independent learning. Students are able to learn from their own mistakes or from others， to remember key experiences that prevented troublesome situations.

References：

[1]Jeremy Harmer. How to Teach English[M]. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2000.