The Application of Situational Teaching Method in the Secondary Vocational English Reading Teaching

◆摘  要：Situational teaching method is applied commonly in English teaching， which has been proved to be effective in every aspect of English ability cultivation. A lot of scholars both in china and abroad studied this field， and put forward some useful suggestions. But still to nowadays， the research of situational approach in English teaching mainly focuses on primary and secondary schools or college classrooms， few studies take English reading classroom in secondary vocational schools as the object. This essay， bases on the theoretical basis of situational teaching method， takes secondary vocational students as the research object to probe a set of scientific and effective situational teaching methods suitable for the secondary vocational school English reading teaching.

◆關键词：situational teaching method; secondary vocational school; English reading

Situational teaching method is to create a kind of colourful and lively scene in the teaching process according to the teaching purpose and teaching content， to stimulate students learning enthusiasm， and through the analysis and solution of problems， to improve the students thinking ability and practice ability， so as to realize the teaching goal. Its core is to arouse students emotional experience. In this teaching mode， teachers play a leading role in guiding students to read actively and think actively under the best teaching situation so as to understand and absorb the teaching content.

The application of situational teaching method in the English reading class of secondary vocational schools can stimulate students' interest in English reading and improve the teaching effect. It could set an intuitionistic scene in class. Students in the scene， are affected by the surrounding learning atmosphere， will unconsciously produce the learning interest， thus learn new knowledge. Based on the theoretical basis of situational teaching method， the author takes secondary vocational students as the research object， randomly selects two classes as experimental class and control class for long-term experimental comparison in the secondary vocational school， and analyzes the existing problems in the English reading teaching in secondary vocational schools by using the relevant psychology and pedagogy theories of situational teaching. Thus sums up a set of scientific and effective situational teaching methods suitable for the secondary vocational school English reading teaching.

1Remove the obstacle of new words and warm up the topic

The purpose of reading class is to train students' reading ability， to improve students' reading skills and enhance their reading comprehension ability through reading training， so as to learn and master the language knowledge carried by the discourse. However， in order to improve the reading ability and level more effectively and help students understand the article more quickly and accurately， it is very necessary to carry out appropriate vocabulary teaching and warm up the topic of the article before the formal teaching. For those difficult words in terms of students' cognitive level， which are difficult for students to guess the meaning according to the context. Or for the key words in the reading article， appropriate methods can be taken to deal with them before class. According to the characteristics of words and their necessity in the reading material， the appropriate methods can be used flexibly.

1.1Use pictures to help students learn vocabulary

For some words， it is more difficult to adapt to the students' cognitive level of vocabulary by using other words to explain them. Teacher can borrow pictures to help teaching. For example， when teach the words wallet and computer， it is very difficult to interpret them in English， because the interpretation may be more difficult than the original word， and the interpretation in Chinese will lose the characteristics of English vocabulary learning. If the pictures are used to help the interpretation， it will be a good effect， and the effect of learning and memory will be more strengthened. wallet can be learned with a physical wallet， while computer can be learned with a picture of a computer.

1.2Use context to suggest the meaning of words

Put the difficult words in the simple sentence or those sentences which are close to the students' cognitive level， let the students infer the meaning of the words， so that the students will have a deep impression on the use of those words. For example， the abstract adverb actually is difficult to explain its meaning in English， and the teaching of such abstract words cannot achieve good results with the help of pictures. But teachers can use context method to solve the problem before reading.

1.3Use words-guessing games to help students learn words

The words-guessing game can be used before reading， or can be designed to be a special session. The methods of words-guessing game commonly used in class are solitaire， reciting the words and guessing the meaning of words， which have obvious effects on students' understanding of the meaning of words. For example， we can ask one group of students to say “Solitaire” in Chinese and another group of students to say “Solitaire” in English， and then exchange the form to consolidate the meaning. Students can be divided into two groups， and then tell the Chinese meaning of the words. The group with the highest correct rate will win. Memorizing vocabulary through the process of games can make the learning process more relaxed and enjoyable， and enhance students' interest in learning.

1.4Fill in the blanks with new words

The teacher rewrites the text and designs some blanks. Let the students fill in the blanks with the appropriate new words of the unit. This activity is mainly used in the post-reading activity， sometimes used to check the effect of students' preparation of new words， but also can achieve the purpose of previewing the topic of the article.

2Make clear objectives of task and set pre-read questions

In the teaching of English reading in secondary vocational schools， it is an effective way to train students' reading ability and to guide students to understand articles in three steps： skimming， intensive reading and peruse. Before each reading step， the teacher must make clear the reading objective with the students and set the corresponding pre-reading questions.

2.1 Skimming is to let students quickly scan the full text， clear the context of the article， understand the general idea of the article. The reading at this stage focuses on developing students' fast reading comprehension skills， which are mostly suitable for three-paragraph articles. Through skimming， students can grasp the writing intention and main idea of the article from the short beginning and end of the paragraph.

2.2 Intensive reading is to guide the students to understand the text as a whole， solve the problem of language knowledge at the same time， grasp the details of the text and the topic sentence， and guess the meaning of the new words. In English reading， students often encounter some difficult words， which often cause obstacles to students' reading comprehension. At this time， it is necessary for teachers to inspire students to guess the meaning of the words according to the context and some word-formation skills. At this stage， the teacher can set questions about a sentence， a paragraph or a detail and a fact in the article to help students digest the content of the article.

2.3 Perusal is to read the article carefully and understand it in detail. It requires students to grasp the key points， difficulties and doubts of the article. At this stage， the teacher should preset the reading objectives for the students， and guide the students to observe and extract the specific details and information closely related to the topic of the article. For example， the teacher may list several events according to the plot of the article and ask the students to figure out the correct sequence of development of the story.

3Create a reasonable situation and give play to students' imagination

The key to the success of situational teaching method in the English reading class of secondary vocational schools is to create a reasonable situation in the reading process and stimulate students' reading interest. While reading， integrating into the situation related to the reading topic is conducive to mobilize students enthusiasm and give full play to their imagination， then guide students to communicate with each other to summarize the reading content， and grasp the theme of the article. The context creation of secondary vocational reading class can be completed in the following ways.

3.1 Use physical objects to represent the situation

If you want to learn English well， you need to fully mobilize the mouth， ears， eyes and brain， through all-round perception of the learning object so as to improve the practical application ability of English. The basic requirement of situational teaching method is to make the learning object can be heard， seen and touched by students. The more students fully perceive the learning object by using various senses， the better learning results will be achieved. Therefore， teachers can use real physical objects to do the explanation of some new words and the learning content in English reading teaching.

3.2 Use multimedia to create a situation

With the rapid development of internet technology， the application of computer aided instruction in classroom teaching is more and more extensive. In the teaching of English reading class of secondary vocational school， teachers can design and make multimedia courseware according to the teaching content， and visually convey the reading content to students through computer multimedia methods such as sound， picture and video. Such vivid and illustrated scenes have great appeal to students， stimulate the enthusiasm of students to learn English， make students with a relaxed and happy mood to receive language knowledge， and can fully stimulate the imagination and understanding of students， greatly improve the teaching effect of English reading.

3.3 Experience the situation through role-play

Role-play is a kind of practical and strong practicability teaching activities. According to the content and teaching objectives of the article， teachers can create the familiar simulation scene before reading， and let students to represent the scene in the story with rich language and image by acting as scenes of different characters. The creation of role-play situation can fully mobilize students' learning enthusiasm， stimulate their awareness of participation， deepen their understanding and grasp of the reading content， and help to cultivate students' English learning ability.

In the English reading class of secondary vocational schools， teachers should break through the traditional “indoctrination” teaching method actively， make efforts in the context setting， and adopt the above teaching methods to achieve better teaching results.

References：

[1] David Nunan. The Learner-Centered Curriculum—A study in second language teaching[M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2001.（06）：76.

[2] Piaget， J. Structuralism[M].New York： Basic Books， 1970.

[3]葉肖君.论情景教学法在初中英语教学中的功能[J].外语教学与研究，2007（6）.

[4]吴菊晖.如何在英语阅读教学中运用情景教学法[J]. 新课程，2013（07）.

作者简介

孙志勇（1980.12.02-），男，现于抚州幼儿师范高等专科学校任教，副教授职称。