Chapter One Introduction
English curriculum standard (the draft 2001) clearly required that teachers shoulddesign corresponding classroom activities to stimulate students’ learning interest, explicitthe teaching objectives and lay the foundation for the new class when they design everyclass. This step is lead-in.Thus it can be seen that lead-in plays a very important role in English classroomteaching. In the beginning of a class, teachers should utilize the first several minutes toattract students’ attention and arouse their positivity so as to create good condition for thelatter content to get students prepared for the new lesson. Lead-in is the bedding of thewhole class, whose significance and necessity can not be ignored.English curriculum standard (2005) emphasized teachers should hold the teachingidea that taking the student as the center and cultivating students’ English applicationability for the purpose.English curriculum standard (2011) advocate that teachers should start formstudents’ interest, life experience, cognitive level, then adopt task based teaching ways tomake students develop comprehensive language application ability through their ownexperiencing, practicing, participating and communicating in learning.It means that senior high school English teaching is a process of teachers andstudents contacting, interacting and developing together. Thereby, democratic and openforms should be established to set up the relaxed classroom atmosphere, in which studentsare with desire under the guidance of teachers try to percept, practice, cooperate, fulfilland achieve. Lead-in, as the first teaching step of a class, is one of the most basic steps in theEnglish classroom teaching. It is obviously a short but significant step, which plays acrucial role in arousing study interest, accomplishing teaching goals and improvingteaching quality. With a proper lead-in of a class, students will be more concentrated and focused in the classroom teaching process so that learners may take an active part inlearning while finishing the whole class tasks. As a result, a lead-in step contributes muchto making a class smoothly and successfully.English teaching has made a great progress during the basic education revolution inrecent two decades. Some educational experts did some study about lead-in, but most ofthem didn’t think it was a specialized part and treated lead-in only as a teaching technique.Thus, the relevant theories regarding to lead-in were not in-depth, which caused manyteachers ignore lead-in.The author of this thesis, thus, dedicated herself to knowing about the presentsituation of English lead-in in senior high school and to finding out the main problemsand finally attempted to seek out the proper solutions. It would be useful and feasible forthe teachers to acknowledge the great importance of lead-in, as well as for them to designthe popular lead-ins, which would stimulate students’ interest that may widely encouragethem to get involved in the class and promote their achievement in the end.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 ResearchAbroad
In the 1970s, C. Etal and Turney summarized the function of lead-in in the bookSydney Micro Skills as follows: gaining attention, arousing motivation, establishingteaching goals, defining learning tasks and making links. To they, it is very important toattract students’ attention at the very beginning of each lesson; thirsty for knowledge isthe most practical and significant factor among students’ learning motivations; lead-inshould set up explicit targets to help the students keep a good state of mind for learningnew lesson. Lead-in should establish the connection between the old and the newknowledge, which allows the teacher to start the new material smoothly and naturally.A. Drawing attentionIt is rather crucial to draw students’ attention before a new lesson. A teacher who isgood at guiding will use various ways to stir up students’ unintentional notice and leadthem to intentional notice. Beautiful blackboard-writing and graceful voice and intonationmay deeply appeal to students. Their strong curiosity and intentional notice is easilybrought out. Hence, vivid and vigorous lead-in ways should be persiform to increasestudents thinking positively.B.Arousing motivationCuriosity for study is the most practical and active element. Teachers adopt multipleforms to create real or approximate real situation on the basis of different teaching contentand features. Thus, students get the opportunity and motivation to apply the knowledge onthe textbook into solving the problems in the situation set up.C. Building teaching goals, clearing learning tasksLead-in should be built with specific teaching goals and learning tasks so thatstudents can enter a good state of psychological preparation to study wholeheartedly andmeaningfully.D. Establishing relationship English language knowledge is rigorously logical like other subjects. So whenteachers design lead-in, they have to fully understand students’knowledge and skills, thencreate the meaningful situation to connect the old and new knowledge.
2.2 Research at Home
Hu Shuzhen (1996) raised that lead-in can also be named as lecture-starting. As oneimportant step of classroom teaching, usually, lead-in can be used at the beginning of theclass likewise throughout the whole class. She elaborated the functions, styles and basicrequirements of lead-in.Yan Chengli (1999) came up with some principles of lead-in and introduced someoptimized lead-in methods about some other subjects. Li Rumi (2000) viewed that the part of lead-in is a kind of teaching art. According tohim, the lead-in art should be used to etch deeply in the hearts of the students as the effectof first knock of a hammer, to attract them as tightly as a magnet.Wang Baoda (2001) pointed out that before teaching new knowledge or doingteaching activities, teachers should lead students into a new study condition withconsciousness and intention in his Learning in skills and ending skills. The goals oflead-in are leading in new lesson, enlightening students, stirring up interest, secretlyrevealing motivation, creating atmosphere and so on. At the meanwhile, he introducedsome lead-in types of Chinese language teaching.Zhou Qi and Ye Hongping (2003) proposed that how to guide students to thesituation naturally and appropriately by making use of many ways according to thedemand of the situation.Fu Jianming (2005) indicated delicately-designed lead-in is quite necessary and rec-ommended some common methods and principles of lead-in.In recent years, there have been lots of essays as to classroom lead-in enlightenedEnglish teaching in some ways, but these ones were less directed at English teaching.What the actual senior high school English classroom teaching is on earth. What problemsappear? Why problems happen? What should we do to solve the problems？Those aredeserved us to study deeply.
Chapter Three Research Design......................................12
3.1 Research Questions...................................................12
3.2 Research Participants........................................................12
3.3 Research Instrument.............................................12
3.4 Research Procedures................................................12
Chapter Four Results and Discussion................................................14
4.1 Results and Discussion of Classroom Observation..........................................14
Chapter Four Results and Discussion
4.1 Results and Discussion of Classroom Observation
Even though this method can save time, but it is difficult to attract students’ strongattention. So, the effectiveness of the teaching would not be perfect.B. Reviewing the Learnt Lead-in MethodIt is also a usual method in lead-in part. Sometimes teachers lead in a new lessonlike this, in last class we have learned...Now let us review it...In the 30 lessons, there were 6 class adopted revision Lead-in method with differentforms, which is accounting for 20% of the total number of classes. But the lessons wereonly for review and lacked of close connection between old and new knowledge. Theteachers usually examined the independent study after class in lead-in part，however, theteaching content was about to start didn’t have the tight relation with the content ofreview. For example, in order to check reciting words, most teachers chose dictation.Some ones even asked students to write on the blackboard and students had to correct themistakes after that. This kind of lead-in method wasted a lot of time but in fact did notwork in the transition of old and new knowledge as expected.C. Question-asked Lead-in MethodFour classes led in by question lead-in method in the 30 classes, which isaccounting for 13.3%. The atmosphere of class is comparatively active; most of studentscould think over the problem put forward by teachers positively. At the same time, someproblems appeared, that is, the teachers liked to ask the very active and smart students satin the front of the classroom. Some students sitting in the back of the classroom or notactive enough were ignored. As a result, the students who were active became moreactivate and involved, those who were not active enough or back seated becomeabsent-minded and quitted to take part in the teaching activities.D. Daily Communication MethodAmong the classes, three classes took the daily communication method. Before theclass, the teachers used simple English expression to talk to the students, and then they slowly extend the topic to the new lesson topic. The chat always starts from the dailyaffairs like weather, food...In this observation, the students chatted with the teachers proactively and thelearning atmosphere is strong and enthusiastic. It seemed that everybody were happy, butin fact the conversation was lack of practical application because the students only had toanswer simple and easy questions which were not so connective.
4.2 Results and Discussion of Questionnaires
The author carried out the questionnaire to the whole 14 senior high school Englishteachers and 180 students distributed in three grade of senior high school. Onequestionnaire designed for teachers. The number of the questionnaires handed out was 14.Recycling number is 14. The recovery rate was 100%. The other questionnaire is for 180students who were selected randomly, so the number of the questionnaires handed outwas 180. Recycling number is 14. The recovery rate was 99.5%. Two questionnaires weretaken Li Ruiling’ and Hu Haijuan’ master’s thesis for reference（see questionnaires inappendix).The two questionnaire forms are taken Li Ruiling’ master’s thesis（2008）forreference. From table 4-1, the author found male teachers only occupied 35.71% of theteachers in senior high school. The proportion is obviously less than female teachers’proportion which was 64.29%.The analysis was summarized from three sides. First, in the aspect of age, thenumber of teachers in middle age was huge, which took a big proportion. So, youngteachers were seriously lacking. Second, in the aspect of professional rank, medium twoand medium one were main force, but teachers with high grade were insufficient. Finally,in the aspect of education background, the vast majority of teachers were Bachelor’sdegree, but higher educated teachers were in urgent need.All in all, the 14 teachers were high qualified and experienced teachers. The troopof teachers was strong but weak in short of young teachers and high educated teachers.That means new teaching conception and teaching ways maybe applied not enough inteaching. In table 4-2, 31.84% students thought English was very important, 60.33% studentsthought English was important; 17.31% students considered that they like learning English very much, 51.96% students considered they like learning English. The authorcame to a conclusion: Most of the students realized the importance of learning Englishand generated a certain amount of learning motivation. However, there were somestudents didn’t like learning English. This is the key point teachers should notice. For thesake of improving the students’ interest in learning English, teachers have to try everymeans to stir and cultivate their interest and promote the interest become students’ innerlearning motivation as well as maintain others’ learning interest and encourage them tostudy consciously.
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Chapter Five Major Findings and Suggestions
5.1 Major Findings and Suggestions
The author has a basic understanding about the current situation of lead-in inEnglish classroom teaching in senior high school through the investigation of theaffiliated middle school of Gannan Normal University English classroom teaching. Thefollowing major findings and suggestions of the investigation are presented by the way ofanswering the questions put forward in the beginning of the paper.A. What are the attitudes of the students and teachers to lead-in section?Most of the teachers and the students are satisfied with lead-in part in Englishclassroom teaching.According to the results of the investigation, most of teachers and students thinkthat lead-in was good for students to learn new content. Lead-in can attract students’attention, broaden students’ knowledge and help students naturally get in to new content.It plays a positive role in attracting the students’ interest of using the methods of thelead-in in classroom teaching. Therefore, lead-in in senior high school English class needsmore attention and worthy all the teachers to be elaborately designed.B. What are the main methods of lead-in used in senior high school English teaching atpresent?Direct lead-in method, reviewing lead-in method, commenting homework method,daily communication lead-in method, asking question lead-in method, creating situationlead-in method, culture background lead-in method are the main methods used in currentEnglish classroom teaching.C. What problems exist in lead-in part in current senior high school English classroom?a. The teachers are lack of real understanding of lead-in.In the public schools, the number of elderly teachers is more than that of the young.They are already having rich teaching experience and a set of their own style of teachingeither. They approve of the advocating of experts and admit lead-in is helpful to theteaching, but in fact their understanding of lead-in stays on the surface. In the practicalclass, they abandon lead-in and start new lesson directly. In their heart, lead-in is wasting time and pleasing the public with claptrap. In spite that the teachers have designed lead-inwhich is only for catering to the school rules and national policy, they seldom design thelead-in carefully. So they don’t lead in or lead in without elaborated design and justfollow their own wishes to carry out the lead-in.b. Because for most of the elderly teacher, their chances of contacting with the newteaching ideas and teaching methods are so relatively less that they don’t acknowledgenew lead-in methods. While some of the young teachers don’t have comprehensive studyabout lead-in theory. Thus the lead-in part of the class is designed not reasonable andscientific enough.c. The lead-in does not truly reflect the thought of student-centered.It can be seen in the questionnaire and interview data that teachers does not takestudents' age characteristics, needs, favors, cognitive level and many other factors intoconsideration and arbitrarily design the lead-in. Half of all teachers and most of thestudents think it is very necessary to acknowledge those factors to get in to new lessons,but the teachers seldom do this in realistic teaching. Also, the lead-in lacks interaction,communication with the students as well as does not emphasize on the students'participation, which leads to great reduction of the students' learning enthusiasm andlimiting their ability of handling problems.D. In the present situation and existing problems of lead-in implementation, what kind ofadvice can be given to teachers and the students?A. For teachers:a. Teachers should carefully study the theories and knowledge about lead-in to strengthentheir theoretical level.Only by doing this, can the teachers notice the scientificity and usefulness anddesign appropriate lead-in to import the new lesson for every class. Students will awarethe fun and improve cognition during learning process.b. The quality of lead-in should be paid high attention.In the import link number at the same time, emphasize the import high quality. Thequantity of lead-in has to be guaranteed, at the same time, so does the quality of lead-in.Teachers should combine the theoretical knowledge and practical situation to design the lead-in with various forms, interesting contents and distinct themes.Make sure the lead-inwork in the largest extent in the short 5 minutes.(a) Lead in differently according to different situations.Class types and the teaching material content are the essential factors when teachersdesign lead-in. Teachers have to lead in differently according to different situations.(b) Control the time and amount of information and insure lead-in is concise andthemes-focused.(c) Make lead-in novel and interesting. Try to use some stories, fables, puzzles, suspense,etc as the carrier to stimulate student’s interest while lead in.(d) Make the forms of lead-in multiple.Teachers can combine lead-in with multimedia technology to stimulate situation.Pictures and videos can allow students are in strong seeing and hearing learningatmosphere, that will make students be easier to get the perception of English knowledgewith light heart.c. Regard students as the center of teaching.Teachers should establish the thought that students are the center of teaching. What’more, teachers should take fully consideration of the students’ physiological andpsychological needs into lead-in design. Which are the essential factors when teachersdesign lead-in. whatever in class or after class, teachers should communicate withstudents as much as possible in order to eliminate the generation gap between teachersand students. If teachers try to make friends with students, it will be better to know morestudents’ anticipation and needs. The forms and contents of lead-in also should keep upwith the pace of science, technology and fashion, integrate the teaching material and reallife so that students will not feel dull in learning English but happy in learning survivalskills.d. Fumble ceaselessly in practice and improve the quality of lead-in continuously.Teachers should summarize the success and failure of lead-in continually andexplore efficient lead-in methods fit for your class in practice.B. For students: Students should communicate with their teachers as much as possible after classand state their viewpoints and demands. Teachers will be easy to know their needs whenthe teachers and students are in a harmonious relationship, which will greatly advance theteachers to increase the pertinence and distinctiveness of lead-in.
5.2 Limitations
The thesis is finished with the help of many teachers and students in the affiliatedmiddle school of Gannan Normal University. However, my personal theoretical level andpractice level are limited, so this thesis has some limitation.Due to the limited time and ability, the author only chose the affiliated middleschool of Gannan Normal University as the objects of investigation. During three months’internship, the author observed thirty English classes in senior high school and carried outtwo questionnaires for teachers and students respectively. Respondents the author chose isonly one school, so the result can not totally reflect all of the present situation of thesenior high school English classroom lead-in. The number of participants in the researchis small too. Only 14 teachers and 180 students are investigated. Therefore the subjects orsamples are not widely enough.The thesis adopted classroom observation, questionnaire method and interviewmethod, which are not totally comprehensive and contains a large number of subjectivejudgment. Because of limited study ability, some issues are not discussed thoroughly andsome reasons are not analysized clearly enough.In order to increase the credibility of this paper, if there is an opportunity in thefuture, the author hope to investigate some more senior schools to comparecomprehensively. In this way, the analysis will be more overall and credible.
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参考文献（略）