College of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Normal University
MEd for English Language Teaching 2011/2012-2
Advances in English Studies (英语学科发展前沿)
Dr. Wu Benhu (吴本虎)
Session 5 Connecting Theory with Practice in English Teaching
Foreword as Study Guide
When you are engaging in reading, keep the following questions and considerations in mind:
1) What do you read?
2) How do you read?
3) Why do you read?
With these questions in mind, you will read with the following approaches:
1) Read selectively (选择性阅读): Invest your time to the most rewarding parts of the most insightful works while keeping an eye on the rest.
2) Read interactively (互动性阅读): Value your response to the reading with equal importance of what is in the reading.
3) Read professionally (专业性阅读): Aim at your professional development with multi-disciplinary approaches and with a focus on the latest development of the disciplines involved.
Readings
Fleming, Michael P., Mike Fleming and David Stevens. 2010. English Teaching in the Secondary School: Linking Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Oxon: Routledge.
中华人民共和国教育部，2011，《义务教育英语课程标准》。北京：北京师范大学出版社。
1. What are the five models of English teaching?
(Fleming, Fleming and Stevens 2010: 15-16)
1 The English teacher and the National Curriculum
1.2 Models of English teaching
In the version of the National Curriculum for English based on the Report of the Cox Committee (DES 1989), it was suggested that there were essentially five models of English teaching, and that most English teachers combined in their teaching several if not all of these. The types of English teaching posited by Cox were as follows:
1. a personal growth view, which tends to emphasise the pupil as a creative and imaginative individual developing, in terms of the teaching and learning of English, primarily through an intensive engagement with literature and personal creative writing;
2. a cross-curricular approach, stressing the distinctive nature of English as the language of learning for virtually all curriculum areas and implying a definition of service to these areas and to education in a generic sense;
3. an adult needs emphasis, as essentially a preparation for the demands of life beyond school in terms of effective understanding of and communication through the English language in its many forms, including those vocationally based;
4. a cultural heritage model, with the teaching based heavily on ‘great’ works of literature, generally drawn from the past;
5. a cultural analysis view, leading pupils to a critical understanding of the social and cultural context of English, particularly the value systems which are inevitably embedded in the ways language is used.
Wu Benhu’s Summary:
Table 5.1 The five model of English teaching highlighted
|
No. |
Model |
Goal |
|
1 |
A personal growth view |
For students to act as creative and imaginative individuals |
|
2 |
A cross-curricular approach |
For students to learn English for all the other subject |
|
3 |
An adult needs emphasis |
For students to be prepared for their future life and profession |
|
4 |
A cultural heritage model |
For students to pay special attention to the study of literature and history as the cultural heritage |
|
5 |
A cultural analysis view |
For students to achieve a critical understanding of the social and cultural context of English |
《义务教育英语课程标准》(中华人民共和国教育部, 2011: 8)
一、总目标
义务教育阶段英语课程的总目标是：通过英语学习使学生形成初步的综合语言运用能力，促进心智发展，提高综合人文素养。综合语言运用能力的形成建立在语言技能、语言知识、情感态度、学习策略和文化意识等方面整体发展的基础之上。语言技能和语言知识是综合语言运用能力的基础；文化意识有利于正确地理解语言和得体地使用语言；有效的学习策略有利于提高学习效率和发展自主学习能力；积极的情感态度有利于促进主动学习和持续发展。过五个方面相辅相成，共同促进学生综合语言运用能力的形成与发展。
以语言技能、语言知识、情感态度、学习策略和文化意识等五个方面共同构成的英语课程总目标，既体现了英语学习的工具性，也体现了其人文性；既有利于学生发展语言运用能力，又有利于学生发展思维能力，从而全面提高学生的综合人文素养。
Wu Benhu:
1) What is the difference between the British Standards and the Chinese Standards of English Teaching?
2) What can we learn from the British Standards of English Teaching?
4. What is a dynamic approach to English teaching?
(Fleming, Fleming and Stevens 2010: 23-24)
1.4 Practical dimensions
Again we can see how, with a little imagination, the requirements of the National Curriculum may be met through an organic rather than mechanistic approach. Indeed the introduction to the current Orders, under the heading ‘The Importance of English’, suggests that English enables pupils ‘to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with others effectively’ (DfEE/QCA 1999:13). Thus the National Curriculum can be viewed not just as a set of individual syllabus requirements but as providing a broad conception of the way English should be realised as a subject in schools. Attention has tended to focus on the more controversial aspects like the place of standard English (to be discussed in more detail in later chapters). However, the following selected quotations from the 1995 National Curriculum, still very much embedded in the current version, indicate that it can be judged to require a dynamic and varied approach:
1) Pupils’ abilities should be developed within an integrated programme of speaking and listening, reading and writing.
2) Pupils should be given opportunities to talk for a range of purposes.
3) Pupils should be given opportunities to read a wide variety of literature ...to read widely and independently solely for enjoyment.
4) The main emphasis should be on the encouragement of wider reading in order to develop independent, responsive and enthusiastic readers.
5) Pupils should be encouraged to extend their confidence in writing for a variety of purposes and to develop their own distinctive and original styles.
6) Pupils should be given opportunities to write for specific readers, for a large unknown readership and for themselves.
We can add to this list two quotations from the earliest formulation of the English Order:
1) Working on tasks which they have chosen and which they direct for themselves.
2) Working with teachers who are themselves involved in the processes, with special expertise, as talkers, listeners, readers and writers.
Wu Benhu:
A dynamic approach to English teaching is expected to include the following features:
1. Students can develop their abilities in the integration of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
2. Students have opportunities to talk for a range of purposes.
3. Students have opportunities to read a wide variety of literature for enjoyment.
4. Students are encouraged to read widely in order to develop as independent, responsive and enthusiastic readers.
5. Students are encouraged to extend their confidence in writing for a variety of purposes and develop their distinctive and original styles.
6. Students have opportunities to write for specific readers, for general readers and for themselves.
6. What are the basic requirements of English teachers?
(Fleming, Fleming and Stevens 2010: 28)
Chapter 2 The impact of the Strategy
2.1 Introduction: the context
It could be argued that because the demands of literacy education are so fundamental to the teaching and learning of English, ideally so integrated into the practical curriculum, it would be mistaken to devote a chapter to it as a discrete entity in a book like this. Most English teachers could happily agree with Davies that:
the first requirement of the English teacher has to be to ensure that students can read and write, to make them literate. Beyond that point I believe that students should be actively encouraged to read for pleasure and should be provided with an adequate timetable for personal reading.
(1996: 135)
Wu Benhu:
The basic requirements of English teachers are identifies as follows:
1. To help students learn to read and write.
2. To encourage students to read for pleasure.
3. To provide students with adequate time for personal reading.
Questions for consideration:
1. What are the five models of English teaching?
2. What can we figure out from the alternative names of English as courses?
3. How shall we implement The National English Curriculum Standard?
4. What is a dynamic approach to English teaching?
5. What are major characteristics of positive collaboration that can promote English teaching?
6. What are the basic requirements of English teachers?
7. How do you understand the ‘literacy issues’ presented here?
8. What are ‘the five elements of the proposed teaching sequence’?
9. What should the English teacher do in developing the students’ writing skills?
Course Work:
1. Select one question among what we have covered including the questions of your own.
2. Discuss it with approaches and dimensions as many as possible.
This course work is required to be presented by 24:00, 28 March 2012.