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1、The Application of Role-play in Junior English TeachingIntroductionThe ultimate goal of foreign language teaching is to enable the students to use the foreign language in work or life when necessary. But the present practice in the English learning & teaching (ELT) classroom in China could not provi
2、de satisfactory conditions for both teachers and students to achieve the goals by the traditional teaching model. How to make English learners feel the real language situation and context when learning English is worth studying. Role-play is an effective way to make English learners reach the goal.
3、This paper aims to attempt to study the application of role-play activities in junior English classroom.Before the discussion of the application of role-play in junior English teaching, the writer wants to do a brief introduction about role-play. Role-play is a learning activity in which you behave
4、in the way somebody else would behave in a particular situation from the OXFORD Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary. In pedagogy, it is a common language learning activity where students play different roles and interact from the point of view of the roles they play. As everyone knows, most
5、 of junior students are tired of English for remembering words or grammar. VanMents (1989) in his book claimed that a major advantage of role-play was that “it was highly motivating and gave students simple, direct and rapid feedback”So role-play activities can highly motivate students interest. In
6、role-play activities, students are encouraged to actively participate in activities that are designed to promote the use of the language. Role-play activities provide students opportunities to practise English in a safe and relaxed atmosphere. In fact, role-play has been one of the effective ways es
7、pecially in English teaching.This paper consists of three parts： Part 1 is the causes of using role-play in junior English teaching, Part 2 is the application of role-play in junior English teaching and Part 3 is the important points in role-play in junior English teaching. Lets study them step by s
8、tep through this paper.1The causes of using role-play in junior English teaching1.1 The current situation of English teachingThe current situation of English teaching in junior high schools English teachers may often get chances to see an English lesson taught either by their colleagues or by other
9、English teachers. The following phenomena are observed to quite common in the junior English classroom in many places in china. The teacher enjoys performing on the stage while the students act as good mannered audiences, listening to the teacher carefully and quietly, copying important notes from t
10、he blackboard into their notebooks. The teacher asks questions, and students raise their hands and answer them. Sometimes to make the class look lively and interactively, the teacher asks some pairs or groups to come to the front to act out a dialogue or put on a short play. But the rest of the clas
11、s watch the performance, and give a warm clap at the end of it. This is a very typical lesson in the junior English room. But in fact, many students just listen or write down important information in the English class or answer questions together. In recent classes, the students utterance is no more
12、 than “yes”, “no” or only a few words. Besides that, we cant neglect another common phenomena that many students high scores in written English exams do not match their competence in using English. Current English teaching focuses too much on language knowledge such as words, grammar For example, in
13、 teaching reading: at the post reading stage of reading teaching, teachers often rely upon reading aloud, asking comprehension questions, Sometimes even sentence by sentence translation is conducted. And then focus out those grammars and new words to let students copy down to remember. Maybe we can
14、consider these activities inadequate to fulfill the task of developing learning. But the teacher ignored to provide the students with opportunities to use them.Consequently students spend most time memorizing the so called language points and practising them in multiple-choice exercises, rather than
15、 using language in a real and authentic way.2.2 The New Curriculum Standards stress students-centered teaching activitiesWith the New Curriculum reformation going on in China, more and more English teachers are realizing that the traditional teacher-dominated classroom should be replaced by the stud
16、ent-centered one. New Curriculum Standards stresses student-centered teaching activities. It is recommended that English teachers should adopt pleasing and active teaching methodologies to stimulate students interests, build up their language competence and eventually promote their ideation, imagina
17、tion and creation. An increasing number of English teachers have realized the importance of changing their teaching methodologies to meet the requirements of the New Curriculum Standards. So teachers roles should shift from the traditional knowledge provider and activity controller to the learning f
18、acilitator, classroom supervisor and participator. On the other words, the teacher should give more time to students and let students to be the owner of the classes and the teacher should pay more attention to the language practice than the language introduction. At the same time, many Chinese schol
19、ars point out many problems to find new teaching ways. “The major problem is how to balance a relaxed learning atmosphere with the achievement of better grades in English examinations within necessarily limited classroom time” (Du Minghuan, 2006:1). “The teaching of English in junior school has not
20、been given enough attention and there are actual difficulties in the teaching work, such as the environment of English-study is not ideal enough, the opportunities of hearing English is quite few, the influence of the number of the classmates, the influence of mental state of the students, etc.”(Li
21、Yun, 2006:4). According to these problems about our countries junior English teaching, strengthen the training of the language knowledge is not the only way to get the goal. Role-play can help students and teachers a lot. Role-play uses different communicative techniques and develops fluently in lan
22、guage use, promotes interaction in the classroom, makes teaching material live and increases motivation. There is a simple example. When students learn to greet others by English ways, the teacher can give students some different roles to practise so that students can remember this new knowledge ins
23、tead of reciting them many times. Here peer learning is encouraged between teachers and learners in the learning process takes place.The idea behind using role-play as a pedagogical tool relies on the proverb that experience is the best teacher. It means that students must apply language in the clas
24、ses. However, role-play is not just including playing some shows. It has been refer to many areas, the main form of role-play in teaching English are talking, interview and free role plays.2. The application of role-play in junior English classes2.1 The first main form of role-play - talking2.1.1 Tr
25、aining the students spirit of cooperationTalking means conversation or discussion. Talking is one of the role-play to train the students spirit of cooperation. It needs two or more than two students in talking. So in teaching, talking can be divided two ways: pair work and group work. Many times the
26、 talk is based on a dialogue or text from books. So the role-play can give students a chance to use the language they learned just now in class. Here is a typical sample in junior English teaching. I did it with students in Tang Hu Middle School Class14 Grade1 on September 21st, 2009.- Good morning/
27、afternoon/evening, Helen.- Good morning/afternoon/evening, Alice.- Hi, Bob.- Hello, Frank. (From Unit 1 in Go for It on Page3)About this conversation, the teacher greets students one by one, and then gives students every situation which is “morning”, “afternoon”, “evening”. At the same time, student
28、s can do a pair work which greet their partners. In this small activity, students can act as a foreigner to greet their friends. This small pair work not only can let students get new knowledge with unconsciousness but also can let students know how to work with a single one or greet others by diffe
29、rent sentences in different situations.Another sample for group-work we finished with students in Tang Hu Middle School Class14 Grade1 on September 29th, 2009.Dear Feifei,Please take these things to your sister: her hat, watch, notebook, keys and ID card. The hat is on the dresser. The watch is unde
30、r the bed. The notebook is on the bed. The keys are in the drawer. The ID card is on the table. Thanks, Grandma (From Unit 4 in Go for It on Page23)Under the guide of role-play plan, the teacher asks students to read through this note in order to get the main information, firstly. Next let them clos
31、e their books and talk in a group to fill these blanks. At this point, teacher should take good preparations, like the following column.objectsplaceStudents should think these blanks and discuss with each other to find the answers. And then let students try to find the main forms for a note in a gro
32、up. After that, the teacher will call three students to the front, one is Feifei, another is Grandpa to ask and answer, the third students will try to draw out their description. At last, students will get free time to practice in a group. Though group work, students will feel how to play a role to
33、communicate with others by useful information and to grasp important information. These jobs we discussed look like practising under teachers controlled, but they also give students chances to act many roles to use English language. Here is a theory named “Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) mo
34、del” which is close to our role-play talking.2.1.2 Discussing the teaching theory of PPP and role-play talking. Many teachers may be familiar with the PPP model of teaching. A typical PPP lesson starts by the teacher introducing a new language item in a context followed by some controlled practice,
35、such as drilling, repetition, dialogue reading, etc. Students then move on to produce the language in a more meaningful way. In fact, PPP model is a usual way in China. “The detailed teaching of role play is categorized into three steps: presentation, comprehension, consolidation and utilization” (L
36、i Yun, 2006:5). His theory is similar to the PPP model. But by our learning life in China, we can find that many teachers stress on grammars or new knowledge, but ignore students activities and do by learning in China junior English teaching. However the main content of PPP model is to let students
37、do more time to speak out and regard students as the center of the classroom teaching.So the writer believes that there is not another way to get the point except talking. Talking is not only to make students read the context but also let students produce more reference knowledge by learning. We can
38、 use pair work or group work to practice these conversations from the books again and again. In PPP cycle, it needs to offer a simplified approach to language learning. It is based upon the idea that you can present language in a neat and clear way. Everyone knows how to talk and imitate from others
39、 conversation, so the role-play talking supports this situation though pair work and group work according to books. Let us give one example to get our goal by talking and PPP model. 2.1.3 Using the theory of PPP model to lead the activity of talking role play in the classes.Some experts of PPP cycle
40、 said that the ideal study environment should follow this graph.PPPPresentationOf single new itemPracticeOf new item: drills, exercise, and dialogue practice ProductionActivity, role play or task to encourage free use of language(A Course in English Language Teaching, 2006:32)We can find it includes
41、 3 main points. Now we used this PPP cycle to lead an activity of talking role- play in Section A Unit 1 from Go for It in Tang Hu Middle School Class14 Grade1 on October 20th, 2009.- My name is Jenny. -Im Gina. Nice to meet you!-Whats your name?- Alan.-Hello, Im Mary.-Hi, Mary. Im Jim. (From Unit 1
42、 in Go for It on Page1) Step 1, the teacher gives students a self-introduction. (Presentation)Teacher: My name is Sally. Nice to meet you!Students: Nice to meet you, too.During the first step, the teacher presents todays teaching material. Although many students have already known todays teaching ma
43、terial, the teacher will also give some simple introductions to more single students to motivate students to use it. And then teacher guides students to read the conversations.Step 2, the teacher let students do some controlled dialogue practice by pair work or group work. (Practice)A: My name is.B:
44、 Im.Nice to meet you.A: Nice to meet you, too.The second step is to practise todays teaching material and know the contents about todays material by doing.Step 3, the teacher gives students free time to find new friends in our class in English. (Production)At this step, students have free time to us
45、e English language to help them find new friends in our classroom. But they must learn to produce new sentences to get more information by our former knowledge. From this typical lesson, we can see role-play talking activities can be one part of PPP model. On the other hand, every talking activity s
46、hould be based on a situation, so that students can use new knowledge naturally to reach the final goal of the teaching by talking role-play. 2.2. The second main form of role-play -interview.2.2.1 Training the students initiative skills.The second main form of role-play the writer wants to discuss
47、is interview. The word interview has two meanings: the first one is a reporter, which asks somebody questions in order to find out his views; the other one is a meeting at which somebody is asked questions to find out if he/she is suitable (e.g. Somebody applying for a job)(OXFORD Advanced Learners
48、English-Chinese Dictionary, 2006:926). For these two meanings of interview, we can divide it into two main role-play activities of interview.For the first activity, we can suppose a situation which a superstar like Jay will take a meeting with journalists. We can choose one of the students to act as Jay, and others act as the journalists. It will be an attractive topic for students. They may ask a large number of questions