The Interactive English Teaching Method Based on Constructivism in Junior Middle School英语本科专业毕业论文.docx

The Interactive English Teaching Method Based on Constructivism in Junior Middle SchoolAbstractWith the promotion of teaching reforms, many scientific and efficient teaching methods are strongly advocated in classroom teaching. Among these, interactive teaching method is an effective and popular method. In recent years, constructivist theory which emphasizes students initiative learning has been widely applied into education in all parts of the world.However, the traditional “teacher-centered” method has dominated English teaching for a long time, which makes students bored and accept knowledge passively. For the sake of inadequate interaction, students communicative competence and second language acquisition are not well developed. Neither is their initiative learning. Constructivism holds that students are an essential part in classroom teaching. They construct knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their own experiences and ideas. Therefore, it is quite essential that teachers should provide more interactions with students to communicate. This thesis combines these two theories, trying to show their importance and to find an effective way to learn English.Key words: Constructivism; Interactive teaching method; Classroom teaching17摘要随着教学改革的推进，很多科学而有效的教学方法展现在课堂中。其中，互动教学法就是一种有效而受欢迎的教学方法。近些年来，注重学生主动学习的建构主义理论也被广泛运用到全世界的教学中。然而，传统的以教师为中心的教学方法一直在英语教学中处于领导地位。这种教学模式使学生感到厌烦并且被动地接受知识。由于缺少足够的互动，学生的交际能力和第二语言习得能力没有得到很好的发展。学生的主动学习能力同样没有提高。建构主义认为学生是课堂教学的主体，他们对自己的经验和思想进行互动从而达到知识和意义的建构。因此，教师给学生提供更多的互动机会进行交流是非常必要的。本文结合建构主义理论和互动式教学，体现两者对学习英语的重要意义并尝试探求学习英语的有效途径。关键词：建构主义；互动教学法；课堂教学CONTENTSACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIABSTRACTII摘要III1. INTRODUCTION12. THE OVERVIEW OF CONSTRUCTIVIST THEORY22.1 Constructivist learning theory32.2 Constructivist-based teaching theory43. BASIC CONCEPTS OF INTERACTION AND CLASSROOM INTERACTION53.1 Teacher-student interaction63.2 Student-student interaction74. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSTRUCTIVISM AND INTERACTIVE TEACHING METHOD84.1 The similarity in theoretic foundation94.2 The similarity in teaching approaches95. THE APPLICATION OF INTERACTIVE ENGLISH TEACHING METHOD BASED ON CONSTRUCTIVISM IN JUNIOR MIDDLE SCHOOL115.1 Creation of a constructivist environment115.2 Enhancement of interactive patterns125.3 Improvement of an awareness of questioning135.4 Assessment of students performance146. CONCLUSION16WORKS CITED18The Interactive English Teaching Method Based on Constructivism in Junior Middle School1. IntroductionEnglish as a foreign language has existed for a long time in China. A growing number of people have paid much attention to English teaching due to the practice of the Opening and Reform Policy. Besides, English has been considered as one of the fundamental subjects in the curriculum of middle school since the early 1990s. However, it cannot be neglected that English teaching still has a long way to reach the national English level on account of Chinese traditional teaching method. Therefore, how to change the traditional “cramming method of English teaching” and fostering students interests in learning English is the issue that all the countries encounter nowadays. Although there are many teaching approaches available, it is still difficult to find an effective and satisfactory approach in English teaching of junior middle school. As constructivism gets more concerns from the researchers in teaching, some constructivists have put forward a series of reforms which attempt to shape “student-centered” model in classroom teaching, trying to cultivate students motivation and initiation of learning, interaction with teachers. Furthermore, teachers serving as guiders can stimulate students interests and encourage them to have enough interaction both in and out of class. Junior middle school students are in the second important period of acquiring a foreign language. However, in Chinese traditional classroom, the students just listen to teachers, take notes and take in knowledge passively. There is little or no exchange of information and interactions with teachers. It is safe to conclude that this teaching method is not consistent with students psychological characteristics; it just makes the students acquire English passively rather than helps them have a desire to learn. As for the teacher, he or she only plays as a transmitter. So take the quality of English teaching into consideration, optimizing English teaching method in junior middle school is fairly necessary. Constructivism holds that teaching should be built based on what learners have already known and teachers should guide them to different kinds of activities. This idea has fully illustrated the importance of interactive activities which can help students to stimulate their interest and consolidate the knowledge they have learnt. The traditional teaching method not only depresses the atmosphere of the classroom, but also erases students initiation of learning and self-construction learning.2. The overview of constructivist theory Constructivism is a fairly advanced theory system，which develops further from behaviorism to cognitivism. It refers to the idea that the learner constructs knowledge from experience. In other words, the acquisition of knowledge happens in the process of self-construction. Knowing is a process of self-construction, learners need to transform the knowledge provided by teachers or books and comprehend it by themselves. In terms of constructivism, there are many historical scholars making contribution to its development. First, it is generally put forward by Jean Piaget, who articulates mechanisms by which knowledge is internalized by learners. He suggests that through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences. Whats more, he argues knowledge is constructed through social collaboration, and learning arises from interactions with others. (郑勇, 陶三发，2007) Piaget's theory of constructivist learning has had wide ranging impact on learning theories and teaching methods in education and is an underlying theme of many education reform movements.John Dewey has provided a foundation for Constructivism. He believes that learning occurs when children are experiencing something. Teachers need to design environments and interact with learners to foster inventive, creative, critical learners. (Archambault, 1964) Therefore, teachers should have an understanding of learners characteristics as well as personalities. And another understanding of arousing learners interest and curiosity for learning also need teachers attention. As teachers, they must balance these two understandings. Psychologist Vygotsky represents socio-constructivist theory which holds learning is best achieved through the dynamic interaction between teacher and learner and between learners. (Vygotsky, 1978) With the help of the teacher or another learner, the learner can move to a new level of understanding. Modern constructivists pay much attention to Vygotskys theories, which have been used to support classroom instructional methods that emphasize cooperative learning, project-based learning, and discovery. (Holliday, 1994)It can be concluded that the development of constructivism theory is closely connected with interactions and it attaches great importance to learners self-exploration, self-discovery and self-construction of knowledge. The term knowledge can be seen as a product of humans and it is socially and culturally constructed by human themselves. Today, there is much pedagogy related to constructivist theory. Most teaching approaches developing from constructivism advocate that knowledge is constructed by learners themselves. Moreover, constructivist learning theory and constructivist-based teaching theory which will be discussed in the following sections also have captured great attention nowadays.2.1 Constructivist learning theoryAccording to constructivism, it points out that knowledge is not acquired from teachers; instead, its acquisition depends on learners themselves, teachers are just viewed as guiders and promoters from whom learners can get some help. Through making good use of materials under a certain circumstance, they can construct meanings finally. The constructivist learning theory involves four factors. They are circumstance, cooperation, discussion and meaning construction. Constructivism plays an important role in learning; it aims at consolidating meaning construction. Therefore, lesson planning should not only pay attention to teaching goals, but also to circumstance which is helpful for learners to construct meanings. Cooperation which focuses on interactions between learners functions greatly in the whole process of learning; it can improve students ability of communicating. Furthermore, it concerns about material collecting and analysis, questions and discovery, assessment and meaning construction. As for discussion, it is an indispensable part in cooperation, including group discussion and group communication. In accordance with students characteristics of psychology, discussion can give students some chances to show themselves. To some extent, it strengthens students communicative competence. Last but not least, meaning construction is the final purpose of learning. It consists of the nature, regularity and inner connections of leaning. (何克抗，2009) Constructivist defines that learning is a process of learners self-construction instead of teachers controlling. In other words, what a learner gets is proportional to his ability of meaning construction. So take the features of constructivist learning theory into account, a constructivist classroom should be managed by teachers who can help students to construct meanings in an appropriate environment. 2.2 Constructivist-based teaching theoryConstructivism which develops from cognitive theory of children has formed a new learning theory and a new teaching theory as well. According to constructivism mentioned above, this learning theory stresses the importance of individuals. It advocates students initiation of constructing meaning. Although constructivism maintains students are the main part in classroom teaching, it does not mean that teachers can be neglected. By contrary, it puts emphasis on teachers roles in helping students to love learning. Additionally, the new curriculum also stipulates that the teacher should function as a facilitator of students learning rather than simply transmitting knowledge. This means that the teacher needs to create a positive learning environment to motivate learners and interact with them, guide them to acquire knowledge by themselves. The learning environment should also be designed to support and challenge the learner's thinking. This reform is consistent with constructivism, the teacher is considered as an organizer, a guider and a promoter in learners self-construction. (付春玲，2010) As a result, to learn English well does not only depend on learners themselves, but also depend on teachers. Teachers roles involve helping students to develop their ability of self-construction, activate their motivation in learning and shape an appropriate learning environment. Thus, teachers need to have a better understanding of constructivism and bring it into classroom teaching. In addition to the constructivist learning and teaching theory, constructivism also pours attention into the teaching models. At present, there have been three mature and popular teaching approaches influenced by constructivism. They are scaffolding instruction; anchored instruction and random access instruction.（张其云，2003）Although there are some differences among them, the core idea is the same. That is, learners complete meaning construction by themselves through interactions.3. Basic concepts of interaction and classroom interactionThe concepts of interaction vary from scholars to scholars. As for the “interaction”, it refers to a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. In terms of interactive teaching method, it is seen as a branch of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) that was developed in early 1970s in Europe. It focuses on speaking and listening skills, with which learners can communicate easily. Ellis defines interaction from the perspective of language acquisition: “Interaction consists of the discourse jointly constructed by the learner and his interlocutors; input, therefore, is the result of interaction”. (Ellis, 1999) However, such skills have not made any progress through the traditional way of teaching where the emphasis was on the learning of grammar rules and translation. In the traditional classroom, students could not have enough chances to apply the language, although CLT promotes that people use language to fulfill functional purposes - to interact with people. In other words, the purpose of language learning is not to learn its grammatical structures but to be able to use the structures for communication. As for classroom teaching, interaction is a collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more students in classroom teaching from the point of pedagogy. Through interactions, learners can get some improvement of their ideas. English is learnt not taught, it can not arouse students interest as a language; instead, teachers imagination and teaching approach have an affect on it. Therefore, the application of interaction is an important faction in a successful classroom teaching. Students can interact with each other; they can show their ideas and share their ideas. Generally speaking, interactions reflect a teaching statement “Learning by doing.” Furthermore, classroom interaction involves many activities, such as discussion, pair work, games, role-play and group work. Learners can enhance the comprehension of knowledge through these kinds of activities. Littlewood introduced a classification of social interaction activities: Role-playing through cued dialoguesRole-playing through cues and informationRole-playing through situation and goals Role-playing through debate or discussionLarge-scale simulation activitiesImprovisation (Littlewood, 1981)With regard to what Littlewood put forward, these social interaction activities can be applied in classroom teaching. Various interactions can help both students and teachers to achieve the aim of courses. Whats more, they can cultivate learners communicative competence and show learners the way to study by themselves, in other words, self-construction. 3.1 Teacher-student interaction As for teacher-student interaction, it is different from traditional teaching pedagogy. In a traditional language classroom, the teaching focus is often on forms rather than functions. The teacher o