How To Make English Class More Effective

【Abstract】There are reasons why many Chinese students find it boring to have English class. The paper offers some solutions to the problem. Learner-centered approach is suggested.

【Key words】Language learning； traditional learning； learner-centered approach

【作者簡介】方華（1968.11- ），女，漢族，江西婺源人，上海應用技術學院外國語學院，講師，研究方向：英語語言文學。

I. Preface

Learning language， as is generally said， is a skill learning. If speaking language is skill， then the competence to do it comes only from practice. In the process of practice， knowledge is turned into an ability， a competence. Without the process of practice， knowledge of something will forever be knowledge about how to do something， not the competence of how to do it. Take for example the teaching of swimming. If the coach and his students stayed in the classroom all the time discussing how to swim， the students will not be able to swim at all even if they spend five years or ten years doing this. Similarly， a child is taught a lot of drawing knowledge， he may be still unable to draw pictures until he has had a lot of practice. So the ability to do something is quite different from the knowledge to do it. The purpose of language teaching is to enable the students to use the target language to communicate in real life， so learning should be conducted through students performance of authentic tasks.

II. Main problems in present college English teaching

However， in current college English teaching， the situation is far from satisfactory. More often than not， in the teacher-centered approach， emphasis is placed on teaching instead of learning or practice. In a great many classrooms， the teacher appears as a controller， who is incomplete charge of class activity， and the way of text tackled is controlled by the teacher. The teacher explains the text closely in a more traditional way and tries to put everything into students head， paying little attention to the feeling and reaction of students.On the other hand， however， students are just “ignorant audience”， waiting to be filled up with knowledge by the teacher. There is little co-operation between the teacher and the students and the teachers get little feedback from his listeners. This traditional Chinese methodology of “feeding the duck” will naturally lead to the students， who passively wait for the opportunity， to be “fed” by the teacher. As the foreign teachers comment on Chinese ELF classrooms； lack of interaction， individualization， creativity and self-expression. As a result， the students find it boring and monotonous to have English class， let alone the teaching effect. When leaving the classroom， they often complain they have not learned much from the teachers. As is described above， it is called “being teacher-centered”.

III. Solutions to the problems

As some experts pointed out， a principle purpose of education is to provide learning and environment that facilitate the achievement of the full potential of students. The teaching of English is not chiefly aimed at imparting knowledge to students， but at training them to acquire language and expressing themselves by means of language. The best efficiency in teaching English as a foreign language probably comes from an effective cooperation between the teacher and the student. The teacher-centered way of teaching can no longer meet the needs of the students to cope with their future professions and practical uses in society. In order to change the situation， the teaching of FL in Chinese classrooms should be made learned-centered as possible. Our new language teaching goal enables students to learn by using the target language in meaningful interactive situation. The teachers job is not only to offer a description of the language but also， through our material， to create conditions in classrooms that would help our students learn through active involvements in activities and asks. Therefore， the role of the teacher will be a helper instead of a trainer.

1. Reducing teachers talk

In order to make use of the class time， the teachers talk has to be reduced. In classroom teaching， it would be very boring if the speaker is always the teacher. Instead of teacher the language points of explanation through observation of some classroom activities such as pair work， student presentation， role-play， discussion， etc. thus reducing teacher-centered work.

2. Changing the teaching method from teacher-centered into learner-centered.

In traditional teaching activities， the students are left in a receptive status. Consequently， they regard the task of learning as nothing to do with them and gradually become less motivated and completely dependent on their teacher eventually. We can often see following shape in ELT classrooms； the teaching and learning activities are doing in a jug-and-mug mode， where the teacher has a full of jug of knowledge and pours it bit by bit into the mugs （students）. Much of this knowledge is grammar， vocabulary and other knowledge-oriented areas rather than skill-oriented areas. For most of the class hour， the teacher stands in front of the classroom giving demonstrations and explanations followed by PPT； while the students listen attentively， note indiscriminately， or many of them just sleep or play mobile phones. This kind of classroom activities can be attributed to an important characteristics of traditional Chinese culture， that is， the dignity of the teacher cannot be challenged， and the authority of the text is also not to be questioned. As a matter of fact， learning is an interactive process. We should encourage students to learn positively， tolerating their mistakes， instead of teaching and explaining everything.

The learner-centered approach means that in class the students are the center of the teaching activities. In the learner-centered approach， emphasis is laid on learning and communication. Pair work and class discussion are considered important class activities in developing students communicative ability. In doing these activities， since the studentsEnglish level is low， they have trouble expressing themselves. Some of them dont know the words with what they need to express themselves， some dont know the sentence patterns for expressing a certain idea， some of them even ask questions in Chinese which deal with the grammar they should have learned in high school. Nevertheless， they are active in thinking， but week in expressing themselves in English. This is very important. However， the typical Chinese style of teaching has tended to be critical of student performance rather than encouraging. So at this time， the teachers role is to help students to express themselves and enable them to participate in the activity， so that the students will become active. In addition， because the students learn the words， sentence patterns and grammar at the very time when they really need them， they learn them and remember them better. Through these activities， students have more opportunities to interact with the teacher and their classmates. All the four basic skills such as listening， speaking， reading and writing are fully trained. Accordingly， the learned-centered approach can make students able to use target language to communicate efficiently within a relaxed atmosphere.

IV. Conclusion

As experts pointed out，“Language doesnt occur in stray words or sentences， but it connected discourse.”In the course of teaching， teachers should not only pay attention to the language points， but also help students analyze the coherent and coherent connection between sentences， or find out the main idea of the text. Consequently， what the students gained， is not a little scattered knowledge about language， but the ability to understand the text as a whole.

In the learner-centered learning process， the students are giving more opportunities to practice English. And the teacher always plays multiple roles—as controller， as assessors， as organizer， as prompter， as participant and as resource. First， the teacher should prepare the text very well， thinking out the suitable method of teaching. Second， the teacher should get ready to solve any problem which may happen during the class activities. Learner-centered teachers talk about learning. In casual conversations， they ask students what they are learning. In class they may talk about their own learning. They challenge student assumptions about learning and encourage them to accept responsibility for decisions they make about learning； like how they study for exams， when they do assigned reading， whether they revise their writing or check their answers. Learner-centered teachers include assignment components in which students reflect， analyze and critique what they are learning and how they are learning it. The goal is to make students aware of themselves as learners and to make learning skills something students want to develop. Sometimes teachers make too many of the decisions about learning for students. Teachers decide what students should learn， how they learn it， the pace at which they learn， the conditions under which they learn and then teachers determine whether students have learned. Students arent in a position to decide what content should be included in the course or which textbook is best， but when teachers make all the decisions， the motivation to learn decreases and learners become dependent. Learner-centered teachers search out ethically responsible ways to share power with students. They might give students some choice about which assignments they complete.

In a word， the whole process of teaching involves the participation of both the teacher and the students in a more relaxed classroom atmosphere.

參考文獻：

[1]Harmer Jeremy.The Practice of English Language Teaching.Longman，1991.

[2]Lan Jie.A New Approach for Improving Speaking Fluently.Teaching English in China，2000.