Strategies for Teaching English Texts in High Schools

Abstract：The aim of English language teaching in high schools is to build a solid foundation for the students’ basic skills， improve their ability to learn by themselves and cultivate their reading ability. In so many English materials， English text is the most important and authentic material for their learning. In this case， this paper will lay emphasis on English texts. Teaching English texts in classroom is essential for English language teaching， which includes three steps， such as preview， classroom teaching and review. This paper will analyze some problems， such as problems in “leading in”， and introduce some effective classroom teaching approaches， such as the communicative teaching approach， the suggestopedia teaching approach， as well as the ways of “leading in” and cooperative learning. Furthermore， as the paper will mention， the teacher should pay much attention to the students’ psychology and the teacher should master the skills to give questions in the class. I hope this paper will be a support for English language teaching in high schools.

Key Words: classroom teaching， leading in， cooperative learning

1.Introduction

It is a well-known fact that the key to the improvement of teaching quality is to scientifically work out a teaching plan， select text-books， make definite the teachers’ function and select an appropriate teaching methodology. There exists a direct relationship between the property of language input， the learners’ learning process and the understanding of language acquisition patterns in the classroom and guiding of the teaching plan. The teachers’ understanding of language-teaching theory plays a significant and substantive role in the whole teaching process， concerning both important decision such as syllabus design， text-book selection， concrete classroom activities and homework. For example， the differences in the choice of a teacher-centered or a learner-centered mode will lead to differences in the choice of teaching plan， teaching methodology and bring out different results. Therefore， improving the English text teaching in high schools is so necessary and important.

This paper will introduce some classroom teaching approaches， discuss some problems and new thoughts of teaching English texts in high schools through the following three steps: guiding the preview before the class， teaching the content of the text in effective ways and doing the review after the text. English text is a very important part of English language learning. Because of the inactivity of high students’ English learning and the teacher-centered mode in English teaching， the paper aims at combining teachers and students in English class and helping to improve the English teaching in high schools.

2.The Effective Classroom Teaching Approaches

The classroom is the most important part in English teaching in high school. In this case， the effective classroom teaching approaches are necessary in English teaching. In the past English language teaching process， a lot of teachers adopted teacher-centered mode in English classes. That is why the Chinese students， who had learned English for 10 or even 15 years， still fail to use daily English and communicate with others in English. So the teachers should realize that their chief responsibility is to lay down plane， manage the interaction， monitor learning， explain the difficulties and offer timely feedback in learning. Therefore， the English learning should concern the bilateral activities of both the teachers’ teaching and the learner’ learning.

Nowadays， many linguists try their best to do research and practice to improve English teaching. They have worked out some effective classroom teaching approaches， which include communicative approach， direct approach and so on.

3.Three Steps of Teaching English Texts

The English text book is the must material in English learning. The basic material will involve the basic knowledge and skills in English learning. So how to teach the English text well is the most important part in English teaching in high school. The following part will discuss the English text teaching through the three steps: before the class， in the class and after the class.

4. Conclusion

In the paper， I have introduced some problems and new effective ways of teaching English texts through the three steps in the class in high schools. To sum up， the teaching ways contribute a lot to our English text learning and teaching. For the high school students， English texts are the most important material for English learning. So we should pay much attention to English text learning and teaching. I believe we shall do our continued efforts to improve English learning and teaching.

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