Using Student—centered Strategies to Engage College learners in the English as a Second Language Classroom in in TCM University

白璐

【Abstract】This paper discusses how to improve students commu?nicative competence in teaching English as a second language. It will introduce different activities for college level students to encourage their interest and involve and talk in the classroom. These activities will not only practice Chinese students grammar and vocabulary； at the same time these activities will provide more chance for students to practice their oral English.

【Key words】ESL； EFL； Activities in Classroom； college level

The role of Teachers in Activities

Teachers should use structured input activities in their classes because the required textbook is written based on the structured input model. The teachers are obligated to cover a certain amount of activities in each chapter. They have the freedom to decide how they want to arrange the order of the activities and modify them accordingly. After they cover the required activities， the teachers have a choice to provide activities.

Learner-centered activities are characterized by practitioners， thus activities such as a methodology has much to do with interaction. Activities use communication as a means to reach the goal of learning English. Teachers in activities class have three major roles. The first and most important role is to serve as facilitators. The teacher should guide students learning and communication. Teacher should design some meaningful activities before the class， thus during the class， she/he will be provided more opportunities for students to interact.

What should teaching activities look like？

In ideal learner centered ESL classroom， there are general guidelines for creating EFL activities.

First， an effective activity should have preparatory parts that facilitate the students with grammar， vocabulary and relevant background knowledge， which is foundational part of learning. The activity is to enhance grammar and vocabulary.

Second， students are centered and students are provided with opportunities to use the target language to communicate through communicative activities. There are various classifications of activities that are typically found in a communicative language classroom. For example， Paulston and Bruder （1976， p.130）

Third， it is mostly agreed that one of the goals of using activities is to develop fluency in language use. In Richards （2006） terms， “fluency is the natural language use occurring when a speaker engages in meaningful interaction and maintains comprehensible and ongoing communication despite limitations in his or her communicative competence”.

Type of Activities

The First type is called the Information-gap activity. These activities are basically based on the fact that occurs in their textbooks. First， the teachers divide the class into groups of 5 according to alphabet A，B，C，D，E，F （depend on the class size）. Each student in one group will design questions and answers. Then one group will collect the questions and ask students from other groups. Students will think about what they will answer. This activity can cultivate students to think， at the same time， students can be involved in information gap activities. They will exchange unknown information in language classrooms. This activity can be used to build vocabulary， grammar， and communication strategies to complete a task.

The second activity is called the Jigsaw activity. These activities are also based on the information-gap principle. Students in each group will count from one to five. According to the different number， students will be have a different group from team one to five. Each new team will be given one paragraph. Students in one group will be an expert and will talk about their assigned paragraphs content， language structure， and make summaries， dialogs. Then they will go back their original groups from A to E. So now there are five experts in one group. Each student will talk to others about the main points of his or her assign pragraph.

The third activity is the Communication game. This game is mainly made up of information-gap activities， which are intended to have good communication in the classroom. Five students will be in one group， and each one will be given different graphs to read. After they finish their reading， they need to talk with each other and share the information， and make the correct order of the passage. At the same time， they should tell the reason why they are making this order. After all the teams finish， the teacher will give the correct order for everyone. This will create the need to speak and communicate. Students feel it is a challenge to participate； thus， an unconscious learning and practicing of knowledge occurs which erases the fears learners have for speaking in the class.