论文总字数：30006字

摘 要

根据自身的学前英语教学实践，作者发现学前英语教学的一些不利因素。它们分别是汉语的负迁移作用、教师综合能力的不足和儿童认知能力的局限。进而，提出一套符合学前儿童需要的学前英语教学法，即学前英语游戏教学法。它的理论基础吸收了传统英语教学法理论，如全身反应法、听说法、交际语言教学法和自然法。本文还逐一介绍了学前英语教学法的理论基础、教学设计、教学过程和注意事项。

学前英语游戏教学法的精髓是在有趣的游戏中学习英语。它有效地克服传统英语教学中“重操练，轻实践”的弊端。为学前儿童英语学习营造了轻松愉快的氛围。游戏教学法简单易行，是适合学前英语教学的英语教学法。学前英语游戏教学法的实施，是教学实践的有益尝试，希望为学前英语教学同行提供参考。

关键词：学前英语；英语教学法；游戏教学法

Contents

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research Motivation 1

1.2 Significance of This Study 2

1.3 Structure of This Study 2

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Total Physical Response 3

2.2 The Audio-lingual Method 3

2.3 Communicative Language Teaching 4

2.4 The Natural Approach 4

3. The Influencing Factors of Teaching in Preschool English 5

3.1 The Negative Transfer of Chinese 6

3.2 Teachers’ Lacking Comprehensive Competence 6

3.3 The Limitation of Children’s Cognitive Ability 7

4. The Teaching- in- Game Method 8

4.1 Background of This Teaching Method 8

4.2 Theoretical Basis 8

4.3 Teaching Design 8

4.3.1 Objectives 9

4.3.2 Principles 9

4.3.3 The Roles of Learners and Teachers 10

4.3.4 The Roles of Instructional Materials 11

4.4 Teaching Process 11

4.4.1 Pre-game preparation 11

4.4.2 While-game process 11

4.4.3 Post-game reflection 12

4.5 Dos and Don’ts 12

5. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

In this chapter, the motivation of the research is firstly elaborated. Then the significance of this study is explained. Finally, this chapter outlines the structure and content of the rest of the paper.

1.1 Research Motivation

The motivation of the research is derived from an experience of internship. It takes me nearly two months to be an English apprentice teacher in a nursery school where most students of mine aged eight years old. At the very beginning, I attempt to tell them every language points in the traditional way, making them listen to me, read after me and do everything as I told. In reality, my efforts turn out to be in vain. They have a lot of energy left, absolutely so much. However, what they are busy with has nothing to do with their English lesson and me. It surprises me when it comes to games their eyes are shining. They show tremendous interest in playing games and compete to be a member of the games. Therefore I realize the importance of setting up the framework of a fresh teaching method. That is Teaching-in-Game Method.

1.2 Significance of This Study

This study focuses on the proposal of Teaching-in-Game Method in preschool English. After exploring the former teaching methods and exposing the influencing factors of preschool English teaching, the thesis tends to present an effective and efficient teaching method for preschool English teachers. And by adopting the approach, preschool children can get access to interesting and fascinating English at the very beginning. It is time to make a difference in preschool English teaching by adopting a more beneficial method. The Teaching-in-Game Method caters to such an urgent need.

1.3 Structure of This Study

The thesis is composed of five chapters. It firstly introduces the reason and the significance of this research. Then in the second chapter, a literature review is provided on a variety of widely-used English teaching methods. The third chapter mainly tells the influencing factors of teaching in preschool English. Besides, the Teaching-in-Game Method is included in the fourth chapter of the thesis. The theory background of this method and the practical teaching process can be found in it. The last chapter tries to conclude the thesis and advocate the Teaching-in-Game Method.

2. Literature ReviewThis chapter reviews the theory of teaching methods, including The Audio-lingual Method, TPR Teaching and Communicative Language Teaching. All of them serve as effective approaches to deal with practical teaching. However, if these practical methods are not applied under the certain circumstance, the effect may be not as impressive as what teachers have expected.

2.1 Total Physical Response

TPR is the short form of Total Physical Response. Developed by James Asher, the TPR Teaching has been widely applied in second language teaching for infants and children. It is advocated that speech and action need to be mixed. It seeks to teach language through physical activities.

Teachers had better to convey the information of language through body language such as imitation and acting. Take animals as an example, teachers can imitate animal grunts to teach names of animals. The reason is that children are familiar with the sounds each animal can make. They can quickly infer a word “cat” from the sound “mew”. Then the word cat seems like an authentic animal for it has its sounds which is totally different from the sounds of other animals. In such harmonious atmosphere, children can grasp the names of animals as soon as possible.

Acting is a useful form in TPR teaching methods. In fact, life is a big stage, and all men and women are merely players. So every word to teach can be presented in the stage by acting. According to the word or several words, teachers can design the various plots of acting. Children, as the protagonists of their studies, have the freedom to design their unique screenplay and physical movements.

2.2 The Audio-lingual Method

As the name indicates, this method advocates listening and speaking. Generally speaking, it is based on the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) that is a special training program to supply the U.S. government with multi-lingual ability. The theory of language underlying Audio-lingual method was derived from structural linguistics. An important tenet of structural linguistics is that the primary medium of language is oral: Speech is language. Audio-lingualists advocate a return to speech-based instruction with the primary objective of oral proficiency and dismiss the study of grammar or literature as the goal of foreign language teaching. The basis of audio-lingual classroom practices is made up of dialogues and drills. Being a teacher-dominated method, it views learners as organisms that can be directed by skilled training techniques to produce correct responses.

2.3 Communicative Language Teaching

The origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be founded due to the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s. It is a theory of language teaching that starts from a communicative model of language and language use, and that seeks to translate this into a design for an instructional system, for materials, for teachers and learner roles and behaviors. At the level of language, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich, if somewhat eclectic, theoretical base. Henry Widdowson presents a view of the relationship between linguistic systems and their communicative values in the text and discourse. He focuses on the communication acts underlying the ability to use language for different purposes. The role of learner as negotiator between the self, the learning process, and the object of learning emerges from and interacts with the role of joint negotiator. Several roles are assumed for teachers in Communication Language Teaching. Teachers serve as organizers of resources. Communication Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method.

2.4 The Natural Approach

In 1977, Tracy Terrell outlined a proposal for a new philosophy of language teaching which he calls the Natural Approach. This is the first attempt to develop a language teaching proposal that incorporated the “naturalistic” principles. Language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meanings and messages. Hence Krashen and Terrell hold that acquisition can take place only when people understand messages in the target language. The natural approach is primarily designed to develop basic communication skills both oral and written. As to the learner roles, the language acquirer is seen as a processor of comprehensible input. And the natural approach teacher has three central roles. They are the primary source of comprehensible input, the creator of interesting atmosphere of class and the organizer of rich classroom activities. In the procedure of the natural approach, the instructor maintains a constant flow of comprehensible input by using key words, appropriate gestures, context, repetition, and paraphrase to ensure the comprehensibility of the input.

The four kinds of teaching methods are all the popular teaching methods for English. In a sense, Total Physical Response is a revival and extension of Palmer and Palmer’s English through Actions. It is its support by those who emphasize the role of comprehension in second language acquisition that makes it enjoy some popularity. The audio-lingual beliefs receive much attack in the late sixties and become unfashionable. The MIT linguist Noam Chomsky rejects the Audio-lingual Method says “Language is not a habit structure. Ordinary linguistic behavior characteristically involves innovation, formation of new sentences and patterns in accordance with rules of great abstractness and intricacy (Richards and Rodgers 59).” And Communicative Language Teaching is best considered an approach rather than a method. Now that the initial wave of enthusiasm has passed, however, some of the claims of CLT are being looked at more critically. The Natural Approach belongs to a tradition of language teaching methods based on observation and interpretation of how learners acquire both first and second languages in non-formal settings. Such a method criticizes the formal or grammatical organization of language as a prerequisite to teaching.

3. The Influencing Factors of Teaching in Preschool English Three main influencing factors of teaching in preschool English are summarized in the thesis. They are the negative transfer of Chinese, the insufficient competence of teachers and the limited cognitive ability of children. Of course, there are other factors that can influence the process of English teaching. In a word, all the possible influencing factors become limiting factor of preschool English teaching.

3.1 The Negative Transfer of Chinese

Compared to Chinese, English seems to be a completely different language system. Few similarities can be found out in the process of acquisition between the two languages. To many young Chinese learners, it is the negative transfer of Chinese that hinders them from accelerating their English studies. The negative language transfer refers to a kind of phenomenon in the process of second language learning that learners use their native pronunciation, meaning, structure, habits or rules in their first languages to express ideas. Thus it has a negative impact on learning the target language. The so-called negative transfer is presented in many aspects, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and so on. The fact is the system of English pronunciation appears too difficult to grasp for children in China. For example, the two vowels /e/ and /æ/ confuse some kids. They sound somewhat the same sound for children. For the reason, they have difficulty in telling the difference between “bed” and “bad”. At the same time, the collocation of Chinese words also has a great impact on the performance of children. When confronted with those phrase translations which seem to be unique in their mother tongue, they attempt to translate them literally, which does harm to the long-term studies. In addition, the lack of similar rules in Chinese grammar also poses a huge threat to preschoolers. Why the regular verbs needs adding “s” when the subject is a third person singular. Why the phrases like “on the tree” and “in the tree’ is different? It is hard for children to fully understand the differences in grammar. Then, mistakes are unavoidable. The incorrect expression like red tea and more sentences without “be” frequently occur in the dialogues of preschoolers.

3.2 Teachers’ Lacking Comprehensive Competence

The effect of English teaching largely depends on the comprehensive competence of teachers. To make students succeed in preschool English learning asks for teachers’ overall abilities. Of course, the language skills are indispensable. They must speak nearly native English and meet some other essential needs associated with professionals. However, it can hardly be said sufficiently in practice. Non-language abilities, such as gestures, eye contacts, facial expressions in the process of teaching. As to preschool English teachers, they have to master more skills like singing, dancing and blackboard drawing. Except for the abilities mentioned, I insist that the sense of innovation mean a great deal. A teacher with a strong sense of innovation is capable of selecting proper teaching methods under different conditions, as well as creating harmonious atmosphere in which children have a good chance to learn as happily as they can.

In a word, the comprehensive competence of teachers is linked with the teaching of preschool English.

3.3 The Limitation of Children’s Cognitive Ability

As a matter of fact, the age span of the children involved in this study is roughly between 4 and 9 years old, which can be viewed as the gold time for acquiring languages. Huang Yuanbai explains the reason why it is of great significance in his book named “Thinking and research of preschool English teaching (Huang Yuanbo 2003: 22).”

Some scientists claim that Broca’s area, which is responsible for learning language in the human brain, is quite active in preschool period. However, with growth of the age, the sensitivity of arena will be on the decline. The speed of language learning will be lower and lower. The efficiency also becomes less and less remarkable.

According to the assumption of Piaget, Children are becoming more and more logical. The Swiss psychologist explains: “Now the children have a well-organized cognitive system, tends to have concrete things and events in the world as its objects…For the first time, a child becomes a truly social being (Piaget 1983: 154).’’

They tend to show great enthusiasm for new and attractive things. Everything is so fresh and amazing that they can not help exploring the mysterious world. In short, fun is nothing but what children are keeping seeking for. They continue asking questions, some of which may sound a little strange, running and jumping all the daytime. So it is impossible for them to sit and listen for a long time in the class, not to mention the odd language class. It poses a big challenge for teachers how to make children concentrated and preschool English teaching vivid. And more amusing and entertaining teaching methods instead of the traditional spoon-feed pedagogy should be put into practice.

4. The Teaching- in- Game Method

4.1 Background of This Teaching Method

The preschool English enjoys great popularity in China. The traditional English teaching methods is faded away, while game takes up the most important place for its great fun. Wenjing says “Education is not limited to the classroom and extracurricular activities. Game, a kind of learning, serves as a mode of education (Zhang Zi 2011: 21).” The internship experience makes me sure that it is the most attractive and effective way to teach preschool English. And according to my own classroom observation, the Teaching-in-Game Method must be further explored and analyzed.

4.2 Theoretical Basis

The Teaching-in-Game Method has a profound theoretical basis，which combine the theories of four famous traditional teaching methods of Total Physical Response, the Audio-lingual Method，Communicative Language Teaching，and the Natural Approach. Firstly, the Teaching-in-Game Method believes that pre-school English teaching mainly focuses on simple listening and speaking practice that the teachers just directly show the language materials. Secondly, learning in games is the key of this method so that children learn English through physical activities following the teachers’ orders. What’s more, one of the purposes of pre-school English is that children can communicate with partners in everyday English. In addition, the children are proposed to learn English as a second language in a natural subconscious non-formal setting.

4.3 Teaching Design

The Teaching-in-Game Method has a complete system of teaching design. A game-oriented and speech-aided instruction with the primary objective of oral proficiency is advocated. Then two principles are proposed to guide the application of the Teaching-in-Game Method. Sense and context are two elements needed to be taken in account in preschool English teaching. The roles of learners and teachers change greatly. The true masters of class are the learners instead of the teachers.

4.3.1 Objectives

The general objectives of the Teaching-in-Game Method are to teach oral proficiency at a beginning level. Comprehension is a means to an end, and the ultimate aim is said to have basic speaking skills. In a game-based classroom, teachers spare every effort to involve preschool students in the games where they are able to play like native speakers. There are specific objectives which include accurate pronunciation, recognition of speech symbols, ability to communicate creatively and spirit of teamwork. No matter what objectives have been made, they must be attainable by the adoption of the Teaching-in-Game Method.

4.3.2 Principles

There are two principles in the Teaching-in-Game Method. The first one is the context principle. According to the language acquisition theory of Krashen, language can be acquired in the natural and meaningful context. He points out: “the ability of language communication comes from the natural environment in the language acquisition….(Krashen 1987: 127). ” As a result, we should spare no effort to create appropriate context during the process of English teaching. Of course, the context created must be consistent with the language item. Pictures, songs, games and other aids are of great help in creation of situation or context you desire. For example, teachers may show a picture of fruit store to children when they are teaching fruits. Then teachers ask them “now we are buying some fruits. What do you want? ”. Soon, their whole minds will be filled with images, tastes and other traits of all kinds of fruits. It is definitely beneficial for them to establish the links between the Chinese meaning of every fruit and its image. Attaching much importance to context does not equal to memorizing countless language points. Context plays a vital role in how to acquire English for children.

The other principle is the sense principle. The sense principle is a kind of principle that teachers try to make students use more kinds of senses including the senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching to learn English. It can be proved as an important principle through the following experiment. The former Soviet psychologist once carried out an experiment where three groups of students were asked to remember the information of ten pictures through the following three ways. “The first group attempt to retell what they had seen only by visual memory, their direct memory effect is 70%. The second group of memory simply by hearing, 60% is the grade of them. Finally, by using a set of visual and auditory with memory, the memory effect reached 86.3%. Thus, it is quite significant to mobilize a variety of sensory memory effect（Lv Peipei 2010: 38）.” Children would like to acquire language by various senses. They have great passion in speaking, listening and drawing. The more senses used, the more surprising effect of vocabulary study can be arrived. If the physical links between the language and senses can be firmly established, Children can understand word sand sentences not only from the literal meaning, but also from what they have experienced in everyday life. Take color teaching for an example. Teachers may prepare some objects like red apples and yellow bananas in advance. And young students are happy to see all of them. Then teachers try to tell them “It’s red, red ...” In this way, each color can leave a deep impression on their senses and mind. When the same color appears, its name occurs to them in no time.

4.3.3 The Roles of Learners and Teachers

Learners in the Teaching-in-Game Method have the primary roles of listener and performer. They listen attentively to the teachers and play the games chosen by teachers. Learners have little influence over the content of learning but they have the freedom to play the games and enjoy the classroom activities. They are encouraged to speak, act and even create their own games when they are ready to do these things.

The teacher roles are classified into four types. They are:

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