论文总字数：33473字

摘 要

“边缘人”是指在课堂教学中遭排斥、受压抑或被遗忘的人。由于边缘人这种现象通常只在少数学生身上表现出来，故很容易成为教师忽略的对象。然而，这种情况不仅不符合新课改的精神要求，也无法促进学生的全面发展。另外，从学生角度而言，放弃在英语课堂上的锻炼和发展机会，不仅会影响学生的身心发展，而且也背离了现代社会对人才培养的要求，不符合教育事业发展的根本宗旨和目标。本文基于对课堂教学的深入调研和观察，尝试着对中学英语课堂的“边缘人”现象进行了深层次的分析和思考。通过对这类人群的表征分析，试图找出成因，对症下药，以期为中学英语课堂营造和谐、生动、有效的学习氛围做出应有的积极作用。

关键词：原因；对策；边缘人

Contents

1. Introduction...................................................................................................1
2. Literature Review……………………………………………………..........2
3. Findings of the Classroom Observation…………................……………..3

3.1 Observation of the Classrooms …..................................................................3

3.2 Observation of the Teacher.............................................................................3

3.3 Observation of the Students............................................................................3

4. Causal Analysis of the Phenomenon.............................................................4

4.1 External Environment ...................................................................................4

4.2 Students’ Cognition…………………………................................................5

4.3 Teachers’ Conception.....................................................................................6

5. Countermeasures towards the Phenomenon ...............................................7

5.1 Creation of Favorable Teaching and Learning Environment……………….7

5.2 Improvement of English Teachers" Educational Conception……………..…8

5.3 Enhancement of Students" English and Self-confidence………….............10

6. Conclusion……………………………………….…………….……...……10

Works Cited……………………………………………………………..…….12

1. Introduction

The present situation of middle school English teaching of our country is: English teachers in the middle school occupy the dominant position in class. They are not only the leader of the students in learning, but also function as an important source of students" knowledge. New curriculum reform plays an important role in our country, especially in foreign language teaching. As we can see, middle school English education in China has made gratifying achievements. Students" English autonomous learning ability, in a certain extent, has been improved and the traditional learning methods have been changed by making more effective oral communicative English exercise. That is a breakthrough of great significance.

However, the problem of marginal students in the English classroom has become even more serious. Such a phenomenon is often found in group activities in the English classroom: a minority of students just do their own thing as if it has nothing to do with themselves. Although they are in group activities, they do not participate in discussions at all. Postmodern education thinker call these students "marginal people", who are excluded, ignored, repressed or forgotten, and become the most insignificant people in the class. These students are often with poor expression and communication ability. They neither listen to others nor express their own points of view. Therefore, this negative phenomenon will no doubt become the biggest obstacle which hinders the English classroom teaching.

This paper puts the“marginal man”phenomenon as the research object, studying the causes and disadvantages of this phenomenon in middle school students English class, and putting forward the appropriate strategies to solve this problem in order to make students play their own part, actively communicate with the teacher and answer the teacher"s questions. Therefore, this research has a profound practical significance.

In the study, classroom observation and questionnaires are used to make a research on the English class fringe phenomenon in middle school. The results show that: marginal man phenomenon in middle school class does exist. In order to find out the causes, this thesis made a survey on some middle school students and analyzed the results from three aspects: external environment, students and teachers. Corresponding to the above three aspects, three solutions are provided. First of all, teachers should create a favorable teaching and learning environment. Secondly, the educational concept of English teachers should be enhanced. Finally, all kinds of means should be applied to improve the language ability of students and to help them build self-confidence.

2. Literature Review

The prototype of the “marginal people” theory is put forward by German sociologist George Simon in 1908:those who are living in a society, don"t understand the social internal mechanism in a social group.”As a combination of linguistic study and social science，it is an interdisciplinary study lying between natural and social science which applies to the development of natural science as well as provides theories and methods for solving problems in language teaching. American sociologist Robert.park, in his eye, marginal man is "anxiety, maladjustment, eager to become a new group member but being excluded." In the field of education, many scholars have an in-depth study on the issue. American scholar Frank E.Williams studies the influence of the size of the school and has established five characteristics of the marginal students in 1964 from the perspective of education ecology.

In China，the serious and real research of fuzzy linguistics started in the late 1970s．Scholars in our country define marginal students as those who lack the academic ability background of knowledge and those disadvantaged students in the school The American scholar Brewer holds that the so-called marginal man is one from him/her social groups is the isolated, not really accepted by others; the second definition is people with borderline personality traits. Therefore, we think, marginal students involve a minority of students who are not accepted (caused by its psychological, personality, physical condition Etc.)by their teachers or, in other words, the teaching objectives in the process of teaching. They are different from underachievers in the academic achievement and common judgment standard of morality quality criterion. They can also be called the "invisible man", "outsider" in the teaching process.

Though much research has been carried out with great achievements in this area, we have noticed that the research interest has predominantly fallen on such aspects as marginal students of language use in general．Comparatively, there are not so many studies in regard to causal analysis and countermeasures of marginal students in middle school English classroom. What merits special attention in the future is to study marginal students in English class deeply and systematically．

3. Findings of the Investigation of the Phenomenon

3.1 Observation of the Classrooms

In order to understand the current situation of middle school English class marginal students phenomenon, this study made two surveys through classroom observation method and through the questionnaire survey. Here are the results of analysis. The observed four class, three of whose atmosphere is depressing, there is only one class is relatively active. According to observation, every English lesson teaching activity is step-by-step like a set of formulation. What’s worse, teachers tend to give priority to conventional teaching methods. Students just listen or take notes without interaction between teachers and students. Only a few students are active enough to stand up to answer the teacher"s questions. While if the English teacher is more passion with loud voice, the students can learn with more enthusiasm of students, and thus the whole class"s atmosphere is so mobilized that students are more willing to actively cooperate with classmates in teaching activities and take the initiative to answer the teacher"s questions.

3.2 Observation of the Teachers

The teacher mainly adopts" the teacher speak, students listen" way of teaching. The teacher is the leader of the classroom while the students just play the role of the audience. In the observation section of the English class, there are seven lessons teaching lesson on vocabulary, grammar, writing and test analysis. There is only one teacher teaching in the form of group discussion. By observation, we found that teachers give priority to knowledge, especially the rules of grammar and vocabulary. Moreover, the English teaching task is very single. Students rarely have the opportunity to speak in class. After a long period of silence, this part of the students gradually loses interest in answering questions, choosing to keep quiet. This formulation of feedback is easily taken for granted, rather than inspires students to polish their ability of participation.

3.3 Observation of the Students

Through the actual classroom observation, the main part of the students in the classroom did not play the role as we have expected before. On the contrary, students lowered their heads with embarrassment, avoided eye contact with the teacher. Responses to different teaching activities were also various. Students usually had a more sufficient degree of participation and wonderful speech and original views if the topic catered to their appetite. However, if it was about grammar or interpretation, the students" willing to participate appeared to be very reluctant. In the meantime, an important characteristic of marginal men in terms of cognition and emotion emerged. Their working process was incomplete because they had no information output - even if they know that the answer to the question, they often choose to keep silent. Lack of opportunity in the interaction between teachers and students will gradually suppress students’ initiative, and put them in the position of being ignored or even being despised. In the long run, it will jam their communication channel; distort their true feelings, especially for introverted and timid students. Marginal people have much in common in general but they also have difference. First, in terms of gender differences, boys possess more obvious traits than girls. Second, the reasons are various as well: some for poor academic performance, some for low interest in learning and lack of learning motivation towards learning English, some for bad study habits, others for introversion and self-esteem issues.

4. A Further Causal Analysis of the Phenomenon

4.1 External Environment

The cause of the marginal man phenomenon is diverse and it can be classified into three aspects:

The external environment factors, students and teachers" factors.

Five thousand years of Chinese traditional culture is deeply ingrained so we must take the influence of traditional culture and Confucian culture into consideration. Some people think this phenomenon shows a kind of poise character within somebody. There is no denying that sometimes silence is gold. After the teacher asking questions, the students should stay focus to actively keep the brain in a rapid running condition, thus entered into a state of silence. But if the teachers let the students to speak, silence will hinder both the improvement of the students" English level and the smoothness of classroom teaching activities. In English class, many students are fear of loosing face. They prefer to give up the chance to speak rather than make a wrong answer. This is mainly affected by the influence of Chinese traditional education ideas and teaching methods. Because the vast majority of Chinese students have very strong dependence on teachers, thus the autonomous learning ability is poor. They prefer this kind of teaching mode of "teacher speak, students listen". But this kind of teaching mode has a lot of disadvantages, which resulting in the widespread of marginal men.

English classroom atmosphere will directly affect the students" English learning efficiency Active class atmosphere can create a pleasant learning environment. vIn such an environment, enthusiasm will be greatly improved, such as students listening earnestly, speaking actively, etc. On the other side, the teachers" teaching enthusiasm will be high and full of passion. They will achieve twice with half the effort. On the contrary, if the classroom atmosphere is boring, students" learning initiative and enthusiasm will be greatly reduced. This will give rise to a vicious cycle.

Evaluation system is the baton of a teaching activity. The evaluation of the performance of students should not only focus on students" language knowledge but also should attach great importance to the development of students" comprehensive language using ability, learning attitude, behavior and thinking ability and autonomous learning ability. However, the current evaluation system is mainly based on the examination, which focuses on the usage of the vocabulary, the use of the rules of grammar. So there are not many students willing to actively participate in class discussions they think the class performance will not affect their final examination results.

4.2 Students’ Cognition

Each of us has our own unique temperamental characteristics. Personality affects their way of looking at things attitude and treat things. Outgoing students are more active and energetic, prefer to show themselves and enjoy communication with people; introverted students tend to be more passive in the face of teachers. For introverted students, speaking in English class in front of the teachers and students will make them feel shy and afraid. Hence, introverted students also constitute the object of being ignored by teachers and students in middle school English classroom. English learning motivation is an important factor affecting the effects of learners" English learning. Most of the surveyed students learn English with instrumental motivation. More than half of the students have clear purpose of learning English, which is to get a good result in the college entrance examination. With no spoken English test in the college entrance examination, students transfer the focus their study to increasing the vocabulary, mastering rules of grammar and improving ability in reading and writing. Some students learn English mainly because school has set this course. These passive students have great difficulty in actively participating in class activities, let alone speaking actively.

Lack of vocabulary and standard pronunciation is another cause. These students have enormous obstacles in expressing their ideas. For example, a lot of students are in such awkward condition: knowing the answer to the question, capable of answering in Chinese in the mind, but not knowing how to use English to express it correctly. Some students find the right words but don"t know the specific usage; some students don"t know the sentence pattern structure; and other students can organize your answers, but don"t have standard English pronunciation. Many students English pronunciation with strong accent, they are afraid of in the wrong pronunciation. So in many cases, they will keep elusive and passive in English class because the keeping quiet can hide their weaknesses in English pronunciation. In this part of the students, English teachers should undertake more encouragement and guide them to get rid of accent step by step. At the same time, to let them to answer questions in English class, or expression. Point of view, and not in front of all the students to correct their pronunciation errors, otherwise it will hit their efforts to progress enthusiasm;(3)there are some students don"t answer the teacher"s questions because they are afraid of his own answer not persuasive. Thus it can be seen that a lack of confidence is also easy to cause the students in the English classroom.

4.3 Teachers’ Conception

As it can be seen from the research data, the teacher"s interpretation time accounts for most of the class time. This is decided by the teaching methods. In a fixed period in class, the longer the teacher teaches, the shorter the students can open their mouth to speak English. In the long term, the students in the classroom will gradually lose interest to actively participate in class and get used to be a faithful listener of teachers. Therefore, the teaching way and the marginal students in the English class are closely related.

At the same time, feedback form will depress the enthusiasm of students to answer questions-they may lose interest in answering questions. After the student answering the question, the teachers’ most commonly used method of feedback is to say stylized praise words like “good, very good”, thus students will be accustomed to this, feeling no excitement or proud. If teachers can respectively respond to the students according to their performance, students’ enthusiasm and passion will also increase due to teachers’ attention and affirmation. If teachers do not make any comments after students answering the question, students will feel very lost, which certainly give rise to a state fringe phenomenon.

In addition, in English teaching, teachers often design some closed questions with only one correct answer. This kind of problem is easy to make students feel anxious because students are afraid that his or her answer is wrong. Besides, the difficulty degree of the question may also affect the enthusiasm of students to answer questions. If teachers designed question is too simple, students will find no challenge. Even answer by the way, nothing can show off. So in general, many students choose not to answer simple questions. But if teachers designed question is too difficult, many students will choose to keep quiet because if his answering is wrong, they will only get frustration and a chance of losing face.

Finally, good relationship between teachers and students with the best emotional state into the teaching and learning is bound to create an active classroom atmosphere. In this environment, students" learning enthusiasm and motivation will be high and active. On the contrary, if relation between teachers and students is disharmonious, the teachers’ designed teaching activities or question is hard to get the response of the students. Relationship between teachers and students is supposed to be a "white paper", but this is not the truth. Teachers sometimes cannot help themselves to give privileges to students born in a good family who have parents with high diploma and social status or with an outstanding appearance and neat dresses. Whereas, teachers look poor students through colored spectacles and look down on those students with average intelligence.

5. Countermeasures towards the Phenomenon

As "marginal people" is very common in English class, teachers’ ignorance of the existence of these students will result in all sorts of unexpected problems to English teacher, even constitute a serious challenge to the education and management of the school. Thus, the marginal people in English classroom teaching should not be ignored and we have put forward the following strategies to solve this problem.

5.1 Creation of Favorable Teaching and Learning Environment

Students" learning and teachers" teaching procedures must be conducted in a certain environment. The influence of the environment includes both the positive aspects and negative aspects. So, we should avoid the environment from bringing the negative shadow and give full play to the positive influence of the environment to create a favorable teaching and learning environment, letting the students acquire knowledge in a relaxed and active learning environment. However, the formation of the atmosphere can not be created overnight. It is restricted by many factors.

First, teachers should set up the concept of equality between teachers and students, leading the students learning in the democratic atmosphere. That is to say, teachers should respect students in English class, accept their opinions and encourage them to speak. Under the leadership of a democratic way, students and teachers will establish a friendly and harmonious relationship. In this kind of atmosphere, the teacher in class will be very passionate and students will also learn with enthusiasm.

Second, teachers should help students form the consciousness of positive communication and encourage students to use English to communicate with each other.

As we have known, the main reason why marginal man exists is that sometimes students clearly know the answer to the question, but they don"t know how to correctly express it in English. As a result, teachers should encourage students to answer questions in English in class. Practice makes perfect. As long as the students practice frequently, their oral English will be improved. Also, they won"t feel nervous when they are confronted with various questions. On the contrary, students will actively participate in class discussions as well as take the initiative in expressing themselves in English.

Finally, enrich the teaching design and stimulate students" interest. In the past, teachers usually teach in a single teaching method and fail to avoid the monotony of teaching design. With the development of modern technology, teachers can use modern teaching devices and tools, such as multimedia, power point as much as possible.

5.2 Improvement of English Teachers" Education Conception

Class, in essence, is a kind of communication and interaction between teachers and students. But the convention is that the teacher is the ruler of classroom activity. Most of the class is used to explain words or grammar rules, so that students can only play the role of "audience". So teachers should promote the appropriate transformation of the mode of teaching to a student-centered type, reducing the teachers’ interpretation time, as much as possible. Teachers should set their role in the classroom as the guide, organizer and supervisor, while the students as the main body of learning. In English class, teachers should adjust their own perceptions, give full play to student"s potentials for different levels of students to participate in class activities.

Besides, in the process of learning, teachers" feedback can produce very big effect on student"s emotion. Many studies have shown that positive emotions is conducive to learning, which can make students take part in the class activities more actively; and negative emotional experience will hinder students" learning, making the students in class lose interests. Therefore, the teacher should give students appropriate feedback, so that the students remain in a good emotional state to participate in classroom activities. When they get the teachers’ respect and approval, they will feel content, confident, and cheerful. When the students answer wrong, don"t just say "You are wrong, "or direct criticism of the students. You can say, "Good, but...".Moreover, Teachers do not necessarily have to correct the mistakes made by students, because in some cases, a few small mistakes can be ignored. The teacher who gives feedback cannot be machine-like, rather, he should pay special attention to the reasonable use of politeness strategies in the feedback .Also, teachers should design more open questions which can stimulate students" interest.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：33473字