论文总字数：33151字

摘 要

新课程标准不仅强调了知识和能力，过程与方法，而且注重学生的英语综合能力的提高。随着新课程改革的不断深入，教师角色的变革与创新成为教育发展的必然。英语教师在教学过程中应具备多元化的角色，将课堂的主动权交给学生。本文对新课程理念下初中英语教师角色转变的相关问题进行研究，旨在不断提高初中英语教师的教学水平以及效率。

关键词：新课标；英语教师角色；角色转换；初中

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 3

2.1The Foreign Research on Teachers’ Roles 3

2.2 The Domestic Research on Teachers’ Roles 4

3.The Challenges Faced By Junior High School Teachers 5

4. The Role of the Teachers 6

4.1 Controller 7

4.2 Organizer 7

4.3 Participant 8

4.4 Prompter 8

4.5 Assessor 8

4.6 Researcher 9

5. The Survey of the Current Situation of Classroom Teaching 9

5.1 The Dialogues Between Teachers and Students 10

5.2 The In-class Study and After-class Application 10

5.3 The Teaching Evaluations. 11

6. Conclusion 13

Works Cited 14

1. Introduction

The research question of this thesis is the current situation of the role transition of junior high school English teachers in classroom under new curriculum. There are six chapters in the thesis. First chapter is the introduction part. A brief history of foreign language teaching and the definition of teachers’ roles are generalized in it. Second chapter is the literature review part, the domestic and foreign research on teachers’ roles is involved in this part. The challenges junior high school English teachers meet under the new curriculum are expressed in Chapter Three. In Chapter Four, teachers’ roles are identified through analyzing the new curriculum, in which teachers are regarded as controller, organizer, participant, prompter, assessor and researcher of students’ learning activities. The fifth part of the thesis investigates and analyzes the present situation of the classroom teaching in junior high school and some suggestions are given in it, too. Chapter Six is the conclusion part in which some limitations are pointed out.

Foreign language teaching has enjoyed a long history in China. Since the early 1900s, the study of foreign languages has been considered as one of the fundamental subjects in the curriculum of middle schools. The development of ELF since 1978 can be divided into four major phases: Restoration, Rapid Development, Reform, and Innovation.

In the phase of restoration from 1978 to 1985, the first national syllabus was issued by the Ministry of Education. The general aims focused on the study of basic phonetics, grammar, a certain amount of words as well as the development of preliminary language skills, such as: listening, speaking, reading and translation. During this period, The National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association (NFLTRA) was established, and two journals for school teachers of English were inaugurated, one was Foreign Language Teaching in Schools by Beijing Normal University, the other was English Teaching and Research at Primary and Secondary Schools by East-China Normal University. (Wang Qiang, 2006: 39)

The phase of rapid development was from 1986 to 1992 during which a third English syllabus was issued. It was meant to develop students’ knowledge about language, cognitive ability, positive attitude, personality as well as their basic ability in using English in spoken and written form.

The phase of reform started in 1993 and ended in 2000. With the rapid social and economic development, the 1986 syllabus could no longer adequately address the changes. Therefore, a new syllabus was issued in 1993 with the aim of consolidating and developing students’ knowledge and basic language skills and developing their ability to use English in both speaking and writing for the purpose of communication. It also indicated a shift from grammar translation and the audio-lingual method toward a more communication-oriented teaching method.

This phase beginning from 2000 was characterized by a firm and urgent call from the government for quality-oriented education. The New National English Curriculum was issued in 2001. A review of the curriculum prior 2000 (Wang Qiang, 1999:15) indicated the following areas that needed to be addressed. First, there was an overemphasis on the delivery of knowledge about the language while ignoring the development of students’ language ability. Secondly, there was a lack of connection between different stages of schooling. Thirdly, little allowance was made for catering individual learner differences. Fourthly, assessment was done mainly using paper-and-pencil tests focusing mainly on language knowledge, giving little attention to the assessment of language ability and effective gains.

The English word “role” is derived from drama. It originally referred to the roles played by the actors on the stage, and then extends to the roles people play in their daily lives. American sociologist George Herbert Mead first defined the identities individuals have on social stage in the social psychology as the concept of “role”. In this way, the word “role” has become an important concept in social psychology. Most sociologists think that role is the identity, status and corresponding behavior patterns an individual has within certain systems. (Gao Mingshu, 1999:56)

The role of the teacher refers to teachers’ expected behavior associated with their social status and identities. It includes meanings of two aspects: first, the teachers’ actual role behavior; second, the expectation of teachers’ roles. (Gu Mingyuan, 1992:14) On one hand, it is the behavior reflected in teachers’ work. Teachers need to play different roles in their teaching process, such as: designer of the teaching contents; researcher of the teaching materials, etc. On the other hand, it also refers to the expectation of teachers for they are not isolated from society or student group. Therefore, the specificity of the job of the teacher and corresponding norms require teachers to show different characteristics from other professions.

Learning is a social activity with no fixed places and it can occur between father and son, classmates and friends. Confucius says, out of three men, there must be one that can teach me. Where there is learning, there must be teaching. (Li Wei amp; Zu Jing, 2000:56) Naturally, classroom has been determined as the place of teaching. Teachers can organize the teaching procedures with a variety of activities so that the role of teachers in classroom is clearly reflected in the teaching activities.

Role transition means people put forward their new requirements under different environment conditions. Classroom teaching is a special small-range social activity takes place among teachers and students, even students and students. With the development of politics, economy and culture, there is no doubt that the role of teachers has been changed.

2. Literature Review

2.1The Foreign Research on Teachers’ Roles

The earliest research of teachers’ roles can trace back to Socratic Method which is done by question and answer. Language experts have respectively classified different roles of teachers in classroom.

Wright divided teachers into two functions based on the roles English teacher play in the classroom. One is the management function which creates good learning environment and conditions actively for students. The other is the teaching function which imparts knowledge through different teaching activities. (Wright, 1987:35)

Scrivener has defined teachers into explainer, involver and enabler. Jane Willis classified teachers’ roles into encourager, organizer, language instructor and curriculum guide. (Yuan Chuanghuan, 2000:51)

English expert Harmer thought that teachers’ roles should be: Controlling-C-A-O-P1-P2-T-R-Facilitative.（C means controller, A means assessor, O means organizer, P1 means prompter, P2 means participant, T means tutor, R means resource）（Zhu Mingjiue, 2009:33）

2.2 The Domestic Research on Teachers’ Roles

Many domestic scholars, experts and primary teachers have put forward their point of view towards the role of English teachers. Zhang Chi analyzes teachers’ role transition in different aspects and summarized multifaceted behavior of teachers. (Zhang Chi, 2006:12) Liu Xingming thinks that there are six trends of teachers’ role transition under the curriculum reform. First trend is that teachers are changing from the traditional knowledge transmitter into students’ learning instructors and prompters. Second, they tend to change from the traditional teachers into education researchers. Third, they have the tendency to change from the mechanical curriculum performer into positive curriculum builder and the constructor of school courses. Fourth, they are likely to change from the merely student manager into the partners of students, etc. (Liu Xingming, 2004:22)

Zhang Xiujuan argues that teachers under the new curriculum reform should change the single role of imparting knowledge to promote the overall development of students. She also holds that teachers ought to change their original role of simple, mechanical curriculum performer into flexible curriculum user. Finally, teachers should become the collaborator of students’ learning rather than the leaders of students. (Zhang Xiujuan, 2003:37) Geng Bing believes that English teachers in Junior High school under new curriculum should master and make full use of the modern education technology as one of the teaching aids. In the meantime, they ought to play the role of prompter, organizer, and participant of students’ learning activities. (Geng Bing, 2006:29) Li Guihong holds that English teachers under the new curriculum should also be the referees of students. (Li Guihong, 2008:21) Gong Tengfei argues that teachers under the new curriculum are the organizer, prompter, assessor and participant of teaching activities. (Gong Tengfei, 2010:59) Zhang Lijie thinks that teachers, as the designer of cooperative learning, should have an overall plan of learning activities before the cooperative learning class. During the class, they should make sure that students are clear about the tasks. Moreover, teachers ought to act as the information provider and participant when students are doing the task. Appropriate evaluations are also necessary after students have finished the tasks. After class, teaching reflection is also essential in order to improve and perfect the lesson.(Zhang Lijie, 2011:53)

3. The Challenges Faced by Junior High School Teachers

Faced with the new curriculum, English teachers are expected to change in many ways. Firstly, they are expected to change their views about language which is not a system of linguistic knowledge but a means for communication. Secondly, they are expected to change their traditional role of knowledge transmitter to a multi-role educator. The teaching objectives of the new English curriculum requires that language teaching is more than just teaching the knowledge and skills, it includes caring for students’ affective needs, developing their learning strategies, widening up their cultural horizons and establishing international perspectives through the process of language learning. Thirdly, teachers are expected to use more task-based activities and put the students into the centre of learning. Fourthly, teachers are expected to use more formative assessment in addition to using tests. Last but not least, teachers are expected to use modern technology in teaching, creating more effective resources for learning and for using the language. These changes that teachers face will create a lot of emotional and professional pressure on the teachers. (Wang Qiang, 2006:48)

Firstly, the requirements of vocabulary have been obviously increased. New Curriculum requires students to understand and master about 2,600 words, a certain number of idioms and fixed collocations which are much more than the original standard. The difficulty is expected to be solved with the systematization of teaching contents.

Secondly, the teaching contents have been enlarged. Teachers must have a high level and broad range of knowledge so that they can deal with the teaching materials flexibly and finish teaching so many contents within limited class hours. They need to make necessary choices to make the best use of the teaching materials and integrate resources efficiently.

Thirdly, the requirements of students’ comprehensive language abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing have been improved. On the basis of the old teaching materials which require abandoning dumb English, new teaching materials have divided listening，speaking, reading and writing into four separate parts. Teachers and students must change the old attitudes and pay attention to comprehensive language abilities in order to explore efficient methods of teaching and learning.

In addition, the evaluation mechanism is not sound. As the new curriculum standards have just started, many supporting measures are not in place yet, of which the most typical one is the lag of the evaluation mechanism. Many schools still evaluate students’ English proficiency and teachers’ teaching competence through students’ exam scores, while they ignore the comprehensive evaluation of students’ listening and speaking abilities, learning interest, participation and cooperation awareness, etc.

Besides, the transitions from elementary school to junior high school are necessary. The learning of new English courses in junior high school may bring students much confusion, for the English learning in this phase has further requirements on students’ thinking habits, methods and comprehensive abilities which are quite different from those in elementary school.

Teachers have focused too much on teaching and have ignored students’ learning initiative. Some teachers pay too much attention to teaching methods. For example, most junior high students still remember words with rote memorization method. They don’t know how to remember words under the guidance of phonetic spelling or word formation rules. Some students lack appropriate learning methods. They don’t preview before class, so they have no idea about what to listen in class and as a result, just copy other’s homework after class.

The positioning of the roles of teachers and students are inappropriate. The traditional teacher-centered English teaching in which students are only audience can also be seen in many places. Under the pressure of new curriculum, some teachers do organize some student-centered activities. However, it is just an illusion.

4. The Role of the Teachers

New English curriculum standards call for repositioning the roles of junior high school English teachers which means that teachers must fundamentally change the traditional teaching concepts. In order to conform to the different course objectives, learning requirements and the needs of students, teachers need to play the role of controller, organizer, participant, prompter, assessor and researcher.

4.1 Controller

As an old saying goes, nothing can be accomplished without norms or standards. However, norms and standards need to be moderate. Similarly, it is impossible to complete the teaching tasks without management in class. The messy classroom teaching is not advisable in that it does harm to students’ physical and mental health. On the contrary, too many limitations in class are detrimental to students’ performance and also reflect a lack of trust. The traditional classroom teaching totally stresses on teachers and teaching materials. In such a teaching process, students just function as machines which don’t have any thinking abilities. The role of controller lays emphasis on cultivating students’ listening and speaking ability in class which also puts forward higher requirements on teachers’ ability. A good lesson needs not only the active atmosphere but as well classroom order. While doing activities, it is teachers’ duty to hold time and rhyme. Students can surely raise their interest in learning if they are trained like this in a long time.

4.2 Organizer

The traditional school education is teacher-centered. Teachers, as the embodiment of the knowledge, just impart knowledge to students in one-way and even totally ignore the education of attitudes and values. However, the new curriculum requires teachers to change their teaching roles into the organizers of learning and try to create conditions for students’ autonomous learning. In order to learn to study actively, students may be required to search for useful information by themselves. The teaching activities, if organized properly, can stimulate students’ awareness of collaborative learning and collective sense of honor. Therefore, teachers must recognize and regard students as the subjects of learning so that they can respect the subjectivity of students and totally change the teacher-centered concept.

4.3 Participant

Teachers should change their ideas of being the authority of teaching and try to involve in students’ learning as an ordinary member. The way for students to acquire knowledge can be classified into direct experience and indirect experience and the knowledge acquired through indirect experience is easy to forget. Only those which are acquired on their own can become lifelong memory. Therefore, teachers ought to create more opportunity for them to experience by organizing more activities in class. Gradually, they are willing to communicate with each other, express themselves freely in class and therefore form a harmonious learning atmosphere. After all, teaching is a process of innovation participated by students and teachers.

4.4 Prompter

The basic education curriculum reform stresses on the students’ development. Therefore, teachers should not only focus on the basic knowledge and skill objectives and teaching contents, but also they should pay attention to the students’ overall development. In the teaching process, it is common that students have difficulty in answering the questions. Under this circumstance, teachers need to figure out the reason. Is the question too difficult for him or is he too shy to answer it in class? In a word, teachers should prepare students for learning as soon as possible on the basis of thorough understanding. That is to say, teachers play the role of prompters in this learning process.

4.5 Assessor

Teaching evaluation is a summary of certain activities or certain phases in the learning process. Traditional teaching evaluation gives priority to test scores while new curriculum standards stressing on the development of the comprehensive language ability of students and the effectiveness of learning pay attention to both the results and processes. As a result, nowadays teachers need to have a comprehensive evaluation of each student through the emotion, attitude, ability, learning strategies, the master of the basic knowledge and skills and the development potential he or she demonstrated in the learning process. Meanwhile, teachers should not be the only assessors of students. The formative assessments may include: test performance, homework, the participation of the in-class and out-class English activities, etc. Moreover, observation, conversation, questionnaires and student self-assessment can also be effective references of assessment.

4.6 Researcher

The process of language learning needs the combination of multiple senses. The application of modern education technology in English teaching can greatly change the traditional teaching mode. The modern education technology mainly refers to the computer-based multimedia technology and network information technology. With the popularization of computers and network, it is inevitable for junior high school English teachers to integrate them with teaching. Moreover, new curriculum puts forward new objectives, new ideas which advocate various changes in the way of teaching and learning. During the process, teachers must have encountered a variety of theoretical and practical problems which require them to examine and analyze in the perspective of the researchers and to explore and accumulate the experience and finally make them the regular cognition.

5. The Survey of the Current Situation of Classroom Teaching

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