Cultivating Middle School Students’ Interest in Learning English英语毕业论文.doc

Cultivating Middle School Students Interest in Learning English【关键词】学习兴趣；中学生；培养；教学方法 I. IntroductionAs the foreign specialist on study research, Pi Yajie once said: “All the intelligent activities depend on the interest.” 1 Albert Einstein also said: “Interest is the best teacher.” 2because it inspires us to know and discover things in the world. So learning interest takes a very important part in learning. The interest is the tendency for us to try to know a certain thing or love a certain activity. This kind of tendency involves certain emotion. The cultivation and development of interest can not only make the students have high motion, full spirit, but also make the students have positive attitude toward learning. For the students, interest is one of the most realistic and positive factors in learning. It is the inner motivation of the students to know the world and discover the truth in the world. The learning interest can not only be transformed into the learning motivation but also promote the intellectual development of the students if they have interest in certain subject. They will be thirsty for studying otherwise the students will take study as a big burden and wont find happiness in it if they lose interest in it. It is not inherited but can be cultivated in their living environment and the education they have received is the main factor. The psychological studies suggested: when the students listen to a lesson in the classroom, the contents have to excite some nerve cells of the brain layer of the students. In this way they can comprehend the contents that the teacher talks about. Whether the contents cause the excitement or not is decided by the teachers lecture. In order to make English teaching efficient, it is necessary for the teacher to cultivate students interest.II. The Importance of Interest in Learning EnglishLearning interest is the tendency which is based on students learning needs. This tendency is always accompanied by a good emotional experience. Therefore, it is a tendency with a strong emotion. The specific performance of the tendency shows the extent to which the students like or dislike study. With a strong interest in learning English, the students will concentrate on their study. Once they achieve success, the students will gain enormous satisfaction. So their interest in learning English will be deepened. They will take a more positive attitude towards learning. Learning interest is the most realistic and the most active element in learning motivation and it makes learning activities more active, conscious and pleasant. It is also one of the most practical intrinsic motivations in learning activities. Learning interest can promote the students to throw themselves into studying enthusiastically. With great interest in studying, the students can spend much time on reading books. It can also enrich the students knowledge, open the students mind and make up for a weakness of intelligent development. Therefore, the teacher realizes the importance of learning interest as he tries to achieve students learning motivation. Middle school students who have numerous courses to learn, pressure of examinations to face, will feel sick and tired about learning, even will give up learning if we do not focus on our teaching methods and do not pay attention to achieving, training and keeping on their interest of learning, especially the English learning. In English learning, there are mountains of vocabulary and grammatical rules for the middle school students to learn. If students have strong interest in English learning, they can learn it well. Interest plays a very important role in English learning. “It will make students take a negative attitude towards the corresponding subject if the subject can not satisfy students interest and the need for knowledge. The proportion of students who take this attitude is 52.5 %.”3 At present, English has great significance in worldwide communication. English teachers should realize the importance of interest in English learning and try to engage in how to arouse students interest in learning English with changeful teaching methods, harmonious teacher-student relationship and extracurricular activities.III. The Disadvantages of Traditional English Teaching in Achieving Students Interest in Learning EnglishTeaching effect in teacher-based traditional teaching is obscure. The middle school students are vivacious owing to their characteristics, and they are too young to control themselves. They prefer a more active class. While the teacher-based teaching which prevents students from becoming the principal role in the learning process makes students feel dull. This kind of teaching cant help students to promote their study. If we ignore this feature in teaching process and simply use the traditional teaching method, take students just as containers of knowledge, use “the way of the force-feed duck” to teach students, by instilling uninteresting vocabulary and dull grammar into their mind, they will never be interested in learning English.A. From Teachers1. Teacher-dominated English ClassroomClassroom management is one of the most important factors which contribute to the efficiency of teaching and learning activities. In traditional English teaching, teachers dominate the whole teaching progress and the classroom is a teacher-centered place. English teachers still attach great importance to the grammar and vocabulary in teaching in order that the students can cope with different kinds of examinations. The teachers endless explanations occupy the whole class time. However, students are only the audience of the teachers performance without participation, response and communication. The traditional teaching methods are not welcomed by the students any more, let alone cultivate the interest of the students in learning.2. Teaching MethodsIn traditional English teaching, the teachers use the traditional and outdated teaching methods to have the classes filled with grammar and vocabulary, with no consideration of the teaching skills and students bearing capacity in learning. In addition, the teaching is only textbook-based. There are no extracurricular contents, no activities and no communication between teachers and students. There are only the endless interpretations of the language points.B. From Students1. The Implicit Motivation of Learning EnglishStudents recognition about English doesnt stem from their own motivation. Under most circumstances, they are learning passively. They do not study for their interest or desire, but for their parents and examinations. Moreover, the middle school students are very young, and their psychology is still unstable and immature, so when meeting with some kinds of complex problems, the students lack sustaining ability, and are apt to get lost in the new learning situation. On the other hand, the parents and the teachers of the students give too much pressure on them; make too many study objectives and bring forward too many requirements instead of providing them with the appropriate guidance.2. The Students Factors in Traditional English LearningIn traditional middle school English teaching, the teachers dont pay much attention to fostering students interest. They only offer the students a large quantity of exercises to do. But this is only useful for examinations, not for the real use of English because they have very few opportunities to use the language. Most of the students do not know how to learn English. They are forced to learn passively and mechanically. Influenced by the traditional method, the students learn English as a process of remembering and reciting for all kinds of examinations in order to live up to what their parents and teachers expect of them. This idea hinders the progress of students in language learning and the development their competence in English.IV. Cultivating Middle School Students Interest in Learning EnglishA. Explaining the Importance of Learning EnglishThere can be no doubt that English is one of the most widely used languages in the world. People use a language in one of three ways: as a native language, as a second language, or as a foreign language. As a native language English is spoken by over three hundred million people in the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, some Caribbean countries and South Africa. As a second language, English is often necessary for official business, education, information and other activities in many countries and it is one of the few “working” languages of the United Nations.It is well known that English has become the language of international trade and transportation. Most pilots traveling from one country to the others talk in English and most ships sailing on the oceans call for help by radio in English. It is said that 60 percent of the worlds radio broadcasts and 70 percent of the worlds mail use English to deliver news and information. At international sports meetings, English is most commonly and widely used.English has in fact become the language of international cooperation in science and technology. The most advanced achievements in space, nuclear field and computer research are published in it. A scientist who speaks and writes English is in closer touch with the scientists in other countries than one who doesnt.In China, learning English is quite a realistic problem that all of the students have to face because English as an important subject plays an important part in students entering higher schools. If students want to enter high rank schools, they have to study English hard. Furthermore, by learning English students can enlarge their mental horizons and increase their knowledge, because they shall have a better chance of reading a variety of books, newspapers and magazines in English. Gradually, the students will become more eager to learn English, and the following work for teachers will go easier.B. Establishing Harmonious Relationship between Teachers and StudentsTeaching and learning are interrelated. So, to set up a good relationship between teachers and students is very important. According to the psychological characteristics of middle school students, they desire to trust their teacher. If they think highly of a teacher, they will have great interest in the class. At the same time, they will determine to learn the subject well. This follows the famous saying “Love me, love my dog.” Otherwise, if the students do not like the teacher for some reasons, such as the students inverse psychology or the personality of the teacher, they wont want to have such class or even wont attend the class. It is really a common phenomenon that people can find around us. Furthermore, setting up a good relationship between the teachers and students is the best way to arouse students interest in class. Take it for example, if a students answer is wrong, his teacher should say Take it easy; Take your time; dont be afraid of making any mistakes; Have another try. If the students answer is right, the teacher could say very good; well done!4 In the English class, teachers must teach students according to their aptitude. In order to maintain and encourage the enthusiasm of the students, a simple question is usually given to the student who is poor in English. Thus, it can attract the students attention and develop their studying interest in the English class. Take Helen and her teacher for example, as everyone knows, Helen is a blind girl. She had much difficulty in study. At the beginning, her teacher established a harmonious relationship with her. This way could eliminate her minds of fear and a sense of hopelessness. As a result, Helen was interested in study. Day after day, Helen mastered the study method and became a famous person. Generally speaking，harmonious relationship between teachers and students is good for stimulating students interest. So how to establish a harmonious relationship between teachers and students is very important. For the teachers, they should try their best to walk into the innermost of the students. But it is not so easy to succeed, for most of the students intrinsically refuse the teachers to walk into their lives. They think that the teachers are much different from them. The teachers forbid them to do many things that they think are right. The teachers just tell them what they can do and what they cannot do. There must be a big gap between the teachers and students. So there is a lot of work for the teachers to do. First, the teachers need to try their best to make friends with the students, spend more time talking with them and care about their lives including the physical and mental changes of the students. Besides, teachers should change their thinking mold; they should have a fair judgment on the students. By doing this the teachers will find a better way to guide the students and win the popularity among the students. While, for the students, they should try to trust their teachers and try to understand that the teachers purpose is for their good. If there are enough communications and understandings to each other, the relationship between the teachers and the students will be much better. At the same time, the teaching efficiency will be better. C. Cultivating Students Interest by Using Different Teaching Methods1. Applying Body Language in English TeachingEnglish teaching is a key part of the school education. Nowadays, with the development of the society, it is not only the English teachers but also the students who are required to speak English in English class. It must be a challenge for the students, because the middle school students have limited words and expressions in English. In class they may fail to understand the teachers or lose interest in the class. So, in order to encourage students to learn English in class and promote the teaching efficiency, body language is adopted by most of the teachers, for it can stimulate students interest in English class, make the classroom atmosphere active, invoke the students enthusiasm for study and lead the student to understand English easily. In the middle school, using body language in English teaching is necessary and important. A Chinese famous linguist Lu Shuxiang once said “English teacher is a comic actor, who is good at performance.”5Body language can get rid of students feeling of being dull and tired and attract their attention to the teacher. “The vivid gesture together with the fluent English can create a good circumstance of learning.”6 Therefore, body language as a good way to arouse and sustain the students interest in English class is welcomed by the English teachers. In the English class, if the teachers stand on the platform and dont move from beginning to the end, the students must feel bored. However, if the teachers explain the text with bod