Microteaching in Sports English

李晖

Abstract：The benefit of microteaching has been recognized in many fields. But it remains a research gap in sports English teaching. The experiment proved it an effective way in helping students to acquire knowledge and skills in classroom observation and practice of sports English.

Key words：microteaching； sports English； active learning

中图分类号：G648文献标识码：B文章编号：1672-1578（2015）01-0017-01

Microteaching has a central idea of breaking the complex learning content down into its smallest component for a better understanding. The role of microteaching in education has drawn much attention recently. To justify its effectiveness in sports English teaching， a small-scale experiment is being conducted in a sports university.

In microteaching of sports English， teachers use short lessons， usually about 15 minutes， to impart knowledge to students. The microteaching practice is behaviorally oriented： the teacher is free to select his own content but is required to use a particular technique in which he was previous instructed. Microteaching lessons are videotaped so that they can be reviewed by both students and peer teachers.

The experiment is encouraging in that most teachers and students agree that microteaching is an effective way in helping students to acquire knowledge and skills in classroom observation and practice of sports English. Although originally giving rise to anxiety among some teachers and students， microteaching has undoubtedly contributed to greater self-awareness and increased confidence in students' own ability and expertise， and a modification of the teaching style and practice. Students participating in the research admitted a range of microteaching impacts： to broaden the knowledge and expertise beyond the discipline boundaries； to help solve their scholarly problems； and to reflect on their learning previous experience. Both teachers and students engaging in microteaching have provided a lot of suggestions for much of what the teachers should do and how they should do， which has aroused more heated critical reflection and peer discussion.

But， meanwhile， there seems to be some questions as to how this teaching practice and review should be done. Firstly， the microteaching has to be carefully designed and prepared before lessons， including preparation of teaching material， multimedia and video equipment， which apparently makes it rather complicated for the teachers already with a heavy load of college English teaching. Secondly， a reasonable amount of confusion might be created if teachers are to be criticized in peer review. This confusion is largely contributed to high expectations of microteaching. Finally but most importantly， the research has found a significant lack of agreement in appraisals of students， especially concerning the teacher's role in microteaching of sports English， and the problem is further complicated by a general lack of communication among the students with a relatively low level in English.

In sum， microteaching is revealed as a welcome addition to lessons of sports English in the experiment. But in an attempt to implement microteaching， an orientation has to be made before hand to gain some understanding of the preconceptions of microteaching.

References：

1. Subramaniam， K. （2006）. Creating a microteaching evaluation form： The needed evaluation criteria. Education.

2. Benton-Kupper， J. （2001）. The microteaching experience： Student perspectives. Education.