Suggestions for Teachers on Second Language Teaching

李虹+杨桂霞

【Abstract】Second-language teaching， different from native language teaching， is always discussed warmly all through the years. As the center of the whole teaching process， teachers always guide most activities in classroom teaching. How to choose， select and produce the teaching materials and what ways are better to make the students feel easier and more interesting are the focus to consider. This paper intents to put forward some practical suggestions concerning this.

【Key words】second language teaching； active learning； grammar teaching

As is well-known that in second language teaching， two common problems are always the barriers—the students lack of perseverance and lack of efficient learning method， both of which lead to passive learning. To change this， teachers role must be put in the first place due to the fact that most of the teaching activities are done in classroom teaching. How much and how long the students concentrate on learning to a large extend depends on the teacher. How to encourage， awaken and inspire the students enthusiasm and interest in order to change passive learning into active learning is essential for all teachers to consider.

Undoubtedly various teaching aids like videos， sounds， pictures， real objects， etc. are needed. Singing， dancing， real situation imitating， riddle-guessing， self-presentation， group presentation， small quizzes， etc. are also practical ways to adopt， all for the purpose to make the students feel interesting， confident and within their capability to do. The most typical teaching methods in second language acquisition like direct method， audio-lingual method， situational method and communicative approach all demonstrate the key concept of using various methods to create lively language situations. However， grammar teaching， which is regarded as the most boring and unavoidable content in teaching， is indeed a crucial aspect accompanying the whole second language teaching process. Someone who can speak fluent and standard native language is different from those who can teach it systematically and understandably because it is not what the teacher feels， but what he does to transmit the teaching points into concrete ones for second language learners to understand and use habitually. Second language， no matter what language， may be complicated and confusing if explained improperly. Practically speaking， some principles should be kept in mind for teachers. First， the teacher must simplify grammatical explanation according to the students he teaches. With all the details， even native speakers will be confused and feel exhausted because the language seems too abstract to master. If learners keep on feeling unapproachable， they will be very easy to lose themselves and cant continue their study. Second， all the grammatical points must be combined with truthful， vivid context and trained in real situations， making the students feel how they are used in real life， which will give them more sense of accomplishment. When doing so， the teacher should not always speak very slowly for the learners to follow. Instead， he should change the speed and tone frequently， giving them chances to know how they are used normally. In this way， the so-called boring grammar teaching will become more attractive. Third， all the explanation will be repeatedly presented step by step regularly， until the students can use it naturally. To a teacher， he must know clearly how much the learners can use the language and keep on creating situations for the learners to use the words and structures. During the process， the teacher corrects the errors and gives them standard ways to compare. Repetition is the most effective measure. When the learners are used to expressing ideas in this language， they will be more confident. Four， objective evaluation is necessary. It will help learners make self-assessment. Self-assessment is meaningful because the learners need to know how well they can use the language. They should have a clear idea about whether the sentences they use are right or wrong， why， or how to correct them if theres some mistake. Compliments or criticize without real sense are both harmful. Objective evaluation will make them see themselves clearly and know the progress they have made， thus to gain more confidence.

Of course， measures to arouse active learning from teachers are far from these. For all second language educators and researchers， it is a permanent topic for future discussion.

References：

[1]Benson，P.&P.Voller.Autonomy and Independent in Language Learning London：Longman，1997.

[2]Brown，H D.Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.New Jersey：Prentice Hall，1994.

作者簡介：

李虹（1972.6-），汉族，河北沙河人，教授，硕士，邢台学院外国语学院工作，主要研究方向：外语教学与文化。

杨桂霞（1964.8-），汉族，河北南和县人，教授，硕士，邢台学院外国语学院工作，主要研究方向：英美文学与外语教学。endprint