題目：the interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school 學(xué)生姓名： 系 別： 外語系 專 業(yè)： 英語本科 班 級： 一 班 學(xué) 號： 指導(dǎo)老師： 2 二一一年四月 i acknowledgements fist of all, i want to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor zhou dongbiao, for his encouragement and guidance. he provides me with enough considerations to revise my draft. besides, his patience gives me great confidence to finish this thesis. secondly, my deep gratitude would go to my sincere friends and classmates who always offer help to me. last but not the least, my beloved family also plays an important role in helping me to settle down some difficult problems. ii abstract with the promotion of teaching reforms, many scientific and efficient teaching methods are strongly advocated in classroom teaching. among these, interactive teaching method is an effective and popular method. in recent years, constructivist theory which emphasizes students initiative learning has been widely applied into education in all parts of the world. however, the traditional “teacher-centered” method has dominated english teaching for a long time, which makes students bored and accept knowledge passively. for the sake of inadequate interaction, students communicative competence and second language acquisition are not well developed. neither is their initiative learning. constructivism holds that students are an essential part in classroom teaching. they construct knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their own experiences and ideas. therefore, it is quite essential that teachers should provide more interactions with students to communicate. this thesis combines these two theories, trying to show their importance and to find an effective way to learn english. key words: constructivism; interactive teaching method; classroom teaching iii 摘要摘要 隨著教學(xué)改革的推進，很多科學(xué)而有效的教學(xué)方法展現(xiàn)在課堂中。其中，互 動教學(xué)法就是一種有效而受歡迎的教學(xué)方法。近些年來，注重學(xué)生主動學(xué)習(xí)的 建構(gòu)主義理論也被廣泛運用到全世界的教學(xué)中。 然而，傳統(tǒng)的以教師為中心的教學(xué)方法一直在英語教學(xué)中處于領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位。這 種教學(xué)模式使學(xué)生感到厭煩并且被動地接受知識。由于缺少足夠的互動，學(xué)生 的交際能力和第二語言習(xí)得能力沒有得到很好的發(fā)展。學(xué)生的主動學(xué)習(xí)能力同 樣沒有提高。建構(gòu)主義認為學(xué)生是課堂教學(xué)的主體，他們對自己的經(jīng)驗和思想 進行互動從而達到知識和意義的建構(gòu)。因此，教師給學(xué)生提供更多的互動機會 進行交流是非常必要的。本文結(jié)合建構(gòu)主義理論和互動式教學(xué)，體現(xiàn)兩者對學(xué) 習(xí)英語的重要意義并嘗試探求學(xué)習(xí)英語的有效途徑。 關(guān)鍵詞關(guān)鍵詞：建構(gòu)主義；互動教學(xué)法；課堂教學(xué) iv contents acknowledgements.i abstractii 摘要 iii 1. introduction1 2. the overview of constructivist theory2 2.1 constructivist learning theory 3 2.2 constructivist-based teaching theory4 3. basic concepts of interaction and classroom interaction .5 3.1 teacher-student interaction 6 3.2 student-student interaction.7 4. the relationship between constructivism and interactive teaching method.8 4.1 the similarity in theoretic foundation 9 4.2 the similarity in teaching approaches9 5. the application of interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school.11 5.1 creation of a constructivist environment11 5.2 enhancement of interactive patterns.12 5.3 improvement of an awareness of questioning13 5.4 assessment of students performance 14 6. conclusion16 works cited .18 1 the interactive english teaching method based on constructivism in junior middle school 1. introduction english as a foreign language has existed for a long time in china. a growing number of people have paid much attention to english teaching due to the practice of the opening and reform policy. besides, english has been considered as one of the fundamental subjects in the curriculum of middle school since the early 1990s. however, it cannot be neglected that english teaching still has a long way to reach the national english level on account of chinese traditional teaching method. therefore, how to change the traditional “cramming method of english teaching” and fostering students interests in learning english is the issue that all the countries encounter nowadays. although there are many teaching approaches available, it is still difficult to find an effective and satisfactory approach in english teaching of junior middle school. as constructivism gets more concerns from the researchers in teaching, some constructivists have put forward a series of reforms which attempt to shape “student- centered” model in classroom teaching, trying to cultivate students motivation and initiation of learning, interaction with teachers. furthermore, teachers serving as guiders can stimulate students interests and encourage them to have enough interaction both in and out of class. junior middle school students are in the second important period of acquiring a foreign language. however, in chinese traditional classroom, the students just listen to teachers, take notes and take in knowledge passively. there is little or no exchange of information and interactions with teachers. it is safe to conclude that this teaching method is not consistent with students psychological characteristics; it just makes the students acquire english passively rather than helps them have a desire to learn. as for the teacher, he or she only plays as a transmitter. so take the quality of english teaching into consideration, optimizing english teaching method in junior middle 2 school is fairly necessary. constructivism holds that teaching should be built based on what learners have already known and teachers should guide them to different kinds of activities. this idea has fully illustrated the importance of interactive activities which can help students to stimulate their interest and consolidate the knowledge they have learnt. the traditional teaching method not only depresses the atmosphere of the classroom, but also erases students initiation of learning and self-construction learning. 2. the overview of constructivist theory constructivism is a fairly advanced theory system，which develops further from behaviorism to cognitivism. it refers to the idea that the learner constructs knowledge from experience. in other words, the acquisition of knowledge happens in the process of self-construction. knowing is a process of self-construction, learners need to transform the knowledge provided by teachers or books and comprehend it by themselves. in terms of constructivism, there are many historical scholars making contribution to its development. first, it is generally put forward by jean piaget, who articulates mechanisms by which knowledge is internalized by learners. he suggests that through processes of accommodation and assimilation, individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences. whats more, he argues knowledge is constructed through social collaboration, and learning arises from interactions with others. (鄭勇, 陶三發(fā)，2007) piagets theory of constructivist learning has had wide ranging impact on learning theories and teaching methods in education and is an underlying theme of many education reform movements. john dewey has provided a foundation for constructivism. he believes that learning occurs when children are experiencing something. teachers need to design environments and interact with learners to foster inventive, creative, critical learners. (archambault, 1964) therefore, teachers should have an understanding of learners characteristics as well as personalities. and another understanding of arousing learners interest and curiosity for learning also need teachers attention. as teachers, they must balance these two understandings. 3 psychologist vygotsky represents socio-constructivist theory which holds learning is best achieved through the dynamic interaction between teacher and learner and between learners. (vygotsky, 1978) with the help of the teacher or another learner, the learner can move to a new level of understanding. modern constructivists pay much attention to vygotskys theories, which have been used to support classroom instructional methods that emphasize cooperative learning, project-based learning, and discovery. (holliday, 1994) it can be concluded that the development of constructivism theory is closely connected with interactions and it attaches great importance to learners self- exploration, self-discovery and self-construction of knowledge. the term knowledge can be seen as a product of humans and it is socially and culturally constructed by human themselves. today, there is much pedagogy related to constructivist theory. most teaching approaches developing from constructivism advocate that knowledge is constructed by learners themselves. moreover, constructivist learning theory and constructivist-based teaching theory which will be discussed in the following sections also have captured great attention nowadays. 2.1 constructivist learning theory according to constructivism, it points out that knowledge is not acquired from teachers; instead, its acquisition depends on learners themselves, teachers are just viewed as guiders and promoters from whom learners can get some help. through making good use of materials under a certain circumstance, they can construct meanings finally. the constructivist learning theory involves four factors. they are circumstance, cooperation, discussion and meaning construction. constructivism plays an important role in learning; it aims at consolidating meaning construction. therefore, lesson planning should not only pay attention to teaching goals, but also to circumstance which is helpful for learners to construct meanings. cooperation which focuses on interactions between learners functions greatly in the whole process of learning; it can improve students ability of communicating. furthermore, it concerns about material collecting and analysis, questions and discovery, assessment and 4 meaning construction. as for discussion, it is an indispensable part in cooperation, including group discussion and group communication. in accordance with students characteristics of psychology, discussion can give students some chances to show themselves. to some extent, it strengthens students communicative competence. last but not least, meaning construction is the final purpose of learning. it consists of the nature, regularity and inner connections of leaning. (何克抗，2009) constructivist defines that learning is a process of learners self-construction instead of teachers controlling. in other words, what a learner gets is proportional to his ability of meaning construction. so take the features of constructivist learning theory into account, a constructivist classroom should be managed by teachers who can help students to construct meanings in an appropriate environment. 2.2 constructivist-based teaching theory constructivism which develops from cognitive theory of children has formed a new learning theory and a new teaching theory as well. according to constructivism mentioned above, this learning theory stresses the importance of individuals. it advocates students initiation of constructing meaning. although constructivism maintains students are the main part in classroom teaching, it does not mean that teachers can be neglected. by contrary, it puts emphasis on teachers roles in helping students to love learning. additionally, the new curriculum also stipulates that the teacher should function as a facilitator of students learning rather than simply transmitting knowledge. this means that the teacher needs to create a positive learning environment to motivate learners and interact with them, guide them to acquire knowledge by themselves. the learning environment should also be designed to support and challenge the learners thinking. this reform is consistent with constructivism, the teacher is considered as an organizer, a guider and a promoter in learners self-construction. (付春玲，2010) as a result, to learn english well does not only depend on learners themselves, but also depend on teachers. teachers roles involve helping students to develop their ability of self-construction, activate their motivation in learning and shape an appropriate learning environment. thus, teachers 5 need to have a better understanding of constructivism and bring it into classroom teaching. in addition to the constructivist learning and teaching theory, constructivism also pours attention into the teaching models. at present, there have been three mature and popular teaching approaches influenced by constructivism. they are scaffolding instruction; anchored instruction and random access instruction.（張其云，2003） although there are some differences among them, the core idea is the same. that is, learners complete meaning construction by themselves through interactions. 3. basic concepts of interaction and classroom interaction the concepts of interaction vary from scholars to scholars. as for the “interaction”, it refers to a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. in terms of interactive teaching method, it is seen as a branch of clt (communicative language teaching) that was developed in early 1970s in europe. it focuses on speaking and listening skills, with which learners can communicate easily. ellis defines interaction from the perspective of language acquisition: “interaction consists of the discourse jointly constructed by the learner and his interlocutors; input, therefore, is the result of interaction”. (ellis, 1999) however, such skills have not made any progress through the traditional way of teaching where the emphasis was on the learning of grammar rules and translation. in the traditional classroom, students could not have enough chances to apply the language, although clt promotes that people use language to fulfill functional purposes - to interact with people. in other words, the purpose of language learning is not to learn its grammatical structures but to be able to use the structures for communication. as for classroom teaching, interaction is a collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more students in classroom teaching from the point of pedagogy. through interactions, learners can get some improvement of their ideas. english is learnt not taught, it can not arouse students interest as a language; instead, teachers imagination and teaching approach have an affect on it. therefore, the 6 application of interaction is an important faction in a successful classroom teaching. students can interact with each other; they can show their ideas and share their ideas. generally speaking, interactions reflect a teaching statement “l(fā)earning by doing.” furthermore, classroom interaction involves many activities, such as discussion, pair work, games, role-play and group work. learners can enhance the comprehension of knowledge through these kinds of activities. littlewood introduced a classification of social interaction activities: role-playing through cued dialogues role-playing through cues and information role-playing through situation and goals role-playing through debate or discussion large-scale simulation activities improvisation (littlewood, 1981) with regard to what littlewood put forward, these social interaction activities can be applied in classroom teaching. various interactions can help both students and teachers to achieve the aim of courses. whats more, they can cultivate learners communicative competence and show learners the way to study by themselves, in other words, self-construction. 3.1 teacher-student interaction as for teacher-student interaction, it is different from traditional teaching pedagogy. in a traditional language classroom, the teaching focus is often on forms rather than functions. the teacher occupies most of the time to read and translate texts which makes the atmosphere dull. without enough opportunities to speak english, the students just listen to the teachers, take notes, and learn english in a passive way. what needs to be pointed out is students are spending a long time in classroom every day, if the organization of teaching is under teachers control without any students participance, students will feel bored and lose interest in learning. on the contrary, if teachers adopt interactions in classroom teaching and invite students to participate in them, they will be more interested in pursuing english studying. different teaching 7 methods will work differently. in an interactive classroom, students are dominant; they can have a lot of interactive activities with teachers. besides, the goal of teaching is not just delivering grammatical structures to students any more; instead, teachers are giving students some ways to help them construct knowledge by themselves. from this point of view, a harmonious relationship between teachers and students is built up. furthermore group discussion, role play, pair work, games, asking questions, etc. are feasible ways that teachers design for students to arouse their interest and ability to construct meanings, and help them have a good understanding of what they have learnt. students participation can make the classroom active. more importantly, students can concentrate easily when they interact with teachers. this teaching approach reflects “student-centered” model and constructivist learning theory. 3.2 student-student interaction when it comes to student-student interaction, students characteristics of psychology in junior middle school can not be ignored. students are energetic and talkative in this period; they need more communications to move to a high level of self-learning to the fullest potential. however, the traditional teaching pedagogy prevents students from presenting their psychological characteristics. in the traditional classroom, teachers just treat students as individuals rather than a whole class, and students are separated from each other. seldom do they interact with each other. this kind of learning situation will cause students to be lack of cooperation and become silent learners. however, with interactive teaching method adopted in classroom, the atmosphere of studying english has been changed. students are encouraged to give their own ideas in classroom and share them with