Four-stage Effective Classroom Teaching Mode

At present, China is deepening its curriculum reform in basic education. According tothe National English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (experimentalversion), high school English teachers not only should convey language knowledge, but alsoare suggested to use Task-based Instruction (TBI) and other teaching methods whichemphasize the learning and teaching process and engage the students in the teaching activitiesso that they can learn and use English to finish the tasks through thinking, investigation,discussion, cooperation and production. Scholars abroad and in China did some research inthis field and yielded some results. TBI is relatively mature in theory. In China, relatedexperiments first have been done in compulsory education.Based on the theoretical research and the3-year experiment of the new curriculumreform in No.43Middle School in Shijiazhuang City, the author tends to testify the feasibilityand effectiveness of a form of TBI—Four-stage Effective Classroom Teaching Mode(Four-stage Mode).In order to test the actual effect of Four-stage Mode, an experiment is done in four juniormiddle schools in Shijiazhuang City. No.43Middle School is the experimental school, No.40Middle School, No.41Middle School and No.44Middle School are the control schools. Theexperimental school has been carrying out Four-stage Mode since2009, but the controlschools haven’t and still use the traditional teaching methods. A nearly three years’ study wasmade on the implementation of TBI in the experimental school by collecting data from aquestionnaire, an interview, classroom observation and school reports. A comparison wasmade between2classes in experimental school and2classes of the same level in each controlschool and data analysis with SPSS16.0proves that students’ integrative language ability inexperimental school is better than that from control schools. By interview, the teachers inexperimental school have a better and deeper understanding of TBI. Through classroomobservation, the classroom atmosphere in experimental school is better than that in controlschools. The students in experimental school do better in exams. All of the results haveproved that Four-stage Mode is feasible and effective. However, there are lots of unfavorable variables in the experiment, so it is hard to provethat one teaching method is definitely better than another. There are still confrontationsbetween Four-stage Mode and the traditional teaching mode in its implementation thoughFour-stage Mode has been proved efficient. Some teachers think grammar teaching is withtop priority, but TBI highlights the experience of language and free production. Underexamination pressure, teachers have to design their classes within the requirements ofexaminations. Most of the examinations are not task-driven. The all-round evaluation is notfully adopted in current learning and teaching, which is a big barrier in the implementation.The existing examination system and the pattern of selecting talented people are restrictingthe implementation of TBI seriously. Some teachers also think TBI put more emphasis onoral practice, which will lead to the lack of reading and writing training.