An Empirical Study On Lead-in In English Teaching Classes Of The Senior High School

The importance of English teaching experienced a changing process in the basic education reform of China from the1980’s. But the contradiction of time used and effect in English teaching is still sharp-pointed now. There are many effort-wasted problems in the teaching concept and teaching methodology of the English classroom.Lead-in, the first step of the classroom teaching, is considered as one of the most important constituent of the classroom activities by teachers. English classroom is the chief position where Chinese students study English, so how to begin an English class determines whether students can gain English knowledge successfully. But in the real classroom, the scores are the only standard to evaluate teachers’teaching quality in all kinds of evaluations, so many teachers still use the old means of lead-in to teach rather than emphasizing the lead-in step, so the teaching efficiency is very low.In order to improve the lead-in step in English teaching, the author did a research to prove the significance of the lead-in on teaching and explore what are the effective means of lead-in and how to promote the lead-in to be effective.This thesis is based on the study the previous researchers did. From the definition of lead-in, the rule of lead-in, to the theoretical bases of lead-in, such as constructivism learning theory, schema theory and Krashen’s input and affective filter hypothesis, the author finally presents some researches at home and abroad and finds out their inefficiencies. Most of them are the conclusion of experience rather than the empirical study. From the empirical research, the author explores the answers of the research questions. The author studied on the teachers and students of Grade1in Handan No.4Senior Middle School in Hebei province by the means of pre-testing and post-testing, classroom observation, questionnaires and interview.Before the experiment, the author tested the30students in the experimental class and the control class respectively. During the process of the experiment, the teacher used the means of lead-in prepared elaborately in the experimental class and the traditional means of lead-in in the control class. After the experiment, the author tested the two samples again. The author used the SPSS software to analyze the data collected from the pre-testing and post-testing. In the process of teaching, the author observed40 class hours in the two classrooms, and took notes of what means of lead-in the teacher used and the response of the students. At last, the author handed out two kinds of questionnaires to10teachers and145students to analyze the lead-in by calculating the percentage. What is more, the author invited12students in two classes respectively to have the interview and took notes of their attitudes toward the lead-ins of the classroom. By the quantitative and qualitative analyses, the author got the results of the research and dicussed the data collected.Finally, the author draws the conclusion that the effective lead-ins are variable. The effective means of lead-in cannot be listed one by one. Only when the lead-in meets three aspects of students’ needs, can the lead-ins be effective. The first and important point is the lead-in should have interest combing the new knowledge. The second is the lead-in should embody that the students are the subject of the class. The last is that the lead-in cannot far away from students’ life, and it should be related to the students’ real life.To the research question of how to promote the lead-in to be effective, the author also gives a summary of it. The first is to analyze students’ needs and find out the students’ interest points. The second is to make students the center of the classroom. The third point is the classroom should be active in the lead-in step. The last point teachers should consider is teachers should analyze the teaching objectives and tasks, making them clear to the students. In addition, the length of the lead-in time should be controlled. The appropriate time is about3to5minutes.The author did a study on10teachers and145students, and the quantity reached the order of the empirical study, but the data collected from the experimental sample is limited, so the research may not represent the whole group of the senior school students. In addition, because of the development of the students’ interest and quality and the author’s level, the dependent and constant result in this study may not be gotten in the future research. Because the length of this thesis is limited, the author only studied the effective means of lead-in and how to promote the lead-in to be effective. And there are many aspects of lead-in in the classroom for the researchers to do the study in the future.