The Efficiency Of English Classroom Lead-in For Junior High School

In English classroom teaching,lead-in is a basic teaching process.It has a direct influence on teaching effects.The main purposes of this thesis are to investigate the specific situation of English lead-in in junior high school,find out the existing problems of lead-in and then take effective measures to solve these problems.The research was carried out at Yongping School of Zunyi.The subjects of this research are teachers and students from six classes of three grades,Grade Seven,Grade Eight and Grade Nine in the junior high school.This study was carried out on the basis of Constructivism Theory,Input Theory and Affective Filter Hypothesis.There are three research methods adopted in this study: classroom observation,questionnaire and interview.Firstly,this study investigated the frequency of lead-in and the approaches of lead-in teachers often adopted and found out the existing problems of lead-in through observing 48 classes.Secondly,this study investigated and interviewed 6 English teachers and 270 students to obtain their ideas and opinions on lead-in.Finally,it analyzed the data collected from classroom observation,questionnaire and interview.The investigation showed that some teachers omitted the lead-in and conducted the lesson directly,which caused students not to get ready for learning.And there were some limitations for the teachers who implemented the lead-in.For instance,the methods of lead-in adopted by teachers were single,students’ enthusiasm of participating in the class was reduced,and thus the efficiency of lead-in was not significant.Or the time allocation of lead-in was inappropriate,the time of lead-in of most teachers was too long,and thus the following instruction was affected because of the inappropriate time of lead-in.Hence,when teachers design the lead-in before the class,they should try their best to design multi-methods of lead-in to arouse students’ interest and motivation,activate their initiative and creativity in English learning,so as to improve the classroom teaching efficiency.The research implications are stated as follows:(1)interesting lead-in can activate the atmosphere of classroom(2)the lead-in which is closest to teaching topic can improve the teaching efficiency(3)the lead-in which can draw the students’ attention contributes to the efficiency of teaching(4)teachers’ rich theoretical knowledge and practical experience are helpful for the design of the classroom lead-in.The study indicates that the effective lead-in can activate students’ interest and motivation in learning.And it’s useful to improve the teaching and learning efficiency.