Curriculum Standards for English Compulsory Education(2011 version)points out that modern English education should transform the traditional thought of language learning,changing from rote memorization to paying more attention to the process and practicality of language learning.Teachers should design diverse classroom teaching activities to help students understand and acquire the language in various situations,aiming at developing students’ comprehensive language competence.However,the current situation of English education in junior high school does not go well with the basic concept of Curriculum Standards for English Compulsory Education.Under the pressure of exam-oriented examination,some teachers merely complete teaching tasks on the textbook with the goal of training students test skills and abilities.This teaching mode weakens students’ learning interest and motivation,causing the phenomenon of “high scores and low abilities”,“dumb English”,which results in the unbalanced development of students’ basic language skills.Drama in Education is one kind of educational mode which integrates drama elements and drama activities into English teaching,targeting at education.The merit of Drama in Education is that it can create relaxing and active classroom atmosphere,provide relatively real situation and a large number of opportunities.This can make students give their full play to experience the use of language in context.By means of this method,students’ learning interest can be stimulated,students’ comprehensive language abilities can be developed and ultimately the unity of instrumental and humanistic goals of English education can be achieved.The experiential,participatory and activity-based learning pattern provides a new angle for the current English teaching.In recent years,a large number of researches demonstrate that the integration of DIE and English class is conducive to improve the efficiency of English teaching,help students change their learning ways and cultivate students’ comprehensive abilities and capabilities.Moreover,it has an influence on students’ learning interest and creativity.But the number of researches in the area of how to apply Drama in Education to English teaching is limited.Therefore,the study explores how educational drama can be integrated into English class in junior high school and tries to verify the effect of Drama in education on students’ learning interest and academic achievements through experiments.The research questions are as follows:1.How do teachers apply DIE into junior high school English teaching?2.How can DIE motivate students’ learning interest in junior high school?3.Can DIE help students improve students’ academic performance?The teaching experiment is carried out in two classes with the similar English learning situations.The author is the teacher who conducts DIE in this school.The author makes use of DIE to reorganize the textbook.In the experimental class,the author integrates DIE into the courses,while the courses in the control class are given in a traditional method.The teaching experiment lasts one semester and the author takes advantage of questionnaire,test,classroom observation and interview to testify whether the application of DIE can mobilize students’ learning interest and improve their academic performance.The results demonstrate that DIE can be integrated into English teaching in junior high school by some daily classroom activities and extracurricular activities.The DIE teaching method has a great impact on sparking students’ learning interest and improving students’ academic scores. |