The Creation of English Language Circumstance(2)

What Do Animals Eat?
The rat smells the cheese on the table.
He will eat it in his hole.
The dog buries the bone in the yard.
He will eat it later.
The bird pulls the worm from the soil.
She will feed it to her babies.
The rabbit pulls the carrot from the ground.
He will share it with his friend.
The squirrel stores the nuts in the tree trunk.
She will eat them this winter.
The bear catches the fish in the stream.
She will take them to her cub.
The frog eats the fly in the air.
The frog is still hungry.
Yummy!
What will you eat now?
Questions: What does the dog eat?
What does the bear eat?

4.3 Guessing riddles

Each student prepares 3~5 riddles and ask his / her partner or group members to guess. Examples:
What is the smallest room in the world? The answer is a Mushroom。
What table is in the field? The answer is Vegetable
What is the only thing you can break when you say its name? The answer is Silence.
What is that, which you have never seen, heard or felt which never existed and still has a name? The answer is Nothing.
What changes a pear into a pearl? The answer is “l”
What question can never be answered by 'Yes'? The answer is “Are you sleeping?”

4.4 Others

Besides, we sometimes give them more chance to read. We teach them English stories, like:
The man, his Son and their Donkey
A man and his son were driving their donkey along a country road. They saw some girls drawing water at a well.
One of the girls said, “Oh, look! How silly they are! A man and a boy are walking along beside their donkey, and nobody is riding it.”
The man heard this and said to his son, “You had better ride our donkey. You are light, so you will not tire our donkey.” In a little while they met three old men. One of them said, “Look here! The boy is riding a donkey and his old father is walking by his side. The young boy does not take care of his old father.”
And the man got on the donkey and his son walked along beside it. Now they were very happy. But soon afterward they met three women. Fastened it to a pole. They lifted it to their shoulders and carried it along to the town. When they came to a bridge, everyone laughed at them. And the donkey did not like the noise and began to kick. It broke the rope, fell into the water and was drowned. So the old man had to take his son and go home, “He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody after all.”

After reading ask them some questions to see if they understand like “who rode the donkey at first?”” who rode the donkey at last?” ”What do you think about the story?”
We sometimes teach them English poems, like:
Life
Life can be good,
Life can be bad;
Life is mostly cheerful,
But sometimes sad.

Life can be dreams,
Life can be great thoughts;
Life can mean a person,
Sitting in court.

Life can be dirty,
Life can even be painful;
But life is what you make it,
So try to make it beautiful.
After reading the poem, do you think what life is?
We also use other ways like watching English movie, teaching English songs and so on. We create a good language circumstance for them, so they are willing to join in the English corner.

5. Songs and Movie

In English corner we often let the students watch English movie and teach them English songs. Because learning while playing, this is the best way to learn and the most popular way to the students. We can do this by watching some English movies, especially cartoons and English songs. Sterling spoken English is important and useful to educate the students’ pronunciation and intonation.

5.1 English songs

Most of people like music. Music has superb melody; it is euphonic and easy to remember. So when teaching some new vocabulary or sentences, we teach some pertinent English songs. The students will be happy and easy to remember.
While teaching the name of the fingers, we teach the song called “finger family”
While teaching the name from Sunday to Monday, we teach them the song “Sunday”.
On Christmas Day, we teach them “jingle bells”, the words are not very difficult:
jingle bells
dashing through the snow
on a one-horse open sleigh
over the fields we go
laughing all the way
bells on bob-tail ring
making spirits bright
what fun it is to ride and sing
a sleighing song tonight
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh

jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh

a day or two ago
I thought I 'd take a ride
and soon miss fanny bright
was seated by my side
the horse was lean and lank
misfortune seemed his lot
he got into a drifted bank
and we, we got up sot
jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one-horse open sleigh

jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh

jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh

jingle bells, jingle bells
jingle all the way
oh what fun it is to ride
in a one horse open sleigh

5.2 English movies

The students like watching TV. They also like watching movies, especially cartoons. There are many English movies, and they are interesting and useful. Maybe the students cannot understand every sentence, but I only ask them to listen carefully. They need not catch every word, but only the words or sentences they have learned in class. That’s what I want.
There is a lesson in Junior English for China Students’ Book 2B (PEP) called Miss Evans. It’s a story about the accident of titanic. When they learn this lesson, I let them watching the movie Titanic.
I ask them to write down at least ten sentences they heard in the movie. This stimulates them to listen intently. And this is also not very hard. Most of them can write down more than ten sentences. So it can make them more confident.
Most of the time, we let them watch cartoons. Because they are children, cartoons are more suitable for them. We have watched “Snow White”, “Beauty and Beast”, “The Incredibles”, “Shark Tells” and so on. Through those movies, we increased the students’ English levels, fostered their interest, and perfected their intonation.

6. Organization of various of competitions

We learn English, and then we must use it. So we must give the students the chance to represent their English. Competition is a good way. We can hold some competitions like handwriting, speech story telling, short play performance and handwriting newspaper and so on.

6.1 Handwriting and handwriting newspaper

Copying, writing is the first step of learning English, and the handwriting newspaper will cultivate their gift of design. We held this kind of competition in Grade One. Their designed genius satisfied us very much.

6.2 Speech competition.

Spoken English is important in communication. So we should improve the students’ spoken English. Speech competition is a good way. In the course of the competition, the students will try their best to show themselves. So they can improve their spoken English easier than in the class.
Furthermore, since it is a competition, there must be many rivals, so the students will work harder and learn more.

6.3 Short play performance

Every child is a born actor. Their natural performance, innocent language and rich imagination are all precious treasure. Thorough competition, they cannot only use the language they learned, but also improve it. And it can enhance their interest.
I still remember when we held the performance match last term. The students performed many short plays: The Hare and The Tortoise, Frog Prince, Romeo and Juliet, WuSong and The Tiger and so on.
Some of these are according to the plays or stories in the books, like The Hare and The Tortoise; some of them are adapted by themselves, like Frog Prince. Others are created by themselves, like WuSong and The Tiger.
We all know the story in “Shuihu”. It says WuSong beat the tiger in drunken. But our students tell the revenge of the tiger. WuSong was in drink again and lost in a forest. Then he met the tiger, which was beaten by him. Of course he was not afraid of it. But the tiger has a gun in its hand. It killed WuSong with the gun at last. The theme of the story is “Scientific is power.” By this play, they are surprised all of the teachers for their originality.
And also other plays are very good, too. Fox example, Romeo and Juliet. It tells a love story between a cleaner and a pretty girl. At the very beginning, the girl didn’t know the boy was a cleaner. So she agreed to have dinner with him. When they were waiting for the dinner, they talked. At last, the girl knew that the boy was a cleaner, so she left him soon. The story satirized many people only love the money. And in the story they also add something about ordering the food and asking jobs, what they have just learned.

By those kinds of competitions, we train their courage, foster their interest, and improve their ability.

There are many other ways to create a good English language circumstance. Like “disposal of the classroom and school”
If you want to let the students know the using of English language and enlarge their vocabulary. Some English banners, sayings, or mottos will work. You can stick them on the wall of the classroom or somewhere else in the school. You can also write them on the blackboard and change it everyday or every week in order to let the students see English words and feel the existence of English whenever they raise their head.
I did it in my class. Every day I write a phrase or idiom on the corner of the blackboard. Just like” the apple of one’s eye” “black sheep” “hot potato” “small potato” “Where there is a will, there is a way.” The students are interested in them. In this way, we can not only initiate their interest, but also enlarge their vocabulary.

7.Conclusion

We know the largest difference between mother language learning and foreign language learning is the environment. A child can soon learn his mother language well. He has heard a lot before he can say something and walk. Then after he is able to walk and say, he has a chance of listening to more. Before he goes to school, he has already good listener and speaker. He has spoken and communicated with his parents or friends for many years.
But for a foreign language, we can meet only in formal places, classes, for example; otherwise, we can hardly have a chance to meet it. So we should try to let the students be in a language circumstance.
Creating the classroom circumstance, building up English corner, watching English films, listening to English songs and so on are just part of the ways. We have to insist to do this, to let the students in a good language circumstance, to learn English well.
Above all, we must create a good English language circumstance for the students in China. Only in a good circumstance, that they can learn English well.

NOTES:

1、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，P13
2、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，P15
3、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，P16
4、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，P87
5、英语教学法教程，王蔷，2000.7，P109

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