摘要
Most language teachers today acknowledge the need to help their students reach the goal of communicative competence in the target language. There has been considerable discussion on the role of small-group work and pair work in the EFL classroom. Much of the discussion has suggested that such teacher-student and student-student relationship is essential to maximizing the practice time of the target language, increasing students' attention or involvement and reducing tension. In contrast, many English teachers claim that students do not use the target language all through the class, that they use the time to clarify how a transformation is accomplished rather than to practice it, that if students do use the target language without direct teacher supervision, their errors are not corrected. As an EFL teacher who has been conducting mainly small-group work in my Intensive Reading Course teaching, all these arguments have triggered me to do the following research on the issue. Three basic questions are to be discussed: 1) How do differences in group size affect the amount of student talk and teacher talk, the target language and native language used ? 2) To what extent do classroom engagement and nonengagement differ according to group size? 3) What is the ideal size of the group according to specific teaching goals?
大多数语言教师都认可语言教学应以帮助学生掌握交际能力为目的。关于在第二外国语教学课堂里采用小组和双人搭配的教学模式已经有相当多的讨论。许多教师认为这种教学模式中的教师—学生、学生—学生之间的关系有利于使学生在最大限度上得到练习目标语的时间,吸引学生的注意力,提高参与兴趣,并减小紧张情绪。换言之,这种课堂关系有助于营造一种低恐惧但却高挑战的学习环境和气氛。相反,又有许多教师指出在该种教学模式下,学生在课堂上并非都运用目标语,他们只是在理论上懂得汉英语言的转换过程,却非实际运用目标语。除此之外,在无教师指导下让学生运用目标语,学生的错误无法得到纠正。作为一名英语教师,我长期在英语专业精读课程教学中运用小组或双人搭配的教学模式。以上提到的争论使我做了如下研究:1)不同大小的组对课堂中学生言语量和教师言语量的影响,对目标语和本国语运用量的影响;2)组的大小不同对学生参与课堂活动和不参与课堂活动有多大程度的影响;3)根据英语专业精读课程的教学目标,理想的学习小组人数应为多少。因此,这篇论文的主题在于研究课堂中小组的大小不同在英语教学中给学生提供不同的学习机会和收获。
