Implementing Cooperative Learning in Intensive Reading Course for Chinese Learners of English

Studies on Cooperative Learning （CL） have demonstrated advantages and effectiveness of employing strategies of CL on English as a Second Language （ESL）. This report presents the processes of CL implemented in two English intensive reading courses at a Chinese university. The purpose is to arouse the students＇ awareness of working in groups in their English reading classroom and to enhance their reading comprehension at tertiary level. The results show that students can adapt to small group work when they realize the benefits brought to them. Although positive effectiveness of CL is prevalent at any levels in educational contexts, benefits of CL on ESL are not deeply cultivated as expected, particularly for Chinese learners of English and some problems can also be found in implementing CL. As the emphasis of curriculum of English Language Teaching （ELT） in China has been on developing students＇ competence in communication in English, it is necessary for teachers to adopt CL in classroom instructions rather than teacher-centered approaches.

YOU CAN' T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES!"──REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHING OF INTENSIVE READING AT TEACHERS' COLLEGES IN CHINA

In this article, we first identify one of the most common issues in the teaching of Intetive Reading at teachers’ colleges. That is, in the teaching of Intensive Reading, EFL teachers tend to teach linguistic knowledge to such extent that the importance of other language components-sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence diminishes. We then try to analyze the main causative factors which inhibit EFL teachers from imlementing effectively new teaching methods such as Communicative Language Teachillg. Through theoretical discussion, we attempt to present some pedagogical implications for the solution to the problem identified. In conclusion,we comment briefly on the proposed solutions to the problem, hoping to improve the teaching of Intensive Reading at Teachers’ college in China.

Teaching Intensive Reading Communicatively

The course of Intensive Reading is one of the key courses for the students who major in English at the tertiary level in China. This paper presents the writers＇ experiment of the communicative approach adopted in the course and discusses its effectiveness. The experiment focuses on the teaching of texts. The effectiveness of the approach is discussed drawing on the analysis of the questionnaire.

On Vocabulary Teaching in Intensive Reading

In Chian,intensive reading is one of the main methods for teaching English in colleges.One feature of the textbooks is that they all have large quantities of new words in each text,so vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of this,course.At the beginning of thisterm,I made a survey among students who entered our college last term.To the question"What is the greatest problem in your English studies”,18 out of the 21 students answeredthat they could not remember new words——vocabulary.This,to some extent,suggeststhat our approaches to vocabulary teaching should be

Change of Teachers' Roles in the Intensive Reading Class

This paper gives an account of characteristics of the intensive reading in English teaching, and change of teachers’ roles in the learner-centered teaching approach. Suggestions are put forward as to how to be a qualified teacher in the intensive reading class accordingly.

INTENSIVE READING: FIFTY YEARS OF ENGLISH TEACHING IN CHINA

This paper intends to critically review and reflect upon the origin and development of Intensive Reading, an English course that has been designed and taught as the leading or 'core' course among all the courses related to the training of the English language at tertiary level in China during the past fifty years. This course came into being under the influence of the former Soviet model of foreign language teaching introduced at the end of the 1940s — a shift away from the content-based to skill-based approach. Since the very beginning, the course has seen arguments over its overall objectives, content selection and methodology. Many believed that the development of all the basic language skills — listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation should be incorporated in the objectives of this single 'core' course. Inevitably there have been arguments over the allotment of time for each skill and methodology to be adopted. Such shift occurred partly due to changes in English teaching in high schools. Since mid 1980s, EFL practitioners and researchers in this country have begun to reexamine and reflect upon this model of English teaching against the overall achievement of our students as students' dissatisfaction grew. As a result, opinions against this conventional approach have been voiced. Although being under different names, the course is still listed in the new syllabus in China, with more emphasis on discourse competence. The confusion over its course objectives, however, and difficulty in teaching methodology for the training of so many skills will remain as ongoing reforms in high schools keep posing new challenges.

TEACHING STRATEGIES IN ENGLISH MAJOR COLLEGE STUDENTS TEACHING — HOW TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL INTENSIVE READING ENGLISH CLASS

How to have a successful Intensive reading English class? The teacher should possess a lot of practice based on the theory of second language acquisition and teaching strategies. This paper mainly discusses the way of how to manage Intensive English classes in the perspective of teaching approach, class design and teaching procedure, etc. The three aspects are associated with each other very closely. If the teacher can combine these three factors successfully, he can be regarded as a competent teacher.

GUIDING STUDENTS TO READ ACTIVELY THROUGH INTENSIVE READING

This article reviews the background and problems in theteaching of intensive reading (IR) to the students with non-English majors and proposes some activities for improving theteaching and learning process of the IR classroom. It is expectedthat with some applicable and effective activities, the teachercan help students read actively and grow into effective andindependent readers.

TASKS OF THE“INTENSIVE READING”

To Chinese students who are learningEnglish as a foreign language,the“inten-sive reading”course is of great practicalvalue,especially in the intermediate stage,i.e.senior-middle school or the second orthird year in college.“Intensive reading”implies the recognition of the configura-tion,pronunciation,grammatical inflexionand strueture of words,sentences,par-agraphs,and the whole text.It strengthens listening and speaking,affordslanguage,content,and models for writing.

IN DEFENCE OF INTENSIVE READING

In his article‘Why Intensive Reading Hinders the Development of Both English Language Teachingand English Language Learning in China’.Ian Cotton.a British lecturer in Chongqing University,concludes thai the teaching method of Intensive Reading(IR)in China is mainly responsible for the,comparatively low level of Chinese students skills in listening and speaking.He believes IRcontributes nothing to the development of English language teaching and learning in China.Such aconclusion,in my.opinion,is extreme and does not reflect the actual situation of ELT in China.Infact.IR has proved to be an effective teaching method to improve students’English.The question ishow to use the method effectively.

INTENSIVE READING:PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Intensive reading has once come under attack in Mr.Ian Cotton’s article(Cotton,1990).He arguesthat intensive reading contributes nothing to the development of English language teaching andlearning in China.Although,as a teacher of intensive reading(IR),I disagree with some of hisconclusions,I think that he makes many relevant remarks about the drawbacks in the teaching ofintensive reading.

TEXTS FOR INTENSIVE READING IN CHINA: AN ANALYSIS

Introduction In China, Intensive Reading is the most important course for freshman and sophomore English majors; it dominates the English curriculum for non-majors. This has been the case for several decades, and in fact has become deep-rooted in the minds of learners and teachers.

TEACHING INTENSIVE READING WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF MODERN PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Many students have difficulties in obtaining the globalmeanings of texts.This paper proposes some suggestions on howto help students reach a deeper understanding of texts in intensivereading classrooms within the framework of modernpsycholinguistics.It mainly discusses the important effect ofprior knowledge on further understanding and provides threemethods to help solve this problem:make good use of pre-reading activities;enrich the students’background information;and analyze the structure of texts.

AN INITIAL ATTEMPT TO APPLY THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE INTENSIVE READING COURSE:An overall evaluation of the teaching practice on the Nankai University HTTC

IntroductionIn China,the significance of intensive reading in language learning and teaching is known to allconcerned.For a long period of time,roughly halfa century,there have been no great changes in the wayintensive reading is taught.As a result some schools and colleges continue to place too much emphasis onusage rather than use.The teacher spends a great deal of time explaining language points,paraphrasingdifficult sentence structures,and introducing the author’s background.Students,on the other hand,areaccustomed to accepting whatever is presented to them passively.

RATIONALE AND PROCEDURES IN THE TEACHING OF INTENSIVE READING

This paper is a product of intensive reading teaching reform practice held in Shantou Universityin 1998,under the instruction of Mr.Black(professor of New York City University).It summarises therational and procedures we used in the teaching practice of intensive reading.Modes of top-down and bot-tom-up processing are introduced,procedures such as skimming,scanning,careful reading,writing,role-playing,presentation and practice are described,particular importance is attached to group work orpair work.The rationale and procedures we put forward in this paper are not revolutionary but a combi-nation of traditional Chinese teacher-centred mode with contemporary western student-centred approachin the teaching of intensive reading in China.However,they have been proved highly efficient and prac-tical,which makes this paper worth reading.

INTENSIVE READING: A NEW MODEL OF CLASSROOM TEACHING

The intensive reading class should focus on students’ reading problems and the techniques they need to become efficient readers. A model of reading technique training, including attack skills at the word, sentence and discourse level, is presented.

HOW TO GET STUDENTS TO TALK IN AN INTENSIVE READING CLASS

Some suggestions on how to encourage students to take an active part in oral communication activities in the intensive reading class. 1. Introduction A common complaint among teachers today is that "My students won’t talk. " To avoid the frustrations of a non-communicative conversation class, teachers should work at setting up the students for "real" com-

WARM-UP ACTIVITIES. MAKING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE INTENSIVE READING COURSE

This paper points out the problems existing in the Intensive Reading Course classrooms conducted under the teacher-centred pedagogy and proposes that varied warm-up activities be applied at the beginning of every class. The purpose is to motivate the students to be active participants in class, provoke communication at different levels, and foster the top-down reading schema, all of which serve to enable the students to become effective readers. The theoretical and applicative considerations of the warm-up activities are discussed in detail in the paper.