The Application Of The Activity Approach In Teaching Vocational School Students English

The fundamental aim of the application of activity approach is to form a student-centered model; to arouse students' interests; to foster the motivation to learn English.The purpose of the activity approach is to advocate organization of English teaching through all kinds of activities. Since this kind of teaching method can avoid the teacher-centered models neglecting students' studying environment, it can improve students' initiative studying ability and practicing ability. Using various kinds of activities not only can adjust the English studying environment but also can stimulate the interests of studying English and maximize students' potential to reach the goal of fostering students' creative abilities.From the point of balanced-activity approach, teachers' work is to ensure the students involvement in the various kinds of activities so as to foster their language acquisition and language learning. The design of the activity approach is based on the balance between the language input and language output. In other words, after comprehension of the necessities of the communicative activities, the language input and practice is also emphasized simultaneously. The necessity of using the activity approach in vocational school has been discussed from the cognitive development of the students; from the motivation of the students and from the interests of the students.After analyzing the present situations existing in English teaching of the vocational school, the author mentions the deficiency of the equipment in vocational school, the attitude towards the English teaching and the students in vocational school, the method the teachers used was teacher-centered, not the students-centered. By referring to the text book used in the vocational school and the teachers' qualities and levels of the vocational school, the author made a large inquiring of the vocational students in the school with the questionnaire. By collecting and analyzing the data statistically, the author concludes that the vocational school students need the activity approach.The author emphasizes the common ways of teaching English through activity approach, for examples, learning English by sounds; learning English by stories telling; learning English by tongue twister; learning English by sketching or stick drawing; learning English by role player; learning English by pair-work; learning English by group-work; learning English by bingo game; learning English by brainstorm so on and so forth. There are a lot of effective activities which the author hasn't mentioned about because of the shortcoming of the text book in the vocational school. At present time, the vocational school the author mentioned has already accepted some teachers' opinions. The new text book and activity approach are expected to be more helpful to the vocational students.The following are the results achieved by using the activity approach in teaching English in the vocational school. First, students have achieved a lot from all kinds of activities. Second, students' interests of learning English have been aroused by using the activity approach. Furthermore, students show their respects and confidence to their teacher, thus forming a good environment of studying English. Third, students increase the opportunity of English experience. They are involved in the classroom activities; taking part in the activities and 'learning by doing.' They learn how to use language in real condition. Fourth, the traditional teaching mode, which is teacher-centered class, has been transferred into the students-centered teaching mode. The students' role, which is the knowledge receiver, has been transferred into the active knowledge master. The students have more opportunity to communicate with each other. The teachers become more and more considerate to their students.The author suggests in her conclusion that the better relationship between teachers and students is the necessities and insurance of the successful use of the activity approach in teaching English. Simultaneously, students' involvement in the activities is the main way to the successful using activity approach.