Appropriate Digressions In Promotion Of Students' Effective Learning At Senior High School English Classroom

Classroom digression is a quite familiar but little touched field in English teaching. It is a challenge to make a painstaking exploration into it. And actually appropriate classroom digressions can facilitate English teaching emotionally, morally and academically. The emphasis of this study is the application of digressions in senior high school English classroom.While none of previous empirical research or theories of appropriate classroom digressions have been found, the author searches for relative theoretical bases in such areas as pedagogy, psychology and sociology. Having compared different definitions of digression, the author classifies them into eight types based on his own teaching experience and reflections: solicitous utterances, content association, weather/environment talking, personal sharing, current affairs' commenting, classroom management, contacting giants and talking about values, and learning strategies.Through analyzing the various ideas about the purpose of education, the author has enhanced his faith that appropriate classroom digressions are a necessary complement to classrooms and can promote students' effective learning in senior high school English classrooms. Humanistic language teaching attaches more attention to the affective side of life, which leads to such affective factors as learning anxiety and motivation, both greatly closely connected to classroom digressions. Based on theories of human development, the author has found that appropriate classroom digressions, as part of the teaching environment, get the lion's share in producing influences on learners' personal development. Kolhberg's six stages of moral reasons provide more chances and confidence for appropriate digression to make everyday classroom saturated with moral meanings and make students more alert to moral values. Besides, theories of classroom management, effective learning and teacher-student relationship are also discussed.In the 6-month teaching experiment in Grade One of Shenzhou Senior High School Hebei Province, a typical class of digression is presented with detailed description and profound analysis and explanation, followed by some small case analyses and data collection and analysis. Hence the author expounds and proves that appropriate classroom digressions have positive effects on students' all-round development. They are the "sunshine" in the classroom. They can promote effective learning by means of arousing learning interests, strengthening motivation, harmonizing teacher-student relationship, directing learning strategies and teaching moral values.