Application Of Interactive Teaching Theory In Oral English Teaching For Art Students In Senior High School

In recent years, an increasing number of art students in senior high schools are admitted to art institutes. As is well known, art students, a special group, spend more time and energy in practicing the skills of drawing and singing. They do not take their academic studies seriously and only care about the results good enough to enter a university. As a consequence, they pay little attention to the development of oral communicative competence and learning abilities; On the other hand, the idea of teacher-centeredness is popular with English teachers in traditional class, making art students neglect oral English learning. Therefore, in view of their characteristics of cognition and learning, it is urgent to reform oral English class for art students in senior high schools and seek practical approaches to characteristic education.Interactive teaching theory emerged in the 1980s."Learning by doing"is the key principle. It focuses on the process of learning and problem solving. And it is always organized around a variety of interactive activities related to real life. The New National Criteria for English Course advocates experiencing, practicing, participating, communicating and cooperating, which is in accordance with interactive teaching theory. In the author's opinion, it can be applied in oral English teaching for art students in senior high school.The primary research questions are: (1) How to create interaction patterns and apply interactive teaching theory into oral English teaching for art students in senior high school? (2) How to enhance art students'interest and motivation, improve their communicative competence and learning abilities by interactive teaching? This thesis first explores the concept of"interaction", its characteristics, three principal interaction patterns (teacher-student, student-student and human-multimedia), the principles of designing interactive activities and current research both at home and abroad. Then based on oral English teaching (status of speaking, features and restrictive factors of oral development), the importance of interaction in oral class is obviously seen. It can not only elicit students'intrinsic motivation, but also promote students'comprehension of English knowledge and improve students'communicative competence and learning abilities as well. The application of interactive teaching theory in oral English class is carried out in the following aspects: enlightening students in questions and answers in interactive oral tasks, designing interactive oral tasks into meaningful assignments and activities, and organizing interactive oral tasks in teams, groups or pairs. They are mainly applied according to learning characteristics of art students of senior high school and their learning contents. The subjects are 100 art students taught by the author in Senior One from No. 2 Middle School of Fengnan, Tangshan in Hebei Province. The experimental instruments are questionnaire, interviews and English proficiency tests. SPSS is used to analyze the collected data. After the two-semester experiment, the experimental group's abilities of oral communication and English learning are developed more greatly by interactive teaching in interest, enthusiasm, and creativity than controlled class. It has been proved that interactive teaching theory is effective and practical in oral English teaching for art students in senior high school.