A Study On The Effectiveness Of Lead-in In Middle School English Teaching

As the first, as well as one of the most basic teaching steps in Middle School English classroom teaching, lead-in does not last long, nor does it take much time in class, yet it should never be underestimated. If the lead-in in a class is well designed and works effectively, it can quickly stimulate students'learning interest and motivation, expand their thinking and make them devote themselves to the classroom teaching in a better state. Therefore, teachers can achieve the aim of enhancing the teaching efficiency with the help of it. However, in China, up till now, the research into lead-in in middles school teaching is quite sporadic, most of which is just about the experiences of teaching without the support of further theory; in the classroom, quite a few English teachers ignore lead-in in their teaching or fail to make effective use of it, as a result, the efficiency of the class is affected with no doubt. The author tries to seek effective teaching methods for lead-in in middle school class through classroom experiment and investigation, which practically helps to enhance the teaching efficiency from the very beginning of a class.Before the experiment research, based on a questionnaire survey, the author had a basic mastery of the teaching status of lead-in in middle school classroom teaching, and therefore the necessity of the experiment in search of effective lead-in methods was determined. Through a term's experiment research, a summary of effective lead-in methods, together with the criteria for the contents and forms of Lead-in, was made as a result.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 is the literature review that gives an introduction to the theme of the thesis in the aspects of effective teaching and lead-in, each includes its history, definition and study at home and abroad.Chapter 2 is the theoretical basis. The importance of effective leading in middle school classroom teaching is further explained through the explication of the constructive learning theory, the optimal theory of teaching process, Ausublel's theory of meaningful receptive learning and the theory of multiple intelligence.Chapter 3 is the research on lead-in. It first analyzes the structure and characteristics of English classroom teaching, which follows with the analysis of the purposes, functions and principles of effective lead-in in middle school classroom teaching, together with its teaching status about with an investigation has been made among 300 students from five school in Changsha. In addition, the analysis of middle school students' characteristics and teacher's role are also involved.Chapter 4 is about the methodology and process of an experiment on lead-in. To find out the ways of effective teaching in lead-in in middle school English teaching, the author spent a term making contrastive analysis on both the classroom teaching and grades of the two Junior 3 classes chosen for the experiment. The methods that have been put to use are documentary, educational experimentation, class observation, investigation and interview.Chapter 5 is the results and analysis of the experiment. With the elaboration of the results, the significance of effective lead-in is clearly shown together with a summary of effective teaching methods as well as the criteria for the contents and forms of lead-in.