The Application Of Lead-in In High School English Reading Classes

English learning mainly takes place in the classroom. How to makefull use of the limited time in the classroom to enhance students’learning efficiency has long been an important task for the Englishlanguage teachers. This paper suggests a proper way of fulfilling thistask, that is, to implement a kind of pre-class activity, namely“lead-in”.Though “lead-in” is rarely practiced in class, it cannot beunderestimated as its activities, if properly conducted, can enablestudents to be more concentrated and dynamically involved in theclassroom learning and makes teaching more meaningful, lively andefficient. Therefore, more and more teachers are concerned for theimportance and the advantages of “lead-in”. Textbooks of highschool English are mainly composed of reading passages. The trainingsfor language skills, such as listening, speaking, and writing are centeredround the reading passages. Therefore, it is still worth researching onhow to make use of the various types of “lead-in” activities to enhancethe teaching efficiency.This thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter One,the introductory part, elaborates the background of the research workfrom the perspectives of the traditional classroom teaching of readingand the need of the new course development. It then expounds thesignificance from both the teachers’ and the students’ points of view.Chapter Two defines the term of “lead-in”, reviews and summarizes therelevant literature home and abroad. Chapter Three conducts a surveyand reveals the current situation of the application of “lead in” in theEnglish reading classes of high schools in Shanghai. Chapter Fourrevolves around the application of the “lead-in” in the English readingclasses of high schools by first analyzing the necessity of applying“lead-in” in terms of textbooks and teaching methods, and thenelaborating the positive role of “lead-in”. The chapter ends with the recommendation of some relevant principles for the applications oflead-in activities, followed by some examples and advice of how todesign and implement different types of “lead-in” activities to fit indifferent reading contexts. Chapter Five concludes the paper bypointing out the limitations of the research and suggests further study onthe application of “lead-in” so as to enhance efficiency of Englishlanguage learning and teaching in reading classes.