A Study Of Effective Teaching Strategies Of English For Non-English-Major Master Candidates

Postgraduates are high-level talents in a country and English study can promote the broadening of their academic horizon and the improvement of their research ability; however, their English teaching is time-consuming and inefficient at present. To improve the comprehensive quality of postgraduate students and the effect of their English teaching, based on the theory of effective teaching, this study conducted an overall investigation on the current situation of English teaching for master candidates, including the situation of pre-class teaching preparation, classroom teaching and teaching evaluation & after-class reflection. Moreover, this study put forward related effective teaching strategies, which would contribute a lot to the improvement of English teaching for master candidates.This study took English teachers and master candidates enrolled in 2014 in Shihezi University as the respondents. Firstly, a literature review on the current situation of domestic and foreign effective teaching was made, and four core concepts in this study--- effective teaching, teaching strategy, English effective teaching and effective teaching strategies of English for master candidates were defined; moreover, an interpretation of effective teaching theory from the perspectives of its theory basis, characteristics,influential factors and judgment criteria was made. Secondly, a combination of research methods including interviewing, questionnaire, classroom observation and text analysis was resorted to make a thorough investigation on master candidates’ English teachers’ pre-class teaching preparation, classroom teaching and teaching evaluation & after-class reflection. Thirdly, a detailed analysis of survey data and materials was made, and existing problems were found. Lastly, the thesis put forward related strategies to improve the effectiveness of English teaching for master candidates aiming at solving existing problems.It can be known from the investigation that there exist the following problems in English teaching for master candidates: 1. During preparation for teaching, the selection of English textbook needs to be optimized and the teachers’ capability of developing teaching resources is limited; the teachers haven’t had a thorough analysis of master candidates’ English learning needs; some teachers don’t hold a right attitude toward writing lesson plans and don’t know the curriculum goal clearly or accurately. 2. During classroom teaching, the postgraduates are accustomed to being silent in English class, especially in reading class;teachers seldom state teaching goals and anticipation at the beginning of a class, and their teaching goals cannot adjust flexibly according to specific situations in class; teaching key points and difficult points are not highlighted and teaching contents are not of the age; the effectiveness of some of the teachers’ teaching behaviors, such as motivation stimulation, classroom management, question asking, adaptive teaching and the comprehensive adoption of teaching aids, still needs to be improved. 3. In teaching evaluation & class reflection, it was found that diagnostic evaluation is absent; the proportion of summative assessment is too high and that of formative evaluation is very low; teachers who systematically write down his/her teaching reflection are few, and reflection ways are limited and also the teaching reflection is not profound enough.This study proposes the following strategies for English teachers to improve their teaching effectiveness:When preparing for teaching, the teachers can prepare teaching contents by analyzing the Syllabus,properly selecting contents from the textbook and developing teaching resources out of the textbook.English teachers should have a thorough analysis of the postgraduate students’ present learning status and their learning needs. A right attitude should be placed in the first place when teachers draft lesson plans,then set the teaching goals, clarify teaching key points and difficult points, consider teaching methods and teaching tools, design homework and reserve extra space for teaching reflection in lesson plans in sequence.In classroom teaching, teachers should establish an interactive or learners-centered class to break the master candidates’ silence; teachers should state their teaching goals and anticipation clearly and adjust their teaching goals flexibly; teaching contents should be oriented by the students’ learning needs and be of the age; teaching key points and difficult points should be highlighted. The study also put forward some strategies to improve the effectiveness of some teaching behaviors--- motivation stimulation, classroom management, question asking, adaptive teaching and the comprehensive adoption of teaching aids. As for teaching evaluation and class reflection, the paper presents the idea of launching a diagnostic evaluation at the very beginning of a semester, appropriately decreasing the proportion of summative assessment and deepening formative evaluation; teachers can reflect their teaching by systematically draft a teaching summary, getting feedback from the students and evaluation from their colleagues.Only by having a full understanding of master candidates’ present English level and learning needs,providing appropriate teaching contents to meet the students’ needs, resorting proper teaching methods and evaluation means according to the master candidates’ characteristics, frequently rethinking about his/her teaching can the teachers improve their teaching effectiveness fundamentally.