An Investigation Of Lead-in In The English Classroom Teaching In Junior High Schools

Lead-in is the first step of the English classroom teaching. It plays an important role in completing theteaching tasks, although it only takes up a few minutes of the whole class. It has a direct impact on theefficiency of teaching and learning. A successful lead-in can not only draw the students’ attention on theclass and arouse their motivation and interest of learning new knowledge, but also engage some schemarelated to the new teaching content and establish the links between the old knowledge and the newknowledge, thus facilitating the learning of the new knowledge and improving the teaching efficiency inEnglish classes.The author did a survey in No.3junior high school of Chengguan in Neihuang by means of classroomobservation, questionnaire and interview, aiming to know about the current situation of lead-in in theEnglish classroom teaching in junior high schools, identify the main problems and thus take effectivemeasures. First, the author observed25classes in Grade8to find out the current situation and the problemswith lead-in; Second, the author asked5English teachers and120students in Grade8to complete thequestionnaires, hoping to find out their attitude towards lead-in; Third, the author interviewed5Englishteachers to examine how much they understand the specific aspects of lead-in. Finally, the author providessome pedagogical implications for the teachers according to the analysis of the results.The results have shown that most of the teachers and students are satisfied with lead-in. They haveknowledge of lead-in, but fail to integrate it with the English classroom teaching. Besides, the teachers donot take the students’ need into consideration when they design lead-in. The methods of lead-in lackdiversity and the time on lead-in is sometimes not proper. Therefore, the effect of lead-in is not to oursatisfaction.According to the main problems with lead-in in the English classroom teaching in junior high schoolsand the analysis of the reasons for them, the author provides some implications as follows:(1) the teachersshould control the time of lead-in well;(2) the teachers should flexibly choose appropriate methods oflead-in according to different teaching content and students’ need;(3) the teachers should improve theirtheoretical knowledge of lead-in and integrate it with the English classroom teaching, thus enhancing the efficiency of the English classroom teaching.