An Investigation Of Lead-in Ways In English Classes In Grade Two Of Middle School

Lead-in has an important significance in teaching process, it was considered as the critical part of teaching activities, the success of a lesson widely focus on the lead-in ways of this lesson. An appropriate lead-in allows the new lesson has a good beginning, it ensures the smooth conduct of the teaching activities of classes, and get a better teaching result. In recent years, with the progress of the reform of the new curriculum, English curriculum standard requires teachers to improve teaching methods, to change teaching ideas, and to fit for the recommend of the new curriculum reform. Lead-in as the first link in the teaching process, its status and importance are increasingly prominent. Therefore, when the teachers design the new lesson, they should according to the courses’ content and the students’ need, using various ways to design the appropriate lead-in ways. Only in this way, can the lead-in ways stimulate students’ interest, mobilize students’ enthusiasm in learning, so as to improving the classroom teaching efficiency.Considering the importance of the lead-in in the class, it is necessary to investigate and understand the lead-in ways in real English classes. In order to investigate the application of lead-in ways in middle school English classes, the author did some investigations in Xinxiang No.1 Middle School’s Grade 2 in which the author has done internship. The reason why the author chose Junior Middle School students of Grade Two as investigation subjects is that Grade Two of Junior Middle School students have spent the psychological transition stage from Primary School to Junior Middle School, and they don’t need to prepare for the High School entrance examination..Based on the investigation’s aims, this thesis puts forward two questions:(1) What are the main ways of lead-in used in Grade 2 of middle school English classes?(2) What are the main problems when using the lead-in ways in English classes?The author used four methods-the classroom observation, audio-recording, questionnaire and interview for the investigation. First, In order to know the present situation of Lead-in in Junior Middle School in English classroom teaching and find out the existing problems, the author observed 52 English classes of Grade Two in Xinxiang No.1 Middle School. Second, In order to know teachers’ and students’ view about lead-in ways, the author invited 5 teachers and 400 students to do the questionnaire. Third, the author interviewed 5 teachers and 10 students. Finally, the author analyzed the data collected from the investigation and put forward some advice on lead-in ways. The results show that teachers often use the lead-in ways such as using pictures, playing the video, introducing the topic directly, and revision in English classes, while the lead-in ways such as playing games and telling story seldom used by teachers but very popular among students. During the teaching process, teachers did not take the student’s interests and needs into account in the actual design of lead-in ways, which makes the lead-in failed to inspire the students’ interest and the enthusiasm of active participation in activities, so in this case lead-in is not conducive to improve the learning effect.According to the result form the investigation, the author finds out the pedagogical implications as follows:(1) teachers should make constant changes both in form and content when designing the lead-in ways;(2) teachers should have a clear goal when designing the lead-in ways;(3) teachers should design the lead in with “student-centered” concept;(4) teachers should develop themselves in both theoretical knowledge and innovation spirit. The author hopes that this investigation can help the teacher adopt effective lead-in ways, so as to improve the teaching efficiency.