A Study On Lead-in Strategies In Junior Middle School English Classes

Lead-in is the very beginning of teaching process and teaching activities.Although it does not last too long,it helps a lot both for teachers and students.On the one hand,it will not only contribute to accomplishing the teaching tasks effectively,but also achieving the teaching goals.On the other hand,proper Lead-in can surely attract students' attention and provoke their interest and desire of learning.Besides,it can also inspire teachers to think actively so as to create a more pleasant teaching environment and make the learning more relaxing and cheerful for their students.All in all,since Lead-in is so important in the English learning and teaching,this paper tries to discuss and research further on the effective Lead-in strategies for English classes in junior middle school based on the English teaching theory and practice.For this purpose,the author randomly selects 6 English teachers and 300 students from two middle schools as the research subjects,and mainly uses Classroom Observation,Questionnaires and Interview as the research instruments.Firstly,in order to know the real situation of Lead-in in junior middle school in English classroom teaching,30 English classes from Grade Seven to Grade Nine are observed in the two schools.Secondly,in order to know about teachers and students' attitude towards Lead-in,the author investigates 6 English teachers and 300 students with questionnaires.Thirdly,the author also interviews two more English teachers from the two schools as supplementary.At last,the author analyzes the collected data statistics so as to get some findings.The research results show that more than 50% of the English teachers interviewed are aware of the significance of Lead-in and try to use this strategy in their English teaching.But there are still some difficulties and deficiency when they put it into practice.For example,the time of Lead-in is too long that it is over 10 minutes,which takes up most of the class time.On the other hand,the design of Lead-in is sometimes dull and unattractive,which is lack of variety and interest,and so on.As far as the teachers are concerned,Lead-in should highlight ‘student-center' teaching mode.Therefore,the teachers,first of all,must dare to image and create flexible and diverse ways in Lead-in period.Accordingly,they must also arrange the Lead-in time properly and effectively.Besides,in the same lesson,different Lead-in designs and effective strategies can be used for various students to achieve the best results.By means of discussing different Lead-in strategies in different teaching objectives,the author hopes that this research can help the teachers enhance their awareness of the importance of Lead-in and figure out in time the ongoing problems in their own teaching practice.At the same time,the author also hopes that the research will encourage the English teachers in junior middle school to constantly develop and enrich their own Lead-in skills and strategies,and make best use of the effective Lead-in strategies so as to improve the teaching efficiency.