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发表于 2007-1-6 18:15:04
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ID:free6688
活动2:我的英语我的未来
我的文章:Teaching English as a Part of Life
Teaching English as a Part of Life
Having taught college English for nearly ten years, I am quite familiar with English. I teach English every day, speak English every day and use English every day. Sometimes I even worry for English. In my university, teacher’s teaching ability is strongly highlighted. Every semester students are required to score their teacher’s classroom teaching performance, which exerts some pressure on us. The scoring results will not only affect a teacher’s year-end bonus but also determine the future of a teacher’s career. I have heard that an English teacher from Guangxi was snubbed by students and then got fired due to his poor teaching ability. So teachers, especially those who have a history of low scores, have to try all possible means to win the hearts of students, or worse, to simply please them. So some invite students to eat dinners, some prepare jokes or games in class to amuse students, others even directly flatter them by words or other means. If a teacher is neither good at teaching nor good at pleasing students, his job prospect would be quite bleak.
But it is a basic dialectical principle that everything has two sides. Students’ assessment is no exception. Positively speaking, it really makes every teacher spend more energy improving teaching. No teacher dares to neglect students’ needs and wishes and all teachers take teaching really seriously. Anyway, facing today’s fierce job market almost no teacher would thoughtlessly give up the hard-earned iron bowl. As for leaders in the department, they’re usually skillful and experienced in teaching, so they are understandably entitled to supervise other teachers’ teaching, especially those with ugly scores. If one day a leader suddenly come into your class and sit at the back row watching your performance, you needn’t be startled because it’s all natural that you lag behind in the assessment again. You should blame yourself and try out new ideas to improve. So teaching today is not as easy as ten or more years ago. Time has changed and we must keep up with the pace of social development.
In our department there are a few ways for teachers to cooperate in teaching, one of which is lesson plan meetings. If some teachers teach the same textbook, for each unit there will be a lesson plan meeting sponsored by one teacher who prepare teaching guidelines in advance, and during the meeting ( which lasts for about two hours ) other teachers give suggestions. I’ve found some woman teachers are considerably careful whose teaching designs can be as detailed as beyond my imagination. Personally I don’t think those meetings are very useful and I seldom draw on their things. I also find my colleagues do not know enough teaching theories. They always teach by intuition. But I have to admit some of them are really born teachers, whose amiable personality and high capability of emotions privilege them enormously.
I am tacit in nature, never show myself too much. Meanwhile I don’t have a good appearance. Although I teach diligently it always seems impossible for me to be a popular teacher, which worries me to some extent. Maybe I can say my English is good because I have a degree of M.A. in English and a title of associate professor and I also have published two books on English language and literature and dozens of articles. Still I don’t have much confidence in teaching. Students don’t enjoy my teaching very much, which I can figure from their eyes and words. It’s a shame to me that students tend to give me lower scores. In order to raise their interests in English learning, I sometimes introduce language games in class just like other teachers, but after several times they get bored. I also try to be as friendly as possible towards them, but in the depth of my heart I am strict so internal conflicts are frequently inevitable. I think I must let my scores rise, which will be good for both my job prospect and the effect of their study. Therefore I have tried to adjust my teaching style and be more careful in lesson plan. Things seem to improve, but not much.
I didn’t come to be conscious of my fatal problem in teaching until one day I came across a magazine essay in the library, which read: Teaching English as a part of life. This essay advocated the principle of integrating English teaching with a teacher’s daily life. The most important thing is that teachers should treat students as fully knowledgeable and emotional human beings instead of mere learning machines, and teachers should show full feelings in classroom, be more open-minded, more approachable and more communicative. Teachers should always bear in mind that students are not mature, what they need most is not mechanic instruction, but kind love. Suddenly I saw the light in the dark alley. Yes, I was too formal and rigid before students. Strictly speaking, I was only a pedant, not a qualified educator. If I want to be an excellent teacher, I should first change my ideology. The world has been changing forever. If we don’t follow the steps of our time, we will be deserted by it.
Maybe from that day on I have thought differently and taught differently, more importantly, I have no longer stood aloof from them but walked into their life, chatting with them, listening to their truest voices, therefore harmoniously keeping in touch with their tender and beautiful hearts. I hope in the near future my students will willingly tell me: sir, you deserve the honorable title of a good teacher. |
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