OnEnglishRecitationteachinginmiddleschool

On English Recitation teaching in middle school摘要：中国人是把英语当作一种外语来学的。因此没有语言环境，学起来比较难。自古以来有很多语言教学方法。在尝试过各种方法又没有取得成效时，老师们感到无所适从了。让我们回头看看，汉语在中国有着成功的教学史。它的传统的教学方法就是熟读和熟背课文生字。仔细想想就会发现，所有的汉语语言方面的专家都会熟练地背诵很多名篇诗词，散文等。那么我们可以思考这样一个问题：它们都是语言，我们为何不能用同样的方法来对英语进行学习呢？通过教育实习笔者发现背诵是一种非常重要且有用的学习方法。关键字：背诵; 作用; 方法; 建议1. IntroductionEnglish, as a foreign language, has been widely learned in China for more than a hundred years. English now is becoming more and more important in international communication due to globalization. English as a language first, is most important tool for communication.Recitation is a traditional teaching method in China, which is widely used by learners of different levels and studied by some research. For middle school students, the week point in their English learning is listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are the most difficult to improve in learning a foreign language. The middle school students have learned little in vocabulary, phrases, sentences and grammar rules. With the large amount of reading comprehension and recitation, the learner can achieve grammatical sensitivity. They can easily find the meaning of phrases and sentences tenses and so on. If they can read and recite consciously, then they can accumulate a lot of achieve words that they know well about the usage besides the meaning. This paper will research into related information about the methods of recitation, the function of recitation and I will give some recommendation about recitation learning.2. Background information of English learning in ChinaIn traditional English lessons, mostly in the countryside, teachers used to follow a procedure as the following; they taught all the new words in the text in isolation, went through the text sentence by sentence, phrase by phrase, pausing to explain and translate, asked individual students questions as a check of their understanding, then let students listen to the tape and read the text. Most Chinese middle school teachers lay emphasis on grammar for the sake of written exams, while on the other hand ignore the students development of speaking ability, leaving so many people getting high scores in paper but unable to speak English out. What should they do? How to express themselves very well? Recitation is a very effective way to learn a foreign language.3. Basic introduction of recitation3.1 Definition of recitationIn dictionary, the definition of recitation is, public delivery of passages of prose or poetry learnt by heart. Simply, recitation is reading aloud the ideas that the learner wants to remember. According to Li Shangmei in Correlation between memory and recitation and its pedagogical implication said: Recitation can also be defined as learning by heart, but learning by heart can mean memorizing something with or without uttering it while recitation with uttering. In this paper, the definition is represented in a broader sense, that is, so long as the language material is memorized and eventually stored in the learners mind. 3.2 The theory of Input and RecitationAccording to Wang Qiyan on English teaching methodology: Krashens input Hypothesis makes the claims that learners process along the natural order by understanding. Input that contains structures a little bit beyond their current level of competence and input becomes comprehensible as a result of simplification and with the help of contextual and extra linguistic clues. This kind of comprehensive input can promote acquisition. It can improve the learners speaking and writing accuracy. In the new syllabus, there is large amount of material and practice. Input is emphasized, especially the material input. Many kinds of means of input, like listening speaking, reading and writing are used, but not the traditional one, that is recitation the reason lie in two facts. One is that there isnt any item in the exam to test how a student can recite something, so students never take it seriously. The other reason is that rotting has been criticized for many years, making reciting overlooked. So first we should make clear that recite and rote are different. Rote means mechanical repetition (in order to memorize)from memory without thinking. Many people mix then together so that they think Recitation is a dull method, and its only suitable for those who are stupid.4. Functions of recitationThe Chinese saying goes that If you recite three hundred poems of Tang Dynasty, you will read poems in an appreciative tone and tune ever if you can not compose one yourself According to the writers teaching practice writer take this method in Kashi town middle school Yining county. The writer ask her students recite the texts in their English book. They must recite the main texts in each unit and they must recite it to the writer. The writer will give those marks for normal times. As a result, writer find recitation has many functions below.4.1 Deepening understanding of the materialRecitation is an activity which changes a written language into spoken language. Middle school students can make a better understanding of text by recitation. On the process of recitation, they can absorb the style and structure of the article as well as, language expression and the emotion of the author. Zhu guangqian, in the early 1920s. He taught junior school English. At that time, he not only used the original foreign materials, but also with his students read the text proficiently. One of his students recalled: In the morning, students are all outside, under the tree, read the text for thousands of times, less than half a year, they can express themselves fluently. The teacher said: I think, as a beginner, they always spent much time in remembering the vocabulary and do much grammar exercise rather than recite some classical passages. Recite some passages you will find, its better to develop your sense of language. 4.2 Improving language expression abilityRecitation is a main method to improve language ability. Read the texts again and again to memorize them. In this way, They can learn the words and phrases in the text by heart. Learning English by recitation the text is an effective way for middle school students. Because it can not only help them to master a lot of basic English knowledge, but also can improve their language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing etc. They can enrich their vocabulary, increase language and promote the writing ability. That is why the teacher will give students some model texts for recitation before examination. The more input, the more output. That is to say the more you recite, the more you can express. When the writer went to Kashi town middle school the students couldnt express themselves even a simple sentences but after one month of recitation practice, most of students can use the simple sentences to express themselves. The writer ask them to write a short passage of composition every week. Everybody can do that.4.3 Training language sense abilityRecitation can intensify the sense of language, and sense can improve the accuracy of exercise. Some students who learn English will have a high accuracy of exercise. However, they couldnt explain why they choose this answer. On most cases, they choose the answer by sense, which called the sense of language. The reason is that the sense of language can improve expression ability and improve the ability of doing exercise is that sense of language is bases on lots of reading and recitation. For example, in Zhejiang province the very best liberal arts student Chen Chunxian think that the sense of language is a very important part in English learning process. Thus, the students can choose the right answers. Cultivating the sense of language relays on reading and recitation. This basic method of practice especially for the students who are in elementary education. From that, the student can find that the sense of language is the right answer to improve English ability.4.4 Enhancing memory abilityMemory is the basic ability in mental. The memory of human is not completely in born. Everyones memory capacity can be enhanced and improved through training. Recitation is an effective training way to enhance the memory. In fact, recitation is a form of intensive reading. The voice of recitation can form intensive conditioned reflex to humans brain. The more you recite, the more stimuli will form, the more conditioned reflexes will enhance, and the deep signal will be in the brain. So, it will intensify the memory. For the sake of this, recitation is very important. That is to say memory plays an evitable role in language learning. According to the statistics of educator, learning process (including universities, middle schools, primary schools) 80 percent of the items requires memory. It is no exaggeration to say that no memory will be no learning.(Li Shangmei,2007.9) it is hard to form the basic memory ability without recitation. Recitation can help train and improve students memory while memory is essential to a persons life and future career. The value of memory exists in its quality of quickness, accuracy, being lasting and retainable. Whether one has a good or bad memory is related with his own natural gift, yet the postnatal training is much more important. Among the many ways, recitation is the most effective one for memory training.4.5 Cognitive rules of learning foreign languageFrom the view of cognitive linguistics, acquisition is the way we acquire our mother tongue when we were young, we learn to speak unconsciously by imitation those around us. Whereas, we are now studying English in the classroom, that is to say, we are learning in China. First we should read it first, and then speak out later. Therefore, if they want reach the goal of communication in English. First, they must learn how to read, recite lots of English materials and accumulate sufficient language materials. It is consistent with language acquisition law. Modern communication theory tells us that language teaching is a process of transmission. Listening, reading are the input, speaking and writing are output. Input, interaction and output are important concepts in second language.(2005.7)Middle school students can read a lot of English materials they can understand the use of language inherent mystery naturally.The words they speak and the sentences they write are based on the language law naturally. This is an ancient saying: reading the books for a hundred times, you will understand the meaning From the point of view, recitation should be an important tool in English learning.5. Some methods of recitation in learning period 5.1 AttitudeFirst students in middle school should have a correct attitude towards recitation. Students in middle school ought to be pleased to recite for the purpose of learning more about English and other fields. In the process of reciting, the students should relax themselves and are in a state of relaxation. This is a positive attitude which can eliminate the unnecessary psychology barrier to recitation. In addition, different people have different methods of recitation. There are several feasible methods listed below to use.5.2 Time We ought to choose suitable time for us when we are reciting something. Because everyone has time which suit themselves to recite. For most of people morning is the suitable time to recite due to fresh air and the vigorous state after a good night sleep. Therefore, we should recite what we plan to do in the morning as possible as we can .For example for most of junior school they have reading lessons in the morning. They can read the materials in class. However, some people used to recite something before going to bed; this is the last time we use to recite in a day. As the scientific research has seen pointed out, learning something by heart before going to bed is more efficient than any other time 5.3 Comprehension memoryWhat should we do is reading the whole text before recitation, getting the structure of the text. In order to recite the text on the outside of having a good grasp of whole text. By having the clear goal, we can make the goal achieved efficiently. It is harder to forget with the method compared with the way to reciting without thinking like machine.Meanwhile, there are many genes such as narration. Essay and prose so we should pay special attention to genres of the text we want to recite.5.4 Reading aloudRepeating information aloud can help students encode the language information (auditory encoding) and identify how well they have learned it. Some students have such experiences during text that they know the text information, but are surprised find they freeze and cannot give adequate responses. For some students, this freeze may be a result of test anxiety. For others, however, it may be a result of overestimating how well they know the material, that is, they believe they have memorized that information but in fact they havent. If the learner recite the information aloud from memory, it is quite clear how well he knows it. If he stumbles in his responses or has to look up answers, or can only give a vague response, then he knows that he needs to do more work to memorize firmly. 5.5 Keeping on reciting English materials In the course of English learning .Many students always give up halfway in the process of English learning. When we are eager to recite something, we are always full of passion. However when the passion fades, the task of reciting something is ignored. This is the reason why majority students have not the ability to express themselves as they wish after learning English many years.We must insist on reciting something and learn the texts vocabulary by heart repeatedly for the sake of express what we want to say. Only when we persevere in recitation, can we learn new things by reviewing old things and keep what we have learnt in our mind. Effect of learning English becomes better and better.5.6 The purpose of recitation According to Hu Chundong in English Teaching Methodology he said: Plenty of recitation is one way lead to real communication. Lots of students recite many English materials, but they cant use them flexibly. As a result the ability to speak and write is low. Therefore, in daily life, students try their best to put what you have recite into use, in order to express accurately and in the western thinking. Students can form a good habit of recitation by putting what they have recited into use and there by having the feeling of achievement after recitation, and describe what they have seen consciously at any time.6. RecommendationAccording to the function of recitation we can find recitation is a very important method in English teaching in Middle schools. But this method also has some disadvantages so we must pay more attention to several points. The writer will give you some recommendation as follows.6.1 Materials chosen for students to reciteStudents can choose the books or writers they are in favor of to read outside. Students are instructed to find different kinds of materials in the library or on the internet. (Qi Gui-hong2007.7) The styles of articles are various, the words and expressions they contact are of different language colors, and the information they obtain is of a great variety. The only requirement for the materials is that article is written in authentic English by native speakers. Generally speaking we always choose the texts from our textbook. The learners are first required to read materials in the target language to their own taste; secondly to select the words, expression, and paragraphs evaluated as being useful in practice: thirdly to recite them. The students are asked to recite an article for one week and teacher will check it.6.2 Flexible recitation formsWe should have a flexible way to recite. We choose from simple materials to complex materials gradually or from shallow materials to deep materials .Its better to combine with some flexible exercises, think more and summary what you have learnt. They recite the materials to the teacher directly, or give a performance in class using the target language, especially the accuracy of the sentences used by them to express their ideas; the richness of the contents; and the confidence to perform in public. The teacher can also ask students to write the material which he ask students for recitation. 6.3 Recitation should comply with the laws of science memory First of all, according to Ebbinghaus forgotten laws, we can find a good way to overcome forgotten; they should recite not only today but also tomorrow, and a few days later. Recite for several times, they can form a long-time memory. Secondly, in the recitation, we must understand the text, use our sense organs intensify the memory effect. Third, to achieve proficiency 150 percent, that is, on the condition that the materials you recite skillfully and then consolidate the materials.6.4 The quantity of recitationWith traditional recitation, the material for recitation is most from textbooks-the new words, expressions or grammatical rules, sometimes the text itself. In the writers teaching practice in middle school she gives the students a short passage every week. If you give them a passage everyday. Its hard to do that may be they will drop it. In the different stages the students have to recite different quantity materials and different students should be treated differently. 6.5 Checking up the effect of recitationWe also have many ways to check the content which you ask the students to recite, write the text without look upon the text, recite the text to the teacher, or use their own words to describe the text, etc. Check up the material they recite is very necessary. We all know that middle school students have weak consciousness to keeping on recitation. If you dont check it, they dont recite the material what you ask them to recite. So check up the effect of recitation is very important in English learning process. During the recitation process especially for the students who dont form the habit of recitation. We should encourage and help them. As a teacher we should let them understand the requirement of recitation, meanwhile, we should help them step by step, so that they can experience the joy of success, to raise interest in learning English.7. ConclusionThe above is an idea to learn English for Middle school students. To some students, they always learn words phrases, sentences and grammar rules by recitation. According to the study carried out by the researcher, recitation also has another advantage, By the way by reading extensively and reciting extensively, the learners can get familiar with different styles of the target language. They may contact the real occasions of language use, so they can learn the culture of the target language as they are taking in the grammar manages to find a good learning strategy which can bring much benefit to the English learners in China, but Its different from the traditional recitation and is effective in the language learning for language learners at the basic level of Middle school students. Besides, the research in this paper only employs the methods of the functions of recitation and some recommendation when we use this method. At last we can find recitation is one of the most important ways to learn English. Thus this article is mainly written to change the attitude of teachers and students, and call on them to carry out this simple teaching and learning method in their ordinary life.Bibliography1 Li Shangmei. Correlation between memory and recitation and its pedagogical implications J. Sino-US English Teaching, 2007(7).2 Qi Guihong. Recitation as an effective way in English writingJ. US-China Foreign Language, 2007(9)