Communicative practice is not only a means of teaching, but also the purpose of teaching. As a way of teaching practice, communication practice usually has two forms: quasi-communication and true communication. Simulated communication means that students memorize language materials by imitating language phenomena under the guidance of teachers, so as to achieve the purpose of using the language materials they have learned. This kind of communication is usually a mechanical exercise of what you have learned. Real communication refers to the actual communication between teachers and students, or between students and students in English. The measure of real communication is whether information is included in the communication process between Party A and Party B.. To achieve this standard, teachers should pay attention to the setting of "information gap" or "information gap" in the teaching process.
I. Understanding of the information gap
Generally speaking, information
The gap means that when Party A and Party B communicate, one party has information that the other party does not have, that is, the speaker has information to transmit and the listener wants to hear some information, and there is an information gap between the two parties. It requires communicators to fill in unknown information by talking with each other in the process of communication, and both sides focus on the meaning of information and words. For example, the teacher pointed to something in the picture and asked the students what to call you. See, in the picture? At this time, both teachers and students know what is in the picture. At this time, there is no "information gap" between them. The teacher's question is not out of practical need, but about what you can see … with the students? This sentence pattern carries out simple word substitution exercises. However, if the teacher covers the picture first and then says to the students, "This is a picture of Lucys's bedroom, please guess what you can see in her bedroom", the students will guess according to what they have learned. In this case, there is an "information gap" between teachers and students, and the question and answer between them is not a simple sentence pattern exercise, but an exchange of information. The "information gap" itself is a social phenomenon, and the enjoyment of information reflects people's general psychological needs. Teachers can make use of this psychological demand and consciously create an information activity to stimulate students' interest in learning and make them devote themselves to communicative activities. In such an environment, students will use language with the desire to obtain information and transmit information.
Second, several forms of information gap setting
1, guessing game
This kind of game is usually suitable for younger students. For example, if students are always given reading and memory training after learning 26 letters, they will feel very tired and thus distract the class. At this time, if you set "information gap" to ask students questions in the form of riddles, you can attract their attention. For example:
What letter is insect? (bee)
What letter did you see? (see electronic)
What letter is a drink? (Ding Cha)
2. Draw puzzles
According to the characteristics of students' hands-on, students are encouraged to use their leisure time to make various toys, puzzles or paintings according to what they have learned. In class, we can make full use of these works for teaching. First of all, producers can show their works and ask other students questions, asking them to write the English name of their works or mark them in English; Or ask other students to ask questions according to the work and ask the producer to answer or write the English name of the work or mark it in English. You can also play jigsaw puzzles If you learn from apples. After the names of bananas, pears and other fruits, let the students make them on the cardboard in the form of puzzles. In class. Hang the cardboard on the blackboard first, then disassemble the puzzle, and let the students compete in groups and reassemble it into a fruit pattern (that is, fill in "unknown information"). The above activities not only exercise students' ability to use their hands and brains, but also develop their intelligence, imagination and creativity. They also strengthen students' memory of what they have learned (they have learned language knowledge through "playing") and create an environment for learning English and communicating in English.
3. Posture presentation
Go to the textbook! Student's Book (Volume 2 of Grade 7) Unit 3.
Like koalas? This unit requires students to be familiar with and remember the names of the animals they have learned, and at the same time learn and master what you like? why do you
Like ...? The application of sentence patterns in communication. In order to achieve this goal, in practice, students are given pictures of various animals (such as tigers and pandas) in advance, and then students with pictures are called to the podium, and other students use the sentence pattern Do.
You like ... why do you
Like ...? Ask questions. Students with pictures don't answer directly, but imitate the actions of various animals and let the other party guess. This forces another person to use his brain to search and remember the names of animals that he has learned to guess and answer. After the other person guesses, the students with pictures will show the pictures to the whole class and continue to ask other students to do it.
Do you like …? Why do you like ... Can you spell?
It? Wait a minute. The result will be different answers. In this way, with the participation of individuals, groups and the whole class, the classroom atmosphere will be very active, so that students can fully feel the atmosphere of real communication in English, so as to remember the names of animals they have learned.
Step 4 make up stories
Middle school students are lively and active, so it is difficult to concentrate on listening to the teacher for 45 minutes in class, especially the difficult texts. This requires teachers to turn students' unintentional attention into intentional attention. It is a good way to concentrate students' attention by stringing classroom knowledge into short stories and making up stories to learn knowledge. In the teaching process, the teacher can divide the class into several groups, and then send different pictures that make up a coherent story to each group (that is, provide information and do things through pictures), and ask each group to carefully observe their own pictures, discuss their details, then take back the pictures, and let each group choose a representative, asking each representative to give a coherent and reasonable story according to the results of each other's discussion. Because different cards will set different information, students will experience what real communication is step by step after discussing, retelling and exchanging plots with each other, thus promoting real communication and achieving the purpose of communication. At the same time, the classroom atmosphere will also be active, and students' enthusiasm for learning will also be high, thus focusing their attention on the classroom.
5, the use of multimedia
With the rapid development of modern science and technology, computer networks, VCD and other media have entered many schools and families, creating very favorable conditions for students to learn English. Multimedia integrates sound, image, picture and text, presenting the real face and life itself to students, which can help students understand what they have learned more vividly and develop their thinking. teacher
We can make full use of this condition to make wonderful English teaching films, audio animation courseware and play them to students in class. Ask the students to imitate the demonstration according to the animation content after watching it. Although it has the nature of imitation, this imitation is based on vivid pictures and divorced from the original sound material. It requires students to be on the scene, make dialogues and demonstrations according to the contents of the pictures, and complete the whole communication. In this case, the "information gap" still exists, and it still belongs to a real communication activity. For example, in the teaching of Go.
For it! Student's Book (Volume II of Grade Seven) Unit 5 I'm reading.
A TV article can be set in a family, which does all kinds of things at home, and is accompanied by a dialogue narrative:
What's Dad doing?
He's on the phone,
Where is Jenny?
She is in the bedroom. She is watching TV.
Is Dave also watching TV in the bedroom?
No, he is doing his homework.
Let the students watch it several times, then make up a dialogue around the scene and practice some picture actions. Next, students can also ask and answer questions in class in the form of groups or individuals. In this way, through vivid scenes and practical exercises, students can not only skillfully express all kinds of things done on the screen, but also fully understand and master what is by providing information and asking questions to each other.
What is he/she doing? He/she
It is … this basic sentence pattern of progressive tense is applied to real life, and at the same time, it can fully train students' thinking ability and oral expression ability, and truly achieve the purpose of applying what they have learned.
In short, there are various ways to set the "information gap". In the process of communicative teaching, teachers should set a reasonable "information gap" according to students' age characteristics, cognitive structure and acceptance ability, and the requirements should not be too low or too high to achieve the purpose of real communication. In addition, in addition to requiring students to communicate in English in class, teachers can also organize students to carry out a variety of extracurricular English activities, such as holding English evenings and opening English corners, so that students can use a large number of "information gaps" in the natural environment to express their thoughts freely in English when they are open after class, so that they can deeply feel that English is still "useful" after leaving the classroom and that English is a "subject".
Please add a detailed explanation.