Teaching Plan for Unit 8 Learning a Foreign Language

首峰中學英語組 雷海紅

Teaching content: Reading: Learning English: Twice as Hard?

Teaching aims:

1. Enable the Ss to talk about the different methods of learning a foreign like learning a foreign language is different from learning one’s mother tongue.

2. Enable the Ss to talk about the characteristics of the successful language learners.

Teaching important points:

1. Analyse the organization of the text.

2. The understanding of the reading text about the problems and factors related to learning a foreign language.

Teaching difficult points:

1. the writing feature of the text.

2. Grasp the main idea of the passage and analyse the organization of the text.

3. Get the students to understand the characteristics of the excellent and successful learners.

Teaching procedures:

Step I: Revision.

Ask the students to read the vocabulary learnt in last period.

Step II: Lead-in.

Get the students to describe the pictures of Warming-up: How do they learn?( individual work)

Step III Pre-reading.(Free-talk)

1. What languages can you speak? How long have you been learning English?

2. What difficulty do you have in learning a foreign language?

3. How did we learn our mother tongue?

4. How is learning a foreign language different from learning our mother tongue?

5. What are the characteristics of successful language learners?

6. How can we develop our confidence in learning a language?

Step IV Skimming.

Task 1.Skim the text and try to find the main idea of each paragraph.

Supposed answer:

Para.1 The environmental factor of learning mother tongue.

Para.2 Different opinions of language experts.

Para.3 The difference between learning mother and learning a foreign language.

Para.4 The characteristics of successful language learners.

Para.5 Different learning ways of successful language learners.

Para.6 The importance of the purpose of learning.

Task 2. Tell the following statements true or false.

1. Although experts don’t agree each other, they all share a common opinion: life is a very successful language school.(T)

2. Experts agree that we actually learn a foreign language much faster than we laearn our mother tongue.(T)

3. Successful language learners usually step away from the academic challenges.(F)

4. The less anxious and more relaxed the learner, the worst their language acquisition.(F)

Step V. Scanning.

Task 3. Choose the best answers:

1. The first sentence in para.1 means .

A. When learning a language , we also should memorize more.

B. When learning a language , we also should develop our study skills.

C. When learning a language , we also should spend more time.

D. When learning a language , we also should be confident.

2. Most children have mastered their mother tongue .

A. at the age of five.

B. by the age of eight.

C. before they are five.

D. since they were five

3. The sentence “ life is a very successful language school” means .

A. We are equipped with a special ability to learn language.

B. The key to learn the language well is to communicate with the people around us.

C. Parents can give children language lessons.

D. People can learn the language by themselves.

4. Successful language learners do share the following characteristics except

A. the ability to memorize the words

B. an interesting understanding their own thinking

C. willingness to take chances

D. confidence in their ability

5. What the purpose of writing this article?

A. Learning a foreign language is twice as hard as learning our mother tongue.

B. Learning a foreign language is more important than learning our mother tongue.

C. Learning a foreign language is twice as easy if we develop our study skills

D. In fact, the number of people learning a foreign language has increased with years.

Step VI Post-reading.

Task 4 Decide which language each of the sentence below describes.

A. We learn quite fast.(F)

B. We are not taught but learn anyway.(M)

C. Some people think that we are born with an ability to learn this.(M)

D. We can learn faster if we develop study skills.(F)

E. Most people have mastered this by the age of five.(M)

F. We learn this in a special place where we can get help.(F)

G. It takes longer to learn this.(M)

H. We learn this by communicating with others.(M)

教學反思

本單元（Unit 8）以 Learning a foreign language “外語學習”為話題，課文主要談論的是學習外語的一般規律和成功的外語學習者的特征。通過本單元教學，學生閱讀課文了解外語學習的基本規律，同時學生已在高三年級，更容易聯系自己的英語作為外語的學習歷程，反思自我的學習得失，更有利于形成正確的和適合每個人自己的學習策略和學習習慣。通過課文的深入學習，還進一步學習英語的豐富詞匯表達和深入淺出的表達方式，英語的說明或介紹文章的特點和寫法。本單元學習也是學生形成良好的（語言）學習策略探究學習的很好的案例，體現學習策略對提高學習效率的價值。

Warming up通過一個小調查讓學生了解學習英語的最重要的策略，并按照重要性加以排列。并通過問題引導學生思考其他更多的學習活動。此“熱身”活動可引導學生回顧自己從初學英語到高三的整個學習過程，通過問題從中總結有效的經驗和有益的學習活動。同時通過課堂討論，同學可分享各自的經驗，得到更多的有助于英語學習的學習策略，即鍛煉英文表達能力，也為其后的Reading的學習活動做好鋪墊。

Pre-reading 是Reading的熱身活動。“讀前活動”引導學生根據閱讀文章的主題思考學習一門外語所涉及的內容：英語學習中的困難、學習母語的過程、學習外語和母語的不同、優秀學習者的特征、有效的學習技能對學習者的幫助、如何建立自信以及如何更好更快的學習等。思考和回答這些問題并完成內容提綱：英語學習中的困難、英語漢語的區別、優秀學習者的特征、有效的學習技能和建立自信的途徑。這一活動有利于調動學生的思考和討論的積極性，并通過反思學習過程和同學討論來預測課文內容，加深對外語學習問題的認識。

Reading 是一篇關于“學習外語”的說明文，分為幾個部分，第一部分內容主要為學習一種語言涉及的主要學習內容、語言的習得過程和如何辨識學習中的錯誤；第二部分則談到學習外語過程中要注意的主要因素，如外語與母語是不同的、語境影響等；第三部分論及學習外語成功者的共同特征，主要有興趣、制定計劃與評價、自信、大膽冒險、敢于嘗試新事物、以及學習目的和動機。這是一篇較好的分析學習外語所涉及的內容和成功外語學習策略的文章，對于學生的英語學習有很好的指導意義。應引導學生結合自己的學習經歷、學習觀念和使用的學習策略，再輔以適合的相同話題的拓展資源，進一步指導學生英語學習，為他們的未來的深入學習和持續發展奠定基礎。

Post-reading 的練習主要是對文章的具體細節信息的理解和測試，還包括了訓練學生利用與主題相關的關鍵詞談論其間的聯系和復述課文的能力，總結與主題關聯的關鍵信息能力和查找總結主題句的練習，對學生的閱讀理解提出了較高要求，并有利于指導學生提高寫作能力。

Pre-reading, Reading和Post-reading 作為一個完整的閱讀的過程，訓練必要的閱讀技能，學習處理重要語言點，同時還談到了語言（外語）學習的問題與策略。因此，在教學過程中，我將教材進行了重組，結合Warming up部分設計為一堂“閱讀課”。