摘要: 本文結(jié)合作者的教學實踐,探討了如何在英語詞匯教學中改變傳統(tǒng)的“填鴨”模式,通過多種途徑增添課堂教學的趣味性,激活學生的思維,引導學生主動地去感知、理解和運用語言。
關(guān)鍵詞: 課堂教學 英語詞匯 趣味教學
詞匯教學是語言學習中一個相當重要的環(huán)節(jié),在高中階段,面對浩瀚的詞海,教師在教學中往往充當著“填鴨者”的角色,課堂上死氣沉沉,教師講得精疲力竭,學生記得叫苦不迭,檢測情況也總是不如人意。筆者覺得,如果教師能在詞匯教學中增添一些趣味性,使學生的思維真正“動”起來,由被動的接受者轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橹鲃拥乃伎颊撸屧~匯教學由單向的“灌入式”轉(zhuǎn)化為雙向的“互動式”,也許能讓詞匯教學步入一個新的天地。于是,筆者在增添詞匯教學趣味性的這一方面進行了一些嘗試。
一、拋磚引玉
借助一些趣味性的謎語或問題,能迅速使學生集中注意力,激活思維,投入詞匯學習。在高一年級的一堂詞匯課上,當討論到“time”一詞的搭配時,筆者給出了這樣一個謎語:Why does time always fly? 頓時間一石激起千層浪,有的學生說:“Because it is fast.”有的學生說:“Because it never waits for us.”……筆者笑而不語,在全班學生急切眼神的“催促”下,給出了謎底:That’s because so many people want to kill it.見學生有些不解,筆者解釋說:“When you have nothing to do and want to make time seem to pass more quickly,you may kill time by doing something like playing cards or doing some shopping...”這時大家意會到了“kill time”指的是“消磨時光,打發(fā)時間”。接著,筆者進一步引申: “As we know, time isprecious for everyone.Just as a saying goes,‘Time and tide wait for no man’,so we should try our best tomake full use of timeand develop a good habit of getting everything doneon timeorahead of timeinstead ofwasting time onmeaningless things.Do remember,tosave timeis to lengthen our life.”就這樣,在不知不覺中,有關(guān)time的一些短語搭配被融入了具體的情境中,使詞匯教學頓時充滿了生機和活力。
筆者發(fā)現(xiàn),有一些謎語在一詞多義的教學中尤其有用。如以下幾例:
(1)Why is a river always rich?
(key: Because it has twobanks.)引出bank 的“銀行”、“河岸”之意。
(2)Why is a ship one of the most polite things on earth?
(key:Because it always advances with abow.)引出bow的“船頭”、“鞠躬”之意。
(3)Why is taxi drivers’business so bad?
(key:Because theydrive awayall his customers)因為“drive away”兼有“駕車開走”和“驅(qū)趕,攆走”之意。
(4) Why is life the hardest riddle?
(key: Because we all have togive it up.),“give up”既可表示“放棄”,又可表示“中止、停止”。
二、順水推舟
在課堂教學中,學生難免會對一些問題有著獨特的思考,當他們的思路偏離教師預設(shè)的“軌道”時,不少教師由于只顧及完成教學進度,而對學生的“脫軌現(xiàn)象”采取了“回避”的態(tài)度,有的甚至會打斷學生的思路,將其強行“拉”回自己預設(shè)的軌道,這種做法無疑會大大挫傷學生的學習積極性,不利于學生的個性思維發(fā)展。如果教師能充分利用課堂教學中這樣的即時生成資源,借其推進教學進程,不僅能活躍課堂氣氛,而且會使教學內(nèi)容更為豐富多彩。在高三的一節(jié)詞匯復習課上,筆者在與學生討論了battle,fight,war,struggle這一組近義詞后,為了進一步衍生出argue,quarrel,conflict,friction,disagreement等相關(guān)詞匯,筆者提問:“What usually happens before a fight?”可出乎意料的是,一位學生回答說:“People will bow to each other.”當時全班都愣了一下,隨即爆發(fā)出一陣大笑,原來這位學生對體育運動比較感興趣,他聯(lián)想到了柔道比賽前參賽選手要相互鞠躬致意,筆者當時贊許道:“Oh,great! That’s a good way to show respect for our competitor.”同時借機幫助學生復習了“bow”的一些其它含義,如在“rainbow”(彩虹)中“bow”意為“弓”,“bow to sb.”中“bow”意為“低頭,屈服”。接下來筆者又問其他學生:“Any different opinion?” 又有一位學生冒出一句:“要準備好武器!”班里又是一陣大笑,筆者順著這位學生的思路說,“I’m afraid that would be a bloody fight... Then what’s the English for‘WuQi(武器)’,who knows?”有學生回應說:“weapon!”筆者繼續(xù)和學生進行互動:
T: You are quite right!Can you give us some examples?
S1: Gun (槍)!
S2: Explode (爆炸)!
T: You mean something that can explode?
S2: Yes.
T: We call that bomb(炸彈).Anything else?
S3: Knife (短刀,匕首)!
S4: Tear gas (催淚瓦斯)!
T: Yeah,how clever you are!And I suppose such things as bullet(子彈)and powder(火藥,炸藥)are also necessary.Besides,in a modern war,you may find some new weapons such as atom bomb(原子彈)and missile(導彈).Those weapons are really destructive and may claim countless lives and cause considerable economic losses.A war involving weapons of mass destruction(大規(guī)模殺傷性武器)will undoubtedly be a disaster to us mankind.So do you think it’s a good way to deal with variousarguments and conflicts ?
S:No.
T:Then what should we do to solve the problem?
S5:We should control ourselves and calm down.
S6:Try to be patient and exchange ideas with others in a friendly way.
S7:Talk with each other openly and sometimes compromise is very important.
S8:We should learn to consider a problem from another angle and don’t be self-centered.
…
T:Wonderful!I agree with you.And in our daily life,when some disagreement or friction occurs between us and our parents,friends or neighbors,we should also try our best to avoid bitterquarrellingand find a peaceful solution to our problems.Do you agree?
學生都會意地頻頻點頭,在這一過程中,筆者沒有忽視或打斷學生的思路,而是積極地利用了課堂上的即時生成資源,“順水推舟”地展開詞匯教學,既尊重了學生的個性思維,活躍了課堂氣氛,又在自然的交際中達到了既定的教學目的。
三、巧設(shè)“劇情”
在英語詞匯教學中,我們經(jīng)常會涉及近義詞辨析或是同根詞的衍生問題。筆者發(fā)現(xiàn),如果只是單純地以說教的方式將語言知識點灌輸給學生,他們往往只會死記硬背、生搬硬套,遺忘率也相當高。于是筆者在課堂教學中開始嘗試講一些小故事,通過“劇情”讓學生主動地去感知其中一些詞匯的意義和用法。如在高三年級牛津英語教材(江蘇版)第九模塊Unit 4 “Biblical Idioms in English”一文中,有這么一句話:“Biblical idioms originally had straightforward and clear meanings because they were often meant to underline the moral of a story and to give audiences an image to help them understand the story better.”當時圍繞“image”一詞,筆者結(jié)合自己的親身經(jīng)歷,講了這樣一個小故事:“When I was a little child,I often imagined being a teacher in the future.And from time to time,differentimagesof a teacher would occur in my mind.One day,my parents went to work and I was left alone at home.Hoping to do something interesting,I placed some small chairs in my room...Boys and girls,can you guess what I would do next?”學生一時間議論紛紛,對接下來的“劇情”作出各種各樣的猜測。當有學生答道“You would give a class to your students.”時,筆者贊許道:“How clever you are! I wanted to give a class and those chairs were myimaginary(假想的)students.”他們笑了,還有學生打趣地說:“How lovely you are! Full ofimagination.”筆者隨即問全班學生:“Do you still remember an adjective with the same meaning?”這時大家意見不一,有的說是“ imaginable”,有的說是“imaginative”,筆者沒有立即給出正確答案,而是在黑板上寫了兩個句子:Thomas Edison,this famous inventor,was full ofcreativeideas throughout his life.And it’sunderstandablefor him to try hatching some chickens when he was quite young.學生立即結(jié)合上下文,從兩個劃線詞的意義中推斷出了“-ive”和“-able”兩個不同詞綴的含義,從而得出“imaginative”是表示“富有想象力的”,而“imaginable”則是表示“可以想象得到的”,就這樣,筆者通過一段“劇情”,幫助學生更好地理解和鞏固了詞根為“image”的一系列詞匯。
又如在對usual,general,common,ordinary,normal這一組近義詞的用法展開討論的時候,筆者又設(shè)計了一段引人入勝的“劇情”:One day I went out for a walk after supper asusual.I was enjoying the beautiful night sky when something like UFO caught my eye.It landed quietly and some strange creatures came out.They had little in common with us ordinary people.And in general,their appearance didn’t leave me a good impression.Suddenly,one of them came over and caught me.Oh,that was a hot hand,the temperature of which might have been 100℃,much higher thannormal.I was hurt so badly that I let out a scream...Can you guess what happened next? 學生都聽得聚精會神,非常急切地想知道下一步“劇情”,筆者便接下去說:“Well,then—— I woke up and all that had happened turned out to be a dream.”學生恍然大悟。緊接著,筆者要求學生結(jié)合這段“劇情”,討論一下這組近義詞在意義上的細微差別。很快大家達成了共識:“usual”常和人們的習慣有關(guān),意為“慣常、通?!保弧癱ommon”強調(diào)“人所共有”;“ordinary”指的是“普通,很平常,不出眾”;“general”的意思是“普遍、籠統(tǒng)”,而“normal”指的是“正常情況”。之后筆者就此做一個小小的測試,要求學生選詞填空,完成五個句子,結(jié)果班上僅有兩位學生各犯了兩個錯誤,全班的正確率達到了92.5%,取得了較理想的反饋結(jié)果。
根據(jù)高中英語《新課程標準》的要求,課堂教學不應單純是教師講解、學生傾聽的過程,而應包含師生間的互動,教師在教學過程中應引導學生自己去發(fā)現(xiàn)知識,運用知識(《英語課程標準研修》,2004)。筆者認為,如果我們在課堂教學中能運用多種途徑,增添詞匯教學的趣味性,激活學生的思維,促使其主動地去感知、理解和運用語言,讓詞匯教學真正“動”起來,那么必定會使我們的課堂充滿生機和活力,使英語詞匯教學步入一個充滿希望的新天地。
參考文獻:
[1]教育部.普通高中新課程教師研修手冊——英語課程標準研修[M]北京:高等教育出版社,2004.
[2]董眉君,胡之璉.英語謎語一千則[M].北京:外語教學與研究出版社,1985.