The report of microteaching
...ign language. Schools should enhance the integrated atmosphere of bilingual education through designing school environment and school culture in order to let students and teachers be edified silently not only from the language but also from the moral education. When a person comes into a school, it makes him in another linguistic environment. Anytime, anywhere and anything, he could see English, hear English and feel English. Let English become a communicative method between students and teachers. The school will become a big English village. The situation of bilingual education in China is improving day by day. But I still have qualm. The present bilingual education has a big influence on the quality of native language and non-linguistic lessons, for example, physics, chemistry, history and so on. I think bilingual education is not suitable for all of the subjects and all age-stage students. For instance, math and physics in science subjects, using English to teach formula, international units and major terms, it surely can enhance students’ vocabulary and let students accept international education. But history and politics in art subjects, they are not suitable in bilingual education. For history subject, the purpose is to let students know about the traditional culture of China. Using Chinese to teach can express directly and deeply. If we use English, how do we know about it or feel it? In a word, bilingual education might be carried out on some certain subjects and some students who have this ability to accept. Analysis on bilingual education of children For children, it is unimaginable to carry out bilingual education. It is a controversial issue. A research (Zhang, 2001) shows that some of them said, it is necessary to implement bilingual education on children because of needs of era in order to foster ‘global person’. In China, there are some kindergartens named bilingual kindergarten. Do all the teachers use English to teach the children? In fact, teachers only teach children some easy words. We can only say that it is called English education not bilingual education. We must distinguish these two terms. It can mislead teachers and parents, let alone children. So in infancy, children should learn native language first. It is never late to learn foreign language after learning native language well. Children learn a lot of things in the kindergarten. Now the children are forced to learn a foreign language. They have a big burden. It can not benefit children’s healthy growth. It can also distract from learning native language. In childhood, we should let children enjoy themselves and have a happy time to recall. We don’t look forward to seeing that neither of these two languages is learned well. Nowadays, with the education tends towards the market, most of kindergartens open bilingual education for money and not for teaching. Sometimes we say that kindergartens are catching fashion. At last, children become sacrificial lamb. For the situation of bilingual education in kindergartens, we lack of qualified and professional teachers. It is very strict with the teaching skills of the teachers. The teachers in kindergarten could be children’s first English teacher. If their pronunciation is not standard, how could children learn real English? So I suggest changing bilingual education into English education in kindergartens. It is suitable for this age. There are two effective facts to illustrate this. News (Jiang xi news, 2005) reported that the government implemented a policy that it was forbidden to carry out English education in the kindergarten if the kindergarten was not a civic or provincial kindergarten. A new regulation (China education newspaper, 2003): the ministry of Taiwan education stated that kindergarten can not use bilingual education or complete English to teach children. It could influence the personality development of children’s future life. Some educators said that children learn English too early could lead to be boring in future study. It is not the best to learn a foreign language at a very little age. The specialist pointed that except English, there are a lot of important things to learn. If we use English to obliterate development of other abilities, it could impact the whole life of children. Part two: case study My objects are the students who are in Grade Three in junior school. They are almost fourteen years old to sixteen years old. Chemistry is firstly introduced to the students in secondary education in China. And my topic is the common features of metals including the copper, iron and aluminum. The previous knowledge of second language of students is in their fourth year of learning English. They might have mastered one thousand and five hundred to two thousand words. National students will finish two years’ English courses before starting a content subject. This lesson is not the first class. I will continue my last lesson to teach. In the last lesson, the students had learnt what copper, iron and aluminum are. The lesson will last thirty minutes. During that time, I could achieve my general objective that is to let students learn about the common features of those three kinds of metals. Lesson preparation Sufficient materials and information must be prepared before the class. Doing enough preparation is an indispensable precondition to have a successful lesson. According to the materials and information, I could write down the syllabus briefly to guide me. They consist of the outline, general ideas and some complements. I also will note down the objectives because it can remind me of what students should learn in this lesson. Because the content of a national curriculum might not be changed, and the teachers can only change the way they teach in order to let students be interested in the class. A vivid class is more popular to the students. So I prepare some exact objects in order to let students see those three kinds of metals clearly. And I also turn to my friend to help me connect circuit with a kind of metal, a bulb, a battery and some wires. The students are very interested in experiment. The practical experience could help students remember the content of experiment quickly and master it steadily. I would turn to some language teachers and ask them something about the experience. Maybe they could give me some helpful advice and useful tips because they are very professional. I could get some points on how to use bilingualism to teach and in which part I should be much concerned. Some teaching –aids are much helpful in the class. Such as power point, projector and handouts. They could also facilitate students to understand easily. In my class, I used power point to show some beautiful pictures of circuit. And these things must be prepared before the class and make sure that they are working. In the syllabus, I should assume students may have questions on this point or that point, and then I would consider how to answer and explain them. I will also think about the ways I use to teach whether students can understand or not. In my language planning, first of all is the lexical problem. So I try my best to use simple words. Some words such as bulb, battery and beaker, I usually show the objects to let students know the meaning of the words. Other complicated words, I use the simple and easy words they have learned before to explain. For the grammar part, present tense and future tense will emerge in this lesson. And these two tenses they have learned in the past studying. In the lesson design, I often use discussion to let students get point of it. “Discussion group” is a useful and effective teaching method. New ideas will come out during the discussion. The students could negotiate the content of the course with the classmates at the beginning of the course and during it and they could share the information and outcomes with their partners. It can also foster students’ cooperation spirit in order to achieve resources-shared. Process of the lesson In the first place, I might show them three kinds of metals and ask whether they could identify them. That is to review what we have learnt in last lesson. And then I will set up the activity to start my class. I want all the students to observe those three metals carefully and try to find out some common features from appearance. After I say that, I get some confusion on students’ faces. I absolutely know that they do not really understand ‘appearance’ this word. But I won’t tell them the meaning in Chinese; I will explain it with the simple words. That is much better for their English listening and comprehension. Sometimes students always ask me to sp...