童话教学法在小学英语教学中的应用研究

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the study
As a foreign language, English has gradually become one of the importantlanguages in our country. In the rapid development of knowledge economy today, it isnecessary for the students in primary school to start learning English when they areyoung. Although, some people may feel it unpractical, for the reform is about topublish, and the status of English will probably be debased and the primary schoolsdo not have adequate conditions to offer English classes. The education expertsanalyze that the reform only reminds the students to be able to grasp thecomprehensive use of language, and should master it more freely, not just answer thequestions in the examinations. However, because of the geographical limitation andconstrained educational resource, it is really difficult to establish the English course inthe primary school in the countryside. The voice of cancelling the primary schoolEnglish is from two aspects. One is the problem of teachers’ shortage and the other isthe problem of English teaching. Most primary English teachers are qualified and theyhave enough educational background and can achieve high teaching level. Therefore,it is feasible for the primary schools in the city to offer English courses. But theEnglish teaching in primary schools has problems, for the traditional teaching methoddeduces students’ learning interest and enthusiasm. Some of the students in primaryschool do not have interest in learning English. Therefore the teaching method shouldbe improved in order to increase the primary school students’ interest in learningEnglish.
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1.2 Significance of the study
The research on the fairy tale teaching method can bring theoretical significanceand practical importance to the primary English teaching.Based on analyzing the situation of the current English teaching, the researchaims to dig out the essence of the fairy tale and then applies the fairy tale teachingmethod in primary school extensively. The study of the fairy tale teaching method is apromotion of the primary teaching method. By doing well the research of the fairytale teaching method, it is also an effective way to improve the situation of theprimary English. The theoretical significance is vital for the development of theEnglish teaching methodology. The study of the fairy tale teaching method can enrichthe English teaching theory and can guide the English teachers in their teaching. Thestudy of the fairy tale teaching method is a newly attempt for primary school teachingmode which has significant influence on primary school English teaching.The study of the fairy tale teaching method can also provide effectiveness ofEnglish teaching in practical way. If the study goes well, then the fairy tale teachingmethod can be applied in numerous countries to help primary school students learnEnglish.
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Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 The characteristics of the fairy tales
The characteristics of the fairy tales will be discussed in two aspects. One is thecharacteristics of language expression and the other is the characteristics of thecontent. The fairy tale is a genre of children’s literature, through the rich imagination,fantasy and exaggeration to write for children to enjoy the story. The fairy tale is astyle of children’s literature, known as the most pure good human language.The language expression of the fairy tales which has its own trait is typical.Firstly, the fairy tale is reflected through the fantasy of life. Its main readers arechildren. Considering of this characteristics, the fairy tales not only include therequirements of the general literature language, but also meet the age, temperamentand psychological characteristics of children readers. Secondly, from the languagestyle of speaking, children language requires accuracy, simplicity and vividness. Withthe regard to the effect of language expression, the language of the fairy tales uses themethod of personification, repetition, comparison and exaggeration which can makeunfamiliar things become familiar and visualized. The Fisherman and the Fish is oneof the famous works of Pushkin (1835). In the fairy tale, the very different behaviorsof the goldfish fisherman and the cruel old woman stand stark. Those repeating plotsand scenes, forming the rhythmic repetition, highlight the personalities of thecharacters and the plots that twist and turn which have strongly increased the tone ofinterest and humor.
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2.2 The characteristics of the primary students
The characteristic of the primary students will be presented in three aspects. Thethree aspects include the characteristics of cognition, the characteristics of languageexpression and the characteristics of psychology. The main characteristics of students’ cognition include the characteristic ofperception, attention and memory and the characteristics of imagination and thinking,and also the characteristic of emotion and will. The primary students’ trait can befound according to these aspects. Primary students’ attention which is often closelyrelated with interest is not stable and not lasting. Their mind is unconscious, and theirmemorization is based on specific image and mechanical memorization. Students’thinking transits from concrete image to the abstract logical thinking. But the abstractlogical thinking is still largely related with the perceptual experience which haslargely specific image. Along with the growth of the age, the emotion of primarystudents has gradually become more stable, rich and deep. Although low gradestudents can primarily control the emotion themselves, there often exists thephenomenon of instability.
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Chapter Three Research Design .....15
3.1 Research questions........15
3.2 Subjects ........15
3.3 Instruments........15
3.4 Procedure.....19
3.5 Experiment ........20
3.6 Data analysis......23
Chapter Four Results and Discussion ........25
4.1 primary school students’ interest in learning English ......25
4.2 primary schoolstudents’ written English ability .........32
4.3 primary schoolstudents’ oral English ability.........36
Chapter Five Conclusion.....42
5.1 Major findings.........42
5.2 Implications .......44
5.3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for future study ....46

Chapter Four Results and Discussion

In this chapter, the results of the research questions will all be demonstrated bythe data from questionnaires, tests, and interviews to find out whether thefairy-teaching method will arouse student’s interest in learning English and improvestudents’ written English ability and oral English ability.

4.1 The effect of the fairy-tale teaching method on primary schoolstudents’ interest in learning English
Item 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the pre-questionnaire are used to investigate the students’attitude towards English learning and the English class. The comparison of thestudents’ attitude of the experimental class and the control class towards Englishlearning and English class in the pre-questionnaire are shown in Table 4-1. In item 1and item 2, most students do not like to attend the English classes and do not like English as option C is chosen by the students at most in both theexperimental class and the control class. In item 5, half of the students in theexperimental class and the control class believe that the English learning material isboring. The results show that there is no obvious difference in the investigation of theexperimental class and the control class of item 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The students’ attitudetowards English learning and English class are almost at the same level. The datacollected from the experimental class and the control class show that the students donot take active part in English learning and they think English class is not attractive tothem.

Conclusion

This chapter is going to present the major findings of the research. Besides, theimplications will be concluded and also the limitations of the study and suggestionsfor future study will be stated. From the collected data of the questionnaire, test and the interview, the majorfindings of the research can be stated as follows.The fairy tale teaching method in the primary school can arouse the students’interest in learning English. From the results of the questionnaires, we can find thatbefore the experiment the interest of the students in the experimental class and thecontrol class of English learning is at the same level, however, after the experimentthe students in the experimental class are more interested in English. In addition, thestudents in the experimental class are more willing to take active part in answeringquestions and acting out the roles in the fairy tales, and their attitude towards Englishclass is more active. Therefore, more students have increased the enthusiasm oflearning and using English in the experimental class. In class, the fairy tale teachingmethod offers more chances to use English with different roles of various interestingstories. These findings show that the fairy tale teaching method which can arouse theprimary school students’ interest in learning English is beneficial for the students’language learning.
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References (omitted)