The Application of Teachers' Expectation in English Teaching

Billy Wu

Source: Fujian Basic Education Research (Fuzhou) No.6, 20 10, pp.90 ~ 91.

Author brief introduction Wu Bin, Fuzhou Gulou Experimental Primary School.

First, the "Rosenthal effect" and teacher expectations

"Rosenthal effect" is a research result about teachers' expected role in educational psychology research. 1968 Professor Rosenthal, a famous psychologist from Harvard University in the United States, walked around in the classroom of a primary school in the United States, then circled several names on the student list, made a "development forecast" for these students, and then informed the relevant teachers of the list of students with "excellent development possibilities" in an appreciative tone. After a while, the professor came to this middle school again, and a miracle happened. Those students selected by him have really become the best in the class. In fact, the list provided by Rosenthal was purely random, but his "authoritative lies" played a role.

Rosenthal believes that this is the result of teachers' expectations. It is teachers' expectations of students that make students' self-esteem and self-confidence multiply, thus generating a kind of motivation to constantly change and improve themselves. They unconsciously studied harder in action, and as a result, they made rapid progress. One person's prediction of another person's intellectual achievement will determine another person's intellectual achievement. This effect is the "Rosenthal effect" produced by the respect, trust, love and higher interpersonal expectation of the educational object.

Second, teacher expectations and English teaching

At the primary school English learning stage in China, some teachers teach students in accordance with their aptitude, and as a result, every student has made great progress. However, some teachers show preference for students of different levels, pay more attention to the good and give high expectations, while despise the poor and give low expectations, resulting in the polarization of students' English learning.

1. In English learning, gifted students seem to live in a paradise, which is the envy of their classmates and the high hopes of their teachers. In class, teachers pay more attention to them than other students. They can learn nutrition from them, enhance their self-confidence, become more and more interested in learning English, and achieve excellent results. This has been confirmed by psychologists' experiments and observations. Judging from their own learning situation, gifted students have clear learning motivation, strong learning motivation and strong and lasting self-confidence. Teachers have special respect for such students in all aspects and actively and appropriately guide them. In the end, they got better grades, had more confidence in English learning, worked harder and experienced the joy of success.

Contrary to gifted students, students with poor English learning are always at the bottom of the class. Teachers have low expectations of them and are always left out in the cold in the whole English study. They didn't get a good learning environment provided by their teachers;

(1) Teachers will arrange students with low expectations in corners far away from teachers or gather together.

(2) Pay little attention to them in class and seldom laugh.

(3) They are rarely asked to answer questions.

(4) When asked to answer questions, if they can't answer them, the waiting time of teachers will be reduced.

(5) When the answer is incorrect, they will not be given time to correct their mistakes, and they will usually criticize.

(6) When they answered questions correctly, they seldom praised them.

(7) Teachers often have no feedback on their answers. Even if they do, it is better to give accurate and detailed answers to students with high expectations.

(8) Students with low expectations are required to study and work harder than those with high expectations.

It is precisely because of these differences that "poor students" can't get a good learning environment provided by teachers to other students, nor can they get timely feedback, appropriate encouragement and friendly smiles from teachers. This situation is like this sentence in the bible: "the rich will give, and those who don't will be deprived." The more the more, the less the more. " In view of this phenomenon, the "Rosenthal effect" should be a feasible way of education. We can't ignore or even discriminate against some students. We should give students more affirmation and encouragement, so that they have confidence in themselves. Teachers should not wear "colored glasses", but should care about every student, set out from their learning reality and give appropriate expectations, so that every primary school student can learn English further, healthily and happily, and make continuous progress and improvement in their study.

Thirdly, the application of teachers' expectations in English teaching.

English is different from other basic subjects, it is a practical course, and its language skills need to be cultivated and improved through students' personal efforts. Therefore, its teaching effect depends largely on students' subjective initiative and participation. In teaching, teachers should always carry out the education of English learning purpose, so that students can set a lofty goal of learning English well, form a correct long-term learning motivation and improve their enthusiasm and consciousness in learning English. What they can do is to fully mobilize students' subjective initiative, let them think positively in the learning process, activate their existing thinking, and express their views and ideas accurately and appropriately.

1. Graded treatment to stimulate students' learning initiative.

Put forward different expectations according to the students' English learning level or the excellent, medium and poor grades.

Top students have strong self-confidence, learning motivation, clear learning motivation and strong autonomy. They dare to face difficulties and take challenging questions as their great pleasure. Therefore, we should expect more from them. After a period of time, teachers analyze and evaluate their achievements and put forward new expectations for those who have achieved their goals. For those who fail to achieve their goals, we should first help them find out the reasons for their failure, find the gap, affirm their achievements and progress, and constantly encourage and inspire students.

For middle school students, when analyzing the reasons for their poor English academic performance, we should adopt the strategy of "the most potential or best student", compare their basic English knowledge, basic skills and other strengths with the best students, and then put forward long-term and short-term expectations. At the same time, teachers should summarize and analyze in time to help students correct the deviation in learning methods, so that students can form long-term learning motivation and finally achieve their learning goals.

Poor students are the best candidates to make use of teachers' expectation effect in English teaching. They often have a strong desire to learn English well, and their intelligence is not bad. They are eager for understanding, help and trust. Teachers should help students find their own learning methods and consciously find out their positive factors. When they get grades, the teacher should praise them in front of the whole class, which will give them psychological comfort and a sense of accomplishment and double their confidence. When they make mistakes, teachers should be considerate of students, point out the mistakes kindly and gently, and affirm their achievements and progress more, so as to reduce the psychological burden of students. Often tell students inspiring words such as "believe in yourself", "do your best", "never give up", "take courage" and "we believe we are the best" to encourage students to try boldly. Let the expectation of success replace the expectation of frustration, and finally realize the expectation of teachers.

Teachers make such classification expectations, implement classification requirements, and form an active learning atmosphere and a strong desire to learn English well in the class. Everyone has an expectation, with this as the goal, and constantly strive to learn English well, by going up one flight of stairs.

2. Timely delivery to enhance students' self-confidence.

Psychologists' research shows that people judge themselves by others' reactions to themselves. In teaching, teachers should seize every opportunity to convey their enthusiasm, care, trust and expectation to students, give them positive emotional contagion expectations, and stimulate their enthusiasm for participating in classroom activities and language practice.

(1) When they get grades, the teacher should praise them in front of the whole class and affirm and encourage the students' positive performance in time. You can use: Yes. (Yes) Yes. (Yes) Well done. Well done. Very good. That's great. Well done. That's great. You are doing very well. And so on.

(2) When they make mistakes, teachers should be considerate of students, be kind, gently point out their mistakes, be more sure of their progress, and often tell them: Your idea is good, but let us see others. Your idea is very good, but listen to other people's ideas. Do your best. You speak very well, but please speak louder next time. You speak very well, but please speak louder next time.

(3) When students are assigned a study or practice task, or asked to recite the text in class, read the text aloud or do exercises on the blackboard, and students want to give up because of lack of confidence, then teachers should smile. Give timely and enthusiastic encouragement: never give up. Do not give up. They are easy for you. Courage up. Believe in yourself, you can do it. And encourage students to boldly "express themselves"

(4) Teachers can also express their approval, affirmation and recognition through nonverbal evaluation such as smiling, nodding and vision. Touching (such as patting students on the head, shoulders and back) can express encouragement; Gestures (such as thumbs-up) and body gestures (such as leaning forward close to students) can also express encouragement and interest.

In short, give students more opportunities to show their knowledge and make them have a strong thirst for knowledge. For poor students, we should pay more attention to them, give them the opportunity to answer questions as much as possible, ask questions that are not beyond their ability, and at the same time imply that "you can do it", praise and encourage them more, and enhance their self-confidence.

3. Create opportunities and give students a platform to show themselves.

Bloom, a famous American educator, pointed out in his Mastering Learning Theory that as long as students are given enough time and opportunities to study, 95% of them can meet the teaching requirements. Teachers should have a pair of eyes that are good at discovering. In class, every student should have the opportunity to show his talents-they are acting geniuses.

(1) 3 ~ 5 minutes before the start of a new class, you can give a daily English speech according to your student number in any form, either after class or related to class. Forms include reciting English poems, introducing myself, making dialogues, singing English songs and playing games.

(2) Inspire students to move in practice. Practice is an essential link for students to consolidate and practice new knowledge. If students can move in practice, they can be prompted to transform their basic knowledge into language skills and develop their ability to communicate in English. There are many contents in English textbooks that are close to life. Teachers can rewrite these texts into short plays for students to perform. I believe that through such practice, students will quickly master and apply what they have learned. They can also expand and extend the dialogue in the text and organically combine new knowledge with old knowledge. In this process, they can not only rely on textbooks to use the language structure in textbooks, but also naturally integrate into their own understanding and language. During the performance, not only the young actors got good exercise, but also other students were infected by emotions, thus achieving the expected learning effect.

Four. conclusion

In short, the "Rosenthal effect" affects the teaching behavior of our teachers and the development of students almost everywhere. In the process of education and teaching, the orientation of "so-and-so is a good student" or "so-and-so is a poor student" in teachers' minds affects the growth and changes of students all the time. For an excellent student, that kind of benign and positive expectation and evaluation will make it icing on the cake; For a poor student, that kind of negative expectation and evaluation will make the situation worse. Therefore, in English teaching, every teacher should place reasonable expectations and demands on every student, give them care and appreciation, give full play to the role of "Rosenthal effect", give them more encouragement and affirmation, and urge every student to make corresponding improvement and progress in English learning, thus bringing gratifying results to English teaching.