Does the Popular and Highly-Advocated Teaching Model

Really Work?

Nowadays, almost all English teachers find themselves in a deep
dilemma. On the one hand, they’re all trying to change and improve their teaching
style, sincerely hoping to enhance their classroom efficiency; on the other
hand, however, they’re thrown into a hard situation where they’re highly
expected to produce more excellent students in academic performance, while at
the same time they’re required to strictly follow what is actively advocated
and pursued the so-called advanced teaching model.

On the face of it, this teaching method or style seems to be the
full implement and application of those highly-boosted-and-applauded advanced
teaching theory, advocated by some English-teaching experts in China, but actually,
so many problems do exist in this type of teaching practice, of which a most
obvious one is that many students find it difficult to have a thorough
understanding of the whole passage that they’re assigned to read through,
because in the process of reading students will meet with many strange or some
seemingly familiar words or expressions that in fact they don’t know at all. In
this case, even though students have no trouble finding out the general idea or
the topic sentence of a certain paragraph, they still have a lot of difficulty
fully understanding the whole passage, and especially when it comes to those
subtle and flexile usages of some words and phrases. Thus students can hardly
get to the core and essence of the English language. How can you expect those
who can only be said to know some English to truly enjoy and appreciate the
charm of the English language?

Besides, English to the Chinese people is a foreign language, not a
native or even a second language. Based on this simple fact, English-teaching
experts should not expect English teachers in China to organize English classes
the same way the Chinese teachers will do in organizing their Chinese classes—just
work out the main structure of the passage, pick out the general idea or the
topic sentence in each paragraph, or try to pretend to appreciate the beauty
and charm of the English language; there’re far more for our students to do in
their English classes; after all, English to them is a foreign language; they
should first learn to thoroughly understand the whole passage, and grasp and
master all the words and expressions occurring in this passage. Native language
and foreign language should be treated and done a little differently; they do
have something in common, though.