1. Organized Chaos Language teaching in a large class
第五届中国英语教学国际研讨会
基 础 英 语 论 坛 论 文
Organized Chaos Language teaching in a large class
高占富 汤一宇
大庆外国语学校

2. Preface
---- class size in USA / UK / Canada
---- class size in China / some famous school in its region
---- my teaching experience
---- some foreign teachers’ experience
---- some famous experts mentioned in their speech yesterday
Prof. Wang Qiang Prof. zhanglianzhong Pro. Gong yafu

3. One of the inevitabilities of teaching English in most parts of China is large class size, especially in a famous junior high school Faced with sixty students or more and a forty-five-minute class time, what is one to do? Panic? Obviously, yes. but after the panic passes, what’s the next?

4. What to do
---- an attempt to build a framework for a praxis
of teaching large classes, based on educational
theory and the teaching experiences.
---- also concern itself mainly with the problems
of teaching oral language, where the need for
real-time language production is paramount.
---- the essence of learning the oral language is practice.

5. How to do
One of the cornerstones of practical teaching in a
communicative framework is group activity.
Group activities: (mainly)
---- pair work in class
---- four-in-one group
---- row group for repeating
---- line group for practicing
---- girls group
---- boys group
---- team work
---- half class
---- presentation from group
---- the whole class

6. How to select group
randomly selecting groups through some
multi-culture game like “scissors-paper-rock”
“ tossing a coin ”
“ odd or
“ the same surname ”
“ the same name ”
the goal : to maitain the Ss the interest
to join the group activity actively

7. Advantages
---- the introduction of group work to our large class
has immediately improved its effectiveness through
increasing practice time.
---- group work practice is the essential component to
language learning.
---- practice builds confidence
---- group activity helps Ss gain collaboration competences
---- more individuals outputs

8. group activity increases Ss’ practice time
Example:
group activity increases Ss’ practice time
If one of four students can talk simultaneously,
the opportunities to practice increase 15-fold,
from 15 minutes a week/ student to 225 minutes/w/s.
In pair work the practice time is extended to 450/w/s.
If the teacher is actively involved in the group,
talk time will be effectively doubled again up to 900 minutes.

9. Disadvantages(mainly) ---- Firstly, the noise level.
---- Secondly, patrolling the class, the teacher will rely very
heavily on the sound of the language being spoken,
rather than its content.
---- Thirdly, peer-assisted learning is another very tangible
benefit of the group-based teaching environment.
---- Finally, the topography of the classroom places some
limitations on group activity.
Tip: the teachers have to think of the above before entering the
classroom to do the group activity.

10. Conclusion
The challenges of dealing with a large class
can be effectively met through group work
and teamwork.
The strengths of group and teamwork are
the multiplication of opportunities for practice
simulating the real world.

11. Thank you !
Thank you !

12. 希望能得到您的批评与帮助！ 大庆外国语学校 高占富 dennisgaozf@yahoo.com.cn