【家長信】黑利伯瑞致高中生家長的一封信 第10/11周

 　　HIST SENIOR SCHOOL Years 10 & 11 ESL BULLETIN No. 5

　　天津黑利伯瑞國際學校

　　高中部英語組校報

　　2018 -19學年，第1學期，第10/11周，

　　第五期校報 2018年11月9日

　　Dear Senior School Parents and Families,

　　親愛的家長們，

　　One of the cornerstones of teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) is introducing students to topics which are relevant to future educational and career goals, life skills and life-long learning. Recent topics include training and qualifications starting with focus on vocabulary, talking about difficult situations and problems and how to express oneself through speaking and writing. A safe forum (the classroom) allows students to talk about their hopes, desires and even fears. Expressing oneself is not something that is often visible among young people, but we encourage and foster this type of dialogue as healthy development.

　　英語教學的重要內容之一是向學生介紹與未來教育和職業發展目標、生活技能和終身學習相關的話題。我們最近練習的話題包括職業培訓和資格等方面，從學習詞匯開始，接著討論學習中的重難點，同時還包括如何通過口語和寫作來表達自己的觀點。一個安全的研討環境(教室)允許學生談論他們的理想、愿望甚至恐懼。勇于表達自己的想法這一行為在青少年中并不常見，但我們鼓勵這樣的方式，以促進學生的健康發展。

　　An additional foundation of the ESL programme is collecting and analysing data through formative and summative assessments and monitoring and coaching the students on a class-by-class basis. Data drives the teaching direction as it informs the teacher of the student’s strengths, weaknesses and perhaps interest. As teachers follow the curriculum and develop a syllabus, they are also expected to enhance their students learning by adjusting the syllabus to suit the particular needs of individual students and their class. In addition, students would rarely be competent equally in all four skills, so it is usual that a student may be higher in speaking and writing than say listening and reading (as is the case with many of our students). On a biweekly basis, students are tested formally at their level for reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. All grades are collected for the whole department where they are used for analysis by individual teachers and the ESL department.

　　ESL課程的另一個基礎是通過形成性測試和總結性評估來收集并分析數據，然后逐級監控和輔導學生。使用數據來指導教學方向是因為通過分析數據可以獲知學生的長處、弱點和興趣。教師遵循課程設置并制定教學方案，同時通過調整教學方案來加強學生的學習，以適應不同學生及班級的不同需求。此外，學生很難在四種技能上都具有同等的能力，一般說來，學生在口語和寫作方面可能比聽力和閱讀更好，我們的許多學生也是如此。通過兩周的學習和練習，學生在閱讀、寫作、語法和詞匯方面也進行了測試。考試結束后，教師會收集所教班級的成績進行分析。

　　In the case of one particular year 11 class where the results of the biweekly assessments have shown that students are stronger in speaking and writing than reading & listening, the teacher has been focusing on practice tasks appropriate to improving those skills. For example, students often have trouble identifying relevant passages if the vocabulary in the questions are different than in the text. For students to learn this skill/strategy, they learn how to identify keywords in questions and relate them to the vocabulary in the text. Predicting content by examining pictures and titles of the text is another comprehension strategy which is important for developing listening and reading skills.

　　11年級的雙周評估結果表明學生在口語和寫作方面比閱讀和聽力方面更強，教師一直把注意力集中在提高這些技能的練習任務上。例如，在閱讀理解中，學生對于識別文中生詞和所問問題生詞不同這個方面有困難，通過學習如何識別關鍵詞和他們在文章使用的詞匯，學生掌握了相應的技巧和策略。通過對文本的圖片和標題來預測內容是另一個閱讀理解的策略，這對于提高聽力和閱讀技能是非常重要的。

　　In another year 11 B1 and B1+ level class, students can be seen actively working in their groups on a narrative essay. The main focus of the work has been on the outline, structure and content which includes introductions, sentence starters, appropriate grammar and mapping stories using a sequence graph to guide and inform them. The primary objective of this exercise is to assist students in putting into practice the skills they have learned by analysing the language and skills required for writing a narrative essay. This type of activity promotes critical thinking and teamwork skills which students can use in their academic and working lives in the future.

　　對于11年級B1和B1+水平的學生來說，我們可以看到他們在小組活動中積極認真地進行敘事類型作文的練習。近兩周的教學重點是寫作的大綱、結構及內容，還有語法結構的準確性，這不僅體現在每一個句子的寫作上，更體現在語法結構在整篇文章中運用的準確性。我們在教學中運用了序列圖的教學方法，讓學生通過描繪自己所寫故事的序列圖來培養他們的邏輯能力，并在其中注重語法結構的訓練。這個練習的主要目的是幫助學生進行語言和技能練習的同時，把他們所學到的東西運用到實際的寫作中去。通過這種類型的課堂活動，極大地促進了學生批判性思維和團隊合作的能力，并為他們以后的學習和工作奠定了良好的基礎。

　　At the end of every unit, review activities are necessary to consolidate knowledge learned. In the particular ESL class (above), students participated in a competition involving their quick recall knowledge as well as testing their strategic thinking skills. They were formed into groups of three with the goal of accumulating the most points possible by answering 10 questions at varying levels of difficulty: 4 easy, 3 medium, 2 hard and 1 impossible. If a correct answer was given, points were added while an incorrect answer resulted in a deduction of points. The higher the difficulty, the greater the number of points were rewarded or subtracted. In order to win, students had to think very carefully and answer with caution (to ensure they did not lose points).

　　我們在每一個單元結束的時候，都會進行復習，這對于鞏固知識是十分必要的。在本周的英語課上，學生參加了一個包括快速回憶知識和測試思維能力的競賽。他們被分成三組，目的是通過回答10個不同難度的問題來積累盡可能多的分數：4個容易的，3個中等難度，2個較難難度的，還有1個非常難的。如果給出正確答案，則增加分數，反之則減分。難度越大，獎勵或減分越多。為了贏得比賽，學生們必須非常認真仔細地思考，并謹慎地進行回答(以確保他們沒有丟分)。

　　The result of the competition was two teams with the same score. The students were involved in a dynamic learning experience where they were motivated to check their textbooks and notes for the correct answers to the questions. Games and competitions for all age groups, are an important technique in encouraging learning with the added incentive where ‘winning’, not just playing the game is encouraged (similar to life). As students grow and develop, they need to decide what ‘winning’ is for them, as it is different for all people.

　　比賽的結果是兩個隊得分相同。學生們通過這樣的活動，參與到了一個動態的學習體驗中，并促使他們去復習所學內容，以尋找問題的正確答案。設計適合每一個年齡段的課堂游戲，是很重要的一種教學方式，可以鼓勵學生學習并給予額外的獎勵，其中的“贏”，不僅僅是玩游戲更是鼓勵(與生活中的鼓勵類似)。隨著學生的成長和發展，他們需要決定什么樣的“勝利”是他們想要的，因為這對所有人來說都是不一樣的。

　　For the year 10’s, at the beginning of each unit, students study the vocabulary in the unit and additional vocabulary from the PET for Schools practice exams. As student’s progress to higher English levels, vocabulary increases along with building connections between words in different grammatical structures. Vocabulary is remembered more easily in context so producing speaking dialogues along with writing where they can practice speaking and remember the sentence structures are more enjoyable as they are putting into practice the grammar and vocabulary which they have learned. Reading, listening, speaking and writing are more natural once students have a grasp of vocabulary per topic and the grammar to support the skills. Students like to be creative, so this system gives them an opportunity to use their creative side in communication.

　　在10年級教師講授并練習每一個單元，并在教學過程中專注于所有的技能和語言水平的訓練。在每個單元開始時，學生學習該單元中的詞匯和來自PET考試的附加詞匯。隨著學生英語水平的提高，詞匯量也在不斷增加。詞匯在上下文環境中更容易被記憶，所以在寫作的同時進行口語練習，通過讓學生練習所學的詞匯和語法來進行強化和鞏固。一旦學生掌握了每個話題的詞匯和語法，閱讀、聽力、口語和寫作就更得心應手了。學生喜歡創造性的活動，所以這個體系讓他們有機會在交流中發揮他們有創造性的一面。

　　For example, recent topic were money and household items. For students to be able to progress to higher the English levels, they need to build a foundation in general vocabulary with what they are familiar with and grammar structures such as the ‘be verb’, present simple, past simple, past continuous, using verbs, adverbs, comparatives and superlatives and in an order which they would naturally learn comparative and superlative.

　　例如，最近學習的話題是和家庭用品。為了提高學生的英語水平，他們需要在已知詞匯中運用已學的語法和構詞知識，建立一系列的相關詞匯體系，如“be 動詞”、它的一般現在時、過去進行時，正在進行時、與之對應的動詞、副詞、比較級和等，建立起一個詞群。此外，用一種學生能夠自然習得的順序進行比較級和的學習和練習。

　　We continue to put the welfare and needs of the students first.

　　我們會繼續把學生的德育教育和學習需要放在教學的首位。

　　At Haileybury, every child matters, every day.

　　在黑利伯瑞，每個孩子的每至關重要。

　　Cheryl Ann McKenna

　　Head of English as a Second Language Programme

　　英語項目組負責人