Icelt Componet 1, Task 2

Class background (100 – 150 words)

This is a class of 35 Junior 7students. They have been learning English since they were in primary school. They are in about upper Intermediate level of the grade. According to Ms.Tang, their English teacher, about 2/3 of the students in the class are quite interested in English language learning, and they are always active in classroom activities. Yet there remain some students who are weak at English learning, and they seldom participate in those speaking and listening activities.

The topic “We love all four seasons” is selected from Oxford English 7B, Module 3 Unit 2. This lesson is the first period of Unit 2. Ms Tang engaged the students’ attention by drilling sentence patterns like “make…think of”, “It is + adj. + to do sth.” The students imitated the sentences and produced their own examples as well.

Samples (8-10 samples, including contexts and your evaluation of each)

1. Context: When the teacher asked the class to give her some suggestions on taking part in outdoor activities in spring, several students produced the same kind of sample like below.

Inaccurate sample: “Go to the park and have a picnic.”

Comments: The learners here were able to give the suggestions directly, but communication in English requires appropriate polite forms of suggestions. So it is generally recognized that it is not sufficient that an utterance be grammatically correct; it must also be culturally appropriate. This is common among the students. It is necessary for the learners to know that they use different language in different situations. It would have been more polite saying” You’d better…, It is a good idea to…, or What about…”

2. Context: The teacher referred learners to a picture and elicited the content of the topic asking,” what can you see in the picture?” A student answered:

Inaccurate sample: “I can see many children to play happily.”

Comments: This is a rather difficult grammar item that makes the students confused. In this sentence verb play is used following sensory perception verb see which is a main verb here as complements, to refer to actions and events. The complement in the sequence, can take the form of a bare infinitive or a gerund. Infinitives and gerunds haven’t been mentioned in Oxford English 7B; the teacher can give a brief introduction to the students.

3. Context: When talking about activities in spring, a student produced the following

sample.

Accurate sample: “When spring comes, we can fly kites in the park.”

Comments: The learner was able to use Adverb Clauses with Time Expressions accurately to give an example for what they can do in spring. Also, the learner use modal verb can here to identify a kind of possibility which conveys the potential for an event taking place.

4. Context: The teacher asked the students to tell what they would have known about spring, a student produced the sample:

Accurate sample: “The wind blows gently in spring.”

Comments: The learners have a good awareness of using the simple present tense. The form here is given a meaning as “actions habitual at present time” and illustrated with an expression of time like in spring.

5. Context: The teacher asked the students to tell more information about animals’ life in spring, a student produced the sample:

Inaccurate sample: “In spring some animals wake up.”

Comment: Adverbials of time usually appear at the end of the sentences in English, yet learners are used to put them at the beginning of the sentence as in a Chinese way. The class needs raising awareness of position of adverbials in a sentence.

6. Context: The teacher provided some background knowledge about Easter

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