(1)结合现实生活设置疑问。例如,在教授“Disabilities”一课时,恰逢五月中旬,笔者设置了下面的问题导入课文:“Who can tell us what day the third week of May is?”有的学生答到:“助残日。”于是,笔者提出问题:“Why are the disabled people able to get a success? ”学生就该问题进行了激烈讨论。
(2)运用直观手段设置疑问。在教授“Music”一课时,笔者首先向学生呈现了刘德华和那英的照片,同时提出问题:“Do you know who they are? Are you familiar with their songs?”接着,笔者提问:“What do we call their music?”由该问题引出了词组“popular music”;然后,笔者向学生展示了宋祖英的图片,引出了“folk music”。在整个教学过程中,笔者始终通过图片引出问题,最后提出讨论话题:“Do you like music or not? Why?”学生进行了热烈讨论,课堂气氛达到了高潮。
(3)就课文本身多角度设疑。 在教授“How Marx learned foreign languages”一课时,笔者用一句德语引出问题,然后问学生:“Do you know what language I was speaking?”该问题引起了学生的好奇心,有的学生猜到了笔者讲的是德语。接着,笔者根据课文内容设置了下列问题:Where did Marx stay before he went to France? What did Engles do when he found Marx had made rapid progress in English? What advice did Marx give on how to learn a foreign language?学生为了回答问题,认真阅读了课文,并就如何学好英语提出了许多他们自己总结出的方法。
在课堂教学中,教师应启发学生的思维,引导学生将语言知识进行横向和纵向的比较与联系。例如,在总结动词短语时,教师可以一个搭配较强的动词为中心,对学生进行发散性思维训练。再如,在教授句子“他可能会来”时,教师可提供一组近义词:likely, possible, probable, maybe等。学生会说出这样的句子:He is likely to come. It is likely/possible/probable that he will come. He maybe come. It is possible/probable for him to come.一个学生可能说不全,但全班学生共同讨论,便可集思广益,获得更多的知识。