为了给广大英语教育者和学习者提供最新的学习资讯、教育理念以及课堂教学实例，不断提高英语语言能力和授课技能，本报特从国际知名英语教学网选编国际优秀英语教学论文，以飨读者。

　　Activity for teaching prepositions associated with time

　　Lily Vered

　　在英语中，介词可用在年、月、日以及小时等名词前表示时间。许多学生在学习此类时间介词时常感觉到困难。本文作者基于A University Grammar of English一书对于方位介词的解释进而组织安排课堂活动，为学生学习介词提供了一个崭新的视角。具体步骤如下:

　　第一步:

　　教师发给学生一张描述地点介词 “on”“at” 和“in”的图表，并向学生解释图表的内容。在进行图表的讲解时，教师应注意通过具体的例句来让学生准确把握以上三个地点介词的用法。

　　第二步:

　　教师进而运用此图表向学生解释“on” “at” 和“in”作为时间介词的用法。教师应引导学生将“年”“月”和“周”看作一个“空间”，因此与“in”连用;对于一个月或者一周中的一天，则可想象成一根“柱子”或是一条“线”，所以用“on”修饰;而“小时”被视为“柱子”上或“线”上的一点，与“on”配合使用。在此过程中，教师可让学生参照日程安排表或者日历上的时间标示，加深学生对于讲解的印象。

　　第三步:

　　教师可允许学生离开座位，同学间互相发问，看对方的生日是否与自己的在同一年、同一个月，甚至是同一天。完成后，学生应向老师报告自己的“采访”对象以及结果。

　　第四步:

　　教师可让学生做相应的填空或完形填空练习来巩固所学知识。练习的内容可以以一场偶然事故为背景，如泰坦尼克号的沉没，也可是人们为某一事宜而确定时间所进行的模拟对话。

　　Many language learners have a problem learning the prepositions associated with references to year, month, date and hour. The following activity is based on the explanation of prepositions of place provided in A University Grammar of English, as represented by the diagram.

　　Step One

　　Give students the diagram and an explanation regarding the meaning of prepositions when teaching prepositions of place and direction.

　　Step Two

　　When working on references to time, use the diagram again, but this time bring a diary or calendar, which has slots for hourly appointments. Ask students to consider the following:

　　A year is a SPACE, and so is a MONTH or a WEEK. Therefore they would require the preposition IN. e.g. IN 1997, IN August, IN the third week of August. Next, you would show that the actual date is a column or line IN that week/month and thus requires ON Monday. The hour would be a point on the day line and require AT, as in AT 6 am, AT 16:30 IN the afternoon.

　　Step Three

　　Tell students to walk around the class and find out exactly when people were born and see if they can find someone who was born IN the same year, or the same month, or perhaps ON the same day. Students report on their findings, on who they interviewed, and when that person was born.

　　Step Four

　　Provide a fill-in exercise or cloze passage which makes references to dates (year, month, day and time). You can use an incident such as what happened to the Titanic on the night it sank, or a dialogue between two busy people trying to set up an appointment.

　　Task-based grammar teaching:tips and activities

　　Lindsay Clandfield

　　在语法教学中，教师往往将注意力过多地放在反复的讲和练上，教学形式过于单一。本文作者将Jane Willis灵活的任务型教学模式引入课堂，首先有目的地引导学生完成交际性学习任务，进而提醒学生注意开展口头交际活动时所用到的语法形式，让学生实现对语法规律的熟练掌握。

　　第一步:

　　教师可在课前准备一张自己10年前的照片以便能在课堂上向学生进行口头描述。此外，教师还应将相应的描述记述成文，以备在课堂上发给学生。

　　第二步:

　　教师告诉学生将要向其展示自己十年前的照片，并让其猜测那时的自己同现在会有何种不同。在学生作出回答时，教师应注意不要改正其语言表达上的语法错误。之后，教师拿出自己的照片，在班内来回走动，向全班同学展示，并再次询问其照片上的自己与现时的差异。接着教师可将照片张贴到黑板上，让学生就上述问题展开深入的课堂讨论。此时，教师应注意不对学生探讨的结果进行评论。

　　第三步:

　　教师将学生分为三人组，让其分别讨论自己10年前的生活情形。完成后，教师可告诉学生应协同合作以总结小组内讨论结果，并将结果向全班同学报告。在此过程中，教师应提醒学生注意做好相关摘要，届时每组需选出一名代表以口头形式进行汇报。

　　第四步:

　　学生进行完口头报告环节后，教师可让学生讨论班里哪些同学在10年中变化较大。之后，教师让学生再次观察自己张贴在黑板上的照片，并讲述自己彼时生活同现在的不同之处进行示范。在学生进行讲述时，教师可提问学生一些简单问题，以检查其是否理解其所述内容。然后，教师基于自己的讲述，从中找出三到四个包含有“used to”的表达形式，将其写在黑板上进行详细讲解。最后，教师将自己的讲述稿发给学生，要求其找出更多的关于“used to”的表达式，进而总结此语法结构的用法。

　　IN Jane Willis’s flexible model for task-based learning, students begin by carrying out a communicative task, without specific focus on form. Then they report the results and discuss how they accomplished this task. Only at the end is there a specific focus on language form. The following lesson plan follows Jane Willis’s task-based learning framework to teach the grammar point “used to”.

　　Step One

　　For this class you need a photograph of yourself from 10 years ago. You can practice reading the exercise out until you are able to “speak” it comfortably in front of the class. Prepare a written version of this text that you can distribute to the class.

　　Step Two

　　Tell the students that you are going to show them a photo of you from 10 years ago. Ask them what they think will be different, but don’t correct them at this stage.

　　Then take out the photo of yourself and walk around the class, showing it to the students. Ask them what was different about you then. Put the picture up on the board and ask “What else was different about my life, do you think?” Don’t tell them if they are right or wrong in their guesses at this point. Explain that they will find this out later.

　　Step Three

　　Ask the students to work in groups of three. Tell them to talk about their lives ten years ago. Stop the task. Tell the students that they must work together to prepare a summary of their discussion to report to the whole class. They must write notes for this summary and be prepared to report this orally to the class.When the students are ready, ask a spokesperson from each group to report, on the group’s summary.

　　Step Four

　　After all the reports, ask students who they think has changed the most. Draw the students’ attention back to the photo of you on the board and explain that you are going to ask them to listen to you doing the same task that they did. Read the recording that you made. Ask the students some quick comprehension questions about what they heard.

　　Choose two or three sentences from your text that include the verb “used to” and write them on the board. Explain the rules of form for “used to”. Then you could distribute the script of your story and ask students to find other examples of how you used “used to”. Summarize the main points of using “used to”.

　　Conditional statements: reviewing the first and second conditional

　　Kenneth Beare

　　学会使用条件句能极大地提高学生的英语流利程度。本文作者通过假设一个场景来激活学生对条件句的理解，旨在培养学生在交际时灵活使用条件句的能力。

　　第一步:

　　教师先让学生想象这样一个场景:假设其晚上回家很晚，回到家时发现门是敞开的，那么他们将会如何做呢？

　　第二步:

　　教师要求学生阅读一篇文章，注意所选文章中应有大量条件句结构出现。提醒学生在阅读过程中将所有的条件句划出。之后，教师可让学生做配套的填空练习并以小组为单位核对答案。此时，教师可在教室内走动，为学生解疑答惑。最后，教师以班级为单位点评答案，并向学生讲解第一条件句和第二条件句的结构特点以及用法。

　　第三步:

　　教师要求每组学生假设两个场景，并将其记录在一张纸片上。提醒学生在行文中要注意运用第一条件句和第二条件句。完成后，小组之间将纸片交换学习。

　　第四步:

　　教师让学生以小组为单位，讨论如果自己处在纸片中所列的假设场景下会如何去做。教师可在教室内走动，随时为学生提供指导和解答。

　　MAKING conditional statements is an important part of fluency in English. This lesson focuses on helping students improve their recognition of the structure and use of it in conversation.

　　Step One

　　Ask students to imagine the following situation: You’ve arrived home late at night and you find that the door to your apartment is open. What would you do? The purpose of this is to refresh students’ awareness of the conditional in the introductory portion of the lesson.

　　Step Two

　　Have students read a prepared extract using conditionals. Ask them to underline all conditional structures. In groups, students complete a fill-in activity based on the previous reading. Correct the worksheets in small groups. Move about the room helping students with their corrections. Go over corrections as a class. Answer any questions they may have on the first and second conditional structure.

　　Step Three

　　In groups, have students prepare two “What if…” situations on a separate piece of paper. Ask students to employ first and second conditionals. Ask students to exchange their prepared situations with another group.

　　Step Four

　　Students in each group discuss the “what if...” situations. Move about the class and help them.