该书本着新课标的理念、为适应新型英语课堂模式的需要而编写。它主要以活动教学法(Activity Approach)为依据，以活动确定教学目标，以活动确定教学内容，以活动确定教学过程，以活动选用教学资源。全书不但展示了近10个完整的体现新课改精神的课堂教学案例，而且分别从听、说、读、写英语语言学习技能方面介绍了85例丰富多彩的课堂教学活动，供中学一线教师参考与使用。

新一轮课程改革倡导先进的教育理念，提倡以学生的发展为出发点，创设自主学习与合作学习的环境，培养学生终身学习的能力，用英语获取信息、处理信息、分析问题和解决问题的能力以及用英语思维和表达的能力等，全面提高学生的综合素质。

诺贝尔奖获得者费舍尔教授曾经说过，教育有两种，一种是对孩子“强迫性地灌输信息知识”，另一种是“给孩子很大的空间，选择自己想关注的事物”。当学生能根据自己的意愿确定适合自己的学习目标、决定自己想做的事情、选择自己喜欢的学习材料时，他们的积极性和主动性就会大大增加。教师要根据教学目标的要求，考虑到学生身心发展的需要，积极探索能促进学生全面发展的行之有效的教学方法。

《英语课程标准》的基本理念之一，就是倡导“任务型教学”模式，采取“任务活动途径，倡导体验参与”，让学生在执行任务的过程中，始终保持积极主动的学习心态，发展自身的语言能力和思维能力，实现任务目标，形成语感，感受成功。

《中学英语课堂教学活动指南》是本着新课标的理念、为适应新型英语课堂模式的需要而编写的。它主要以活动教学法(Activity Approach)为依据，以活动确定教学目标，以活动确定教学内容，以活动确定教学过程，以活动选用教学资源。全书不但展示了近10个完整的体现新课改精神的课堂教学案例，而且分别从听、说、读、写英语语言学习技能方面介绍了85例丰富多彩的课堂教学活动，供中学一线教师参考与使用。

课堂活动教学是以学生为主的语言教学。众多英语教学研究者和实践者认为：只有涉及真实交际的活动才能促进学习，只有使用语言完成有意义的任务的活动才能促进学习，只有使用对学习者具有实际意义的语言才能促进学习。我们实施课堂活动教学就是要将教材内容按其交际原貌“活化”于课堂，组织不同层次、不同性质、不同形式的活动，让师生共同投入、互相交流。

精心设计教学活动、优化活动的控制、提高活动的效益是开展活动教学的关键。我们在教学中应明确目标，激发学生的学习兴趣，使学生积极“动”起来，在活动中以听、说、读、写等方式使用目的语言，提高运用能力。

传统的课堂教学单调枯燥，难以激发学生的兴趣。新课标要求依据总体目标，结合教学内容，创设良好的语言环境，提供大量的贴近学生生活实际的语言实践活动的机会，使学生通过自己的体验、感知、实践、合作、参与和交流，形成有效的学习策略，培养综合语言运用能力。

我们应从教材这个单一因素走向教师、学生、教材、环境四个要素的整合。教师应当以系统的眼光和动态的观念来指导教学活动，创建高效的课堂教学模式。在课堂上应当运用灵活多样的教学方法，设计丰富多彩的教学活动，提出任务和目标，使讲授与探讨相结合，变“要我学”为“我要学”。

在《中学英语课堂教学活动指南》一书的编写过程中，我们并不求面面俱到，而是从教学实际出发，整理出对一线老师有重要参考和使用价值的信息资源。如在介绍英语教学法时，我们就当前老师们开展得最多的几类教学活动做了较为详尽的整理，并附上具有一定特色的教学案例，供大家参考。

我们希望老师们能结合所在地区、所在学校和所教班级的实际，创造性地开展教学活动，并且注意积累活动素材，进行教学反思，不断提高自己的教学效果。

Introduction

Part One English Teaching Planning

  I. What is a lesson plan?

  II. What should go into an English language lesson?

  III. Why is planning important?

  IV. How should we plan a lesson?

  V. Micro-teaching lesson

  VI. Tips for classroom teachers

  VII. Sample lesson plan

Part Two Activity-based Teaching Methods

Section 1 Guidance to Listening and Speaking

  I. Listening development

(I) Students' problems in listening

(II) Suggestions for the development of listening

  II. Speaking development

(I) Students' problems in speaking

(II) Ways to deal with the problems

(III) Suggestions for the development of speaking

  III. Sample lesson plan

  IV. Suggested listening and speaking activities

(I) Cuisenaire rods

(II) Circle games

(III) Picture consequences

(IV) Word guessing games

(V) Role play

(VI) True/False stories

(VII) Picture talking or description

(VIII) "For or Against" debates

  V. Other effective speaking and talking activities

(I) Bribery

(II) Hangman

(III) Time out

(IV) The untrophy

(V) The last word

(VI) Doctors and patients

(VII) Jigsaw puzzle challenge

(VIII) Something in common or "give me five" 

(IX) Create a biography

(X) Top five lists

(XI) Mini-talks

(XII) Erase the dialogue

(XIII) Motivating speaking activities

(XIV) Chain story telling activity

(XV) Improving discussion lessons

Section 2 Guidance to Reading

  I. Guided reading

  II. Reading comprehension

(I) The purpose of reading

(II) How to improve reading comprehension?

(III) Reading approaches 

(IV) Sample lesson plans

  III. Suggested reading activities

(I) Newspaper reading activities

(II) Text quickies

(III) Reading aloud

(IV) The spending maze

(V) Jigsaw reading

(VI) Working with classroom readers

(VII) Activities to do with texts

Section 3  Guidance to Writing

  I. Provide many opportunities for students to write daily

  II. An idealised procedure for teaching writing

  III. Give students guidance and explicit instruction that develop

  effective writing skills and strategies

(I) Model writing process

(II) Guide writing strategies

  IV. Suggested writing activities

(I) Block buster

(II) Dangerous road

(III) Writing an essay on cause and effect

(IV) Lexical threads

(V) Role-play writing

  V. Other effective writing activities

(I) Story starters

(II) Collaborative/Co-authored writing

(III) Writing/Writers" circles

(IV) Writers notebook

(V) Interactive writing

(VI) Writing workshops

(VII) Writing through "reverse reading"

(VIII) Postcards

(IX) Writing conferences

(X) Sentence frames

(XI) Improving paragraph writing

(XII) Songs and storytelling

(XIII) Freeze the writing

(XIV) Organise argument essays

(XV) Writing organizers and maps

(XVI) Note writing

(XVII) A dark and stormy night -- A creative writing activity 

(XVIII) Inquiry and research writing

Part Three Related Teaching Methodologies

I. Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT)

(I) What is a task?

(II) What are the reasons for TBLT?

(III) What are the differences between TBLT and the traditional

      teaching method?

(IV) How do teachers design tasks?

(V) What are the stages of TBLT?

(VI) How do teachers plan tasks for a lesson?

(VII) What are the misconceptions in TBLT?

(VIII) Sample lesson plan

II. Student-centred Learning (SCL)

(I) The definition of student-centred learning

(II) The features of student-centred learning

(III) Teacher skills needed in student-centred approaches

(IV) The shift from teacher-centred to student-centred

    learning

(V) Creative student-centred materials

(VI) Sample lesson plan

III. Action Research (AR) Overview

(I) What is Action Research?

(II) Why should teachers do Action Research?

(III) What are the steps in the Action Research process?

(IV) Where can your research question(s) come from?

(V) What evidence can you collect to see whether your solution

    has worked?

(VI) Guidelines for planning action research projects

(VII) Sample teaching plan

IV. The Reflective Approach (RA)

(I) Why is RA important?

(II) What is the beginning of the process of reflection?

(III) What to do next?

(IV) How to become a reflective teacher?

(V) Sample teaching plan

(VI) How is RA different from AR?