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【教案】
How to Make Small Talk With a Foreigner in English
An Expository Writing Lesson
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Objectives
1. The students are expected to gain some rudimental knowledge of the expository writing. Also,
they should learn a few basic writing skills such as presenting and developing an idea and
ending an article.
2. The students are expected to better learn how to write an article based on a relevant text.
3. The students will hopefully develop their keener interest in writing in the English language.
⑵ Approaches: Practice and experimentation dominate. Priority is given to the five stages of the
writing process; and the six traits of writing are taken into account.
⑶ Emphases: What information, or specifically, sentence patterns and vocabulary should be
gleaned from the text learned and how it is done.
⑷ Challenges: In what way(s) the instructor(s) can arouse the students’ interest in the task and
effectively help the students materialize the emphases.
⑸ Duration:Two periods
⑹ Procedures
Period One
Period One is focused on Prewriting, Writing, with due attention paid to Ideas, Organization
and Word choice.
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Introductory remarks and lead-in.
Step 1: Lead-in: Review the two parts of the text, i.e. “Hello”—A Starter and Small Talk—The
Main Course. Ask the students to finish the three tasks: 1. to find out what to watch out for when
trying to start small talk with a foreigner in English, 2. to find out what small talk is usually
centered upon, and/or what is usually shunned, 3. to select and jot down some sentence patterns
and vocabulary to be used in their own writing.
Step 2: Get the students starting to draft.
Suppose that a group of German students is coming to your school, and a classmate of yours is
seeking your advice on small talk. Please write a short article in at lease five complete sentences,
offering your advice on (1) how to start the conversation and what the conversation should be
focused on; or (2) how to start the conversation and what should be avoided.
Step 3: The students do their own drafting on either (1) or (2) as required above.
Step 4: The instructor demonstrates a beginning and a brief development of the body.
A BEGINNING Draft A. ⑴ If you want to talk with a German, you need to know
something about how to make small talk with him/her.
A DEVELOPMENT Draft A. ⑵ First, exchange a ‘hello’ with him/her. ⑶ After that, you
should try to find out if he/she is going to talk with you. ⑷Second, if you find he/she is interested,
you may go on. ⑸But you must pay attention that your talk must be about such things as the
weather, sports and music and so on. ⑹You must not launch into serious subjects like politics or
religion or personal matters. ⑺Third, you must use open-ended questions instead of yes-no ones.
Period Two
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Period Two is focused on Rewriting, Editing and Publishing, with due attention paid to
Sentence fluency, Conventions and Voice.
Introductory remarks and lead-in.
Step 1: The instructor displays his/her original beginning and a development and elaborates on
why it is thus developed and improved, intending to direct the students’ attention to Organization
and Word choice.
A BEGINNING Draft B. ⑴So you’re going to have a free talk with a German, and I’d
like to share with you some idea about how to make small talk with him/her, if you’re interested.
A DEVELOPMENT Draft B. ⑵First and foremost, exchange a ‘hello’ with him/her. ⑶After
that, watch for any positive conversation clues such as a smile, so that you can decide whether to
carry on or just stop for the moment. ⑷Second, when he/she’s responded to you with a ‘hello’, a
‘hi’ or a pleasant smile, you can be sure that he/she is willing to talk. ⑸While you are talking
with each other, please see that you should stick to the weather or your favorite things such as
sports and music and so on. ⑹You shouldn’t launch into serious topics like politics or religion or
personal matters. ⑺Last but not least, to keep the talk going, please use open-ended questions
rather than yes-no ones.
Step 2: Get the students starting to improve their draft.
Step 3: (instructor) Share the students’ draft and offer very brief comments together with the
students.
Step 4: (instructor and students) Read the projected draft again to check the conventions.
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Step 5: Homework
Improve and enrich your own draft and make it a complete article in around 100 words.
Appendix
Aim What the teacher will do What the students will do
Step 1: To arouse interest Make clear the reading /
revision tasks in detail
Read the appointed parts and
finish the three tasks
Step 2: To check how well the
students can select information and
draft an article of the appointed
topic and where their weaknesses
lie
Help the students with their
information gleening and
article drafting
Finish their respective draft
under the instructor’s
guidance, especially the
beginning and development
Step 3: To show how such an
article is usually started and
developed
Demonstrate a sample
article of the teacher’s own
writing and offer brief and
necessary comments
Listen and think
Step 4: To arouse the students’
focus on Word choice and
organization
Compare Draft A and Draft
B and show the students
how to improve their
respective original
Improve the teacher’s
original in partership with
the instructor
Step 5: The same as above Help the students with their
writing
Improve and complete their
respective article
Writing
Useful language
1. stick to; 2. force 3. Launch into 4. flow… 5. such as/for example
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6. because/since/as/even though 7. so that/in order that/so as to
8. shortly after/soon afterwards 9. unless、only if、as long as
10. however/still/instead/rather 11. to sum up/in a word/in a nutshell/in conclusion
I hear that you’re going to receive some German students next Monday. So may I remind you
of some dos and don’ts about making small talk with a foreigner in English?
For a start, you may/should_____________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.
Secondly,
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.
Thirdly, ________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________.
In a nutshell, ________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________.
*******************************************************************************
The Writing Process
1. Prewriting: collecting details; planning how to use them in writing
2. Writing: completing the first draft
3. Revising: reviewing the first draft to check and improve whatever is not clear or
complete
4. Editing: checking and proofreading for correctness and for a neat final copy
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5. Publishing: sharing the finished work in class
Six Traits
1. Ideas: telling about a specific experience; making the audience want to know
what happens next
2. Organization: beginning to attract the audience; presenting ideas in a specific order,
like chronological order, spatial order or logical order
3. Voice: sounding natural like the real you
4. Word choice: using specific, vivid and well-chosen vocabulary
5. Sentence fluency: using a variety of sentence styles that flow smoothly
6. Conventions: ensuring correct punctuation, capitalization, spelling, grammar, etc.
【评析】
建构主义(constructivism)提出以学习者为中心，将学习者视为积极的意义建构者和问题
解决者，将教师学习者主动建构意义的促进者、引导者和合作者。基于建构主义的学习理论
强调教师为学习者选择、设计恰当的学习环境，而学习环境就是教学环境，它是学习资源（物
质资源）和师生、生生之间人际关系（非物质资源）的组合。学习环境不仅是指物理意义上
的学习场所，它还关涉学习资源的丰富程度以及人际互动因素。建构主义认为：语言学习与
一定的社会文化背景，即所谓情景(context)相关。学生利用现实情景、或者教师精心设计
——创造的情景可以调动其现有认知结构中的有关经验和知识，并与当前的任务内容建立链
接，通过完成学习任务将此过程中所习得的新的知识、经验技能有效地融入旧有的认知结构
中。如此循环前进，从而逐步丰实、提升自己的知识和技能。
David Nunan 认为：只有当学习者开始创造性地使用语言时他们才能最大限度地习得语
言。语言习得既是自然的又是有机的。任务型语言教学关注语言的自然循环发展。语法和语
言功能在不同的任务情景中反复出现是一种健康的语言习得过程，它的有机的的 (organic)
过程，能够帮助学习者轻松地走进语言(‘grow’ into the language)。任务型语言教学既要聚焦
形 式 (form-focused) ， 也 要 聚 焦 意 义 (meaning-focused) ， 而 且 还 应 该 是 培 养 意 识 的
(consciousness-raising)，因为任务型教学毕竟是个使能性的(enabling)过程。
Antonia Chandrasegaran 认为：在写作教学中应该有教师的介入(intervening)。她进一步
指出：教师的介入的目的为了帮助学生在思想、选材和语言运用上使文章符合特定读者群的
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要求。介入的原则是在学生的构思、写作和修改的过程中，教师给予学生关于任务的明确解
释和示范，引导学生发现并改正问题或错误。教师的介入应在创设情境的前提下加以示范
(modeling)，引导学生既着眼低水平信息(lower level message)，也要努力追求表达高水平信
息(high level message)。
对照上述理论，观察本节课的教学设计和教学实践，我们发现它达成了以下几项目标：
一、激活已有知识(existing knowledge)
教师引导学生齐声朗读所学课文，不但实现了口心并用，激活课堂气氛，将学生带入学
习的氛围中，而且有效唤醒了学生们的记忆储存，为下一步自主默读并筛选他们认为的有用
词汇和句式做了很好的铺垫，同时也为学生搭建了“脚手架”，降低了完成任务的难度。
二、任务拾阶性复现(graded recurrence)
同一个写作任务在两节课内重复出现，但不是原地踏步，而是以难度递进的方式呈现，
这样可以帮助仍不同处于学能阶段的学生根据自己的水平(competence)完成阶段性任务。由
此观之，这个教、学、做的过程应该是有机的(organic)，因为有助于学生在循环往复中自然
地接近语言并进而学会使用。
三、体现了任务型教学的使能性(enabling)
在教学设计和实践中，教师全方位地关注了形式聚焦 (form-focused)、意义聚焦
(meaning-focused)和意识培养 (consciousness-raising)。例如他们在学生基本写完，建立了感
性的语篇意识之后，提供了写作应注意的文章结构(structure)，文章的主题内容和写作技巧(见
first writing)，怎样对文章加以修改(见 improvement on your composition (second writing))
以及如何对文章进行评价(见 what to evaluate)。通过这些辅助内容，相信学生可以建立起基
础的语篇意识。
四、有效的教师介入(intervening)
写作教学中的教师介入要求教师在确定主题内容，选择词汇、句式和语篇结构方面加以
辅助，而高效且省时的辅助方式就是示范(modeling)，因此，在学生完成第一遍写作后，教
师及时给予了示范，而且又以两个语篇示范与简评教学了如何使语句读上去更加通顺上口。
而在简评时教师还有意识地引导学生学习使用较高级词汇、多变的句式以及过度词语，从而
再次强化了学生的语篇意识。
在反思这个设计与实践时，我们也不无遗憾地发现，至少还有两个地方可以改进。⑴从
始至终教师没有明确要求该习作的语体，因此有学生写成了书信，有学生写成了对话；⑵尽
管这堂课是按照“以读促写”的要求设计，但因教师设定的标题与课文联系太过紧密，学生的
发散性思维受到了某种程度的限制。然而瑕不掩瑜，从整体来看，这是一堂目标明晰、节奏
舒缓有致，学生学有所获的写作探索课。
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参考文献
[1] 鲁子问、康淑敏 英语教学方与策略 华东示范大学出版社
[2] David Nunan Task-based Language Teaching 外语教学与研究出版社 剑桥大学出版社
[3] Antonia Chandrasegaran 写作过程中的教师介入 人民教育出版社
[4] Lauren Starkey Writing Source Kaplan Publishing
[5] Dave Kemper. etc. Write Source Great Source Education Group
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