《世纪大学英语读写教程》课文问答法教学实例举隅

《21世纪大学英语读写教程》课文问答法教学实例举隅

工程兵指挥学院　仲　锡　李兆平

普通高等教育“九五”国家级重点教材《21世纪大学英语读写教程》课文的教学是英语教学中的主要内容，课文教学质量的好坏，直接关系到教学质量的优劣。众多的语言知识，西方文化，历史背景知识，思想道德教育内容，都是以课文作为载体而向学生传输的。

针对课文的教学方法，仁者见仁，智者见智。有些教师用逐句翻译的方法对课文进行处理，有些教师喜欢用字、词解释的方法……不一而足。而笔者却认为，用问答法对课文进行教学，是一种见效快，训练力度大的方法(具体论述详见笔者“大学英语课文问答法教学改革研究与实践”文)。在课堂上用问答法进行课文教学，透过学生对教师所设置的问题的回答，教师可以即时、即地发现学生在英语字、词和语句结构方面的理解缺失，这是因为，从语言的认知和语言的学习规律上看，学生只有充分理解了语言的字、词和语句结构，才能理解课文内容，才能对教师所提出的问题进行正确的反应和回答;反之，则无法进行问答交流训练。学生通过思索和得到教师的提示后，能够回答所提出的问题，则说明他们已经理解了课文内容。如此，教师便无须对课文语言点进行逐项讲解，只需选择那些学生回答问题时出现的语言表达障碍而进行疏通便可以了。这样做，无疑会大大节省课堂字、词、句的讲解时间，而节省下来的时间又可以用来进行语言实际应用能力的培养，即课文提问和答案的表述上来。

《21世纪大学英语读写教程》课文携带了大量的语言和诸如人文、地理、政治、历史、风俗民情等其他信息，每篇课文都可以设置50—70个问题或者更多。这些内容都是培养学生语言能力、道德情操和处世哲学的良好素材。针对这些内容设置问题对学生进行问答训练，不仅培养了学生的英语语言素质，更培养了学生的人文素质和精神素质等，进而优化学生的知识结构。

本文以第二册第一单元Winston Churchill—His Other Life一课为例，从课文的文化背景知识、思想道德教育内容、课文内容所涉及的人物、事件和课文中的字、词、句法结构等方面入手，分述问题的设置及其答语方法。

一、问题的数量

授课过程中，笔者曾针对本课课文内容设置了60多个问题。有些较长、较难的课文甚至可以设置100个问题以上。如，本篇课文第1节仅有英语单词77个，由4个句子组成，但其所携带的信息却特别多。针对本节课文，笔者设置了以下8个问题:

Q1: What was the nature and outcome of the“mission”mentioned in the first paragraph? How did it affect Churchill personally?

Q2．Who was Mary Soames?

Q3．How do you understand the expression“begin his love affair with painting”here in this text?

Q4．Why did Churchill begin his love affair with painting?

Q5．What trouble did Churchill get into?

Q6．How do you understand the sentence“Churchill paid the price，both publicly and privately”?

Q7．What would happen if the campaign in the Dardanelles hadn't failed?

Q8．Where is Dardanelles?

二、问题的类型

针对课文内容所设置的问题大致可以有以下类别:

1．针对课文重、难点词汇、句法方面的问题;

2．针对课文中涉及的历史知识的问题;

3．针对课文中涉及的文化知识的问题;

4．针对课文中涉及的地理知识的问题:

5．针对课文中涉及的著名人物的问题;

6．针对课文中涉及的重大事件的问题;

7．针对课文中涉及的逻辑关系的问题;

8．针对课文中涉及的常识的问题;

9．针对课文中的故事情节的问题。

如:

1．针对课文重、难点词汇、句法方面的问题，如:

1) How do you understand the expression“begin his love affair with painting”here in this text?(节1)

2) How do you understand the sentence“Churchill paid the price，both publicly and privately”?(节1)

3) What does the word“muse”mean here in this text?(节2)

4) What does the word“wander”mean here in this part?(节3)

5) How do you understand the phrase“chance upon”in the text?(节3)

6) What is the grammatical function does the word“sketching”serve as?(节3)

7)What does the word“overwhelm”mean here in the text?(节4)

8)What grammatical function does“delighted with anything that distracted Winston from the dark thoughts that overwhelmed him”in the first sentence of this paragraph serve as?(节4)

9) What does the phrase“turn out to be”mean in the first sentence of this paragraph?(节5)

10) What is the grammatical function of“painting”here?(节5)

11) What does the phrase“in oils”serve as grammatically?(节5)

12) What doe the word“contemplate”mean in the sentence?(节5)

13) How do you interpret the sentence“Anyone could see it could not hit back”?(节7)

14) What does the word“anonymous”mean here in the text?(节11)

2．针对课文中涉及的历史知识的问题，如:

1) What was the nature and outcome of the“mission”mentioned in the first paragraph? How did it affect Churchill personally?(节1)

2) From whom did Churchill learn the art of painting?(节8)

3) What have historians regarded the decade Churchill spent after 1929 as，and why?(节12)

3．针对课文中涉及的文化知识的问题，如:

1) What is the difference between“painting and drawing”?(节2)

2) How many daughters did Mnemosyne and Zeus have，what are their names and what did they preside each?(节2)

3) What is an amateur art exhibition?(节11)

4．针对课文中涉及的地理知识的问题，如:

1) Where is Dardanelles and how much do you know about it?(节1)

2)Where was Hoe Farm that Churchill retired to with his family?(节2)

3)Where and what was Chart well?(节10)

4)Where is London and how much do you know about the city?(节11)

5．针对课文中涉及的著名人物的问题，如:

1)Who was Winston Churchill?(节1)

2) Who was Mary Soames?(节1)

3) Who was Lavery?(节8)

6．针对课文中涉及的重大事件的问题，如:

1)What happened in 1921 to Churchill?(节9)

2)What happened to Churchill after the death of his mother and daughter?(节9)

3)What happened to the Churchill's family in September 1922?(节10)

7．针对课文中涉及的逻辑关系的问题，如:

1)What would happen if the campaign in the Dardanelles hadn't failed?(节1)

2)What did Churchill mean by the statement“The muse of painting came to my rescue”?(节2)

3) What were the dark thoughts that overwhelmed Winston?(节4)

4)Why were Churchill's first steps of painting strangely difficult?(节5)

5)What caused Churchill's nervousness when he first tried his hand at oil painting?Why does the author call it“unaccustomed nervousness”?(节5)

6)Why didn't Churchill hesitate anymore?(节7)

7)Why did Lavery say Churchill would have been a great master with the brush if he had chosen painting instead of politics?(节8)

8)What had Churchill found in painting?(节9)

9)Why did the author think that her father must have felt a glow of satisfaction in the mid-1920s?(节11)

10)What does the pronoun“they”in the second sentence of this paragraph refer to?(节12)

11)Why did the author say“artistically those years of her father's bore abundant fruit”?(节12)

12)Why did painting remain a joy to Churchill to the end of his life?(节13)

13)Three women played key roles in getting Churchill involved in painting．Who were they，and what parts did they play?(全文)

14)Does the writer agree with the historians who have called the decade after 1929 Churchill's barren years?(节12)

15) What did Churchill mean when he wrote that“painters shall not be lonely”? What did painting mean to him，and what does this tell you about his relationships with people around him?(节13)

8．针对课文中涉及的常识的问题，如:

1)What is“First Lord of the Admiralty”?(节1)

2) Is one's“sister-in-law”a female or amale?(节3)

3)Why was Churchill's painting almost disqualified from the exhibition in the mid-1920s? And why were the judges later delighted?(节11)

9．针对课文中的故事情节的问题，如:

1) Why did Churchill begin his love affair with painting?(节1)

2) What trouble did Churchill get into?(节1)

3) Whom did Churchill see when he was wandering in the garden one day?(节3)

4) What was his sister-in-law doing when Churchill saw her?(节3)

5) Why did Clementine rush off to buy whatever paints and materials she could find?(节4)

6) Where did Churchill make am ark?(节6)

7) How big was Churchill's mark on the snow-white field?(节6)

8) How did Churchill make am ark as big as a bean on the snow-white field?(节6)

9) What did Churchill hear at the time?(节6)

10) What did Churchill feel when he heard the sound and then saw what happened later?(节6)

11) Whom did Churchill see?(节6)

12) What did the lady do when he saw Churchill painting?(节7)

13)Why did some of the judges insist that Winston's picture—one of his first of Chart well—was the work of a professional，not an amateur?(节11)

三、训练方式

课文问答教学的方法很多，分述如下:

1．教师课前备课时设置基本问答题，供课堂教学使用;

2．课堂教学过程中提点学生即席设置问题，由学生互相问答;

3．针对较大、较难，需要大量语言回答的问题，教师发问后令学生分组讨论，然后选派代表作答;

4．针对较小、较易的问题，教师提起一名学生，然后向其提问并令其即刻作答;

5．针对较难的问题，教师先发问，给学生思考的时间，然后提点学生作答。

6．课堂教学过程中提点学生就课文内容进行问题设制数量和质量比赛;

7．教师向单个学生提出问题，令其作简短思考后回答;

8．教师向全班学生提出问题，令其作简短思考后自行回答;

9．提问时机:可以先提问，然后疏通课文;也可先疏通课文，然后提问。

以上各种方法应当灵活地穿插运用，以弱化“千篇一律”的感觉。

10．所设置的问题都是特殊疑问句，以使学生有话可说。