例如,在教学The Green Hills of Tangsa一课时,教师可以运用时间近体原则向学生提出这样一个话题:Why did the people along the Changjiang River suffer a lot in the big flood in 1998? 然后让学生分为若干小组,用英语进行讨论。学生人人参与,气氛活跃,经过各小组发言,归纳出1998年中国长江发生特大洪水的主要原因,如:气候变化,河床抬高,河道变窄,雨水集中,山坡植被破坏严重,围湖造田,森林遭砍伐等等。接着教师又不失时机地引出另一个话题:What can we do to prevent such a disaster in the future?这一问题的提出再一次引发学生积极思维,主动探讨,各抒已见。通过小组总结和归纳,师生们得出了解决这一问题的答案。
高中英语新教材中有不少涉及社会热点和焦点问题的课文,例如:动物保护问题----Milu deer return to China;男女平等问题----The secret is out;关注地球问题----Saving the earth;残疾人问题----Disability;世界粮食问题----Feed the world;垃圾处理问题----Dealing with waste 及自然灾害问题----Earthquake, Fire, Hurricane等。教师可以在课堂上留出一定的时间,引出课文以外的话题,创设问题情境,有效激发学生的学习兴趣,引导学生创造性地思维,为课堂教学创设出一种紧张、活跃、和谐和民主的氛围。
After eight months of negotiations, the Hongkong government struck a deal on Nov.2 for the construction of a US $3.55 billion Disneyland. The park will be the third Disney theme park outside the US after Paris and Tokyo and is aimed at tourists from the Chinese mainland----which is seen by many Western companies as a huge market for the new
millennium. It"s to be built over a five-year period on Hongkong’s Landau Island.