The Role of “Sandwich Story” Teaching Methodin Junior Middle School English Teaching

楊欣琪

【Abstract】 “Sandwich story” teaching method （Sandwich Story Methodology）， is a teaching method that to tell stories in foreign language accompanied by mother language.The idea we get from “sandwich story” teaching method for English teaching in junior middle school is to mix words and phrases of mother language during learningnew English passages. On the basis of the positive transfer in Language transfer， this thesis studies on“Sandwich Story”teaching methodfrom English teaching in junior middle school. The following conclusions are found in the analysis after myteaching as an English teacher： The use of “sandwich story” teaching method in Junior Middle School can enlarge the studentsvocabulary efficiently， help the students to distinguish the different meanings among the similar phrases， and improve their abilities in making sentences. From here we can see that， the use of “Sandwich Story”teaching method can solve the basic difficulty in English learning， and also change the students negative attitudes towards learning English in the same time.

【Key words】 “Sandwich Story”teaching method， junior middle school English teaching， application

【中圖分類號】 G633.41 【文獻標識碼】 A 【文章編號】 1992-7711（2015）02-082-03

1 Introduction

“Sandwich story” teaching method （Sandwich Story Methodology）， is a teaching method that to tell stories in foreign language but mix itwith mother language. While in foreign countries， this teaching method has no definite name， it has so many names such as “mixed texts”（Burling 1968） teaching method， “bilingual” teaching method（Morgan& M. Rinvolucri 1986）， “code switching” teaching method（Blair： 23-45） and “diglot weave” teaching method（Boston 1991）.

In our country， the method came out in 1997 and then had begun to use in the foreign language teaching in our country. As now English study becomes more and more important in Chinese compulsory education. And there is no doubt that， vocabulary is the most important part of English learning， while the vocabulary we have learned in primary school is quite limited， the use of “sandwich story” teaching method can improve the vocabulary efficiently also can consolidate the vocabularypreviously learned. But this method is still not widely use in daily English teaching in middle schools. Most of the English teachers have no idea about this teaching method； we can see that it is really not popular in China.

This thesis plans to show the teaching theory and teaching effects by introducing the successful examples the foreign educators reached before and the teaching practice during my internship as a junior middle school English teacher. This paper also analyzes the advantages and shortages by using “sandwich story” teaching method， it can help people to judge whether it is suitable for English teaching in China.

2 The implementation of “sandwich story” method in junior middle school English teaching

2.1 The aspects of teaching

Differ from the English teaching in primary school， phrases and sentence patterns also take an important role in junior middle school English teaching. When the students start to learn English in junior schools， they feel like English become so different and difficult. To take an example by the book Vocabulary which Professor John Morgan and Professor Mario Rinvolucri coauthored， the learning method named “bilingual texts”would work effectively on learning vocabulary for beginners. （Ji； Xu 1994： 43）So it would help students in the words and phrases part which become more complicated in junior school English learning.

As the students have to spend a long time to distinguish the different meanings of phrases which be combined with a same word or similar phrases， “sandwich story” teaching method can help students to remember them more easily and quickly. For examples， these two phrases “think of” and “think about”， we can use such example sentences “他們都think of 他不負責任， 你think of 你的英語水如何？”and“ 我們會think about 你的建議， 如果你不think about未來，那么你就不能擁有未來” to help students to remember and distinguish the meanings between these two phrases. And also the teachers need to find more this kind of sentences to consolidate. Furthermore， replace all the Chinese words into English words， and let the students create their own sentences. This kind of “sandwich sentences” can remind the students of the meanings when they suddenly forget.

Besides， in junior middle school， there are some different sentence patterns which in a same meaning， the students need to know how to change a different sentence but remain the same meaning， such as “What does he do？ What is he？ Whats his job？”， they all mean “他是干什么的”。 While most of the students cannot master these sentences quickly and change them by anytime. In this case， teachers can train the students by “sandwich story” or “sandwich dialogue”， and repeat them once and once again to help them remember. It is just like the oral Russian classes of Russian professor Rudy Lentulay， to encourage students to use those sentences as much as they can in the daily school time， after this enough training， students couldmake clear about this kind of sentences and make up stories and dialogues themselves.

Above that， learning new English words seems more easily than before. Teachers can mix one or two new words both in English and Chinese when they make up sentences. This kind of oral training can let the students learn grammar more easily but also cultivate their language sense.

2.2 The roles of the teacher and students

No matter what kind of class， teacher will always play the leading role while students play the active role. And it is same to the classes of “sandwich story” teaching method.

While theoretically speaking， in the “sandwich story” teaching method classes， the teachers choose the stories， according to the mastery degree of students， and then decide the proportion of English and Chinese words in the stories. Students need to follow the teachers guidance， listen to stories， participate the activities in story， and to play roles for the story， even add some new contents or imitate the original story to create a new story.

But as the limit of teaching material and time， teachers in junior schools are not able to create enough whole stories for students. Short passages or even sentences would reduce the learning enthusiasm of students， teachers must arrange enough classroom activities and organize the students to participate in the study and control the process of classroom. And the students must pay more attention in the oralpractice the teachers ask them to do and try to make new sentences.

2.3 The ways to promote effectiveness

Firstly， the teachers need to make thorough preparations before classes， such as how to combine the new words and phrases in one sentence， how long would the training take in the class to guarantee the teaching progress.

Secondly， students must be encouraged to open their mouths. The ability of oral English among most of the students in China is weak； they even do not have the confidence to speak English， so one of the most important ways is to let the students talk.

Thirdly， the teachers must have proper power to control the class. As not all the students are following their teacher seriously. When the class becomes noisy， the teacher must have enough power to stop them.

2.4 The model of application

After the enough theoretical preparation， we can try to use the teaching idea of “sandwich story” teaching method in classes and look forward to the effect after classes.

2.4.1 Classroom activities

During classes， first of all， the students listen to the teacher reading texts or text recording， as to get an idea of the whole passage. During the interpretation of the passage， the teacher can mix English words among Chinese by showing pictures， objects， actions or sounds. Keep practicing the new words and new sentence patterns in games or competitions in order to break through the difficulties. And finally encourage the students to retell the passage.

This kind of activities provides a language environment for the students to promote their English. As the most students already familiar with the passage， teacher can ask them to rebuilt the dialogues， let the students use their imagination. The teacher can also make up some questions， to stimulate students curiosity and the desire of explore. If the passages of the texts were short， teachers can find some other similar stories to tell to students for enriching the classroom activities. As time passes， students can built an interest of learning English.

2.4.2 The ways to make the junior students adapt

As the students adapt to the teaching method that the teachers speak most of the time in the class while they just take notes， it will take some time for them to adapt this totally different method. The class I taught was in junior one， most of the students are active and willing to learn English better， but they act obviously unconfident during speaking English. So， the very first step is encouragement. I asked them to answer questions frequently， let them to adapt to speaking English. No matter the answer is right or not， I would say “Very good”after they finished. As time passes， they adapted to answer many questions during classes and even more they began to raise their hands to get the chances to answer my questions.

In fact， there are plenty of teachers are using “sandwich story”teaching method during their classes just they havent realize that. The limited of the knowledge， teachers cannot teach in full English during class， so they get used to translate after they say some the useful sentences. Students will quickly remember these meanings after listening such many times during classes， and finally the teachers have no need to translate again. As this example， we can use “sandwich story” teaching method to teach new words， phrases and sentence patterns. For example， there is a sentence in Topic 1 Section C： “They often play basketball or soccer， go swimming and so on.” Here “so on” is the phrase which the students need to master. When we teach this phrase we can use sentence like “同學們有的坐公車上學，有的騎自行車， 有的步行and so on ”，“火可以灼傷我們，但我們可以用它來烹飪 and so on ”. Most of the words in these two sentences are the students have learn before， when they familiar with the meaning of the new phrase， the teacher can ask them to place the Chinese words into English， so they can make the full sentence in English. As more the new words and phrases they get， more stories and dialogues they can make up.

The students who come into a new school and study in a new grade to meet new teachers are more easily to adapt a new teaching method. While in my class， the student have found out that they didnt need to listen English all the time in the classes， and I would use proper Chinese words mix English words to help them to know and remember the new language points， they began to love to learn language points， and be willing to use new words and phrase to talk in the class and even talk to me. Of course， there are still some Chinese words in their sentences， but unless they like to talk in English.

2.5 The difficulties during teaching in“sandwich story” teaching method

In my opinion， it is a challenge to make the students to adapt to this teaching method in the very first beginning， not all the students were willing to cooperate. Few of them still would not like to open their mouths to speak even you encourage them. It really need some active students to warm up the class， and also gives those students example to follow and to open their hearts to English. While the students adapt to this method， controlling the class becomes the thorniest challenges. If the students get more and more excited and even begin to zone out， teachers need to have the power to stop them and lead them back to the topic.

Above those subjective difficulties， there is still an objective difficult. That is the teaching material now become easier and easier. The dialogues and passages is very short and simple， they cannot arise the interest of the students. So it needs the teachers to find out proper teaching material to assist but it takes times. And the students will zone out if the dialogues and stories are not attractive， we still cannot get the result we want.

2.6 Reflection on teaching practice

The two-month internship was short I think， it wasnt long enough to witness the obvious effect by using “sandwich story” teaching method in English teaching. And also the lack of experience as a qualified English teacher makes me to face some unexpected bottlenecks during classes. Such as， to control the class well is a kind of challenge for a student teacher， especially in the situation that you ask the students to practice their oral English. On the other hand， though “sandwich story” teaching method can help students learning English easier， it takes time. Both teachers and students need to speak more than enough to create a good language environment in classes.

Base on the effect in the classes， it obviously has good result when teaching in “sandwich story” teaching method. In the first English class， I have asked them a question that whether they like English or not. About five students tell me they didnt because they didnt how to learn and how to remember such many language points and grammar and some of students refuse to answer questions in classes. During those two months， I can see they really try their best to follow me in the class and practice their English. And the dictation of language points and sentence patterns in classes seemed to be better and better. Their complaint about long dialogues and passages become less and less. Some of the students even told me that they became to realize that they have the confidence to learn English well.

After I finished the internship and went back to college， their teacher told me that their mastery of language points and sentence patterns is good and she just took a little time to review them when she took over the class. And their English scores in mid-term examination are quite well. Though I dont know whether “sandwich story” teaching method can really help them a lot or not， the result is satisfied.

3 The general principles of implementing

“Sandwich story” teaching method is like a bridge， let the children cheerfully reach the other shore safety without wade or swim. It has a common cause both at home and abroad， that is the contradiction between interestingness of foreign language teaching material and low foreign language level of beginners. Education psychology research shows that the intelligibility and readability are too low in listening and reading materials. They make students lose interest of learning. So it requires the teachers to base on the key points of the teaching material and the concept of the new curriculum standard to expand the teaching mode in order to build up a brand-new English learning environment in junior school.

The main idea of “Sandwich story” teaching method is： the nature of the willing to hear stories of children can let us mix English words， phrases， or even sentences in the stories. The interest is the prerequisite， mother language can help the students understand， mother language is the bridge to learn English， and English is the ultimate goal of learning. This can encourage the students to speak English， but if the teachers cannot control the class well， it will become a mess and lose the teaching effect.

Interest is the core of “sandwich story” teaching method. There is an English education proverb： Education must be fun. That means education must be interesting. Interest is the best motive power. Only to base on childrens interest and to satisfy their interests during teaching makes meaningful. While to make the students understand is the prerequisite. No matter how vivid and interesting the teacher tells， if the children dont get it， the so-called teaching effect will out of the question. Practice has proved that， let the students have interest and fun during learning， cultivate students sense of achievement and self-confidence， to form the psychological advantage of English study.

Besides， we can find that it is a challenge to make the students to adapt to this teaching method in the very first beginning， because not all the students were willing to cooperate. Few of them still would not like to open their mouths to speak even you encourage them to do so. It really need some active students to warm up the class， and also give those students examples to follow and try to open their hearts to English. While the students adapt to this method， controlling the class becomes the thorniest challenges. If the students get more and more excited and even begin to zone out， teachers need to have the power to stop them and lead them back to the topic.

Above those subjective difficulties， there is still an objective difficult. That is the teaching material.The original request of selecting the teaching material is based on these following two criteria： first of all， the choice of the story the story must be interestingand can entertain the students， for its important effect on the students maturity， no matter in psychological， emotional， or social communication. The sandwich story must develop from easy to difficult. This is a gradual process. The proportion of English vocabulary in stories increases gradually and finally gets to 80% or 100%. Generally speaking， each story should cover seven or eight new English words. Moreover， the choice of English vocabulary should also base on the learnabilities of students. But now，the teaching materials become easier and easier. The dialogues and passages in texts are very short and common， students cannot arise the interest of learning English from them. So it needs the teachers to find some proper teaching materials to assist， but it takes times. Furthermore， the students will zone out if the dialogues and stories are not attractive.At last， we still cannot get the result we want.

4 Conclusion

“Sandwich story” teaching method has suffered a lot of criticism and misunderstanding. Those theorists and practitioners who advocate a foreign language should be “original” to teach to students and advocate a foreign language teaching should pay great attention to the accuracy. They think this kind of synthetic， high intelligibility text like language salad can only lead students to “pidgin” type of foreign language.

But we all know that， make the students be willing to learn English is the most motive part in teaching.Students begin to be willing to have English classes and to learn English. Most of them do not think English is so difficult anymore. “Sandwich story” teaching method can arouse their enthusiasm of English study effectively. The learning of new words， phrases， and sentences become more and more efficiently. And their language synthesis ability and language creation ability also improve rapidly.Students will finally get to know how to express themselves in English while learning. This method makes students feel that English is not such difficult as they used to think of. In the same time， it helps to arouse their enthusiasm of English study.

As the understanding difficultiesof students is one of the main reasonsin studying， to choose “sandwich story” teaching method put into use in China seems to be considerable. The students who learned English in this method become interested in English classes and willing to speak in English after classes. In addition， students creation abilities can also growing rapidly， as they can plump out the sentences they havent learned before.

As theimplementation of the new curriculum standard， quality education become the new goal of China education. According to the requirements of it， the middle school English teaching begin to emphasize the English language ability of students， but not just to make the studentspass the normal test. To put “sandwich story” teaching method into use in junior school English teaching can build up a better learning environment for students， let them to renew the image of English learning.

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