Abstract

Being student-centered or teacher-centered in English teaching and learning activities has been a hot spot of argument in language education all the time. In order to make students develop fully and shape their qualities, we must put students in the central place. Students are the center of English learning and the function of the teacher is becoming the organizer, guider and cooperator.
Establishing the learner-centered teaching mode benefits young English learners not only in forming a solid foundation of English but also in forming a sound personality. Moreover, it will help students to explore, to create and to develop critical thinking.
This article researches into the definition, characteristics and advantages of being student-centered and explains the reason of doing so. Three kinds of teaching methods under constructivism are observed in EF classroom teaching, they are inquiry learning, situational teaching and cooperative learning. The author discovers that classes in EF abound in happiness, from her ten-month real experience by observing. Compared with the public primary schools, young learners have a better English language learning environment in EF, because teachers are native speakers and people there are all using English. In the end, the author puts forward some suggestions to improve English teaching in public primary schools, such as getting to know each student, not only be concerned with marks and ranks, but also their personalities, cultivating their interest in English by a verity of activities.

Keywords: student-centered; English classroom for children; constructivism; teaching methods
 
摘要

在英语教学活动中，“以学生为中心还是以教师为中心”一直是教学界备受争议的话题。为了学生的全面发展及个性的塑造,我们必须把学生摆在中心位置。学生是学习的主人，而教师扮演的则是组织者，引导者和合作者的角色。
建立以“学生为中心”的英语教学模式，既有利于少儿英语学习者打好英语学习的基础，又有利于少儿英语学习者形成健全的人格。此外，它更有利于推动学生探索，创新和辨证思考。
本文探讨了以“学生为中心”的教学模式的内涵，特点，优势及原因。英孚的课堂教学，很好地运用了建构主义视角的三种教学方法，它们分别是探究性学习，情景教学和合作学习。就作者英孚做助教的十个月亲身经历和观察，它们的课堂充满了欢声笑语。与公立学校相比，英孚为少儿英语学习者提供了更好的语言学习环境。因为所有的老师说的都是纯正的英语，英孚的所有人都使用英语。最后，作者提出了一些改进公立小学英语教育的建议，比如：真正了解每一位学生，不只是关注与分数和排名，更应该关注他们的个性；通过丰富多彩的活动，培养学生对英语学习的兴趣。

关键词：以学生为中心；少儿英语课堂；建构主义；教学方法