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题 目 On Educational Significance of Textbook
Illustrations of Primary School English 院（系） 外语系 专 业 英 语 学生姓名
学 号 指导教师 职称 助 教 论文字数 7,048
完成日期:2014年5月25日
本科毕业论文（设计）
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I owe my faithful thankfulness to many people who helped me a lot in different ways in my two-year graduate study and thesis writing. Firstly, I wish to express my deepest and heartfelt appreciation to my supervisor, Professor. Deng, my instructor, who I am most indebted to, is the first one I’d like to acknowledge my gratefulness. She is very patient and encouraging in helping me sketch and adjust the main ideas of the thesis, giving me comprehensive comments on my every revised draft. Without her help, I can hardly imagine when I can finish this thesis. Very special thanks and appreciation also go to the teachers in** University, for modifying the test papers and giving me constructive advice as well as practical support for my test conducting. I would like to thank the following classmates and friends who have helped me a lot with my experiment and thesis writing. I also greatly appreciate the financial aid from Chaohu University, whose dissertation fellowship supported me throughout the final stage of my research.
In addition, I am grateful to the participants in this study for the time they spent in my experiment and the questionnaire. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my families for their consistent support and care.
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CONTENTS
Chapter 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Research Background .............................................................................................. 2 1.2 Research Motivation ................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Research Significance .............................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2 A General Study of Textbook Illustrations .................................................... 4 2.1 The Definition of Textbook Illustrations.................................................................. 4 2.2 Related Theoretical Research of Textbook Illustrations .......................................... 5
Chapter 3 Significance of Textbook Illustrations for Educators ................................... 7 3.1 Enriching the Teaching Content ............................................................................... 8 3. 2 Providing a Variety of Teaching Methods ............................................................... 9 3. 3 Facilitating the Modernization of Teaching Means .............................................. 10 3. 4 Enhancing the Effectiveness and Operability. ...................................................... 11
Chapter 4 Significance of Textbook Illustrations for Educates ................................... 13 4.1 Causing Interest and Learning Motivation. ........................................................... 14 4.2 Improving Cognitive Abilities. .............................................................................. 15 4.3 Improving Retention of Memory. .......................................................................... 16 4.4 Stimulating Creative Thinking. .............................................................................. 17 4.5 Moulding Perfect Personality. ................................................................................ 17
Chapter 5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 18
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 20
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of
Primary School English
Abstract: Primary school English textbook is a picture textbook. The proportion of illustrations in the textbook is more and more high. What’s the role of textbook illustrations in primary school English teaching process on earth? On the basis of referring and consulting a large number of literatures, this paper aims to explore the educational significance of primary school English textbook illustrations from teachers’ and students’ perspective. For teachers, illustrations enrich the teaching content, provide a variety of teaching methods, promote the modernization of teaching means and improve the effectiveness and operability of classroom teaching. For students, illustrations play an important role in causing interest, enhancing cognitive ability, improving retention of memory, stimulating students’ image thinking, cultivating creative thinking and edifying students’ emotion and so on.
Keywords: Primary school English textbook; English teaching; illustration; educational significance
摘要：小学英语教材是一本图画教材，插图在教材中的比重越来越大。插图在小学英语教材中到底起着怎样的作用？在参考查阅大量文献资料的基础上，本论文旨在从教师和学生的视野探讨小学英语教材插图的教育意义。对于教师来说，插图充实了教学内容，提供了多样的教学方法，促进了教学手段的现代化,提高了课堂教学的有效性和可操作性。对于学生来说，插图在引起学习兴趣，提高认知能力，提高记忆保持度,激发形象思维，培养创造性思维，熏陶学生情感等方面都起到重要作用。
关键词：小学英语教材；英语教学；插图；教育意义
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
Chapter 1 Introduction
In the opening chapter there was a brief account of the following aspects of the study: research background, research motivation, and research significance. 1.1 Research Background
It is known to all, English is an important international language among world’s language, especially in the 21st century which shows the trend of world multi-polarization and economic globalization. The scope and degree of using the English is more and more widely and deeply. English is the foundation and tools used in each area, which is from the large field in the progress and development of country's politics, economic, culture, science and technology to the small areas in one’s personal work and making a living. Consequently, English learning as an international trend has become the concern and focus in many countries. Only from childhood and foundation can English learning be our popularity. According to the rule promulgated by National Ministry of Education, English course had been set from grade three in the fall of 2001. In addition, English lesson was set from kindergarten in many qualified primary school. The most direct carrier of English teaching is English textbook whose arrangement and selection has became the focus for the National Ministry of Education and the related workers of English teaching.
When opening PEP Primary English textbooks published by the People's Education Press , the first thing that catches the eyes is the colorful and vivid color pictures of cartoon characters, filled with naivety and visual impact. It can be said that the main content of the constitution in Primary English textbooks is the graphic and fun-filled illustrations. To this end, the entry point to study and research the primary school English textbooks falls on the textbook illustrations. In fact, the crux of the selection and employment of teaching content and teaching methods in primary school daily English teaching lies in the interpretation and application of the textbook illustrations. It is very necessary to analysis primary school English textbook illustrations.
This paper will explore the educational significance of textbook illustrations of primary school English, to arouse the attention of textbook illustrations and cause educators’ effective choice of teaching methods so that improving teaching efficiency and
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cultivating students have good English learning habits. 1.2 Research Motivation
The paper analyzes the educational significance of textbook illustrations of primary school English from the perspective of educators and educates, as well as specific educational significance in every teaching part in the basis of PEP Primary English textbook, to cause primary school teachers and students putting a high value on textbook illustrations, to provide a reference and proposal of exploring teaching methods, to improve students' English learning motivation and teacher’s English teaching efficiency as well as the ways to master the basic knowledge. 1.3 Research Significance
Because of the absence of natural and oral English context, English textbooks and classroom learning has became the main way to learning and mastering English in primary school. It is a main approach that classroom teaching provide teacher with create situations and conditions for students practicing English and gaining the language skills. In China, English textbooks are not only the major content for students in primary school to learn and grasp the basics of English, but also the major vehicle for teachers to pass on English knowledge and cultivate talents. It is the English textbook that plays an important role in English education, and the illustrations which are the key components of English textbook can take more advantage in the process of acquiring English knowledge and developing language ability. It is an important condition that studying and interpreting the textbook illustrations intensively and effectively for teachers and students to complete the English teaching content and develop the English basic skills. Grasping the unique educational significance of illustrations and applying them to organize teaching activities effectively based on the research of illustrations is advantageous to select the appropriate teaching methods in improving teaching efficiency, so as to making students master the skills truly and use them in actual communication with high proficiency as well as enable the teachers to develop their teaching professional skills continuously, therefore to achieve common improvement and development between teachers and students.
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
Chapter 2 A General Study of Textbook Illustrations
2.1 The Definition of Textbook Illustrations
Teaching material (Zhang,1991:66), (1) is a kind of written material which performs in the form of textbooks, handouts, teaching outline, reference books, tutorials and so on according to the teaching outline and the needs of social practice, (2) is a system with a certain depth and scope in knowledge and skills according to a certain subject task, editing and organization. In a general way, teaching material was reflected by the form of textbooks specifically. As a full system, teaching material has its main part such as textbooks, lecture and teaching outline. Textbook is a written book used in teaching activities according to the request of the syllabus and teaching methods and students with different ages and cognitive characteristics, which is an important carrier of presentation of teaching contents, a main data for teaching and learning, a main component of teaching material and an important source of students obtaining knowledge. Textbook as a special system of subject knowledge and related skills not only reflects the nature and development law of subject，but also embodies the learning content required by training objectives of all kinds of schools at all levels, which realized from the specific pattern of course. We may define English teaching materials from two aspects as broad sense and narrow sense. Broad sense ground says that teaching material means the main materials and media for the teachers and students to go on educational activities, which generally is edited as the standard of discipline class and grade order in accordance with curriculum standards or syllabus. It includes written materials, for example, lecture, textbooks, teaching outline, charts, and digital reference and so on. In the field of English course, the word ―materials‖ usually express all teaching materials used in outside class and classroom for teaching and learning. Basically, materials can be called teaching data, as long as they have an active influence in gaining knowledge and developing ability. Narrow sense ground says that teaching material often refers to teaching books called textbook or course book, which not only reflects the requirement of syllabus or curriculum standards enacted by Administrative department of education, but also aims at the special needs of particular students. In this thesis, the English teaching material refers
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to the narrow sense—textbook.
According to the survey, the book named ―Dui Xiang Shi Zi‖ written in Ming Dynasty is the earliest textbook to apply the contrast of picture and text in the world. ―Orbis Sensualium Pictus‖, the book of Comenius，Johann Amos ,an educator from Czech Republic is also a prior textbook with illustrations. Illustrations refer to the picture that inserted in the middle of the text to help explain the content, which has scientificity and artistry in Modern Chinese Dictionncyary. The revised edition of Encyclopedia Americana define that illustration is the content of visualization, or other visual appendages.In Ci Hai(1979:161), illustration is defined as the picture attached to the books and periodicals. Some illustrations are printed in the middle of the main body; some are showed as the pattern of inserts. Illustrations play the role of supplement and appreciation for the main body. In this study, illustrations points to the picture attached to the primary school English textbook.
2.2 Related Theoretical Research of Textbook Illustrations
Harari, American graphics theorists, said: ―a thousand words less than a picture.‖ The renowned writer and artist, Feng Zikai once designed illustrations for Lu Xun’s novel, said: \"Illustrations like a microphone to expand his voice when speaking.‖ Illustrations as the main educational resources of primary school English textbooks, their function in the text is obvious. Illustrations as well as language and words are the tool for human expressing and exchanging ideas. Zhu Ying (2010:44) considered that illustration as the second language of teaching material is an important available resource for the development of curriculum. It is not only a kind of decoration and ornament, but a precious wealth of teaching, which contains infinite teaching materials.
Comparing with word language, illustrations as a graphic language has its own unique features. First of all, illustration has artistry mainly in the artistry of graphic design and aesthetic mainly in the beauty of outer forms. Its formal beauty is reflected specifically in the structural beauty of graphical permutations and combination, harmonious beauty in the proportional configuration, the image beauty of linear selection. The artistic feature incarnated by graphic design is the extension of textbook illustration. The artistic form and aesthetic feeling can stimulate the curiosity and creativity at the time
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
of students’ observing and appreciating at textbook illustrations. What’s more, illustration has intuition and figurativeness that it can reflect the things with a concise and real form. The way of presentation is more direct, concise and vivid than plain language. Primary school English textbook illustrations perform the intuition and figurativeness thoroughly. Besides, comparing with words, illustration has a special complementarity mainly in understanding the content, which can remedy the defect of words with indirect expression. The aid of diagrams is the true embody of complementarity between illustrations and words.
Owing to these characters of illustrations, study on the function of illustrations maybe not an easy task. However, many oversea scholars have study the uniqueness and function about illustrations. Levin et al (1987:18) believes that illustrations can make the text more concrete, coherent and easy to understand. Specifically, the illustrations can make the text objects or events described in the visual view that can be called presentation function of illustration. A series of illustrations usually lays the major position in a strong document with step by step guidance. Their linear sequence showed a temporary or causal links. Thus, the relationship between various elements of conformity in the text is set up which called organization function of illustrations. Further, illustrations provide the necessary context to explain the connection between text fragments, which called interpretation function of illustrations.. Hunter(1987:36) thinks that illustrations are divided into five categories: decoration ( illustrations not mentioned in the text ) ; strengthening ( illustration contains the information has been mentioned in the text ) ; extension ( illustration contains information more than the number presented in the text ) ; generalization ( illustration provides a general outline of the text ) ; comparison ( illustration provides readers with a opportunities to compare with the previous version ). Levin (1981:203) classified illustrations into five conventional functions: decoration, representation, organization, and interpretation and one unconventional transformation. He believes that the role of textbook illustrations mainly refers to the after four. Representation points out the basic repetitive content between text and illustrations; Interpretation refers to illustrations enhanced the comprehension of the text; organization means drawing enhanced the structure of text; transformation means picture enhances the
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function of memory in the text. Tang (1994:175) divided the textbook illustrations into three categories: functions of ornament and decoration, which increase the appearance and design of the textbook; functions of strengthening, generalization, and upgrading understanding, which emphasize, summarize and present some abstract narrative content with illustrations; functions of spreading knowledge accurately and providing a wealth of information, which allow readers to understand a precise knowledge of textbook or expand readers’ horizons. Gao Lina(2012:30) from Guangxi Normal University thinks that the main function of primary school English textbook illustrations is decorative function, interpretive function, stimulative function, interpretative function, organizational function, practical function, situational function and compared function. Chen Jingxue (2013:358) argues the educational function of illustration is absorption function, read and induced function. There are many excellent teachers who explored the effect and function of textbook illustrations from different angles, however their research object mainly towards to the primary school language textbook and study of functions towards to integrity and generalization.
To this end, this thesis will settle in primary school English textbooks to research the function of illustration on the basis of referring a large number of literatures, it will analyze educational function of illustration concretely as the starting point to the components of teaching activities – teachers and students.
Chapter 3 Significance of Textbook Illustrations for Educators
Han Yu made the conception of teacher clear the purpose from the very beginning in ―Shi Shuo‖, said, ―The teacher, whose work is preaching, bequeathing and disabusing.‖ Clearly, teacher is an imparter who delivers knowledge and skills from the traditional view. In this angle, teacher has one and only one task that is input the knowledge and predecessor’s experience from books to student’s brain in spite of whether the students absorbing and understanding or not. A vivid metaphor says, teacher is the machine of conveying knowledge, while student is the machine of receiving knowledge. This is the traditional view of teacher and it is unscientific and harm to educational activities.
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
However, the conception of teacher is altering. Under the background of new curriculum reform, a scientific view of teacher has came out, which points out the teacher is not only the promoter of the learning and the culturist of students’ learning ability, but also the guide, interlocutor and partner in the students’ study and live. Of course, the change of teacher’s role also makes the teaching task changed. Teacher not only needs to finish teaching task according to the teaching material, but also should combine the practical situation and the teaching material in fostering students' language skills and skills. With the changeable reality of teacher’s role and task, teacher is required to burrow teaching material, and for primary school English teacher, the most arduous task is studying textbook illustrations, interpreting the educational significance of illustrations. It is the best way to make the illustrations play an actual role in the process of daily teaching. In order to become a good English teacher in the future, the author makes the summary about the significance of textbook illustrations in the teaching process on the basis of reading a lot of literature and experience of educational practice. 3.1 Enriching the Teaching Content
Teaching content refers to the materials and information which generated dynamically in the interaction between the teachers and students in the process of teaching and served for teaching purpose. Teaching content also called curriculum which is the sum of the knowledge and skill learned, the thoughts and ideas formed and the habits and behaviors cultivated from school. In the process of teaching activities, teacher should make full use of every available resource, and change them into operable and practical teaching content by his own teaching ability and experience.
Textbook illustration as a special source is full of abundant teaching resources, which provides a steady stream of the teaching content and possessed information and message rich in knowledge, especially in the primary school English. Primary English textbook is recognized as a picture textbook because of a large proportion of illustrations, almost every teaching task is accompanied by illustrations. Illustrations present teaching objects and teaching content in the form of its special picture. This way of presentation by illustrations not only makes up for the deficiency of the text, but also presents clearly at a glance with intuitive and vivid feature. Except for presenting basic teaching contents
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clearly and concretely, textbook illustrations also have a large number of hidden moral educational and aesthetic education content, and emotional attitudes and values, which put forward the teaching goal about moral education, aesthetic education and emotional attitude and values. Apart from the performance of the basic content by textbook illustration with per-meats many denotative content related to teaching knowledge, such as the interpersonal content, the natural environment content, campus life content, climate weather content, diet culture content, festival culture content and some basic common sense which is closely linked with the daily learning life.
Abundant teaching contents and teaching resources possessed in simple and tiny illustrations, which are simply not available in the pain text. Textbook illustration should be much accounted in the process of primary school English teaching. Whether the contents are taken seriously or not, the key is the teachers have the ability to interpret and mine the textbook illustrations and the infiltration education in the daily classroom teaching.
3. 2 Providing a Variety of Teaching Methods
Teaching methods is not only the way of joint activities taken by teachers and students in order to complete the teaching task and achieve teaching object, but also the approach of common activities for teacher guiding students to acquire knowledge and skills so as to access to physical and mental development. Methods are the most important for teaching every course. There are many teaching methods for educational activities. Every teacher may have a series of teaching methods formed in his teaching experience. The knowledge and skills fostered should be by one kind or more kinds of teaching method. However there is not a fixed teaching method. It is important to seek out an appropriate method based on various criteria and the reasonable combination of various methods.
The work of selecting a reasonable teaching method is a creative activity and a kind of teaching art. In the process of selecting and designing an appropriate teaching method, teacher may make full use of every kind of available resources. Among these kinds of sources, textbook illustration is the most simple and convenient one. Primary school English textbook is a material filled with variety educational illustrations that can provide
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
the basis for teacher to choose and design the teaching methods. To some extent, some illustrations even can be applied as a simple and effective teaching method directly. Primary school English textbook has illustrations with different contents and objects. There are some illustrations about words and phrases, some illustrations about command and movement, some illustrations about conversation drills and some illustrations about small situational stories. These illustrations with different content not only provide teacher with effective suggestions on selecting and designing teaching methods, but also create the situation for students to learn English. This situational teaching approach is the biggest inspiration for teaching in the textbook illustration.
Of course, teacher may take the illustrations with fashionable and novel design as the starting point to inspire and diverge thinking by their own completely, create and design more teaching methods which correspond to students' physical and mental development. And teacher should combine the methods with textbook illustration to apply in the real classroom teaching, to improve teaching efficiency in educational activities. In this sense, textbook illustration is the most simple and practical resources for teacher designing teaching methods.
3. 3 Facilitating the Modernization of Teaching Means
Teaching means is a kind of tool, media or equipment for transiting information between teachers and students in educational activities. In the history of education, teaching means is changing and updating all the way. With the development of science and technology, teaching means has experienced oral language, written words and books, printed textbooks, electronic audio-visual equipment and multimedia network technology and other five stages. A new age of teaching means is coming-Modern teaching means emerges at a historic moment relative to traditional teaching means. Traditional teaching means mainly refers to a textbook, a piece of chalk, a blackboard, and a few vice history charts and so on. Modernized teaching means points to a variety of audio-visual educational equipment and teaching material, that is, moving the slide projector, tape recorders, projectors, video recorders, televisions, movie players, VCD players, DVD players and computers into the classroom by scientific and automatic technology as visual aids used in teaching fields of various subjects. Modernized teaching means is also known
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as ―electronic teaching‖ because of its usage of modern science and technology such as sound, light, electricity to assist educational activities.
It’s all known to us, modernized teaching means is superior to traditional teaching means. But the question then arises: why should not we put these two kinds of teaching means together to guide educational activities? And what can make the combination with these two kinds of teaching means? The answer is the textbook illustration. Textbook illustration is exactly a special teaching means which is a combination with traditional teaching means and modern teaching means. In the first place, textbook illustrations come from the textbook, it is a traditional teaching means which belongs to books, but it is different from the writing in the textbooks because of its intuition, simplification and image. In the second place, textbook illustrations can be ready available projection data and information sources to be presented in front of students completely through the efforts of the teachers. What’s more, some teachers are busy searching some images materials and video resources which not only meet the teaching content and teaching target, but also accord with the developmental characteristics of students' physical and mental in advance by the way of library and network in order to achieve modern teaching means in the classroom teaching. In this situation, textbook illustration is a ready-made resources which can be a part of teachers’ searching. Compared to these resources, textbook illustration is more scientific and accurate, more in line with the teaching contents and objects and the law of physical and mental development of students. It also has the highest timeliness because the existing teaching resources can not only save searching time, but also can upgrating the efficiency of classroom teaching.
Hence one can see that, textbook illustration is the most convenient and economical teaching resources, and provides the fundamental resources for the development of modern teaching means. Only pay enough attention to textbook illustration, can teacher make the combination with traditional teaching means and modernized teaching means together for promoting teaching efficiency. 3.4 Enhancing the Effectiveness and Operability.
Classroom teaching refers to having classes. It is the process that the teacher executes plan flexibly and carries out teaching activities actually. Classroom teaching is
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the core part of the whole educational work. There are many activities and links n a classroom teaching. But the basic aspect of classroom teaching can be divided into the starting, leading, expanding, adjustment and ending. In the light of educational practice and observation of outstanding teachers teaching in class, the author summarizes primary school English class links generally include Warm up, Presentation and Extension. Every teacher will carry out a class on the basis of those three links. All the activities operated will present the promoting of these three sessions. Illustrations have a certain role in promoting these three sessions.
In Warm-up, teachers should do some warm-up activities related to teaching content before formal teaching of new knowledge. On the one hand, the activities of Warm-up can stable students’ excitatory state during recess slapstick; on the other hand, the Warm-up activities can make some preparation and liberation for the coming teaching content and plan. Therefore, it’s very critical and essential to organize Warm-up activities. Illustration may be the better information to establish it. In this process, the colorful, fun and novel textbook illustrations with high appreciative value may impact the student’s attention on the sense, and make them quiet to relax and observe illustrations carefully and then remind of students’ curiosity and thirst for knowledge of the course content to a certain extent. Once students having the learning needs, the teacher gives great satisfaction and begins to learn a lesson. The way of starting a lesson will make the learning effect to get twice the result with half the effort. After the start of class teaching, the teacher may make full use of all available resources to organize teaching and cause the students' attention, to carry out the links of presentation and extension and complete the task of learning this lesson. In that time, illustration may show its special value. Illustrations in primary school English textbooks are designed by editor in the basis of combination with different aspects of educational factor and consistence with the developmental law and cognitive law of pupils’ physical and mental.
Consequently, in the link of Presentation, teachers can make full use of the illustration provided in the teaching materials to present new knowledge because of its special feature. Such these textbook illustrations not only have the scientific guide of teaching activities from the developmental law and cognitive law of students’ physical
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and mental, but also have an effective learning transfer, that is, arousing students' knowledge and experience learnt and accumulated in their daily life, to help students understand new knowledge, to accept new knowledge, to learn new knowledge. Studying in this way is more effective than subjective than the way that teachers beat the knowledge into students’ mind.
In the next process, teachers need organize and design a series of activities to consolidate the knowledge after student having acceptance of new knowledge to some extent. That is the link of Extension. Textbook illustrations also play a critical role in this link. They may provide teachers with unlimited resources for designing consolidation activities. They also can stimulate teachers’ inspiration and thinking of designing activities, which combine with clever convergence and organization so as to achieve effective consolidation exercise. Only in the teacher’s ingenious organization, do the textbook illustrations play an important role in improving the effectiveness and operability of overall classroom teaching from beginning to end of a class.
According to these four aspects from teachers’ perspective, we know that textbook illustration may play an unexpected and enormous role in teachers’ educational work. Its value and effect will permeate in every educational activity during the daily teaching. Of course, if teacher doesn’t pay enough attention to illustration, they will not discover the actual value and secret of illustration. Therefore, it’s better for teacher to take illustration seriously and research it carefully as soon as possible.
Chapter 4 Significance of Textbook Illustrations for Educates
Students constitute the basic elements of teaching activities. They are the object and the main part of educational activities. If you want to be a good teacher, you should research and understand students carefully and meticulously. And the most basic and general work is to study students developmental law of physical and mental. It is easy to know that the physical and mental development of students is always a random. Professor Wang Changhua(2012:126-127) believes that students’ physical and mental development has variability and stability, sequentiality and periodic, imbalance and individual
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differences. Elementary school students as a special group of students have different features with others both in physical and psychological terms. These unique laws perform in some aspects like attention, perception, memory, thinking and so on specifically. It is better to pay enough attention to students’ physical and mental development rule and unique features at the time of carrying out teaching activities that imparting knowledge and developing skills. Strictly speaking, every teaching material established by the state and teaching activities carried out by teachers must be based on the law of students’ development in physical and mental, correspond to students' physical and mental characteristics. Only in that way, do teachers impart knowledge and develop skills, do students grow healthily. Illustrations as the subject of teaching materials can take into account both the students' physical and mental characteristics and the healthy development of students in the procedure of primary school students' English learning. The concrete of what can be summarized as follows: 4.1 Causing Interest and Learning Motivation.
Einstein once said: \"interest is the best teacher.\" Yang Shenglin also believes that a keen interest is more than one hundred kinds of good teaching methods. American psychologist Zara’s once conducted an experiment which research shows that: compared with the academic performance of students who has the high intelligence, students with the strong study interest did more dominant.
From this research, we know that cultivating students' interest in English will be a prerequisite for teaching and learning English well. Only have a strong interest in the English language, can students produce the need of learning English and then excite learning motivation. For primary school students, the physical function and mental qualities are not enough mature to control themselves cultivate an interest and motivation. Their interest and opinion depends largely on the strength of their parents and teachers.
At present, the textbook illustration has become a new method to cultivate an interest, but also to excite students' intrinsic learning needs. According to illustrations effect theory of motivation, illustration effect is a result of illustration itself unique visual imagery characteristic. In other words, illustration attracted the reader's interest in the content when they were reading. And then inspired their reading motivation and promoted the
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positive thinking.
In this situation, the reader tends to spend more time and energy to learn reading material more in-depth, persistent and efforts to make semantic processing. On the one hand, primary school English textbook illustrations have visual image, vivid novelty and sharp colorful performance. They may cause unintentional attention of students to generate interest in English; on the other hand textbook illustrations have the feature that a rich flavor of life and the content in illustration what is closely related to students' real life that guide the students to mood swings with the content of the illustrations. It is easy to resonate and found a harmonious atmosphere between students and illustrations, which make students in teaching content. This interest gained from illustrations will lead to students' curiosity and thirst for knowledge, resulting need to learn, inspiring learning motivation.
4.2 Improving Cognitive Abilities.
Students’ acceptance for knowledge and learning is set up on the foundation of perception. It is the first step that students to know and contact a new thing. Psychological studies indicated that the human sight sensation is the main channel of obtaining information, accounts for about 83%, information acquired from the hearing nearly accounts for 11% , sense of nose and touch access to only 5%. According to illustration effect theory of cognitive, the role of illustrations in the text is similar to the effect of advance organizers, who are responsible for activating the existing background knowledge in the mind. That may result in two consequences. One is that making each sentence meaningful, the other is that making all the information constitutes a meaningful whole. In this way, readers can process the text material more efficiently to understand and store message more effectively.
Primary school English textbook illustrations just like that. They can give students a powerful visual stimulation as its intuitive feature on color, mode and content, and make the people’s brain bring into the existing learning and living experiences actively to give response to the illustrations timely, so as to comprehend and judge the content of illustrations. The reflection of given by brain is holistic and comprehensive, and it’s the better way to improve the ability of cognitive about what they have learned.
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
4.3 Improving Retention of Memory.
The process of students accepting and learning knowledge is to the process of processing and memorizing message. The system of processing memory is extremely complex. There are many details and factors exist in the process to impact the effect of memory. Generally, the system of processing memory mainly can be divided into sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory. The last one, long-term memory is the final stage that memory preserved in a long time. That is also the stage that mastering and applying the knowledge. Cognitive psychological study on memory rate shows that in the condition of learning the same material, the message can be kept about 70% after three hours by hearing memory, then fell to 10% three days after; the knowledge can be retained 72% after three hours by single visual memory, three days later reduced to around 20%. However, if memorize the information with auditory and visual sense together, it comes out that the knowledge can be retained 85% after three hours, still retained 65% after three days.
It is thus clear that, it is better to mobilize students to use auditory and visual sense simultaneously and think positive with the combination of observation and memory. In this way, improving the efficiency of educational activities will gain the perfect effect. On the one hand, according to the illustrations effect theory of information processing, illustration in the elementary school English teaching materials can help students to collect relevant information and sent to the memory system quickly because of the vivid feature. In this way, it will reduce the burden of memory and raise the efficiency of keeping memory attributed to the fact that students needn’t extract information from the text or in long-term memory. On the other hand, according to Paiivo’s dual coding hypothesis (1986:113), there are two kinds of processing and memorizing system in human brain. One is verbal system, which process and store language information; the other is non-verbal system, which process and store space message and psychological representation. The dual coding hypothesis points to the concept that registered both in these two memory systems. For that, textbook illustrations not only reflect the content and provide English language information through the intuitive image, that is , it will become a speech processing system, but also from mental representations by stimulating the
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**学院外语系2014届本科毕业论文
senses of students that is non-verbal processing and memorizing systems. Clearly, textbook illustrations in this sense become dual coding. They have common act on processing and memorizing information, to improve keeping memory and reach the best learning result.
4.4 Stimulating Creative Thinking
Primary school students as the group in school are special for other groups of students. The mode and way of their thinking is different from others. There must be some laws and rules in children’s thinking. The psychologist Zhu Zhixian once pointed out: the basic characteristics of primary school children's thinking is the gradual transition from the main form of specific image thinking to the form of abstract thinking. But this kind of abstract thinking is still associated with the perceptual experience directly to a great extent; still has a large component of iconicity. It is the core that thinking acts on intelligence. And the way of thinking determine the degree of intelligence.
It is a critical period in primary school that fostering the students’ thinking. Every teaching task should be carried out considering the students’ thinking pattern. Textbook illustration is a better carrier that help teacher to carry out teaching task, which according to the characteristics of children’s thinking pattern. Various direct images in the textbook illustrations provide a visual reference for training the students' ability of observation, stimulating a rich association and imagination promoting the development of children's language. Students’ ability of imagination and intuitive understanding may has been strengthened through the inspiration and development of imagination. That will help to advance students' creative thinking efficiently. The observation and experience of the image, color and space may enrich the students' level of image memory and storage of appearance which is the necessary preparations for fostering image thinking, imagination, creativity.
4.5 Moulding Perfect Personality
The comprehensive development of students and cultivating the students’ quality in every aspect is our country's educational purpose. Different aspects of education are required to carry out in primary school. Aesthetic education is a critical education to develop student’s physical and mental. Art education is the core of aesthetic education
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
which is the basic means of human aesthetic education. Of course, the way and form of aesthetic education is diverse and multitudinous. But cultivating and nurturing virtue and sentiment relies on students’ initiative acceptance the edification of beauty, to yearn for things of beauty. The enjoyment of aesthetic education comes from aesthetic sensibility of iconicity and the process of aesthetic education is always accompanied by a vivid image of knowledge along with images of life experience.
Textbook illustrations may become a better way and method to progress the aesthetic education. The illustrations with pleasure and the appropriate of shading modest proportion in color, proper proportion and moderate location in configuration, rich and diverse unique in topic are best material for the pupils to cultivate aesthetic capacity. Illustrations have the formal beauty, idyllic beauty of contemporary and the resulting poetic aesthetic effect. That may undertake the beautiful influence of the student. Aesthetic education will become practicable and effective as long as the textbook illustration joins in. Through the observation and systematic appreciation of textbook illustrations, students may not only own the experience and imagination to research the rule and form of beauty and perceive spiritual strength from paintings, but also stimulate all kinds of advanced sentiment and emotion and develop students' disposition and character, thereby create and shape perfect personality.
In conclusion, textbook illustration takes an active part in students’ learning motivation, cognitive abilities, machining memory, creating thinking. It is a enormous treasure and fortune in educational activities. It is precisely because this, textbook illustration should be use and value in proper situation. It is believed that, the value of textbook illustration will be deepen gradually, as long as it is in its correct position.
Chapter 5 Conclusion
Textbook illustration is a coalition with intuition, figurativeness, vivid, and artistry, which plays an indispensable role in teaching and learning of educational activities. Illustration not only likes the wings of the textbook, which can promote the value of the textbook to a higher level, but also likes breeze and rainwater, which bring the lubrication
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**学院外语系2014届本科毕业论文
for the teaching activities. The present study aims to discuss educational significance of textbook illustrations in primary school English teaching from teachers’ and students’ perspective. From this paper, the educational significance of textbook illustration is visible. Absolutely, teachers should pay attention to the role of illustrations in the primary school English teaching and utilize the advantage of the textbook illustrations fully in order to bring educational significance of textbook illustrations into improving teaching efficiency. Of course, the students also should enhance the ability of observing and appreciating illustration. They may make their full efforts to understand the content of illustration profoundly with their knowledge expanding. However, the present study has several limitations because of the limitation of the practical teaching experience. Because of the limited specialized experience and systematic knowledge of education, some cognition in this paper is not profound and mature. Owing to the present study has more limitations and shallow results, some profound and meticulous for role of textbook illustration are necessary. Of course, we should make more efforts to be an English teacher to research in later study and teaching experience.
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On Educational Significance of Textbook Illustrations of Primary School English
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