Integration in Language Teaching

鄒鳳

Reflecting on what I have learned in the 5th week， I sensed TEFL in China involves not only these different branches of grammar， vocabulary， speaking， reading， writing and thinking， but also includes related information of culture， politics， history， economy， and so on. Involvement like these makes teaching more complex， therefore， there comes a new requirement： how to integrate these elements in my teaching. We cannot separate linguistics from culture， just as we cannot separate politics from economics because they are interconnected and interrelated. As a result， while we are teaching the students to learn the English language， we need to contain other branches and topics in one lesson， this is what is required of us – integration.

Integration in English teaching has many advantages. Firstly， students may get their mind broadened by all kinds of integrated information which arouses their interest in the study of English. For instance， when we were learning “Famous Brand Names” in one of my Monday classes， I integrated the topic with one of the top household products companies — P&G， with which they are so well acquainted in daily life that they became excited about its sales， its marketing， its R&D， and especially its excellent advertisement. As a result， in these two hours， I successfully integrated the boring language points with some interesting cultural topics， which directed the students to search more about the success of famous companies – thats really amazing！ Secondly， integration can be an efficient way of accumulating students vocabulary for which they struggle to seek a better method. Usually， when I explain a new word to them， I do so in English， trying to elicit some classic examples to impress them deeply. I found its useful. Take the word “adultery” as an example， the word is one of the Gaokao vocabulary， I explained the word to them with some typical sentences and whats more， I told them the story of the novel， “The Scarlet Letter”. It turned out that they were so moved by the story， especially the girls， that I have no doubt that the word “adultery” will have a lasting impression on them. What encourages me is that I have made an integration of vocabulary and literature.

Of course there are other advantages of integration in TEFL such as saving the time by shorten the explanation for it is unnecessary to explaining each topic alone or to extend English teaching to other related subjects such as history which remind students of their previous study. However， each coin has two sides， Integration in English teaching is no exception. One of the disadvantages is it tend to take time to integrate one branch with another， and consequently， students may get too excited to continue the lesson.

References：

[1]Activities for ESL Students（n.d.）.Retrieved November 18th，2009，from http：//www.a4esl.org/.

[2]FAQ's About TEFL（n.d.）.Retrieved November 18th，2009，from http：//www.english-international.com/FAQ's.html.

[3]Integration（n.d.）.Retrieved November 18th，2009，from http：//wikigogy.org/Integration.