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摘 要：相比于教材，英语报刊具有时效性、国际性、实用性和全面性等不可比拟的优势。同时，报刊内容丰富，能够满足学生获取各领域信息与知识的要求。然而，传统的教师主导的教学模式单调乏味，无法跟上时代的潮流。另外，很大一部分学生认为报刊阅读具有一定难度。

翻转课堂，颠倒了教学秩序，先要求学生自学，后进行课堂讨论，符合学生的认知规律。这毫无疑问能极大地促进学生的学习积极性和创造性，不仅充分尊重了学生的个体差异，而且提升了学生之间的团队合作和集体智慧。

本论文试图讨论将翻转课堂和英语报刊阅读结合后的可行性及效用，研究手段为理论分析和在昆明市第三中学开展的可操作实验。研究表明翻转课堂教学模式在高中英语报刊阅读中的应用是可行的，具有实践意义。

关键词：报刊阅读；翻转课堂；有效性

Abstract：With the unparalleled advantages of timeliness，internationalism，practicability and comprehensiveness，English newspaper，rather than textbooks，is abundant in content，which can meet students’ needs to acquire information and knowledge in different fields.However，the traditional teacher-centered teaching method is monotonous and lags behind the tide.Besides，a number of students find it rather difficult to read English newspaper.

Flipping Classroom，which is a teaching mode placing self-learning the former and class teaching the latter，is in accordance with students’ cognitive rules.This，without doubt，can enormously promote students’ learning initiative and creativity，which not only show full respect to students’ personal differences，but also encourage team work and united wisdom among students.

This thesis tries to discuss the feasibility and efficiency of the combination of Flipping Classroom and teaching English Newspaper Reading through theoretical analysis and practical experiments particularly conducted in Kunming No.3 Middle School.After the experiment，it has proved that the application of Flipping Classroom in teaching English Newspaper Reading is efficient and practical.

Key words：English Newspaper Reading；Flipping Classroom；efficiency

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The four basic skills in English learning include listening，speaking，reading and writing，among which listening and reading belongs to input while speaking and writing are called output.Teachers require students to hasten their reading speed and boost their language skills through a large amount of reading，among which，newspaper plays a crucially important role.Teaching newspaper reading，mainly used to improve the usage of newspaper at school，originated in the western countries in 1955.Its aim，briefly speaking，is to nurture students’ reading，writing ability as well as the command of current affairs.In China，the course of English newspaper reading is originally one of the compulsory courses set for senior English majors at college.The aim of this course is to cultivate students’ ability of reading newspaper，allow students to get familiar with the writing features of newspaper，analyze the views，layout，language techniques and rhetorical devices of newspaper passages so as to further enhance students’ reading comprehension and the capability to express their thoughts.In recent years，with the soaring development of elementary education in China，senior high students’ command of English has been increasingly boosted.A lot more schools，especially those in Beijing，Shanghai，Guangzhou，have set the elective course of English newspaper reading，laying a solid foundation for students’ all-round development and their future careers.

To begin with，English newspaper has its advantage as timeliness.Since English newspaper closely follows the times and efficiently focuses on current affairs and hot topics，newspaper reading training allows students to get a better understanding of big events at home and abroad and gradually become those who have international horizons.Take the Economist as an example，in which the passage Siemens and General Electric： Machines Learning introduces the reform procedure of two vast companies from machine manufactures to complete digital enterprises，thus helping students understand the trends of companies’ development so that they can better plan their future careers.Quite the same way，the passage AT&T and Time Warner： Angling for the Future of TV describes AT&T’s desire to transform from a telecommunication magnate to a media one via purchasing Time Warner.Besides，the passage Augmented Reality： Better than Real helps students get to know the future trends of the frontier technology AR and VR as well as appreciate the charm of science and technology in order to further foster their sense of scientific exploration.English newspaper reading well connects students’ personal life with English learning，which can thoroughly inspire students’ reading interest.

The extraordinary experiment and exploration conducted by the two teachers have caught more and more attention among schools，parents and people from all walks of life in the society.Moreover，the two innovative teachers have been frequently invited to share their experience，impacting an increasingly huge influence.As a result，teachers，not only those specialized in chemistry，but in all subjects，are actively busy participating in exploring and applying this brand new teaching mode called “Flipping Classroom”.

1.2 Research Questions

Obviously，there already exist numerous studies and researches involved with either English newspaper reading or Flipping Classroom.Pitifully，however，few researches have been found on how to combine these two different teaching modes in order to promote the efficiency in teaching English.Therefore，this essay tries to discuss the feasibility and efficiency of this innovative combination of these two teaching patterns through theoretical analysis and practical experiments particularly conducted in Kunming No.3 Middle School.

Chapter 2 The Experiment and Analysis

2.1 The Experiment and Discussion

Until now，students have learned on their own the teaching videos containing background knowledge and new words explanation at weekends.Moreover，teachers have offered them the basic skills needed in reading newspaper.Then the students are divided into different groups.Since we have 60 students in Class Seven，so we then have 12 groups and each group includes 5 students.For once a week，student from each group discuss and learn together in a QQ chat group.To begin with，they will summarize the news report they have read and one of them is supposed to give a presentation next class on Monday.Second of all，they have got to discuss and pull together to deal with the tasks assigned specifically for each news report by teachers.

In this part，we conduct two feedback mechanisms including a questionnaire and an instant test after class.In terms of the questionnaire，we plan to acquire the results of three items，namely，students’ level of command as well as degree of satisfaction and their suggestions for improvement.Talking about students’ level of command，we want to know the results as follows： whether students get the main idea of passage or not；whether they understand the logic of the passage structure；whether they get familiar with the background and context；whether they have mastered the sentence structure；whether they figure out the grammar and frequently used words coming up in the passage；and whether they can appreciate the author’s writing styles.In terms of students’ degree of satisfaction，we want to know whether they are satisfied before class，in class and after class or not.We ask students if they are satisfied with the reading materials and whether their interest has been aroused or not.Then we ask students how they view their classmates’ presentations as well as the competition among themselves.

Finally，we conduct an instant test after students attend the class.What’s more，we give each student a score to guarantee students’ attentive participation before and in class.The test is consisted of four parts.Firstly，we set questions about the theme and subject of the passage.Second，we ask student some detailed information.Then students are required to write down the meanings of some key words and phrases.At last，we specially design some translation tasks asking students to translation some certain sentences.We conduct the questionnaire and instant test once a week on a regular basis.Thus after each time we collect and analyze them，we can fully understand students’ attitudes towards the innovative course combined with Flipping Classroom as well as their thorough participation and final performance.

2.2 The Experimental Data Analysis

English newspaper records contents including manners and customs in many countries as well as historical and cultural background，which offers a platform for readers to realize the differences between Chinese and the western cultures and strengthen their awareness of cross-culture communication.It’s no exaggeration to say English Newspaper Reading has established an opportunity for English learners to approach the background knowledge，local conditions and customs as well as cultural practices in countries all over the world.Besides，in Flipping Classroom，students first get to the background knowledge through teaching videos.Then their discussion part drives them to dig deeper the background knowledge.What’s more，the presentation required in class makes students collect and organize their already acquired background knowledge，which again strengthen their cognition on cultural and historical knowledge of places throughout the whole world.Right after class，when completing the questionnaire，students are asked to give advice to improve teachers’ teaching patterns of passing on background knowledge，which in turn encourage a sound system to provide students with a platform to acquire background knowledge more effectively.

Chart 2.1 comparison in regular tests of Class

Four and Class Seven

As mentioned above，we conduct a test on a regular basis in Class Four and Class Seven.This exam includes tests on vocabulary，reading comprehension and writing，each accounting for a full mark of fifty.We collect the tests results and figure out the final average score for both classes on vocabulary and reading comprehension.It’s obvious in the chart that in both the two fields，students’ performance in Class Seven is on average slightly better than that in Class Four.In terms of tests on vocabulary，the average score in Class Seven is 44.3 while it is 41.2 in Class Four.As for the tests on reading comprehension，the average score in Class Seven is 43.1 whereas it is 39.8 in Class Four.

Chapter 3 Conclusion

3.1 Research Findings

The research finds the application of Flipping Classroom in teaching English Newspaper Reading exerts effects as follows.First of all，the combination can arouse students’ interest.In the teaching mode of Flipping Classroom，teachers make teaching videos rich in knowledge and information according to newspaper materials before class.By watching videos with audio and visual impacts，students’ interest in reading has been motivated and meanwhile，learning in a free and relaxing environment also inspires students’ learning initiatives.They no longer negatively accept the assigned reading tasks，but actively look for reading material according to their own interest.Secondly，with the joint effort of these two teaching modes，students’ language ability has been enhanced.In Flipping Classroom，as students’ reading interest has been aroused，their reading amount would increase as well.A large amount of reading accumulation functions as stimulation in improving students’ reading speed and ability.Moreover，reading not only brings students reading itself，but great help to develop students’ overall language ability.Thirdly，Flipping Classroom would realize students’ individualized learning.Fourthly，the new teaching mode nurtures students’ comprehensive practice capacity.Flipping Classroom emphasizes students’ role as the main body.Be it before class or during class，Flipping Classroom always emphasizes students’ learning initiatives in exploring new knowledge，discovering problems and then solving them through cooperation and communication.This teaching method not only strengthens students’ self-learning ability but also improves their problem solving capability.In addition，through various class activities，students’ ability to cooperate，communicate，innovate and practice has been enhanced.

As we can see，the educational experiment conducted in this essay exerts great changes to teachers’ teaching modes as well as students’ learning patterns.It is apparent that students’ reading interest and ability has been largely inspired.In conclusion，the application of Flipping Classroom in teaching English Newspaper Reading is effective and efficient.

3.2 The Shortage and Expectations

In this essay，the results of the experiment show that the application of Flipping Classroom in teaching English Newspaper Reading is effective and efficient.As can be seen，students’ reading interest as well as competence has been markedly promoted.Nevertheless，there exist some limitations in the research，which shows as follows.To begin with，the experimental period only lasts one semester，which is relatively short to some extent.The cultivation of students’ reading competence is a long-term process，which can not be acquired instantly.As a consequence，the teaching mode applied in this experiment still needs observation and further evaluation to testify whether it can last long or not.Secondly，the experimental subject is not representative or typical enough，for it only covers two classes with 120 students.If the experiment could cover more classes even grades，the statistic results would be more credible and convincing.Thirdly，due to my own lack of teaching experience and limitations in my own teaching competence，there are a lot of shortage in the teaching designs and practicing procedures.During class，I lack a sense of command to a certain degree.When organizing the class activities，I fail to take care of each student’s behavior but merely perceive the general performance of the class as a whole.

By observing the result of this research，we can easily find that the influence Flipping Classroom exerts on English learning is beyond words enormous.However，it still has a long way to go before practiced among schools in China at a large scale，for in the huge environment of China’s exam-oriented mode，the majority of teachers have already concluded a series of teaching methods in their own way.Many of the teachers would feel reluctant to have a try since the introduction of Flipping Classroom would definitely overturn the traditional teaching mode.As English teachers surfing in the modern society，only when we explore actively and conduct innovation without hesitation，can we adapt ourselves to the requirements of the new educational reforms，and can we meet the needs of students’ as well as the times.In face of a decent teaching mode，teachers should strive to learn and operate research systematically.Furthermore，they should apply by practicing，and then innovate by applying.Teachers can never practice Flipping Classroom merely by copying or superficially imitating.Flipping Classroom is a brand new teaching mode，which needs constantly exploring to scientifically combine the traditional teaching mode with the modern one.We should attach great importance to the cultivation of students’ self-learning，cooperative learning and creative thinking ability，and finally discover a practical teaching method specific to our reality.Only by this way，can teaching English Newspaper Reading achieve its efficiency，and as a result，students’ reading competence would be substantially enhanced.

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作者简介

孙媛媛（1989.06.07—），女，中学教师2级，在职研究生，昆明市第三中学，英语教育。