趙玉陽

1.Know the students from different aspects

A better understanding of the way to check studentsEnglish competence should be integrate.Teachers are able to get useful information of the students from different perspectives.For example，a student preparing for IELTS exam，the private English teachers firstly gave him a English listening test； then answer questions on another exam paper to check his knowledge of grammar，semantics，reading，textual collocation and coherence .This student was also given a speaking test，which was realized in a form of interview.During the process，they know about his learning methods and give him some advice as well.However，exam results cannot explain everything.Most Chinese English learners get low marks in writing， not only because of lack of authentic English writing class in school，but also under the influence from culture.Individual feedback is necessary.Facing international students，teachers have to know more about their personal situation，such as social conventions，culture taboos，language characters and other factors in their culture background，because all these may influence the learners language learning and make them have individual difference in the levels of English study.Only in an integrate way，can teachers get a relatively comprehensible information of the students and then make a better decision for the curriculum design and improve teaching quality.

2.Comprehensible input

Among many ways of checking whether the input is comprehensible，feedback after class and questions during the class are two very usual and practical methods.When working in New Start English school，I often used face to face feedback and asking questions to make sure that students understand my teaching contents.Sometimes positive answers to‘do you understand or‘have you got itwere not reliable，because I could get the real answers from the studentsreactions or expressions which told me that they felt confused and not really understood what I was talking about.Why sometimes students are ‘lying？Emotion pressures influence their study effects，if the input is not comprehensible，which means the whole context makes the learners are probably highly anxious，however，they may be afraid of being laughed at by other peer students，or blamed by teachers，therefore，they choose to hide themselves under a‘fake truth：they entirely get what the teacher said.Teachers should understand and respect this‘hiding behavior mentioned above，and respect learnersanxiety.Excessive criticism will cause negative attitude.Understanding why we have to make the input comprehensible and respect studentsnervous status or telling a‘lieare the premises for taking action of preparing comprehensible input teaching materials.

The next step is to make further inquiry，such as‘Thats good，dear，so would you tell me why this adjective word should be added more but not er？（let them repeat what you said）； If their answers are incorrect，I often explain the key points again，and speak much slower and draw more attention from the students.They are usually able to focus on the second time explanation and do not need the third time.It is really necessary to calm students and give them a peaceful study environment.Face to face feed back is very effective and especially available to the small size class.Many specific questions are raised by students when they are facing teachers individually.Teachers often get very useful information and comments according to their students，which is no doubt a good start for next class.

Questionnaire and self or peer assessments can be also used for knowing whether the input is comprehensible.After class，teachers give a piece of paper（questionnaire form，or assessment form） to students，and enable them to know this is part of their homework.If students notice their comments get more attentions，they will be motivated and focus on English class study.Maybe some students fill the questionnaire blanks very carelessly or treat them as a joke if the paper is anonymous，but there is still a number of words are from the bottom of their hearts.These words： comments，complaints or inquiries can be worthy information helping teachers to know the difficulty learners face in their language study，their study motivation，and the reasons for why their level is not high.The difference between self assessments，peer assessments and teachers‘comments sometimes will give the studentsgreat confidence to know their real level，motive them to study and make more progress.Words on the questionnaires are also very supportive for English teaching.

Reference：

[1]Kumaravadivelu，B.（2003）.Beyond methods： Macro-strategies for language teaching.Yale University Press.

[2]Krashen，S.D.1981.Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.Pergamon.

[3]Margetts，K.& Woolfolk，A.（2010）.Education psychology.Pearson Australia，Australia.