Thus this study can be significant because it first analyzes the problems of lead-in in present middle school English classes, and then come up with the principles, methods and suggestions to make lead-in effective, which can better English teaching as a whole.

1.3 Existing problems

  With the promotion of the new curriculum reform, the teaching objectives, curriculum design, the utilization of the teaching materials and the course assessment have been greatly revised. And in recent years, with the deepening of the reform, many teachers and scholars have established some new teaching methods to adjust to the new teaching materials. However, in the process of transforming from the structural teaching method to the combination of communicative teaching method and audio-lingual method, some problems still existed. Firstly, the teaching ideas of some teachers are still outdated. There are several stages in a whole class teaching and some teachers mainly focus on teacher’s presentation of new knowledge and the key points of learning objectives, regarding lead-in as a waste of time. Secondly, some teachers have been aware of the significance of lead-in but they still persist in teaching according to past experience and old habits in the English classroom teaching, and the materials selected are always dull and outdated. Or sometimes teachers neglect the requirements in the New Standards of English Curriculum and fail to meet the spiritual need of students. Since previously most teachers adopted the conventional method and teaching grammar and sentence pattern was the priority, lead-in was just a stage of revision and consolidation of these language points. Thus the instructional mode is mainly Q&A without abundant student activities, let alone innovation. In addition, under the pressure of entrance examination, students lack the motivation and interest to preview a new lesson, so they are usually not so well prepared when class begins.

1.4 Development Tendency

The type of lead-in in ELT can be flexible and variable, which reflects the inpidual difference between teachers (gender, age, teaching style, novice teacher or expert teacher) and students (gender, characteristics, majoring in arts or science, anxiety, attitude, belief). Starting from these differences, the research can focus on the preference of lead-in in specific situations, and thereby improve the atmosphere and teaching effectiveness. Since lead-in can arouse students’ learning interest as well as their internal motivation, the research can also focus on the relevant study between these two. Besides, the presentation of lead-in is a dynamic, modeled, and personalized process, so the application of lead-in strategy, CAI and the art of lead-in (e.g. leading-in language, body language) can be the research point. In order to create corresponding lead-in to the students’ actual situation, teachers should get hang of the basic information of the students, and intensify the design and development of the materials. In daily teaching, teachers should use beliefs to help them choose the suitable teaching activities. They should hold the belief that “the goal of teaching practice is to create a vibrant class”, and make some active and meaningful attempts. So the influence of teaching beliefs to lead-in can also be a research point. It is certain that the research of lead-in is never an easy job and it needs a long-term active study and scientific practices, only then can the most suitable way in specific situation be found to create an effective teaching environment.

1.5 Organization of the Paper

Under the guidance of related theories and the basis of previous studies, this paper studies the issue mainly in four steps. Firstly, it provides the general analysis of the research background, the significance of the research and the existing problems The second part is the literature review, which is composed of the definition, the principlesof lead-in, the research status both at home and abroad and the development tendency.Thirdly, it expounds the types of lead-in through analyzing a quantity of star teachers’ teaching videos and comes up with some strategies for effective lead-in. And at last, the paper will draw a conclusion according to the research above.