Unit 2 Exploring English-Understanding ideas 教案-2025-2026学年高中英语外研版必修第一册

Language Competence: Students master core vocabulary and sentence patterns related to English exploration, improve reading ability to understand expository texts, and learn to express views on English-related topics.

Cultural Awareness: They understand the diversity of English and its connection with cultural communication, respect language differences, and enhance cultural confidence.

Thinking Quality: They develop logical thinking by sorting out text clues and critical thinking by analyzing English language phenomena.

Learning Ability: They master reading and vocabulary learning strategies, cultivate independent learning and cooperative inquiry ability, and lay a foundation for lifelong learning.

Key Points: Master core vocabulary (e.g., confuse, reflect, creativity) and phrases related to English exploration; understand the main idea and logical structure of the text; grasp the characteristics of English word formation and the differences between British and American English.

Difficult Points: Comprehend the implied meaning of the text and the author’s intention; use context to guess the meaning of new words flexibly; apply the learned knowledge to analyze English language phenomena and express personal views accurately and fluently in English.

Step 1: Lead-in (Warm-up & Activation)

Activity 1: Daily Talk & Question Raising

The teacher starts the class with a casual talk: “Good morning, everyone. As we all know, English is a global language used by people all over the world. But have you ever found some interesting things about English? For example, why do we call a ‘pineapple’ a pineapple, even though it has nothing to do with pine or apple? Or why do British people say ‘lift’ while Americans say ‘elevator’?” After raising these questions, the teacher invites 2-3 students to share their thoughts freely, without demanding correct answers, just to arouse their curiosity.

Activity 2: Picture & Video Presentation

The teacher shows some pictures on the screen, including the spelling differences between British and American English (e.g., colour vs. color, centre vs. center), the formation of compound words (e.g., keyboard, sunlight), and short video clips of people from different countries speaking English (e.g., Indian English, Australian English). After watching, the teacher asks: “What do you find from the pictures and videos? What differences or characteristics of English can you summarize?”

Design Intention: The lead-in links students’ daily English learning experience with the unit theme, using interesting questions, pictures and videos to stimulate students’ interest in exploring English. It activates students’ prior knowledge about English, such as vocabulary differences and pronunciation differences, lays a foundation for the subsequent text learning, and creates a relaxed and active classroom atmosphere, making students quickly enter the learning state of “exploring English”.

Step 2: Pre-reading (Vocabulary & Background Preview)

Activity 1: Core Vocabulary Learning

The teacher presents the core vocabulary of this part on the blackboard or PPT, including confuse (v.), confusing (adj.), confused (adj.), reflect (v.), reflection (n.), creativity (n.), creative (adj.), visible (adj.), informal (adj.), familiar (adj.), unfamiliar (adj.), etc. For each word, the teacher explains its meaning, part of speech, and common collocations with simple English, and gives example sentences combined with the text context. For example, “confuse means to make someone unable to understand something clearly. The sentence in the text ‘Many English learners find English spelling confusing’ uses ‘confusing’ to describe something that makes people confused.” Then, the teacher asks students to read the words aloud twice, and invites individual students to make simple sentences with the words to check their mastery.

Activity 2: Background Introduction

The teacher briefly introduces the background of the text in simple English: “The text we are going to read today is an expository article about English. It mainly talks about the diversity and creativity of English, including how English words are formed, the differences between British and American English, and how English develops with the times. This article will help us better understand the charm of English and learn to explore English in our daily study.”

Activity 3: Prediction

The teacher shows the title of the text and the first paragraph to the students, and asks: “Based on the title and the first paragraph, what do you think the text will talk about? Please predict the main content of the text and write down 2-3 key points in your notebook. Then, discuss with your deskmate and share your predictions.” After the discussion, the teacher invites several groups to share their predictions and writes down the key points on the blackboard.

Design Intention: Pre-reading focuses on breaking through the vocabulary barrier, helping students master the core vocabulary needed for text reading, so as to avoid difficulties in understanding the text due to unfamiliar words. The brief background introduction enables students to have a general understanding of the text type and theme, laying a foundation for in-depth reading. The prediction activity cultivates students’ ability to infer and predict the text content based on existing information, stimulates their reading desire, and makes them more targeted in the subsequent reading process.

Step 3: While-reading (In-depth Reading & Comprehension)

Activity 1: Skimming (Get the Main Idea)

The teacher asks students to read the text quickly (skimming) and answer the following questions: 1. What is the main topic of the text? 2. How many parts can the text be divided into, and what is the main content of each part? After students finish reading, the teacher invites them to share their answers, and guides students to summarize the main idea of the text: The text introduces the diversity and creativity of English, including word formation, the differences between British and American English, and the evolution of English, and encourages students to explore English actively.

At the same time, the teacher helps students sort out the text structure: Paragraph 1 introduces the interesting phenomena of English and puts forward the theme; Paragraphs 2-4 talk about the creativity of English (word formation: compounding, derivation, conversion); Paragraphs 5-6 introduce the differences between British and American English (spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation); Paragraph 7 summarizes the development of English and encourages students to explore English.

Activity 2: Scanning (Find Key Details)

The teacher asks students to read the text again carefully (scanning) and complete the following tasks in groups of 4: 1. List the three types of word formation mentioned in the text and give examples respectively. 2. Find the differences between British and American English mentioned in the text and fill in the table (the table includes aspects of difference, British English examples and American English examples). 3. Underline the sentences that reflect the development of English and explain their meanings briefly. During the group activity, the teacher walks around the classroom, guides students who have difficulties, and checks the progress of each group.

After the group activity, the teacher invites each group to send a representative to share their answers. For the word formation part, the teacher supplements and corrects, and emphasizes the key points: compounding (combining two or more