Lead-in is a vital part in English classroom teaching。 It is a primary part for teachers to guide the students to enter into the teaching topic and grasp the key point; it is a teaching behavior for teachers to create a situation which is related to teaching contents and bring students to the ready condition of new knowledge。

    To sum up, we can get a conclusion that lead-in is a part for students to start the learning before class。 It creates an easy and harmonious atmosphere in class to attract the students’ attention for teaching contents and cultivate students’ learning interest and curiosity。 What’s more, it helps students to establish a relationship between the old knowledge and new knowledge, so that students can clearly know what they are going to learn and learn purposely, which allows a good start of a class。（雷达 and 宋薇，2011） 

    1。5。2。1 The current situation in abroad

    The research on lead-ins in English classes first began in the early 1970s。 Turney&C。Etal(1975) came up with four functions of lead-in in his book “Sydney Micro Skills”: (1) Attracting students’ attention。 It is very important to attract students’ attention before a new class。 So teachers need to think about how to make the students maintain their attention on the teaching contents when they design a lead-in, and at the same time they also need to ensure that the students will not do things that have nothing to do with the class; (2) Cultivating the students’ learning motivation。 It requires teachers to flexibly use different ways to cultivate students’ learning interest and curiosity according to students’ cognitive features and teaching contents; (3) Construct the learning aim and highlight the learning tasks。 Only when they prepare themselves, can they achieve the desired result by meaningful learning; (4) Establish a relationship between the old and new knowledge。 When teachers design a lead-in, it is necessary for them to fully understand what students have learned and use it to create a meaningful language situation, so that students are able to bring their subjective initiative into class and establish a relationship between the old knowledge and the new knowledge。 Because just like other subjects, there is strict logic in the knowledge of English language。(London。 T。 & C。 Etal。 1975: 112-113)

    In the 1980s, Roger Gover & Steve Walters(1983:221-224) studied on the teaching techniques of “starting the lesson”。 For example, (1)socializing——the teacher and students have a free talking to get to know each other。 They will take topics like newspaper, friends, holidays and so on, which students are familiar in their daily life and they are interested in, as a lead-in to take them into a new class。 In an active atmosphere, students can not only build a friendly relationship with teacher, but also learn new knowledge in class by having a pergent thinking。 (2) Leading the students inductively——this attract students’ attention in a simple and clear way, and ask students to pay attention to the contents they are going to learn in a inductive way, in order to carry out the activities effectively。 文献综述

    In 1990s, Widdowson(1990:67) pointed out that teachers’ task is to take lead-in as course needing practical action。 This course is the most appropriate way of teaching for learners。 Vivian James Cook(1996) thought that the ultimate aim of lead-in is to cultivate students’ learning interest and desire of participating class activities。 In 2003, Robert E。 Slavin(2003:223) made two claims about designing lead-ins: (1) lead-ins should be interesting enough to attract students’ attention; (2) teachers should try to arouse students’ curiosity and make students become interested in the learning contents。

    From all the studies above, we can see that researchers attach much importance to the lead-in in a class。 When teaching a new content, teachers are required to combine various ways to intelligently design lead-ins, which are able to attract students’ attention and cultivate their learning interest and curiosity。 What’s more, lead-ins should create an active atmosphere for students to prepare themselves to enter the class learning and quickly participate in the classroom activities。