As is known to all, the methods of lead-in will be very different if a lesson is given by different teachers. Even the same class with the same teacher, if faced with different teaching objects, the methods of lead-in also will be different. Thus lead-in should varies with different people, different time and different situation, and its methods can be various and not stick to one pattern. In the middle school English teaching, lead-in is a significant step which can make a direct difference in shaping the class atmosphere, guiding the class pace and improving students’ cognitive ability. Consequently, the middle school English teacher have to grasp the main purpose accurately, and make full use of various resources and ways to carry out the class lead-in. 

2. Literature review 

A good lead-in of English classroom teaching will involve into mutual activities of both teachers and students and achieve the desired results. Therefore, lots of educators has paid attention to the research of this topic.

2.1 A brief introduction to lead-in 

Lead-in plays an important role in classroom teaching, some scholars has put forward different opinions about its definitions and has discussed its correlative functions in the past.  

2.1.1 The definition of lead-in文献综述

Lead-in, is also known as prologue. To understood from the sense of pedagogy, lead refers to guide, into is to enter the study, the lead-in of classroom is the start of formal teaching in class. It refers to a kind of teaching organizational behavior that teachers have a sense of purpose to guide the students into the new learning state at the beginning of classroom teaching. What’s more, it is a generic term for all the teaching and learning activities of teachers and students in this process. “lead-in is the psychological and physiological arousal of students which is essential to carry out for the upcoming teaching activities”.(Li Sen, 2005) “the purpose of lead-in is to lead into the topic, build a bridge between the old and new knowledge, inspire students, stimulate interest, illustrate the purpose, imply the motivation, create an atmosphere and proper situation, and so on. ”(Wang Baoda, 2001)

Lead-in as the first step in the classroom teaching is not isolated, but is closely related with other teaching steps and exist side by side and play a part together. The effect of lead-in will directly influence the subsequent teaching steps to explain the content. In addition to this, lead-in also has the role of orientation. Appropriate, reasonable and clever lead-in, can stimulate the students to learn new knowledge, and that can make the students well define the learning objectives and teaching requirements, and then to create favorable conditions for the smooth progress of classroom teaching.

2.1.2 The functions of lead-in

As the saying goes: Everything is difficult at the beginning. The famous Russian educationist Sukhomlinski emphasizes that good lead-in is “the first source, the first Mars” of motivation to stimulate students to learn. Lead-in to a class is the prelude to the drama in relationship. Although lead-in design is only a tiny part of the classroom, it determines the success or failure of the class. So a successful lead-in should have the following functions :

1) The function of directivity 

It refers to draw the students’ attention to the classroom teaching activities. Innovative, unique and vivid lead-in can make students concentrate on the class, and condense the whole class of the attention of students together to the teacher and to the beginning of teaching content.来`自^优尔论*文-网www.youerw.com

2) The function of memory enhancement

Because of the teachers’ vivid inspiration and induction, memory in the learning process has changed from the dominant position into a subordinate position. Students in remembering language points and words are often linked to the leading language of teachers, which will undoubtedly strengthen students’ memory efficiency.