An Action Research On ARCS-based English Listening And Speaking Teaching In Senior High School

English listening and speaking teaching is crucial in senior high school,because listening is a major approach to acquiring information and communicating with others,and speaking is an important way to express information.Effective listening and speaking teaching can achieve the general objectives of the New Curriculum Standard.However,students have simple understandings of the activities of listening and speaking teaching and have less learning enthusiasm for them nowadays.ARCS motivational model is the systematic method to inspire the students' motivation to learn with scientific guidance.Based on the principles and requirements of ARCS motivational model,the research focuses on solving three research questions as follows:1)How ARCS motivational model is employed in English listening and speaking teaching in senior high school?2)What are the effects of ARCS motivational model in English listening and speaking teaching in senior high school?3)How ARCS-based English listening and speaking instruction is optimized in senior high school?50 students from a class of senior 1,Chinese Oversea Middle School took part in the three-round action research with the teaching materials of 6 units from NSEC Book 1 and Book 2.The three-round action was implemented according to the overall plan.Before the first round action,it used questionnaires and interviews to identify the students' attitudes and motivational problems in English listening and speaking teaching in order to set up a series of viable motivational teaching tactics.With the motivational tactics,the first round action was conducted from week 4 to week 8,after which the questionnaires and interviews were used to collect the students' attitudes to the instruction and their motivation conditions coming up in the teaching process.According to the problems in round 1,the plan was adjusted in the second round(week 9 to week 12)to solve the problems,and then reflections were made according to the results of questionnaires and interviews.After analyzing theproblems coming up in round 2,the author made adjustments to optimize the teaching plan of round 3,which was conducted from week 13 to week 16.The teacher in the action research reflected the teaching effects by analyzing the questionnaires and interviews about students' attitudes to the English listening and speaking instruction,adjusting the teaching tactics and tasks to improve the effectiveness of the instruction.After analyzing and summarizing the questionnaires and interviews,the author found out that the students' percipience and inquiry consciousness were activated,and they became clear about their study objectives of listening and speaking.Gradually,their anxiety was decreased,and they got experiences and methods by cooperative learning.Finally,their satisfaction was improved by the effective feedback from other students and teachers as well.As for the proficiency of the listening and speaking,the author compared the results of the tests of listening in each action and the observation of the students' speaking,finding that almost all of the students improved their motivation to learn,as well as their listening proficiency and speaking proficiency,especially the average and weak students.The action research probed into how to apply the ARCS motivational model to English listening and speaking teaching in our country,which expanded the teaching methods to English and speaking teaching,and gave an example of how to design suitable instruction for helping students to study actively.