A Study On The Influence Of English Homework On Junior High School Students’ Autonomous Learning Abilities Under The Concept Of New Curriculum Reform

Cultivating autonomous learning abilities is one of the important goals in curriculum reform.The author finds that many junior high school English teachers only seek quantity,not quality in the homework they assign,which lacks relevance,refinement,richness and creativity.Over time,such practice not only fails to effectively guide students’ learning,but also frustrates their enthusiasm,initiative and creativity in learning English,resulting in them gradually losing their interest in learning English.This study investigates a new type of English homework,designed on the basis of the New Curriculum Standards and divided into the learning and comprehensible homework,the applied and practical homework and the transferable and innovative homework,and its effects on the development of junior high school students’ autonomous learning abilities.The study classifies students’ autonomous learning abilities into four dimensions,namely,the planning and organizing abilities,the monitoring and reflective abilities,using learning strategies abilities and evaluating learning process abilities.The study selected two classes of students in the second year of junior high school in Suzhou Industrial Park as subjects.The two classes were divided into a control class and an experimental class,with the control class completing the regular homework and the experimental class completing the new homework.The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.The quantitative study used questionnaires as the research tool and the qualitative study used interviews.The same questionnaire was distributed twice before and after the experiment.A total of 132 valid questionnaires were returned and 10 interviewees were randomly selected from the students in the experimental class.The whole experiment lasts eight weeks.Four research questions were asked in this study:(1)What is the effect of English homework under the new curriculum on students’ planning and organizing abilities?(2)What is the effect of English homework under the new curriculum on students’ monitoring and reflective abilities?(3)What is the effect of English homework under the new curriculum on students’ using learning strategies abilities?(4)What is the effect of English homework under the new curriculum on students’ evaluating learning process abilities?Through the independent sample T-tests on the post-questionnaire data of the experimental and control classes and paired sample T-tests on the pre-and post-questionnaire data of the experimental classes,the author had the following main findings:(1)the application of English homework under the New Curriculum Reform can significantly improve students’ planning and organizing abilities as a whole;(2)the implementation of English homework under the New Curriculum Reform has a significant impact on the development of students’ monitoring and reflecting abilities;(3)the application of English homework under the New Curriculum Reform can improve students’ ability to use learning strategies with significant effects;(4)The implementation of English homework under the New Curriculum Reform has a significant development in students’ ability to evaluate the learning process.This study has certain implications for English language teaching.The design of the new types of homework should take full account of students’ actual learning levels and sense of initiative,and develop an exclusive learning plan for each student with the full input of students and parents.Teachers should focus on reflecting on and summarizing learning and homework,and teach students to learn to use learning strategies and improve the efficiency of homework through multiple channels.A combination of self-assessment,teacher assessment and parental assessment is used to improve students’ autonomous learning abilities in general.