A Survey Study Of Integrated Unit Teaching In Junior High School English From The Perspective Of Big Idea

The English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022)emphasizes that the teaching design should be presented in the form of units,guided by themes and based on different types of texts,emphasizing the integrated teaching of content rather than the fragmented knowledge learning.It is an ideal goal for the development of English subject teaching to use big idea to integrate different knowledge within disciplines and interdisciplinary knowledge among different disciplines.Integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea requires teachers to shift the focus from students’ grasp of knowledge points to their understanding of knowledge and from fragmented knowledge to clear big idea system.The organic integration of big idea and integrated unit teaching in junior high school can effectively help students form correct concepts and structured cognition,and effectively transfer them to new situations to solve the tasks and problems in real situations.Therefore,in order to gain a comprehensive and accurate situation of the integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea in junior high school English class,this thesis focuses on teachers’ understanding and behavior.Specifically,the study aims to answer three research questions: 1.What is teachers’ understanding of integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea in junior high school English class? 2.How is integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea implemented in junior high school English class? 3.What problems do teachers meet in implementing integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea in junior high school English class? This study uses a combination of methods,including questionnaires,classroom observations,and interviews,to investigate the integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea in junior high school English class.The questionnaire was administered to 104 English teachers in Chengdu,while classroom observations and interviews were conducted with six teachers from different areas and grades.The findings are as follows: Firstly,the study found that while most teachers have a general understanding of integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea,the degree of understanding varies due to various factors.Besides,many teachers have actively tried incorporating integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea in their English class and have found it to be beneficial for both students and teachers.However,teachers meet problems in implementing integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea due to the limited time,energy and ability of teachers,as well as the pressure brought by the high school entrance exams.At the same time,teachers have not received adequate guidance and training in the acquisition of relevant teaching resources,which makes teachers’ implementation process full of great challenges.Finally,based on the research findings,the study recommends several practical suggestions to support English teachers in implementing integrated unit teaching from the perspective of big idea.These include inviting experts to give lectures to strengthen teachers’ theoretical understanding,facilitating collective lesson preparation to create excellent teaching cases,providing relevant guidance and training to improve teachers’ teaching ability,providing adequate literature resources to improve teachers’ teaching and research level.These suggestions may inspire and support front-line English teachers.