The Role Of Contests In English Teaching In The Middle School

Contests are regarded as an intense inducement which can help to improve the work efficiency, overcome difficulties and complete the task successfully. It is a common practice in the sporting World. It is characteristic of youngsters to have strong self-respect,strong sense of honor and strong desire to excel others. According to the research of Achievement Motivation, in the course of the middle school students' learning, contests can arouse their extrinsic learning motivation. At the same time, it is also an effective method to arouse their learning activeness, increase their interest and improve their marks. Middle school students in the suburban areas don't like English. In this paper, the author chooses some students from Grade Seven in a suburban school as subjects. They are all English learners. They are taught through two kinds of methods-contest and non-contest. Then, the author compares their learning interest, learning activeness and marks.In the experiments, the 1st Section shows the subjects have the personal characters of youngsters:being eager to excel others, being fond of showing off and having the consciousness of competition. The 2nd Section indicates that contests in the classroom can change the situation in which most students are always passive in study under the traditional teaching pattern. It can make students focus their attention for a long time. At the same time, it also arouses their study interest, their study activeness and their study initiative. The 3rd Section shows that contests after class such as contesting with themselves, writing contests and so on can make students prepare lessons before class and review them after class, surmount difficulties actively, and persist in learning English.