Theoretical And Practical Considerations Of After-class Activities In ELT In Chinese Secondary Schools

Through theoretical and practical considerations, this thesis aims to illustrate the important role of after-class activities in English language teaching (ELT) in Chinese secondary schools, deepen teachers and students' understanding of the value of after-class activities, explore new learning strategies, improve the quality of ELT and thus constitute the optimal new pattern of ELT in Chinese secondary schools in the 21st century.As quality-oriented education is gradually valued by the whole society in recent years, teachers have been employing various ways to develop students' ability and improve the quality of ELT. With the development of psycholinguistics and teaching methodology, more and more experts and teachers come to realize the value of after-class activities in ELT. However, quite a few articles about after-class activities only deal with the categorization and listing of the various types of activities. Hence there is still much room for more comprehensive and deeper study of the necessity, status and functions of after-class activities in ELT. Moreover, empirical research in this field is far from enough. As a result, many teachers lack comprehensive and profound understanding of the importance of after-class activities and have little experience in practice. Secondary education is an important initiative stage of ELT. It is universally acknowledged that the ultimate goal of ELT is to cultivate students' communicative competence. To achieve this goal, classroom teaching is insufficient. For a long time ELT in China cannot reach the desired aim, which lies partly in the fact that the role of after-class activities has not been brought into full play.This thesis begins with an introduction to the basic teachings goals of ELT in Chinese secondary schools, which include the cultivation of students' preliminary communicative competence, development of students' intelligence and independence, culture education, etc. All these are in accordance with the demands of quality-oriented education. Then the author gives a brief introduction to the basic features of after-class activities. After-class activities are an organic part of ELT insecondary schools. They are the continuing and deepening of classroom teaching and can make up for the limitations of classroom teaching to a large extent. Besides, after-class activities provide more opportunities for contextual practice. Moreover, after-class activities have the features of variety, fun and flexibility, which help the teachers to teach students in accordance with their own aptitude, cultivate their interest and enable them to give full play to their skills.Then the author carried out an investigation among four classes of secondary school students (one junior class and three senior classes with a total number of 178 students) at the Attached School of Hubei Normal University. The investigation consisted of two parts: interviews of the teachers of the four classes and questionnaires to the students. The interviews aimed at finding out the teachers' attitudes towards after-class activities and the frequency of after-class activities. The responses of the teachers showed that most of the teachers had not fully realized the role that after-class activities played in ELT and one of them even set after-class activities against classroom teaching. The questionnaires aimed to examine students' motivation for English learning, the possible influence of after-class activities on ELT in secondary schools, and students' attitudes towards after-class activities. The results of the questionnaires showed that students had both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for English learning. However, the situations of classroom teaching inhibited their motivation to some extent. It was also found that after-class activities might have a positive effect on teaching and learning. Although most teachers and students had positive attitudes towards after-class activities, their understanding was not profound enough and as a result they neglected the role of after-class ac...