An Exploration Of The Present Situation On Offering English Course In Elementary Schools

The starting age of foreign language learning for children has been discussing for over 50 years abroad. It had also been discussed twice both in the 80s and 90s of the 20 century in China. However, there is no satisfactory conclusion for us till now. English course began to be offered gradually in elementary schools in China from the fall of 2001, while the notion "the younger, the better "is learning a foreign language is believed without any doubt by many people. In view of this situation, this thesis deals with the topical subject of "FLES " on the teachers of English, the students who had learnt English for three years in the elementary school and their patents by the way of questionnaires, moreover, a CA is on the students' English scores between those who had learnt English for 3 years and those who hadn't from junior 1-3 and senior 1-2, altogether of 11 scores in 5 grades.Based upon the theoretical foundation of linguistics, psychology and physiology in foreign language learning for children, the environment of foreign language learning as well as the importance of mother tongue, the writer put forward only a few comments and suggestions on the tendency of lowering the age in foreign language learning in Chma presently. The comprehensive analyses both in quantitative and qualitative methods were made on "FLES" through "questionnaires" and "the students' scores", emphasizing much on the analyses of the latter. By doing so, the author is expecting to get some substantial conclusions from the analyses, which can be of some benefit to the learning of foreign languages for children, so as to face the realistic problem of "FLES" with a rational attitude.There are five parts in this diesis. Part One begins with a brief introduction to the aims and significance, followed by the clarification of the key terras concerned. In Part Two, we present the summary of the history as well as its latest investigation on "FLES" both at home and abroad, emphasizing the viewpoints of the three branches on "FLES" in China. The Thvd One is the theoretical framework, introducing the theories mainly on the hypotheses of the "critical period" as well as mat of the "non-critical period", Piaget's theory on child language learning, importance of mother tongue and foreign language learning environment in China.Part Four is the kernel of this thesis. It deals with the analyses of the results of the questionnaires and the statistical data of the students' scores, which falls into four sections. 1) We analyze and sum up the answers to the questions in the questionnaires on the teachers of English, thestudents and the parents. There are two kinds of questions in the questionnaires: open questions and closed ones. Therefore, we induce the answers by the means of quantitative and qualitative analyses concerning "FLES", laying the typical suggestions and the original views as well as the comments as what they were in this section in order to reflect their real thoughts and their experience in learning and teaching. 2) We give descriptive statistics and analyses on the students' English scores from junior 1-3 to senior 1-2 so as to show the distribution of the scores, displaying a graph of it at the same time to make the differences of the scores more directly and clearly. 3) We use the paired samples T Test to test all die descriptive statistics of die two groups of data to make sure if there ace any significant differences between diem, by doing so we can arrive at die substantial conclusion diat whether or not there are any correlations between age and scores of foreign language learners. There are some directly aimed explanations and summaries in detail below each table and figure.After die analyses on die questionnaires and die paired samples T Test of die statistics, diis survey cones to die final conclusions: 1) Age advantage is of less importance in foreign language learning. It lies in die fact diat die scores of those who had learnt English for 3 years in die elementary school were higher dian those who hadn't when starting to learn it a...