On Differentiated Instruction In English Teaching For High School Students

In recent years the size of classes in high schools is getting larger and larger. It is very common for a class to have about 70 students or so in many high schools (especially in small towns and the countryside). The students in each class are different from each other in their individual factors including cognitive factors, affective factors, demographic factors and attitude towards the target language (Skehan1989).With heavy student loads, limited time, and high curricular mandates towards students upon entrance, the teacher-centered English teaching can't meet the various needs of students. In this situation, teachers must acknowledge the individual differences and guide the students' actions adroitly according to the circumstances so as to adjust their instruction for the unique needs of diverse learners. It is important to make sure that students at different levels can all exploit their own potentials .This is what the thesis focuses.During the 15 years of English teaching practice in the high school, the author has accumulated some certain teaching experience, which formulates a relatively effective way of teaching to meet the different needs of diverse students by means of differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is based on the theories of Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence, Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis and Humanism. These theories emphasize the importance of the inner world of learners and place the individual's thoughts, feelings and emotions at the forefront of all human development.Tomlinson advocates differentiated instruction and has done some researches on it. The initial application came to practice for students considered gifted and students with disabilities. Now differentiated instruction has been further applied for students at different kinds of levels.Differentiated instruction means creating multiple paths so thatstudents of different abilities, interest or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop and present concepts as a part of the daily learning process and experience the feeling of success. It requires teachers to change their way of teaching in which they only take care of those who are likely to get high scores in the examinations. It's proved that with differentiated instruction, teachers can stimulate students' motivation, build up their interest, reduce the anxiety, and help students to form their own learning strategies towards learning autonomously. What's more, students can experience their progress day by day, which leads to their promoted abilities and better emotions. This is what National New Curriculum Standard emphasizes and attaches great importance to.It consists of four chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the general aspects of differentiated instruction. By making a comparison with graded English language teaching, the chapter further proves the advantages of differentiated instruction. Chapter 2 talks about the theoretical basis of differentiated instruction. Chapter 3 presents the necessities of differentiated instruction in English teaching in high schools. Chapter 4 is the core of this thesis. The author presents a pilot study of differentiated instruction that was conducted in No.6 Middle School of Loudi from 2001 to 2OO4.The thesis ends up with a conclusion that differentiated instruction can drive the students' inner motivation, foster the students' studying interest and can further encourage students to apply their knowledge under different circumstances. Nevertheless, it will bring a challenge to the teachers because an effective differentiated instruction requires the teachers to be experts on not only the curriculum but also the survey technique, cognitive theories and some other aspects. The teachers are also facing a moral challenge to prevent discrimination in their teaching.