Class Size And Primary School English Learning Efficiency: A Correlation Analysis

At present, the class size at the elementary education stage in China far exceeds those in Western countries. Class size is being expanded in order to popularize China's compulsory education and meet the children's needs of entering schools. The importance of primary English education has been valued by the whole society. Teaching a language today is to aim at that he may put it in broader uses rather than a mere exam. Large classes hinder in someway the realization of the goal. Therefore, class size is a matter we are concerned about.Researches on class size reduction began in the early 20th century in America. The majority of studies abroad have found significant effects of class size on student achievement only when classes have less than 20 students, while some have shown small classes benefit only to the students of the early grades. The researches at home don't take the problem of large size seriously.On the basis of the results of the theories and practice of class size at home and abroad, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between class size and English learning efficiency in elementary schools in Haikou City and to find out what influences the children's English learning efficiency most and then list the implications for the primary English learning and teaching, to try seeking some effective methods for improving students' English achievements through the study of this project. The investigation is carefully designed to probe into the relationship between class size and pupils'English learning efficiency. The investigation involves 10 elementary schools. There are 60 classes involved in the investigation. 20 English teachers who teach the classes and 20 pupils'parents who live in my residential community also participate in the investigation. The whole data collection lasts for one semester, about four months including questionnaire, interview and class observation. The results of the investigation are comprehensively discussed. The analysis is shown as follows:(1) The prevailing method fails to meet the demands of primary English education. Owing to the limited time and space, students are seldom engaged in the class activities.(2) Pupils have difficulties in improving their English learning efficiency. Fifty six percent of pupils can basically understand the whole class content, the rest say they can accept some of the class content. They think learning English is dull.(3) Parents have high expectation on primary English education. They are more realistic on class size reduction.(4) Teachers affirm that teaching English in a large class is a burden for them. What they really need is to improve their own English ability. They couldn't change the environment, but devise teaching plan.(5) The correlation analysis show that the bigger the class size is, the lower learning efficiency will be obtained; the better teaching methods tend to have higher learning efficiency for students.The findings of the study have shown that what goes on in the classroom is more important than how many children are involved. Class size has less effect when teachers are competent; and the most important influence on student achievement is teacher quality and teaching method. So, in both small and big classes, the SCTPPP (student-centered,computer-assisted,task-based, presentation, practice, production) model will be of use.