A Study Of The Influence Of Extra-Curricular Class Upon English Learning Of Primary School Pupils

Primary school pupils have been required to learn English from Grade Three in our country since the autumn in 2001. For a long time,"English learning should begin from the primary stage"seems to have become a campaign in education; what's more, many nursery schools have also started to teach English. As English learning and teaching is unprecedentedly valued by the central and local authorities, a market of extra-curricular class is emerging and prospering. Although it is queried continuously by education experts, kinds of extra-curricular schools have been appealing the eyes of millions of parents. It has become the second class of learning English for millions of primary and middle school students. Undoubtedly, it must produce a big influence on English learning of primary school pupils and English teaching of primary school teachers. The research on this task will be very useful to the change of the ideology in English learning and investing, will be very helpful to primary school pupils in learning English effectively and successfully, and will contribute much to the reform of English teaching and its sound development.On the basis of extensive research, the paper is devoted to discuss the influences of English extra-curricular class on primary school pupils'English learning. It starts from the statement of the age of foreign language learner elaborated in the theory of Second Language Acquisition and the functions of interest in learning. It also mentions that English in our country is being taught as a foreign language, not a second language.The writer draws upon many advanced theories in educational psychology, psycholinguistics, and English teaching method, analyzes the situation of primary school English teaching. The existing problems in primary English teaching mainly lie in the following aspects: Teachers'theoretical research is weak; Current teaching quality is not optimistic; Curriculum arrangement of Primary school is unreasonable; The size of class is overlarge; Length of each lesson is not arranged according to the characteristics of students in different ages; After-class English learning activity of primary school is not or rarely arranged; Training of pupils'communication skill is less; Primary schools have not created enough English language atmosphere.The paper also defines the concept of extra-curricular class; analyses school English teaching and extra-curricular class English teaching in a comparative way from four sides: qualification of teachers, the selection of teaching material, teaching method and approach, teaching contents; explains the influence of English extra-curricular class on primary school pupils and teachers. After the massive statistical analysis,the writer gets the finding: the positive and negative influence of extra-curricular class on English learning of primary school pupils. On one side, extra-curricular English class can enrich after-school lives of students, play a promoting role to primary school English teachers, help pupils to lay a good foundation for their future English learning, help to exploit pupils'potential of learning English, help students to improve their interpersonal communication and individual development. On the other side, extra-curricular class may bring inconvenience to school English teachers, may cause some pupils'inadequate attention on English, which is not conducive to maintaining the durability and life-long interest in learning English, and also may bring learning burden to some pupils.At last, the conclusions are drawn as follows: For parents, the choice of"extra-curricular class"must be made after prudent consideration, the attitude and action for their children's English learning should not be precipitately; For English educators, they must clearly understand that fostering pupils'sustainable development ability in learning English is the most important thing in primary English education, try to draw lessons from every teaching method, and find the most suitable one to Chinese conditions. Concerning the whelming expansion of extra-curricular class, the urgent task is to realize the mutual compensation of advantages of primary school English teaching and extra-curricular class English teaching.