A Study Of Facilitating Factors Affecting The Small Group Discussion In English Class In Senior High

The ever-growing need for good communication skills in English has created a huge demand for English teaching in China. Many teachers today improve their teaching abilities to ensure that their students achieve a good command of English. Because of an exam-oriented system in Senior High in China, English has become a tool for further studies. On one hand, the need for examination should be taken into account. On the other hand, oral communication skills for students should be improved. It is urgent to find a combination of the method. Small group discussion as one of the most important activities is widely used in the foreign language teaching. Based on the English Curriculum reform and quality education, recent research has proved that small group discussion has a lot of advantages in foreign language teaching. It helps students explore a diversity of perspectives and develops habits of collaborative learning. However, the successful application of small group discussion is not as easy as it appears to be. This paper is conducted with questionnaires and interviews to investigate facilitating factors of affecting small group discussion in English classroom in Senior High School. The questionnaire was administered to Senior one students of NO.1 Middle School in De Zhou, Shan Dong province. The number of subjects was 165 and158 questionnaires were valid and ten English teachers were interviewed. The date was processed and analyzed using Excel Form. The research findings include that:1) those most highly ranked facilitating factors:a) concerning classroom setting:reasonable arrangement room, group size and the composition of the group; b) concerning students:sense of achievement, respect, cooperation, harmonious relationship between students, good preparation and high level of English proficiency and confidence; c) concerning teachers:appropriate body language and good personality; d) concerning the process of small group discussion: interesting topics, teachers'help, teachers'feedback, appropriate time allocation, the leader in group and other aspects.2) some inhibiting factors:others'inactiveness and introversion. Based on the findings, the author puts forward some suggestions for students and teachers.This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One:introduction of the research. Background, purpose, significance and structure of the study will be presented. It describes the teaching approach in Chinese Middle School, the necessity, feasibility and the problems on the application of the small group discussion in Senior English Classroom. Chapter Two focuses on the definition, types, the advantages, the development and trend of the small group discussion research abroad and home. Chapter Three expounds theories involved in the study and four relevant theories will be mentioned. It includes cooperative learning, communicative approach, Output Hypothesis and Constructivism. Chapter Four describes the methodology of the study, analyses the data and presents the result of the study. This part is the main part of the paper; it explores facilitating factors affecting the small group discussion in English Class in Senior High by a questionnaire and interviews. The author first puts forward five research questions and illustrates the way of data collection, which consists of subjects and procedures of data collection, and presents the procedures of data analysis. Then, the author interviews ten English teachers in Senior High and teachers'perception about the small group discussion, facilitating factors affecting this activity, difficulties from teachers in practice will be presented. The last chapter arrives at the findings of the study and its suggestions as well as its limitations.