A Study On English Home Assignment Design In High Schools

With the development of new English curriculum reform in China, English Curriculum Standards was approved by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China in 2003. It also calls for fostering the ability of using English of students synthetically in the phase of basic education by achieving the five curriculum goals: language skills, language knowledge, emotional attitude, learning strategies and cultural awareness.This research attempts to modify the ways of designing English assignment for high school students in light of Theory of Multiple Intelligences, theories of learning styles and English Curriculum Standards of China. In the light of development of students, various types of English assignment need to be designed and the author establish features of designing English assignment. Four types of English assignment based on high school English course requirement are presented: knowledge-oriented assignment, skill-development-oriented assignment, thinking-cultivation-oriented assignment and application-oriented assignment. Many examples are presented in each type in detail and analyzed. With diverse intelligences and learning preferences, different learning results of different students are varied.The author makes an investigation about the current situation of English assignments in high school with two questionnaires for students and teachers respectively. The subjects of the study are from No.2 senior high school in Zhangwu, Fuxin City, Liaoning Province, including 240 students and 14 teachers. As the data illustrates, some typical problems of current English assignments emerge. For example, too much written assignment related to examinations, lack of oral assignment and other types of assignment and so on. However, most of the students and teachers have realized that it is necessary to change the types of English assignment in high schools. They also give some proposals on the issue. The major findings are the change of type of English home assignment in high schools can enhance the role and effectiveness of it.This thesis will be able to provide English teachers in high schools with various suggestive types of English assignment and they will be able to improve their teaching levels as well as stimulating enthusiasm of learning English of students in the future.