Investigation Into The Application Of The Learning Plan In Senior High School Elt

In the traditional English teaching, it is an important task for teachers to design a good lesson plan, in which teaching aims, teaching difficult and important points, teaching methods, teaching procedures and so on are clearly presented. However, all these are designed from the perspective of teachers, who organize the teaching process as planned in the lesson plan. Students are expected to listen carefully throughout the class but passively, which makes the teaching efficiency low.The learning plan (LP, for short) is an innovation in recent years, which is a learning proposal designed on the basis of natiaonal curriculum, learning resources and students'current level, aiming to cultivate students'innovation and autonomous learning ability and guding students to learn and explore. Compared to the lesson plan, the learning plan has many advantages. Many schools use the learning plan while carrying out the teaching reform, among which the Affiliated Middle School of Henan Normal University (AMSHNU, for short) is a typical one. In this investigation, AMSHNU is chosen as a case study, aiming to know about the application of LP in senior high school ELT, by which the author can get to learn about positive influence LP exerts on the English teaching and learning in this school, and the major problems with the application of LP in AMSHNU.By means of questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation, 111 senior high students of Grade 2008 and 11 English teachers who teach the students of Grade 2008 were involved in the investigation. According to the results of the investigation, the positive influence of LP on the English teaching and learning in this school can be seen in the following aspects: (1) Students get into better learning habits, especially in previewing the lesson; (2) students'autonomous learning ability is enhanced; (3) students do better in their academic performance; (4) both students and teachers'awareness of cooperation are strengthened; (5) the English class is more interactive than before; (6) teachers'teaching efficiency and students'learning efficiency are improved; (7) teachers'professional development level is enhanced. Meanwhile, several problems are encountered: (1) it is difficult to carry out the LP teaching model in the limited time; (2) there are some difficulties in making the learning plan meet the needs of all students, especially in the early stage of making the learning plan; (3) by far, there has not been a criterion on how to evaluate a learning plan.Based on the analysis of questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation, some suggestions are put forward on the application of LP in senior high school ELT.For the school authority, (1) they should provide teachers various training opportunities so as to make them further know about the characteristics of the teaching guided by LP; (2) they should require those teachers who are not competent for the teaching guided by LP to train again until they are qualified. For teachers, (1) they should change their teaching belief and transform their role in teaching; (2) they should better their learning styles and learn to cooperate with others; (3) before making the LP, they should analyze the characteristics of students including their learning needs, learning styles, cognitive styles and so on.For students, (1) they should not be over-dependent on their teachers, and they ought to explore new knowledge by themselves and eventually cultivate the autonomous learning ability; (2) they should not look upon their teacher as the authority of knowledge, but should have the awareness of questioning; (3) they should learn to reflect on their learning, try to find out their weakness by means of using LP, and eventually improve themselves.This paper can be divided into five parts. Chapter one serves as the introduction part, including research background, research motivation and an overview of the thesis. Chapter two presents literature review of the thesis. Chapter three is the research design, including research questions and objectives, reseach subjects, research methods and procedures and data collection. Chapter four is the main body, with special regard to the results and the discussion of the investigation. Chapter five provides a summary on the major findings of the investigation, and some suggestions, limitations of this investigation and prospects for future research are also presented in this part.