The Comparative Research On The Medium Of Instruction In The Senior Middle School Classroom In Tibet

It is well known that Tibet is located in Qing-zang plateau, sparsely populated and in harsh conditions, with poor transporting facilities and undeveloped educational situation. Furthermore, educational foundation is weak with insufficient teachers there. Foreign language teaching is especially the most difficult in all disciplines in basic education.Senior high school English teaching in Tibet is a very important part, acting as a "nexus" role. English Class teaching is especially significant. Medium of instruction is the teaching language teachers use in the classroom. Foreign language teachers in English-teaching classroom generally use two kinds of language medium -- full English and English combined with Chinese. The use of instruction medium in English classrooms has long been a focus of debating. Some scholars have advocated prohibiting the use of mother tongue in the classroom, while others believe that we should use mother tongue in the classroom appropriately. Classroom teachers using the medium of instruction has a large and direct effect on students'English learning. Although domestic and foreign linguists and teachers of English language have done a lot of research on classroom medium of instruction, Chinese scholars have carried out a lot of research from the theory (Xue Zhenghua,2007) and little empirical research has been carried out ,especially for Tibetan students.Tibetan students are three language learners, with native language Tibetan and Chinese their second language, whose process of learning English language has been affected by three kinds of language. Meanwhile, the majority of Han English teachers also do not understand Tibetan. In terms of the actual using on the current medium of English teaching in Tibetan areas, the experts of English learning hold different views about which language medium of instruction should be used in the English teaching classroom.In order to study the using of teaching medium in Tibetan senior high school English classroom, the author conducted a survey and research on three different samples of the Tibetan senior high school students in different schools respectively in Lhasa City ,the capital city of Tibet Autonomous Region, Shannan and Nagqu ,which are relatively less developed in economy, culture and education. The purpose is to observe the process of English learning for Tibetan-speaking students, with Chinese as a second language. Their English--learning is affected by the interference of Tibetan and Chinese. Through this research we need to explore how much it has been affected in Tibetan high school English teaching classrooms and conduct analysis in order to find suitable medium of instruction which will be used in Tibetan senior high school English teaching classrooms to make Tibetan students interested in learning English and form good learning habits. Based on the results of previous studies, suggestions should be put forward to improve English skills and strategies of Tibetan students.In this paper there are totally five parts. The first part is introduction, describing the research background, questions and the significance of the study. The second part is literature review, which lists the definition of the medium of instruction, language transfer and language acquisition theory, Krashen's input hypothesis, and the review on medium of instruction and other related research, which provides the theoretical basis of linguistics. The third part is research methods, introducing the research purposes, objects, tools, and research design. The forth part is the data collection and analysis, further confirming the issues raised and discussed in the introduction through the results and discussion from questionnaires and interviews. The fifth part is the main findings and implications, a summary of this study, putting forward corresponding suggestions and limitations of the research.