An Experimental Study On Inquiry Learning Of High-School English Teaching

Inquiry learning, as a modern learning approach, places great emphasis on the process of acquiring knowledge and the ability to inquire knowledge. It transforms learning from passively accepting knowledge to actively inquiring knowledge. By taking part in the inquiry learning actively, they can develop the habit of learning independently, cooperatively and creatively. Therefore, it is of great significance to teach English through inquiry learning in high-school English classroom.Inquiry learning is defined as a process in which the students, under the guidance of their teacher, select and determine their tasks about nature, society or life, then do research on them, and finally find the solution to the given tasks. It is during the process of the inquiry learning that the students acquire the knowledge actively and apply relevant knowledge to practice. According to the theory of inquiry learning and the goals of the national New English Curriculum Standard, this paper attempts to do some research on the inquiry learning in the high school English classroom in Shaoxing, aiming to find some teaching principles of inquiry learning as well as its teaching strategies and assessments. Thus, some models of inquiry learning in high school English classroom will be constructed. The present study is based on the five-dimensional teaching aims, that is, language knowledge, language abilities, emotional attitude, learning strategies and cultural realization. The research adopts experimental designs with two questionnaires, one-year teaching practice and several tests. By comparing the results of the experimental and control groups, we can draw the conclusion that inquiry learning helps the students to improve their English competence and makes them more interested in English learning.During the experiment, we can see that the learning environment plays a very important role for the students in the activities of listening, speaking, reading and writing. All the meaningful language communications are done in a certain situation. Therefore, teachers should spare no efforts to create proper situations, letting his/her students understand the language knowledge and communicate with each other in proper situations.