A Research On The English Classroom Ecology Of Senior High School

The approaches, principles and theories of ecology have become a new paradigm of educational research ever since last century, which has thrown great light on the study of education. Since the National English Curriculum Standards (NECS) was issued by Ministry of Education of China in April,2003, there is growing concern about the current English classroom environment of senior high school students. Under the guidance of principles and theories of ecology, education ecology, classroom ecosystem and the NECS, the thesis applies both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to observe the unbalances and contradictions of the present English classroom ecosystem in senior high school. Firstly, in order to collect authentic information about the present English classroom environment in senior high schools in Chongqing, questionnaires have been carried out among teachers and students. The author distributes30questionnaires to teachers and360questionnaires to senior one to senior three students in Nankai Secondary School, all of which have been successfully collected. To gain some qualitative information, interviews for teachers and students are conducted. Twenty teachers and thirty students are chosen for interviews. The data collected is analyzed by Excel.According to the findings, it is revealed that there exist unbalances and contradictions in the aspects of teaching objectives, teaching contents, the roles of teachers and students, teaching methods, assessment methods and classroom atmosphere. As is prescribed by the NECS, five-dimensional objectives should be jointly achieved to realize the comprehensive development of students’English competence; teachers should transform from the traditional knowledge transmitter to some more supportive roles and meanwhile students should transform from passive knowledge receiver to some more active and autonomous roles; teaching contents should be selected and arranged on the basis of the five-dimensional objectives instead of merely focusing on the contents related to language knowledge and language skills; teaching methods and assessment methods should be student-centered instead of merely serving for the National College Entrance Examination. However, in the current English classroom in senior high school, in the face of examination pressure and social competition, great importance is laid on students’language knowledge and language-skills, with reachers working as the knowtedge transmttter and students-as the passive knowledge receiver; in order to make sure that language knowledge is successfully and accurately transmitted and necessary language skills are effectively developed, accordingly, teachers prefer to adopt lecture and pattern drills as their teaching methods; in order to enable and ensure that students can have an ideal performance in the examination, quantitative and summative assessment methods are preferred by teachers and students.Because of these existing unbalances and contradictions, the present thesis proposes some ecological principles and suggestions for the construction of English ecological classroom:teaching objectives should comply with what is prescribed in the NECS and the selection of teaching contents is aimed at achieving teaching objectives; teaching methods should be designed with the purpose of sparing students more space and opportunities to acquire knowledge and carry out autonomous study; democratic, favorable and relaxing classroom atmosphere should be created; mutual-respect and interactive relationship should be built between teachers and students; assessment methods should be adopted, aiming to stimulate the comprehensive and sustainable development of students English competence.