An Experimental Study In The Slow English Classes After Stratified Teaching In Middle School

There is a precedent research and application of stratified teaching at all times andall over the world.The original stratified teaching thought could ascend to Confucius,a greatest educationist in551B.C.，who taught students in accordance of their aptitude.In the empirical research, a series of specific teaching strategies were adopted in theslow class, Grade Seven, on the basis of Confucius’s idea and Bloom’smastery-leaning, which could change students ‘attitude of learning English, raisestudents’ interest in English learning as well as improve their English grades.This paper is a study report based on empirical research. All experimental subjectswere divided into two groups—stratified students in the experimental class andnon-stratified students in the control class. Data were collected through twoquestionnaire surveys and a pre-and post-tests comparison, using80students in amiddle school for a period of four months. Data were analyzed in five aspects: students,teaching aims, questions in classes, homework and teaching assessment. The findingsare shown as follows:1) Before the experiment,5%of the students among40studentsin the slow class answer questions in English classes,after the experiment,that is27.5%;2) It is not5%but32.5%of the students think it is a good place to learnEnglish in the slow class after the experiment. Pretest and posttest were applied in anattempt to verify positive influences of the experiment on slow classes and to prove thesignificant differences in the two tests of the students in experimental class. Nosignificant differences existed in the results of the pretest between the control class andthe experimental class, but the results of the posttest indicated significant differencesbetween the two classes. The research aimed to make the slow class know it is easyand interesting to learn English if they get the proper learning strategies and theteaching methods which suit them. They are at the critical period of learning a foreignlanguage. With slow class teaching, it is a good way for students to change theirattitude of English learning, to form strong interest in English learning, and to enhancetheir English learning achievement.The findings showed that slow class teaching fits the principle of differentiatedteaching to students with different aptitudes. It is beneficial to students’ awareness oftheir English-learning disadvantages when stratified teaching was adopted in GradeSeven in Middle School. Students with similar foundation in a slow class were able tostart from their own “starting point” of development and to maximize their learning potential. The study also showed that the majority of participants have changed theirpassive learning method in the past; they became active participants and were able toadjust their learning methods according to their own characteristics. Students paidattention to classroom interaction and earning experience. The teachers appliedindependent and group teaching strategies and competitive and cooperative teachingstrategies instead of traditional substituent teaching strategies to the slow class andthey also changed their traditional evaluation methods to a combination of stratifiedand profiled methods during the research, which promote the development of bothteachers and students effectively and improve students’ English learning achievement.