A Research On Causes And Transformation Strategies Of Pan Single-parent English Underachievers

In recent years, with the development of economy, people’s concept has changed a lot, which leads to more pan single-parent families and more single-parent children.Pan single-parent children take up a large percentage in students with English learning disabilities. Educators should pay more attention to them. Based on the pan single-parent English underachievers’ current study situation, the thesis strives to analyze the causes of the phenomenon and proposes some transformation strategies.The guiding theories of the thesis are Constructivism and Motivational Theories. The 70 pan single-parent students with English learning disabilities are subjects of the research. They are all Junior 1 students of Fuzhou No. 40 Middle School. The research methods are questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation. To make the analysis and comparison easier, the author conducts two surveys among 91 pan single-parent students, of whom 70 are English underachievers while others are not. Questionnaires are respectively aimed at knowing current situations about English learning disabled students, analyzing the causes and testing their psychology as well. Through interviews, the author strives to find out the students’ English learning situation, their attitudes towards English study, and their parents’ knowledgement of and attitudes to their study. Two students are chosen out of each of the eleven classes as the classroom observation targets. The purpose of classroom observation is to observe students’ response in the class, including how they participate in classroom activities, whether they can answer the teachers’ questions correctly and whether they can take notes properly or not. The author attempts to answer the following questions through this research: 1.Why pan single-parent children are easy to become English underachievers? 2. What is the relationship between their study motivation, attitude, strategy and the study result? 3. What can be done to transform their current situation?The conclusions of the research are: 1. Pan single-parent students are more likely to become English underachievers due to both the internal and the external factors. 2. Good study motives and attitudes lead to good study results. Most English underachievers don’t have appropriate study strategies and they are unable to sum up the experience in each stage of study. 3. The thesis presents six transformation strategies about how to transform pan single-parent English underachievers: respect them and pay more attention to them; stimulate their study motivation; improve their self-confidence; make use of Pygmalion Effect; improve study methods and enhance teachers’ teaching ability. The research can be a good reference for teachers and students while they are dealing with the relevant situation. It can also help to reduce the quantity of English underachievers and ensure good teaching quality.