A Study On English Homework In Rural Junior High Schools

In the stage of elementary education, the overall objective of English curriculum isto cultivate students’ comprehensive competence of using language. English homework,a necessary complement to classroom teaching, is not only an important factor toinfluence the teaching quality but also an essential way to cultivate students’comprehensive ability of using language. At home and abroad, homework has been ahot topic in the field of education and experts with educators have been studying itthrough various methods. In China, there have been quite some studies on Englishhomework, however, empirical studies on English homework in rural junior highschools are inadequate. In this thesis, the author tries to do some investigations of thestatus of English homework in rural junior high schools to find out the existingproblems. It is hoped that this will help the English teachers there view Englishhomework more comprehensively and provide a practical guideline for them to solvethe remaining problems. This research also has important theoretical values andpractical significance for exploring new ideas of designing and optimizing Englishhomework in rural junior high schools.The subjects of the study are200students and20English teachers selected fromtwo rural junior high schools of Liaocheng and Jining. By using questionnaires andinterviews the author tried to investigate and analyze the status of implementation of theEnglish homework in rural junior high schools from the aspects of amount, forms andcontents, difficulty, feedback and function as well as teachers’ and students’ attitudestowards English homework.After analyzing the data, the author found out: At present, the amount ofEnglish homework in rural junior high schools is a little large and the level of difficultyis not high. English homework is mostly in mechanical forms like copying andreciting, etc. Most of the English teachers and students can give feedback on Englishhomework in time, but modes of correcting are not various and students fail to participate in correcting their own homework regularly. The function of Englishhomework on consolidating knowledge is obvious, while its role in cultivating thestudents’ comprehensive competence of using language is not so evident.Moreover, teachers and students with different English levels have different views onthe amount and difficulty of English homework. Most students have been accustomed tothe present forms and contents of current English homework so that they don’t feeldisgusted about the mechanical kinds of English homework. Generally speaking, nearlyall the English teachers and most of the students have positive attitudes towards recentEnglish homework, but there are still a few of students who are inclined to be negativeto it because of the irrationality of current English homework. In order to make Englishhomework helpful in realizing the five general objectives of the English CurriculumStandards and promote students’ comprehensive development, the author puts forwardsome suggestions on designing English homework for English teachers.