Research On The Design Of Junior English Homework In The New Curriculum

The New Curriculum Reform has been carried out for more than ten years and has obtained great achievement. According to New English Curriculum Standards, at the stage of basic education, English course should cultivate students’ ability to use English synthetically, which is indispensible from the whole development of students’ language knowledge, language skills, emotional attitude, cultural awareness and learning strategies. Homework is one of the most frequent teaching techniques requiring utmost attention at all levels of schools and is regarded as an extension of classroom teaching and is one of the most influential tools in gaining new experiences and in increasing the importance of learning/teaching activities. However, the step of the reform of English homework is much slower than that of the reform of English classroom teaching. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the status quo of the English homework for junior middle school students and quest the design as well as the reform of the homework. Based on literature review about related theories and studies of English homework design, such as Multiple Intelligences Theory, Zone of Proximal Development Theory, and New English Curriculum Standards and by using interview, questionnaire, the present study is to explore how to design junior English homework effectively under the new curriculum background. Then, three research questions are put forward:(1) What’s the status quo of junior English homework design?(2) What aspects do teachers consider most when they design junior English homework?(3) How should we design junior English homework according to New English Curriculum Standards?The study employed both qualitative and quantitative analyses. The thesis investigates 7 teachers’ perceptions of English homework design, the status of junior English homework design under the new curriculum background in the view of both teachers and students, and their suggestions on English homework design. The major research findings are as follows:(1) The major problems of junior English homework involve the following aspects: the purposes of junior English homework are not so clear, which is inconsistent with the New English Curriculum Standards; the homework types are monotonous and lack of changes; the homework content is not interesting and far from students’ real life; the homework amount is too much; the homework is assigned to students without considering their individual differences.(2) When teachers design English homework assignments, the following five aspects of homework design are of top priority according to interview:the homework purpose, homework type, the homework content, the homework amount and homework difficulty..(3) Building homework files to improve homework efficiency; verifying homework types to arouse students’ learning interests; designing homework with different difficulty levels to adapt to students’ development; encouraging students to participate in homework design to enhance students’ learning initiative.