Optimize English Homework In Senior Middle School Based On Input And Output Theory

English homework and English classroom teaching are two important components of English teaching processes in senior middle school. If classroom teaching is what the teacher focuses on, then English homework is what the students focus on. The performance of English homework will directly reflect the effects of teaching of the teachers and learning of the students. If teachers only pay attention to classroom teaching while paying less attention to the quality of English homework, they will not be able to testify the effectiveness of the classroom teaching. As a result, teachers lose the direction and aim of the class. And students will lose the chance to digest and consolidate the knowledge acquired in class. Thus the effect of teaching and learning will be decreased greatly.The author finds that the current English homework have the following disadvantages through teaching observations and literature reviews. On the one hand, the English class is not in pace with the English homework. No matter what the key points or difficult points in class are, the English homework are only restricted to exercises in the newspapers and notebooks which are exam-oriented. The weak links between teaching and homework will frustrate students’ enthusiasm in learning. On the other hand, students are lax and lazy in doing English homework and some are even reduced to copying, which apparently shows that English homework doesn’t play an effective role in helping students consolidate and digest knowledge. To gain more empirical evidence to confirm the above-mentioned assumptions, the author decides to carry out questionnaires and interviews among 700 students in Grade 2 of Bao’an No.1 Foreign Language School, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in the hope of collecting their attitudes, opinions and suggestions towards English homework.There are many disadvantages of English homework as reflected from students, and different theories can help to improve them from different perspectives. For example, the multi-intelligence theory stresses that English homework should cater to students’ optimal intelligence because everyone has his or her optimal intelligence area. But the author’s purpose is to combine the classroom English teaching with the English homework into a complete whole to help students acquire, review and apply the English knowledge into real use and improve their English proficiency. That is the reason why the author selects the Input and Output Hypothesis Theory. Through reviewing the literatures of the Input and Output Hypothesis Theory, the author finds the yawning gap between the current English homework and Input Theory and Output Theory. In order to narrow the gap, the author decides to propose some useful approaches and strategies based on the Input and Output Theory.From the results of the above questionnaires and interviews, the author draws the conclusion that most of students have a positive attitude towards the function of English homework, but they have are not quite satisfied with the amount, difficulty degree, types and origins, hierarchy and pertinence of English homework. Contrasted with the requirements of Input and Output Theory, the author finds that "the amount and difficulty degree" goes against with the "comprehensible input" principle and "abundant input" principle of Input Theory. "Types and origins" goes against with "interest" principle of Input Theory, as well as "The Noticing Function" principle, "The Hypothesis-testing Function" principle and "The Meta-linguistic Function" principle of Output Theory. "Hierarchy and pertinence" goes against with "relevance" principle of Input Theory.Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that the current English homework needs to be improved from the following aspects. Firstly, optimize the amount and difficulty degree of English homework by improving the quality of English homework. Secondly, make full use of the information and technology to enrich the types and origins of English homework. Lastly, polish the professional ability of English teachers so that teachers can design personalized English homework based on students’ needs and the contents of English classroom, with the aim of improving the hierarchy and pertinence of English homework.