A Study On Negative Reticence Of Rural Junior High School Students In English Classroom

English Curriculum Standards(2011) proposed the requirements that students needed to develop language skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening, so that students’ ability of communicating with others in English could be improved. However, for primary and middle school students in China, classrooms are the main places for students to learn and speak English. It is common that junior high school students don’t volunteer to answer questions and don’t take an active part in classroom activities but keep reticent in English class, especially in rural junior high schools whose facilities are poor. According to the effect on classroom teaching, classroom reticence can be divided into positive reticence and negative reticence. Given the fact that negative reticence seriously hindered classroom teaching progress and the development of students’ oral communication ability, so this thesis mainly focuses on students’ negative reticence in English classroom.The former researches on classroom reticence mainly focus on college students but rarely involve middle school students, especially for students in rural junior high schools. The study aims to investigate the status quo of students’ negative reticence in rural junior high school English classroom, and try to find out the types and reasons of students’ negative reticence, and finally try to propose relevant countermeasures to reduce this phenomenon. There are three questions in this study:1) What’s the status quo of students’ negative reticence in English classroom in rural junior high schools?(including the degree of students’ negative reticence as well as students’ awareness and attitudes to negative reticence in English classroom)2) What are the types of students’ negative reticence in English classroom?3) What are the main factors which cause each type of students’ negative reticence in English classroom?In the study, the relevant theories are Long’s interaction hypothesis and Swain’s output hypothesis. The author chose 362 students and 6 teachers from Tuanli No.2 middle school and Tuanli No.3 middle school as participants and adopted classroom observation, questionnaire and interview in this study. The main contents of questionnaire and interview include classroom atmosphere, students’ awareness and attitudes to negative reticence in English classroom, classifications of students’ negative reticence and reasons which are caused by different types of students’ negative reticence. Through the classroom observation of six classes, the author further analyzes the reasons of students’ negative reticence. Classroom observation takes teachers’ teaching methods, question types, feedback to students, waiting time and students’ participation to different classroom activities into consideration.The major findings are as follows:Negative reticence exists as a common phenomenon in English classroom in rural junior high schools. 93.2% of students have realized that this phenomenon is not good for their learning. From the causes of students’ negative reticence, it can be divided into three types: “negative reticence related to knowledge” “negative reticence related to pressure” “negative reticence related to unwillingness”.Different types of students’ negative reticence in English classroom caused by different factors. The main factors causing students’ negative reticence related to knowledge are students’ poor English proficiency and teachers’ insufficient wait-time. The main factors causing students’ negative reticence related to pressure are students’ anxiety, awareness of face-saving, teachers’ question types, teachers’ feedback to students and students’ conformist mentality. The factors causing students’ negative reticence related to unwillingness are teachers’ teaching mode, teacher-student relationship as well as students’ learning habits and styles. etc.On the basis of this research, from teachers’ perspective, the author put forward several solutions to reduce students’ negative reticence in English classroom. As for students’ negative reticence related to knowledge, teachers need to treat students equally and make differential teaching tasks for students at different levels. As for students’ negative reticence related to pressure,it’s time for teachers to pay attention to their feedback, give students more encouragement evaluation. As for students’ negative reticence related to unwillingness, it’s necessary for teachers to change their traditional teaching modes, design various classroom activities, establish a harmonious relationship between teachers and students, guide students to correctly understand the negative reticence in English class and finally lead students to form good learning style.