A Study On The Current Situation Of Designing English Learning Objectives In Junior High Schools

Learning objective is a statement of what students ought to be able to do at the end of a class that they could not do beforehand. As the first crucial element and prerequisite of teaching activities, learning objective matters much for both novices and experienced English teachers in junior high school. Under no circumstance should teachers ignore the significance of designing English learning objectives. As a consequence, this thesis studies the current situation of designing English learning objectives in junior high schools. The research instruments are: literature review, textual analysis, questionnaires and interview. The outline of this paper contains four parts. In the first place, this thesis elaborates on questionnaires from English teachers in 4 junior high schools in Yantai to analyze the understanding, attitude, statement and implementation toward designing English learning objectives in junior high schools teachers. At the second place, this paper discovers and summarizes several typical problems that existing in writing English learning objectives in the light of collecting 31 English teaching plans in four above-mentioned schools. In addition, in accordance with analyzing 10 English teachers’ interviews, related periodicals and thesis, the main reasons that influence the design of English learning objectives can be illustrated in this paper. Finally, a wide range of strategies for designing English learning objectives are depicted in this paper according to the interview, previous theories and personal opinion. By studying on the current situation of designing English learning objectives in junior high schools, this paper is organized with an aim of presenting theoretical foundation to enhance the teaching efficiency and improve the professional development of English teachers in junior high schools.The thesis mainly attaches attention to the following questions:1. What are the problems existing in designing English learning objectives in junior high schools?2. What are the main factors that influence designing English learning objectives in junior high schools?Presented below is the result of this research:To begin with, there are three aspects according to the analysis of questionnaires. Firstly, from the aspect of understanding and attitude toward designing English learning objectives, learning objectives cannot be understood correctly by a wide range of teachers. Some teachers know nothing about Compendium of Curriculum Reform of Fundamental Education(trial) and English Curriculum Standard(2011). Others often copy others’ English learning objectives from Internet and reference books without taking teaching materials and students’ abilities into account. Secondly, from the aspect of writing English learning objectives, several typical problems can be illustrated such as subject dislocation and confusion, abstraction and unfeasibility of learning objectives, and the lack of attitudes to learning, learning strategies, cultural awareness. Thirdly, from the aspect of implementation in designing English learning objectives, some English teachers never rethink and amend in line with teaching practice, never implement their English learning objectives. In addition, the author figure out that there are some problems in designing English learning objectives: subject dislocation and confusion, abstraction and unfeasibility of learning objectives, ambiguity of hierarchy, and the wrong terms and dimensions of learning objectives. Finally, the main reasons that influence design of English learning objectives can be divided into two parts—subjective factors and objective factors. The subjective factors contain: deficiency of teachers’ related theories, disconnection between learning objective and practice, and deficiency of teacher’s moral quality. The objective factors contain: restriction of examination and evaluation system, objective reality of big class instruction, irrationality and formalism of teacher training. In a nutshell, this paper studies on the current situation of designing English learning objectives in junior high schools to arouse the teachers’ attention on designing English learning objectives and enable teachers to cultivate and foster well-rounded students.