An Investigation Into The Effectiveness Of English Teaching Objectives Design In Senior High Schools

With the deepening of the reform of education, the publication of National English Curriculum and the launch of the new scheme of college entrance examination of English, the traditional English teaching has been greatly impacted. It not only leads to some changes in the teaching methods and teaching contents, but also brings new challenges for teachers to design the teaching objectives appropriately and implement them efficiently.This study selected 322 teaching objectives designed by front-line senior high school English teachers from 60 teaching plans, analyzed them from the perspective of the awareness of teaching objectives, the position of teaching objectives, and the statements of teaching objectives, and then investigated the consistency of teaching procedure design and teaching objectives design. The analysis aims to investigate the effectiveness of teaching objectives design in senior high schools, and find out the existing problems in English teaching objectives design. Besides, through the questionnaire and the interview, this study explores the factors that influence the English teaching objectives design and the underlying reasons that cause the problems.An analysis of 322 English teaching objectives design reveals the following problems: 1. The awareness of teaching objectives design is insufficient; 2. The position of teaching objectives is unreasonable, and some teaching objectives can not reflect the requirements of five-dimensional objectives in NEC, the teaching contents and the target students; 3. The statements of objectives do not conform to the ABCD model of teaching objectives design; 4. Emphasis on the objectives related to higher-level thinking skills is inadequate. An analysis of the consistency of the teaching objectives with subsequent teaching procedure shows that most teaching procedure design matched the teaching objectives design. The questionnaire survey and the interview indicate the reasons that cause the existing problems from three aspects. From the perspective of social background: 1. The frequent reforms of English Curriculum make it difficult for English teachers to adapt to in time. 2. The evaluation criteria focusing on the college entrance examination have great impact on teachers' educational ideas as well as the teaching objectives design. It also results in the overemphasis on Language Skills and Language Knowledge by English teachers. 3. Traditional big class classroom teaching hinders English teachers to design teaching objectives according to the different levels and styles of students. Then, from the perspective of theoretical bases to design English teaching objectives and ways to learn knowledge on teaching objectives: 1. Both three-dimensional objectives and five-dimensional objectives were carried out in the same year, results in English teachers' confusion to understand and design the teaching objectives. 2. Ways for teachers to learn knowledge on teaching objectives are limited and one-sided. Post-training such as seminars and lectures related to English teaching objectives are also insufficient. From the perspective of teachers: 1. English teachers rely more on their own teaching experience. 2. Most front-line English teachers undergo great pressures from work, which make them unable to design teaching objectives for every class or have reflective thinking on them. 3. Some English teachers' understanding of English teaching objectives is not comprehensive enough, ignoring the humanity of language and the cultivation of students' thinking skills and learning strategies. 4. The teachers are not equipped with sufficient theories and strategies to guide the teaching objectives design, especially when designing objectives of higher-level thinking skills. 5. English teachers lack the awareness of reflective thinking and the awareness of doing research.Based on the above findings, some feasible suggestions and proposals are presented, providing both theoretical and empirical references for front-line senior high English teachers to design English teaching objectives.