A Study On Senior High School Students' Perception Of English Classroom Environment

In China,English classroom is the major channel for language input because students generally lack a natural learning environment.Hawley(1976)believes the classroom environment is a kind of warm and safe class atmosphere which stimulates students' creative thinking.Many studies have demonstrated that classroom environment exerts a strong influence on students' academic achievement and performance.The present study investigates and studies the senior high school students' perceptions of their English classroom environment,making comparisons between students' ideal and actual perception of classroom environment and comparing the differences between students' and teachers' perceptions of the classroom environment in order to form a global understanding of the students' perceptions of their English classroom environment.The study is to offer some enlightenment for senior high school English teaching and learning to create a positive and effective English classroom environment.Questionnaire is the primary instrument applied in the present which is adapted from Wu Lihao' s English Classroom Teaching and Learning Environment Inventory(2013)and Sun Yunmei' s Chinese English Classroom Environment Inventory(2010).102 students and 10 teachers had been invited to conduct the questionnaire survey,and all of them came from Guiyang No.2 High School,a provincial demonstrative senior high school.Additionally,the author applies interviews and classroom observations as the supplement to the study.As to the collected data,the author uses the SPSS 19.0 to describe and analyze the statistics.Major findings are as follows:Demonstrative senior high school students are generally satisfied with their actual English classroom environment although some students consider the class is not active and pleasant.The most satisfied scale is Teacher Support while Involvement gets the lowest satisfaction.At the same time,no significant difference exists between different genders but the girls' attitudes toward English classroom environment are relatively more positive.Then there exists a wide gap between the actual and the preferred English classroom environment which indicates demonstrative senior high school students are willing to have a more ideal classroom environment especially demonstrated on Involvement.Besides,teachers show a more positive perception of the English classroom environment than students,but towards students' involvement,both teachers and students are not content with the current performance in the English class.Compared with teachers,students perceive Involvement lowest.And the awareness of Innovation between students and teachers is basically identical.The major findings give a better understanding of the English classroom environment.Based on the research results,several suggestions can be provided: First of all,teachers should encourage students' involvement and provide more opportunity in class in order to improve students' ability to cooperate and explore;then,teachers must strengthen students' task awareness and guide students to make clear the learning goal and content of each class so that they will complete learning tasks more effectively.