An Investigation Into Middle School English Teachers' Cognition And Practice Of Cultivating Students' English Key Competencies

English learning is not only the process of language acquisition,but also the process of formation and development of competency.Under the background of education in 21 st century,English teaching and learning not only lie in the teaching and learning of language knowledge,but also in cultivating students' language ability,thinking quality,cultural awareness and learning ability.The English Curriculum Standard(2017)for senior high school students suggested that English courses should cultivate students' English key competency.However,in the real teaching process,teachers pay more attention to students' language knowledge acquisition while ignore the cultivation and development of students' competencies,which results in students' poor pragmatic competence and thinking ability,low cultural awareness and learning ability.Under such circumstances,it is imperative to cultivate English key competencies of high school students.Based on the previous researches of teachers' cognition,key competency and English key competency,the author investigated 30 English teachers' cognition and practice of students' English key competencies cultivation,and 200 senior students' current level of English key competencies from two high schools in Gansu Province through questionnaire,interview,classroom observation and testing.The purpose of this research is to: know about middle school English teachers' cognition and practice of students' English key competencies cultivation;analyze the outstanding issues;discuss and propose improvement measures.The research questions discussed in this thesis are as follows:1.What is middle school English teachers' cognition of students' English key competencies cultivation ?2.Is middle school English teachers' teaching practice of students' English key competencies cultivation consistent with their cognition ?3.How is the effect of students' English key competencies cultivation in senior high school?In this paper,the author uses SPSS 24.0 to analyze the relevant data and draw the following findings:1)Middle school English teachers have a high level of cognition in students' English key competencies cultivating.Most English teachers think students English key competencies cultivation is important in teaching process.They believe that the teaching objectives,teaching content,teaching activities,teaching methods and resources,teaching evaluation should point to students' English key competencies cultivation and development.2)Middle school English teachers' teaching practice is inconsistent with their cognition of students' English key competencies cultivation.In the actual teaching process,English teachers pay more attention to students' language knowledge acquisition while ignore the cultivation and development of students' thinking quality,culture awareness and learning ability.3)The effect of students' English key competencies cultivation is not so ideal.Most students fail to meet the level 2 that academic quality of the English Curriculum Standard(2017)proposed for senior high school students.Based on the research results,the author puts forward some suggestions:(1)The school should change exam-oriented education environment and guide teachers to develop students' English key competencies through teaching.(2)Teachers' teaching objectives,teaching content,teaching activities,teaching methods,teaching resources,teaching evaluation should focus on students' English key competencies cultivation,and teachers should constantly update their teaching concepts and improve their teaching abilities.(3)Students should broaden their learning channels,pay attention to their ability cultivation,and develop their thinking quality,improve cultural awareness to implement the cultivation and development of their English key competencies.