A Study On Students' English Learning Identity In Secondary Vocational Schools

Many remarkable achievements have been made in English new curriculum reform in primary and secondary schools,but it has little effect on the teaching of English in secondary vocational schools.Compared with vocational college students,senior high schools students and even college students,the students in secondary vocational schools are obviously a more special group—they are the losers from traditional sense.Most of them have many problems in their learning habits,interest in learning,learning motivation and even learning ability.A correct understanding of the relationship between secondary vocational school students' English learning identity and English learning can help teachers have better understanding of the students,find more effective teaching method to improve teaching efficiency and students' English achievement.This study,based on the theory of self identity,defines the students' English learning identity in secondary vocational schools from the perspective of self identity theory.English learning identity in this research refers to the second language learners' acceptance and favor to English which forms in the process of English learning and living.It also refers to the second language learners' self-construction and the process of internalization during the process of acquiring English language skills and English culture.It involves the second language learners' understanding of their identities and the question: who am I? It is operationalized as the students' English learning interest and motivation,learning attitude,learning investment,learning strategies along with learning achievement.The subjectsof this study are the tourism management majors from Grade 1 and Grade 2 in a Kindergarten Teachers' College in Jiangsu Province.In the process of the study,the methods of questionnaire and interview were used to figure out their English learning identity and self-identity.The research questions are:(1)What is the status of students' English learning identity in Secondary Vocational Schools?(2)What are the factors affecting the students' English learning identity in Secondary Vocational Schools?(3)How toimprove students' English learning identity in Secondary Vocational Schools? The results of the survey show:(1)There is a crisis in English learning identity among secondary vocational school students,they have a low acceptance and favor in English learning.They are lack of learning interest and motivation.Only 9.8% of the students have interest in English;there are 13.3% students who think that they can use some efficient learning strategies in English learning.49.2% of the students think that English is very important to the development of their future career,which means that most students think English has no influence on their future career and personal development even if they don't study English very well.The students who admit that they have some additional materials related to English is only 7.7% and the students who spend more than 4 hours on English learning are about 11%.The two statistics show that the investment of students in the Second Vocational Schools is very low.(2)The factors that influence the students' English learning identity are the following:unpleasant learning experience in the past—teachers' criticism and negation of their study make them dislike the teacher and the subject;The survey also finds that there are about 48.5% of the students who can't accept their present identity,which leads to negative effect on their English learning.Most students in the Second Vocational Schools have an inactive psychology in passion,cognition and behavior in the process of English learning.In addition,students' disagreement to their own identity results in the crisis to the development of their future career and English learning crisis is a part of it.According to the findings of the study,the researcher puts forward the following strategies to improve the secondary vocational school students' English learning identity:(1)To develop students' English learning interest,motivation,initiative and confidence.Interest is the best guider and teacher of learning.Learning motivation and learning outcome are mutual influence and promotion.Teachers should make every effort to change students' thinking of learning passively into learning actively.Only in this way can teachers motivate students' initiative in English learning.Confidence is the guarantee of the success of learning and the power of students' learning so that teachers should give students prompt praise for their progress,therefore,the students' confidence can be strengthened constantly.(2)To make students experience enjoyment and success during the learning of English.Students can reinforce their initiative and investment of English learning when they can get constant enjoyable experience of success,which means that the students' English learning identity can be strengthened.(3)To help students establish a reasonable self identity.The survey shows that most students in the Second Vocational Schools have a low recognition on their self identity and a misunderstanding that they are losers in studying.Teachers should make every effort to help students out of it and make them figure out their value in society.(4)To focus on the education of career planning for students.The findings of the survey also indicate that a number of students are not interested in what they are studying.They are also lack of cognition and confidence on what they are learning.The school and the department should manage to inspire students' passion to what they are studying and the prospect of their career development.