A Research On The Current Situation Of English Summer Vacation Homework In Senior High Schools

Homework is the supplement of classroom teaching,an important part in basic teaching and an integral part of students' learning process.Scientific and reasonable homework can not only contribute to the consolidation of English knowledge and skills,but also create successful experience for students and check teaching effects for teachers,which can lead to a better teaching plan.Thus,homework plays an important role in both learning and teaching.This paper is developed based on mastery learning theory,humanistic educational theory and learning motivation theory.Mastery learning theory pays more attention to the difference of students' ability and learning time as well as the guidance from teachers to all students.Humanistic educational theory claims for learner center and respects learners' individual differences.Besides,the learning motivation theory lays emphasis on how to cultivate students' internal motivation.With the tools of questionnaire and interview,the present study investigated 191 senior high school students(from Guilin No.1 Middle School and Foreign Language School Attached to Guangxi Normal University)in Guilin City,and interviewed with 10 students and 5 teachers separately.There are seven dimensions in the questionnaire of this paper: students' understanding of importance and attitude toward summer vacation homework,ways of completion,contents,options for students,types of summer vacation homework and correction or feedback.In order to have an overall view on summer English homework in senior high schools in Guilin City,this study is designed to answer two questions:(1)How is the overall situation of Summer English homework in Guilin senior high schools?(2)What problems exist in thedesign,completion and other aspects of English summer vacation homework at senior high schools in Guilin City?According to the data collected by the questionnaire and the interview records,the results show that there are some problems of English summer vacation homework in Guilin senior high schools,including teachers hold traditional concept of homework and students have negative attitude and bad learning habits of the English summer vacation homework;the homework type is not rich and diverse,the homework content is closely related to knowledge and examination,lack of interest,and there is the phenomenon of plagiarism;from the design of English homework and homework evaluation,students lack the rights to speak,choose and participate;the correction and feedback method of summer vacation homework is monotonous and not timely.Basing on the above findings,the author puts forward four suggestions to solve the existing problems of senior English summer vacation homework,including helping teachers set up new concept of homework and helping students cultivate positive attitude and good habits in doing summer vacation homework,enriching the contents and types of summer vacation homework,giving more options for students and assign homework in layers to meet individual differences,teachers can increase the frequency of homework evaluation and use the network platform reasonably.Due to the limitation of time and space,the investigation is unable to involve all senior high school students in Guilin.And the questionnaire questions are not comprehensive or rational enough because the limitation of the author's knowledge and her research ability.In the future study,more valid investigate methods can be used.And researchers can dig deep into the summer vacation homework in different aspects such as assigning summer vacation homework in layers,adding students' participation when design summer vacation homework and so on.