A Study Of English Classroom Activity System In Senior High School From The Perspective Of Activity Theory

Classroom activities are an important part of classroom instruction.The view of English learning activity(VELA),in the National English Curriculum Standard(NECS)for Senior High Schools(2017),stipulates that English learning activities are the basic organizational form of English classroom teaching and the main way to achieve the curriculum goal.The VELA emphasizes that teachers should design the activities with the level of comprehension,application,and innovation to improve students’ English key competencies.As a result,English classroom activities have once again received widespread attention from researchers and in-service teachers.Existing studies mainly focus on the interpretation of the connotation and meaning of the view of English learning activity,and how to design English classroom activities under the guidance of the VELA.There are a few studies on how the VELA is implemented in daily English teaching in senior high school,and how the activities work in the English classroom.However,a comprehensive and systematic analysis of daily English classroom activities is of great significance to further improve English education.Activity theory takes activity as the logical starting point,analyzes the six elements of activity subject,object,mediating artifacts,rules,community and division of labor,and pays attention to the dynamics and hierarchical nature of the teaching activities process,which provides a comprehensive and systematic perspective to analyze English teaching and learning process.Based on the background of the view of English learning activity and activity theory,this study explored the following two questions:1)How is the view of English activity being implemented in the English classroom teaching? What are the types and distribution of these activities?2)How does the activity system work in the senior high school English classroom based on activity theory? Are there any contradictions between or among the elements in the activity system? If yes,what are they and what are the underlying reasons for the contradictions?In order to answer the above questions,the study used classroom observation,semi-structured interview,and questionnaire to study two English teachers and their students in a high school in Chongqing.A total of 53 lessons were observed,227 questionnaires were distributed,and 5 interviews were conducted in this study.With the help of NVivo12,the data collected through classroom observation was coded based on the three levels of activity that are involved in the VELA,and the types and distribution of the activities in the two teachers’ English classrooms were demonstrated and analyzed from a macro perspective.Furthermore,the classroom observation,questionnaire,and interview data were coded based on the six elements involved in activity theory—subject,object,mediating artifacts,rules,community,and division of labor to explore the English classroom activity system in depth.The major findings are: 1)The classroom activities of the two teachers covered the three activity levels of the VELA—comprehension,application,and innovation,but the teaching activities of the entire unit mainly focus on comprehension,while the activities reaching the level of application and innovation are insufficient.Besides,despite the same teaching content,there is a big gap in the use of teaching activities between the two teachers.2)The contradictions involved in the English classroom activity system include: a.the inconsistencies between the students’ object and the teacher’s object;b.the contradictions in mediating artifacts and object: the mediating artifacts are not diverse enough,which cannot meet the students’ requirements;c.the mismatch among rules,division of labor and community: the rules are not specific enough so that the division of labor is not very clear,which leads to inefficiency in the work of the community.The reasons are listed for the contradictions in English classroom activities as follows: a.the mismatch between teachers’ teaching beliefs and students’ learning beliefs;b.the conflicts between the curriculum standard and the CEE;c.the tension between school’s policy and teachers’ teaching beliefs.This research provides an alternative approach to analyze the design of English classroom activities from the perspective of activity theory,which is also an extension of activity theory in the field of foreign language teaching.Practically,based on the contradictions in the English classroom activity system and analysis on the reasons for contradictions,this thesis attempts to put forward suggestions for foreign language teacher education,school teaching management,and teachers’ teaching design under the background of the reform of English curriculum.