A Study Of Theme-based Moral Education In Junior High School English Class

Moral education plays an important guiding role in English teaching.The 20 th Party Congress(2022)stated emphatically that "Morality formation is the foundation of education." The emphasis on themes in the Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards(2022 edition)provides an effective way for English teachers to implement the fundamental mission of enhancing moral education.Theme-based Moral Education(TBME)has attracted widespread interest among English teachers,however,the majority of current relevant literature is founded on discursive summaries of theme-based moral education and lacks instructional design,classroom practice,and empirical evidence to support its claims.Therefore,this study aims to explore: 1)What is the English teachers’ perception of theme-based moral education at junior high school? 2)How do English teachers design theme-based moral objectives and activities at junior high school? 3)What are the difficulties and needs of junior high school English teachers in theme-based moral education?Based on 365 valid questionnaires,interviews with four junior high school English teachers,and classroom observation data from eight junior high English teachers,the results are as follows: 1)For general perception,most teachers believe that they have certain understanding and positive attitude on theme-based moral education;Their perceptions have a significant relationship with teaching experience,and teachers with seven to twelve years of experience have deeper comprehension of the relevant concepts compared with other teaching age groups.2)For teaching design and implementation,the front-line junior high school English teachers’ perception of TBME is much better than the current state of the implementation such as,specifically,refining unit themes,establishing moral objectives,using moral approach and designing the moral activities.3)The major barriers to the adoption of TBME include: most teachers are not competent enough to teach TBME,which leads to a superficial and formal exploration of moral themes.The restricted literacy leads to shorted guidance for the lower grade students with a relatively low command of language vocabulary,making it difficult to achieve in-depth discussion and reflection;The school official prioritizes entrance examinations to senior high school and other non-teaching duties over professional guidance in theme-based moral education.Based on the literature and the findings of this study,the following recommendations are made: Teachers should enhance the exploration of theme-based moral content in the textbook and progressively implement these theme-based moral elements to students to develop their higher-order thinking abilities;Teachers could increase the multi-modal presentation like videos to strengthen language guidance of moral education for lower grade students in junior high school;Educational policymakers and school administrators should provide professional assistance to teachers on theme-based moral education and reduce the adverse impact of non-teaching tasks and examination pressure.This study still has limitations of short duration and small sample,but it is enlightening for junior high school English teachers’ practice of theme-based moral education.