The situation of English study in Hebei Polytechnic University (investigation) 社会调查终稿.doc

the situation of english study in hebei polytechnic university (investigation)1. introduction1.1 purposein our university, english now plays a more and more important role; many students are busy with english examination. therefore, we decide to carry out the investigation in order to learn situation of english study in hebei polytechnic university. whats more, we should help them to know their errors and weakness in english study.1.2 subjects200 students have participated in our investigation. 200 pieces of questionnaires were handed out at random to students from different majors. they provided us a lot of important information and gave us a lot of help.1.3 timefrom may 22nd to may 23rd, the questionnaires were handed out. from may 24th to may 27th, we analyzed the data and arrived at the conclusion. 1.4 placein the fifth teaching building and metallurgy and energy teaching building1.5 instrumenta questionnaire was used to collect data. considering the questionnaire in english may bring some trouble to the subjects with different english level, we adopted the chinese version instead of english one (see english and chinese version in appendix i and ii.). in order to make the collection of information more accurately, we selected the subjects randomly. the 18 questions in the questionnaire involve the method, the tools, and the effect on english language study and so on.2. data collection and analysis2.1 data collectionfrom 21st to 22nd may, we investigated 200 students in all. among these questionnaires answered, 198 were effective. the rest were not returned because of some reasons. generally speaking, most of the information we got was useful and accurate.2.2 data analysis2.2.1 the importance of english learningtable 1answersthe percentage english take in students heartanswerstime 0n english study answershasty prepar-ation for english exam1 hour39%often23%30%-50%60%1-2 hours45%sometimes50% 50%28%2 hours16%never27% as shown in table1, only 28% of students take english seriously. equivalently, the number of students, who spend more than two hours in english learning, is just 16%. besides, the majority of students do hasty preparation for english exam.2.2.2 the purpose of english learning for this part, we ask three questions, and the analysis is as following. chart 2 the chart indicates the reason for english study. as the chart suggests, the main motivation is to cope with examination. however, only 5 % of students chose the overseas study and regard english language as a communicating tool. to our gratification, nearly30% of students study english for interest. we cant deny that because of the pressure of exam, many students who should have learned english well following their interest, have to shift their attentions to the boring review.chart 3 as revealed by the data in chart 3, 72% students concentrate on cet-6 and tem-8, which are the comparative higher level in english learning. in addition, the percentage of english learning for ielts， toefl and gre is 10%, 6% and 5%. obviously, the exam is still the major purpose leading students to learn english. chart 4 56%38%6%0%10%20%30%40%50%60%equal oralwrittenwhich is more important in your opinion?it can be seen from chart 4, most students hold the view that both of oral english and written english are play an important part in english learning. but 38% of them believe that oral english should obtain more attention. to some extent, it reflects that more students realize the importance of the language use. chart5 2.2.3 the methods of english learningthis chart consists of three questions concerning english corner, morning reading and english material reading. all these show some method of english language study. from the chart, reading english material and morning reading is the usual measure that students take. the majority of students never take part in english corner which means that they dont take communication serious. however, we study english as a second language for communication, most of us ignore the central part. to our gratification, our college has an english corner for morning reading; it really works and has a remarkable effect on students.chart 6 how do you build your vocabulary?18%48%24%10%remember comprehensioncomparisonothersthe chart reveals the way our students build our vocabulary. as can be seen from it, comprehension is the main method. as the common way, remembering is not the most popular. the ways students build their vocabulary are variety which to some extent reflects that students are active at english study.chart 7what is your method of englishlearning?41%16%17%20%6%magazines listen tothe radiosongsmoviesliteraturethis chart suggests the main methods of english learning out of class. 40 percentage of students read english magazines which is a convenient way. movies and literature also influence and expose students to the english language. few students chose listening to the radio which may be a good explanation that why so many students are weak at listening. songs is also a good method. however, most english songs dont obey the grammar. so it is doubtful to learn english through songs. anyway we can intimate their pronunciation and innovation. we suggest that reading more english literatures to expose ourselves to native language.chart 8as can be seen from the chart, we can learn the strength of the students in english learning. however, as the most important part of the output of study, writing is the barrier. besides, listening is just up to the basic level. in our opinion, university students cant take stock of their weakness and strong ness very well, they just assess their english level by the scores they get in the examination. actually, examination cannot reflect the true ability of english language study.table 2the barrier to your english studycourage20%vocabulary49%grammar15%pronunciation16%vocabulary is the main factor. the others have the similar position concerning difficulties in english learning.3. conclusionfrom our survey, we can get the conclusion that a large majority of students have interest in english study and realize the importance of english language use, plunging into it. but due to the pressure both from the competition among peers and in society, university students have to focus on many kinds of standardized test, which reduce their interest and force them to neglect the nature of language study. they just repeat the knowledge they learn in class rather than put it into practice in their daily life. 65% students learn english in order to pass the examinations and only 30% are interest-driven. in this case, most of students confine themselves to test paper, textbooks and exercises works. however, this traditional monotonous language study methods is out of date. in this process, inevitably, they must run into many difficulties and cannot cope with them correctly and properly, which lead to an impasse in their learning. it is on this occasions that they become tense, pressured, overwhelmed, in the state of stress. they struggle vainly, fighting to solve those problems. this is a good explanation that why many students learn english for so many years but end in being confused and cannot grasp it.in conclusion, we cannot deny that it has a long way to go for university students on english language learning.4. some suggestions4.1 listeningin english learning, students should pay more attention to listening. in this way, they can review the words and expressions learnt in the class. listening also includes intensive listening and extensive reading. for the former, students should listen to the whole material first without reading the content. then, listen to the difficult part again and again. when comes to the latter, there are so many choices for students to choose, such as some interesting stories, pure oral materials, english songs, english movies and so on. its convenient for students to listen to the radio broadcast such as voa and bbc watch english movies and listen to english songs. then they can imitate the tone intonation and pronunciation. in that case, students can get familiar with the sense of english use and they can also enlarge their horizons. 4.2 speakingfirst, english conner is a good place for english practice. in our university, because of the teaching resource is so limited, students have little opportunity to expose to some foreign teachers or foreign students. then, students have to create a certain english environment by themselves. at the english conner, they are able to practice oral english freely.second, talking more with foreign teachers is also available to students. during this process, its vital for students to feel the real situation of english. furthermore, the foreign teachers will give them some valuable suggestions which are very important for their further development of oral english. third, imitation is an efficient method of learning english, which includes three principles: 1) imitate loudly, so that the muscles can be more flexible. 2) prepare for the wrong pronunciation of each word consciously. 3) stick to it. the tone cant be perfect in a short time. last but not the least, remembering is also necessary. of course, it doesnt mean just memorize. so retelling is a wonderful way for self-practice, remember words and sentences. 4.3 readinggenerally speaking, english reading can be divided into three parts- intensive reading、extensive reading and fast reading. students can be taught and trained different reading skills. usually, the first paragraph will introduce the main idea of this text, so students can learn about some information about the authors purpose. then, read the first sentences of each paragraph, which can help us form a general idea of the whole passage. after that, read the last paragraph which is generally a conclusion.4.4 writingwriting is one of the processes of language output. students can express their emotions or feelings at random. however, students have no idea abut how or what to write. the most important is they must learn how to appreciate their life and all the other things around them. in addition, reading some famous foreign language works also has splendid effects on writing skill.5. limitation because of the time limitation, the survey is not well-prepared. besides, the design of the questionnaire is not perfect and the quality of questionnaire is limited. we just handed out the questionnaire in the fifth teaching building and the metallurgy and energy teaching building. so its narrow and the perspective is single. obviously, we cant reflect the effect of english learning completely. furthermore, our search level is not well, so the process of investigation couldnt live up to the expectation.6. appendicessurvey on english language learning in our universitydear friends, after a long period of english learning, you must have made some progress pore or less. in order to learn about the situation of your english study, and make some improvement, please fill in the questionnaire accordingly.grade collegethe importance of english learning 1. what percentage does english take in your heart? less than 30% 30%-50% more than 50%2. how long do you spend on english study everyday? less than 1 hour 1 hour -2 hours more than 2 hours3. do you make hasty preparation for english exam?. often sometimes neverthe purposes of english learning4. why you stu