新课程背景下英语教师作业设计的研究.doc

新课程背景下英语教师作业设计的研究a study on english teachers assignments designing in the context of new curriculum reformabstract: assignment, as one of the most important and essential procedures in class teaching, plays an influential role in implementing the teaching and realizing the teaching procedures. both at home and abroad, assignment designing is valued by the language teaching experts. and in the context of new curriculum reform in china today, english teaching has put forward higher requirements. so researcher carry out an investigation into assignments designing in english teaching to make investigation papers. and give away to the english teachers in middle schools in shi hezi city. from this, researcher could find some problems to hint the teachers, and suggest them to find better ways to inhance english teaching.key words: assignment; assignment designing; english teaching摘 要：作业在课堂教学中是其中一个最重要和不可必少的环节，它在实施教学和实现教学步骤中占了一个非常重要的角色。不论是在国内还是在国外，语言教学专家都很重视作业设计。在中国新课程改革的今天，英语教学又提出了更高的要求。所以研究者决定用关于英语教学作业设计的问题来做调查问卷。发放给石河子中学的英语老师。从这里，研究者会发现一些问题，这些可以提醒老师。并且建议他们发现更好的方法去提高英语教学。关键词：作业；作业设计；英语教学contentsi. introduction.1a. definition of assignment.1b. importance of assignment.1c. research background.1ii. literature reviews.2a. problems in present english teaching.2b. study at home.3c. study abroad.4iii.investigation.4a. subjects.4b. investigation procedures .4c. instrument .5d. data .6e. data analysis.7fproblems.9gsolutions.9iv.conclusion .10works cited.11a study on english teachers assignments designing in the context of new curriculum reform. introductiona. definition of assignmentin the dictionary, assignment is a piece of work that is given to someone as part of their job, or that a student is asked to do. assignment is also called follow-up work, homework or extra-class work. it always designed by teachers. it refers to the applications or extensions of classroom activity that will help students to do some learning beyond the class hour. b. importance of assignmentassignment, as one of the most important and essential procedures in class teaching, plays an influential role in implementing the teaching and realizing the teaching procedures. appropriate homework will enhance teaching and learning. so how do todays english teachers design assignment, especially novice english teachers? this is very important for us to know how is todays english teaching. if we know this, we can find problems and we must solve.c. research backgroundit is found that english learners are always experiencing hardships in learning english. so what is the matter? it is language distance. (舒316) specific language can be more or less difficult to learn, depending on how different from or similar to the languages the learner already knows. for instance, french and english belong to the same language family, and they use the same writing system. however, chinese and english belong to different language families. so it is more difficult for chinese to learn english. this can be a great challenge to english teachers in china. but that is not the worst, because there are many famous linguistics provides a variety of ways in language teaching. these ways can instruct and help them in their english teaching.language teaching came into its own as a profession in the 20 th century. central to this process was the emergence of the concept of methods of language teaching. there are grammar-translation method, direct method, the audio-lingual method, and situational language teaching and so on. to sum up, theories of teaching should specify the following features: the knowledge that most effectively leads the individual to a predisposition toward learning; the ways in which a body of knowledge should be structured, so that the learner can most readily grasp it; the most effective sequences in which to present the materials to be learned; the nature and pacing of rewards and punishments in the process of learning and teaching (王立非 26).these theories can all help teachers plan a lesson very well. but having a good class is not enough for students to learn english well. teachers may not recognize the importance of students position in learning. the concept of teaching is a process that is intrinsically and inseparably bound up with learning, that is, it should result in personal learning for students. a good teacher is in the business of making himself or herself unnecessary, and of empowering learners to learn without the teachers help. teaching can be defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions. guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to understand” (kimble 36). so assignment can not be obscured. it is not only the main way to reflect teaching information, but also the bridge which changes knowledge into personal ability. on one hand, from the assignment, teachers can check up and know the information of students study, and adjust their teaching speed. on the other hand, students can digest and recognize the weakness in time in their study, and do preview or review defiantly. literature reviewsa. problems in present english teaching but nowadays there are few english teachers can make effort in designing assignments. they pay a little attention to students homework. some english teachers may say “take the next four pages,” or “work out the next twenty problems”. some english teachers may give students a lot of copying homework about new words or lessons. some english teachers may give students homework without thinking. it is either too hard or too easy. some students hardly can do or never do.wang li said something about designing english assignments for junior students in her article. she thought there are most of english teachers would like to give students a lot of homework. and this can not only waste time on teachers and students, but also leads the students hate learning. and there are also many teachers who design the homework, like listening or speaking. but they are lack of experience in checking this homework. only giving the homework but not checking up is not good. they usually let the students listen to the tape first and read after it, and at last simply give the correct answers. even there are a few teachers regard this homework as exercise after class or never requires to do them. (王莉 88)there are three chief reasons why teachers do not give more attention to the assignment: lack of time, failure themselves to prepare the lesson in advance and lack of understanding of proper methods of study. (betts 65) hang yan also said three reasons in her book called what is lack of for chinese teachers. the first one is coming from the pressure of the tests for entering to college. someone once said the tests in china are “the fifth invitation”. our education followed the tests for a long time. students for grades, and teachers for promoting. the second one is the effect of chinese traditional culture. it always emphasizes on all not individual. however, most companies in american prefer to employ the one who dare to challenge the traditional and commit the responsibility. the third one is the effect of traditional view of knowledge. it concords knowledge just as a description knowledge. it is required by received. it hasnt too much characteristic and creativity. (黄 156)b. study at homezhang guotang said english assignments are knowledge. assignments are the complement for teaching. if designing assignment effectively, it not only makes students improve, but also can arose their interest in studying. he thought there are four principles in designing assignments. first, the quantity of homework shouldnt be too much or too little. second, homework should be interesting. third, different levels students should have different homework. the forth homework is to broaden students horizon. (张 43) wu haijuan gave us another idea in designing homework. remaining questions for students is equal. let students think first. it can make students satisfied when they achieve it. but these questions are not easy to be designed. (伍 31) teachers should formulate clear policies on homework and should check up regularly. the assignments should aim at the teaching objectives and serve for the purposes of learning. the following are tips for teachers when designing homework for students. the homework should have clear objectives and can accommodate the level and needs of the learners; the form and contents of homework should be of a great variety so as to develop learners creativity, self-learning and collaborative skills; the homework should be related to the content taught in class; teachers should give simple and clear instruction; assign appropriate amount of homework each day; ineffective and mechanical drills should be avoided; teachers should make good use of the homework as a tool for evaluation and feedback to enhance the motivation and effectiveness of learning. (舒 316)c. study abroadlessons should be assigned carefully and with sufficient details to make sure that the class knows how to go to work on preparing the lesson without loss of time and interest. there are some principles governing the assignment. go over the lesson with the class in such a way as to give them a birds eye view of the whole. children should be taught to make a summary of the lesson after they have analyzed it into its separate points. particularly difficult points or points of importance should be especially emphasized. the teacher should be able to anticipate any trouble (new or unusual words) and give such explanations of help as may be necessary. in case of written work, the directions should be so clear and explicit that there is no possibility of their not being understand, and the teachers being interrupted next day to explain to members of class. (betts 65). investigationa. subjectsthe subjects in this research include 17 english teachers in no.10 middle school and 13 novice english teachers from the english department of shi hezi university. of the 17 english teachers, 13 teachers have taught for 1-10 years. and 3 teachers have taught for 10-20 years. however, theres also 1 teacher with the teaching span of 23 years. the 13 novice english teachers all have the experience of being a teacher for 2 months.b. investigation proceduresselect the subjects. in order to conduct the research vividly, 30 teachers are selected from 79 english teachers, including 17 english teachers from no.10 middle school and 13 novice english teachers from english department of shi hezi university.design the questionnaire. in the questionnaire, 16 questions are from other persons theses. still, there are 4 questions made out by the researcher. at last, through the discussion between the researcher and the tutor, the questionnaire is decided.investigate. on the march 15th 2010, 17 questionnaires were distributed in no.10 middle school and other 13 questionnaires were distributed in english department of shi hezi university. so, in total, distribute 30 questionnaires. the number of returned questionnaires is 30. the valid are 30.c. instrument i made a questionnaire of 20 questions given to 30 english teachers in shi hezi city.the first part includes 10 questions about general ideas of assignments designing. the questions are going like this. 1. whats your most favorite homework you would like to design? 2. if you give papers to your students, youd like them finish in one day or in one week? 3. would you design preview homework when you give your students english homework? 4. whether you will emphasize on teaching aims and important points and put forward study methods when you design your english homework? 5. whether you think english is much rely on remembering, so that you always design homework like remembering words and reciting passages? 6. which ways do you think can make efficient remembering in your study learning? 7. whether you will design different homework to different students? 8. whether you will design your homework like reading english magazines or newspapers or search information on the internet? 9. whether you will design composition regularly? 10. when you design homework about vocabulary, whether you will put copying and reciting in the first place?the second part includes 4 questions about writing. the questions are going like this.11. after grammar learning, whether you will give your students homework about comparing and summarizing the usually using in grammar? 12. whether you will give your students homework about storing knowledge. like copying important sentences in the text or beautiful and incorrigible sentences of passages written by famous people? 13. whether you will give your students homework about assessing english words or sentences written in public? 14. whether you will give your students homework about rewriting articles?the third part includes 3 questions about reading. the questions are going like this.15. before learning a new lesson, whether you will let your students find some information about that through books or internet? 16. do you think the more homework they do, the better their english will be? 17. do you design homework like making students watch english movies or listen to english songs?the forth part includes 3 questions about listening and speaking. the questions are going like this. 18. whether you will give your students homework about communicating with their classmates or their parents in english when they out of the class? 19. whether you will require your students read two english passages everyday to improve their reading comprehension? 20. whether you will give your students homework about teamwork. such as act a play together based on the text books or other interesting stories? d. datatable 1. descriptive statistics about general assignments designing. 选项题号abcdefgh143.33%3.33%33.33%013.33%03.33%3.33%table 2. descriptive statistics about general assignments designing. 选项题号abcdefg683.33%00036.67%26.67%3.33%table 3. descriptive statistics about general assignments designing.选项题号abc233.33%6.67%60%370%3.33%26.67%476.67%023.33%533.33%6.67%60%743.33%23.33%33.33%840%20%40%963.33%3.33%33.33%1056.67%13.33%30%table 4. descriptive statistics about writing assignments designing. 选项题号abc1130%3.33%66.67%1263.33%10%26.67%1333.33%26.67%40%1440%10%50%table 5. descriptive statistics about reading assignments designing.选项题号abc1533.33%13.33%53.33%1616.67%70%13.33%1720%33.33%46.67%table 6. descriptive statistics about listening and speaking assignments designing. 选项题号abc1816.67%36.67%46.67%1920%23.33%56.67%2043.33%10%46.67%e. data analysisthe following is the analysis of the data from the questionnaires. 1. analysis on the table 1-3question one, 43.33% teachers choose copy words and passages. 3.33% teachers choose listen to the tape. 33.33% teachers choose recite. no teacher chooses write compositions and hand made work, like drawing or making somethings by hands. 13.33% teachers choose homework with teamwork liking acting, making telephone calls in english. 3.33% teachers choose talk with foreigners, ask roads or introduce oneself in english. 3.33% teachers choose homework with interest, like watching english programmers, flashes or movies. question two, 33.33% teachers choose finish in one day, 6.67% teachers choose finish in one week, 60% teachers choose it depends on. question three, 70% teachers choose they will, 3.33% teachers choose they will not, 26.67% teachers choose sometimes they will do. question four, 76.67% teachers choose they will, no teacher choose they will not, 23.33% teachers choose they dont think that much. question five, 33.33% teachers choose yes, 6.67% teachers choose no, and 60% teachers choose it does not all like this. question six, 83.33% teachers choose study and use in an efficient way, no teacher choose only look not write or only write not look, 36.67% teachers choose listen to the tape more, 26.67% teachers choose read and write at the same time, 3.33% teachers choose use other ways. question seven, 43.33% teachers choose yes, 23.33% teachers choose no, 33.33% teachers choose sometimes they will do. question eight, 40% teachers choose yes, 20% teachers choose no, 40% teachers choose it depends on students ability. question nine, 63.33% teachers choose they will, 3.33% teachers choose they will not, 33.33% teachers choose sometimes they will do. this kind of homework can build confidence in students abilities to truly learn and understand the material assigned to them. question ten, 56.67% teachers choose yes, 13.33% teachers choose no, 30% teachers choose sometimes they will do.2. analysis on the table 4question eleven, 30% teachers choose yes, 3.33% teachers choose no, 66.67% teachers choose it depends on. writing is very important. it can enhance students skills in speaking and understanding. it can also strengthen students communication skills. so implement regular, informal, upgraded writing tasks. question twelve, 63.33% teachers choose they will, 10% teachers choose they will not, and 26.67% teachers choose so