Investigation And Research Into The Present Situation Of Junior 1 English Learning

This study is to investigate the current situation of English learning in junior 1.The main contents of this research include four aspects: 1.The basic situation of the students in junior 1when they just come to junior middle school. 2.The change in English learning of junior 1 students in a semester(based on the theory of teaching and learning elements, the investigation about the current situation of English learning are taken in five dimensions, including the learning adaptability, learning style and learning method, nonintellectual factors, learning environment, learning results). 3. Analysis of the problems and causes in English learning of junior 1 students. 4. Discussion about the effective strategies to solve the problems of English learning in junior 1 students.The study divides the problems into four: 1.What is the current situation?(learning adaptability, learning style and learning method, nonintellectual factors, learning environment, learning results) 2.What problems exist in the current situation of English learning of junior 1 students? 3. What are the reasons for the problems? 4. What are the successful or effective methods for the junior 1 students in English learning?In order to answer the above questions, according to the theory of teaching and learning elements, the author has done the study mainly through investigation based on the questionnaire, case studies, classroom observation and assisted by interviews. The author complies 50 questions for the students' questionnaire and 35 questions for the teachers' questionnaire. The questionnaire survey is carried on among 975 junior 1 students of Ningjin No.2 Experimental Middle School. This study investigates the following five aspects: learning adaptability, learning style and learning method, nonintellectual factors, learning environment, learning results. In order to guarantee the study authoritative, reliable, continuous and dynamic, the author carries on the questionnaire survey twice, first in the middle of September 2015 and second in early January 2016.After the questionnaire survey, the author compares the results and analyses one by one. According to the problems which reflects in the survey, the author randomly selects several students from the experimental class and conducts interviews to them, and at the same time records their words by the telephone. The interview place is in the teachers' office. The interview is done in order to further understand the situation that the questionnaire does not reflect, analyze of the existing problems and their causes, and approach to solve problems and improve the teaching quality. In the course of the study, the author also selects 10 students as the study cases in the experimental class to do the classroom observation. When the author does the classroom observation, four other English teachers in the same grade are invited to help record. Everyone is asked to observe 2 students. The classes that the author observes are 20 in total and 10 of them are recorded as representatives in this study.According to the survey for junior 1 students, there are mainly four problems in the situation of English learning:1. Teachers still adopt a traditional, one-way transmissive teaching approach, such as traditional lecture method, demonstration method and writing guidance method on the basis of model imitation. Teaching lack of situation and communication is not good for cultivating the students' ability of language application. Teaching material should have a certain continuity. However, connection part of the teaching material is too simple and shallow to reach the purpose of the effective connection. The textbook published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press has a large capacity, vocabulary, listening and speaking. Key words are not obvious. It has not a whole system and lack of continuity. And it is also difficult for the students. The textbook does not pay enough attention to the lively personality, the development and progress of the several aspects of the students. It also neglects the richness and complexity of the education and the students' situation.2. Students are not good at taking notes in class or learning together. Learning consciousness of autonomy, cooperation, exploration is not strong. Students are also not good at making the practical, feasible and effective plans. Students are short of good learning methods and learning habits, and most of the students attach importance to classroom learning, but they often ignore the preview before class and the review after class.3. The learning attitude of junior 1 students is not stable, they don't have the lasting interest in learning and the strong will. Their learning motivation mainly derives from external factors, which belong to instrumental motivations. The good habit in English learning is not formed. So they do not always get satisfying learning effects, but most of them still have confidence in English learning. In addition, the students' autonomous learning ability is weak and they do not master the necessary autonomous learning strategies. As a result, there comes a wide gap among the students with different English levels. There are differences in English learning time after class. It can affect the students' learning results.4. Teaching environment and teaching facilities have been greatly improved. The multi-media aided classroom will benefit to the students' English learning. But the large-size class teaching is not good for the teachers to pay more attention to the individual differences of students, and it is also not good for the teachers to discover and solve the students' problems in time.The thesis falls into seven chapters: Chapter one is introduction, including the background, questions, objective and significance of the research. Chapter two is literature review. Chapter three is the research design and process, this part introduces the questions, research subjects, research tools, research methods and the process of the investigation. Chapter four shows the current situation of English learning in junior 1 students. Chapter five introduces and analyzes the survey results in the current situation of English learning in junior 1 students. Chapter six is the conclusion of the survey. Chapter seven strategies and suggestions are provided for English learning in junior 1 students. In this part, the author points out the limitations of the research, and recommends for the further study.The significance of this research lies in that it will enrich the theory of junior 1 English teaching, improve the current situation of English learning in junior1 students of the Ningjin No.2 Experimental Middle School, and help students to lay a solid foundation in English study of the whole middle school period.The limitations of this research mainly reflect the following four aspects:1. As the time allocation, for practice research is more, while for scientific summary and extraction is less. During the course of research, the author pays more attention to researching existing problems, while the systematic theory about this research topic has not been formed.2. During the research, the author mainly aims at the study of Ningjin No.2 Experimental Middle School, taking the whole junior 1 students as the research objects. It needs to be further research and solved imminently.3. The students are changing and developing, which causes difficulties for the research. The further study needs to be explored in practice, and a lot of literature materials are also needed to support it.4. Because of my limited ability, the materials of the literature review may not represent the highest level of the current research, and the latest research theories and results may not be entirely used for reference.