A Study Of Active Learning In Junior High School English

At present, teachers often have to face some students who have nointerest and motivation in their studies. How to stimulate those students'learning motivation is a common and knotty problem for the teacherstoday. Based on motivation theory and MI theory, the author intended todesign many activities to stimulate students' learning motivation, tobroaden their mind and finally to improve their English learning. Activeleaching approach possesses the characteristics of knowledge, science,practice and interest, so it can arouse their interests, enliven their thinking,develop their individual character and cultivate their ability.An experiment which included a pre-test, a mid-test, a post-test andquestionnaires before and after class were conducted. Meanwhile, relatedinvestigation, collection of the statistics and analysis of the result werecarried out. The subjects were 108 students in Grade Seven from XinHuaHigh School. Two classes have been specially chosen in the experiment,class A is the control class and class B is the experimental class. Bothclasses are taught by the author. The control class is taught in thetraditional way while the experimental class is taught in a newmethod——active leaching based on motivation theory and MI theory.The result of the experiment shows that after one semester'sexperiment the students in the experimental class become more interestedin English learning than those in the control class; their learning motivation has risen highly after the experiment. The students in theexperimental class performed better in the post-test than those in thecontrol class. The hypotheses proposed in the thesis have been supportedby the experiment. Therefore, the new teaching method——active leachingbased on motivation theory and MI theory has been accepted and enjoyedby the students in the experimental class. It is an effective approach toimprove the students' learning ability. Active leaching has providedstudents with enjoyable ways in their language learning and abilitydevelopment. The related theories and the practical meaning are reviewedat the beginning of the thesis. The limitations and some suggestions areshown at the end of the thesis.