The Application Of The Participatory Teaching Approach: A Survey And Analysis Of The Primary School English Classes In Ningxia Rural Regions

Since the beginning of Ningxia Rural Elementary English Teacher's Accelerated Training Program, provided by the Ford Foundation, U.S.A, in September, 2005, about 237 primary school English teachers have been trained with the participatory teaching approach. The writer as one of the trainer who took part in the training program wanted to do some research on this approach.The participatory teaching approach emphasizes several aspects: taking the student-centered model, using various classroom activities as the major teaching forms, participation of both teachers and students as combined subjects in class. The purpose of this approach is to arouse the subjective initiative of the teachers and students. At the same time, the reform of the basic education curriculums also puts emphasis on the change of the students' studying habit and advocates the individualized learning, autonomous learning and collaborative learning.The research overviews the development history of primary English teaching in recent years in China, describes the theories and practice of child's development, child's cognitive psychology, and combines the knowledge of behaviorism and constructivism, involves 49 English teachers from the rural primary schools as the subjects of the research in Ningxia rural regions. A multi-method approach was adopted in this research, consisting of analysis of questionnaire surveys, classroom observation and interviews. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to complement with each other as well as to enhance the validity and reliability of this empirical research.The research aims at investigating the comprehension and the practice of participatory teaching approach of the primary school English teachers in Ningxia, and the real results of the participatory teaching approach, and the difficulties that these teachers have met. Through the research, the writer tries to collect much more information to develop the participatory teaching approach. In particular, the following questions were discussed: 1. Does 'participation' play a critical role in the process of English teaching in primary schools? 2. Whether those students who are exposed to 'participatory teaching classes' are really better in learning English than the students who are not? 3. Are there any differences happened in the participatory teaching approach classrooms which affects these teachers' beliefs?The major findings of this study are as follows: First, the trained English teachers could accept and understand the participative approach and try to use it in their classes; SecOnd, the relationship between English teachers and their students has been greatly changed, but some problems still exist which would affect the advanced development for teachers ability, evaluation system and objective condition; Third, some English teachers couldn't understand fully the concept of participatory teaching approach in their teaching practice, so they couldn't get good teaching effects.It is anticipated that this investigation may provide some useful information and give some implications accordingly that could assist in developing in-service primary school English teachers' training programs and could also contribute to their professional development. Through the research, some suggestions were also provided: 1. Primary school English teachers should improve their professional ability; 2. Primary school English teachers should carry out more researches on both their education concepts and teaching skills; 3. School authorities should pay attention to the in-service teacher development and improve teachers' understanding and practical competence of participatory teaching approach, organize teachers to carry out the action research and keep on reflecting on their teaching practice; 4. The education administration authorities shouldn't take the students' scores as the unique assessment standard and the government should invest greatly so as to ensure the educational expenditure.Through this research, the writer has a basic understanding on the application of the participatory teaching approach, but there were still some problems existed which influenced the practice of the approach.