A Study On English Classroom Learning Behavior Of Top Students In Key High Schools

In June 2001, the Eighth Curriculum Reform of Basic Education started in China. Following that, Curriculum Standards for English Curriculum of Compulsory Education was issued. The newly- launched reform on English curriculum and teaching has already been carried out for seven years, constituting a few achievements. However, reform on English curriculum and teaching still has a long way to go on account of a few new and old problems concerning basic education. All these need new development in theory and practice in many ways.Based on the case of Shanghai No. 3 Girls High School, the thesis aims at researching on English classroom learning behavior of top students in key high schools. The reasons are as follows.First of all, students are the object of the research. Factors of the teachers' side have drawn much attention since the reform on English curriculum and teaching was initiated. But the phenomenon that students in one classroom are quite different in learning results is often seen. Actually the factors of students are equally important.Secondly, classroom is a major place for this research. There are two main reasons. First, classroom is a major occasion for teachers and students to communicate with each other. Second, classroom is the most important place for Chinese students to learn English as English is a foreign language in China.Thirdly, top students are the group especially paid attention to. The research aims at concluding the features of top students' learning behavior, finding out the deeper reason of the formation of their learning behavior, and thus providing opportunity for other students to improve their own learning behavior, coming up with suggestions for top students themselves to further improve their learning behavior by means of a series of researches on top students.Finally, Shanghai No. 3 Girls High School is chosen to be the school that the research is based on. The reasons are as follows. First, Shanghai No. 3 Girls High School is the work place of me, thus providing favorable conditions. Second, The school features its English teaching, which allows me to carry out this academic study in a well-established foundation and convenient conditions. Third, facing new challenges, the school needs further renovation. The research is able to provide some new thoughts for the development of the school in the new era.This thesis tends to research into the learning behavior of top students so as to achieve better results through the efforts of both teachers and students.To conclude, researches on classroom learning behavior are not only of practical significance, but also of theoretical significance, for they can promote the development of language teaching theory.This thesis is made up of six parts.In the part of introduction, the dissertation defines the main concepts, introduces the research methods used in the dissertation, and presents the structures of it.Chapter One reviews the development of the researches on talented children abroad and top students at home. It also goes over the researches on classroom learning behavior home and abroad.Chapter Two analyzes and expounds the basic theories of classroom learning behavior of top students in key high schools in the field of philosophy, psychology and education.Chapter Three deals with the questionnaire of English classroom learning behavior of high school students. It presents a thorough analysis of the result of the questionnaire in three aspects, that is, the present situation of English classroom learning behavior and English level, the differences of students of different groups concerning academic performance in classroom learning behaviour in English, and the difference in classroom learning behavior of students from different classes. It is shown in the result of questionnaire that the classroom learning behavior of the students who have excellent and good academic results differ greatly from those average students and those students with learning difficulties. The specific analysis of the difference needs further research in the following chapter. The in-depth causes leading to the behavior will be discussed in chapter five. The phenomenon that the classroom learning behavior of the students who have excellent and good academic results differs slightly will also be studied in chapter five. Chapter four adopts the research method of classroom observation to do the case study of four individual students from four groups of different academic performances. The discussion focuses on three aspects. They are the necessity of conducting classroom observation, the preparation of classroom observation and the analysis of classroom observation.Chapter Five expands its view from classroom learning behavior to learning behavior. It reveals what is learning behavior of top students and why and how they adopt the learning behavior mainly through the two perspectives of learning behavior and the factors resulting in the learning behavior.Chapter Six presents the conclusion of the research. First, English classroom learning behavior, and its two aspects, that is, the study motive, and the use of strategies have positive correlation with learning results. Second, the other two aspects of English classroom learning behaviour which are concentration and learning attitude do not have positive correlation with learning results. Third, there are differences in classroom learning behavior of students with different learning results. Fourth, the classroom learning behavior of top students is consistent. Fourth, both inner cause and external cause influence the growth of top students. The chapter provides some suggestions from the perspectives of students, teachers, schools and parents, and points out the limitations of the research.