A Study Of Classroom Teachers’ Roles In The Senior High School English Language Teaching

In the resent years, the studies of classroom teachers’ roles are fruitful at home and abroad. Since the year of2001, a new English Language Curriculum for Senior High School was established in China. The new curriculum challenged the traditional roles of English teachers and it has aroused more and more attention of scholars on the English teachers’ roles in the classroom. However, when searching for the related literature, the author found that most of the studies are made from the view of experts. It is relatively rare to find the relevant materials from the angle of the students’ perspective. Moreover, the researches on high school English courses are more based on teaching methods and teaching strategies while few of the practical research focus on the study of the English teachers’ roles. What exactly are the roles for English teachers in senior high guided by the new teaching condition? This paper attempts to answer this question with the tools of questionnaires and interview. The present research investigates259senior high students from Grade1and Grade2in Tianjin No.25Senior High School and30teachers from the different schools. This study includes5questions:(1) teachers’ beliefs about the roles played in English course;(2) the students’expectations of teachers’ roles in English course;(3) teachers’actual performance condition in English course;(4) the differences between English teachers’ beliefs and the students’expectations;(5) the differences between English teachers’ actual performance and students’expectations. The software SPSS16.0is used to calculate the quantitative data.The statistical results of the investigations indicate that: (1) About the teachers’beliefs,"helper","stimulator","creator","designer" and "organizer" are listed top five. The bottom roles are "friend","participant" and "instructor"..(2)"Creator","stimulator" and "helper" are the three roles that the students expect most in the English course, while "monitor","designer" and "valuator" are the roles that the students expect least..(3) Based on classroom observation and data collected through the second questionnaire for the students, the most frequently played roles in the classroom by the English teachers are "instructor","organizer" and "helper"The thesis also provides a comparative analysis of difference between the students’expectations of the teachers’roles and teachers’beliefs as well as the difference between the students’expectations and teachers’actual performance. The author attempts to analyze these reasons of the differences to make appropriate recommendations for the English teachers, thus contributing to improving the quality of English teaching.Finally, the article pointed out the shortcomings of the present study. The present study can not be expected to include all aspects of the related situation:(1) the present study only covered a limited region;(2) the present study put the different subjects in one sample;(3) it is possible that there are overlap parts existing different types of the lessons.