An Empirical Study Of The Strategies For Cultivating English Teaching Practice Ability Of Students In Normal Schools

This thesis aims at an empirical study of the strategies for cultivating English teaching practice ability of students in normal schools. The cultivation of English teaching ability is an important part of teaching and education reform in normal schools, the basis of helping students achieve higher academic levels and improving quality of life and the basic guarantee of making success on school education reform. In terms of the cultivating form for the students in normal schools, there are pedagogy, psychology, methodology for teaching and teaching practice internship at majority of colleges when the students are at school. Teaching practice internship focuses on practical aspects, but the other three emphasis on the theoretical level more than on practical aspects, the teaching practice ability on teaching practical level has rarely been involved. The English talents trained by normal schools are the main force in charge of the teaching in elementary schools and an guarantee for the sustainable development of English education at elementary schools. So it is of great practical significance to cultivate English teaching practice ability the students in normal schools. In theory, it will form efficient strategies for cultivating English teaching practice ability of students in normal schools, provide realistic basis for the normal schools to make the plan for training talents and enrich the theories for training talents. From a practical point of view, the study will promote teaching professional development of the students in normal schools, improve English teaching practice ability of the students in normal schools, promote the reform of English basic education, effectively solve the problems about the shortage and the low qualities of English teachers in elementary schools and enable the students in elementary schools to share fair education of English.On the bases of Spearman’s Two-factor Theory and the Theory of Teacher Professional Development, the following three problems will be solved:First, What’s the current situation of the cultivation of English teaching practice ability of the students in normal schools? Second, what strategies are appropriate for cultivating English teaching practice ability of the students in normal schools? Third, what’s the effect of the new adopted strategies for cultivating English teaching practice ability of students in normal schools? The writer will learn about the current situation and appropriate strategies of English teaching practice ability of the students in normal schools through conducting a survey on 135 five-year and free-charge students in normal schools who are majoring in primary education at a normal school, and making an interview on 10 English teachers who are English instructors on the internship schools of this normal school, some English teachers at this normal school and those from other normal schools in Hunan which are in charge of cultivating five-year and free-charge students in normal schools. Then according to the current situation of English teaching practice ability of students in normal schools and the result of interview on teachers, six main strategies have been adopted. Five months later, a post-test was conducted on 135 participants who are in Grade Five to check whether the adopted strategies have improved participants’English teaching practice ability. A test was also held to check participants’spoken English by using The Assessment and Evaluation Scheme on English Spoken English. Descriptive analysis, the analysis of validity and reliability, paired sample test and regressive analysis are used on this study.There are some findings with the study:1. The result of the pretest and the interview:most students in normal schools love the teacher profession and think highly of the cultivation of English teaching practice ability. There are many problems on English teaching practice ability of students in normal schools, for instance, the students’pronunciation is not standard. They are weak in spoken English and have no solid basic knowledge of English. Normal schools lack of some effective strategies for cultivating English teaching practice ability, such as unreasonable provision of curricula, few practice activities, few times of probation, old teaching methods, insufficient internship training and instruction and so on.2.The main strategies appropriate for cultivating participants’English teaching practice ability:using the network platform to widen students’ learning channels of theories; adding professional courses to strengthen the students’basic teaching skills; adjusting the time of probation and practice to guarantee the students enough time for learning and practice; conducting a communication mode to improve teachers’teaching methods; enhancing practice training and instruction to make sure the practice activities goes smoothly; making feasible and effective evaluation programs to promote students’ self-efficacy.3. The effect of the strategies:The mean data in the post test on English teaching practice ability are more than those in the pre-test. It is obvious that the participants’ English teaching practice ability has been apparently improved because the value of significance is less than 0.05. By the analysis of regression, the six main strategies adopted in this study have a significant impact on the improvement of comprehensive ability of English teaching practice of students in normal schools. Especially the conduction of communication mode, the adding of professional courses and the making and implementation of evaluation programs have significant influence on participants’ English teaching practice ability.