A Research On The Effectiveness Of The Content And Form Of English Homework In Junior School

According to the New English Curriculum Standards, the aim of English teaching during basic education period is to cultivate students’ ability to use English synthetically based on the five curriculum goals:language knowledge, language skills, emotional attitude, learning strategies and cultural awareness. As an important additional part of classroom teaching, homework after English lessons should be the supplement of classroom teaching and should promote the development of students. However, the current situation is not very satisfactory. Most of teachers pay less attention to English homework design than classroom activities design, little by little, English homework becomes the synonym of reciting, copying and repeating, and also becomes a heavy burden for students and gives them too much pressure. So, we need to do some researches to change this situation and improve English homework design.Based on Humanitarian theory, Zone of Proximal Development and Multiple Intelligences, and reviewing rich literature in China and in the West in order to make the research more credible and effective, the author makes an investigation about the problems which problems exist current English homework in Junior school through three questionnaires for students, teachers and parents respectively. The subjects of the study include150students,10teachers and100parents from Qing Xian Hui Min Middle School in Hebei province. At the same time, the author uses other methods to supplement questionnaires such as interviews and cases study.Through the research, the author finds there are some typical problems in current English homework design. For example, the purpose of homework is not definite, the form is not various, the content is not interesting or related to students’ life, the amount is too much most of time and the same homework design does not consider learners’ differences. Based on these problems above and combining with some modern educational theories, the author provides some features or principles for English homework design. At last, according to these principles, the author explores some cases of English homework design in order to find some changes in students such as learning attitudes, the situations of finishing homework and the interests in English. And also the author hopes this research can give some recommendations for practical teaching for teachers and learning for students.