Problems And Counter-measures Of English Teaching And Learning In Primary Schools In Qinghai Rural Areas

Chinese Ministry of Education has already required to open English courses at elementary schools nationwide in China from the fall of 2001. According to the requirement of the curriculum, the primary school students in urban areas are required to learn English from the first grade while those in rural areas need to start English courses from the third grade. There are some problems existing on English education in rural primary schools of Qinghai Province during the past fifteen years. This thesis points out the major problems and gives suggestions to improve the current situation of teaching and learning English in the rural areas. After a series of data analysis, the problems will be divided into three aspects.To start with, the problems appeared in learning English. Most rural primary school students declared that they can not distinguish between English letters and Chinese Pinyin, let alone correct pronunciation with English phonetic symbols. Rural primary pupils stated they don’t have strong capability in listening and speaking. As is known to us all, the development of English comprehensive ability is emphasized that language output is a prerequisite for a sufficient amount of language input. Listening, speaking, reading and writing are four skills for English learning which are complementary. Or rather, lacking of correct language input is hard to generate an efficient language output in English study. There are not sufficient learning resources for rural students to learn English, for example, shortage of original books, professional technicians and teachers familiar with operation of multimedia equipment, worst of all, lacking of qualified English teachers.Then, the problems appeared in teaching English. Due to the limitations of living situation and natural conditions, teachers who have good command of English are not willing to work and live in the poor rural areas. As a result, some unqualified teachers hinder, to some degree, the improvement of teaching and learning English for rural pupils. The worst part is the teacher’s pronunciation has a negative influence on pupils. The low emotional control ability of teachers leads to the discriminatory and punitive repeat inefficient homework. More over, it is difficult to arouse student’s English learning interest because of the single teaching method.Finally, the problems related to English teaching materials. There is a comparatively weak cohesion of teaching materials between primary school and junior high school. There are too many unnecessary repetition of contents, for example, letters are repeatedly taught at both levels. The analysis shows that there are some gender discrimination issues in primary English textbook which present on the uncoordinated number of male characters to female characters and the social roles occupied by male and female.Therefore, after an investigation of the above mentioned problems, the paper will put forward some countermeasures to adjust the problems existing in English teaching and learning in the primary schools in the rural areas of Qinghai Province.The paper is divided into five chapters. The Chapter one is an introduction to the background information about the current situation at the elementary schools in rural areas, and significance and layout of the thesis. Chapter two is a literature review which describes the research into problems of English education in foreign countries and in China. The author makes use of a theoretical basis to support the thesis in a more specific way, including Piaget’s Theory on Cognitive Growth, Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, and the Affective Filter Hypothesis. In chapter three, the author makes a development research with three methods: questionnaire, textbook analysis and supporting views of authorities on teaching English at elementary school. Chapter four will try to conclude the results after data analysis, and will be presented in the findings. Chapter five is a conclusion about the design of research questions, counter-measures, research results, and research limitations. Suggestion for its further research will also be listed.