An Experimental Research On The Effectiveness Of Leveled English Teaching In Senior High School

According to the National English Curriculum of Senior High School, new demands have been put forward that teachers should learn new education concepts and teaching ideas constantly so as to update and improve their teaching methods accordingly. With the increasing enrollment of senior high school, and the increase of class size nowadays, the phenomenon that students of the same class show great differences at levels also comes as a prominent problem, to which teachers of senior high schools should attach more importance and pay more attention. According to the requirement of new curriculum reform, how to improve class efficiency and how to promote the full development of every student have become the urgent problems that need to be met and solved by teachers. Obviously, the traditional large-size class teaching can no longer meet the new requirements. Based on leveled teaching method,this experiment is carried out in English classes in Xin Mi Experimental Senior High School, for the purpose of exploring a more effective teaching model for English teaching in senior high school.This research is conducted aiming to solve three questions:（1） Is leveled English teaching effective in the improvement of students’ English competence?（2） Is leveled English teaching effective in the motivation of students’ interest in English learning?（3） Is leveled English teaching effective in the promotion of students’ self-confidence in English learning? Leveled teaching was conducted from five aspects: the classification of teaching aims, teaching materials, teaching activities, the assignment of homework and the way of evaluation, taking Zone of Proximal Development Theory and Optimization of Teaching Process Theory as its theoretical basis. 172 students from class5, class6, class10 and class11 of senior grade two in the author’s practice school are chosen as research subjects, the 86 of whom from class6 and class11 form the experiment class, while the others in Class5 and Class11 form the control class. At the beginning of the experiment, students in EC were asked to do the pre-test questionnaire. Besides, a pre-test was also done in both EC and CC. During the experiment, students in EC were reclassified into Class A and Class B based on their English scores in the pre-test, in which a four-month leveled English teaching experiment from Sep.1st,2015 to Dec.31^st, 2015 was conducted, while students in CC still accept traditional English class teaching. Four months later, the post-questionnaire（the same as the pre-questionnaire） and an interview about leveled English teaching were done in EC. Meanwhile, a post-test was conducted in both EC and CC. The comparison between pre-test and post-test scores with SPSS software shows that students in EC make greater progress in their English competence compared with those in CC. Besides, the analysis of the data from interview and questionnaire suggests that there is also great improvement in students’ English learning interest and self-confidence in EC after the experiment. Therefore, the conclusion can be drawn that leveled English teaching is effective in the improvement of students’ English competence, the motivation of students’ learning interest and the promotion of students’ self-confidence in English learning.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One is a brief introduction of the whole research, including research background, research significance, research questions, and the framework of the thesis. Chapter Two is literature review, which includes the current research situation of leveled teaching both at home and abroad. Chapter Three is mainly about the theoretical basis of leveled English teaching, in which Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development and Optimization of Teaching Process theory are mentioned. Chapter Four relates to the research design. Chapter Five mainly focuses on the analysis of the data collected from the interview, questionnaires and tests. The last chapter draws a conclusion of the research, which shows the major findings, the limitation of this research, and the suggestions for future research.