A Study On Causes Of Classroom Silence In Grade Ten Students And Its Countermeasures

Grade ten students are in a transitional stage from Junior High School to Senior High School. Due to the differences in age, cognitive level, learning environment, and teachers, many problems may naturally appear in grade ten English class. Of all the problems, classroom silence is obvious and prominent. The phenomenon of classroom silence refers that the students show no participation to teachers' questions or classroom activities; they just nod, shake head or keep silent. Classroom is the main place for students to learn English and communicate with others in English. But students' negative silence in class not only hinders development of English teaching but also becomes obstacle in English learning. In order to have a deep study on negative silence in grade ten, this thesis aims to investigate and analyze the three main issues: 1. Does the phenomenon of classroom silence exist widely in grade ten English class in Liao Cheng NO.4 Senior High School? 2. What factors could cause the classroom silence in grade ten? 3. Are there any relationships between classroom silence and transition from Junior High School to Senior High School?With the guidance of Social Interactionism theory, Interaction Hypothesis and Comprehensible Output Hypothesis, the study was done with the participation of 240 grade ten students in Liao Cheng No.4 Senior High School. With the help of the research instruments like questionnaire, interview and classroom observation, the survey shows that: classroom silence does exist widely in Liao Cheng No.4 Senior High School. The author attempts to analyze the causes from three aspects: external factors, students' factors and teachers' factors. The external factors include the transition of teaching materials, evaluation system and the atmosphere of English class. The students' factors are: psychological influence, language competence, learning strategies, students' personality and herd mentality. The teachers' factors consist of the cognition of the different stage(Junior High School and Senior High school), teaching methods and classroom feedback. With deeply analyze, the author found that the inappropriate transition from Senior High School to Junior High School is the important reason for this phenomenon, such as different arrangement of teaching materials, the changeable psychology and the cognition of knowledge system. These factors readily generate classroom silence in English class of grade ten students.Corresponding to the above reasons, four pedagogical suggestions are provided to solve the problem. Firstly, teachers should change their teaching methods, improve the way of feedback and pay attention to transition of knowledge system. Secondly, students should strengthen confidence, set up the concept of autonomous learning and improve learning consciousness. Thirdly, school should reform the single English evaluation system and stimulate students' enthusiasm to participate in classroom interaction. Fourth, school should create a favorable teaching-learning environment and build a good study atmosphere.