An Investigation Into Senior High School Students' Classroom Silence In English Classroom

For a long time,Chinese learners of English are believed to be rather silent in classroom and passive in their learning process by many scholars.Students' classroom silence not only hinders the successful performance of teaching activities,but also hampers the cultivation of students' communicative competence.Due to students' indifferent attitudes towards classroom activities,the interactive tasks in English classroom cannot be fulfilled with the satisfactory effect.Students' unwillingness to get involved in classroom activities and passive attitude in learning not only makes it difficult for teachers to organize various classroom activities,but also impedes teachers from developing students' communicative competence.Therefore,it is necessary to explore students' classroom silence and to reveal the factors leading to classroom silence.213 Grade two students(149 male and 64 female)and 3 teachers from a senior high school in Ganzhou city participated in this study.Using a questionnaire,classroom observation and interview,this study investigated the current situation of students' silence in classroom and examined the factors leading to classroom silence in a senior high school English classroom.It also attempted to find ways to help students get involved in classroom activities.On the basis of the findings of this study,this study attempted to offer some implications for English and learning in senior high schools.SPSS 17.0 was used to analyze the quantitative data.In addition,the data from classroom observation and interviews were also carefully analyzed so as to provide some supplementary support to the quantitative data.The study produced a number of results related to students' silence in classroom.First,most students stayed silent in English classroom in senior high school.Teachers took up approximately 55.18% of the class time.In the interviews,most students confessed that they preferred to keep silence in English classroom.Next,the study revealed a number of factors resulting in students' classroom silence in three perspectives: students,teachers and culture.From the aspect of student factors,anxiety,lack of confidence,introvert personality,poor English proficiency and passive learning habits exerted vital influence in the formation of classroom silence.From the perspective of teachers,teacher-centered teaching method and inappropriate questioning strategies discouraged students from being involved into activities.In addition,traditional Chinese culture also facilitated students' tendency to stay silent in classroom.On the basis of the findings above,this thesis put forward some implications for English teaching and learning.First of all,teachers are recommended to make some adjustment to their role in classroom.To help students take an active part in classroom activities,teachers had better act as organizers rather than controllers or rulers in the classroom.Furthermore,it is advisable for teachers to create a relaxing atmosphere and provide more opportunities for students to practice communicative skills.Besides,teachers need to improve their question strategies.The questions should be neither too easy nor too difficult.Additionally,when students are thinking about the questions,teacher are advisable to wait patiently rather to urge them to give an answer promptly.When commenting on students' classroom activities,teachers are strongly advised not merely to reply with “well done,good” or “No,that's not the right answer”.Instead,teachers should provide more specific evaluation and feedback for their students' classroom performance.