A Classroom Observation Tool For High School English Reading Based On The View Of Activity-based English Learning

Recently,National English Curriculum Standards(NECS)for Senior High School(2017)propose the View of Activity-based English Learning.Oriented by the key competency of English subject,this view defines the learning activity as both a fundamental form for English learning and a leading way to improve students’ English disciplinary competency.However,current researches indicate that most of the English classroom teaching in senior high school is still organized in a traditional way,focusing primarily on language knowledge.Hence,a burning question needs to be tackled: how can we ensure that an English class is featured by the View of Activity-based English Learning?Worked as a specialized method of classroom assessment,classroom observation can be regarded as one possible solution.Because the existing observation pattern is considered too featureless to run in the language classroom,this thesis aims at creating a classroom observation tool especially for high school English reading.The research is conducted to answer a core question: how can we develop a reliable and operational observation tool based on the view of Activity-based English Learning? For answering this research question,this thesis completes two tasks: clarifying the theoretical basis so as to create the tool;testing its validity and reliability.English reading class in the author’ s internship school in Ningde,Xiapu is observed in this research.The research process is structured by three progressive stages: analysis and design,trial and revision,retrial and reliability test.During the process,this thesis clarifies that the classroom observation should demonstrate the students’ cognitive processes that exist in the dynamic interactions among the four elements in a reading class: the teacher,the students,reading activities,and teaching environment,whereby the author points out 8 observation focuses.After further refinement and integration,the observation tool identifies 4 categories: overall performance,comprehension,application and innovation,with several specific observable indicators for each of them.Finally,the SPSS 24.0 statistical analysis software is used to analyze the observation data and draw a reasonable conclusion.The statistical analysis reveals the coefficient of concordance,W=0.935,and additional analyses indicate that the observation tool has high reliability and validity.This research is also noted that the observation tool is convenient to operate.Both novice teachers and expert teachers can use the tool to make an accurate assessment.