A Research On The Current Situation Of English Classroom Silence Of Senior High Students In A Minority Area

General Senior High School Curriculum Standards: English(2020 Edition)stipulates that one of the important issues in English instruction is to help students communicate with others in real contexts by applying what they have learnt in English classes.Language learning cannot be restricted to knowledge input,but plays more emphasis on how to transfer input into output.As one of the main routes of language output,“speaking” is obtaining more and more attention.However,through long period of classroom observation in a Yi autonomous county,it is found that the orientation of English instruction is still the imparting of rudimentary language knowledge like vocabulary and grammar under the pressure of college entrance examination.The majority of students are unwilling to express their ideas or respond to teachers’ questioning.Silence is the normality in English classroom It is not conducive to form and develop their core competencies of English discipline.In our country,classroom is the vital spot for English instruction and application.The condition of classroom silence has gained more and more concern and prodigious relevant academic achievements aiming at English classroom in high school have been generated in the domain of educational research,which plays important role in the promotion of the transformation of English instruction.However,there are short of research taking minority students as main subjects carried out in the minority area.For those students,English as a third language possesses some specialty in the process of English learning.Hence,based on Third Language Acquisition Theory and Swain’s Output Hypothesis Theory,this research tends to take senior high students in a Yi autonomous county as main participants,exploring senior high students’ English classroom silence in the minority area and answering the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of students’ English classroom silence in senior high school in the minority area?(2)What are the attributions of students’ English classroom silence in senior high school in the minority area?Aiming at solving these issues,this research is carried out through combination of quantitative and qualitative methods with 54 English classes to be observed,425 effective questionnaires and 20 students to be interviewed.Through data collection and analysis,the results are reached as follows:(1)The analyzed data shows that the comprehensive condition of students’ English classroom silence is rather severe.In questioning activity,teachers’ questions are monotonous and mechanical and students are performed silently in verbal response.The participation rate of group discussion is better than questioning but still in silent level.(2)Through data analysis of questionnaires and interview,it is discovered that their English classroom silence is mainly caused by their academic achievement,mental state and classroom atmosphere in holistic view;from the perspective of comparison between the Yi and the Han students,the result shows that there are significant differences in light of classroom atmosphere and traditional culture.The Yi students are more susceptible to classroom atmosphere while the Han’s silence is more related to traditional culture;as for the gender difference,it is shown that boys are more likely to be affected by T-S relationship and traditional culture than girls.After the comprehensive analysis of the current situation and attributions of students’ English classroom silence,there are several suggestions to be proposed to turn it around.They are refining questioning strategy,organizing diverse activities,stressing cultural linkage as well as conversing teaching faith.With the utilization of these measures,the silent condition of English classroom in the minority area is expected to be reversed.