| English homework has always been an important activity for teachers to consolidate students’ classroom knowledge.It is because of this important role of homework that teachers keep assigning more and more homework to students,which makes students’ workload heavier.On July 19,2021,the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council issued Opinions on Further Reducing Students’ Homework Burden and After-school Training Burden during Compulsory Education,demonstrating the state’s determination to reduce the workload on students.The “Double Reduction” policy also suggests that the precondition for homework reduction is the need to improve the quality of homework.English curriculum standards of compulsory education(2022 Edition)emphasizes penetrating key competencies into all aspects of English teaching to develop students’ comprehensive English competences further.Therefore,under the “Double Reduction” policy,it is also necessary to design English homework according to English key competencies to improve the quality of homework and better reduce the homework burden on students.Until now,it is unknown whether the students’ homework burden has been really reduced after the release of the policy.Therefore,this thesis investigates the current situation of English homework design in Grade Seven,finds the existing problems,and puts some ideas to optimize English homework design.Based on the English Key Competencies,and Zone of Proximal Development,this thesis first investigates the current situation of English homework design in Grade Seven in Chongqing by means of questionnaire,interview,and sample analysis.Through the analysis of the current situation,find out the existing problems,and point out that it is necessary to change the current content of the homework design to reduce student’s workload according to the “Double Reduction” policy and improve the quality of homework around English key competencies.This study aims to solve three questions:(1)Under the “Double Reduction”policy,what is the current situation of English homework design in Grade Seven?(2)Under the “Double Reduction” policy,how to design different types of English homework for Grade Seven around English key competencies?(3)What is the impact of new types of homework on the development of English key competencies for students in Grade Seven?The research findings are as follows:(1)The current situation of homework is as follows: teachers design homework to pay more attention to students’ mastery of language knowledge,ignore the development of student’s ability of learning,thinking,and cultural awareness;the homework content is boring,mainly from the textbook and workbooks,and is not closely related to life;most of the homework types are recitation and grammar drills,which can not meet students’ requirements for diverse homework.Through the analysis of the research,the current English homework in Grade Seven is not promising.(2)To solve these problems,teachers should combine the characteristics of students and design homework with rich types close to students’ lives so as to improve the quality of homework and reduce the workload on students.(3)Through the survey of students’ completion of the new types of English homework,it is found that the new types of English homework meets the requirements of the “Double Reduction” policy to reduce the homework on students.The amount and difficulty have been adjusted according to students’ knowledge level.Moreover,the homework promoted students’ English key competencies,especially communication and thinking ability.In teamwork,doing practical and innovative homework can exercise students’ communication ability and innovative thinking.In this process,students’ independent learning ability and language knowledge have also been improved.As a result,the quality of the homework has been improved. |
