读初中英语新课改下初中英语作业布置的艺术浅探有感

读了王勤老师初中英语新课改下初中英语作业布置的艺术浅探后，我深深体会到：

作业布置不应该仅仅局限于一本教辅资料的练习，也不应该带有很强的随意性。如何结合课堂教学的重点、难点针对性的进行作业布置不仅仅是一项常规任务，更是一门艺术。

1.在初中英语作业布置的具体设计过程中，我们将朗读、背诵、听力的综合能力训练作为贯穿于整个初中英语教学的一根主线，并努力采取切实可行的措施强化训练效果。比如，在提高学生听力能力这一环节业，就通过常态化、趣味性、知识性的的听力材料训练，达到作业布置的预期目标。听力训练有自己的特殊性，期望通过个人课后单独完成听力作业达到训练目标是不切实际的，考虑到学生的实际情况，我们从初一年级开始，我们选择有梯度的听力材料，每周安排两次固定的听力时间，组织班级同学集中进行听力能力训练。英语作业布置的艺术还体现在对阅读、听力作业设计的灵活性评价机制上。阅读理解的评价机制是书面的定量评价；名著朗诵、美文背诵则可以是随机的、教师现场点评形式的评价。这样的作业评判机制可以将学生的压力缓解与激励机制融合在一起，收效明显。

2.课前预习、课堂教学、课后巩固练习是保证教学效果的三个环节。如何将作业布置有效的贯穿于这三个环节之中，这对评价最终的英语教学效果至关重要。首先，要精心设计课前预习作业。对于课前预习，以往的一贯做法是要求学生预习课文，而缺乏具体的、有目的的预习指导。实际上，预习作业非常重要，不能以软任务的形式进行要求，而要根据不同课型布置相应的作业，并能够在课堂导入环节加以检查。其次，课堂作业的布置主要围绕本节课的重点和难点展开巩固性训练，使重点知识能够得到当场消化。这一环节的作业内容主要是通过精心编写的学案加以实施的。教师在前期集体备课、教案设计阶段就必须和学案编写联动起来，发挥协同效应，把握住本节课教学的中心环节，针对性设计作业。学案的设计应紧扣教材，题型多样化，通过不同的题型对同一知识点进行反复训练，达到教学目标。最后，重视课后作业的布置、检查和反馈。课后巩固练习是课堂教学的延伸，作业设计不宜多，但是要精炼，有明确的目标。也可以布置一些拓展型练习，在下一节课上做随机检查，获得的反馈信息可以验证教学效果。课前预习、课堂教学、课后巩固练习是一个历时性的训练过程，在具体的作业布置过程中要尽量避免三个不同阶段的作业出现题型单一重复、作业内容雷同的问题，尽量突出每一环节的练习重点，增加作业的覆盖面。

3.在作业形式组合方面，要充分体现难易结合、软作业与硬要求结合、知识与兴趣结合的原则。比如，课前预习作业环节中的知识背景资料搜集是相对轻松的任务，如果将资料搜集、整理与课堂口头表达、复述能力的训练结合在一起，就可以达到了解课文知识背景与培养阅读能力结合在一起的双重目标。在书面作业布置的时候，也要考虑到各类练习形式的合理选择与搭配，按照通常的考试题型，逐步形成合理的组合模式。在作业的总量控制手段上也很有讲究。重要知识点的训练、综合听说能力的培养不是一朝一夕能够完成的，那么就要将作业练习的经常性与少量化结合起来，既让学生感受到这些能力的培养和知识点训练是非常重要的，又要让学生感受到进行这样的训练又是相对轻松的。

第二篇：新课程标准下初中英语作业布置的问题分析和对策

海 南 师 范 大 学

本 科 生 毕 业 论 文

新课程标准下初中英语作业布置的问题分析和对策

姓 名： 邝小群

学 号： 201003010410

专 业： 英语

年 级： 2010级

系 别： 英语系

完成日期： 20xx年3月

指导教师： 吴言（讲师）

Homework Assignment Problems and Countermeasures in Junior School under the

New Curriculum

A Thesis Submitted

to Faculty of School of Foreign Languages,

Hainan Normal University

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

By

Kuang Xiaoqun

Supervisor：Wu Yan (lecturer)

March 30 , 2014

Foreign language college, Hainan university

本科生毕业论文独创性声明

本人声明所呈交的毕业论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的研究成果，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，本论文中没有抄袭他人研究成果和伪造数据等行为。与我一同工作的同志对本研究所做的任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。

论文作者签名： 日期：

本科生毕业论文使用授权声明

海南师范大学有权保留并向国家有关部门或机构送交毕业论文的复印件和磁盘，允许毕业论文被查阅和借阅。本人授权海南师范大学可以将本毕业论文的全部或部分内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或其他复印手段保存、汇编毕业论文。

论文作者签名： 日期：

指导教师签名： 日期：

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all those who have given me their generous help, commitment and enthusiasm, which have been the major driving force to complete the current paper.

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my adviser, Wu Yan, for her constant instruction and guidance. She has walked me through most of the stages of the writing of this paper. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.

Second, I am also greatly indebted to teachers and students in Dong Fang Railways Middle School in Hainan province, who were kind and very cooperative when they were asked to fill in the questionnaires.

Last, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Homework Assignment Problems and

Countermeasures in Junior School under the New

Curriculum

Author: Kuang Xiaoqun Supervisor: Wu Yan (Lecturer)

(School of Foreign Languages, Hainan Normal University Haikou 571127)

Abstract: homework is one of the important steps in teaching. Students doing homework can consolidate and digest knowledge learned in classroom, and turn the knowledge into skills. Homework at the same time is an important way of teaching feedback for teachers. They can find out the shortage in their teaching. But in the real teaching, for various reasons, homework has become a burden on students, which results in the generation of students’ weariness. However, English as an important subject in junior high school, English homework there are many problems. So, how to arrange rational English homework, and improve student learning efficiency is one worth studying topic and it is very meaningful. This paper aims for English homework assignment problems facing in junior high school to do a survey on the part of students and teachers in Dong Fang City railway school in Hainan Province. And then I further and analyze the deficiencies of English homework arrangement and give my suggestions. Key word: English homework; problems; survey; suggestions

新课程下初中英语作业布置的问题分析及对策

作者：邝小群 指导教师：吴言（讲师）

（海南师范大学外国语学院，海口，571127)

摘 要：作业是课堂教学的重要步骤之一, 学生通过作业巩固和消化课堂所学知识，并把知识转化为技能。同时作业也是教学反馈的一种重要方式，老师在学生作业发现自己教学中的不足。但在真正的教学中，因为各种原因作业有时候却成为了学生的负担，导致学生厌学情绪的产生。然而，英语作为初中学科中重要的一科，英语作业也存在很多问题，所以，如何合理布置英语作业，提高学生学习效率是一个值得深究的并有意义的一个话题。本文旨在针对当前初中生面临的英语作业布置问题，通过对海南省东方市铁路中学的部分学生和老师做有关调查，进一步了解和分析英语布置存在的不足，并给出自己的建议。

关键字：英语作业; 问题 ;调查; 建议

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................ - 1 -

2. Literature Review .............................................................................. - 1 -

2.1 Research Abroad ....................................................................... - 1 -

3. The Background of the Situation of Homework Assignment ........... - 2 -

3.1 The Main Features .................................................................... - 2 -

3.2 The Reasons .............................................................................. - 3 -

3.4 The Definition and the Function of Homework ....................... - 4 -

3.5 The New Curriculum Standards of English Homework ........... - 5 -

4. Research and Analysis ....................................................................... - 5 -

4.1 Survey Background ................................................................... - 6 -

4.2 The Subjects and the Instruments of the Survey ...................... - 6 -

4.3 Survey’s Analysis ..................................................................... - 6 -

4.3.1 The Four Questionnaires for Teachers ............................ - 6 -

4.3.2 The Questionnaire for Students .................................... - 11 -

4.4 Survey’s Findings ................................................................... - 13 -

5. Suggestions ...................................................................................... - 14 -

5.1 English Homework Should Be Diverse .................................. - 15 -

5.2 The Amount of English Homework Needs to Be Moderate .. - 15 -

5.3 Homework Varies according to Students' Different Levels of Cognitive Ability and Infrastructure ............................................. - 15 -

5.4 Stimulate Students' Initiative- Participate in Homework

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Evaluation ..................................................................................... - 16 -

5.5 Homework Designs Should Be Paid Attention to the Combination of Adaptation and Design by Oneself ........................................... - 17 -

6. Conclusion ....................................................................................... - 17 -

6.1 Significances of the Survey .................................................... - 17 -

6.2 Limitations of the Survey ....................................................... - 18 - Bibliography ........................................................................................ - 18 - Appendix .............................................................................................. - 20 -

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

1. Introduction

Junior high school is the key stage of learning English. Homework assignment is one of the important progresses to improve teaching quality. In English teaching, teachers assigning homework scientifically can further improve the teaching efficiency and the students’ learning interest.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Research Abroad

Nearly 20 years, foreign scholars have done a lot of studies about homework problems. Studies include the correlation between time to complete homework and academic achievement, people’s attitude towards homework, feedback on homework, school homework policy and homework affected. Cooper (1989) defined that homework is such kind of learning tasks arrange by teachers for students and used extra-curricular time to complete. Homework is not only a great influence learning outcomes for students, but also have a great impact on the ability to develop independent learning (Cooper, 1989).

2.2 Research in China

This field (homework) started late in China. There are a few of empirical researches and experimental studies, and the majority of current results are teachers teaching lessons. Our primary and secondary schools began to implement the new English curriculum standards in 2001. The curriculum standards emphasize translation from teacher-centered to student-centered and attention from passing knowledge to the construction of knowledge. Implement of the new curriculum has led to a number of in-depth studies and reflects by English language educators, but there is few study about English homework problems. Zeng Taochu(1999, cited in Wang silou, 2008) pointed out, students achievement is related to quality of homework and the students’ involvement. The higher homework quality is, the better achievement get. It is the same to students’ involvement. In terms of the amount of work configuration, for this issue “How much time junior high school students should spend to complete the English homework? ”, the Ministry of Education ( State Board

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

of Education, 1994) made it clear that the total daily homework time all grades in junior high school subjects must not exceed 1.5 hours (by the time of middle level students). Students using 20 minutes to complete English homework which is designed by English teachers will achievements good learning results (Shan jiqing, 2003). Despite there are some achievements on homework layout, but the problems of homework still do not get enough attention. it still need to solve. So when many foreign workers focus on improving teaching in classroom, the English homework design can not be neglected.

3. The Background of the Situation of Homework Assignment

3.1 The Main Features

1）Single Type

Under the new curriculum, homework should be students’ development-oriented, paying more attention to students’ interests and needs, focusing on the development of students’ personality and it helps students to foster innovative spirit and develop practical ability. As students’ development platform, the assignment ought to give students self homework rights, which provides students with self-expression, reflection and summary of opportunity. But now there are still many English homework layout problems and single type is one of them. Paper work is the main assignment type. Most of teachers generally tend to furnish written assignment, such as vocabulary exercise, grammar exercise, writing exercise, reading exercise, while non-written assignments, such as listening, speaking, reading in a great degree are ignored. In fact, the English homework’s type is so rigid and boring that it can’t arouse students interest, which dampen students’ enthusiasm to complete the English homework. An important principle of English teaching is that listening and speaking are the leader with reading and writing to keep up”. That means that verbal task is an important aspect in English learning. And verbal task should be a large proportion of English homework. But in the actual teaching, the verbal homework is a mere formality. It is not implemented, which results in “dumb English” and students can not reach the “new curriculum standards” requirements.

2）Large Amount

In terms of the amount of homework configuration, for this issues “How much - 2 -

Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

time should junior school students spend on the English homework?” the Ministry of Education (State Board of Education, 1994) made it clear that the total daily homework time for all grades of junior high school subjects must not exceed 1.5 hours ( by time of middle level students time). For students, the amount of homework must be appropriate, not to engage in sea tactical. Practice has proved that the overburdened not only fail to achieve the purpose and requirements of the assignment, but also increase the burden on students and undermine students’ body health.

3）The Same Homework to Everyone

As we all know, every student has different individual characteristic, different foundation, various acceptance and self-control, etc. All aspects are different, but our teachers’ assignments are uniform. Most of teachers assign the same homework ignoring students different learning levels, which can’t take care of every student’s personality development. On the one hand, it is hard for some students to finish the homework timely in high quality, so they lose interest in homework. They feel anxious when they do the homework. On the other hand, some students simply because the homework is too boring and dull to complete, which can’t excite their learning and creating potential. Such unified assignment became helpless and passive.

3.2 The Reasons

The main features about the English homework assignment exist many years in English teaching. Of course, there are still other defects on assigning homework, such as difficult homework, teacher-dominated in homework evaluation method. Though implementation of quality education was advocated in our country, and a part of districts has achieved, however, the exam-oriented education in our country has been implemented for many years, many teachers are influenced by its deep thought so that the teachers lack attention to the students, thus affecting the education work. In fact, the students need learning autonomously. Learner autonomy theories aims at transferring responsibilities for aspects of the language learning process( such as setting goals, selecting learning strategies, and even evaluating progress) from teacher to the learner (Cotterall,2000). Therefore, our country conducted a national education reform. That is oriented education. But what’s the oriented education? According to the internet, oriented education means this kind of education that divorce from social development and contrary to human development law to cope with the entrance

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

examination for the purpose of educational ideas and educational activities. Examination is its purpose and its educational model and test method limits the students’ ability into full development, which get students difficult to adopt to work and society. Under this kind of education idea, we can understand why there are so many shortcomings on the homework. So what are the concrete reasons? First, the entrance examination mode in junior high school determines the modes of homework. The form of exam in junior high school is mainly writing, less speaking, listening aspects and in order to meet the test, many teachers fill follow the exam mode to assign the homework, then the assignment appears single type. Second, the examination-oriented education ignores the ideological and political education, and training does not focus on non-intelligence factors such as the personality qualities, mental qualities. One-sided pursuit of enrollment quotas is its most obvious feature. Under examination-oriented education influence, scores will be emphasized while students’ ability cultivation is ignored in teachers’ assignment. Sea tactical operations instead of the effective homework design. Sea tactical operation is a heavy burden on students’ learning which not only can’t achieve the so-called effect, but also enable students to produce irritability, anxiety mood. Third, teachers ignore the personality development of students. For different students have different cognitive ability, so the teachers should design homework according to different learning characteristics of students. This is individualized. It makes every student play his specialty. Then it can avoid every student to complete the same homework.

3.4 The Definition and the Function of Homework

Cooper (1989) defined that the homework is such kind of learning tasks arranged by teachers for students and used extra-curricular time to complete. Assignment refers to learning task of a subject assigned by teachers and completed by students independently after class. It is also called homework, because most students usually complete it at home (Mu Jinjiang and Luo Xiaojie, 2006:16). English as an international language is inevitable to cooperate with the students, extracurricular individuals and groups in the process of learning and use. So, teachers must pay attention to oral work and make the verbal task become an important part of homework. Reasonable homework helps students consolidate what they have learned in class and put knowledge into skills. At the same time, homework is also an

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

important way of teaching feedback for teachers and they can find themselves teaching deficiencies in students’ homework. However, from our experience in junior high school, the homework still is regarded as a tool to strengthen the classroom teaching by the traditional teaching evaluation. The content of homework is mostly the mechanical memory by the old form, which suppresses the students’ interests, and ignore the students’ learning ability training, then it curbs the development of students’ leaning ability.

3.5 The New Curriculum Standards of English Homework

“English curriculum standards” focused on how to develop the ability of students to help the lifelong development of students. it is not only the process that students master the English language and practice activities, but it is the process that students can shape their will, enrich their life experiences, develop thinking skills, personality and improve humanistic qualities. In English Curriculum Standards (2001:2-3) six fundamental concepts are mentioned in which junior school teaches should take three of them into deep consideration while thinking about proper assignments and assessments. These three concepts are: (1) to highlight the learning-center concept and respect personal differences; (2) to adopt the ways of taking activities, to advocate experience and participation; (3) to value the process assessment and facilitate students’ development. Arrangement of homework is linked closely with instructional activities. It plays an important part on consolidating knowledge and improving the ability of students. It also helps teachers to check teaching effectiveness and improve the teaching. Therefore, we should give high priority on the homework layout. Under the New Curriculum, English homework design should be culti-faceted, culti-shaped, culti-dimensional so that students’ four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) can be effectively trained.

4. Research and Analysis

Like Chinese, English is a language subject. We need to get trained four basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) to really grasp it. English is an important subject to students in junior high school. In addition to speaking and reading in the classroom, English homework can not be ignored. However, since the state initiated the quality education, most of the foreign workers turned their attention

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

to improving classroom teaching, while extracurricular English homework is not improved. In order to get more information about English homework layout, I get some teachers and students to fill five questionnaires about the feedback of English homework and the source of English homework material. The teachers and students are from Dong Fang City Railway School in Hainan province. Through the studies I analyze further the deficiencies of English homework arrangement and give suggestions to the problems. I hope the studies can give more teachers, especially the teachers in rural areas suggestions which draw more teachers’ attention to the problems and teachers can apply the suggestions to the true teaching.

4.1 Survey Background

There are totally one hundred and forty students. The students are from two classes. And 70 students are from Class 3, Grade7, and 70 students are from Class 4, Grade 7. Two classes both are ordinary classes and there is the same homework everyday. English as one of the main subjects, the homework is arranged in written form everyday. In addition to students, there also 9 teachers are involved in this survey. They include young teachers and experienced old teachers from grade 7 to grade 8. they are all from Dong Fang City Railway School in Hainan province. The school is a key middle school, which has the good study environment.

4.2 The Subjects and the Instruments of the Survey

This study adopts five questionnaires to understand the completion of the homework of the school. The subjects include 140 students from two ordinary classes and 9 teachers from grade 7 to grade 8 in Dong Fang City Railway School in Hainan province. The survey is consisting of five questionnaires which are about the feedback of homework. There are four tables where teachers are involved from North, S. & Pillay, H. (2002).

4.3 Survey’s Analysis

4.3.1 The Four Questionnaires for Teachers

Table 1 before teachers assign homework, they need to think about the three elements. They are homework content, homework correction and feedback of

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

homework. Homework content is related to the source of homework material. Table 1, presents the percentage of the source of homework material to teachers. Every item has three choices. The choices are “always”, “sometimes”, “never”. The nine teachers chose one of the three choices according to their real practice everyday. And the result as follows:

The information from the table 1 presents 55.6 % of teachers assign homework from the texts books. That means there are about half of teachers give great importance to text book and regard the text book as basic source of the homework material. There are 88.9 % of teachers always or sometimes select the exercise bought from the market as students’ homework. That indicates that most teachers will use other exercise bought from the market to supplement knowledge for students. With the popularity of the computer, there are 66.6% of teachers often or sometimes will download some exercise from the Internet directly. However, there are only 11.1% of teachers assign the homework adapted by them. That shows they don’t take care of students’ learning characteristic and 66.7 % of teachers assign the homework optionally. Through the table 1, on one hand, we can see that most teachers believe that textbook exercise or activities contain more basic knowledge, which the students must master. On the other hand, only textbook exercises are not enough. Therefore, many teachers use exercise bought from the market or downloaded from the Internet for homework to supplement. That helps teachers save time to design the homework. However, the quality of these materials varies greatly, so teachers need to adapt the exercise for students’ homework which accord with students’ real situation.

Table2 the second part of the survey involve the purpose of homework assignment. The teachers should choose one from “totally agree”, “neither agree nor against”, “disagree” to fill the questionnaire with their true ways. And the result as

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

follows:

Table 2 the Purpose of Homework

Statistics shows, 88.9% of the teachers totally agree that one of significant usages of homework is to consolidate the knowledge that has learned. And 77.8% of the teachers consider homework is an effective method for them to know more about students’ learning situation. There are also 66.7% of the teachers think that homework is important to master the new knowledge for students. There are 44.4 % of teachers think doing homework also give the opportunity to the students to think questions and solve problems independently, and students can develop self-learning ability from homework. However, the last item of the survey shows that over half of teachers regard assignment as students’ usual scores. From the table, we can understand that the purposes of English homework are various.

Table 3 the new curriculum standards advocates teachers use the task-based teaching to teach. Teachers must respect the students’ personality and encourage innovation to improve students’ proficiency of the language. The purposes of assignment should confirm to the objectives that I mention above. In this table, I provide 10 kinds of homework form with teachers. The table needs teachers select frequency from “often”, “sometime”, “never” in line with their own situation.

Table 3 Content of Homework

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

With the idea of teaching the new curriculum having been widely spread, and to some extent, teachers’ teaching methods have been improved. However, through the findings from table 3, we know that the assignment still hasn’t too much change. Teachers are still focusing on vocabulary. 100% of them often get students recite English words. There 66.7% of teachers always assign the grammar exercise for students. That indicates some teachers rather value the grammar exercise. In addition, there are 66.7% of teachers and 77.8 % of teachers assign the reading comprehension, reciting composition or writing exercise as the English homework. And the form is similar with test mode. This shows that the teachers use the single style to assign the homework, and the teaching goals is still the test scores. There only 11.1 % of

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

teachers always assign the translation as the homework. That means 88.9 % of teachers consider the exercise form like exam mode is more easily improve students’ score. There are only 11.1% of teachers often ask students to write a diary in English. Teachers like to use the mechanical recitation, such as requiring students to recite the text or vocabulary, writing composition. This shows that teachers pay less attention to cultivating students’ interest in writing. Students don’t have the opportunity to train writing effectively. There only 33.3% of teachers often or sometimes focus on students’ interest in reading, while 88.9% of teachers never ask students to watch or listen to the English Channel. And almost no teachers often ask students to focus on English Channel. There 44.4% of teachers value the reading aloud and reciting text. That shows teachers hope students grasp the knowledge in textbook. Also there are only 33.3 % of teachers always or sometimes assign the task-based homework including study, discussion, making something by yourself as students’ homework. It shows that most teachers don’t like the task-based homework. They like use the old form. In a word, all of the teachers involved in the survey think that text knowledge is rather important. Only a few of teachers assign innovative homework, such as interesting reading, watching or listening English channel, singing English songs, survey, discussion in non-written form.

Table 4 evaluation and feedback of English homework is a crucial pedagogical practice. It’s also the last link of homework assignment. Through homework correction and evaluation, teachers can know whether students have mastered the knowledge they have learned and it also helps teachers realize their blind spots and insufficiency in teaching so that they can enhance their teaching level with improvement. For students, it can help students to understand the errors in the learning process. Teachers also get teachers’ guidance and encourage. The evaluation and feedback of English homework has great importance to improve teaching. There are 8 kinds of situation in the fourth part of the survey about evaluation and feedback of English homework for teachers. It will give three selections “always”, “sometimes”, “never” for teachers to choose.

Table 4 the Evaluation and Feedback of Homework

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Table 4 indicates that teachers control most of work of evaluation and feedback of homework. Almost all of the teachers always showing the standards answer, grades in class. Most of the teachers think it important to give the overall evaluation on the whole class. It can help students to know about their homework situation. However, item 5,6,7,8 in this table show that only a small part of teachers can give targeted learning evaluation and suggestion for one student’s homework situation. Many students don’t obtain the opportunity to evaluate their own homework, comparing with peer’s homework or evaluate each other. At the same time, the teachers pay less attention to the differences of students’ learning. Therefore, they can give oral or written comments and suggestion on the individual assignment.

4.3.2 The Questionnaire for Students

In order to understand the feedback of English homework for students better, and get more objective and detailed data, I design a questionnaire which has 12 items. The items contain attitude towards English homework, content and so on. Students need to choose from “totally agree”, “neither agree nor against”, “disagree” each item according to the students’ own situation.

Table 5 Feedback of English Homework-Students

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

From the table 5, we can see that 80.3% of students think that completing English homework is very important, while 19.7% of other students think English homework is not so important. There are 68.3% of students have the ability to finish English homework seriously. But there still are 18.2% of students can complete the homework taking to heart. During my internship, one of concrete reasons I found is

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

the homework in written form is too uninteresting, and they can’t concentrate on their homework. Over half of the students totally agree that the content of home work is conformed to the content of course in class. That indicates most teachers attach importance to the textbooks. 91.2 % of students believe the most of homework is in written form. We can see that the teachers focus too much written form of homework, and pay less attention to other forms. As a result, the homework becomes rigid and dull. Every student involved finds the homework teacher assigned is the same to everyone. The homework is unified. The same to item 5, there also 100 % of students totally agree that on the issue of assigning English homework, teachers are in a dominant position. That means teachers almost decide the homework alone, without any discussion. Students have no choice. There are 65.2% of students think the homework costs an hour or more than an hour to finish every day. In fact, spending too much time on English homework makes them unable to complete other assignments. What’s more, some students tell me that in order to finish the large amount of English homework. They sometimes have to write until 1 0’clock. There are 81.1% of students don’t agree the amount of homework is really suitable. There are still 30.5% of students consider they can’t complete the homework dependently. They need teachers, parents and other students’ help. From that, we can see the homework is too difficult to a part of students. Almost half of students think that homework is too difficult, which make them produce a burden in the heart, such as anxiety. There are 61.6% of students can’t get teachers’ evaluation and suggestion, and 96.9 % of students can’t take part in the evaluation. Item 11, 12 show that teachers control the whole evaluation process, and students have no opportunities to homework evaluation.

4.4 Survey’s Findings

The findings show that the English homework’s status is not ideal in junior high school, mainly in the following four aspects. The first, the English homework is too heavy and difficult. From the “table 5 feedback of English homework-students” and my internship experience in Dong Fang Railway School in Hainan province, we can know that the students have to spend at least 1 hour to compete the English homework. Some teachers mistakenly believe that the more assignments, the better to scores. They keen to engage “title sea tactics”. This results in the students accomplishing

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

homework for quantity, not for quality. Addition to this, part of teachers’ homework is so difficult that the students disable to accept, which result students can’t complete independently. The second, the form of English homework is monotonous and lack diversity. The survey founds that teachers generally prefer assign written homework. Such as vocabulary exercises, grammar exercise, writing exercise, reading exercises, but listening, speaking, reading, reading and other interesting largely ignored. Most of the students complained that the type of homework is too rigid and single, so they lose interest in homework and it dampens their enthusiasm to complete the homework. The third, teachers ignore students’ individual differences so that they assign the same homework to everyone. Students’ individual characteristics, basic level, the ability to understand, self-control are different, but our teachers’ assignments tend to be uniform. This leads that some students feel difficult to do the homework and they are unable to complete the English homework timely. While another part of the students account that the English homework is boring and dull. It can’t excite them to learn and create the potential. Such unified homework makes students cope with negatively. The fourth, in the homework evaluation, teachers are in the dominant position. Many teachers think that evaluation, and feedback of homework is their own jobs. In homework correction, teachers give students scores (designate level), overall evaluation, few teachers give students written comment or make oral evaluation of homework condition for the individual student. Here, teachers are authoritative assessment. They are only rater for students’ performance. Evaluation is lack of students’ involvement, so the students lose interest in the challenges and curiosity to knowledge. These four aspects are the main shortcomings in the English homework assignment in junior high school. What should teachers do to solve the above deficiencies?

5. Suggestions

The new curriculum proposes new requirements to build a new form of English homework in junior high school. It is also an important way that students promote their learning ability. Excellent English homework in junior high school is designed to change the ways, which effectively reduce the burden of students’ learning English, so that each student’s English language ability get the better development. Under the new curriculum standards and my own practice in Dong Fang City Railway School in

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Hainan province, I propose the following strategies.

5.1 English Homework Should Be Diverse

Single, boring English homework can not enable students to consolidate what they have learned, and it also will hurt students’ enthusiasm to complete homework, so teachers should pay attention to designing homework to be diverse. In my opinion, English homework should not only lay emphasis on knowledge in written form, but also need to be drawn attention to applying ability in non-written form. Addition to written form, teachers can attempt to guide students to practice English in non-written form, such as listening or watching English Channel, interesting reading, performance, discussion in groups, giving individual lecture, panelist, questionnaire surveys and so on. Some other researches also shows that the students’ learning effect depends on individual effort, collective effort and the good cooperation between learners (Graves, 2005). These kinds of activities can provide more opportunities with students to practice English and feel the fun of learning English . Through these tasks, students can consolidate the knowledge they have learned. And at the same time, these tasks make students from rote learning to meaningful learning, which stimulates students’ learning enthusiasm and their potential.

5.2 The Amount of English Homework Needs to Be Moderate

The Ministry of Education (State Board of Education, 1994) made it clear that the total daily homework time for all grades of junior high school subjects must not exceed 1.5 hours (by time of middle level students). However, in the real teaching, many teachers leave large amount of homework, which leads students are weary of studying. In fact, English homework ought to be refined and cultivated students’ practice ability. Teachers need to provide students with typical homework, which can achieve twice the result with half the effort. Under the provision of State Board of Education, the specific completion time, I consider, should be cater to students’ learning characteristics.

5.3 Homework Varies according to Students' Different Levels of Cognitive Ability and Infrastructure

Education psychology (1998) considers that due to congenital and acquired - 15 -

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endowments, there are differences in students’ physical and mental development. If teachers ignore these differences, it will inevitably result in some students “eat too much”, some “eat too little”. So, homework should not only open to all, but also take into account individual differences. That is, it should make sure different levels of students’ can finish the English homework with confidence. According to the students’ different levels, homework is often divided into three levels-difficult, medium, simple. For example, for about recording English homework, for poor students, teachers ask them to listen to the recording and read exactly, then understand the recording’s meaning; for the moderate level of students, they are required to be familiar with the recording and they can recite it; for the high level students, they need to change the key words to act out the dialogue in the recording after they totally understand the whole recording. Harris Cooper, American professor of psychology at Columbia University of Missouri and his leadership team believe that all the students in the class have a responsibility to do the same homework. Under the circumstance, different students have the freedom to select different homework. Homework must be included some selective titles, which can fully meet the different students with different academic requirements (Hu Qing fang, Yang Cuirong, Jilei, Li Aijun 2008). Poor students do some relatively simple titles. Within the scope of their ability will have the joy of success, while for the students who have better ability must complete the uniform homework, then they also should do some selective titles to challenge their thinking, and it will enhance their initiative. Exercises well-designed by teachers make every student enjoy the learning success.

5.4 Stimulate Students' Initiative- Participate in Homework Evaluation

In the survey, we found that teachers almost dominate the entire process of evaluation and feedback. For this reason, teachers spend a lot of time and energy, but results are not satisfactory. Most of teachers mark assignments, no matter how big or small the wrong mistake is, they will pick out one by one, then, then entire content of homework is altered by teachers. It can’t make students realize their errors, and it also greatly reduced students’ enthusiasm. Therefore, teachers should encourage students to take part in homework evaluation as much as possible. For the homework correcting problems, teachers use different methods to assess students’ homework,

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

such as oral assessment, mutual evaluation, student self-assessment, which creates more opportunities for students to participate in homework evaluation. This not only reduces the burden on teachers’ work, but also gets students understood their errors in the process of mutual learning, which can help them improve English ability.

5.5 Homework Designs Should Be Paid Attention to the Combination of Adaptation and Design by Oneself

Currently, there are rich homework materials for teachers to use. In addition to the textbook exercise, there are a variety of homework materials on the market. These materials help teachers design homework easier, but they also need teachers to think seriously how to make good use of these resources. In my opinion, teachers should adapt existing materials to conform the relevant course content and students’ cognitive level. For example, boring word training could be adapted into vocabulary contest and writing can also be converted into individual speech contests or other activities. Apart from this, when teachers adapt homework, they ought to focus on creativity according to the teaching content and students’ cognitive levels, learning styles and classroom learning, etc. For example, I learn from the students involved in the survey from in Dong Fang City Railway School in Hainan province are active. They get the bad hobby in chatting on the class. So, teachers can assign more oral tasks, such as group discussions, team competition, group debates, speech contests, blackboard design. students not only can apply what they have learned to real teaching activities, but also felt the charm of English and keep a keen interest in learning English.

6. Conclusion

6.1 Significances of the Survey

Homework is complementary of classroom teaching, which helps teachers improve the quality of teaching. The traditional homework layout ignores the main role of students, individual differences and learning needs. These stop people’s thinking outside the box, which brings about main three drawbacks-single type, large amount, the same homework to everyone. These problems make the students have emotional weariness. Therefore, a reasonable arrangement for English homework is

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

worth studying. So, in order to understand these problems, I do a survey about teachers and students’ reflection on the English homework in Dong Fang City Railway School in Hainan province, and give my some advice. The first, English homework should be diverse. The second, the amount of English homework needs to be moderate. The third, homework varies according to students’ different levels of cognitive ability and infrastructure. The forth, stimulate students’ initiative-participate in homework evaluation. The fifth, homework design should be paid attention to the combination of adaptation and design by oneself. Currently, there already many scholars have studied English assignments. However, in real classroom, a lot of teachers do not draw attention to this aspect. So I hope more and more teachers pay attention to the English homework layout.

6.2 Limitations of the Survey

Given the data on the investigation of only 140 students and 9 teachers, there may be some limitations. The result of the study may be mere representative of the Dong Fang Railway School and it is not entirely suitable for all secondary schools. It only reflects the characteristics of teachers on the English homework arrangement to a certain extent.

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Foreign language college, Hainan normal university

Bibliography

[1] Cooper, H.(1989). Homework [M], New York, NY:Longman.

[2] Cooper, H. (1994).The Battle Over Homework: an Administrator’s Guide to Setting Sound And Effective Policies ( The Practicing Administrator’s Leadership Series).[M].Thousand Oaks, CA; Corwin Press.

[3] Cooper, H. Lindsay,J .J. Nye ,Band Greathouse (1998).S.. Relationships among attitudes about homework, amount of homework assigned and completed, and students achievement. Journal of Education psychology. [J], 1998, 90, 1.70-83.

[4] Graves, K. Designing Language Courses. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2005.

[5] North, S.& Pillay (2002). H. Homework: Re-examining the routine. ELT Journal,

2:137-145. 2002.

[6] Richard, and S. Butterfield (1990). Assessment and Examination in the Secondary School [M]. London and New York: Routledge.

[7] Robert J. Marzano and Debra J .Pickering(2007). The Case for and against Homework. [J] Educational leadership. March, 2007. VOL .64, NO.6.

[8]陈琳，王蔷，程晓堂（2002,5）。《全日制义务教育英语课程标准解读》，北京：北京师范大学出版社。

[9] 国家教育委员会 （1994）。《关于全面贯彻教育方针减少中小学生课业负担的意见》。

[10] 国家教育部 （2001）。《英语课程标准》（实验稿），北京师范大学出版社。

[11] 胡春洞，王才仁（2002）。《外语教育心理学》[M]，南宁：广西教育出版社，年。

[12] 胡庆军，杨翠蓉，季磊，李爱军（2008）。《美国学生课外作业集锦》。北京：教育科学出版社。，2008（1）4,6,9。

[13] 刘春生（2006，9）。《作业的革命》北京：世界图书出版公司北京公司。

[14] 任宝贵（2007）。《家庭作业研究综述》，上海教育出版社。

[15] 山吉庆（2003）。“中学英语课外作业配置质和量的研究”，《基础教育外语研究》，2003

（2）。

[16] 王铭玉（2008）。“作业的布置、批改和评价”，《新编外语教学论》，上海教育出版社。

[17] 温紫纶（2011）。“新课程背景下初中英语作业布置改进策略” 《基础英语教育》，第13期第6卷，20xx年。

[18] 应试教育[EB/OL] /doc/5421071.html

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Appendix

问卷1 作业的材料来源

1. 课本上的练习（活动）

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

2. 市场上销售的练习册（练习书）

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

3. 网上下载的题目（没有进行改编）

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

4. 自己或其他教师编写的练习

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

问卷2 布置作业的目的

1. 巩固已经学过的知识

A 同意 B 既不同意也不反对 C 反对

2. 从作业中了解学生学习的情况

A 同意 B 既不同意也不反对 C 反对

3. 运用所学的新知识

A 同意 B 既不同意也不反对 C 反对

4. 加强学生的自学能力

A 同意 B 既不同意也不反对 C 反对

5. 记录学生的平时成绩

A 同意 B 既不同意也不反对 C 反对

问卷 3 作业的内容

1. 词汇背诵或者词汇的练习

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

2. 语法练习

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

3. 阅读理解练习（与考试模式相同）

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

4. 作文背诵或者写作练习（与考试

模式相同）

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不 - 20 -

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5. 翻译练习

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

6. 用英语写日记

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

7. 趣味性阅读（阅读英文报刊、杂志、故事等)

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

8. 收看或者收听英文频道

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

9. 朗读或者背诵课文内容

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

10. 任务型作业（调查、辩论、小制作等)

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

问卷 4 教师对作业的评价和反馈情况

1. 给出标准答案

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

2. 给出分数或者等级

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

3. 在全班对作业作出总体评价

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

4. 在课堂上重新讲解或修订

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

5. 针对个人给出单独的口头或书面评语

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

6. 让学生互相比较自己的作业

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

7. 让学生互评作业

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

8. 让学生自评作业

A 经常 B 有时 C 从不

问卷5 学生对英语作业的反馈

1. 我认为完成英语作业很重要

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意 - 21 -

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2. 我总是能认真地完成英语作业

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

3. 英语作业内容与课堂教学内容一致

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

4. 英语作业以书面作业为主

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

5. 全班的英语作业是一致的

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

6.英语作业由老师独立设定

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

7. 我每天需花一小时或更多的时间完成作业

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

8. 我认为英语作业量很适当

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

9. 我经常无法独立完成英语作业

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

10. 作业难度较大使我焦虑

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

11. 我经常获得教师对我的作业进行口头或书面评价与建议

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

12. 我经常参与作业的评价（自评、互评、小组评）

A 同意 B 基本同意 C 不同意

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