调查分析高一学生英语学习

[Abstract] Senior Grade 1 is quite different from the other grades in senior high school. It is a transition period from junior high school to senior high school. In this period, English teachers in senior grade 1 have to solve joint problems. As teachers, they may tackle them from the aspects of choosing teaching materials, teaching methods and students’ learning strategies. However, in this paper, students become a focus for teacher to teach. Teachers should change their teaching methods in accordance with their students’ learning psychology. Teachers should develop not only the students’ intellectual factors but also their non-intellectual ones, which are psychological factors. The teaching practice has proved that if teachers pay attention to psychological factors, they can activate the students’ potential motivation and highly motivate them. Therefore, senior middle school English teachers should change their attitude and teaching methods according to it. If so, teachers can help their students to overcome their harmful psychological obstacles and improve their study efficiency. Besides, teachers should help students to choose suitable learning strategies and tell them how to improve their study efficiency. Thus, based on the questionnaire investigated by the author, this paper analyzes the causes of difficulties in English learning from the aspects of personal psychology and social psychology. In addition, this paper lists some teaching solutions to overcome these difficulties.

[Key Words] Senior Grade 1; English learning; psychology; teaching solutions

[摘 要] 高一学习阶段不同于其他的高中阶段。它是初高中的衔接阶段，而如何处理好初高中衔接问题一直是困惑中学英语教师的一大难题。尽管可以从教材的选取、教师的教法、学生的学习方法等方面进行探讨，但本文作者认为，最重要的是要研究学习活动的主体——学生，要根据他们在这一阶段的英语学习心理特点来因材施教。教师不但要注意开发学生的智力因素，还要开发他们的非智力因素，即心理情感因素。教学实践证明，注意情感因素可以激活学生潜在的学习动机，变消极为积极，变被动为主动，变自卑为自信，大大提高学习效果。因此，针对高一学生英语学习中所出现的心理问题，采取行之有效的方法，不仅可以帮助学生克服不良的心理现象，而且可以提高学习效果。在此基础上，教师要帮助学生选择适合自己的有效的学习策略，教会学生如何提高学习效率。为此，本文作者在实验调查的基础上，从个人心理与社会心理两个方面对高一学生的英语学习心理状况进行了分析，并提出了加强和改进英语教学的对策。
[关键词] 高一学生；英语学习；心理状况；教学对策

1. Introduction
Senior Grade 1 is quite different from the other grades in senior high school. It is a transition period from junior high school to senior high school. So, there are a lot of joint problems in it. And it is very difficult for English teachers in Senior Grade 1 to solve them. The difficulties require the change of the attitude and teaching methods of English teachers. Teachers should develop not only the students’ intellectual factors but also their non-intellectual ones, which are psychological factors. The teaching practice has proved that if teachers pay attention to psychological factors, they can activate the potential study and motive the study effects. Thus, the psychological analysis of the students in English study shall be more important to the teachers who promote the students to make more progress in English.
In this situation, the author has investigated the English learning psychology of Senior Grade 1 students in No.7 middle school of Quanzhou. The number of the students who are investigated is 200. Among them, there are 100 boys and 100 girls. After the investigation, the author analyzes the investigation results from the following aspects: personal factors and social factors.

2. Personal factors
2.1 Motivation and attitude
2.1.1 Motivation
“Motivation is a term used to refer to some kind of driving force, either internal or external in human beings. In psychology, motivation consists of internal processes which spur us on to satisfy some need.”[1]
“Motivation in foreign language learning may be thought of as the incentive, the need, or the desire that the learner feels to learn the foreign language.”[2]
“In English learning, as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force that determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perseveres.”[3]
If the students in Senior Grade 1 can study English with adequate motivation, they may produce positive effect on English learning result and pave the way for their future English learning in senior high school.
In the questionnaire of the investigation, question 3 is concerned with the students' motivation of learning English. The result is presented in table 1-1:
Table 1-1: the students’ motivation of learning English
 For interest For college entrance examination For job others
Percentage 10% 85% 2% 4%
Number 20 168 4 8
The result of table 1-1 shows that 85% of the students in Senior Grade 1 study English for college entrance examination, and only 10% of them study English for interest. Are there any differences between the students who study English for interest and the students who study English for college entrance examination? How does motivation affect their behavior and learning?
Motivation is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience and so on. These factors play a role in every kind of learning situation. There are two aspects that are especially important for English learning, namely communicative need and attitudes towards the English language community. These are related to two kinds of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
(a) Intrinsic Motivation: “It is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities. When we are intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding.”[4] For example, a student may study hard for a text because he or she enjoys the context of the course. The result of the investigation shows that there are 10% of the students studying English for interest. It means that their English study motivation belongs to intrinsic motivation; they do not study English just as a school subject. They enjoy the English learning process. They enjoy English itself. So, they can study English actively. They are active in English class, and after class, they can finish homework on time and review the lesson in time. Therefore, intrinsic motivation often correlates with higher achievement in English study.
(b)Extrinsic Motivation: “When people do something in order to earn a grade or reward, avoid punishment, please the teacher, or for some other reason that has very little to do with the task itself, they experience extrinsic motivation. They are not really interested in the activity for its own sake; they care only about what it will gain them.”[5] For example, a student may study hard for passing an exam, or obtaining financial rewards. In the result of the investigation, there are 85% of the students in Senior Grade 1 studying English just for college entrance examination. It proves that most of the students' motivation belongs to extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is not stable. Therefore, at the beginning of their study in senior school, the students have clear targets. They are full of confidence and ambition. However, after the first exam in senior school, their enthusiasms of English study will decrease easily.
It can be said that the rate of learning depends upon the strength of the motivation. A strong inner urge will mean stronger efforts. Adequate motivation not only motivates the activity that results in learning, but also sustains and directs it. It is concerned with the arousal of the interest in learning. Most language teachers will agree that the motivation of the students is one of the most important factors influencing their success or failure in learning the language. Motivating learning should beat the top of the agenda of teachers’ task.

2.1.2. Attitude
During the investigation, the investigator notices that the students who are interested in and full of confidence in English study could get higher English achievement than the students who hate English or lack confidence; conversely, high English achievers are more interested in and full of confidence in English study. The investigation result is presented in table 1-2, 1-3:
Table 1-2: the relation between students’ interest and their English achievement
 have interest have no much interest hate English
High English achievement 65% 35% 2%
Ordinary English achievement 30% 45% 30%
Low English achievement 5% 20% 68%

Table1-3: the relation between students’ confidence and their English achievement
 Have confidence Have no much confidence Lack confidence
High English achievement 60% 10% 0
Ordinary English achievement 35% 60% 45%
Low English achievement 5% 30% 55%
The results of tables 1-2 and 1-3 show that 65% of the students who are interested in English can get high English achievement; only 2% of the students who hate English can get high English achievement.60% of the students who have confidence in English learning can get high English achievement and no students who lack confidence can get high English achievement. This suggests that if the students have a favorable attitude towards the speakers of the language they are learning, they are more likely to be motivated. This is so because:
 (i) Favorable attitudes will enhance their wish for more intensive contact with the second language community. And they will see communicative need more clearly. In situations where people of different first languages do not have to contact each other, the learner’s attitudes may determine whether to perceive any communicative need at all.
(ii)There is a close link between the way people speak and the way people perceive their identity. When people try to adopt new speech patterns, they are to some extent giving up markers of their own identity in order to adopt those of another cultural group. In some respects, too, they are accepting another culture’s ways of perceiving of the world. If they welcome this process, it can enrich them and liberate them. If not, it can be a source of resentment and insecurity. One of the factors influencing how the students experience the process is their attitude towards the foreign culture itself. If this attitude is negative, there may be strong internal barriers against learning, and if students are compelled to learn, they may not get where they are expected to.

2.1.3 Teaching solutions
(i) Incorrect motivations and attitudes towards learning may produce negative effect on learning result. In that case, teacher should help their students to change their incorrect motivations and attitudes. One of the ways to bring about this change is through persuasive communication.
A persuasive communication is a discussion presenting information and arguments to change students’ evaluation of a topic, situation, task and so on. For instance, a deep-rooted fear or belief keeps the students from engaging in effective learning, persuasive communication helps bring these facts to light and identify the cause that underlie them. The communication comprises facts that show what the students can do to attain autonomy.
(ii) Work on developing a positive relationship with the student. If the uninterested student doesn’t like his teacher, it is hard to get the student to work toward any achievement goals. Show patience, but be determined to help the student and push for steady progress in spite of setbacks or resistance.
(iii) Make school more intrinsically interesting. To make school more intrinsically interesting for the students, find out the students’ interests and if possible include those interests in assignments. For example, teachers can play some English movies in English class; hold English speaking competitions and English corner to arouse the students’ interests.
(iv) Teach students effective English learning methods to make their learning more enjoyable and effective. Help them to set up their confidence in English learning and find ways to guide them in taking pride in their English learning. Teachers can ask their students to list their strong points and think of the achievement they have made. That would be a good way to set up their students’ confidence.

2.2 Gender
2.2.1Difference between boys and girls
“A well-known nineteenth-century nursery rhyme by J.O. Halliwell goes like this:
What are little boys made of?
  Frogs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails.
What are little girls made of?
  Sugar and spice and all that nice.”[6]
What differences does the rhyme imply exist between boys and girls? Are any of them valid? Issues of real and perceived gender differences can be vital to effective teaching.
In the questionnaire, question 6 is concerned with the levels of the students' spoken English. Integrating question 6 with question 1, the investigator gets the result of the levels of boys' and of girls' spoken English. The result is presented in table 2-1:
Table 2-1: The Levels of Boys' and Girls' Spoken English
 Excellent Good Ordinary Not good
Boys 5% 25% 40% 30%
Number  5 25 40 30
Girls 15% 45% 25% 15%
Number  15 45 25 15
 The statistic shows that there are 60% of the girls are good at spoken English, while only 30% of the boys are good at spoken English. It means that girls have better verbal skills than boys do.
In general, females score higher on tests of verbal ability; boys score higher on tests of audio and visual imagery. “During the elementary and secondary school years, there is strong evidence that females outperform males in English reading and writing. In recent national studies, females had higher reading achievement than males in grades 4, 8 and 12, with the gap widening as students progressed through school. In the same studies, females performed better than males in grades 4, 8 and 12 in writing skills.”[7] P158 Girls develop verbal skills at an earlier age; they always score higher on English tests in junior school. Do they continuously score higher in senior schools? In the questionnaire, integrating question 1 and question 7, the investigator gets the English achievement of boys and girls in senior schools. The result is presented in table 2-2:
Table 2-2: the English achievement of boys and girls
 High English achievers Good English achievers Ordinary English achievers Low English achievers
Boys 8% 16% 15% 11%
Number  16 32 30 22
Girls 12% 15% 15% 8%
Number  24 30 30 16
 The result of the investigation shows that there is no sharp distinction between boys’ and girls’ English examination results. Besides, more recent analysis suggests that in senior schools there may be little or no differences in girls’ and boys’ English achievement. For example, today males score as high as females on the English portion of college entrance examination. What is the reason for it? Probably the reason is that boys are more likely to have self-confidence in their abilities. They are full of confidence to study English well. The result of the investigation about the boys' and girls' confidence is presented in table 2-3:

 Table 2-3: level of boys’ and girls’ confidence in English learning

 Be Full of confidence have confidence have no much confidence Be lack of confidence
Boys 21% 48% 27% 4%
Number  21 48 27 4
Girls 9% 39% 41% 11%
Number  9 39 41 11
The result of table 2-3 shows that 69% of the boys have confidence in English learning, and 52% of the girls are lack of confidence in it. It proves that boys are full of confidence, while girls are lack of confidence. That is because boys and girls interpret their successes and failures somewhat differently. Boys tend to attribute their successes to natural gift (e.g., they’re “smart” or “naturally athletic”) and their failure to a lack of effort (they didn't try hard enough.) In contrast, girls attribute their successes to effort (they worked very hard) and their failure to a lack of ability (they are not as “smart” as boys).Boys’ beliefs in greater natural ability make them more optimistic about their chances for future success. In addition, boys actively participate in learning activities to a greater extent than girls. They are more likely to ask questions and make comments about ideas being discussed in English class, and because they are more verbally aggressive, teacher call on them more often. In this situation, boys believe that they can study English well. Besides, boys perform better at language comprehension and logical reasoning, though they are not good at spoken English, they can also score high mark in English examination. Conversely, girls perform worse at language comprehension and logical reasoning skills, although they study harder than boys and complete homework in time, they may not make remarkable progress. So, they begin to doubt their own learning ability and they are always lack of confidence in studying English well.

2.2.2 Teaching solutions
(i) Make girls recognize their own advantages of verbal skills and tell them the effective learning methods to study English well. Convince girls that their past and present successes indicating an ability to succeed and that they can avoid or overcome failure with sufficient efforts. In this way, teachers can help their female students to regain their confidence.
(ii) Encourage female students to answer questions in classes actively and monitor male students to complete their homework on time.
(iii)Teach both genders less aggressive and more social ways of interacting with one another. To accommodate girls' more affiliate nature, provide opportunities for cooperative group work and frequent interaction with classmates. For example, teachers can hold role-play games to make their students cooperate with others.
(iv) Ask them to take the initiative and devise situations and language learning techniques for themselves. According to gender differences, teacher can encourage boys and girls to choose different methods to study English effectively.
 
2.3 Personality and temperament
2.3.1 Personality
“Personality refers to distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.” [8]
 There are two main personalities: introversion and extroversion.
(a)  Introversion
Introverts can be described as shy, quiet, and reserved. They tend to relate to contents of their own minds, and seem suited to self-study and non-participation. The introvert will adapt best when in a private setting alone or with a friend.
(b)  Extroversion:
Extroverts tend to be more outgoing, active, and sociable. They are more likely to relate to outside objects, rather than be preoccupied with their own thoughts.
In the questionnaire, questions 8,9,10 are concerned with the differences between the introversion learners and the extroversion learners. The results are presented in table 3-1 and table 3-2:
Table 3-1:  the different reactions between the introversion learners and the extroversion learners in English classes
 answer questions actively answer questions follow others answer questions passively never answer questions
Introverts 6% 12% 63% 19%
Extroverts 31% 45% 19% 5%
    
Table 3-2:  the different attitudes toward homework between the introversion learners and the extroversion learners
 A B C D
Introverts 23% 47% 25% 5%
Extroverts 9% 33% 43% 15%
Item A: complete homework and review lessons in time and actively
Item B: complete homework on time and review lessons at times
Item C: complete homework on time
Item D: never complete homework on time
From the tables, the investigator notices that extroverts are more active than introverts in English class and introverts do homework more actively than extroverts. Extroverts may well enjoy learning by participation, so activities like conversations and discussions seem appropriate. In terms of teaching, they have been said to prefer communicative teaching and audio-lingual method. They are active in classes, especially in English speaking classes. They like to have discussions with their partners. So, they always act as a leader in an English group or pair works. However, they are more careless than introverts. They don’t like to do homework after classes. They would not review the English lessons and complete their homework carefully. In contrast, introverts react conscientiously and more slowly in classes. However, they can memorize what the teacher say and review the lesson after classes conscientiously. Besides, they can complete their homework in time and carefully.
 Extroversion and introversion are important factors in English learning. Extrovert learners are sociable, and they have many friends, admire the talkative, outgoing students who participate freely in class discussion. Introvert learners tend to withdraw from social interaction and be preoccupied with inner thought and feelings. They are usually very quiet and like books rather than friends. They do not make friends easily. They are usually reserved, shy and quiet. So, a lot of people think that extroverts are necessarily better English learners and they must score higher than introverts. In fact, the investigation result (tale 3-3) shows that introverts score higher than extroverts.
Table 3-3: the English achievement of introverts and extroverts
 High English achievement Ordinary English achievement Low English achievement
Introverts 12% 32% 11%
Extroverts 8% 28% 9%
 
The result of table 3-3 shows that 12% of the introversion students can get high English achievement and only 8% of extroversion students can get high English achievement. Why can introverts get higher English achievement than extroverts? It is said that extroverts may have strengths in some aspect such as spoken English, but they are not have strengths in all the aspects of English learning. Conversely, introverts are not inferior in all aspects of English learning. They may have an inner strength of character that extrovert learning do not have. For example, the portion of their reading comprehension is better than extroverts. Besides, introverts tend to plan things carefully in advance and careful in their language learning. They can memorize what the teacher say and review the lesson after classes. Besides, they can complete their homework in time and carefully. So, many introverts can score higher than extroverts.
 
2.3.2 Temperament
Temperament is closely related to personality and to learning and thinking styles. Temperament is a person’s behavioral style and characteristic ways of responding. Some students are active, others are calm. Some respond warmly to people, others fuss and fret. Such descriptions involve variations in temperaments.
Scientists who study temperament seek to find the best ways to classify temperaments. The most well-known classification was proposed by Alexander Chess and Stella Thomas. They believe that there are three basic styles or clusters of temperament: easy child, difficult child, slow-to-warm-up child.
“(i)    Easy child
An easy child is generally in a positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines, and easily adapts to new experiences.
(ii)    Difficult child
A difficult child tends to react negatively, has aggressive tendencies, lacks self-control, and is slow to accept new experiences.
(iii)  Slow-to-warm-up child
    A slow-to-warm-up child has a low activity level, is somewhat negative, shows low adaptability, and displays a low intensity of mood.”[9]

2.3.3 Teaching solutions
There are some teaching strategies related to students’ personality and temperaments.
(i) According to the traits of introvert and extrovert, teacher should adopt different strategies to them. They can encourage the extroverts to speak English inside and outside the class actively. Because the extroverts lack self-control skills, teacher should ask them to write down the language points in class and review them after class. Besides, teacher should check up their homework in time. As for introverts, teacher can ask them to answer questions in class and give them enough opportunities to attend English pair and group works. Besides, teachers should notice that it is very painful for introverts to expose themselves in English classroom by making foolish mistakes. Teacher should persuade them to face difficulties with a light heart.
(ii) Some temperament characteristics pose more teaching challenge than others. For example, a student’ proneness to distress, as exhibited by frequent irritability, might contribute to avoidant or coercive interchanges with teachers. As a result, he could not communicate with his teacher about his English learning process and cannot recognize the shortcoming of his learning method clearly. In this case, teacher should treat them with patience and communicate with them actively.
(iii) Consider the structure of the students’ environment. Crowded, noisy classrooms often pose greater problems for a “difficult” child than for an “easy” child. Fearful, withdrawn students often benefit from slower entry into new contexts.
(iv) Be aware of problems that can emerge by labeling a child “difficult” and packaged program for “difficult children”. Some books and programs for parents and teachers focus specifically on the child’s temperament. Most of those focus on the difficult child. Acknowledging that some children are harder to teach than others is often helpful. Advice on how to handle a particular temperament also can be useful. However, whether a particular characteristic is truly “difficult” depends on its fit with the environment, so the problem does not necessarily rest with the child. As with labeling a child as more or less intelligent, labeling the child as “difficult” has the danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also keep in mind that temperament can be modified to some degree.

3. Social factors
3.1. Socioeconomic status
3.1.1 The influence of socioeconomic status  
One of the most powerful factors related to school performance is socioeconomic status (SES), the combination of income, occupation, and level of education that describes a family or individual. A family’s SES provides a sense of their standing in a community: how much flexibility they have, where they live or what they buy, how much influence they have on political decision making, and the educational opportunities their children have. SES consistently predicts intelligence and achievement test scores, grades, truancy, and dropout and suspension rates.
How does SES influence English learning? Researchers have identified three areas in which it plays a role: (a) basic needs and experiences, (b) parental involvement, (c) attitudes and values.
(i) Basic Need and Experiences
As one might expect, SES affects a family’s ability to meet basic needs and experiences that a student have for English study.
In the questionnaire, question 13 is concerned with the English courses that their parents support them outside school. The result is presented in table 4-1:
Table 4-1: the English courses outside school
 have do not have
Low SES 8% 92%
Middle and high SES 62% 38%
The result of table 4-1 shows that 62% of the middle and high SES children have ever attended English courses outside school, and only 8% of the low SES children have the chances. It proves that the middle and high SES students have more opportunities to take English courses outside school.
(a) Middle and High socioeconomic status (Middle and High SES)
SES influences children’s background experiences. Middle and High SES parents are more likely to provide their children with educational activities outside school, such as visiting to art and science museums, concerts, and travel. They also have more learning materials at home (e.g. computers, encyclopedias, and VCD) and provide more formal training outside school (e.g. invite English tutors to their homes to improve their children’s English study or sent them to English courses outside schools). These activities complement classroom learning by providing an experiential base for school activities.
(b) Low socioeconomic status (Low SES)
Many low income families lack adequate medical care, and the children of them come to school without proper nourishment. So, the children of poverty may come to school without the personal sense of safety and security that equips them to tackle school-related tasks and problems. As a result, most of them are not good at communicating with classmates and teachers. They are lack of confidence and shy to ask questions. So, they always just to what the teacher say and keep quiet in English classes. Because of poverty, they can’t afford some basic English learning materials, for example, tape recorder, which is very important for improving English listening. That leads them not to keep up with their peers well.

(ii) Parental Involvement
SES also influences parents’ involvement in children’s education and parent-child interaction patterns, which in turn influence English learning. Researches show that the way parents teach and interact with their children influences how their children learn at school.
(a)  Middle and High socioeconomic status (Middle and High SES)
Middle and high income parents tend to be more involved in their children’s extracurricular activities, which provide a focal point of parent-child interactions.
In addition, high SES parents are more likely to invite English tutors to their homes to improve their children’ English study or send their children to attend English training outside school. These rich interaction patterns, together with the background experiences already described, provide a foundation for English learning development.
(b)  Low socioeconomic status (Low SES)
The great majority of parents at all income levels want their children to get a good education. But parents in many lower SES households have had little education themselves. So, they may not be capable of helping their children with assigned schoolwork. Furthermore, economic factors may prevent parents from becoming actively involved in their children’s schooling; lower income parents often have difficulty getting off work, finding suitable child care, and arranging suitable time to visit school and meet with teachers. In addition, some parents may have had bad experiences when they themselves were students and so feel uncomfortable in a school setting. Always, this low level of parental involvement is linked with students’ low English achievement.

(iii) Attitudes and Values
The impact of SES is also transmitted through parental attitudes and values.
In the questionnaire, question 12 is concerned with the parents’ attitudes towards their children. The result is presented in table 4-2:

Table 4-2: the parents’ attitudes towards their children’s English study
 very care care not very care never care
Low SES 13% 15% 47% 25%
Middle and high SES 51% 32% 11% 6%
The result of table 4-2 shows that 83% of the middle and high SES parents care their children’s English study, and only 28% of the low SES parents care their children’s English study. It proves that middle and high SES parents care their children’s English study more than those low SES parents.
(a)  Middle and High socioeconomic status (Middle and High SES)
 In some high SES families, the parents consider English as an important communicative tool in future, so they encourage their children to study English well. They buy English materials for their children to improve English. As a result, their children are more likely to read, and students who read at home show higher English reading achievement than those who don’t.
     In general, high SES parents have high expectations for their children and encourage them to graduate from high school and attend college. They aren’t hesitant to contact teachers for information about their children’s English learning progress.
(b)    Low socioeconomic status (Low SES)
Low income parents are more likely to view education as the teacher’s job. Many low SES parents think that English is not useful and they don’t care about it at all. They place greater emphasis on conformity and obedience. They are always restrictive and punitive. They exhort children to follow their directions and respect them. They place firm limits and controls on their children and allow little verbal exchange. For example, a low SES Parent might say, “Do it my way or else. There will be no discussion!” Children of low SES tend to be anxious about social comparison, fail to initiate activity, and have poor communication skills. Research also suggests that low SES children have less access to print media than do middle SES children. Low SES parents tend to have lower aspirations, allow their children to “drift” into classes, and rely on the decisions of others. So, in English classes, when they have a discussion in group, those low SES children often follow their partners’ leading. They seldom open their mouths and talk to others. In this situation, these low SES children can get lost in shuffle, ending up in inappropriate or less challenging classes and tracks. They won’t get enough opportunities to practice their English.
However, it is important to point out that the research findings that the author has reported are generalizations, which means many exceptions to the patterns exist. Obviously, for example, many low SES parents read to their children, talk to them, encourage their involvement in extracurricular activities, and attend school events. They take their children to museums and zoos and have high expectations for their learning. None of these factors is restricted to high SES parents. Conversely, belonging to a high SES family does not guarantee a child enriching experiences and caring, involved parents.

3.1.2. Teaching solutions
(i) Provide assistances to families. Schools can provide parents with information about child-rearing skills, the importance of family support, adolescent development, and home English learning contexts that enhance English learning.
(ii) Communicate effectively with families about their child’s English learning progress. This involves both school-to-home and home-to- school communication. Encourage parents to attend parent-teacher conferences and other school functions. Their attendance conveys to their children that they are interested in their children’s school performance.
(iii) Involve families with their children in English learning activities at home. This includes homework and other curriculum-linked activities and decisions. Parents are the most effective when they support the work of schools.
(iv) Set up scholarship system to help the low SES children to buy their basic English learning materials.
(v) Communicate effectively with low SES parents and make them recognize the important status of English in the competitive society today.

3.2. Teachers’ role
Students’ notion of the role of the teacher is very important. It impacts on their behavior and psychological preparation for learner autonomy. The present situation for English teaching in senior schools is not satisfactory. Traditionally, Chinese teachers and students are preoccupied with the ingrained notion that each one should play his part according to his status. This is prominent especially in senior schools. Apparently it stands as a stumbling block in fostering learner autonomy to regard the teacher as the authority.

3.2.1 Factors on teachers’ role
(i)Teachers’ Authority
Teachers’ authority may be the main influence on students’ English learning outcome. In the classroom, students have a tendency to perceive the teacher as an authority figure whose superior knowledge and control over classroom learning events should not be questioned. The students have been used to teacher-centered classroom teaching and learning during which their teachers do not give them enough opportunities to practice their own learning. In such cases, what they do is passively wait to be taught. The students tend to see knowledge as something to be “transmitted” by the teacher rather than “discovered” by themselves as learners.
From the students’ attitude, the teacher is consistent with high status and commands deference. The rights and the obligations associated with the teacher and the student roles are fixed and non-negotiable. The interaction itself is tightly controlled, and only the teacher has the right to initiate exchanges. So the classroom pattern is characterized as teacher-centered. Students accustomed to this kind of relationship are not value of their initiative or of engaging freely in the learning procedures. Most of the students aren’t aware of their responsibility for taking charge of their own learning.

(ii) Teachers’ Teaching Style
Teachers’ teaching style is a direct factor affecting classroom dynamics and a dependent factor on teaching effectiveness. The investigation is also concerned with the teachers’ teaching styles. In the questionnaire, question 14 is concerned with the teachers’ teaching styles. The result is presented in table 5-1:

Table 5-1: teachers’ teaching styles

 Teacher-centered learner-centered
Proportion 75% 25％
The result of table 5-1 shows that 75% of the lessons are teacher-centered lessons, and only 25% of the lessons are learner- centered lessons. According to the interview, students claimed, “Listening to teacher is what they most frequently do in English classes.” Students show much disagreement with their teachers’ teaching styles. There is little cooperation among the students. And the influences of the negative teaching style are listed in follow:
(a) Communicating experience of English learning with the teacher and the classmates.
Some studies show that Chinese senior school students are lacking in cooperative learning. The famous educators Guo Jianping and Zheng Jianfeng stated the reason for this: under the exam-centered education system, teachers emphasize raising the students’ academic ratings and create a kind of learning atmosphere of abnormal score competitions. They neglect inner-communication among the students, so the students have no room to promote their appropriate cooperative spirit and thus foster their capability for autonomous learning in English study.
(b)  Making a learning plan by themselves
The students are not accustomed to making their own learning plans and observing them. Most students haven’t realized the importance of plan making, nor have they learned how to make their own learning plan, for their teachers and their parents have always arranged their daily learning and tasks. A number of them depend on the teachers to make decisions and take charge of their learning.
(c) Being skilled at creating and seizing learning opportunities.
Most of the students haven’t taken part in the learning actions positively. They do not get involved in their learning progress.
However, it’s glad to see that there are 25% of the lessons in the investigation have adopted the learner-centered teaching style. It proves that more and more teachers have recognized the advantages of learner-centered teaching style and try to practice it in their classrooms.

(iii) Teacher Expectation
The investigation is also concerned with the relationship between the teachers’ expectation and the students’ English achievement. The result is presented in table 5-2:
Table 5-2: teachers’ expectation and students’ English achievement
 High English achievement Ordinary English achievement Low English achievement
High expectation 98% 2% 0
Low expectation 0 26% 74%

In the result, 98% of the students with high teacher’s expectation can get high English achievement, while 74% of the students with low teacher’s expectation get low English achievement. It proves that the students with high teacher’s expectation can get higher English achievement than the students with low teacher’s expectation.
Teachers’ expectations about students’ learning can have profound implications for what students actually learn. Expectations affect the content and pace of the curriculum, the organization of instruction, evaluation, instructional interactions with individual students, and many subtle and not-so-subtle behaviors that affect students’ own expectations for learning and thus their behaviors.
Teachers have expectations that influence their behaviors in ways that directly affect individual students and detract from both achievement and motivation. Specially, they treat students they perceived to be high English achievers differently from those they perceive as low achievers. This differential treatment takes four different forms:
(a)    Emotional support: Teachers have more interactions with perceived high English achievers; their interactions are more positive and include a great number of smiles; they make more eye contact, stand closer, orient their bodies more directly toward the students; and they seat the students closer to the teacher.
(b)   Teacher effort and demands: Teachers give perceived high English achievers clearer and more thorough explanations, their instruction is more enthusiastic, they ask more follow-up questions and they require more complete and accurate student answers.
(c)      Questioning: Teachers call on perceived high English achievers more often, they allow the students more time to answer and provide more encouragement, and they promote perceived high English achievers more often.
(d)   Feedback and Evaluation: Teachers praise perceived high English achievers more and criticize them less. They offer perceived high achievers more complete and lengthier feedback and more conceptual evaluations.
        Different treatment in turn influences learners’ own beliefs and expectations for success. In fact, teachers’ expectations for a student—whether high or low—can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy, a phenomenon in which a person tends to perform in certain ways that result from and confirm beliefs about the person’s abilities. Expectations for success depend on learners’ perceptions of the difficulty of the task and their beliefs about whether or not they will do well on an upcoming test or other further assignment. Communicating positive expectations suggests to students that they will be successful on this test or assignment. Then, when they are successful, their self-efficacy increases, and a positive relationship between motivation and achievement is created. The reverse also occurs. Communication low expectation can lead students to confirm predictions about their abilities by exerting less effort and ultimately performing more poorly.
       Teacher expectations for learning strongly influence the amount that students actually do learn. Students in school in which all students are expected to learn achieve more than those in schools that have varying expectations.
          
3.2.2 Teaching solutions
         (i) Expectations are subtle and sometimes unconscious. Teachers may not realize that they hold different expectations for their students. With awareness and effort, teachers should do their best to maintain appropriately high expectations for all students, not only the high achievers.
             (ii) Change the teacher-centered classroom: “Before teaching a new lesson, establish a framework for the lesson and orient students to the new material : (a) Review the previous day’s activities (b) Discuss the lesson’s objective (c) Prove clear, explicit instructions about the work to be done (d) Give an overview of today’s lesson. Such orientation and structuring at the beginning of a lesson can avoid some disadvantages of the teacher-centered teaching style and make students involved with autonomous learning.”[10] 
(iii) Autonomous learning is enhanced when learners are actively involved in the production of target language. So, to hold English soap drama and speech competitions will be good ways to encourage students to study actively.

4. Conclusion
Nowadays, the status of English as a medium for international communication is widely recognized. And the status of English in senior school has become more and more important correspondingly. With the development of secondary education in our country, more and more junior students have entered into senior schools. However, English teaching in senior high schools is far from satisfactory. People have a strong desire to reform to meet the needs of the development of the society, and the effective reform could aim directly at the psychology of the students in different English levels. English teachers should change their attitude and teaching methods according to it. Hopefully the system of English teaching in senior school will be improved. If so, the English teaching in senior school will face a very bright future.

Bibliography (References)
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