V Conclusion and Suggestion 14

5.1 Major Findings of the Study 14

5.2 Implications 14

5.3 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research 16

References 17

Appendix 18

I Introduction

1.1 The Background of the Study

When I had an internship as a pre-service English teacher in Junior School in Hangzhou, my instructor always organized competitive activities in English class. The students loved and were active in competitive activities, which cultivated students’ interest and created a great English learning atmosphere. When the time I started to practice my teaching, I tried to organize competitive activities in my class. However, the learning atmosphere and learning effects were not satisfying as expected. Actually, my instructor suggested that the tempo of promoting competitive activities was not appropriate and the order of different competitive activities should be reconsidered.

Recently, especially after New English Curriculum (2011) gives prominence to student-orientation in English class, many education leaders and teachers advocate that the precious class time should be mainly managed by students themselves. As a result, many English teachers in junior school design and use cooperative activities in English classes. To arouse students’ interest, systematically organize the activities and evaluate their learning in cooperative activities, the form of competition is used in class. Therefore, cooperative activities are often also competitive activities. As is known, the form of competition is special, mainly related to competitors’ interest, motivation and emotions. In an English class with competitive activities, the students are the competitors and the teacher is regarded as an organizer, an instructor and a judge. How to combine the competition and cooperative activities well, how to efficiently apply the characteristics of competition to English teaching are what this study focuses on. 

This essay is aimed to analyze how competitive activities influence students’ English learning in class and how English teachers can make better use of competitive activities to create a good English learning atmosphere and develop students’ learning ability. Furthermore, the research tries to dig out detailed and effective teaching strategies of applying competitive activities in grouping, choosing various activity forms, evaluating, handling class tempos, etc.

1.2 The Significance of the Study 

The application of competitive activities efficiently improves students’ learning motivation and catches their attention. However, the form of competition is controversial. Many educators and scholars are disapproval of competitive activities. Sometimes students pay more attention to the winning result than the knowledge itself. However, since the number of students in a class is usually large in China, composing about 40-60 students, organizing competitive activities is one of the most efficient ways to involve students in actively learning and more and more teachers choose to use it. The research can contribute to efficiently applying competitive activities with cooperation work and alleviating the unfavorable influence of competitiveness in junior English teaching in China. In addition, better carrying out group competitive activities can promote students’ cooperative work and cultivates their teamwork spirit. It is practical and meaningful to study the competitive activities to improve junior English teaching in China.

1.3 The Organization of the Thesis

This dissertation consists of five parts in total.

Part one presents a brief introduction to the background of the present study, the significance and purpose. The whole structure of the dissertation is further introduced in the following part.