Abstract
The English learning weariness is a negative state of mind and behavior of students of English. There are a lot of researches on learning weariness, but few on English learning weariness. In order to analyze the current status of secondary vocational school students' English learning, and discuss the characteristics and causes of secondary vocational students’ English learning weariness. The author has conducted an investigation, by asking 400students covering 7 majors in Grade 1 and Grade 2 from a secondary vocational school in Nanchang to fill a questionnaire of English weariness characteristics and causes of secondary vocational school students (see-Appendix 1). The data is then classified and analyzed with SPSS17.0 software to answer the following questions:
1. What is the descriptive distribution characteristic of the English Learning Weariness among the students in secondary vocational school?
2. What are the differences among the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of gender, major, grade and the question “From when not to understand English lessons?” What are the difference of the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of their parents’ profession and their parents’ education level?
3. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Physical Factors, the Learning Experiences Factors, the Parenting Factors, the Environment Factors, the School Factors, and the Social Factors?
In quantitative study, six students and four English teachers from the subjects were selected as interviewees who are interviewed by the author. All the collected data were analyzed through SPSS17.0 which involved?Descriptive analysis, Single factor analysis of variance and Regression analysis, the results are as follows:
1. The degree of the secondary vocational students’ English learning weariness is quite high. There is a great difference in terms of weariness characteristics and causes, which shows a tendency of being highly fragmented, uneven and polarized.
2. There is no significant difference among secondary vocational students in terms of grade, their parents’ profession and their parents’ education level. There is significant difference between them in terms of gender and major. There is significant difference among secondary vocational students starting from the first term in junior grade three, regarding the question “From when not to understand English lessons?”
3. The physical condition of the students in the junior high school can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of the students in the secondary vocational school. The factors which can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of the students in the secondary vocational school are items3 (Bad habits of study, attention loss in the class, refuses to do exercises.); item5 (learning attitude at the beginning of the English learning process,); item8 (students’ poor memory,); item9 (Learning motivation is not strong,); item10 (Fail to memorize words, poor learning ability).
Parenting factors, social factors and school factors can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of the students in the secondary vocational school. The factors which can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of the students in the secondary vocational school are items25 (the students do not attach importance to English class); item32 (The content of the English teaching materials are not interesting.); item39 (the content of examination cannot stimulate students’ interest in English learning.); item40 (The teacher’s teaching model lacks of diversification.); item53; item64 (Teachers’ teaching attitude: more criticism, less compliments.); item72 (students’ emotional problem.).
Item14 (The wrong attitudes towards life.); item52 (viewing English as useless.); item18 (Love playing and laziness,); item31 (Negative learning attitude.); item45 (viewing study only as a way of diploma.); item51 (Low employment rate of the vocational school students.); can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of secondary vocational students.
Items24 (I am disgusted with the excessive interference of my parents; they want to intervene anything of me.), item41 (The family learning environment is not good for me; I find it difficult to concentrate on studying.); item44 (inappropriate parenting skills, simple and rude education skills.); item47 (My parents have never pay any attention to my study result, English included.); item56, item59 (The attention the parents paid to the child and family atmosphere.), item68 (Parents inappropriate education concept.) can significantly predict the degree of English learning weariness of secondary vocational students.
Finally, according to the results of this investigation, the current situation and the causes of students' English learning weariness in the secondary vocational were discussed, and combining with actual situations, the author puts forward some countermeasures for this issue.
Key words: Current Situation of English Weariness; English Weariness degree; English Weariness countermeasures; variance analysis; regression analysis
List of tables
Table4 -1?Vocational students' English learning basic situation analysisTable4- 2?Descriptive statistics of the results of data sheet
Table4- 3?one-way ANOVA?different gender?
Table4- 4?The differences between different genders
Table4- 5?One-way ANOVA (different major)
Table4- 6?Multiple Comparisons (differences among different major)
Table4- 7?One-way ANOVA (different grade)
Table4- 8?One-way ANOVA (father’s profession)
Table4- 9?Multiple Comparisons (father’s profession)
Table4-10?One-way ANOVA (mother’s profession)
Table4-11?Multiple Comparisons (mother’s profession)
Table4-12?One-way ANOVA (mother’s education level)
Table4-13?One-way ANOVA (mother’s education level)
Table4-14?One-way ANOVA (from when not to understand English lessons)
Table4-15?Multiple Comparisons?from when not to understand English lessons?
Table4-16?Regression analyses of physical factor and the degree of English learning weariness
Table 4-17: Regression analysis of Learning Experiences factors
Table 4-18: Regression analysis of Learning Experience Environment factors
Table 4-19: Regression analysis of school factors
Table 4-20: Regression analysis of Social factors
Table 4-21: Regression analysis of parenting factors
Contents
?????????....................................... 1
Abstract................................................... I
? ?.................................................... IV
List of tables............................................ VI
Contents................................................. VII
Chapter 1 Introduction.................................... 10
1.1Research Background................................................................................... 10
1.2 purpose and significance of the study.......................................................... 11
1.3 The layout of the thesis................................................................................. 12
Chpater 2 Literature Review............................... 13
2.1 The definition of the learning weariness..................................................... 13
2.2 Learning weariness Research Abroad........................................................ 13
2.3 Learning weariness Research At Home...................................................... 14
2.4 Summary........................................................................................................ 17
Chapter 3 Research Methodology............................ 19
3.1 Research questions of the present study..................................................... 19
3.2 Subjects.......................................................................................................... 20
3.3 Instruments.................................................................................................... 20
3.3.1 Questionnaires....................................................................................... 20
3.3.2 Interview:.............................................................................................. 21
3.4 Procedures..................................................................................................... 22
3.5 Statistical analysis of the data....................................................................... 22
Chapter 4 Result and discussion........................... 24
4.1 Results in relation to the first research question:....................................... 24
4.2 Results in relation to the second research question.................................... 27
4.2.1 The difference between in terms of gender:......................................... 28
4.2.2 The difference between in terms of majors:.......................................... 29
4.2.3 The difference between in terms of grades:.......................................... 29
4.3 Results in relation to the third research question....................................... 30
4.4 Results in relation to the forth research question....................................... 31
4.5 Results in relation to the fifth research question........................................ 31
4.6 Results in relation to the sixth research question........................................ 32
4.7 Results in relation to the seventh research question................................... 33
4.8 Results in relation to the eighth research question..................................... 34
4.9 Results in relation to the ninth research question....................................... 35
4.10 Results in relation to the tenth research question..................................... 36
4.11 Results in relation to the eleventh research question................................ 37
4.12 Result of interview...................................................................................... 38
4.13 Discussion..................................................................................................... 39
4.13.1 The descriptive distribution characteristic.......................................... 39
4.13.2 The differences among in gender, major and grade............................ 40
4.13.4 The differences among parents' education level................................. 40
4.13.5 “From when not to understand the English lessons”.......................... 41
4.13.6 The influences of Physical Factors...................................................... 41
4.13.7 The influences of learning experiences............................................... 41
4.13.8 Influences of Environmental Factors.................................................. 42
4.13.9 Influences of School Factors.............................................................. 42
4.13.10 Influences of Social Factors.............................................................. 42
4.13.11 Influences of Parenting Factor.......................................................... 43
4.14 Causes of English learning weariness........................................................ 43
4.14.1 Social factors....................................................................................... 43
4.14.2 Family factors:.................................................................................... 45
4.15 The Countermeasures of English Learning Weariness........................... 46
Chapter 5 Conclusion...................................... 49
5.1 Summary of the findings.............................................................................. 49
5.2 Limitations of this study and suggestions for future study........................ 51
References................................................ 53
Appendix 1:?????????????????............... 57
Appendix 2: The explanation of questionnaire.............. 60
Appendix 3: Items &factors Explanations................... 61
Appendix 4: Result of the interview....................... 63
Acknowledgement........................................... 66
Publication............................................... 67
Chapter 1 Introduction
With the development of economy and social change, vocational education has become an important part of our educational system in China, which is responsible for the training and delivery of hundreds of millions of early, mid-level workers. However, the development of secondary vocational education has encountered some difficulties, there have been some new problems, vocational educators should correctly understand and analyze the new situation currently facing. Weariness is a very common phenomenon in school education, although some manifestations of weariness, reasons and countermeasures have done a lot of research, but the weariness phenomenon does not disappear gradually with the increase of the researchers, but a worsening trend. According to literature, we found that, drop out of school due to poverty phenomenon is gradually being replaced by the weariness out of School. The poor academic performance of students in the past, but weariness, and now even the advanced students began weariness. Vocational students cultural lesson basis of generally poor, especially in the English discipline. Deepening of vocational students of English weariness, making vocational English education in today's situation is more worrying, this study would like to preliminary research by a vocational school students weariness of exploring vocational students' English characteristics and causes of weariness, Jiangxi vocational education teaching reform to ease the weariness of the students and provide a factual basis.
1.1Research Background
Our country is a development of the population of a large country, want to meet social kinds of talent needs, within the scope of the whole society to adequate and reasonable employment, so employment personnel employment capacity and vocational qualifications, it must be quickly and effectively to the development of secondary vocational education, which qualified to train high-quality social workers. However, the pursuit of highly educated community prevalence despise the phenomenon of secondary vocational education, and at the same time in recent years, institutions of higher enrollment and our many education reform, gave vocational education has brought shock and challenge. The English learning weariness of the students in the vocational school is bound to affect the quantity and quality of first-line technical talents, a direct impact on the level of material production and the conversion of science and technology, to explore the characteristics of secondary vocational students English weariness, the causes of secondary vocational education urgent important issues to be resolved.1.2 purpose and significance of the study
Vocational education bears the important task of front-line workforce training for the national basic industries; the frontline the quality of the labor force will directly affect the rise of the entire national industry. Secondary vocational school student’s weariness is bound to affect the quantity and quality of first-line technical talents, a direct impact on the level of material production and the conversion of science and technology. Lifelong learning the basis of the status of the English students, or their future work and life, have an increasingly important significance. Faced with this situation, that is, the general staff, to acquire a certain amount of knowledge of foreign languages is also necessary. Is engaged in the study of social sciences and natural sciences or engineering work, the scientific and technical personnel must understand and master the relevant information, intelligence, understanding of domestic, especially the level of progress on the international research trends and what has been achieved, which is the scientific study and the basis of the design work. Therefore, the implementation of the English basic education teaching student inevitable choice in vocational schools to explore the characteristics of secondary vocational students English weariness, the causes of important issues need to be solved is the current secondary vocational education.First of all, this study has theoretical significance. Expand the study Nanchang, Jiangxi Province in vocational students' English weariness, descriptive and statistical analysis methods to research the characteristics and causes of secondary vocational students in English weariness structure has important theoretical value for Jiangxi Province moderate Vocational education provides a special perspective to examine and reflect on the problems of vocational English teaching, to promote vocational education reform in Jiangxi Province, and improve the quality of education and teaching, vocational school personnel training to ensure the quality and specifications, to provide a theoretical draw, and The rich secondary vocational education teaching theory to some extent.
Secondly, the study has strong practical significance and practical value. The study by the Jiangxi Provincial Water Conservancy and Hydropower school students English weariness the preliminary sample surveys and research, to explore vocational students in Jiangxi Province, English weariness characteristics and causes of help to improve the quality of teaching, to create a good learning atmosphere provide a factual basis for Jiangxi vocational education teaching reform, and lit a going astray beacon for basic education. Analysis of the students weariness causes of weariness countermeasures research targeted to improve the students' interest in learning, clear weariness this stumbling block to hinder the development of students, so that students enjoy learning, a good campus atmosphere both the healthy growth of the students or to realize the quality of education in schools has important theoretical and practical significance.
1.3 The layout of the thesis
The present study consists of five chapters. Chapter one is an introduction containing a brief review of the research background, a discussion of the significance and purpose of the research, and the overview of this study. Chapter two presents a literature review containing the definition of English learning weariness, the researches abroad and the researches at home in terms of learning weariness. Chapter three is about the research methodology, containing information about design, selection of subjects, instrumentation, data collection, and data analysis. The research questions are presented at the beginning of this chapter. Chapter four gives out the results of the present study, and then discusses each research question independently. The last chapter makes a summary of the findings of the study, offering some countermeasures of English learning weariness. Finally, the limitations of the research are pointed out and some suggestions for future researches are made.Chapter 3 Research Methodology
In this chapter, the research questions of this study are presented, and then the research ideas and research methods of the study will be introduced. The procedures and data analyses are detailed. In so doing, the author will give a clear picture of how the present study is conducted and how the data are collected and analyzed in a scientific way.3.1 Research questions of the present study
The review of literature shows that although a lot of researches have been done, few researches refer to English learning weariness in the vocational school. Very few studies are conducted on the relationships among English learning weariness degree, differences and the predictors in China. The questions to be addressed in this study are as follows:
1. What is the descriptive distribution characteristic of the English Learning Weariness among the students in secondary vocational school?
2. What are the differences among the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of gender, major, and grade?
3. What is the difference of the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of their parents’ profession?
4. What is the difference of the degree of English Learning weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of their parents’ education level?
5. What is the difference of the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the question “From when not to understand English lessons?”
6. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Physical Factors?
7. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Learning Experiences Factors?
8. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Environment Factors?
9. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the School Factors?
10. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Social Factors?
11. Which factors can predict the degree of English Learning Weariness of secondary vocational students in terms of the Parenting Factors?
3.2 Subjects
Four hundred first-year or second-year vocational school students from a vocational school in Jiangxi province were randomly chosen as the subjects of this study. Female and male students not shared approximately equal proportion, with 168 students being females and 232 males. Three hundred and nineteen questionnaires of English Learning Weariness Characteristics and Causes of the Vocational School Students returned. Students’ gender is known in 319 questionnaires, with 108 females and 211 males. Most of students live in school from Monday to Sunday and enjoy the weekend with their classmates. A minor portion of them live at home and spend every day with their parents.
3.3 Instruments
The two instruments were employed in this study: the first one is the questionnaire of English Learning Weariness Characteristics and Causes of the Vocational School Students; the second instrument is the interview to know students’ and their teacher’s thinking about English Learning Weariness.
3.3.1 Questionnaires
The questionnaire is constructed by mainly adapting GAO Yiying’s (2009) Questionnaire, which was used for investigating secondary vocational school students’ English Learning Weariness and it also has good reliability, with its whole Alpha=.9448,the English learning weariness degree factors, its Alpha=.8993; the environment factors, its Alpha=.8720, also been found to be reliable and valid. In this survey, the questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part is designed to ask the subjects to provide the detailed personal information about their major, grade and gender etc. The second part contains 72 items, each of which is answered on a five-point scale, ranging from (1) exactly match (2) match (3) hard to say (4) not match exactly (5) not match. The questionnaire contains ten factors as follows:Physical Factors, consists of 2 items: 1, 2.
Learning Experiences Factors is composed of 8 items: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Behavior Factors, contains the following items: 27, 37, 42, 48, 54, 57, 60, 61.
Motivations Factors, contains the following items: 15, 20, 26, 62, 67.
Emotional Factors, contains the following items: 19, 21, 28, 30, 36, 55.
Attitude Factors, contains the following items: 12, 16, 22, 34, 69.
Personality Factors, contains the following items: 13, 23, 33, 43, 49, 63, 70.
Parenting Factors contains the following items: 17, 24, 29, 35, 41, 44, 47, 56, 59, 68.
Social factors, contains the following items: 14, 18, 31, 45, 50, 51, 52.
School Factors, contains the following items: 25, 32, 39, 40, 53, 64, 65, 72.
3.3.2 Interview:
This interview was conducted to help me gain an in-depth understanding of the situation of the vocational school students’ English learning weariness, and meanwhile get some information from their teachers. I posed a few predetermined questions for the students and some other questions for their teachers. I listened to their response for hints as to what question to ask next, or whether it was important to probe for additional information (Maykut &Morehouse 1994; cited from RAO Zhenhui 2002).while formulating interview questions, I made sure that the question were clear, precise and stimulating (Denzin 1989).Each interview, which lasted 30minutes or so, was conducted in Chinese so that the subjects were able to express their ideas fully. All the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts of the interviews were later given to the subjects for verification. The interview focused on following questions:Questions for students:
1. Can you tell me something about how you feel during your English learning?
2. What bother you most in your English learning?
3. Do you have any idea as to why you feel so boring in your English lessons?
4. Do you have any ideas as to how English lessons might be made more interesting?
Questions for their teachers?
1. Can you tell me something about how you feel during your English teaching?
2. What bother you most in your English teaching?
3. Do you have any idea as to why your students feel so boring in your English lessons?
4. Do you have any ideas as to how English lessons might be made more interesting in the vocational school?
3.4 Procedures
The data were collected at their night class on June 18. The author distributed 400 copies of questionnaires when the students had enough time to finish the questionnaires. Before distributing the questionnaires, the students were told the purpose of this study. They got to know that the participation was completely voluntary, and that would spend about 20-30 minutes to complete the questionnaire. They are asked to finish the questionnaire carefully. The students were allowed to ask questions about the questionnaires if they wanted. After they finished the questionnaires, the author reminded them not to miss any item of the questionnaires. Finally the author collected the questionnaires and thanked the participants. After collecting the copies of questionnaires, the author checked and found that 319 questionnaires were valid.
3.5 Statistical analysis of the data
All of the statistical analyses were processes by SPSS 17.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Science, Version 17.0). Data analyses included descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, variance analyses, and regression analyses. Descriptive statistics provides simple summaries about the sample and about the observations that have been made. Such summaries may be either quantitative, i.e. summary statistics, or visual, i.e. simple-to-understand graphs. These summaries may either form the basis of the initial description of the data as part of a more extensive statistical analysis, or they may be sufficient in and of themselves for a particular investigation. T-test is used to compare the means of two groups. It helps determine how confident the researcher can be that the differences found between two groups are not due to chance. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a collection of statistical models, and their associated procedures, in which the observed variance in a particular variable is partitioned into components attributable to different sources of variation. In its simplest form, ANOVA provides a statistical test of whether or not the means of several groups are all equal, and therefore generalizes t-test to more than two groups. Doing multiple two-sample t-tests would result in an increased chance of committing a type I error. For this reason, ANOVA are useful in comparing two, three, or more means. Regression analysis includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. More specifically, regression analysis helps one understand how the typical value of the dependent variable changes when any one of the independent variables is varied, while the other independent variables are held fixed. The procedures of data analysis are as follows: (1) Descriptive statistics was used to get the English learning weariness distribution among the students in the vocational school. (2) Analysis of variance was used to test the differences among the different factors which influenced the English learning weariness degree. (3) Stepwise regression was used to get the predictors of Physical Factors and Learning Experiences Factors. (4) Backward regression was used to get the predictors of Environment Factors, School Factors, Social Factors and Parenting Factors. (5) Independent samples t-tests were used to test if there were differences in foreign language anxiety, parenting styles and foreign language achievements between males and females.....................
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