Homework At A Secondary School Education Essay

The purpose of this survey is to happen out the pupils attitude towards prep, particularly towards the English prep at a secondary school. The research was conducted in one of my categories. The participants are pupils are all in grade 7. In malice of larning in the same category, each member of this category has a different degree of English proficiency and has different motives in larning English.

I do this research with a hope that after the research, I can derive some certain cognition and experiences in order to assist myself and my every bit good as my co-workers in taking the best manner of giving prep which will accomplish maximal engagement from pupils in carry throughing their prep.

Introduction

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Background Information

I am a instructor of English at Long Thanh secondary school - a secondary school in a distant inland in Kien Giang Province, Vietnam. I have four categories with an norm of 35 pupils per category. After old ages of instruction, I realized that there was a phenomenon happening twelvemonth after twelvemonth: during the first hebdomads of the semester, my pupils ' prep was fulfilled with high frequence than the ulterior hebdomads.

After the first month of the school-year, I discovered the fact that a batch of pupils repeatedly neglected to make their prep and normally did ill on most of the trials. Then I reminded them many times ; I called to their house to speak to their parents about this job and told their form- instructor. Occasionally, my pupils would look with prep in manus, but most of the times they appear with merely alibis. Why? It may be at the beginning of the school-year, my pupils might hold less prep and prep possibly easy for them to make, or they merely wanted to delight their instructor. After some hebdomads, they had so much prep from other topics to make every bit good, or they must go to extra-classes, or they felt bored with their English prep.

I was really at a loss. I wondered why my pupils did non make plenty English prep. I wanted to cognize more about my pupils ' attitudes towards the English prep. I wondered if my pupils did non understand something in the prep or the instructions of the prep were non clear plenty or the prep was excessively hard.

• What can I make to assist my pupils?

After old ages of learning English in secondary school, I face the job that instructor 's function is to give prep, and a pupil 's function is non to make it! '' Due to this fact, I wonder if we should halt giving prep in learning English to secondary pupils.

The reply is perfectly " no. '' No 1 can deny that prep is indispensable for scholars in deriving better cognition. It gives scholars chances in acquiring exposed to the new linguistic communication and helps them review their memory of the old learnt linguistic communication.

When carry oning this research, I hope that this survey will cast visible radiation on giving prep. It can assist me happen out techniques to help pupils ' consciousness about the value of prep every bit good as promote them to carry through their day-to-day prep with more involvement.

Background of learning English in Vietnam

In Vietnam, English is taught as a foreign linguistic communication and it is besides one of the compulsory topics at estate schools.

Mr. Canh ( 2001 ) remarked that although Vietnamese English instructors presents have a positive attitude to communicative methods, they feel limited in the execution of communicative instruction in their English schoolrooms for several grounds. Communicative linguistic communication instruction is excessively hard in Vietnam, where the instructor 's degree of English is low, the categories are excessively big, edifices, furniture, and other agencies are basic, and merely low support can be provided for stuffs, libraries, and other consulting services. The new instruction attack requires new cognition and accomplishments. Teachers are frequently required to pass more clip on making the extra readying, but there are excessively many demands on instructors ' clip.

Teachers seldom have entree to the input and resources of the mark linguistic communication at secondary schools. Not a individual secondary school in Vietnam has ELT resources and stuffs available to instructors. Normally, there are merely some types of instruction stuffs which are available to Vietnamese instructors. They are text editions, a few practical English grammar books, some instructors ' manuals, some cassette - participants and some lexicons. Not merely do pupils seldom have a opportunity to take portion in meaningful acquiring in touch with native English talkers but besides instructors face the same job. With such a awful English linguistic communication input environment, how can Vietnamese instructors of English keep their English ability off from being fossilized? They themselves have jobs in acquiring in touch with aliens. As a consequence, most of Vietnamese instructors tend to utilize Grammar-Translation Method in learning English in secondary.

Furthermore, Vietnamese instructors ' wont is reading and of the pupils is composing. Teachers normally combine Grammar-translation Method with the Audio-lingual Method in learning. They ever try all their best to cover everything from the text edition. Besides, they are disquieted about an `` over- prepared lesson program '' or `` under - prepared lesson program '' . In this instance, pupils merely listen to their instructors ' account and transcript everything that is taught.

Literature Review

Motivation in larning linguistic communications

• Motivation is the key to success in making anything, particularly in larning linguistic communications. Secondary pupils, out of sight of their instructors, normally find it hard to hold self-awareness.
• Language research workers divided motive into two basic sorts: integrative motive and instrumental motive.

Harmonizing to Crookes and Schmidt ( 1991 ) " integrative motive is the scholar 's orientation with respect to the end of larning a 2nd linguistic communication. It is characterized by scholar 's positive attitudes towards the mark linguistic communication group and the desire to incorporate into the mark linguistic communication community '' .

Hudson ( 2000 in Norris-Holt 2001 ) stated that " instrumental motive was the desire to obtain something practical or concrete from the survey of a 2nd linguistic communication '' . That is the desire to acquire a better occupation or a publicity ; to go through an scrutiny ; and to read materialsa

Harmonizing to Reilly ( 1994 ) , motive is enhanced when larning ends are made clear and when undertakings are sequences and linked in ways that make sense to scholars.

Nunan ( 1991 ) said that the good foreign linguistic communication scholar found ways of triping his or her linguistic communication out of category.

Liu and Littlewood ( 1997 in Zhenhui 2001 ) pointed out that " traditionally the instruction of EFL in most East Asiatic states is dominated by teacher-centered, book-centered, grammar-translation method with an accent on rote memory. ''

These traditional English linguistic communication learning methods have resulted in a figure of typical manners. Most pupils receive cognition through their instructor 's conveying instead than they themselves discover it. Students receive cognition instead than construe it. They normally wait for rectification from the instructor throughout their acquisition procedure. What about the instructors? They tend to give everything to their pupils through what they pour on the chalkboard.

The chief ground for this linguistic communication survey is a necessity for my pupils to derive accomplishment in scrutinies. Due to the fact that the scrutinies are structured, about all schools in Vietnam are forced to educate their pupils in such a mode that they can make the scrutiny every bit good as possible. These tests are strict trials which required pupils to hold cognition of both extended vocabulary and grammatical constructions in order to make these trials successfully.

Why do we necessitate to give pupils homework?

Depending on what facet of the prep statement we are on, prep can hold both positive and negative effects on pupils.

The positive effects of prep

Homework plays an of import function in learning linguistic communication to our kids. Goldstein and Zentall ( 1999 ) have stated as the followers:

Homework is of import because it is the intersection between place and school. It serves as a window through which we can detect our kids 's instruction and show positive attitudes towards our kids and their instruction. For instructors and decision makers, prep is a cost effectual manner to supply extra direction in pattern.

The most common intent of giving prep is to assist pupils rehearse what they have already learnt in category. Homework is besides used to reenforce acquisition every bit good as to assist pupils master specific accomplishments. Preparation prep is besides a measure of presenting stuffs which will be presented in the following lessons.

There are 10 grounds for instructors to give prep to pupils. Teachers give prep in order to revise classwork, to consolidate and pattern classwork, to widen linguistic communication cognition, to derive farther accomplishments pattern, to fix for the following category, to complete off work started in category or to salvage category clip for more communicative activities, to let pupils to work at their ain gait, to let us to look into that pupils have understood what we have tried to learn, to name spreads in pupils ' cognition, and to get farther linguistic communication, manner, and so on, from extended accomplishments work.

There are 4 grounds for noncompleting prep. Students frequently claim: " I had excessively much prep. ''; " It was tiring. ''; " I forgot. ''; or " I didn't understand how to make. ''

Cooper found one more positive academic consequence of prep: betterment of attitudes towards school.

Giving prep benefits us, the instructors, every bit good. " Homework improves instructors ' ability to cover the course of study and acts as a sort of p between the last lesson and the following 1 '.

The negative effects of prep

The Official US - Department of Education Website besides province that excessively much prep can do pupils experience bored. Puting excessively much prep can maintain pupils off from taking portion in free clip and fall ining community activities. Other negative consequence of prep is that it can take to unwanted character traits if it promotes rip offing, either through the copying of assignments or aid with prep that goes beyond tutoring.

The sum and the nature of the prep undertakings

Cooper  recommends:

• That all pupils should be given prep but that it should be limited by a orderly expression: no more than ten proceedingss per dark multiplied by the pupil s grade degree. In other words, a 2nd grader should hold no more than 20 proceedingss of prep all together per dark ; a 12th grader, no more than 120 proceedingss, or two hr.
• Young kids should hold shorter and more frequent assignments because they have short ps of attending and demand to experience they have successfully completed a undertaking. To better the job of giving prep, there are some experiences from linguistic communication research workers. On the Official US Department of Education Website, they found that to assist pupils with clip direction, we should assist them set up a fit clip each twenty-four hours for making prep. Do non allow them go forth prep until merely before bedtime, most of them wait until the last minute. We should hold them make the difficult work foremost. We must learn pupils the manner they learn.

In short, it is the occupation of pedagogues to maximise the benefits of prep and minimise the " cost ''.

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