Chapter I Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
It is known that homework is one of the most important links for teachingactivities, which can enrich students' knowledge and improve their abilities and skillsin language acquisition. There are different reasons for giving assignments: Firstly,homework may be designed to reinforce what students have already learned; Secondly,homework assignment can prepare the students for upcoming lessons: Thirdly, it canextend what students have learned by having them applied to new situations, or it canintegrate their abilities when applying different skills to a single task. Further on,homework may also provide opportunities for parents to get involved in theirchildren's world. For children，homework is aimed to get them interested in learningand to lay the foundation for their ftirther development; for teachers, homework cancheck the results of their teaching and guide students to leam better.The newly issued English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 Edition) states that there are five curriculum goals for junior English learners:language knowledge (phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, functions, and topics)；language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing); emotional attitude(motivation, interest, self-confidence, willpower, cooperation, patriotism, andinternational vision); learning strategies(cognitive strategies, monitoring strategies，communicative strategies，and resources strategies); and cultural awareness(culturalknowledge, cultural understanding, and cross-cultural communication). All thesegoals can be achieved by abundant language practice including various forms ofassignments.
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1.2 The Significance of the Research
Strategically, reducing the burden of homework has always been a hot topic thatwill catch the attention of all walks of life. Nowadays most people have realized thatthe quality and quantity of homework are key elements that can affect children'sschool output. On the other hand, it can help improve students' abilities and levels inusing English.The essential value of new-curriculum-reform lies in achieving creativity anddevelopment of the students. So, a democratic, integrated, ecological and sustainableimprovement should be carried out in the innovation of assignments too. In this way,homework can help students to keep to their study，to learn to analyze and to solvedifferent problems by themselves. Only in this way can the students get the chances toachieve creativity and development in the course of learning and everyday practice.The research may also influence teachers' ways of teaching in their classes.Traditionally, in the classroom, the principles, contents and ways of controlling theclasses are mainly based on teachers' teaching rather than students' learning. In otherwords, learning is subordinate to teaching. Creative and efficient homework maychange this phenomenon and can help students to leam better.
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Chapter II Literature Review
2.1 Some Definitions about Homework
The word "homework" originally referred to the work to be done by workers athome after work in order to complete the tasks in time (Walberg & Paschal, 1995).When it is applied to the field of education, it means the learning students asked to doafter school, or the study done without the supervision of the teachers (JDevine, 1987).The word "assignment" sees different meanings in some dictionaries. InLongman Contemporary English-Chinese Dictionary, it refers to: (1) a position，office,or job which one is given or to which one is being sent; (2) the act of assigning. InAmerican Heritage Dictionary, it has five meanings: (1) the act of assigning; (2)something, such as a task^ that is assigned; (3) a position or post of duty to which oneis assigned; (4) \law\ the transfer of a claim, right, interest, or property from one toanother; and (5) the instrument by which this transfer is affected. From the definitionsabove, we know that the word "assignment" can be used in different fields. Here, inthis essay, it is focused on the educational field of English teaching according toOxford Dictionary of English entry 1: a task or piece of work allocated to someone aspart of a job or course of study. To be specific, the author of the thesis expects it to beused as another name for homework and especially as its plural form for what shouldbe done by junior high school students at home.
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2.2 Theoretical Basis
The theoretical system of student-based education put forward by Professor GuoSile emphasizes that students are in the dominant position of education, i.e. theessence of teaching depends on learning, and what teachers do can only beaccomplished through the efforts of students. So, the theory proposes to reform theforms of assignments—homework is to be assigned before teaching instead of afterteaching. Teachers are supposed to design llie assignments according to students'knowledge level and life experience to guide them to learn new knowledge. Metacognition refers to one's knowledge concerning one's own cognitiveprocesses and products or anything related to them, e.g. the learning-relevantproperties of information or data. For example, one is engaging in metacognition if henotices that he is having more trouble learning A than B; or if it strikes to one that heshould double check C before accepting it as fact (J. H. Flavell 1976)
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Chapter III Research Methodology....... 15
3.1 Research Questions .......15
3.2 Description of the Research ....... 15
3.3 Research Approaches and Instruments....... 16
3.3.1 Questionnaires....... 16
3.3.2 Case Studies .......17
3.4 Procedures ....... 17
Chapter IV Results and Discussion....... 19
4.1 Present Homework Status in Daxing District, Beijing....... 19
4.2 Some Innovative Attempts in Daxing District, Beijing....... 42
Chapter V Conclusion....... 54
5.1 Major Findings .......54
5.1.1From the Three Questionnaires....... 54
5.1.2 From the Case Studies ....... 56
5.2 Pedagogical Implications....... 56
5.3 Limitations of the Research....... 57
5.4 Further studies .......58
Chapter IV Results and discussion
4.1 Present Homework Status in Daxing District, Beijing City
The survey was done in the form of questionnaires，which aims to find out theproblems in current English assignments in junior high school, and to get more adviceto solve some problems. The questionnaires were made up of 3 parts:(l) questionnairefor students; (2)questiormaire for teachers; (3)questionnaire for parents. In all，25teachers of English, 158 students and 146 parents from 4 junior middle schools inDaxing District of Beijing City questioned submitted their valid questionnaire sheets.The questionnaires include following categories:(1) the interests of doing homework;(2) the purpose of doing homework; (3)the common contents and forms of Englishhomework; (4) the quantities of homework; (5)the difficulties of homework; (6) theeffectives of homework; (7)needs of students; (8) whether to take consideration of thedifferences of students. Here are some of the survey findings.
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Conclusion
Some teachers are not used to giving instructions on learning strategies, such ashow to remember new words better. Instead, they would rather have the students copythe new words repeatedly for ten or more times as homework. These teachers are .incapable of giving proper instructions to the students, and they are going the wrong .way off quality education. When students are questioned about: "Which of thefollowing forms of homework is most commonly given by your junior school teachersof English? A. copying new words; B. exercise items; C. reading comprehension; D.writing." In one school, 86% of the students chose Item A-—copying new words. In order to release the burden of correcting homework exercise, some teacherstend to just giving students some simple assignments such as filling the blanks, ormultiple choices, most of which come from the printed exercise books with keysattached to. Obviously they are not good for the development of the students. In thequestionnaires for students: "At present, the most common assignments you are givenare: A. copying; B. Exercises in exercise books C. Reading comprehensions; D.writing" 82% of the students chose "B. Doing exercise books" 38% students chose"Reading" and 14% of them chose "Copying", which are now known to all as the dullor mechanical forms of homework for teenagers.
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Reference (omitted)
