Evaluating English Learning Experiences Among High School Students. Free Essay

As the government makes an effort to ensure that English is taught, it is important to know what the learner thinks concerning learning English. As the saying goes, one can take a cow to the river, but one cannot force it to drink water. Without interest and a profound understanding of the importance of taking up English lessons, students are likely to not make any effort when it comes to learning English. Poor performance and unachieved goals are, therefore, likely to be registered under these circumstances.

Occasionally, the school curricula require updates. This process requires the committee involved to preview the impact of the curricula, research on how to improve it, suggest changes, incorporate them and implement them. The process is time-consuming and costly, as well. The committee involved must therefore have the accurate data which incorporates reviews from teachers and students to ensure efficiency and make the best decisions. The opinion of the students on their experience in learning English is therefore quite important.

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This research would therefore generate the information necessary to make decisions at the national level and institutional level. It would assist in revealing the challenges faced in the process of learning English and possible solutions. It is expected to outline the effective and ineffective methods used in learning English. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to build on other researcher’s work by getting the Anhui Province high school students insight about their experiences of learning English.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research were employed in this case. In qualitative, open-ended survey questionnaires that had open questions to allow the students who were the respondents, to express themselves in their own words. The participants were 82 high school students from Anhui Province. The questionnaires had questions in which the survey data were later tabulated in bar graphs. The questionnaires were represented in bilingual language, in Chinese and English. Student data which included age, the time when they started learning English, how they felt about learning English, whether they liked English, the difficulties they encountered while learning English, average time spent on studying English, the best method of learning English, how often they answered questions in class, the importance of learning grammar, difficulties experienced while learning grammar, what affected their reading and listening skills and favourite English activity among others.

Interviews were also conducted on five high school students from Anhui Province, where the questions aimed at getting the learner’s perspective on the English learning experience. The survey data from the interview revealed that as English became highly popular in China, some of the students noted the potential value for English which is a tool for social mobility and results to greater educational access. However, some students claimed that the strategies used in teaching English were not effective and that learning English was a waste of time. This is because a huge number of learners had a high possibility of not using English after graduation.

Research Questions

The study seeks to answer the following research questions.

• 1)When did they start learning English, and why were they studying English?
• 2)Did the students like English, and did they feel about learning English? Did they think it was important to their future?
• 3)What are the major difficulties and major easy encountered while studying English?
• 4)How much time did they spend on learning English on average every time?
• 5)What strategies did they employ in their learning process and were the strategies used useful in learning English?

The Structure of the Study

This study is organized in such a way that, this chapter (the introduction), establishes the scope, context, and the importance of the research being conducted. Chapter 2 which is the literature review surveys the literature in the area of study, assesses the current state of the research, identifies the experts on the topic, identifies key questions in the study that need further research, determines the methodologies used in the past and defines keys and terms.

Chapter 3 describes the methodology which gives information on how the research was arrived at. The section gives answers to two major questions; how the data was collected and how it was analysed. Chapter four tabulates the findings or rather the results. Chapter 5 is a discussion of the findings and results which involves an analysis of the results, considering the outcomes of the questionnaires and presentations of addressing research questions.