Towards a Smooth Transition between Primary School English and Junior High School English : Instructional and Curricular Suggestions Based upon the analysis of Teachers' Beliefs on English Teaching and Learning

在小学外语(英语)活动实施后，弥合小学和初中英语教育之间的差距的需求越来越大，本研究的目的是调查小学和初中教师对英语学习和教学的看法。进行了两项研究。在第一项研究中，研究人员采用了一种名为多声音民族志的研究方法，让一组小学教师观看一名初中教师的课堂视频，并讨论他们在这节课上注意到了什么。另一组初中英语教师被播放了一节小学英语活动课的视频，并就这节课交换了意见。所有的讨论都被记录下来并进行了分析。数据的比较表明，小学教师关注儿童的交流意愿和动机，而初中教师普遍更关注学生的英语习得。在第二个研究中，为了验证第一个研究的结果，特别是关于初中教师的信念，进行了一次问卷调查。调查显示，初中教师对教师的印象有正面和负面两种。这些观察到的印象被用来为第二项研究制定问卷项目，以量化初中教师目前对小学英语活动的看法。调查正在进行中，将于2012年公布。在上述研究的基础上，本研究项目还试图寻找切实可行的措施和思路，将小学英语活动和初中英语活动联系起来。在全国范围内收集了九个尝试小学和初中英语的开创性案例，展示了连接两个学校层面的各种想法。

After the implementation of elementary school foreign language (English) language activities, there has been a growing need of bridging the gap between elementary school and junior high school English language education.The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary and junior high school teachers' beliefs about English language learning and teaching. Two studies were conducted. In the first study a research method called multivocal ethnography was adopted which asked a group of elementary school teachers to view a lesson video of a junior high school teacher and discussed what they noticed about the lesson. Another group of junior high school English teachers were shown a video of an elementary school lesson of English language activities and exchanged their views about the lesson. All the discussions were transcribed and were analyzed.A comparison of the data showed that the elementary school teachers were concerned with children's willingness to communicate and motivation, whereas the junior high teachers were generally concerned more with students' acquisition of English.In the second study, in order to verify the results of the first study, particularly concerning the beliefs of junior high school teachers, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The survey showed that junior high teachers had some positive and negative impressions. These observed impressions were used to develop questionnaire items for the second study to quantify junior high teachers' current perceptions regarding elementary school English activities. The survey is in progress and will be reported in 2012.Along with the above mentioned studies, this research project also sought to find practical measures and ideas to connect elementary school English activities and junior high school English. Nine pioneering cases of projects that attempted to elementary and junior high English were collected nation-wide, which show various ideas to connect the two school levels.