Section 2 Reasonable Objective Principle

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I.Thinking

【Case Reflection】

Mr Wang is a young English teacher who has just started his teaching career. He thinks that there are two aspects of teaching objectives in middle school English class. The first one requires students to master words, phrases and grammar rules; the second requires cultivation and improvement in the students' listening, learning, reading and writing skills. He is able to complete his teaching tasks very well in each of his lessons. However, in the listening and reading tests at the end of the term, the scores of his students are not satisfactory. He finds that although the students find no real obstacles in dealing with words and syntax, they cannot comprehend the texts well, and sometimes demonstrate quite poor understanding of overall text meaning. Mr Wang is very distressed, and has begun to reflect on whether there is something wrong with his teaching methods. Please help Mr Wang to analyse the causes in relation to the reasonableness of his teaching objectives.

II.The Significance of the Reasonable Objective Principle

Teaching is a purposeful activity, so it needs clear goals. Poorly chosen goals will lead to reduction in teaching effects. Teachers must, therefore, determine a reasonable goal.

1.Ideas behind teaching objectives

Teaching objectives are learning results that students are expected to achieve within a specified time. Teaching objectives are closely interrelated with teaching requirements, teaching content, and teaching practices. The teaching objectives determine the selection and organization of teaching content. The teaching mission is the direct embodiment of the teaching objectives in a specific phase, and it determines to what extent the teaching objectives can be achieved. The relationship between them is shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1 The relationship between teaching objectives, requirements, content and practices (Ying Yuntian, 2001)

We usually use “the ability to identify, understand and apply” to describe foreign language teaching objectives in elementary and middle schools. For example, the ability to identify the differences of uppercase and lowercase letters, to understand the role of the alphabet, and to apply the sequence of the alphabet to order the students' names etc.

2.The classification of teaching objectives

B.S. Bloom is one of the many scholars who have carried out detailed analyses of different levels of teaching objectives in an effort to standardize the terminology of teaching objectives. Bloom said that teaching objectives include three main elements, namely, “cognitive domain”, “affective domain” and “psychomotor domain”. Cognitive domain deals with a person's ability to process and utilize information in a meaningful way. The affective domain relates to the attitudes and feelings that result from learning process. The psychomotor domain involves manipulative or physical skills.

The well-known US educational psychologist Robert M. Gagn said that there are five categories of learning: intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, verbal information, motor skills and attitudes.

The English teaching objectives in elementary and middle schools can be divided into: learning segment (elementary, junior and senior middle school) teaching goals, academic teaching goals, semester goals, unit teaching objectives, and lesson teaching goals. The first two categories identify that the teaching objectives should be based on the National Curriculum Standards . The teachers can determine the latter four teaching objectives according to a synthesis of materials and the National Curriculum Standards .

Lesson teaching objectives can generally be identified by considering the following:

(1) Linguistic knowledge: this requires students to master phonetics, grammar and vocabulary;

(2) Language skills: this focuses on training and enhancing students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills;

(3) Socio-cultural awareness: this requires students to master social and cultural background knowledge;

(4) Emotional attitude and values: students should focus on moral and spiritual civilization in education;

(5) Learning strategies: this cultivates students' memory, comparison, induction, summary, analogy, taking notes and other cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, communication strategies and the use of resources etc.

3.The need for a reasonable objective

The role of a reasonable teaching objective in English teaching is very important because whether the teaching objective is correct or not directly impacts on the effectiveness of teaching behavior. If the teaching and learning activities have a clear and reasonable goal, even if some flaws exist in the organization and implementation, the teaching effectiveness will still be good. Without this, dislocation will occur throughout the teaching and learning activities. Therefore, elementry and middle school English language teaching must follow the reasonable objective principle.

III.Determine a Reasonable Objective Standard

For every teaching activity, in order to achieve the teaching goals, we must undertake appropriate design and organization. To determine the teaching objectives, we must first have clear curriculum objectives.

According to the National Curriculum Standards for English in Schools in China, the overall objective of the English curriculum for basic education is to develop students' comprehensive language proficiency. The formation of integrated language proficiency is based on students' language skills, language knowledge, emotional attitudes, learning strategies and cultural awareness. The curriculum standard is further divided by an internationally accepted system into 9 levels in accordance with the laws of language learning and the different levels of students' mental and physical development and characteristics. The National Curriculum Standards state that English curriculum should be offered from grade 3.By the end of Grade 6, students should achieve the basic requirements of the second level of the Standard. By the end of grade 9, students should achieve the basic requirements of the fifth level. Middle school graduates should reach the eighth level. The settlement of the different goals at all levels is beneficial for the guidance of all levels of teaching.

Combining Bloom and Gagn's theory of taxonomy of educational objectives, English language teaching objectives in elementary and middle school are expressed in the following criteria:

Table 4-1 English language teaching objectives in elementary and middle school

IV.Approaches to Set Reasonable Teaching Objectives

English language teaching in elementary and middle school should have a scientific and rational approach to classroom objectives. It should:

1.Be student-centred

The teaching goal should be adapted to the students' age, personality, interests, cognitive and other psychological factors, and should take into account such factors as student's current experience, knowledge, ability, direction of personal development and the teaching environment. The differences in student-level, the amount of knowledge reserves, psychological characteristics, skills, as well as learning needs between students will have a profound impact on learning outcomes. Teaching should consider the level of each student to make the teaching plan reasonable.

2.Comply with the laws of teaching

This refers to setting goals which are in line with the basic principles of learning and teaching; for example, language input is always prior to language output. Foreign language teaching should be essentially language practice activities, so knowledge teaching about a foreign language should be subordinate to the development of language proficiency.

3.Comply with the National Curriculum Standards

Curriculum goals should be based on curriculum standards and evaluation criteria. The National Curriculum Standards, for example, require students to master 1, 600 words when they graduate from junior middle school. The Standards, however, do not require students to use these 1600 words in their writings. The junior middle school graduation exams only require students to write a composition of about 100 words. In fact if a student is able to write 500 words, he/she can achieve very good results in the graduation exam. Therefore, the teaching goal to enhance vocabulary learning should not exceed the requirements, and the vocabulary should be divided into writing vocabulary and reading vocabulary in teaching. Sometimes, teachers encounter material which “exceeds the Standards”, or “is not up to the Standards”; in both these cases, teachers should adapt the material to meet the curriculum standards.

4.Be comprehensive

The Curriculum Standards highlight the humanistic nature of education. The teaching objectives should accordingly include goals for comprehensive development in cognition, emotional engagement and other related skills and stress on the development of compreheusive quality as well as language proficiency.

5.Be divided into stages

Teaching objectives can be divided into objectives of elementary, junior middle and senior middle schools. Each of these can be further divided by academic year, semester, unit and lesson. It is wise to ensure that the teaching target of a particular lesson is one that can be achieved in a lesson's timeframe. One should not set the objective of the middle school stage, or academic year, or a semester as that of one lesson.

6.Be adjustable

Reasonable teaching objectives should be achievable for all the students, and allow development of individual differences. In some cases, the teacher's manual of English textbooks would list the teaching objective of each unit, according to the content of the textbook rather than the needs of students. In situations like this, teachers need to make adjustments to the teaching objectives according to the actual needs of the students.