The so-called "Encouraging Education" is longstanding. As early as 78AD when MarcusFabiusQuintillions, the very famous elocutionist and educator in the incipient stage of The Roman Empire, was chosen as the first teacher to give lectures focused on elocution, he laid stress on carrying out joyful and encouraging education, namely, making children learn everything with great fun. After he retired in 90AD, Quintillions wrote his masterpiece Lnstitutio Oratoria, in which he clearly put forward his view of improving the teaching methods. He claimed that teachers should use praise, commendation and encouragement to show their love and care for their students and create a perfect environment that is good for students’ study. In recent years, there is a growing concern about the role of encouraging education playing in primary school’s English teaching. Moreover, a lot of schools take courage to carry out reform and innovation in primary school English teaching and use encouraging teaching measures to stir up the students’ intrinsic potential, let the students become intimate with English as well as to make encouragement a chaperonage with students’ growth and enable them to learn English with great interests and high efficiency so as to achieve success and self-confidence.
This research has certain theoretical significances. Since the implementation of the new lesson for encouraging education is an important guarantee to stimulate students’ interests in studying English and to enhance the teaching effects, it is necessary to probe encouraging education theories, its significance and how to apply various kinds of encouraging education methods appropriately. Meanwhile, properly pay attention to some important points during the implementation process.
From the aspect of practical significance, this research is also worth making. According to primary school education psychology, teachers’ appraisal and proper application of encouragement and criticism is one of the most significant ways to promote the progress of students. A teacher’s role as a manager of his class is best embodied through his use of encouragement. By language or non-language measures, a teacher can praise, criticize, encourage or punish his students; show approve or disapprove of his students’ behaviors; expect students to continue or stop certain kinds of actions. If a teacher can use encouragement and criticism properly, he maybe possibly help students better understand what they’ve seen and heard and arouse their enterprise, self-respect, sense of honor and collective spirit.
Based on some questionnaires carried out by my teachers and me during my education apprentice in late October of 2010, this research is composed of four chapters. In the first chapter, I will raise some questions which this research is going to cope with. Then collect data and analyze the results one by one in the second chapter. Chapters three and four are the conclusions to my questionnaires, among which I will put forward my major findings of the survey in chapter three and evaluate the survey in chapter four. Finally, I would like to draw a general conclusion to my paper.
1. Raise questions
In recent years, people concern more and more about the functions that encouraging education has in primary school English teaching and relevant researches increase day by day. For a deeply understanding of current situations in which encouraging education is applied in primary school English teaching, analysis of what kind of encouragement is valid to study English well, how to carry on effective encouragement to the students and investigation into some important points that call for special attentions when implementing encouraging education, my teachers and me launched questionnaires in late October, 2010, among more than 130 pupils in Wuxi Yuhong Primary School about the related circumstance of encouraging education used in English teaching. Besides, we also interviewed around ten students or more and got authentic first-hand data. At last, we took back 140 questionnaires, and by analysis we picked 22 invalid questionnaires out and got rid of them, leaving the rest 118 effective ones at hand.
2. Data collection and analysis
2.1 Analysis of encouraging education situation and its effect in English teaching
Form ⅠCurrent situation of encouraging education in English teaching
Grades
Current situation
Total numbers
Results
Often
Sometimes
Never
Junior Grades
18
12
7
37
No obvious differences
Medium Grades
13
28
7
48
Senior Grades
11
18
4
33
Total numbers
42
58
18
118
Form ⅡThe study effects of encouraging education in English teaching
Grades
Study Effects
Total numbers
Results
90-
80-
70-
60-
Disqualified
Junior Grades
36
4
0
0
0
40
No obvious differences
Medium Grades
38
7
3
0
0
48
Senior Grades
25
3
2
0
0
30
Total numbers
99
14
5
0
0
118
From the forms above we can find out that: the usage of encouraging education in primary school English teaching is considerably universal. There are no obvious differences in the current situations in which encouraging education is applied to among various grades in primary schools. Same results go with the study effects of encouraging education in English teaching. At the same time, investigate results and interview researches manifests that 90.83% of the pupils surveyed all hold the same view that teachers’ encouragement plays a very important role in their study of English. Without their teachers’ appropriate encouragement, they would lose interests in English and as a result can't obtain excellent results in a variety of English examinations and competitions, either.
2.2 Analysis of material rewards and spiritual rewards in English teaching situation
Form Ⅲ Material and spiritual rewards used in English teaching
Grades
Material rewards
Spiritual rewards
Total numbers
Results
snack
decals
notebooks
others
Grade One
6
5
0
1
2
14
Obvious differences exist
Grade Two
4
13
3
2
3
25
Grade Three
2
4
9
1
4
20
Grade Four
1
1
5
2
11
20
Grade Five
2
1
4
4
13
24
Grade Six
1
2
2
4
6
15
Total Numbers
16
26
23
14
39
118
According to Form Ⅲ, obvious differences do exist in the demand for material rewards and spiritual rewards among pupils from different grades. As pupils’ grades get higher, their demand for material rewards become gradually lower, instead, they need public recognition and spiritual encouragement from other people, especially their teachers in classes as much as possible. Therefore, English teachers are required to make a concrete analysis of concrete problems. Teachers ought to give students from various grades encouragement in dissimilarity so as to meet distinguished needs of children. Thus, English teaching can achieve double results by making just half efforts.
2.3 Analysis of different levels of encouragement used in boys and girls and its effect
Form Ⅳ Different degrees of encouragement boys and girls receive
Grades
Often
Sometimes
Never
Total numbers
Results
Junior Grades
Boys
7
6
2
15
Girls
13
14
1
28
No obvious differences
Medium Grades
Boys
5
18
1
24
Girls
8
9
2
19
Senior Grades
Boys
10
1
1
12
Girls
6
12
2
20
Total numbers
49
60
9
118
As the statistics mentioned above, we can see that in each grade, the encouragement that boys and girls are subjected to belongs to the same degree and it shows little difference. Therefore, in primary school’s English teaching, the encouragement which boys and girls receive is quite prevalent. However, the encouragement that the girls receive is somehow a bit more than boys do. A possible factor may give a reasonable explanation about this phenomenon, that is, at primary schools boys are usually very naughty, trouble-making. Besides, they often demonstrate a fairly strong independent performance. So, relatively, the level of the encouragement that teachers apply to boys is lower, compared with which to girls.
2.4 Analysis of the application of encouragement and criticism in English teaching
Form Ⅴ The application of encouraging and animadversion education
Grades
Encouraging education
Animadversion education
Total numbers
Results
Junior Grades
41
4
45
Obvious differences exist
Medium Grades
39
3
42
Senior Grades
30
1
31
Total numbers
110
8
118
Form Ⅴ shows us that encouraging education and animadversion education are the two major types of education commonly used by teachers in primary school’s English teaching. But there are obvious differences between the two types of education. Relatively, encouraging education is especially favored and worshiped by most English teachers. Encouragement can arouse morale and make a great contribution to mutual union and cooperation among students while animadversion can make people keep a clear mind and help overcome their shortcomings. Thus, it is clear that in the meantime teachers are using encouraging education they should also apply animadversion education to English teaching and try their utmost to make the best of the twp types of education.
2.5 Analysis of the most popular encouraging sentences used in English classes
You are so great! You did a good/wonderful job!
Well done!/Nicely done! Terrific!
You are really good! You should be proud of you!
You should be proud of you! Nothing is impossible.
Cheer up! You are the best.
Believe yourself. Where there is a will, there is a way.
You are so wonderful, I am proud of you! You are my sunshine!
You are my good boy/girl. Come on, baby! You are the tops!
Great!/Good!/Wonderful!/Super!/Cool! That's marvelous!
If you do, you will be the best. Cool! My sunshine boy!
I'm impressed by your improvement. Don't be shy, just have a try!
Would you like to have a try? You are the best.
Don't worry!/No problem!/Try again! Congratulations!
Clever boy/ girl. Smart boy/girl. Hurry up!
These popular encouraging sentences listed above come from our investigations and communications with some of pupils in Wuxi Yuhong Primary School, which include the most commonly used encouraging sentences by teachers, students’ favorite encouraging sentences and encouraging sentences that students look forward to getting from their teachers most. If teachers apply these encouraging sentences to their English teaching effectively, students will possibly learn English more earnestly and diligently.
3. Major findings of the Survey
3.1 Results of the Survey
The well-known French educator Friedrich Adolph Wilhelm Diesterweg once said:“The art of teaching does not lie in the skills of induction, but in encouragement, awakening and inspiration.” The knowledge, techniques and technical abilities of English study are in badly demand of encouragement. The inspiration of students’ thinking and the development of their intelligence also call for encouragement. Besides, in order to cultivate students’ sense and usage of language, teachers need encouragement, too. Therefore, the art of encouragement is of great importance in English teaching. So every English educator is required to think about how to make full use of encouragement to arouse students’ interests in learning English, how to encouragement students to take an active part in English studying and how to improve their English capabilities.
As a matter of fact, in our daily life, every individual adult wants to be encouraged or praised by other people, not to mention a group of naiveté children. To them, a kind of appreciative and encouraging language is needed much more than students in junior and senior schools, or even in universities and colleges, which can help students keep an active enterprising spirit and a strong sense of honor, help students form a habit of learning English initiatively and as well as helping them shape a terrific sense of English and a strong ability to put what they have learned about English into practice.
Consequently, through the investigation research and interview research this time, we can gain some results as follows:
In English teaching, teachers shall be good at fuelling the positivism of their students, arousing the enthusiasm of students’ learning, fully digging for the potential of students and strengthening their self- confidence as well as help students seek advantages and avoid disadvantages and draw on each others’ merits and finally reach a harmonious development. So, in English classes, teachers ought to use the art of encouragement effectively to liven up the class atmosphere. Beyond all that is the flexible choose and application of encouragement mechanism in English classes according to their students’ behaviors and MA (namely mental attitude), which will create much more competition environment for students and make their emotions swell. At the same time, other students can also be influenced. They may be itched to have a go, think positively and try to have the floor to answer teachers’ questions before others. This application also shows its advantage in fully stimulating students’ initiative to learn English, making them take every practice very seriously both in and out of class. All these will at last contribute to an activity-tightknit and atmosphere-hefty English class.
3.2 Useful encouraging approaches
In order to achieve the goals above, several approaches can be used:
First, use encouragement in the target of teaching, stirring up students’ motivation to learn English. The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget once said:“The children is a group of people who have initiative. If what a teacher has taught them can arouse their interests and meet their needs, then the lesson will promote their progress.”In English study, pupils often appear well in imitating and have a strong desire to express themselves. If teachers give them chances and offer them material rewards as well as spiritual ones according to their different ages, they will make children transfer teaching targets into internal needs, changing from “order me to study” to “I want to study.”
Second, use encouragement in the lead-in part, developing students’ interests. As the saying goes, interest is the best teacher. It is necessary to concern about students’ interests in English teaching, especially in the lead-in part. For example, teachers can coordinate their teaching with some beautiful background music and pictures downloaded from the Internet so as to arouse students’ interests.
Third, use encouragement in the competition, building up students’ confidence in learning English. The feeling of competence is the basic element in students’ cognition of themselves. In English classes, teachers shall make good use of students’ competitive mentality and provide proper opportunities for them.
Four, use encouragement in the teaching evaluation, promoting students to develop in an all-round way. What students show in the class are their abilities, so teachers must give active and positive encouragement to them in time instead of illiberally using the encouraging sentences such as “Well done! /Excellent! /You are great! /I’m proud of you! /You've made great progress and I’m sure you will succeed.” and so on. Sometimes even a simple smile can be a strong motivation in their study.
4. Evaluation on the Survey
4.1 Limitations of the Survey
My education apprentice lasted from Oct.18 to Oct.30, only half a month. Since time was so limited, what I could do was just choose some of the pupils from different grades. Therefore, it is obvious and inevitable that the results and conclusions drawing from these questionnaires may be lacking of certain catholicity. Besides, as we all know, people’s personalities and characteristics vary as they grow older day by day. So if given much more time, maybe I would get an exactly different result.
4.2 Suggestions for Further Study
Both from the survey and my personal idea, I would like offer some of my suggestions for further study on application of encouragement used in primary school’s English teaching.
First of all, encouragement should be made in time. Remember do not raise your umbrella up after it has rained. From the dictation of English words, students’ homework ever to their notes and their active participation in answering teachers’ questions, to their results in tests and examinations, English teachers must consciously catch every student’s outstanding points in time. Sometimes not just“catch”, but “intentionally dig his merits out”. And then give him an encouragement at a proper time. This may often help develop his outstanding points to a much higher level. For instance, when a teacher asks her students to write some English words, she can walk down from her dais and join her students. If she find that someone’s handwriting is clear and beautiful, she can immediately praise the student with the encouraging sentences such as “She writes carefully./Her handwriting is very beautiful. We should learn from her.” When other students hear the teacher’s praise and thus improve their handwritings, the teacher can say: “He writes well. If he keeps writing，he will be successful! ”
Second, encouragement should be made pertinently. Encouragement can develop one’s potential abilities. But English teachers cannot encourage those which do not deserve praise or recognition, otherwise it will make students confused about what exactly they should do. At the same time, encouragement should be done to a turn instead of being made with too much exaggeration. See an example. In some tests, students are required to draw a smiling face or a sad face in order to judge whether the statements are true or false. But some students may not feel enough by only drawing a face. They will add a tongue or tears in the face, supersedes what really counts, and usually make the face neither happy nor sad. To cope with the phenomenon, on one hand, teachers should give positive response to students’ creativity; on the other hand, more importantly, teachers must orient students to read the requirements carefully and help them out of their writhen aesthetic perspective.
Third, encouragement should be made according to students’ diversity. After all, what people need vary one to another. This should be taken into consideration in English classes when giving encouragement. To those who lack confidence in studying English well, teachers ought to look with favor upon them while to those who have mastered a certain level of English but prone to arrogance and conceit, teachers must use a slightly damaging language to spur them to guard against arrogance and rashness and keep advancing.
Four, encouragement should be made fairly. We human-beings are a kind of animal who like being loved and understood by others. Children’s heart is transparent and pure as glass. They need teachers’ encouragement, care, recognition and praise badly. The US psychologist James once said that it is one of the deepest expectations of human nature that we look forward to being praised, admired and respected. Students, especially the laggard pupils need teachers’ encouragement more. Teachers must assure the just of encouragement and make all pupils think that their teachers care about them. If so, the motivating force of encouragement can be sown in every child’s heart.
Conclusion
The famous Soviet educator Cyxomjnhcknn once said:“As a teacher, he should make his students walk with their heads up.” With this purpose, teachers must learn to find their students’ merits in an appreciative perspective, use encouragement, praise and affirmative instead of criticizing or blaming. Those who often get encouragement and praise from their teachers will soon gain self-confidence and make good performance in English. Isn’t that delightful to see students’ success and progress day by day under teachers’ proper encouragement?
