The Effectiveness of Small Class Teaching of English in a Secondary School

This dissertation, "The Effectiveness of Small Class Teaching of English in a Secondary School" by Lai-wah, Ng, 吳麗華, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Abstract This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of small class teaching of English in a secondary school. The researcher's goal is to improve student learning through small class teaching. Five classes of Form Four of the researcher's school participated in this study. Two classes of F.4 students ----- the target group ----- were allocated to three smaller classes and taught by three teachers during English lessons while the other three F.4 classes that were taught under the regular class setting formed the reference group. Within the year of the study, the researcher held several formal and informal meetings with the English Language teachers concerned and the discussion focused on curriculum adaptation, teaching strategies, assignment design, classroom management, good teaching practices, how to solve the problems encountered, and so on so that the effectiveness of small class teaching could be maximized. To look into the effect of small class on student achievement, the progress of the target and reference groups in English within the school year was compared. A questionnaire survey was conducted at the beginning and end of the school year on the students in the small classes so as to collect their ideas about English learning and analyse the learning and teaching iv activities conducted in the small classes. Moreover, at the end of the school year, ten students of the small classes were randomly selected and interviewed individually to collect their ideas about English learning and their opinions about small class teaching. In the meantime the English Language teachers of the small classes were also interviewed individually to elicit their opinions and suggestions about small class teaching as well as their teaching methodologies for a small class. Findings indicate that small class teaching is effective in some aspects. Generally speaking, it helps students to make bigger progress than their counterparts of a regular class. It is also found that the small class context helps to create favourable conditions for improving learning. For instances, the small class size bestows more chances for teacher and student interaction and more space for the teacher to offer more individual attention to the students and to deal with discipline problems, which serves to enhance student concentration in class. In addition, it helps to establish a closer relationship between the teacher and the students and it may also help boost students' confidence in learning English. However, caution should be taken not to conclude that small class is the only attribute to the progress made by the students. There exist other factors that affect the progress v of students. It should be noted that teaching approaches, teaching methodologies, curriculum, assignments and so on also have an important part to play if small class teaching is to be used to the fullest and to the best benefit of the students. Further research is needed to explore other factors that affect the progress of students. vi DOI: 10.5353/th_b3760522 Subjects: Class size - China - Hong Kong English language - Study and teaching (Secondary) - China - Hong Kong