“Students should be encouraged to take part in different activities and acquire knowledge, skills and wisdom in class。” And teachers should give students opportunities to express themselves and then the English atmosphere can be improved。 Meanwhile, she criticized the leading authority of some teachers and suggested that students should be given equal rights on acquiring knowledge (xia 253)。

Chen Shibin thinks that it is necessary to distinguish the positive silence from the negative silence。 On the one hand, we should focus on the bad effects of silence; On the other hand, silence is a significant way on some occasions。 When teacher asks questions, the silence can provide retarded students with enough time to think clearly about how to answer questions。 As for teachers, keeping silent in special circumstance is crucial。 So the silence deserves our attention to the positive effect (47)。文献综述

However, in western countries, some experts hold various opinions on classroom silence。 Jackson researched the silence phenomenon in business management class and concluded that factors (education, social culture and emotion) may cause students’ silence (17)。 Petress found that the silence phenomenon is closely related to the teaching contents。 If the teaching contents are difficult, students are usually keeping silent。 Meanwhile, teachers should provide a relaxing and pleasant dialogue environment, and then the silent students may actively join in the dialogue (13)。

Sato emphasized that various factors affect the participation of students。 Both the English level and cultural background influence the students’ classroom participation。 His other studies have shown that Asian students are more passive when expressing their views。 Students usually answer questions when the teacher calls their names, and they would not answer questions without the permission of the teacher (18)。 And this may be the main cause of classroom silence。

III。 Research Design

3。1 Research Aim

The aim of this research is to investigate the current situation of students’ silence phenomenon in high school English class, to find out the causes of students’ silence phenomenon and to provide effective methods so as to change this situation。 Meanwhile the study can draw English teachers’ attention and help them break the silence。

3。2 Research Subjects

The subjects of this investigation include 280 students from 4 various classes who study in No。 2 high school in Mian Chi county, San Men Xia city, northwest of Henan province。 Two hundred and eighty students from grade one to three respectively participated in the survey。 来`自+优-尔^论:文,网www.youerw.com +QQ752018766-

3。3 Research Methods

The methods of the research include classroom observation and questionnaire。

The classroom observation is taken under the permission of teachers in 4 classes。 In order to observe their natural reaction, students are not informed in advance。 The class observation contains three aspects: the classroom environment; teacher’s factors (teaching attitude, teaching procedures, waiting time and feedback in class); student’s factors (the frequency of student’s answers, their performance in activities)。

Questionnaire is aimed at providing further information about the current situation of students’ silence in English class such as students’ characteristics and expectations in English class, teaching methods or teaching attitude。 Here is the basic structure of questionnaire。 Question 1 is about classroom atmosphere and Question 2 is about the influence of classroom environment; Question 3 to Question 7 is talking about teachers’ factors; While Question 8 to Question 14 is about students’ factors。 In order to make questionnaire more accurate, the author gave students several minutes to read the requirement at first。 The 280 questionnaires are handed out to students in different grades。 After finishing, these questionnaires are taken back。