Some research methods will be used including concept analysis method, comparative research method, and observation method in this paper.

II. Current Situation of English Class in Middle School

2.1 Problems of Teachers

Correct and accurate intonations, pronunciations, spellings and correct language habits are what an English teacher requires to have because teachers without them will bring a lifetime harm to their students. But some of teachers just insist they are right and compel their students to think they are teaching something useful. Therefore, teachers should try their best to overcome the limitation of their own awareness level and educational modes.

   2.1.1 Lack of Comprehension of the New Curriculum Standards

From the New Curriculum Standards, we can conclude that middle school is the phase when students’ English level is polarizing. As some students at a normal intelligence level are weak in English for congenital and acquired reasons, middle school English classes should take the role of keeping open dialogues and providing opportunities for students to do some real exercises in English dialogues and it is a way of inspiring and making them interested in learning English and get out of their predicament in learning English.

On the contrary to the New Curriculum Standards, many of our middle school English teachers are over-dependent on teaching materials. As a result of that, it is difficult for them to understand the New Curriculum Standards by different levels and put the new concepts of developing students’ language skills, integrated knowledge, necessary language techniques, cultural awareness and learning policies into their classes. The other side of the problem is that the teacher’s role in class teaching is a guiding role in the new curriculum’s view, which means that the teacher should be fully aware of characteristic of each student and guide them towards what they are good at as that’s the way to bring their subjective initiative into playing in study. In the diametrically opposite direction, the truth is that most of our middle school English teachers are unaware of the idea. What they do in class is to tell students the grammar points given on the textbook, and translate the contents of the articles for students, which we call the grammar-translation teaching method. All of them are the reflects of teachers’ lack of comprehension to the New Curriculum Standards.

2.1.2 Drawbacks of English Teaching Methods

Course contents and teaching activities should be an organic and effective combination but it turns out to be, ineffective and purposeless in some situations. Such scenarios are common in the normal teaching activities. A class with too many activities can turn out to be out of control and hence teaching will not be the main purpose of the classes. As we mentioned above, there are some traditional English teaching methods with multi-media equipment aids. Despite of its benefits for us, multi-media can also be a problem for us. Some teachers are over-dependent on this aid and some use it only in order to show the content of the textbook. They play the slideshow once, without pointing out the key points of the lesson, and this normally in no way impresses students with what they should learn and puts them in a confused and passive place in the class. And also, too many embedded images in the slideshow distract students from what they should pay attention to.

The traditional assessing system lays particular emphasis on writing and reading skills. A little attention was paid on how students learn the language, how students’ listening ability is, or how well they speak the language. Assessment is done in the proportion of 30% of homework and mid-semester examinations, and 70% of the end-of-semester examinations. This is the evaluation pattern for most of Chinese middle school English classes. All in all, these problems of teachers should be solved quickly.

2.2 Problems of Students

Traditionally, the greatest part of students in China are trained to memorize much knowledge from their textbooks and aim at improving examinations grades instead of conveying their thoughts by their own words or putting English into practical usages. Moreover, lack of knowledge about cultural differences, good habits and learning methods are the mainly problems which exist in the English learning of middle school students.