A Study on Classroom Teaching Practice of “Telling China’s Stories in English” from the Perspective of Cultural Confidence

Research on Strategies for Cultivating Cultural Awareness in Junior High School English under the Background of the New Curriculum Standards

The 2022 edition of China’s Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards identifies cultural awareness as a key part of core competencies, emphasizing its role in shaping student’ cross‑cultural understanding and value orientation. However, cultural awareness cultivation often stays on the surface in junior high English classrooms. This happens because of exam pressure, limited time, and unclear teaching guidance. This study focuses on the eighth-grade English textbook (PEP, Volume 2) and classroom observations at Shangrao Jingkai District Middle School. Its purpose is to find practical ways to develop cultural awareness. Through textbook analysis and case analysis of listening-speaking and reading lessons, the study identifies three main obstacles: monotonous teaching methods, limited time, and cultural content not used deeply enough. Based on these findings, the study proposes several strategies, including unit-wide cultural teaching, stronger cultural comparison, creative use of multimedia, and diversified evaluation. The results provide research-based references for junior high English teachers who want to bring cultural awareness into daily instruction.

on the Teaching Paths of Telling China’s Stories Well in College English Classrooms

A Study on the Pathways to Cultivating Chinese Cultural Awareness in College English Education

As global public discourse has undergone tremendous shifts in recent years, college English teaching is required to adopt the “value-oriented guidance” teaching framework to deliver multiple teaching effects simultaneously. Under this paradigm, college English teaching is not supposed to stop at the transmission of language knowledge. The ideological and political education should also be woven into the explanation of teaching content, and teachers are also encouraged to set up comparative reading tasks that bring Chinese and Western texts into dialogue, while productive activities should be designed so that students can express their own views in English. Digital materials can also serve as a way to extend and enrich what is learned in class. Against this background, this study builds on widely used college English textbooks and focuses on units that contain clear Chinese cultural elements as the main research object. The cultural and language content inside these units is also examined carefully, and a set of practical classroom teaching steps is then worked out on this basis. The proposed approach links everyday language-learning tasks with cultural understanding and expression, so students are able to improve their cross-cultural communication skills step by step in real situations. More importantly, it helps students develop a deeper understanding of and emotional attachment to Chinese culture. Through continuous language learning and opportunities to express Chinese culture in English, students can strengthen their sense of cultural recognition and eventually cultivate a stable and lasting cultural identity.

Research on the Design and Teaching Practice of the New Junior High School English Textbook (PEP Edition) in Implementing the Activity-based Approach to English Learning

Based on the Activity-based Approach to English Learning proposed in the Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards (2022 Edition), this paper takes Unit 6 “Rain or Shine” from the PEP (2024 Edition) junior high school English textbook for Grade 7 as a specific case to explore the design characteristics and teaching practice paths of the new textbook in implementing the philosophy of “integrating learning and thinking, emphasizing application and innovation”. The study finds that the new textbook adopts a big unit design approach, guided by the theme of “the impact of weather on human life”, and integrates various language skills—listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing—through a progressive activity chain that moves students from learning and understanding to application and practice, and then to transfer and innovation. In teaching practice, the deep learning path of “Learning–Thinking–Applying–Creating” should be followed: activating cognition through situational introduction, guiding in-depth inquiry with question chains, driving language practice with authentic tasks, promoting innovative expression through open-ended activities, and empowering deep learning with continuous assessment throughout the process. The research demonstrates that textbook design and teaching practice based on the Activity-based Approach to English Learning can effectively cultivate students’ language competence and thinking quality, providing a practical reference for the reform of junior high school English teaching.

Research on Senior High School English Homework Design Oriented to Core competencies: From the Perspective of the English Learning‑Activity View

The new curriculum standards have established the basic literacy requirements for students. Currently, most of the senior high school English homework focuses on memorizing knowledge points, has monotonous forms and rigid evaluation criteria, and thus fails to meet the demands of developing students’ all-round linguistic abilities. The three periods of learning activities in the English Learning-Activity View are learning and understanding, applying and practicing, and transferring and creating; they can provide a theoretical support for improving the design of after-school homework. Based on the diary text “My First Day at Senior High” from Book 1 (Compulsory) of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press senior high school English textbooks as the research object, this paper designs a gradient-based hierarchical after-class homework system based on the learning logic of “based on discourse - delving into discourse - transcending discourse”. It has divided into required and elective courses, and integrated teaching, learning and assessment at the level of self-assessment, peer assessment and teacher assessment. Thus, the whole learning cycle will be text input, language internalization and transfer-oriented creative application in real life.

A Study of Generative Instructional Design for Senior High School English Large-Unit Teaching Based on the Process Model under the New Curriculum Standards

 The General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards (2017 Edition, Revised in 2025) emphasize an orientation toward subject-specific core competencies and advocate large-unit teaching organized around thematic contexts. However, current large-unit English teaching in senior high schools is commonly constrained by Tyler’s “Objectives Model.” Its excessive pursuit of predetermined behavioral objectives and formulaic language output makes the teaching process inflexible and overlooks both the dynamic, generative nature of language acquisition and the deeper development of students’ thinking capacity. This paper introduces Stenhouse’s “Process Model” and examines its distinctive value for large-unit English teaching in senior high schools. By reconceptualizing the objectives, content, activities, assessment, and teacher’s role in large-unit teaching, it seeks to move beyond the traditional procedural and linear model of instruction. In doing so, it offers a new theoretical perspective and practical pathway for implementing the activity-based approach to English learning and effectively cultivating students’ core competencies.