Applicability and Practical Path of Dewey's Pedagogy in Junior High School English Teaching

Abstract

Dewey's "Learning by Doing" emphasizes experience, practice, and reflection in learning, which aligns deeply with the English Learning Activity View and Task-Based Language Teaching advocated by China's Compulsory Education English Curriculum Standards. This paper reviews the connotation of "Learning by Doing," demonstrates its intrinsic connection with the English Learning Activity View, and analyzes its applicability in junior high school English teaching from three dimensions: students' cognitive development, curriculum policy requirements, and core competency cultivation. It further examines practical dilemmas including exam-oriented evaluation constraints, teacher competence limitations, resource and spatiotemporal restrictions, and regional development imbalance. Finally, the study constructs a practical path from four levels—teaching objectives, teaching content, teaching process, and teaching evaluation—proposing an operational framework of competency-oriented objectives, life-context integrated content, task-driven progressive activities, and diversified performance assessment.