A Study On The Experiential Teaching In College English Listening In CALL Context

The traditional teacher-centered teaching model can not satisfy the college English teaching objectives. College English Curriculum Requirements sets "college English teaching is an integral part of higher education. And college English course is a compulsory course for college students…with foreign language teaching as theoretical guidance, it is a teaching system which collects a variety of teaching mode and teaching means. It also requires universities to make use of multimedia and network technology in the teaching mode." (Requirements,2007) With the modern information technology, in particular network technology for support, which breaks the time and place restrictions in English teaching, the requirements explicitly pointed out that the only way to college English teaching is the innovation of the teaching methods and diversification of teaching modes.As a teaching method, "experiential teaching" has been widely acknowledged in both education and training. It has drawn the attention of foreign scholars for nearly two decades. Considered as a process in which a person constructs knowledge directly, acquires the skills and improves self worth through experience, experiential teaching values learners'initial and specific experiences.Based on David Kolb's learning circle of experience, this paper tends to apply the general model of the experiential teaching in college English listening class by taking full advantage of the computer, multi-media and network learning resources. The author chose a natural class as experimental class and another as controlled class. The experiment has lasted for one semester. Both classes were tested before and after the experiment on their listening ability. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted right after the experiment. The author also did some interviews and observation on the subjects during the experiment.The results of the study show that the "experiential teaching" is a kind of student-centered teaching mode. In the process of experiment conducted in the college English listening class, students gave their affirmation and support to the teaching mode. Compared with the traditional listening class, the experimental class appeared a pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. And the students showed interest and enthusiasm to the given learning materials. Meanwhile, in the learning process, the students gradually cultivated the awareness of cooperation and the ability to carry on the investigative study. It needs to emphasize that the successful application of experiential teaching in English listening class relies on the positive cooperation between the teacher and the students in which the role transformation of both will play an important role.