An Experimental Study Of Computer-and Classroom-Based College English Teaching Model

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of enthusiasm in using computers for language teaching and learning. College English Curriculum Requirements (Requirements) sets "developing students' ability to use English in a well-rounded way especially in listening and speaking, so that in their future studies and careers as well as social interactions they will be able to communicate effectively, and at the same time enhance their ability to study independently and improve their general cultural awareness so as to meet the needs of China's social development and international exchanges." and "enhancing their ability to study independently" as the main objective of College English teaching and learning. The Requirements requires colleges and universities to "remould the existing unitary teacher-centered pattern of language teaching by introducing new teaching models with the help of multimedia and network technology so that English language teaching will be free froe the constraints of time or place and geared towards students' individualized and autonomous learning". According to the Requirements, the traditional teacher-centered teaching model has been unable to cater for the present reform of College English teaching and learning, thus promoting student' autonomy in English learning becomes an urgent task. Meanwhile, the computer assisted language learning model based on network technology sheds some light on the enhancement of individualized and autonomous learning.Based on the constructivism, humanism and cognitive theory, through teaching practice with the aid of computers and making an attempt at a new teaching model based on computers, the author makes a comparison between two different teaching models to testify whether the new model is superior to the old one in respect of promoting students' English abilities, so as to figure out a practical teaching model to arouse their continuous interest in English learning so as to increase the students' listening and speaking ability and foster their learner autonomy under CALL. In this paper, the author reports on her efforts in developing a new model in the academic year of 2006-2007. A total of 147 freshmen from non-English majors at Shandong Institute of Light Industry participated in the study, 74 in experimental group and 73 in the controlled group. They used different teaching models. Students in the experimental group meet twice a week, one time in the multimedia classroom mainly for intensive reading, the other for film appreciation every other week and autonomous learning in the self-access centre on the alternative weeks. Students in the controlled group used the old model (classroom lectures and listening and speaking practice in the language lab).This thesis consists of five parts. Part one is an introduction, which briefly introduced the general background and aim of the study, emphasizing the necessity to do this research. Part two reviews the related literature on the research. It comprises three subparts. The first Subpart is about learner autonomy. The second one deals with the development of CALL. The third Subpart presents the relationship between autonomy and CALL. Part three presents the methodology of this research, including the subjects, instruments, data collecting procedure and data analysis device. To testify if the new model is effective or not, qualitative and quantitative researches are applied in this study with the instruments of language proficiency test, questionnaires, interviews and observation. Part four is about results analysis and discussion. In the process of data analysis, SPSS is employed for the quantitative analysis, accompanied by the analysis of the data from the interviews. Finally the essay concludes by summarizing the research findings, implications and some suggestions based on these findings are presented. After analysis, the study found that movies are an effective medium for language teaching, especially in teaching listening and speaking and learners favor movies as teaching materials of listening and speaking class and their learner autonomy greatly improved, the students consider the new model as effective.In light of the above findings, this paper suggests that the teaching model proposed by the author is worth trying. However, the effects of such programs still depend on program design, classroom management and adequate support from administrators, technicians, teachers and learners themselves.