Learning Environment Construction For Non-English Majors' Spoken English Under "Learner-Centered" Approach

Currently the theory of constructivism is prevailing in many fields. As to learner-centeredness, one of the distinctive characteristics of constructivism, a raft of studies has been conducted and the findings show that adoption of learner-centered approach in teaching can effectively facilitate spoken English learning. Many researchers have carried out a multitude of studies concerning the learning environment construction that is essential for the optimal study outcome of spoken English. However, after a thorough review of the related literature, the author discovers that most researchers study learner-centeredness and learning environment separately, and few of them combine the two inherently interrelated factors. The present situation is that learner-centeredness is pitifully neglected in the field of college Spoken English teaching for non-English majors from the perspective of learning environment construction.Under such circumstances, this thesis attempts to carry out an empirical study of the learning environment construction for non-English majors under the learner-centered approach, hoping to make contributions to the practical instructions of spoken English teaching.Both the quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted in the present study. The author used two questionnaires for two classes (one class is the experimental group, and the other class is the control group) respectively before and after the experiment to gather students' learning information. For deeper investigations she adopted interviews and tests.Participants for the experiment were 60 sophomores chosen from Shandong University at Weihai. With a pre-test (spoken test), the author found that the students of the two groups exhibited parallel level in their spoken English proficiency. After that she conducted questionnaires among the students of the two groups. By comparing the answer results, she found the two groups were similar in their English learning condition. Then she adopted a learner-centered approach for the experimental group and for the control group she used the traditional teaching method. The experimental period lasted for sixteen weeks. Finally, after the author collected data through a post-test (spoken test) and questionnaires, she analyzed and compared the research results. The results showed that the learner-centered approach had positive instructional effect to improve students'spoken English proficiency and provided inspiration to spoken English teaching for non-English majors.From the findings the author concluded that this study was realistic and practical in method, procedure and result. Thus it could serve as a helpful reference for teachers when planning their spoken English teaching for non-English majors. On the other hand, this research had some limitations and thereby the author offered some suggestions for the future research.