A Tentaitve Study On Integrated Model Of Input-interaction-output In Visual-Audio-Oral English Teaching

According to the New College English Curriculum Requirements issued byMinistry of Education (2007), college English teaching should aim at developingstudents’ abilities to use English in all-round way, especially the ability in listeningand speaking so that they will be able to exchange information effectively in theirfuture work and social interaction. In China, listening and speaking is always a weakpart of English language learning. There are many obvious drawbacks in traditionalEnglish teaching, such as teacher-centeredness, more attention to input than output,only teacher-to-students teaching, students’ low interest in learning, etc. Thus,college English listening and Speaking course needs theoretic guidance andmethodological innovation. How to teach effectively and how to improve students’listening and speaking abilities have become the most important questions forEnglish teachers to address.The input and output theories offer a theoretical and empirical basis for foreignlanguage teaching. Gass&Mackey (2007) review SLA theories concerning languageinput, interaction, feedback and output. Based on these, they put forward anintegrated model of SLA. A lot of theoretical discussions have been devoted to thecombination of input and output. However, an effective application of the modelrequires much empirical studies in order to suit different situations of secondlanguage teaching. Following Gass&Mackey’s integrated model, this study is to trya task-oriented integrated model of input, interaction and output in ourVisual-Audio-Oral English course. The methods of collecting data includequestionnaires, pretests, posttests and follow-up interviews. The main findings of thepreliminary experience show as follows:1. The integrated model of input-interaction-output can promote learners’listening abilities. 2. The integrated model can enhance learners’oral English proficiency in termsof fluency, complexity and accuracy, especially English fluency andcomplexity.3. Students self-learning can be fostered by offering students authenticmaterials and providing opportunities to finish tasks independently.