A Study On Follow-up Courses Of College English In Guilin University Of Electronic Technology

In the tide of current English education reform, no matter the basic English education of primary and secondary schools or the college English education keeps developing. As to college English education, it is worth thinking about that how to adjust the direction and measures and how to perfect the system of college English based on current situation of the school. By literature research, the studies of follow-up course of college English are limited, especially the master’s theses. Thus the author tries to study the follow-up courses of college English in Guilin University of Electronic Technology that is one of the national demonstration sites of college English teaching reform.Therefore, based on the curriculum theories of Richard and Graves, this paper investigates the planning and enacting situation of college English follow-up courses in Guilin University of Electronic Technology, and the satisfaction degrees of the non-English majors who have learned the courses, as well as teachers’ evaluation of the courses by literature survey, questionnaire and interview. The study is trying to solve the following three questions:How does Guilin University of Electronic Technology set the follow-up courses of college English including aim, object, content, period, teacher, material and assessment, etc.? What are students’satisfaction degrees on the follow-up courses of college English that they learn? How do the teachers evaluate the courses?The main findings of this study are listed as follow. Firstly, the system of follow-up courses of college English in GUET has been established initially though it needs to be perfected, based on the investigation. The aims of setting the follow-up courses cover students’needs on credit, affection, culture and so on respecting students’individuality and characteristics. And there are more than 6 follow-up courses of college English including Business English, Intercultural Communication, British and American Movies Appreciation so forth and so on catering to the sophomore, junior and senior. The total periods of a follow-up course are usually from 16 to 32. And the English teachers in College of Foreign Studies teaching professional English or college English, or other teachers of specialized courses with high English proficiency in other colleges in GUET, teach the follow-up courses of college English and all of them are Chinese without foreign teachers. The teaching material includes published materials made by Chinese and staff-developed materials. The way to test and score the students is mainly the conventional one, taking examination. Secondly, most of the students are satisfied with the planning and enacting of current advanced courses, but they are discontented with the course effect with stagnant English language proficiency and critical thinking skill. Thirdly, the teachers are satisfied with the teaching effect relatively, but meanwhile expose some problems, such as oversimplified teaching materials.Based on the findings, the author tries to offer some suggestions for the development of college English follow-up courses from several perspectives. At first, it is worth insisting that CET4 can not be one of the qualification restrictions for learning the follow-up courses of college English, as the right of the students, choosing what follow-up course of college English to learn, should be guaranteed when the study of basic English is ensured. Besides, since the students are discontented with the course effect with stagnant English language proficiency and critical thinking skill, it is better to place more emphasis on the students’needs, enrich the follow-up courses and also improve the quality of the course teaching, to change ineffective and time-consuming situation. What is more, if possible, recruit more qualified teachers with high English proficiency and specialized knowledge, train some on-the-job teachers, and try to establish the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) in Guilin to develop the follow-up courses of college English sharing teaching resources.The highlights of the study embrace the brief gradations and the effective combination of qualitative research and quantitative research. Meanwhile because of the constraints such as time and other factors, there are still some limitations for the study. And a deeper study needs further interviews and classroom observation.