A Study Of Constructivism-guided TVET English Teaching

Over the past decade, Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET), also called Higher Vocational Education(HVE) in China, has been growing rapidly either in terms of its scale or in terms of its importance. There also exist, however, a great deal of difficulties with regard to its teaching concepts and methods, which greatly besets most of the vocational colleges in China. And as one of the integral part, TVET English teaching is without exception.To innovate TVET English teaching, the thesis endeavors to introduce the emerging learning theory Constructivism, which emphasizes enhancing students’ learning effects via grasping four elements: contexts or environments, coordination, communication or dialogue, and lastly meaning construction. The theory holds that the knowledge is best acquired through a process of construction instead of being passively instructed by the teachers, who accordingly have to change their traditional roles and provide more suitable learning environments and assistance for their students. The learners, combined with the necessary elements as well as their own experiences, can actively construct their own understanding of knowledge or skills.Based on a synthetic analysis and with a full consideration of TVET students’ English backgrounds, the thesis puts forward the scheme of integrating professional environments into the learning process, i.e. students construct meanings by communicating with their peers in the settings they are familiar with. To further implement this concept, the thesis attempts to introduce three common TVET teaching approaches into its English teaching: CDIO(Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) mode, Project-based Teaching approach, and Situational Teaching approach, together with the relevant teaching designs. Lastly, the thesis conducts a field work at a vocational college, applying the constructivist ideas and testing their actual effects. In the course design for Business English Translation, the author attempts to introduce constructivism to the teaching, with great efforts on guiding students communicating and dialoguing with their peers to work out their own answers to the questions raised by the teacher.In the first chapter of the thesis, the research background, contents and methods are outlined; and in the second chapter, the thesis gives an overview of China’s higher vocational education and the idea of implementing professional English teaching, together with both the theoretical and practical bases like synthetic analysis and field research etc. In addition, the thesis places great emphasis on three typical vocational teaching modes for professional English teaching, putting forward new understandings as well as the basic principles for its course design. Lastly, the course design for Business English Translation is sketched out, followed by two field works at two different vocational colleges to test its effectiveness; Chapter 5 serves as a conclusion, generalizing the research process and the findings, together with some problems confronted during the research.