A Study On The Application Of Anchored Instruction To Oral English Teaching In Higher Vocational College

English is now a compulsory course for all the higher vocational college students in China. Nevertheless, the current English teaching approaches in vocational college cannot enable the students to use English in communication. Based on such facts, this thesis intends to explore an effective teaching approach to enhance the oral English skill of higher vocational college students.The anchored instruction is based on the theory of constructivism. It is used to solve the problem of inert knowledge. The inert knowledge refers to the knowledge that students have learned in classroom, but cannot be used to solve the actual problems in real life. The anchored instruction provides real situations and problems that may happen in daily life, and encourages students to work together to solve the problems by themselves.However, many researches on the anchored instruction focus on the science subjects like mathematics and physics. Few of the researches apply the anchored instruction to English teaching. There is no authoritative research which has applied the anchored instruction to oral English teaching in China. This thesis tries to apply the anchored instruction to the oral English class in higher vocational college, and also attempts to explore its effectiveness of improving students' oral English abilities, interest and self-confidence in oral English learning. With this goal to achieve, this thesis tries to answer following three research questions:(1) What problems do higher vocational students have in oral English learning?(2) What factors lead to these problems?(3) What impacts will the anchored instruction have on higher vocational college students' oral English learning?The author conducted a teaching experiment to students of two parallel classes in Grade One in Kaifeng University. This teaching experiment lasted four months. The experimental class was taught with the anchored instruction, while the control class was taught with traditional teaching methods in oral English class. The research instruments used in this study include tests, questionnaires and interviews. When the teaching experiment ended, the author analyzed the results of tests, questionnaires and interviews. After comparing the experimental data, the author made a conclusion that the anchored instruction can efficiently enhance students' learning interest and learning self-confidence in oral English, and it can improve their oral English ability as well.This thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter One is a general introduction of this thesis. Chapter Two is the literature review of studies on both oral English teaching and anchored instruction abroad and at home. Chapter Three is the theoretical foundation of anchored instruction, namely, constructivism. Chapter Four is the research design, which includes the research hypothesis, subjects, instruments, procedures and a teaching sample. Chapter Five is an analysis of the results and data of the teaching experiment. The last chapter is a brief conclusion of this thesis, which includes its major findings, implications and the limitations.