A Study On English Majors' And Teachers' Preferences Of Classroom Activities In English Writing Classes

Student-centered teaching approach claimed that students,as the center of the class,should be paid attentions not only to their behaviors,but also to their attitudes and emotions.Meanwhile,classroom activities,serving as the important intermediary between teaching and learning,have been studied for a very long time.Researchers claimed that teachers should not only improve students' language ability and facilitate the language learning,but also create a harmonious and relaxing environment for students by employing various classroom activities.Based on that,the current study aims to probe into three research questions as below:(1)What are English majors' preferences of classroom activities in English writing classes?(2)What are teachers' preferences of classroom activities in English writing classes?(3)What are the differences between English majors' and teachers' preferences? And what are the reasons for that?The participants of this study are 153 undergraduate students who major in English from 5 classes and 9 English writing teachers from a foreign languages university.Research instruments include teachers' and students' questionnaires,teachers' and students' interviews,and a classroom observation of teachers' choices of classroom activities.The study results show that both English majors' and teachers have a positive attitude towards most of the classroom activities in English writing classes,but there are some discrepancies between English majors' and teachers' preferences.As for the reasons,both English majors and teachers care about the participation and interaction as well as the effectiveness of the classroom activities.However,compared with each other,English majors pay more attention to their feelings,but teachers are more concerned about the teaching tasks and objectives.