A Study On The Needs Of Medical Students In Secondary Vocational Schools For English Autonomous Learning Platform

In today’s "Internet + education" era,online learning is the development trend of English learning.Online English learning is the product of the integration of the Internet and mobile terminals.Online English learning is not limited by time and space,and can provide massive learning resources and personalized learning mode.The syllabus of English Teaching in Secondary Schools points out schools shall equip English teaching with necessary audio-visual equipment and materials,as well as computer and Internet facilities.Teachers should utilize and develop teaching resources to enrich teaching contents,teaching approaches and means.The existing radio and television,English newspapers and periodicals,libraries,audio-visual rooms or electronic reading rooms are used to create learning conditions for students and broaden the channels for students to learn and use English.Meanwhile,the current situation of English learning of medical students in secondary vocational schools is mostly in a passive learning state,and a variety of medical professional courses have severely compressed the class hours of English courses,making it difficult for traditional teaching to guarantee the time and effect of English learning.Therefore,for medical students in secondary vocational schools,it is particularly necessary to build an English autonomous learning platform that meets students’ needs,so as to improve students’ learning initiative and enthusiasm and become an effective extension of classroom learning.Based on the survey of the needs in vocational medical schools for English autonomous learning platform,this paper provides some effective and operable suggestions for the existing English learning platform,so as to improve and optimize the construction of the platform.In the present study,a questionnaire and in-depth interview are used as research methods to study 402 medical students in Grade 17 and 18 of the secondary section ofZhaoqing Medical College.The following three questions were studied: 1.What are the general learning needs of secondary vocational medical students for English autonomous learning platform? 2.What are the characteristics of medical students’ needs for English autonomous learning platform? 3.What are the possible reasons for the needs from secondary vocational medical students for English autonomous learning platform?The questionnaire includes seven dimensions: skill improvement,learning resources,medical English learning resources,learning environment,online activities,evaluation and feedback,and personalized settings.Through the study,the author finds out the following results: secondary vocational medical students show overall high needs and positive attitudes towards the English autonomous learning platform.Learning resources,especially medical English learning resources,are highest needed.The rest of the needs in sequence are personalized settings,evaluation and feedback,skills development,online activities,and learning environment.Medical students in secondary vocational schools tend to comprehensively improve their English skills including listening,speaking,reading,writing and translation as well as their application ability of medical English through mobile learning.Meanwhile,they hope that the English autonomous learning platform can provide more opportunities for online interaction and personalized interface settings.The reasons for the demands can be summarized in five aspects: students’ positive learning attitude,weak English foundation,core demand for resources,demand for online interaction and diversification of students’ personality.Based on these findings,this paper first puts forward some suggestions on the optimization of the English autonomous learning platform: firstly,learning resources should be composed of seven modules,including listening,speaking,reading,writing,translation,grammar and vocabulary,and the grade examination banks.Secondly,online activities should focus on the interaction between teachers and students.Thirdly,platform management should attach importance to monitoring,evaluation,timely feedback and personalized setting of the platform.At the same time,this paperputs forward some operable suggestions for schools,teachers and students.Schools should provide technical support and guarantee for the construction of English autonomous learning platform and related teaching reforms.Teachers’ roles as organizers,facilitators and counselors should be given full play to build a student-centered network learning environment.From students’ perspective,it is necessary to develop their learning strategies of self-planning,self-monitoring and self-management,and eventually foster effective learning and learner autonomy.