An Empirical Study Of Blended Learning Based On Rain Classroom In Extensive Reading Teaching

Krashen(2012: ?)believes that reading is the only way that can make learners read happily,develop writing style,accumulate abundant vocabulary,improve grammar ability and correct spelling at the same time.Extensive Reading Course is a compulsory course for English majors,aiming to help English majors improve English reading comprehension,expand vocabulary and master basic reading skills.However,due to students' diversified learning needs,limited class time and other factors,the teaching efficiency and learning effect of Extensive Reading Course are not satisfactory.Nowadays,with the rapid development of Internet technology and the extensive use of smartphones,contemporary college students are more inclined to use mobile applications to achieve efficient information exchange.In this context,various smart teaching tools based on smartphones have been developed.Zeng Ruixin(2016: 3)indicated “Rain Classroom,as a smart teaching tool developed by Tsinghua University,aims to connect teachers and students' intelligent terminals and endow each link of pre-class,in-class and after-class with a brand new experience,so as to furthest release the energy of teaching and learning and promote teaching reform”.Due to the simple operation,good interaction and powerful functions of Rain Classroom,increasing numbers of teachers start to use Rain Classroom in daily teaching and achieve great success.However,few teachers apply Rain Classroom to Extensive Reading teaching in the present studies.Therefore,the author tries to use Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching to explore the effectiveness of Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching and students' attitudes towards using Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching.Based on constructivist learning theory,humanistic learning theory and connectivism learning theory,the author selected 63 students from two intact classes in sophomore year of Northwest Normal University as experimental subjects to conduct the experiment that lasted for 12 weeks.The teacher used the blended learning based on Rain Classroom in theexperimental class and PWP teaching method in the control class.The only difference between these two classes was that the teacher did not use Rain Classroom to assist Extensive Reading teaching in the control class.Before the experiment,the author tested students' reading proficiency in the experimental class and control class to ensure that the students' reading proficiency was basically similar.After the experiment,these two classes were tested respectively and a questionnaire related to students' attitudes towards using Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching was conducted on students in the experimental class.After that,the results for pretest,posttest and questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 to know the effect of blended learning based on Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching and students' attitudes towards using Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching.The experimental results proved that it is feasible and effective to use Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching.Based on the results,the author draws the following conclusion:Blended learning based on Rain Classroom,which connects the advantages of online learning and the traditional offline face-to-face teaching,makes contributions to English majors' Extensive Reading proficiency;Because Rain Classroom is beneficial to stimulate students' learning interest and form good learning habits,most of students adopts positive attitudes towards using Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching.Based on former conclusions,the following enlightenment is drawn: With the rapid development and widespread application of modern information technology,it is necessary and feasible to introduce the intelligent teaching platform Rain Classroom into the teaching of Extensive Reading Course.In the future,teachers can reasonably use Rain Classroom in Extensive Reading teaching according to curriculum objectives and students' learning characteristic.