The Teacher's Functions In The Ecosystem Of English E-Learning

The rapid development of the Internet technologies has tremendously changed the world, not only in the way people live, work and communicate, but also in the quality and quantity of education due to its flexibility, interactivity, convenience and cost-effectiveness. The easy access of the Internet makes online learning available to a wide array of individuals, who communicate and share their learning resources without physically coming together. The great perspectives of the online education have attracted quite a number of researchers to the study of the new subject. However, while most of them are interested in the application of the Internet technologies to online learning, there has been little in-depth investigation in the functions of the teacher in the students'e-learning. In view of this, the present dissertation attempts to delve into the teacher's functions in the ecosystem of English e-learning in the light of ecological system theory, based on a follow-up study of the online teachers and students in the Institute of Online Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BIOE) for a whole academic year.The ecosystem is the basic functional unit in ecology, which includes both organisms and abiotic environment, each influencing the properties of the other and both necessary for maintenance of life on the earth. Three basic components constitute the ecological system of e-learning-the teacher, the technology and the student. In this system, the teachers contact the students through technology and the three components accrete and influence one another. Based on the key ideas of the ecosystem theory, this study has four primary objectives to achieve:(1) to identify and classify the difficulties students meet in their process of e-learning;(2) to explore the functions of the teacher in the process of students'e-learning, i.e., how to help students when they meet obstacles and construct a harmonious eco-environment for English e-learning;(3) to identify the communicative methods students prefer to approach their teachers;and (4) to discuss the qualities online teachers should have from the perspective of morality, knowledge, ability, emotion and teaching philosophy. To achieve the objectives of the research, quantitative and qualitative methods were integrated for the study, including questionnaires, interviews, group discussions, phone calls, cell phone messages, emails, observations, MSN chats, and so on. The data were collected from 206 online English-major students and 15 online English teachers in BIOE in a whole academic year's follow-up investigation and were processed and analyzed with SPSS 16.0.The results of the study prove the active and indispensable role of a teacher in the ecosystem of e-learning. (1) The obstacles that students meet in their e-learning are: "entangled in job-related tasks and family chores" in the physical eco-environment, "lack of teacher-student communication" and "ineffective learning support" in academic eco-environment, and "prejudice against online certificate" in administrative eco-environment. (2) When students have difficulties in their study, they would like to get help first from "Internet", then from "teachers", and thirdly from "classmates". However, in the process of e-learning, "teachers" are thought to have the greatest influence upon their psychological growth, "Internet" being the next, and "classmates" ranking the third. (3) In terms of the teacher-student relationship, students expect their teachers to be the type of "guider + friend". They expect their teachers to be not only an expert, but also a friend. (4) When the students meet obstacles in e-learning, the teachers need to guide them with effective methods and help them seize the opportunities to achieve their goals in e-learning. On the one hand, the teachers need to offer their help with the students'study; on the other hand, the teachers need to provide the students with psychological guidance. (5) The research shows that both teachers and students wish to communicate with each other. However, neither thinks he has enough communication at present. Both teachers and students agree that "free time discrepancy" is the greatest obstacle in their online communication. In terms of teacher-student communicative methods, both teachers and students hope to communicate with each other via "face-to-face tutorials", "emails", and "e-learning forums". However, in terms of other communicative methods the teachers and students hold different opinions:the students show a positive attitude towards "MSN/Skype chats", "aperiodic gatherings" and "blogs" while the teachers show a negative one towards them; the teachers show a positive attitude towards "office calls" while the students show a negative one towards it. (6) The research also shows that students have high expectations for the teacher's qualities. In morality, the teachers need to be patient and energetic in teaching; in knowledge, the teachers should be erudite and expressive; in ability, the teachers should be able to give constructive suggestions; in emotion, the teachers should have an optimistic attitude towards life; and in teaching philosophy, the teachers should encourage creative thinking. All these indicate that online teachers need to improve themselves in morality, knowledge, ability, emotion and teaching philosophy in order to exert a positive influence on the students and construct a harmonious eco-environment for English e-learning.To sum up, this study makes use of the ecosystem theory to explore the teacher's functions in the students'e-learning. It analyzes the difficulties the students meet in e-learning, which is hoped to bring some enlightment to the online education. It is hoped that the results of the study are not only helpful for the online teachers, but also meaningful for the classroom teachers. However, it must be pointed out that, due to the limit of time, the communicative methods have not been fully discussed in this dissertation. Further researches are needed to explore effective communicative methods between the online teachers and students in the ecosystem of English e-learning.