| This doctoral research is mainly about Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model in IT-based settings. The research has been carried out for six years. During these years, the writer of this dissertation discussed and analyzed the issue with some colleagues for many times. Accordingly we carried on some pilot research experiments with about 10 classes of undergraduate students from the year of 2006 to 2009 on campus of JUFE (Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics). This dissertation is based on these series of pilot research projects.It is well-known that the traditional College English Instruction Models have been greatly changed, and many problems and difficulties have accumulated since information technology, which is centered on computer-network, was applied to the College English instruction practice. This research tries to find some solutions to these problems and difficulties by expounding and supporting a Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model in IT-based settings. Therefore, the research put forward a new English instruction concept model for non-English major undergraduates, placing a premium on individualized teaching and independent learning. Meanwhile, the research carried out overall pilot experiments and investigations according to six research questions. Namely, (1) Why do we construct Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model in IT-based settings? (2) Compared with the traditional College English Instruction Model, what are the characteristics of the Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model? (3) Can the new instruction model bring about positive effects on the students' comprehensive English language competence? (4) What is the possible response of the students when they are taught with the new instruction model? (5) Can our teachers' teaching beliefs match the new model? (6) What enlightenment can we figure out from carrying out such a new instruction model for future teaching practice?Centered on these six research questions, the dissertation firstly reviews the development of different foreign language teaching methodologies, teaching models chronologically both at home and abroad. Then, it expounds the Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model, which is task-based, aimed at creating English-learning settings, cultivating students'autonomous learning ability and comprehensive English language competence with the spirit of team work. Also, in Chapter two, the dissertation elaborates some concepts such as model, teaching model, teaching model concept, operating procedural model, typical diversified interactive models, characteristics of diversified interactive model and its theoretical foundations. After elaborating what is Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model, the dissertation introduces the research design of teachers' teaching beliefs and four groups of pilot experiments, which focus on language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating in order to probe into the teaching outcomes of the new model. These research designs include experimental research questions, samples, procedures and tools. In the fourth Chapter, the dissertation describes experiment procedures, some typical cases of Diversified and Interactive Instruction Model and the findings of different groups of experiments and corresponding investigations. The findings of the experiments show that the Diversified and Interactive Instruction Model makes a positive effect on the students' learning strategies and language skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. Besides, it can activate the students' learning incentives and collaborative awareness. Thirdly, the new model brings many opportunities for students to get access to a plenty of authentic English language materials. As a result, the students' cross-cultural awareness and the sense of English language are cultivated and improved step by step. From both the researchers'and students' journals as well as some interviews, we found that the new model helps to improve the students' learning awareness, which helps to make students shift from passive learners to active learners in their English-learning practice. The findings of teachers' beliefs investigation warns us of a key issue that the teaching outcome of the new model is mainly dependent on "Humanware"(人件)rather than "hardware" and "software"..According to above analysis and discussion, this dissertation reflects on the findings from former chapters and proposes some constructive suggestions in Chapter five. They are: (1) Appropriately to deal with the relationships of in-class and out-class teaching activities. Without denying, traditional classroom teaching has its unique advantages. However, there shouldn't be a clear-cut line between in-class and out-class teaching practice. Therefore, we should make the best use of out-class activities as an extension and supplement for in-class teaching practice. (2) To speed up the construction of English-learning data bank. Currently, the students' English-learning materials mainly depend on the textbooks and related web-based learning centers. While the English-learning resources in most of these learning centers are actually electronic version of their textbooks, which can seldom arouse students' learning interest and motivations. Therefore, we believe that speeding up the construction of English-learning data bank is a key issue to guarantee the outcomes of English teaching practice in IT-based settings. (3) To pay close attention to students' affective strategies. Some affective strategies such as language anxiety and interest are closely related with the learners' learning motivation. As a teacher, we should create conditions to cultivate students' inner motivation to help them learn how to master a foreign language by themselves willingly. (4) To improve the management of web-based autonomous learning. Compared with adults, some undergraduates, especially some freshmen and sophomores, hardly have a definite goal in their minds why they come to the university. Consequently, they always want to do something attractive and exciting, forgetting their own study. In this situation, we strongly suggest that teachers work as a guide helping students learn how to study a foreign language by themselves, for blind autonomous learning is impossible for them. (5) To optimize the evaluation system. IT-based foreign language learning highlights procedural evaluation, which usually employs diagnostic evaluation, self-evaluation, paying close attention to students' changes in learning experiential feelings, willpower, emotional strategies and attitude. (6) To improve students'basic IT literacy. There is a saying in China that if you want to improve your working efficiency, you'd better sharpen your tools. From this saying, we find that if you want to improve your teaching outcomes with IT-based instruction model, first of all, you'd better help students learn how to operate computer and make the best use of those IT-based tools. (7) To focuse on teachers' IT-based teaching literacy. This point is not only crucial for the benefit of students, but also is of utmost importance for successfully implementing the Diversified and Interactive Instruction Model. As far as we believe, four basic abilities are necessary for cultivating teachers' IT-based teaching literacy. That is, the ability to make the best use of "hypermedia books", the ability to choose appropriate learning materials, the ability to create virtual learning settings and the ability to teach with IT.The above reflections are based on the research of IT-based Diversified and Interactive College English Instruction Model that we have carried out. Although the research is only a case study of JUFE and some reflections are imperfect which should be under discussion, they are worthy of our consideration, especially for today's college English teachers in China. Besides, I'm fully convinced that the improvement of teacher's "IT-based teaching literacy" should be regarded as a priority in deepening the reform of college English teaching at present. Last but not least, our pilot research offers a new perspective in today's reform of college English instruction models.
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