On Optimizing The Cyber-based Ecological Environment For Foreign Language Learners

From the1990s onwards, modern information technology, taking computer network as the core, is developing rapidly. In2004,"College English Curriculum Requirements (For Trial Implementation)" was issued by the Ministry of Education, China, proposing "Computer-and-Classroom-Based English Teaching Mode". The new teaching reform is to improve the traditional English teaching mode and build the network-based autonomous foreign language learning mode by establishing three-dimensional network-based multimedia teaching system. Thus the position of computer network is defined as an indispensable part of foreign language teaching, to be mentioned at the first time in the history of foreign language education. Computer network is for the first time taken seriously and from then on the integration of computer network into foreign language curriculum truly began.Because the computer network technology and foreign language teaching belong to two different disciplines, the integration of computer network into foreign language curriculum will inevitably lead to the changes of traditional teaching factors, such as its teaching model, teaching objectives, methods, tools, materials, curriculum and others. The changes of these factors correspondingly bring about the change of teaching concept. Obviously, these changes have broken the balance of foreign language learners’ traditional ecological environment. The imbalanced learning environment will undoubtedly witness the occurrence of many disorders. Interdisciplinary integration is a tendency of the scientific development in the21st century. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt a perspective of constructing a new learning environment to reexamine foreign language learning under the frame of ecology, the principles of which can offer feasible solutions to the imbalanced problems. It aims to construct and optimize foreign language learners’ ecological environment under the background of computer network, by making it into a new ecological balance featured with the harmonious, dynamic, flexible and healthy development. With this targeting task, the following main problems need to be combed and solved:In what way does computer network technology affect foreign language learning? What is the intrinsic relationship between computer network technology and foreign language learning? What kinds of imbalances are brought about by the integration of computer network into foreign language curriculum? What are causes for these disorders? How to remove these disorders? Why is it necessary to construct the new ecological environment for learners under the background of computer network technologies? How to optimize this imbalanced ecological learning environment to achieve the new ecological balance among various factors? What are the conditions and requirements to construct a balanced ecological learning environment? It is quite obvious that by exploring the solutions to these issues can promote the depth of current theoretical research of cyber-based foreign language learning environment in China, make the complicated theoretical exploration of interdisciplinary research more refined, systematic and perfect. This study will not only for the first time enrich and perfect the theoretical system of constructing foreign language environment under the background of computer network, as well as make up for the blank in the study of constructing and optimizing learning environment. More importantly, this study will promote the construction of an ecological learning model as well as the development of college foreign language teaching.This study, based on the proposition and reflection, as well as the exploration and solution to the above problems is mainly to target at the following research topic:The computer-network-based foreign language learning has become the auxiliary practice and preferential choice for foreign language study in current colleges and universities, thus based on ecological theories, by exploring and analyzing cyber-based foreign language environment as well as by relating to its empirical study and field investigation, it attempts to put forward the fundamental principles and requirements for optimizing cyber-based foreign language learning environment into an integrated, dynamic and balanced ecological environment.The main arguments in this study can be summarized into the following two aspects: Firstly, the integration of computer network into foreign language teaching and learning has changed the traditional way of information transmission and acceptance. Besides, the integration form of teaching content and teaching activities has taken drastic changes. The teaching concept and teaching values as well as teaching evaluation standards have changed a great deal. These changes have broken the balance of traditional teaching environment. Correspondingly, the imbalance of teaching environment has led to the imbalance of students’ learning environment. Therefore, this study is conducted to achieve its ecological balance again by optimizing cyber-based foreign language learning environment with ecological principles and ideologies.Secondly, the ecological niche theory and the theory of ecological balance are especially used to optimize four imbalanced sub-ecological environments. The fundamental requirements and principles for its optimization have been proposed. Four optimized ecological environments can essentially realize the informationization of foreign language, that is to say, on the one hand, the information technology can be maximumly integrated into foreign language curricula to achieve the real application of computer network into students’learning and teachers’teaching; On the other hand, the information technologies are reflected by foreign language learning curricula by cultivating students’ interest in foreign language study and their language sense so that the students can readily handle all the problems in an informationized way during the process of foreign language learning. Four sub-ecological environments are of interdependence, interaction, mutual adaptation, and coordinative unification, constituting a wholly dynamic and balanced foreign language learners’ecological environment.The research methods adopted in the paper are literature review and statistical analysis. With this macro research, some other quantitative studies are also employed, such as questionnaires, case study, etc. aiming to prove the appropriateness and preciseness of some microscopic views and basic structures.The structure for its argumentation mainly divides into seven chapters:The first chapter, presentation of the problems. Through an analysis of the relationship between computer technologies and foreign language teaching as well as its integration mechanism, this chapter mainly proposes the imbalances of four sub-ecological environments due to the integration of computer network into foreign language curriculum, which shows that the original ecological learning environment has disequilibrated after the integration. Four imbalanced sub-ecological environments refer to physical learning environment, resourceful learning environment, technological learning environment and emotional learning environment.The second chapter, literature review and theoretic framework. By making full use of and combing through all research literatures on cyber-based foreign language learners’ ecological environment at home and abroad, the author intends to seek for the theoretical basis for constructing and optimizing cyber-based foreign language learners’ ecological environment by relying on the theory of Computer-Assisted Language Learning, the relevance between multimedia network and information technologies and foreign language learning, as well as the Cognitivism(learning theory), Constructivism (learning theory) and the theory of Ecology. In addition, the article has dug out all relevant research tracks through literature reviews and made full use of the existing research results to provide support and foundation for this study.The third chapter, overview of the imbalanced problems of cyber-based foreign language learners’ ecological environment. The author points out the causes of imbalances of physical learning environment, resourceful learning environment, technological learning environment and emotional learning environment. Four learning environments are seriously imbalanced which can be concluded as follows: The learning modes, concepts, learning methods, learning content, learning media, etc. are incompatible with existing cyber-based learning conditions, faculty force, students, management quality and supporting teaching materials; Learner’s social environment, regulatory mechanism, management level, emotional and psychological factors, etc. are all more or less in disorder. These imbalances or disorders undoubtedly have brought about an unbalanced informationization learning environment, which is impossible to survive in the school education system.The fourth chapter, the assumption of solving problems. With ecological niche and ecosystem balance theories to optimize the imbalanced four learning environments, this chapter puts forward the fundamental requirements and principles of optimization, to deduce the model of network-based ecological learning and the model of cyber-based ecological environments for foreign language learning. Through optimization, learners, teachers, computers and learning contents are no longer in one-way relation. Instead, they are in two-way mutual connection, interaction, interdependence and mutual conversion. The students have consequently become the active knowledge builder. The cyber-based foreign language learners’ecological environment, after optimization, can not only reflect ecological laws and principles, but also be a kind of student-centered integration of all ecological factors, with the features of being manipulated, perfected, optimized and developed, casting a positive influence on learners.The fifth chapter, the supporting arguments and proofs for the necessity of optimizing the imbalanced cyber-based ecological environment for foreign language learners by adopting the methods of quantitative analysis and the experimental study. The main research object in this paper is to explore, summarize and validate the theory of constructing and optimizing the cyber-based ecological environment for foreign language learners by two double-decks:theory and practice, and to prove the necessity of achieving a new balance of the ecological environment.It is about the experimental section. Five teachers from Qiongzhou University have conducted a series of experiments for the whole semester.300students were randomly chosen to do eleven kinds of questionnaires, informal discussions and English tests, involving their experiences or viewpoints on four sub-ecological environments (namely physical learning environment, resourceful learning environment, technological learning environment and emotional learning environment), their actual use of computer network in college English class, their perspective of teachers’ role, students’ role, and the positioning of computers in learning, and the present attitudes for college students’ autonomous English learning under the environment of computer network. With all of these, college students’ actual needs are handy and their opinions or suggestions are collected. This kind of analysis is to provide relevant empirical basis for building and optimizing the model of cyber-based foreign language learners’ecological environment.The sixth chapter, summary. To sum up, by making comparison between the cyber-based ecological learning environment to be optimized and the one already optimized, it is quite obvious that the optimized learning environment is generally stepping towards balanced development. The optimized learning environment is an ecological system with balanced input and output of material flow, information flow, energy flow and emotion flow. The optimized and balanced learning environment under the background of computer network can be interpreted from three levels: macro-ecology, meso-ecology and micro-ecology. The ecological balance of macro-ecology displays the balance between four sub-environments which are material learning environment, resourceful learning environment, technological learning environment and emotional learning environment under the background of computer network. The ecological balance of meso-ecology is viewed from the balance between various elements within the learning ecological environment. And the ecological balance of micro-ecology refers to the balance between internal factors in each sub-environment. The cyber-based ecological environment for foreign language learners itself is a big integrated system which covers all sides and aspects of each sub-environment. Moreover, each sub-environment forms a new ecological system respectively. Within each independent sub-environment and system, various factors interact with each other through mutual adaptation, finally promoting the dynamic balance of the entire system in turn. The result of examining and optimizing cyber-based learning ecological environment from ecological perspective is that whether it is an individual ecological niche like student, teacher, teaching administrator and technical staff or it is the group niche like group of students and group of teachers, all ecological factors are playing their respective roles in their respective niches. In other words, all ecological factors are in the appropriate and dynamic niches. Under the cyber-based ecological environment for learners, four sub-environments rely on each other, restricting each other and finally coming to an integrated unity through the process of balance—imbalance—a new balance.Through the above systematic discussions, it comes to a conclusion that based on Computer-Assisted Language Learning theory, the Cognitivism, Constructivism and Ecology theory, the cyber-based ecological environment for foreign language learners, from inductive reasoning to conducting empirical study, then to the construction of the model, has theoretically created, which is characterized by systematic integrity, stable balance as well as dynamic openness.Finally, the seventh chapter, some innovations and limitations of the study are pointed out and discussed. Some prospects for future studies have also been made.