Service Learning In The Chinese Tertiary EFl Context

Originating in the United States of America, Service Learning, featuring its academicreflection and integrated analysis of community needs, continues to receive sustainedattention from various institutions of higher education.(Hale,2005) In addition, as animportant strategy to strengthen contact between higher education and the public, ServiceLearning is being identified as a national education goal in many countries and introducedinto the curriculum as a mainstream pedagogy. Therefore, the integration of Englishteaching and Service Learning has gradually gained opportunities for further development.Service Learning as an applied English methodology is based on three closely relatedtheories. Firstly, Pragmatism Theory advocated by Dewey and his colleagues states that therealization of educational goal should rely on real individual life experience. Secondly,Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System Theory focuses on the influence that educationenvironments have on learners, stressing language learning in individual experience andcontact with the real world. Thirdly, Communicative Competence Theory insists thecapability of language depends on the context, emphasizing language learning throughauthentic language experience in the real social context.Language learning bears the function of servicing the community, and communityservice has its educational function of promoting language learning; Service Learning as anapplied English methodology refers to an experiential learning method, providing learnerswith opportunities to interact with the real world, and establishing a meaningful associationamong individuals, schools and the larger linguistic environment in a whole. Thecombination of Service Learning and language classroom can achieve a balance betweenthe two. However, there is a lack of empirical research on the application of ServiceLearning to English teaching in China; thus, the need to examine the feasibility andeffectiveness of Service Learning in the Chinese EFL context is urgent.This study has two purposes: one is to examine the feasibility of Service Learning inthe Chinese tertiary EFL context with its efficacy on the development of learners’ overalllanguage acquisition, and the other is to examine the effectiveness of Service Learning inthe Chinese tertiary EFL context by comparing learner’s achievement under Servicelearning and Autonomous learning, with emphasis on the development of learner’slinguistic competence, learning motivation and strategies, and multi-skills as well. Thisstudy also investigates the learning process and learning environment with the ServiceLearning approach.The empirical research was based on Service Learning experiments and EFL education in Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University. In accordance with theService Learning Theory, researcher incorporated course objectives related to students andcommunity partners, designed program, and conducted classroom teaching, academicreflection and evaluation. Students were required to interview Ningbo expatriates withregard to their impression of Ningbo, then coming up with suggestions to improve thecity’s international image. The above mentioned project, named “Beyond the Voices” hadbeen integrated with language classroom in three models, Model One was to incorporate itinto English course as a single project, in which participants interviewed expatriates andpresented their verbal reports in class. Model Two was to make the project an importantcomponent of the course, in which participants kept diaries and composed group reportsafter their interviews; Model Three was to establish the project a Service Learning Course,in which participants interviewed expatriates or foreign-funded enterprises managers,composing individual written reports on the basis of their experiential learning experience.The study consists of two parts, the pilot study and the main study. The participantsinvolved in this study are113second-year English Majors with similar educationalbackgrounds. The pilot study involved47students, with27for Model One,20for ModelTwo. Authentic service-oriented activity:“Beyond the Voices”, was introduced into theEnglish curriculum. Participants took pre-test and post-test questionnaires in terms of theoutcome of their Service Learning project experience.The main study included66participants, with33in the treatment group who weretaught with a Service Learning Model Three, where students attended “Beyond theVoices”,33participants in the control group were in the regular English major class:“Specialty Practice One”, an Autonomous Learning class. All participants took a series ofquestionnaires during and after the experiments so as to compare the outcome of theteaching modes.Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the data analysis. Datawas collected from a series of questionnaires, participants’ diaries, interviews withparticipants, participant reports, teacher’s observation logs, and course assessment.Multivariate statistical analyses were conducted to process the data collected to guarantee amore efficacious examination concerning the efficacy of integration of Service Learning inEnglish teaching in the Chinese context. It was found that:1. Participants benefited in different ways when the Service Learning Model wasintegrated into different English courses. The pre-test and post-test in Model One showedthere was a remarkable improvement in language learning and application. The study inModel Two found a significant improvement in cultural awareness. The treatment group in Model Three gained advantages over the control group in many ways, such as the coursesatisfaction and learning satisfaction. Statistics indicated there was a positive correlationbetween the intimacy of service learning with courses and participants’ degree of benefit.2. Authentic language environment may promote Learners comprehensive languagecompetence. The treatment group gained more advantages than the control group in thedevelopment of comprehensive language competence; significant growth can be found insuch skills as listening, speaking, writing, translation and language understanding. Culturalawareness in Service Learning context gained greater development than the control group,In addition, significant differences may be found in the construction of native languageculture, target language culture, and cross-culture awareness. As for affective factors, thetreatment group exceled over the control group in the attitude toward target languagelearning and target language learners. Moreover, significant differences were also found inconfidence of speaking English in public.3. The sense of achievement stimulated learners’ intrinsic motivation, and theuncertainty of the communicative environment activated learners’ use of learning strategies.The treatment group gained greater development than the control group with regard tolearning motivation and learning strategies. Among comparative indicators, significantgrowth was found in intrinsic motivation and task values. Compared to autonomouslearning, significant growth was also found in Service Learning in terms of cognitivestrategy, including rehearsal, elaboration and origination.4. Service Learning as a teaching methodology advanced learners’ non-linguisticdevelopment. Participants in the treatment group gained greater development in civicresponsibility and psychological growth. Service Learning was found to be superior toautonomous learning in all the22multi-skills compared, among which decision-makingability, ability of adaptation and exploration achieved significant growth.As part of the Service Learning assessment, a rich outcome has been achieved, amongwhich two books were composed mainly by the participants with the guidance of theteachers are brought out, and more than20articles published. The study together with theproject was highly praised by principal leaders in Zhejiang province and gainedrecognition from the Ministry of Education in China, the related activities had beenreported by major medium in mainland China, such as "China Education", and"Guangming Daily".The core purpose of the report is to describe the practice of Service Learning in theEnglish curriculum in the Chinese context, and to further explore factors relevant to thestudy of Service learning as applied English methodology. It is therefore concluded from the study that the integration of service learning into Chinese EFL contexts has tremendousroom for growth in China’s English teaching applications, although research in ServiceLearning in China is in its infancy, and its integration with curriculum is limited. Firstly,the authentic learning environment created by Service learning can make up for thedrawbacks in English teaching due to limited opportunities for students to communicate inauthentic context in English, and it develops the learners’ comprehensive language ability.Secondly, the active interaction between classroom teaching and society can advancelearners’ cultural awareness, including native language culture, target language culture andintercultural awareness as well. Thirdly, the “learning by doing” concept advocated byService Learning can stimulate language learners’ motivation and improve learningstrategies. Finally, Service Learning cultivates the learner’s personal growth throughservice and community engagement, including social responsibility and multi-skills.The case study links language learning in classroom context with that in socialcontext, thus maximizing the cultivation of talents’ professional competence and socialfitness. This service-oriented language learning, which is also a personnel training mode,has a very strong potential for wider application. Empirical studies have shown thatService Learning not only improves the learners’ language competence, interculturalcommunicative competence, but also enhances the learner’s sense of mission andcommitment to the community, which fully reflects the nature and spirit of universityeducation.The three Service Learning Models in the research proved to be feasible and effectivein their integration with English curriculum. Service learning as an applied EFLmethodology is a practice within and beyond the language classroom. The learning processconstitutes learners’ language learning cycle. It is hoped that the detailed findings of thisstudy would serve as a trigger for the integration of Service Learning into English forEnglish teachers within Chinese contexts.