A Study On The College English Teaching From The Perspective Of Ecology

College English Curriculum Requirements released by the Ministry of Educationin2007states,“Colleges and universities should remould the existing unitaryteacher-centered pattern of language teaching by introducing computer-andclassroom-based teaching models. The new mold should be built on moderninformation technology, particularly network technology, so that English languageteaching and learning will be, to a certain extent, free from the constraints of time orplace and geared towards students’ individualized and autonomous learning.”Following this guideline, most universities employ cyber-based teaching means toquicken the pace of College English Teaching towards the scientific age ofinformation and networking. Computer-oriented information technology graduallybecomes the pivotal componential part of College English Teaching, which iscorrespondingly changing the teacher-student relationship and the environment ofteaching. Thus, the English teaching has obtained brilliant achievements by adoptingthe aforementioned aids. At the same time, numerous problems are found in theprocess of this new practice, which have evoked wide attention and researches fromexperts and scholars. Valuable as these studies are, most of them just focus onexperiments and discussions of the new teaching mode, nearly no lights are shaded onproblems exposed in this process, and few of them pursue the deep root of theproblems. Therefore, few feasible designs are available to tackle new problems in thenew age. The present study, with the goal of promoting the application of the newteaching mode to College English Teaching, attempts firstly to make an overall reviewof College English Teaching from the perspective of Ecology, and to explore whatkind of changes and problems occurred after new information technology transplantedto College English Teaching accordingly as well as identify the reasons so thateffective solutions and measures can be offered.In the view of Ecology, the traditional College English Teaching is anecologically balanced system, in which all of ecological factors are in a relative compatible and stable state after years of development and refinement. However, aftercomputer and network-oriented information technology has been introduced, thefactors like teaching patterns, targets, the materials and curriculum are to be changed,which, correspondingly, will break the primary ecological balance and further lead todisorders. In order to re-balance the ecological teaching system, the present research,starting from analyzing the current situation of College English Teaching, explores thedeep reasons of the disorders on the basis of principles and approaches under thediscipline of Ecology, and puts forward optimized method to create an animate andactive ecological environment by advocating the coordinated development of teachersand students.The present research intends to comb and answer the following questions: Doesinformation technology, as an ecological factor, really cause changes in the ecosystemof College English Teaching? If the changes really occur, how do they manifest?What are the deep-seated reasons behind them? How to optimize those imbalances?What kind of methods should we adopt to optimize the teaching system so as toregain ecological balance?In terms of research methodology, the study selects three higher schools inShandong province as research context, namely, Shandong University, ShandongArchitectural College, and Liaocheng University. In these three universities,51teachers are chosen to be subjects according to their ages, genders, educationalbackgrounds and professional titles, and484students are randomly sampled asresearch subjects. Text, audio and video data are collected by questionnaire survey,interviews and classroom observation. Comparative analysis and investigations arecarried out accordingly.Data analysis indicates that the ecological factors such as teaching objectives,requirements, mode, approaches, contents, evaluations, curriculum design, roles asteachers and students and ecological environment, etc. have taken on changes in theteaching environment supported by the computer network-based informationtechnology. These changes break the original ecological balance in the system ofCollege English Teaching and cause disorders, which are mainly reflected on the following aspects: imbalance between regulations and actual operation (mainly incurriculum planning, teaching mode and form, evaluation and other aspects);imbalance between teaching goals and requirements; imbalance between teachingcontents and requirements; imbalance between teaching mode and teaching conditions;imbalance between role as teachers and role as students; and imbalance of CollegeEnglish Teaching environment mechanism. A comprehensive analysis of the originand representation of these imbalances uncovers that the problems are due to thechaotic of ecological niche of College English Teaching factors, the damage of theecological link and the incompetence of the normal operating of ecological laws.Based on the above analysis, the present study tends to untangle these disordersfrom the ecological perspective in hope of finding the way of constructing an optimalintegral ecological environment, coordinating the relations among ecological factors,and enabling the disordered teaching system to run on a normalized track in acompatible, dynamic, and optimally developmental way. Thereupon, the present studyproposes the following solutions and suggestions:1. Design an optimized mode of College English Teaching system in which thestudents as an ecological factor is taken as the key element, and factors liketeachers, teaching components, technology and environment functionproperly and coordinate interactively in the appropriate position in the system.The whole system of College English Teaching operating in the state of adynamic balance is guaranteed on the condition that the substances, energyand information among these factors in and outside the system are circulatedand exchanged.2. Define principles and concrete tactics in the implementation of the optimizedmode. Namely, under the guidance of the principle of sustainabledevelopment and the integrity of the ecological system, it is of necessity tobear the “humanistic” thought; to utilize ecological niche, self-organization,and “population effect” to develop the intra relations among students with aneye on their life development and the sound development in the ecologicalgroup; and manage the relations of inter-groups (students’ group, teachers’ group, and information technology) to realize the harmonious evolution andachieve the compatible state.3. Value the paramount role of teachers. To reach this goal, on the one hand, byproperly locating the ecological niche of teachers, the niche itself should beexpanded by constant enhancement; on the other hand, by constructing thelearning community of teachers, their inner motives are to be evoked inrealizing the ecological grouping of teachers.Due to the limitations of the samples selected and the complexity of the CollegeEnglish Teaching, the tactics and principles put forward in the present research mightnot fully suffice to solve all of problems in all aspects of teaching process.Nevertheless, it is expected that the current study will enrich the theoreticalframework of the College English Teaching research and provide implications for thesuccessive studies, making contribution to the reform of Chinese College EnglishTeaching.