A Feasibility Study On Encouraging Students' Experiential Learning In College English Teaching

Experiential learning (EL) theory was firstly put forward by Kolb(1984), which combines with Piaget's four dimensions of experience, concept, reflect and behavior of human's consistent thinking development. By not only stressing feedback in Lewin's learning pattern, but also emphasizing developmental features in Dewey's learning pattern, The EL theory regards learning as an integrated process of the four aspects-experience, perception, cognition and behavior, and as an creative process of knowledge by experience shift. And according to Kohonen's (2001), experiential teaching pattern for foreign language is a circular process of experience, reflection, conceptualization and application. Experiential learning places emphasis on the cooperation between students and teachers, school organization and outside society, in order to create a favorable environment for students.College English Curriculum Requirements (2007) has put forward the computer-and classroom-based language teaching model, which should be built on modern information technology, particular network technology, so that English language teaching and learning will be, to some extent, free from the constrains of time and place and geared towards students'individualized and autonomous learning. The core of the new model is "providing different guidance for different groups of students and instructing them in accordance with their aptitude", offers a spacious room for actively advocating experiential learning in ELT in universities.The present study takes 61 non-English major sophomores from Hebei University of Science and Technology as subjects, and applies the seven stages of experiential learning to make a term experiment. After a term, by analyzing the interview and the questionnaire results, this paper aims to figure out, in the current situation of ELT, whether it is feasible to apply the EL model, whether the students will adapt to the new model, and whether the new model can enhance student's learning interest, achievements and autonomous Learning ability.The results indicate that the application of EL in ELT in Hebei University of Science and Technology is feasible and effective to improve the English learners' communicative competence and potential learning abilities. Interview and questionnaires reveal that the students generally take positive attitudes towards experiential learning. In conclusion, experiential learning should be encouraged to be applied in the universities with similar educational conditions.