An Interactive Approach To Active Learning Of English In The Chinese Context

As is known to all, Chinese students have often been perceived as passive and dependent learners, which gives rise to ceaseless changes in the field of language teaching. The recent years have witnessed a marked shift of attention from methods of teaching to methods of learning with regard to language teaching. The phenomenon inherent in this shift is the more tendency to emphasize active learning in which students are supposed to take more responsibilities in the foreign language classroom. Hence, active learning becomes the new "buzz-word" in the field of applied linguistics. It is starting to be an unquestionable goal and integral part of language learning methodologies throughout the world. As a result, the thesis chooses "Active Learning" in the Chinese context as the major topic in an interactive perspective.This thesis begins with the description and explanation of such fundamental concepts as language acquisition and language learning, the Chinese EFL context and active learning. In addition to the theoretical considerations focusing upon Interaction Hypothesis as well as learner-centered instruction, the author has conducted empirical research in order to investigate the relationship between individual learner differences and active learning. To be specific, the thesis is integrated by five chapters, each of which is relatively independent but concentrates on a specific topic with the core of active learning.Chapter One describes and explains three fundamental concepts, namely, language acquisition and language learning, the Chinese EFL context, and active learning as well. Before embarking on the concept of active learning, the author clarifies "acquisition-learning" distinction and proposes the so-called "learning-acquisition" hypothesis. Then the author identifies the Chinese EFL context which lacks authentic language environments and calls for active learning. Due to the frequent ignorance of individual learner differences in the past researches, the author intends to tackle what psychological factors may impinge on learners' real-time access to English learning and meanwhile introduces the model, techniques, and pedagogical principles related to active learning.Chapter Two states explicitly the relative theories of active learning. The author presents Input, Output, Interaction Hypotheses among which the Interaction Hypothesis deserves the prime concern for its "Power ofInteraction" related to active learning. Then the learner-centered instruction is discussed in terms of needs analysis, competence analysis and perception analysis.Chapter Three is concerned with a detailed description of the design of the whole experiment, which makes up the bulk of the thesis. In order to testify effectiveness hypotheses and factors hypotheses between which the latter is the expected innovation in this thesis, the author adopts a mixed approach involving both qualitative and quantitative research methods. In this experiment, the author selects sixty first-year English majors from Huaxia College attached to Wuhan University of Technology, thus forming experimental group and control group. Through a series of procedure, the author categorizes data from questionnaires, language tests and interviews.Chapter Four reports the experimental results and provides further interpretation and discussion. The research-based findings demonstrate that the contrast between two groups is striking. Therefore, group differences are examined and compared in terms of preassessment, use of authentic tasks and evaluation. In addition, the author illustrates the relationship between active learning and individual learner's personality and affective variables within the experimental group.Chapter Five ends the whole study with conclusions, fruits and limitations, and suggested implications for pedagogy. The major conclusions obtained from the present investigation are that: 1) active learning is more effective than the traditional teaching approach and instruction; 2) there are some correlations between active learning and affective variables o...