A Study Of Strategies For Applying Multimedia In English Teaching

Multimedia has been used to assist English teaching for a long period of time. For instance, materials recorded by native speakers are used in class to train the students in listening, and slides are employed to present texts and pictures for the purpose of giving the students a more concrete impression of the target language. Viewed from many aspects like the input of vocabulary and expressions, the re-creation of the target language environment and the learning of English culture, multimedia is the best means to deal with so much information. The Ministry of Education (2004) states clearly in'Requirements for College English Teaching'that'considering the rapidly increasing number of college students and the relatively limited teaching resources, we should make full use of multimedia and Internet technology, and apply a new kind of teaching mode to take the place of the traditional teacher-centered approach.'Computer Assisted Foreign Language Learning (CALL) will surely be the trend of college English teaching in China.However, from the present situation of English teaching, it can be found that though some teachers begin to use multimedia in class, they are still not quite clear about the purposes and the strategies of applying multimedia, which weakens the effect brought by the application of multimedia. Actually, Multimedia Assisted Foreign Language Teaching (MAFLT) is not simply presenting listening materials with computers or substitute the screen for the blackboard, and it is not confined to the lectures or the monologue of the teachers in class. Instead, the teachers should supply the students with ample multimedia resources in various media forms, like texts, sound effects, pictures, cartoons, courseware, etc., and through various channels, like Compact Disc and the Internet. Besides, classes assisted with multimedia should involve students to the greatest extent in activities related to the target language rather than simply be manipulated by the teachers, and various colorful multimedia materials should be dealt with differently by applying appropriate strategies, which are quite distinct from the traditional methods. In addition, English teachers should change their roles accordingly in MAFLT.