Study On College English Curriculum Development With Modern Educaiton Technology

The thesis aims to probe into the main components in the process of school-based College English curriculum development. With the speeding up of globalization and China's opening-up to the outside world, there has been an increasing demand for Chinese college students to improve their English competence for communication. However, it is widely argued that the students trained with traditional methods can hardly meet the demand triggered by the social and economic development. Thus, the State Education Ministry issued in December 2003 College English Curriculum Requirements (Requirements hereafter), the official document for College English teaching in China. The Requirements states that in view of the marked increase in student enrolments and the relatively limited teaching resources,'colleges and universities should remould the existing unitary teacher-centered pattern of language teaching by introducing new teaching models with the help of multimedia and network technology'. What's more, it points out'colleges and universities should formulate, in accordance with the Requirements and in the light of their specific circumstances, a scientific, systematic and individualized College English syllabus to guide their own College English teaching'. Coupling the initiatives, the Higher Education Division, the State Education Ministry staged on at the beginning of Year 2004, a new round of College English teaching reform in 180 colleges and universities.In this research, developing a school-based College English curriculum is justified from both theoretical and empirical grounds. Theoretically, a framework of school-based language curriculum development is put forward based on the review of some theories concerned about curriculum development (Taba 1962; Skilbeck 1984; Brown 2001). A comprehensive survey of ELT/FLT curriculum development in foreign countries as well as documentary analysis among three national College English curricula issued respectively in the last 20 years in China, has led to some interesting findings in ELT curriculum development in China. In the light of its specific circumstances, an empirical study is conducted in a university employing a mixed-method research framework of both quantitative and qualitative approaches such as student questionnaires, interviews with teachers and students, and extended classroom observations so as to identify some key school-based components for curriculum development. The study indicates that based on the theories of curriculum development and the status quo of ELT practice in China, our College English teaching reform should consult the successful implementation of school-based College English curriculum development in Chinese context. What's more, the study argues that under the guidance of the Requirements, a school-based College English curriculum should be developed with consideration of modern education technology and with an emphasis on changing education philosophy, providing different guidance for different groups of students and instructing them in accordance with their aptitude so as to meet the specific needs of the individualizedteaching and learning, and promote autonomous learning.The study of school-based College English curriculum development with modern education technology may offer useful reference to helping improve ELT in China. However, because of a variety of reasons, there still exist several drawbacks such as the limited sample size, the insufficient coverage of some components in the study at a micro-level, and so on. In the future, the study on how to develop a school-based College English curriculum from cognitive perspectives will surely need to be taken into consideration.