Individualized English Teaching And Learning Based On Multimedia

Economic globalization has integrated the world into a global village. English is the world's most widely studied, read and spoken foreign language, as it has been the dominant language of education, commerce, communication, science, technology and entertainment in the global village (Richards & Rodgers, 1986; Warschauer, 1996). The trend of considering English as a language of power and opportunity has started English language teaching (ELT) programs of all kinds all over China, from the very beginning of elementary school education to the booming English training courses for adults. From elementary to higher education, English course spans all the ten or twelve years, targeting to train students in their mastery of basic skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. However, the fact is that at present a number of students are trained under the conventional English teaching classroom model, which does not concern the students'different English levels or their various needs. Then their confidence becomes less and less and the initiative is not enough. Thus the Ministry of Education (MOE) proposes to carry out the reformation of English teaching. And the College English Curriculum Requirements (Requirements hereafter) (2004:16,17) states that"because students'level of English upon entering college and the social needs they face, colleges and universities should formulate in accordance with the Requirements…, and individualized college English syllabus to guide their own college English teaching","as China is a large country with conditions varying from region to region and from college to college, the teaching of College English should follow the principle of 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 individualized teaching". From the above mentioned, it is particularly necessary to carry out individualized English teaching and learning.Among the modern technologies, the application of multimedia to English teaching is a very influential one, which is individualized and differs from the conventional medium. It can enrich the content of English teaching classroom, broaden the students'horizon, offset the disadvantages of the conventional English teaching, optimize the classroom of English teaching, effectively advance students'learning initiative and it has a positive impact on training students'abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing, etc.. What's more, it provides the advanced teaching means for individualized English teaching and learning in particular. Then how or in which aspect is the English teaching and learning based on multimedia present individualized teaching?This paper mainly discusses it from two aspects: teachers'individualized English teaching and students'individualized English learning based on the appropriate use of multimedia. Teachers'individualized English teaching is presented mainly through teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, paying attention to the style of courseware in accordance with that of teachers', avoiding turning English class into the class of courseware presentation, paying attention to combination of multifarious medium and through the subsystem for teachers issuing tasks and collecting feedbacks, by multimedia supporting system as well as task managing system. Students'individualized English learning is presented mainly through the following aspects: under the multimedia-based autonomous learning system, students can use subsystem for students to select the required content module, the elective content module and the testing module according to their own conditions as well as multimedia supporting system; students in the above learning process thus lower their anxiety, advance their learning motivation and interest and resume their self-confidence.