A Study Of Constructivist Learning Of Oral English In CALL Application

With the economic and social development, the exchanges between China and other countries are on the rise. As a result, the demand of oral English increases in China. However, how to efficiently improve Chinese EFL learners'oral proficiency remains an issue at present since lack of target language environment in China is inevitable. Constructivist theory is deemed as a branch derived from the field of cognitive psychology which has taken the place of behaviorist psychology since 1980s and gradually occupied a dominant position in learning and teaching theories. However, constructivism did not, for a long time, exert a noticeable influence on teaching practice due to the fact that there lacked ideal conditions to create an environment in which knowledge is effectively constructed. With the rapid development of modern technology in the 1990s, multimedia and computer network provide the constructivist learning environment with an ideal cognitive tool to process and effective media to obtain information. The theory of constructivism, on the other hand, provides a theoretical basis for carrying out learner-centered teaching mode through multimedia and computer network. Inspired by this, the author carries out the study so as to work out ways of improving oral English teaching from a constructivist perspective with the aid of CALL application.On the basis of elaboration of Constructivism and CALL theory concerned, constructivist teaching model and design principles for constructivist learning environment are illustrated in the thesis. To validate the impacts of Constructivism on the oral English teaching and learning through multimedia and computer network, the author implements an empirical study of it. Two classes of non-English major students are involved in the experiment. Class 1-experimental group is treated with constructivist teaching approach through multimedia and computer network; Class 2-control group is treated with traditional approaches. After one term treatment, an oral English tape test is carried out to compare the oral achievements between the two classes with the aid of independent samples T test. The result shows that students of Class 1 averagely get higher total score than those of Class 2 in the oral test. Moreover, to investigate students'perceptions of the oral English teaching in their classes, a questionnaire survey is also implemented in the study. The result indicates that students of Class 1 are more interested and active in the oral English learning than those of Class 2. Therefore, the author concludes that constructivist learning of oral English in CALL application can bring about more improvements in the aspect of EFL learners'oral competency than the traditional approaches can do.