The Study Of The Application Of Constructivist Theory To Listening Instruction In Vocational College EFL Classroom

Constructivism is based on the premise that learning is the result of"mental construction"and it focuses on the social-cultural aspect of learning. The present thesis is intended to apply constructivist theory to listening instruction in vocational colleges, exploring an alterative effective approach to listening instruction. The research questions are addressed as follows:1) Is the constructivism-based listening instruction (CBLI) more effective than the traditional one?2) Which group of students benefits more from CBLI, higher-level group or lower-level group? Why?3) What are the underlying factors conducive to the enhancement of listening proficiency?On the basis of the research questions presented above, research designs are composed of quantitative study (an experiment and a questionnaire) and qualitative study (an interview). Two natural classes in a vocational college are involved in this experiment. One class with low mean score of the pre-test is chosen as the experimental class (EC) taught with the constructivism-based listening instruction, and the other as the control class (CC) instructed with the traditional one (listening instruction employing the main"bottom-up"technique). The pre-test and the post-test are administered in the two classes before and after the experiment respectively, and each consists of three parts: dialogue understanding, conversation understanding and passage understanding. After the experiment, a questionnaire survey is carried out to investigate differences in teachers'role, students'interest and the application of listening strategies. 8 students from the two classes are interviewed from the perspective of students'interest, learning difficulty, learning anxiety and their confidence. The major findings generated from this study are reported as follows:Firstly, the constructivism-based listening instruction is more suitable for the students in vocational colleges than the traditional one. No significant difference can be found between the two classes in the pre-test. However, the mean score of the post-test in the EC is significantly higher than that in the CC, and the results indicate that the constructivism-based listening instruction has significantly improved students'listening achievement.Secondly, the constructivism-based listening instruction exerts diverse influences on students with different linguistic proficiencies. Higher-level group benefits more from the constructivism-based listening instruction. However, there is no significant improvement of listening performance for lower-level group.Thirdly, the improvement of students'listening proficiency is influenced by the following factors: students'interest in listening, their participation, learning anxiety and confidence. Instructional activities organized in the constructivism-based listening classroom could arouse and sustain students'interest, reduce their serious language anxiety and build their confidence. In addition, the interview finds that lower-level group takes less active part in the classroom activities partly because of low linguistic proficiency, which more or less mirrors the importance of linguistic knowledge to listening comprehension.Findings from this study have two pedagogical implications:1) As for teachers, in their teaching practice, they should provide the students with authentic listening materials and necessary listening strategies. Meanwhile, a cooperative learning environment should be created by teachers in which students can reconstruct their own meaning of listening materials in group discussion. Furthermore, teachers should pay attention to the improvement of students'linguistic knowledge, especially the enhancement of linguistic knowledge of lower-level group. In addition, teachers should direct students to assess each other's presentations and reflect on their processes of listening.2) As for students, they should utilize all the listening strategies available to process the oral messages, paying equal attention to the"top-down"and"bottom-up"listening techniques. Too much reliance on either of techniques may influence the understanding of listening materials. Also, they should be actively engaged in group discussion to negotiate with their classmates and construct the meaning of listening materials.