Monitoring Mechanism And Extracurricular Spoken English Teaching For English Majors Of Upgrading From Junior College To University

In recent years, the rapid development of continuing education of English has done great contributions to the progress of civil English proficiency in China, which promotes further prosperity and improvement of the society. Then the education of English Majors of Upgrading from Junior College to University (UJCU), an essential part of continuing education of English, is gaining an increasing attention.However, the problems existing in spoken English teaching of English majors of UJCU in terms of the limitations of the students'particular characteristics are still craving for discussions. Then how to create a harmony teaching and learning environment where the students can make good use of time to practice and improve oral English is the focus that attracts the attention of many oral English teachers. Extracurricular English learning, an important supplement and extension of in-class teaching, is always considered as a kind of flexible and workable teaching assistance which may provide an advantageous condition for autonomous learning. Most of the previous researchers who studied on extracurricular English teaching, however, focused their views on the its application in college English teaching while few of them discussed its application in the teaching of English majors especially in the spoken English teaching for English majors of UJCU.Based on the practical needs and particular characteristics of the English majors of UJCU, this thesis discusses the application of four styles of monitoring mechanism: Learner Diary, Media Tracing, Partnership File and Group Work Report in extracurricular spoken English learning, with the theoretical basis of autonomous learning, cooperative learning and constructivism. It attempts to look for effective methods of extracurricular spoken English learning under the instructions of the teacher from the following four aspects: (1) whether the monitoring mechanism is workable for extracurricular spoken English teaching and learning of English majors of UJCU; (2) what changes happen to English majors of UJCU in spoken English learning under the monitoring of mechanism (e.g. learning habits and oral English proficiency); (3) whether the mechanism is useful for extracurricular spoken English teaching and learning of English major of UJCU; (4) the students'feedback towards the monitoring mechanism. Subjects of this study are 42 English majors of UJCU of Grade 2007 in Guangxi Normal University. The study lasts for three months (from April, 2007 to June, 2007) with the methodology of experiment, questionnaires, individual interviews and spoken English tests.Results of the experiment, questionnaires and interviews showed that the four styles of monitoring mechanism had practical value in the extracurricular spoken English teaching and learning of English majors of UJCU since they did not only contributed to the improvement of the students'oral English proficiency and learning ability, but also had positive effects on the in-class teaching of spoken English. Meanwhile, all of them were compatible with the particular characteristics and practical needs of the English majors of UJCU so that they were helpful to stimulate the students'learning interests, raise their learning awareness and cultivate their ability of autonomous learning and cooperative learning. Nevertheless, the experiment indicated that the extracurricular teaching and learning would increase the students'and the teacher's workload, which might cause extra burdens when lacking proper management. Then the study is worthy of further discussions due to the coexistence of advantages and disadvantages of the extracurricular teaching and learning.