A Study On Non-English Majors' Classroom Participation

It is generally recognized that classroom participation plays a significant role in Chinese non-English majors'language learning. Nowadays, the debate over it among scholars home and abroad becomes intense. They have tried to design studies to investigate students'classroom participation pattern, while there is no clear line between their classifications of classroom participation pattern. Other researches have focused on the relationship between classroom participation pattern and learners'learning achievement, but their results were confusing, even contradictory. This study thus focuses on non-English classroom participation aiming to get a clear picture of students'in-class learning environment.This study was designed to know the students'attitude towards their classroom participation, their preferred classroom participation behaviors, and the factors influencing students'participation. The three research questions are as follows: 1) what is the non-English majors'attitude towards classroom participation? Is there any difference between students of different levels and different genders? 2) What are the students'preferred classroom participation behaviors? 3) What are the main factors that influence students'classroom participation, and which can facilitate students'classroom participation and which hinder it? The information about the subjects'attitude was got through Section 1 of Part II of the questionnaire (Appendix I), the results of students'preferred classroom participation behaviors came from the Section 2 of Part II of the questionnaire (Appendix I), and the main factors influencing students'classroom participation were achieved from students'self-report (Appendix II), the semi-structured interview (Appendix III) and the researcher's class observation (Appendix IV). The subjects of this study are 200 freshmen from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, they were divided into two different language proficiency levels(L1and L3). L 1 represents the least English level, and L 3 represents the highest English level.The results of the study indicated that most of the subjects actively participated in their English classes, so their attitude toward classroom participation is positive. There are no significant differences between boys'and girls'attitudes towards classroom participation. But compared with girls, boys are less actively participated in their English classroom learning. Students with higher English level have a more positive attitude towards classroom participation, but their differences are not at significant level. Twelve classroom participation behaviors are preferred by the students. They like to ask questions beside them when they need to, they tend to listen to the teacher and take notes carefully, and they actively participate in English class interaction and so on. Ten main factors influencing students'classroom participation were found in this study. The top three main factors responded from the students are the topics', learners'subjective feelings and teachers'involvement as well as their teaching methods, which are the three main respects of classroom learning. It is suggested that teachers should maximize students'learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom, and it is urgent to enhance interaction between teachers and learners, with the attention paid to the interactive ways. Teacher training is necessary, and the teaching objectives as well as the testing way of CET should be regulated.