Research On The Effectiveness Of The Teaching Behaviors In The Classroom Of Teaching Chinese As A Second Language

This thesis investigates teachers and students' views on what the effective teaching behaviors are in the classrooms of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. In order to gain an understanding of to what extent the teaching behaviors in the Chinese classrooms are reflecting the learning psychology of the students and the reason behind the difference between teachers' and students' views on what the effective teaching behaviors are, I designed and carried out a questionnaire survey and a following survey to the students and teachers on 2008 CIEE Chinese language program and the summer intensive language program of University of Virginia in Shanghai.Teaching is to promote the learning process inside the learners. How do we know that the concept of the effective behaviors in teachers' minds is truly in service of the psychological process of learning? By gaining the feedback from student' s side, my thesis is intended to bridge the gap between teachers and learners, and to adjust the expectancy for each side so as to improve the cooperation and thus to bring out the efficiency of learning Chinese in the classroom setting.Looking back on the history of studying effective teaching in the realms of education and second language acquisition implies the methodology and approach for this thesis. The descriptive and empirical researches on classroom teaching in teaching Chinese as a Second Language also lend themselves to this thesis in terms of the bilateral perspectives, the criteria of effective teaching and designing categories of teaching behaviors for observation.This thesis is composed of seven chapters. The introductory and first chapter gives an overview of the current situation of classroom teaching of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. Following the train of thoughts in Chapter One, Chapter Two makes a brief review on the history of the researches on classroom teaching in education, Second Language Acquisition and Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. Chapter three lays a theoretical foundation by briefly introducing the learning theories of Behaviorism, Cognitive psychology and Constructivism. Chapter four elaborates upon the design of this research and displays the nine categories of teaching behaviors for observation. Chapter five collects and sorts out the data from the questionnaire surveys and the interviews, listing and comparing the views on the nine categories of teaching behaviors. Chapter six applies the learning theories to analyze the survey results and make some suggestions to improve the classroom teaching. Chapter Seven summarizes the significance and contribution of this thesis.