An Empirical Study Of Vocational College English Teachers' Mediation Role In English Class

The fast development of the society and economy makes higher demands on the English teaching in vocational colleges. As a result, teachers cannot simply impart knowledge to students, and they should pay more attention to the cultivation of students'learning ability so as to help them become autonomous learners. Consequently, teachers need to reexamine their roles, and play fully their mediation role in order to make students actively participate in classroom activities.According to the teaching and learning characteristics and teaching objectives in vocational colleges, the thesis points out that, of the twelve mediation tools presented by Fuerstein, the most important mediation tools for English teaching are sense of competence, challenge, control of behavior, change awareness, sharing and individuality.Based on Fuerstein's mediation theory and other related theories and by means of questionnaires and interviews, this study was conducted among 40 teachers and 175 students in two vocational colleges to examine their perceptions of the importance and frequency of using the twelve mediation tools. And then comparative analyses were made between the teachers'and the students'perceptions of the importance of these tools, between the teachers'perception of the importance and their practice of these tools, between the teachers'practice and the students'perception of the importance of these tools, between the students'perception of the importance of these tools and their comments on the teachers'practice of these tools. And special importance was attached to the analysis regarding those six most important mediation tools for vocational college English teaching.Analysis results indicate that both the teachers and the students acknowledged the importance of the twelve mediation tools. Moreover, the teachers have been able to use frequently the mediation tools that they attach importance to. Of the six most important mediation tools for vocational English teaching, both the teachers and the students give greater emphasis to sense of competence, control of behavior and sharing while change awareness and individuality are regarded as less important by both of them. However, significant differences still exist between the teachers and the students as regard to certain mediation tools'importance and frequency of use. For instance, the teachers and students are significantly different from each other in perceiving the importance of challenge and control of behavior and in perceiving the use frequency of the mediation tool of control of behavior. Significant difference also exists between the students'perceptions of the importance and the use frequency regarding the mediation tool of challenge and control of behavior. At the same time, the follow-up interviews on the teachers and students in vocational colleges further confirm or explain the statistic results.Based on the findings and analyses, the study suggests that in order to improve the effectiveness of English teaching, English teachers should further arouse students'interest, develop their sense of competence, respect their individuality, create appropriate challenges for them and make them face the challenges actively, help them learn to control their own behavior so that they can move smoothly into their new ZPD with better strategies and become effective autonomous learners in the end. Only in this way will the students be able to improve their ability to adapt to the society in the future.