On Construction Of College English Extracurricular Teaching: Theory And Practice

Extracurricular learning is one of the most important parts of the whole teaching and learning system. As a practical subject of College English program, extracurricular learning is much more important than other subjects. Krashen (1981) divides the whole process of language learning into two parts: input and output. He believes that the two parts are equally important. In actual college English teaching and learning,however,the time for classroom teaching and learning is too limited and mostly constrained to input. There is not much time left for output in classroom. Under such circumstances, extracurricular College English learning has become even more important.The importance of extracurricular college English learning can also be seen in the College English Course Teaching Requirements published by the National Ministry of Education in the year 2004. College English Course Teaching Requirements says:"The target of college English teaching and learning is to cultivate college students'comprehensive ability of using English,especially the ability of listening and speaking; enable them to effectively use English orally and in written form to communicate with people in work and social interactions."College English Course Teaching Requirements'emphasis on comprehensive practical ability,on listening and speaking ability and on autonomy ability leads Chinese college English teaching and learning to a new era. However , where do comprehensive practical ability,speaking & listening ability and autonomy ability come from? 4 to 5 hours classroom teaching per week is far from enough. More efforts should be put into extracurricular English learning so that students can have better environment and more chances to use English and improve it.In this thesis, the author first reviews the previous studies on the extracurricular activity, finds out their limitations, and presents his research purpose. Then, he seeks its theoretical support from SLA approaches and ELT methodology. According to Krashen's'Affective Filter Hypothesis', students may raise their affective filter in the serious and formal teaching environment, whereas the extracurricular activity is beneficial to lowering the filter and boosting students'self-confidence. Motivation, another important affective factor in English learning, is also greatly developed in the extracurricular activity. Students can be highly stimulated and motivated in attending different kinds of extracurricular activities. In addition, task-based approach, one of the CLT methodologies, is also the basic theoretical support for the activities. Students'participation in each extracurricular activity is just compatible with the task-based principle that learners may learn when accomplishing a task. It is also essential that when they learn English, students should be immersed in the favorable linguistic environment which can be built up in organizing extracurricular activities and involving students and teachers in them.Then, the author summarizes the basic characteristics of extracurricular activities. Various and abundant learning activities can complement classroom teaching and enable the students to enjoy the learning process. Besides, they provide positive affective variables in learning, i.e. lowering language anxiety and enhancing motivation, and they also produce situational learning which brings real communicative chances to students.Lastly, in order to prove the hypothesis that the extracurricular activity can enrich and extend college English teaching, the author designs a syllabus and a series of extracurricular activities in accordance with the syllabus. He sets up a one-year research program for part of 2008-grade students of Zhejiang Wanli University. In addition, he joins in organizing every activity, collects and analyzes the data from the interviews, questionnaires and observations, and draws the conclusion that the extracurricular activity can highly motivate students, offer many communicative opportunities and auxiliary ways for English learning. Besides, as the program proceeds, he revises the syllabus and produces a relatively integrative syllabus for further study.Through this research, the author intends to discover a new teaching mode, the combination of classroom teaching and after-class learning, for college English teaching, which will highly motivate students in English learning with a well-developed linguistic environment on campus. As a result, students'integrative ability in English will be markedly upgraded.