Empirical Study On Constructivist Learning Environment In College Oral English Class

Constructivist learning theory is highly evaluated in recent years. Learning environment design is also an active research topic in the field of pedagogical psychology. Based on the constructivist learning environment theory, the researcher applied quantitative approach into this comparative experiment of oral English teaching. The instruments are oral English tests and questionnaire. Two classes from the Dynamics Department of North China Electric Power University are involved in the study. One as the experimental class instructed with the constructivist learning environment theory; the other as the control class taught with the traditional teaching method. Both pre-and post-oral tests were conducted in the two classes. After the experiment, SPSS 16.0 was employed to analyze whether there is significant difference between the two classes. The results of the T-tests indicate that the students'progress of oral English in the experimental class is obviously higher than that in the control group. That is to say, the constructivist learning environment can improve students'oral proficiency. Moreover, the results of the questionnaire survey indicate that the constructivist learning environment can increase students'interest in participation of classroom activities, promote their active learning, and improve their oral English proficiency.