The Application Of Constructivism To Oral English Teaching In Vocational College

The oral English teaching has gained more and more attention in language teaching field.The traditional teaching method emphasizes teacher's function and neglects students'selfdirectedlearning. Thus, the students'oral English abilities have not been improved effectively.In recent years, there has been a considerable amount of interest in constructivism as a newteaching method. Constructivism emphasizes the learners'self-construction and the importantrole context, interaction and dialogue play in the process of meaning construction. This thesistries to investigate the effects the constructivism-based teaching method has on the students'oral English learning in vocational schools, in comparison with the traditional teachingmethod.On the basis of literature review, a framework of constructivism-based oral Englishteaching is designed, and an empirical study is undertaken. Two classes chosen fromvocational colleges are involved in the test, one as the experimental group taught with theconstructivism-based teaching approach; the other as the control group instructed with thetraditional teaching method. Tests, questionnaires and interviews are adopted in the study. Thepre-test is conducted in the two classes and the post-test is done after a whole semester'steaching and learning activities. Data analysis is conducted using SPSS. The test resultsindicate that the students'oral English achievements of the experimental class are significantlyhigher than those of the control class. This can demonstrate that the constructivism-based oralEnglish teaching method can improve students'oral English abilities effectively. The results ofquestionnaires and interviews show that constructivism can promote students'learningactiveness, autonomous learning abilities and collaborative learning abilities. It is hoped thatthe research could advance the exploration of oral English teaching in vocational colleges.