An Experimental Study On Constructivism-based College English Teaching Of Reading

English learning is very important. Reading is one of the main tools for the college students to learn the language and acquire information. However, there are still a series of problems in the present college English reading class, like the long and tedious text, the singularity of the teaching materials and teaching method. Thus, how to improve the current teaching model of college English reading and enhance the students'reading proficiency is a major task of college English teaching. Constructivism is one of the most influential theories in the current western educational psychology and has become a guiding theory to the reform of education and teaching all over the world. It holds that learning is a process in which the learners actively construct the knowledge and skills. The learner does not receive the information simply and passively. They emotively choose the information and then process, deal with them, and then get the knowledge. Constructivist's view on teaching emphasizes the centeredness of students and their creativity. It stresses the interactive role between the teacher and the students and among students, and advocates cooperative learning and interactive learning. Therefore, it is of great significance to apply constructivism into the college English reading class, so as to reform the traditional teacher-centered teaching model and improve the students' reading proficiency.This thesis tried to find out whether the Constructivism-based teaching model to College English teaching of reading was more efficient to improve the students' reading proficiency than that of the traditional reading method. Through the analysis of the literature theories, this thesis worked out a constructivism-based teaching model of college English teaching of reading, and designed an experimental study on its feasibility.Through an experiment that lasted one semester, this study aimed to find out the effects of the Constructivism-based teaching model to the College English teaching of reading. In the experiment, two classes of 110 non-English major sophomore students were chosen as subjects of the study. The difference lay in that the experimental class was taught in the Constructivism-based teaching model, while the control class was taught by using the traditional teaching method. The instruments included questionnaire, interview and tests.With the help of the software SPSS 11.0, the data of the tests were analyzed. The results indicated that the students in both the experimental class and the control class made significant progress in their English reading proficiency, but those in the experimental class got significantly greater improvement than those in the control class. According to the analysis of questionnaire and interview directed to the students, most of them held positive attitudes towards constructivism-based teaching model of the English reading class.The result of the study showed that this teaching model is more effective than the traditional grammar-translation teaching method in improving the students'reading proficiency, and it further facilitates the students to use actively the reading skills and strategies, which makes them enjoy more of English learning.