A Study On Perceptual Learning In College English On-line Course Forum From The Social Perspective

Be different from the teaching environment of traditional classroom, students’learning behavior and learning process cannot be directly observable in English on-linecourse forum. Many researchers have paid great attention to the validity of students’on-line English learning and have done a lot of empirical researches, but these studiesmainly focus on students’ learning outcomes which are more descriptive in nowadaysstudy, lacks of the systemic study and analyses for specific learning behavior andlearning process. Perceptual learning, a kind of learning tied to learning behavior andprocess, involves relatively long-lasting changes to an organism’s perceptual system thatimprove its ability to respond to its environment.Based on the practical teaching and academic research, this article selects theperceptual learning as the study point, investigating the learning results of students’English learning of college English on-line course forum. Since being short of theauthority measurement method of perceptual learning of English on-line course forum,this article borrows the ideas from the positive relation between perceptual learning andsocial presence, aiming to define the perceptual learning in English on-line courseforum from the view of social presence. Biocca’s definition of social presence,Garrison’s social presence and the English teaching situation are put to use in this studyto define social presence in English on-line course forum. According to the category ofsocial presence, perceptual learning is divided into three aspects: perception presenceperceptual learning, emotional participation perceptual learning and behavior interactionperceptual learning.On the purpose of understanding all aspects of perceptual learning in Englishon-line course forum, the freshman non-English majors of Chongqing University areinvestigated and analyzed. Research result shows that the effects of perceptual learningare unapparent in general in English on-line course forum, which is far from theexpectation of the teaching effects. In the term of perception presence perceptuallearning, students are not interested in overall layout design of forum and Englishteaching materials. The students’ competence of knowing other students’ learningbehavior and relevant English information is much higher, but they can not build a clearpersonal learning image in on-line forum. With respect to emotional participationperceptual learning, students can use English to express their emotions veritably, and understand other students’ emotion from the forum posts, but they cannot use Englishhumor words and expression frequently, indicating that the students’ emotionalinteraction still stay in a distant relationship stage. For behavior interaction perceptuallearning, compared with citing other students’ English information, students would liketo refer to the ideas of others’. Compared with seeking help from others in Englishlearning, students prefer to make comment on other students’ posts. Compared withencouraging each other, students are inclined to praise and thank other students,indicating that different perceptual learning behaviors can make different efforts.Based on the above results, this article puts forward concrete and specific teachingadvice for the three aspects of perception learning in English on-line course forumrespectively, aiming to offer a new view for the academic research of college Englishon-line course. These advice can be the guidance of providing teaching basis and advicefor Chongqing university English on-line course forum.