On Optimizing The Campus Network-based Autonomous Listening Teaching Model

As a universal communication tool, English is of vital importance. Hence, the College English teaching reform has been the major focus in China since the reform of higher education in the21st century. The Ministry of Education has promulgated in2003and amended in2007the "College English Curriculum Requirements", which is used as a programmatic document for the guidance of the national College English teaching reform. One of the emphases in the document is about the "new teaching model" that is also the core of the teaching reform. It definitely points out that "colleges and universities should explore the establishment of campus network-based listening&speaking instruction model in accordance with the conditions of their schools and students’ English proficiency, i.e. to directly do the teaching and practicing of listening&speaking through the campus network or local area network so that language teaching&learning can be, to a certain extent, free from the restrictions of time and place, and students will develop in the direction of personalized and independent learning and finally lay a solid foundation for their life-long study"In response to the request, China University of Petroleum(Huadong) started a full implementation of College English teaching reform in Grades2008and2009on Qingdao Campus whose conditions are relatively better than those on Dongying Campus. Nevertheless, their listening results were not satisfying after students in Grades2008and2009studied for about one year under the "campus network-based autonomous listening teaching model" which was a central part in this school’s College English teaching reform. Thus, in2010we teachers found out the problems in the model, analyzed the causes and proposed a series of optimization measures after we carefully studied the questionnaires collected from the two Grades, and in the meantime teachers held meetings to discuss and exchange ideas about it. However, in order to avoid making the same mistake as we did before because of blindness, this time we determined to take the route of "first experiment--then efficiency--finally promotion"To start with, we created good hardware and software conditions for the experiment by upgrading the computer and network configurations as well as teacher training in the related areas.Then,10parallel classes with332freshmen were randomly selected as the subjects by means of cluster sampling from five different majors. After the pre-test of English listening, the332subjects were evenly divided into two groups--controlled group and experimental group--who were appointed to practice listening respectively under the previous model(used by Grades2008&2009) and the present model(used in the experiment). Specifically, in the controlled group the "extensive&free" autonomous listening teaching model was employed whereas the "incremental&orderly" autonomous listening teaching model was adopted in the experimental group.23weeks later, all the raw data collected from the study were analyzed by the statistic software SPSS15.0.Consequently, both the comparison of the post-test results between the two groups and the comparison of pre-and post-test results within each group show that the experimental group markedly outperform the controlled group, hence giving a positive answer to the first research question--The present model does function better in improving students’listening proficiency than the previous one.Likewise, the quantitative analysis of the questionnaires in the experimental group demonstrates that more than90%of them respond in favor of the series of measures taken in the present model, thus, positively answering the second research question--The present model can play a better role in developing students’autonomous awareness and capability in listening, and it has absolutely something to do with the series of measures taken to optimize the previous model.Furthermore, the six special subjects invited from Grades2008&2009were interviewed and the summarized information reveals that the present model has, on the whole, gained advantage over the previous one. However, from the perspective of senior students, listening materials are expected not just to meet their "personalized" requirements, but also to pay enough attention to their "specialized" needs which will be practical to their future jobs or further education. As a result, the last research question has met a satisfactory answer--Though the present model does excel the previous, there is still some room for further improvement in senior students’"professional" needs so that we can do better before promoting it among all the students in our school.As one of the English teachers in CUP(Huadong), the author of this thesis, along with his colleagues, conducted the study. This thesis adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods which make the analyses reasonable and the findings believable, thus bridging the gap between theory and practice.Last but not least, the study concludes that on the one hand it will successfully solve the problems encountered in our school’s College English teaching reform; on the other, it is hopeful that the experience can give references to other relevant studies in the future.