An Empirical Study Of The Effect Of Whole Language Approach On Teaching Of Business English Correspondence

The conception of the Whole Language Approach (WLA) was a kind of language teaching theory initially put forward in the late1980s by a group of educators in the United States and Canada, who focused on the research on language arts in teaching native language, especially on the language arts concerning reading. Then it was later introduced into the domain of second language by Goodman and Freeman to form a set of theory and principles covering second language teaching. After its birth, WLA has been prevailing in the world. It holds that language is a whole and the development of language competence is holistic, but not atomistic. Any attempt to separate language into phonics, vocabulary, grammar, etc. is sure to result in the loss of the language integrity and authenticity. It also holds that listening, speaking, reading and writing are integral parts of language as a whole. In fact, language is an inseparable entity including the four skills. In teaching and learning practice, the four skills should be taught and fostered in a holistic way, that is, they can not be separated from each other, although we may lay emphasis on each of them sometimes in some specific circumstances. In language teaching, teachers should try to provide students with as many authentic language environments as possible so as to enable students to use the language in an integral way to enhance their abilities to use the language in an all-round way.In the late1990s, WLA was first introduced into China. After its introduction, the approach has been mainly applied to essential English teaching. Based on the main ideas of WLA, the writer of this paper has been attempting to put the approach into teaching practice in Business English Correspondence (BEC) course. After several years of study and practice, the author has proposed "The Whole Language Approach to BEC", undertaken a systematical and theoretical research on basic connotation, teaching aim, teaching principles and teaching model, and achieved desirable results in teaching and research.This thesis is aimed to make an effective experiment on WLA in BEC course teaching by application of the Whole Language Approach to BEC. The specific research questions to be experimented on were designed as follows:①What’s the effect of WLA in BEC teaching on students’ written English?②What’s the effect of WLA in BEC teaching on students’ spoken English?③What’s the effect of WLA in BEC teaching on students’ simulating practice on computers?④What kind of effects and functions does WLA have on BEC course learning? The covering subjects are junior college students enrolled in Anhui Institute of International Business in2011. The time span of the experiment is from the beginning of September,2012to January,2013.The experiment underwent one semester, and came into the following conclusions after relevant experimental statistical data analyses by SPSS12and relevant interviews:①Students who have received WLA in BEC course teaching perform better in written English than those who haven’t received WLA in BEC course teaching.②Students who have received WLA in BEC course teaching perform better in spoken English than those who haven’t received WLA in BEC course teaching.③Students who have received WLA in BEC course teaching perform better in simulating practice on computers than those who haven’t received WLA in BEC course teaching.④The better effectiveness of application of WLA into BEC teaching is obvious, thus enabling students to better improve their abilities to use language in an all-round way. On a whole, this experimental research has shown that WLA is positive and advisable in guiding BEC course teaching.This empirical study has enlarged the research range of the theory of WLA from essential English teaching into the field of BEC teaching. It has also made up the blankness of the empirical study concerning application of WLA into BEC course teaching. To some extent, this study may have enriched achievements in the field of teaching research of BEC and may have positive effect on colleagues to draw lessons and better their teaching quality in the future.