A Study On Art Students’ Reticence In College English Classes In Southwest University

It is generally known that students majoring in fine arts, music and sports are more passive and less competent in English learning than their counterparts. However, they have played a special part in our educational system, which cannot be overlooked.For convenience, the term "art students" in the present thesis is used to refer to college students who major in fine arts, music and sports, rather than the students who study history, literature or language in contrast to scientific subjects.Nowadays, one of the most frustrating and disconcerting phenomena which prevails among art students in Southwest University is their reticent or silent behaviors in English classes. Most of them are reluctant to participate in classroom activities; they are unwilling to give responses; they do not ask questions; only a small number of students listen and take notes; on the whole, they are passive and get used to the traditional teacher-centered teaching style.From the classroom observation and the teacher interview, it can be confirmed that reticence does commonly exist in art students’English classroom. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the present study to explore the specific influential factors of art students’reticence in their English class.In order to discover the hidden factors of art students’reticence in the English class, the present research began with the following two questions:1. To what extent do art students in the college English classroom remain reticent?2. What are the major factors triggering art students’reticence?The research is a combination of the qualitative research and the quantitative research involving classroom observation, questionnaire and interviews. The subjects were101freshmen chosen from College of Fine Arts, College of Physical Education and College of Music respectively in Southwest University. First, the questionnaires on students’reticence were distributed to these respondents. And then the author also had some informal and unstructured interviews with students and teachers to make up for some missing information on the classroom observation and the questionnaire.From the classroom observation and the teacher interview, it can be seen that reticence commonly exists in art students’English classroom and yet the degree of students’classroom silence differs in different classes. Besides, the teacher talk accounts for more than half the class and there is little interaction between the teacher and art students in English classes.Based on the analysis of the collected data, the findings for the causes of art students’reticence can be concluded as follows:1. The reticence of art students is mainly resulted from their low English proficiency;2. The teacher’s questioning and teaching mode are important for students’ willingness of participating in English classes;3. The textbook has played a significant role in the interaction between the teacher and art students;4. To some extent, classroom environment is related to art students’reticence in English classes;5. Both Chinese culture and personalities have little influence on art students’ behavior in English classes.The findings of the research have shed some light on the future college English teaching, which suggest reducing the reticence of art students in English classes by improving teaching techniques, offering high-level evaluations, enriching the contents and activities, establishing a harmonious classroom atmosphere and using appropriate textbooks.It is acknowledged that there are some limitations in present study. First of all, the present research conducted is on a small scale, and only101students who come from Southwest University took part in the study. Secondly, due to the constraint of time available to gather data, there are not any feedbacks in the present thesis to prove the feasibility of the suggestions. Finally, although the methods of the present study include classroom observation, interview and questionnaire, it is somewhat subjective after all.Hence, in the further study, more efforts will be made to compensate for the limitation emerged in this thesis, by expanding the respondents, adopting more scientific methods, and giving efficient feedback to optimize and prove the feasibility of suggestions.